Gliph Launch at SXSW

We’re very pleased to announce that Gliph will be officially launching at SXSW 2012!  We’ve been working to put together something to help all Gliph attendees connect with each other and take away a unique experience.

We’ve created a Gliph press page with more information about what we have going on.  Also, keep an eye on our twitter feed for updates throughout SXSW Interactive and Music.

Gliph Selected by Portland Seed Fund

We’re pleased to announce that we have received seed funding from the Portland Seed Fund!  The PSF is a startup accelerator offering seed money, mentorship and a network of other companies seeking to do build something great.  Two awesome companies from PSF class one include Vizify and Geoloqi.

We are very proud to be joining a collection of other great startups from the Portland area.  Here are some links to learn more about the announcement:

Winter Gliph Retreat

The Gliph team went on a work retreat this past weekend to Bellingham, Washington.  My co-founder, Nick Asch flew in from his current location in Montreal, Canada. Our designer, Ben Cerezo and I drove up to to Seattle and picked up our mobile developers, Joakim and Eric.  After some supply gathering, we made way to a sweet cabin overlooking Lake Whatcom.

We spent the most weekend focusing on what we are creating and why.  It was important for us to all discuss in person how we felt about personal privacy and how we could help people communicate and connect with each other.  Most of our sessions were led by Ben, and they involved many Post-It notes.

The photos tell the story:

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Introducing Gliph

Hello. We’re pleased to introduce Gliph.

What is Gliph?

A sample Gliph.

Gliph lets you choose a set of images to uniquely identify yourself. Your Gliph is a pseudonym you use to control how you connect with other people.

When you connect with another person using Gliph, you can share facets of who you are, like your phone number or email address.  You can also send messages directly to other Gliphs for free.

What’s different?

Gliph is built from the ground-up to protect your privacy and anonymity.

  • Your personal information belongs only to you and those you share it with. We don’t use your private information.
  • You can limit what you share with other Gliph holders. For example, you can share your phone number and email address with one person and absolutely nothing with another.

What kinds of things can I do with Gliph?

We’re just getting started, but here are some things you can do right now:

  • Claim a Gliph – You can reserve a three pictogram sequence that will be yours to keep forever. Once you claim a Gliph, only you get to use it. So choose wisely.
  • Bind Facets to your Gliph – Facets are pieces of information about you, like your first name, your phone number and your Twitter handle.  When you bind facets to your Gliph, they are available for you to share with other people.
  • Find another Gliph – When someone posts their Gliph online or gives you their Gliph in person, you can look it up in the directory.
  • Connect with Gliph – When you want to connect with another Gliph, both of you choose which facets to share with each other. You each get to control the tone and tempo of your relationship.
  • Send Messages – Once you connect with another Gliph you can send private messages for free, back and forth, forever.

When should I use Gliph?

We think there are a lot of situations where Gliph will come in handy.  For example, if you ever sell stuff on Craigslist, Gliph will help you maintain your privacy and communicate more easily with a prospective buyer.

Gliph might also be handy if you meet someone casually and want a light way to kick off the relationship.  For example, if you meet a friendly stranger over coffee, you can follow up without having to share your email address or other personal information.

We’re excited about how Gliph improves your life.  You can let us know how you use Gliph and stay updated by following Gliph on Twitter @gli_ph.