That sounds really really pretentious. Even if I agree on the idea of a community of builders, all the description is really pretentious:
"Breuers are exceptional designers, coders, product managers, researchers, investors. We work at amazing startups and companies including Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, Twitter, SRI. We are alumni of institutions including MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Y Combinator"
"brilliant minds", "The current acceptance rate is 8.9%", ...
Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for coming across as really pretentious. We're aiming to be selective rather than pretentious here. We should probably change the site to reflect this fact.
Breue started as Headlinr - a billboard for startup and product launches. Well, it was actually a curated list of useful good looking products.
From the products rejected on Headlinr, many of the founders reached out to us, asking how they could improve their products. We noticed a pattern of designers and coders unsure of what to build and how to launch their products.
So, we put together a little experiment called the Screening Room and ran it for a week. The results were spectacular. It became clear where we needed to focus our time and energies.
So, we built Breue.
Typically, we try to get product advice and feedback by posting somewhere online where people can see it. You receive a bunch of mixed advice. Only a few people give you good advice and feedback. And you have to deal with snark and hateful remarks.
Breue is a community where people give you the best advice and direction they can on your vision, business, product, product flaws, etc. So far, there has been zero snark. There are no remarks like "looks cool" or "sounds interesting". Just really helpful, worthwhile, invaluable stuff.
We've put together an amazing community of smart talented people who want to learn from and help each other out. As a member of the community, you get to engage with other smart talented people. You get to see, read, and hear things that others don't. You get to help shape things.
Please take a minute to read testimonials by founders of products showcased on Breue:
One suggestion. I would make the description on the landing page more informative about the service you offer rather than how exceptional you are. It took me a while to understand what your product was.
For instance, on the Y Combinator home page PG isn't mentioned. Instead the concept of Y Combinator is outlined.
I'm a new "Breuer" and looking forward to participating in the community.
How do you plan on dealing with the (inevitable?) issues that seem to plague most online communities, such as snarky behavior, online trolls and other non-helpful behavior?
We carefully vet every Breuer out before letting them in so we can set an environment where everyone feels comfortable to participate and comment. We have zero tolerance for snark, trolls, or hateful remarks.
Glad to see Breue hitting HN. My company einstein.com went through the BreueingRoom and it was a fantastic experience. My full testimonial is on the Breue site, so I won't repeat myself here.
The community so far is of the utmost caliber, and I hope that it is able to remain that way. I have high expectations in this regard, though. Zach has done a great deal towards pushing high-quality community standards.
I've been on Breue since the start (thanks Zach!), and there have been some great products and some really interesting discussions. It'll be really interesting to see what shape this takes as the community grows!
Another recently fermented Breuer here. I had a great experience being in the Breueing Room. My biggest concern was that Breue would end up being an overwhelming addition to my already heaping pile of feedback on http://squirt.io. In the end, the conversation helped me immensely in digesting and prioritizing. Super excited to see where this thing goes!
Another breuer here. The conversations about new products are of the highest quality I have seen for a long time.
We'll have to see if Breue becomes a victim of its own success.... but for the moment it's a fantastic resource for finding new products and learning from the intelligent and constructive community.
"Breuers are exceptional designers, coders, product managers, researchers, investors. We work at amazing startups and companies including Google, Apple, Adobe, Intel, Twitter, SRI. We are alumni of institutions including MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Y Combinator"
"brilliant minds", "The current acceptance rate is 8.9%", ...