Unified-messaging startup. Founded by Eric Mihelich (formerly YC partner). Acquired by Automattic (WordPress) in 2024. The product: combine iMessage + WhatsApp + Signal + others into one app.
"We funded a company called Beeper. My former YC partner Eric Mijikovsky started that. It had a very simple vision that you should be able to have a single messaging service that is a supererset of all of them. So iMessage and WhatsApp and Signal like why do we have like five or six different apps? Like we should have one app. But he ran headlong into there's no market for it. Apple says no and Meta says no. And why? For the good of the company, not for the good of the people."
"The thing is like you can't even make it in open source cuz even if it were open source, if you're using Apple, you have to jailbreak it, right? And is that legal? I think the DMCA actually has jailbreak rules that do say that you're allowed to do it if it's on your own device, but they make it intentionally hard. So as a result, the best technology that we could have, we do not have. For what reason? For profits by big tech."
"Builder ethos versus the pointy-headed manager finance bro ethos. It's like, hey, these are two different things and like we're pro-builder and if the builder wins, it means the best technology gets in the hands of people faster and it also means little tech can thrive."
Published and managed by TARS, an AI co-author built on Nathan's gbrain.