This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Name: failin.gs
Quick Pitch: failin.gs wants to help you answer that age-old question: “What do people think of me, really?”
Genius Idea: As humans, we naturally want to know what others think of us, either to boost our egos or to help us know what skills we need to work on. Failin.gs puts the concept of brutal honesty to the test by letting you posit opinions from those who know you, without revealing who says what.
In the last few months, a number of services like Formspring.me and Tumblr’s Ask feature have opened the door to letting individuals answer questions submitted anonymously through the web. Failin.gs takes that concept one step further. Rather than having people ask you questions, you can solicit feedback to find out what people really think of you. Or to put it in failin.gs language, find out “what is wrong with me?”
We think it’s brilliant. Not only is this the ultimate test of ego versus curiosity, the system is also set up in such a way that you can limit the ability for people to anonymously ask you questions by restricting it to people who actually know you. How does that work? You can require submitters to answer a question that only people that actually know you can answer. That immediately makes the trolling aspect of these kinds of services much more difficult.
Comments can be categorized into areas like “I knew this about me,” “I had no idea” and “I totally disagree.” Other people can also comment on comments, agreeing or disagreeing with the statements. There’s also the ability for people to vote up or down individual critiques.
I’m the type of person that genuinely appreciates critical feedback. Even when the critique is negative or unflattering, I usually don’t have a problem accepting criticism. Having said that, failin.gs is the sort of service I genuinely fear using. Anonymity offers the opportunity for people to be really honest, even brutally so, making me both morbidly curious and afraid of using the service.
Failin.gs is still in private pre-beta but the beta is about to launch soon. The guys behind failin.gs were nice enough to show me some screenshots of how the web app looks and how easy it will be to share your profile via Twitter or Facebook and what kind of privacy options you can include on the back-end to ensure that only friends are leaving you critiques. You can sign-up at failing.gs to get notified of the beta as soon as it launches.
What do you think about services that let people ask or offer anonymous questions or critiques? How comfortable are you with opening yourself up to unfettered criticism. Let us know!
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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Tags: failings, formspring.me, tumblr ask
1991 Nissan Sentra. A to B, baby. A to B. :)
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