Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson sit down with Sophia Rascoff, the co-founder of Recon Food, a social media app that allows users to research, recommend, and reconnect with friends through a common love of food. Sophia explains how Recon Food was designed to be a space where individuals can share photos, recipes, and experiences with their social network without all the stressors that come with a more mainstream media platform. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, Victoria, and Sophia discuss the rise of vertical social platforms and how Recon Food aims to combat the toxicity of social media.
Show Notes:
(1:12) Introduction to Sophia
(1:21) About Recon Food
(7:00) Navigating the Toxicity of Social Media
(9:59) Being a Young Entrepreneur
(12:44) Three-year Forecast
(17:04) Monetizing Recon Food
(18:57) Product Placement Opportunities
(21:29 Advice to Younger Self
(25:19) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“Social media as an entire concept has become very stressful as of late due to the bad news you encounter on it. It’s not really a fun place anymore. So the goal of this was to be a space where people could talk without having to be bombarded with everything else.” – Sophia Rascoff, (1:29)
“On the receiving content side of Instagram, it’s a highlight reel where you’re left comparing the best of what you see to your entire life, which isn’t accurate and is not a great reflection, but it’s what happens.” – Sophia Rascoff, (8:50)
“…everyone says just get off social media, but I don’t think for my generation that’s really a viable solution. It’s such a powerful tool I know we can do so much with. It’s just about optimizing it and making sure it’s used in the best way.” – Sophia Rascoff, (15:58)
“My favorite piece of advice, which I would give someone else and also which I wished I had discovered sooner, is that in this day and age, if you have the ability to just go do it, why not start?” – Sophia Rascoff, (21:29)
Reconnecting Over Food and Social Media with Sophia Rascoff
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Victoria Dickerson sit down with Sophia Rascoff, the co-founder of Recon Food, a social media app that allows users to research, recommend, and reconnect with friends through a common love of food. Sophia explains how Recon Food was designed to be a space where individuals can share photos, recipes, and experiences with their social network without all the stressors that come with a more mainstream media platform. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, Victoria, and Sophia discuss the rise of vertical social platforms and how Recon Food aims to combat the toxicity of social media.
Introducing Vertical Social Platforms
In recent years, vertical social media networks have steadily been on the rise. Vertical social media networks are niche platforms centered around a certain interest. An example of this is an app called Strava, which allows users to record their runs and share where they ran, when they ran, how far, etc. To compare, you could say LinkedIn is a vertical social network for your personal life, and Strava would be a vertical social network for your athletic life.
“Social media as an entire concept has become very stressful as of late due to the bad news you encounter on it. It’s not really a fun place anymore. So the goal of this was to be a space where people could talk without having to be bombarded with everything else.” – Sophia Rascoff, (1:29)
Vertical social networks allow you to share content with the people who want to connect with you specifically in that niche, whereas Instagram is a catch-all type of platform. It doesn’t matter what content you post, every single one of your followers sees it, even if that’s not necessarily content they’re interested in. Furthermore, with Instagram, you often see the most aesthetic aspects of an individual’s life. This leaves you with a snapshot of their most notable moments instead of raw or unedited content.
“On the receiving content side of Instagram, it’s a highlight reel where you’re left comparing the best of what you see to your entire life, which isn’t accurate and is not a great reflection, but it’s what happens.” – Sophia Rascoff, (8:50)
The Future of Vertical Social Platforms
Anticipating how vertical social platforms will develop in the next few years is somewhat uncharted territory because of the relative newness of these networks. There’s a great proof of concept, however, if we don’t want them to end up as heavily saturated as mainstream social media apps, there will have to be guidelines that set parameters without impeding on creative freedoms.
“…everyone says just get off social media, but I don’t think for my generation that’s really a viable solution. It’s such a powerful tool I know we can do so much with. It’s just about optimizing it and making sure it’s used in the best way.” – Sophia Rascoff, (15:58)
Speaking specifically about Recon Food’s future, the goal is to continue focusing on providing a space for people to escape. Even if Recon Food is a platform individuals open to scroll mindlessly, simply being able to have a space where they know what content to expect is a healthier social media option.
Healthy social media consumption is more about knowing and seeing what makes you feel good as opposed to stressors you didn’t directly ask to see. With Recon Food’s desire to be a healthy social media platform, the monetization options being explored are ones that enhance the app and its purpose, not ones that are selling ad spots.
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