Pendect Beta is finally here
Well, it’s been a wild ride! For the past couple of months, we’ve worked tirelessly towards the launch of Pendect. We spend hours discussing features, designing and coding, strategising and planning. And now it’s finally here! We here at Pendect couldn’t be more excited (and exhausted). It’s been an extraordinary adventure and we can’t wait for what’s to come.
Launching a product comes with a lot of joy, stress and arguments
A couple of months ago we set out to build Pendect — a community-driven news platform that produces short — or tl;dr — news cards instead of long articles. Every submitted card is fact-checked and every source verified to create a platform where you can inform yourself without having to worry if the information provided is factual and true.
The three of us — our tech wizard Érico, our finance & marketing genius Christoph (both situated in Berlin, Germany) and me, designer, copywriter & morse code lady Ashley (in Vienna, Austria) — have been bringing Pendect to life over the last couple of months. Where there was a lot we agreed upon instantly, there also were issues we couldn’t find an immediate solution. But it’s important to know that this happens and it’s completely normal. As we’re all equally invested in Pendect, there’s no one to make the final call. So we discussed and discussed and discussed some more — and this became a crucial part of our company. We look for solutions rather than opinions, we hear each other out and try to find the best possible outcome for everyone/everything involved and we apologise and talk things out — for the sake of our product and us as a team.
We originally planned to launch sometime in February. And we didn’t. So we postponed the launch a couple of weeks. Why? Well, the truth is we weren’t ready. With each item we crossed off our to-do-list another five appeared. We knew that we couldn’t release all features at once, so we focussed on the basic functionality, security measures and user flows before anything else. We will be introducing new features over the next couple of weeks and months but found it crucial to launch now — because in the midst of our Beta launch schedule a global pandemic happened.
What #covid–19 means for Pendect & us as a team
I was still in Berlin when the coronavirus started spreading in Europe. Our plan to introduce topics surrounding the U.S. Elections 2020 first went out the window really fast and we were set to help our users navigate the current news amount of this pandemic. From the early beginning, we kept on stumbling upon fake news stories and as the panic grew all around us, the fake news stories quadrupled by the second. Everyone suddenly knew someone, messages and audio recordings were sent from one friend to another. And now more than ever it’s important to fact-check and verify the things you’re reading to get a grasp of what’s happening around us.
Head over to our topic Covid-19 Outbreak 2020 to stay up to date on what’s happening. We’ll be introducing filters shortly to help you navigate this crisis even better.
We decided early on to #stayhome as we have the privilege to do so. Érico left for Brazil to be closer to his family, Christoph cozied up in his small rooftop flat in Berlin and I went back to Vienna to my own sanctuary. We don’t know when we will see each other again but we will be making the most of this situation and will further improve our remote work methods.
A quick recap
Pendect is built on community contribution, news transparency and individual content personalization. Easily put together a news feed that covers all your interests — whether it’s politics, sports or local news from your hometown — and become an active member in the fight against fake news.
Sign up now and/or become a Pentributor, and know that you now have a news platform void of fake news. We’re thrilled to have you!
And a little note here at the end:
This pandemic has us all worried and scared. We urge you to stay home as much as possible if your life and job allow you to — not only for the sake of your health but also for everyone else’s and to show respect to those who can’t stay in the comfort of their own four walls. We would like to send out a big thank you to everyone working at the front lines — whether it’s in a hospital, a grocery store, a logistics center, a post office, a pharmacy or any other place you are currently needed. Thank you for your service.
Stay safe & healthy,
Ashley, Christoph & Érico
