29 Comments
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Tahnee Woolf's avatar

This is amazing! I've only been on here a month but am loving connecting with so many kindred spirits. I would love to be part of your Orbit zoom experiment. Thing is, I'm in Australia and have to work around my 2 little ones, so not sure how we would sync up time zones...

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Thank you!! I would love to if we can figure it out! I just synced up with @Sam Rees, Reg.Psych at 9PM my time, 11AM (I think?) her time.

Also - I’m working towards Orbit being available without the Zoom call in the next few weeks; once that’s true, we can message back in forth until we find time that matches up.

Sam Rees, Reg.Psych's avatar

@Rebecca Spitzer Orbit is quite genius, thanks for letting me play!

Tahnee Woolf's avatar

That would be awesome. Good luck with it! I haven’t even met you, but I’m super proud of you for inventing it! ✨

Sarah Constantine's avatar

I have so enjoyed following along on the Orbit updates in notes! I could see something like this also being helpful for Substack users like me (here to read, primarily). I especially love the recognition that most of us are connecting across multiple communities. The Substack algorithm so often feels like it’s pushing towards a current interest. It’s so cool that Orbit helps keep all your communities is view.

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Aw, thank you so much!!

Super curious about using it for reading - are you thinking like, different feeds on different topics? I’d love that.

I think it was @Daphne Mavroudi-Chocholi (or @Jen Phillips April? so sorry if I’m getting this wrong) who showed me that you can filter your home feed to just people you follow; that’s been really helpful, too.

Daphne Mavroudi-Chocholi's avatar

yes you can filter at the top to a ‘for you’ view or a ‘following’ view. I have @Emma Gannon to thank for keeping me sane by suggesting the later

Jen Phillips April's avatar

Oh! That’s exciting! I’m looking forward to digging in!

Sarah Constantine's avatar

Ooh I wasn’t even thinking grouped feeds, although that would be cool! I think you can somewhat get that through substack’s explore feature, but it doesn’t feel particularly tailored - perhaps room to improve? I was putting in a plug that just being able to see (and search) interactions grouped by interest seems helpful for re-discovering great content, so I see an audience for this with readers in addition to writers.

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Ah I see! Yes! Love that idea

Penelope Tiam-Fook's avatar

Orbit sounds pretty cool. I am not at a 100 subscribers yet but I am all about building engaging connections and conversations

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

If you’re all about conversations and in the comments, Orbit can still be helpful! No need to have 100 subscribers, just conversations that you want to remember. Happy to set you up if you want to join the beta test group.

Penelope Tiam-Fook's avatar

Yes please! I’m interested.

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Let’s do it!!! DM me your preferred email address and I’ll invite you.

Merideth Cohrs ⛵️'s avatar

This is really cool! I’m probably one of those people who think my substack is too small for this at 100 people. But this would be invaluable as it grows!

Emily's avatar

Continually impressed and inspired by you! Love this and seeing the iterations of Orbit so far. The fact that Substack already maps your relationship graph but won't let you see it is wild…Would love to check it out!?! Also an excuse for a zoom call hang out lol!

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Yes!! Haha great minds, I just messaged you about a party we’re hosting later this month, but let’s also do an Orbit call! I would love feedback from your marketing POV

Alexandra Bianco's avatar

This is such a fun idea! I’d love to test it out!

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

I’d love that! I’m setting it up on 30 minute zoom calls right now, if you’re up for it; DM me!

Tess Taylor's avatar

Oooooo this is so exciting and I absolutely LOVED your description of us as planets and the reasoning behind the name. 100% agree with you, especially in these early days of business / list growing, I feel like Substack is actually more beneficial to me for “networking” and building my neighbourhood. Counting the days until substack scoops you (and orbit) up!

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Thank you!! I was just thinking yesterday how I came here because I figured well, I have to have some way of telling people about these apps - and it has turned into so much more, so many amazing people (like you!) whose expertise I’ve both learned from, who have contributed to the evolution of my product ideas, and who as a community have become fuel and energy for the journey. 🥹

AI, Her Way with Nirnaya's avatar

I love how you’re thinking about this and building the orbit. We still need our yapping session 😃

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Yes!!!! I’ll DM you - maybe sometime in the next few weeks? I can show you what this tool would look like for your Substack, too, if you want.

Also - I think I mentioned before - @Tiffany Soroko @Jen Makes Work Work and I are planning a late-July virtual party for Substackers on this same journey, you should 100% come yap with us there ❤️

AI, Her Way with Nirnaya's avatar

I’d love that!

Chris Tomasso's avatar

This is cool, was literally recording a podcast this week and I said - “Substack records your subscribers, but not your relational density” or something like that - I love being connected to collective consciousness

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Great minds!!! This is definitely in the water - there are so many people talking about relationships and the community build around publishing. I see Substack doing some work there, but mostly for Bestsellers.

If you want to see all your relationships and conversations mapped out, let me know! We’ll be out of beta hopefully in a few weeks.

Atmos's avatar

Love it! I personally don't care about statistics and numbers, but keeping relationships in focus and giving Claude access to the data is a game changer! As I said last time: I'd love to test it!

Rebecca Spitzer's avatar

Let’s do it! Would love to hear your feedback. I’ll DM you to find a time

Xian's avatar

I asked a bunch of founders at our local accelerator hub, "Have you ever listened to Lenny's Podcast?" Surprisingly, none of them even knew who Lenny was.

The funny thing is, I had never heard of Paul Graham either when I was a developer until I started building my own product.

It made me realize how incredibly difficult it is to build a brand that becomes a household name. A brand like Disney has broken through countless information bubbles. Reaching that level of awareness is extraordinarily rare.

Find the critical nodes and try to pierce the information bubble to reach the next layer. This is a very promising project!