Marc Balaban wanted to escape his job in tech recruitment to improve his web development skills and move towards something more creative. He joined a hackathon to push those boundaries and was challenged to create a product in a weekend. Living in San Francisco, California where technology and mindfulness are commonly included in the same conversations he opted to create a sixty second meditation tool. He dubbed it Pixel Thoughts.
Some weeks after the hackathon he finished the app and submitted it to Reddit's /r/InternetIsBeautiful where it received far more traction than he ever expected. While his intention was to build something that showcased his skills, he never anticipated that a fun project would generate such substantial professional leverage. Marc's story is a phenomenal example of how powerful passion and self-education can be as tools for marketing your creative skills.
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Music: 'Whylex - Brillante Atardecer (Especial Sunset Mix)'
Andrin von Rechenberg wanted to play video games on his computer and he wanted to use his smartphone as the controller. Unable to find an existing solution, Andrin sought out to create his own and within just two days — he had. He didn't see this as a weekend project, he saw it as a business opportunity and founded N-Dream. The newly recruited team got to work turning a weekend project into a full fledged platform — Air Console.
In this interview Rafael Morgan, the team's Product Manager, shares how Air Console evolved from an idea into something much bigger.
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Music: 'Realize - Coming Through'
Blake Jamieson was a few whiskeys in when he started thinking of ways to hack Tinder — a mobile dating app where users rapidly swipe profiles 'left for no' and 'right for yes'. Jamieson contemplated what would, in an instant, make someone choose his profile over all the eligible bachelors on the platform. His method, edit each photo to look as is if Tinder themselves had endorsed him as the 'Match of the Day'. It worked.
Blake wooed over four thousand women to match him and chronicled the tale in a Medium article. The posts started to spread and he was eventually contacted for an interview with AdWeek which pushed the story even further. His story migrated to Reddit as users submitted it to communities like /r/seduction, /r/socialengineering, and /r/Tinder. As the wave continued across the web, Blake lay the foundation for Tinder Hacks... and so much more.
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Ilias Ismanalijev had a solution in search of a problem. Wanting further develop his skills as a developer, he sought a project that would challenge current understandings and force him to expand his knowledge in new areas. Ilias began to develop Reddit Music Player which would later become the open source project that enables Redditors to consume and discuss music in a way never before possible.
He eventually submitted the project to Reddit's /r/InternetIsBeautiful only to be inundated with traffic to the site and love for the project. On this episode, Ilias shares how the player was developed as a project of passion, self-education, community, and an asset to the development of his professional career.
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James Shamsi, Founder of Chameleon.LA, arrived in Los Angeles for a job that he would quit before ever completing a full week of work. The allure of the city was one based on creativity and he could quickly see this position wasn't going to afford him much. James had to get creative about building a network in one of the world's largest hotbeds for tech and entertainment so he started looking at the process in a different perspective.
Tune in to hear how he fostered conversation for social change by trolling Instagram only to have the news story be submitted to Reddit's /r/TwoXChromosomes community. James also shares details of other viral successes like how he created a service for photoshopping puppies into people's Tinder profiles or that time he pretended to be a hot girl on LinkedIn.
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As Scott Plybon's degree was coming to a close he knew he needed to differentiate himself in order to survive in the job market. He sought an opportunity to showcase his web development skills with and settled on an idea his wife inspired. In this episode, Scott shares how he developed 'ReelScary.com', submitted it to Reddit's /r/InternetIsBeautiful community, and was bombarded with more than 150K visitors.
Create social leverage with the Ghost Influence community.