Last week, I published a conversation on TechCrunch with Sam Altman using ReplyAll http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/09/ycombinate/<p>I've personally used ReplyAll to interview Mark Cuban http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/a-conversation-with-mark-cuban/ discuss depression with Brad Feld https://blog.replyall.me/a-conversation-about-depression-with-brad-feld/and debate David Frum on marijuana legalization http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/is-legalizing-pot-a-bad-idea-a-published-email-exchange-with-david-frum/<p>Our homepage is www.replyall.me<p>Why we built ReplyAll: my cofounder & I used to exchange lengthy emails every day about important topics, and we lamented the fact that we didn't have an easy way to publish these conversations. Then we saw some of our favorite writers like Sam Harris & Glenn Greendwald doing just that: publishing their email exchanges as content.<p>http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/dear-fellow-liberal2<p>So we built ReplyAll to make it easy to publish this content (no manual cutting and pasting out of emails) and allow readers to follow along like a fly-on-the-wall as the conversation unfolds. Participation is asynchronous, so no one has to coordinate schedules. It is an easier, better way to create interviews & debates, and ReplyAll conversations get great engagement in both time on page (10 minutes plus) and repeat visitors (2.3 page views per unique).<p>Happy to answer questions about the platform, business model or failing to close the deal at our YC interview in April.
PS here are the links other than the homepage that I mentioned in the post, now clickable<p>The conversation with Sam <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/09/ycombinate/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/09/ycombinate/</a><p>An interview Mark Cuban <a href="http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/a-conversation-with-mark-cuban/" rel="nofollow">http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/a-conversation-with-mark-cuba...</a><p>A discussion about depression with Brad Feld <a href="https://blog.replyall.me/a-conversation-about-depression-with-brad-feld/and" rel="nofollow">https://blog.replyall.me/a-conversation-about-depression-wit...</a><p>Debate with David Frum on marijuana legalization <a href="http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/is-legalizing-pot-a-bad-idea-a-published-email-exchange-with-david-frum/" rel="nofollow">http://abovethelaw.com/2015/05/is-legalizing-pot-a-bad-idea-...</a><p>Sam Harris & Glenn Greenwald's debate (not done with ReplyAll)<p><a href="http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/dear-fellow-liberal2" rel="nofollow">http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/dear-fellow-liberal2</a>
I did a conversation with Zach on ReplyAll some months ago: <a href="http://abovethelaw.com/2015/06/should-you-leave-law-and-learn-to-code-a-conversation-with-lawyer-turned-programmer-will-ha/" rel="nofollow">http://abovethelaw.com/2015/06/should-you-leave-law-and-lear...</a><p>The experience was pretty awesome. The sign up was easy, and I was up and running doing posts/replies to questions. Watching the reaction to the conversation was pretty cool.<p>The next interview/conversation I have on my personal blog, I'd like to use ReplyAll simply because it helps in creating the most insightful comments/responses. If you were to do a conversation real time (podcast/phone/live), a lot of thought is lost while thinking on your feet (you can be really good, but it's likely inchoate relative to the true potential while you're writing and thinking). On the other hand, if you're doing an "email interview" where you just have a long set of questions, there's no freedom to let the conversation go as it should without some heavy editing.<p>Cool product, well done Zach, et al!
Really cool, and I thought Reply All was just a podcast. If I am understanding this platform correctly this allows each person involved in the conversation to send email responses, and replyall publishes the conversation in an embeddable widget. I haven't used it before so I could be way off.
Interested to see if you will have a featured conversations list where you showcase conversations between notable people in different verticals.<p>Would be particularly interesting for controversial debates. Would be a bit more thought out than tweetstorms, but lower friction than back-and-forth blog posts.
This is a neat idea. Do you guys have any numbers that show that your interface is more engaging than say a blog post with quotes from a conversation? (I know it makes it easier for the publisher but do readers enjoy reading this format? I sure as hell do!). Great job!
Btw if you want to see a version of a live conversation, here's one in doing right now <a href="http://abovethelaw.com/?p=386196" rel="nofollow">http://abovethelaw.com/?p=386196</a>
Do you have the capability to widen the conversation to include more than two people? Have it take on a feel of a conversation rather than an interview? What about live interactions?