Yo? Oy!

Despite my long career in technology, I’m not much of an app person. Beyond the apps that actually do something – like Clock on my phone – or let you do something – like Word – I’m mostly meh.

My smartphone has a couple of screens full of quite useful icons, but the majority of them are links to news and other sites (MBTA for train info) that I frequent, augmented by connections to my many corporate and civilian emails and basics like Message. Uber is probably the one absolutely-not-rock-bottom app that I use regulary.

The icons on my laptop home screen are oriented towards what were once called office productivity applications, like Word and Excel, browsers, and security and backup utilities. And a couple of old school games: Solitaire and Tai Pei.

Admittedly, this sounds like I use plenty of apps. But shiny and new seldom gets to me. When a friend enthuses about a new app they’ve discovered, I smile politely and nod, silently humming to myself an oldie but goodie that I can summon up in my very own brain with nary an app in sight. I got along without you before I met you, gonna get along without you now. (Where you = the app, not the friend telling me about the app.)

Fundamentally, I’m pretty darned app-less.

So it goes without saying that I’m not a Yo user.

Yo, you may well be asking. After all, if you’re reading this post you’re unlikely to be a Millennial who would use an app that did nothing but send a “Yo” text to someone.

Huh, you may well be asking, what’s the value in that?

Well, someone in the VC world saw enough value to toss some walking around change into the Yo bucket:

Back in 2014, Yo had raised $1 million from venture capital firms like Betaworks and Slow Ventures and angel investors including Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore. But those funds are long gone…

Since 2016, Yo, the company, has dispersed, and Yo, the app, has been running on "autopilot," according to [Or] Arbel. Former employees have moved on to other tech companies, like Facebook and Netflix, he noted. Moshe Hogeg, the former CEO of photo and video sharing service Mobli who had instructed Arbel to launch an app that notified his assistant he needed her (a.k.a. Yo) in 2014, is now running a blockchain startup. (Source: Mashable)

Blockchainers are usually crypto-currency guys. Is this going from dumb to dumber?

Anyway, since Yo’s been running on autopilot, it’s not being supported. So it occasionally goes down, which really upsets Yo users. (Yoyos?) And then there was an email sent out threatening to shut Yo down if people didn’t start putting their money where their Yo was and dropping some currency – crypto or not – in the Yo beggar bowl on Patreon. (If you don’t know Patreon, it is to creative types  - you know, makers - what GoFundMe is to folks who need to pay for funerals.)

I checked out, and so far only 31 Yo-ers have signed up. Unlike GoFundMe, you don’t get to see how much $$$ has been raised. But if you multiple 31 by the amount that someone using the Yo app is likely to pledge, I’m guessing that number is way south of the $1 million in VC that they’ve already blown through. (The article on Mashable was written the day before I checked Patreon. At that point, there were 27 patrons. At plus-four per day, that’ll take a lot of time to come up with the 5,000 supporters they’re looking for. So much for everything going viral.)

When my sister Trish texted me a link to the Mashable article, my response was Oy!

Which would, we decided, make an excellent app.

Whenever you see something wtf-y and you don’t want to wtf it, you could just send the link via Oy!

Nuf said.

I will not be looking for any VC infusion. Or, my BIL will relieved to learn, an angel investor.

Hell, I’m a creative type. I’m a macher.

I’m heading over to Patreon and see if I can get me some funding for Oy!