Smart Phone, Smart Number: Listen Gives You Control of Your Phone Number
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December 15, 2016
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Thousands of strangers regaled Lauren Leto with tales of their intimate exploits from the previous night. This was back in 2009, when she founded Texts From Last Night (TFLN). The internet ravenously consumed these strangers’ stories.
TFLN was wildly successful. In the midst of that viral snowball rolling downhill, Lauren was pricked by a thought. The medium of TFLN’s success, the phone number, was broken. She didn’t know what to do about it yet, but she knew would do something.
Lauren’s “Little Something”
With a tap, you can filter, mute, or silence almost any app on your phone. But the phone number itself remains a different beast. It’s hard to step away from calls and texts without literally stepping way from your phone. Lauren set out to fix this.
November 17th, Lauren’s “something” went live on Product Hunt. It’s name is Listen. You can text her about it – 313.492.4177
Segmenting Messages By Sender, Time, And Whatever Else You Feel Like
Listen works on the belief that not all calls and texts are equal. A text from family might hold more weight than a text from Comcast asking if you’re satisfied with your service (no, Comcast…I’m not.)
Listen lets you segment users, mute others, schedule SMS reminders, and set up auto replies. Lauren found the mute feature particularly useful after the election. “Yeah, I had to mute some people,” she confesses.
Having the messaging floodgates open at all time can lead to mental fatigue and distractions. Lauren is hoping that Listen helps users do whatever they need to with their numbers, which is a newly found bit of freedom.
“There are times where you have to step away. The current operating systems don’t let you step away,” says Lauren.
Using Your Own Product….To Mute Your Co-workers
Lauren built Listen over the course of three years, some on her own, some with friends, but most recently with Austen Ito. Somewhere in-between when Austen started working with Lauren in August and when Listen went live in November, they got in a tiff. The root cause: Venmo vs Square Cash. When Austen admitted Square Cash’s superiority, Lauren took advantage of the moment — using Listen.
“She kept texting me ‘I told you so’,” says Austen. “I had to mute her.” Ah, the freedom to step away.
That Fateful Day
The fateful day Listen went live, Ryan Hoover, the Founder of Product Hunt posted his number in the comment section. It was a sign of faith that Lauren took to heart. At the same time, Listen’s customer support line was piling up with messages.
Lauren was expecting the messages you’d usually find in a customer support inbox – “this is broken,” “I don’t like this.” Instead, she found “thank you” after “thank you.”
Lauren is getting fewer texts from strangers with Texts From Last Night in her past, but she seems alright with that. These ones likely mean more, and they mean her special something is working.
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