Sunslider: The Patagonia of Social Networks
Sunslider is built on a set of core convictions:
People expect and deserve a top-notch user experience, both online and offline.
A series of fatal flaws in how tech companies have been built over the past 15 years is actively creating bad experiencesâfrom Meta's universe of Instagram and Facebook to streaming services with millions of titles and nothing worth watching.
Given where digital technology stands today, those flaws can be corrected and better companies can be built.
In short, there was an idea that started living rent-free in my head:
Why not create the Patagonia of social networks?
Over the past months, I couldn't shake it. Every time one of these modern tech oligarchs would say something ridiculous, demonstrating not just their disconnect from normal people but their utter disdain for us, I thought about what it would really take to turn that thought into reality.
Sunslider is the result of that obsession.
An Instagram Alternative with a Different Business Model
The shareholder-centric "winner takes all" Silicon Valley mindset sets companies up to make bad decisionsâdecisions that end up hurting users in countless ways. It's a mindset that turns people into targets, valued only for the data that can be extracted from them and their ability to deliver eyeballs to attention merchants.
Take a recent example: Meta's decision to reduce the role of their privacy teams in product development. In a world where concerns about privacy and big data are only becoming more relevant, this step is clearly driven by the need to:
Capture as much attention and data as possible through Meta's various products, such as Instagram;
Use that attention and data to grow company revenues, satisfying the corporation's desire to privilege shareholders above all else.
And they'll keep making similar moves because the company has been wasting tens of billions of dollars on ventures like... well, the metaverse.
Leaving Meta's specific missteps aside, much of our current situationâpolitically, socially, economicallyâis linked to an original sin of the business world, put forward by Milton Friedman back in the 1970s: that the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits. This has become so accepted that shareholders-above-all is often seen as the only way to do business.
But there's another possible worldâone where investors put money into a company expecting a reasonable return over time, where founders make a reasonable amount of money, and where that dose of reason lets user interests remain at the center. We donât have to build companies that explicitly prioritize shareholders over the company's users or employees; instead, a much more balanced equilibrium can exist between all stakeholders.
Creating that equilibrium starts from the beginning.
Be Profitable, and Prosper
The vast majority of tech company stories involve venture capital. Venture is a very specific industry that grew in a context of great uncertainty, when companies were seeking new business models that hadn't been seen before.
And venture capital still serves its purpose in many industries today: climate tech, B2B SaaS, fintech, and more. Having been in startups for a while, we can clearly say that there are good, driven people working in the European VC industry, ones who are sincerely trying to develop better companies that can respond to many of the worldâs most pressing problems.
But social media isn't really all that complicated at this point: create a community of happy users. If you can do that, you have a choice between advertising or a subscription model.
Or, better yet, you can give users the choice. That's what we're going to do at Sunslider. When the time is right, and we've built a happy, sustainably growing community, we'll offer options:
A reasonably priced annual subscription for the ad-free app (say, $15, although don't hold me to that đ)
An ad-supported app that isn't designed to extract maximum value from each user. We won't sell your data to the highest bidder; instead, we'll know minimal information about you that you share when signing up (age, location, some self-reported interests you share when signing up), your activity within the Sunslider app (and only within the app!) and that's it. Sunslider will not track your every move across the internet. We will not thrive by vacuuming up as much of your data as possible.
By reaching this model quickly, without burdening the company with large amounts of VC money and unrealistic expectations, we can establish that users/employees/shareholders equilibrium needed for making healthy business decisions.
For those who doubt it's possible, remember that today's ultra-targeted ad businesses we call social networks weren't necessary for building good businesses before. Magazines and TV functioned very well for decades with nothing more than basic information about their circulation and general audience. The notion that great online businesses can't operate in much the same way is simply false, driven largely by greed and Friedmanâs original sin.
(And don't underestimate how many costs in the tech world stem from fundraising norms that create pressure to hire quickly and massively to justify ever-increasing valuations. By focusing on profitability from the beginning, we can take care of our team without feeling external pressure to increase headcount just to impress potential investors or make headlines.)
Long-term Gains for All
The positive downstream effects of profitability and sustainable growth are significant:
No artificial timelines: Avoiding venture capital means avoiding an externally imposed timeline for success. VC funds must deliver returns to investors within a relatively short period (5-7 years depending on when the investment is made); venture simply isn't designed for steady growth. This creates pressure to abandon a holistic product vision in favor of obsessive, exponential growth.
Private for the long haul: Rather than delivering a massive return for shareholders via a sale or IPO, we want to remain an independent private company for the long term. We'll deliver returns for shareholders through annual dividends based on our ability to generate profit. This ensures we're never forced to make decisions that prioritize constant growth above the needs of our users and employees. Weâll also be able to support important charitable causes, find ways to redistribute value to our users, and provide more to our employees, all without worrying about our investors taking us to court.
Users in control: By letting our users choose how they want to support Sunslider, we ensure they always remain at the top of our priority list.
Don't miss our other two launch blogs, where we explain more about Building Sunslider: Values-First Social Networking and Social Media's Broken Promise: Why We're Building Sunslider.