Look Engineering

Consumer focused startup. Currently building @getabode

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

Looking for a designer to join the founding team at Look full time.

- Unlimited PTO ✈️
- Generous Equity 📈
- Competitive Salary 💵
- Fast paced environment 🚀
- Remote Available 🌍

[Joseph Smith @_jsmth]

Abode is live.

A while ago I started exploring social with the mindset of creating something fun. I ended up creating something deeply meaningful for myself.

When I started Abode it was out of frustration. How have we moved to a state of social that cares more about how you’re perceived than connection. Growing up from when social was all about connection I often became frustrated that group chats are all that remain for that space.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not all bad. A lot of great things have come out of this era of social. I just always wished for more than a chat for my close friends and family.

I wanted to create a space that felt as unique as each of my friendship groups. One that wasn’t restricted to a chat thread or functionality, I always felt that chat was this weird state of social where you’re waiting on a response, it didn’t allow for some of the best moments which are often spontaneous. Chats felt like more of a chore to keep up with, than something I wanted to be part of.

The result of this was Abode. a hyper personal, create your own social, blank canvas. it allows you to add unique functionality through the form of widgets (which we call magnets). This allows you to have a unique experience depending on how you build your space. More games? More organisation? More social? The beauty of this is it’s up to you.

This resulted in what I’ve ended up calling social through presence vs social through action. I’d be playing a real life game with a friend and update our score note in the Abode and other friends jump in and congratulate on the win. No message was needed, no context was given. Social just happened.

I’ve seen friends who wouldn’t normally go out of their way to message each other play gruelling games of connect4 with each other because they saw someone was online and playing.

It’s this idea of someone else’s presence triggering a natural hangout that’s low pressure. Not someone messaging, asking if you’re around and waiting for a response. It’s a blend between async and real time that just works.

Right now it’s very fresh, we have a very limited number of widgets as we experiment with the concept and figure out what works. The idea is to open up our widget engine to allow other people’s creativity to shine and build as part of the abode ecosystem.

- group space
- live widgets
- themes
- real time audio chat
- messaging
- AI powered summaries for easy catch up
- Automatic memory building

Not all of these features may stay but I wanted to build a space that supported all you’d need and work backwards by using the popularity of features to decide a direction that best suited the majority.

Abode is yours, and it should feel that way.

Appreciate any sharing 🫶

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

@imranfyi @radcraftor 👀

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

Looking for a designer to join the founding team at Look full time.

- Unlimited PTO ✈️
- Generous Equity 📈
- Competitive Salary 💵
- Fast paced environment 🚀
- Remote Available 🌍

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

To the 200+ of you who have sent your applications in for the designer role! We're going through them all at the end of the week. Expect to hear news sometime early next week.

We're thankful to everyone, it's been amazing scrolling through everything. ✨

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

Sharing something new with you soon 👀 @getabode

[Look Engineering @lookengineering]

👀