This engaging interview piece captures an intriguing moment in social media history when a Los Angeles startup called Hyphos attempted to solve what they called the "social discovery" problem. Patrick Bisch's conversation with CEO Alex Capecelatro reveals a thoughtful critique of existing social networks and an ambitious vision for connecting strangers based on shared interests and geographic proximity.
The interview format works particularly well here, allowing Capecelatro to articulate his philosophy about the Internet's unfulfilled potential for genuine human connection. His reference to Eli Pariser's "The Filter Bubble" and the observation that Facebook, Google+, and Twitter primarily connect us to people we already know highlights a legitimate gap in the social media landscape of 2011. The concept of helping people find "a cycling buddy, or a bassist for your band, or a group to go hiking with" when moving to new cities addressed a real need that existing platforms hadn't solved.
What makes this article particularly fascinating from today's perspective is how it documents the technical and social challenges that would plague many social discovery platforms. The team's concern about the "island issue" of users being geographically separated from others proved prescient, as this exact problem would doom many location-based social experiments. The technical details about their Python/Django backend and HTML5/jQuery frontend represent the cutting-edge web development practices of the time.
The personal touches throughout the interview, from Capecelatro's passion for cycling to the story about acquiring the domain name for $4 at a GoDaddy auction, give readers insight into the startup mentality and resource constraints that characterized early social media entrepreneurship. The inclusion of team photos and their mascot "Fred" adds authenticity to what could have been a purely promotional piece.
While Hyphos ultimately didn't achieve the mainstream success its founders envisioned, this interview documents important themes about social connection, geographic community, and the ongoing tension between online and offline relationships that continue to influence social platform development today. The ideas explored here would later influence successful platforms like Meetup, Nextdoor, and various interest-based community apps.
This summary was created by Dave Rogers. The original post was written by Patrick Bisch and published on August 8, 2011.
If you'd like to view the original post, you can find it here.