Proxi Founders Melinda Haughey and Chelsey Roney Interview with Jeremy Caplan for Wonder Tools

Jeremy Caplan15min

Jeremy Caplan00:03

Great. So thanks for taking a few minutes to chat. I'd love to hear more about the motivation behind proxy and sort of what gave you the impetus to, to put this together?

Melinda Haughey00:14

Yeah, well, proxy has this really fun Inception story. That's this, mom saves Halloween story. And it's really, you know, fun for this time of year as well. So about two years ago, I noticed in my parents Facebook group, people were trying to find ways to trick or treat safely in my neighborhood. Because you know, some people, people were very cautious because of COVID. And people were making these really fun creative ways to, you know, distribute candy at a distance. And so I started noticing people sharing addresses of where their candy shoots were. And given my background in geospatial and you know, human centered design, I was like, this is, this is kind of dumb, we got to, we got to make this easier. So I did what a lot of people do, I went and set up a Google My Maps and you know, a sheet, a Google page that went to Google Sheet that went or form that went to a sheet that went to Google My Maps. And the idea went went viral here in Seattle, 2300 homes ended up adding themselves to the map and 500,000 feet, there were 500,000 views on the map. So it went really viral here, people were using it. But the problem was that it took basically, it turned into a full time job really quickly. Those who have used Google Maps, know that it's really hard to collaborate on a map, to crowdsource information onto a map really hard to verify addresses all kinds of things. And so after, after the really successful and fun Halloween, people started reaching out and asking, you know, how they could make easy to make maps and things like that. And I couldn't, in my right mind, direct them back to the experience that I had just had with Google Maps. And that's when I call Chelsea, who's this business builder who's worked on software projects before and she looked at the market. And we saw these trends that were showing that, hey, making map easier and making it more collaborative could could be really good right now. And so that was kind of the inspiration. And we started building an MVP and spent about nine months refining it before we actually jumped in headfirst. So

Jeremy Caplan02:18

what are some of the ways that you're seeing people use it? What are some of the top use cases so far?

Melinda Haughey02:23

Yeah, so we're finding that people, there's a couple of top use cases. One is, media companies are using it. So people who typically would present listicles of, you know, top 10 things to do this weekend, or great hikes for kids or, you know, these things that are normally presented as listicles. Online, we're seeing more and more media companies and journalists starting to put those that that information on Proxi maps. And what that allows them to do is embedded on their their article, it allows them to share that, you know, unique proxy Map link on social, it just makes the map more easy to take around. And then, you know, to get insights on how what people are clicking on, are they booking a table, it, it provides that, you know, ability to share anywhere and then insights into how people are using the map. So that's a big one, as far as people who already shared listicles, we're also seeing a lot of movement in the hospitality space on the local hospitality space. So that might mean destination marketing orgs, who already create lots of lists of what to do in the area. And then also hotels who are, you know, making front desk guides to perhaps their general map of the area, but also unique, special maps that are easy to maintain, like running routes or best places to get oysters. Now with proxy, you know, they can, as soon as one of those restaurants goes out of business or new ones pops up. It's easy to maintain the map and share it with their guests. Yeah, and then obviously, there's, there's also lots of fun consumer use cases like wedding maps and bachelorette parties and trips and all kinds of things like that, that we allow people to use proxy for.

Jeremy Caplan04:08

And how do you think it fits into the broader landscape of these kind of matchmaking tools? So journalists will be familiar with tools like flourish, and data wrapper? And obviously, you mentioned Google Maps? How do you see it fitting into the landscape?

Melinda Haughey04:21

Yeah, I think it's in between some of these really, technical tools, like, you know, the ones that are perhaps on the New York Times, or the ones that are built using API's. And the really simple, simple, simple google maps that you know, leaves More to be desired around branding and insights. Proxi sits right in the middle, we think of ourselves as the Canva of maps. It's like a little bit more than, you know, the Microsoft Word poster, you know, builder and a little bit less than illustrator. or Photoshop? It's kind of that nice medium. toasty. Do you have anything to add? No,

Chelsea Roney05:04

that's exactly it. It's we aim to be the friendliest map creator technology out there, and the branding and the insights, and it's all icing on the cake after you can create this really easy to use and maintain map.

Jeremy Caplan05:22

And what would you say are the top features that are distinct? You know, people are familiar with simple making a map where you drop spots on a map, and then you share it what are what are three or four of the top features that might be distinct from your perspective that that proxy has that maybe other tools don't have or don't work as well on other tools.

Melinda Haughey05:39

So three come to mind to me right now that we have today. And then one that we're building towards, and Chelsea feel free to add on. So the first is big, totally rooted in the experience that I had in trigger trading, which is collaborating and crowdsourcing information. We are the easiest place online to crowdsource information, we you can build a map on proxy in seconds, you can get a unique collaborative link that you could share on your on a Reddit page or in your family group chat, and everyone can collaboratively add to the map at one time, and of course, we have the option to approve points and things like that. But we're the only place online that does that. The second is sharing anywhere. So some other map platforms that you have to share within their apps or things like that for us, we simply have a link, you can text it, you can embed it, you can live it, you can put it on tick tock, whatever you want, it can go anywhere. And then the third is the insights. And I've already mentioned this, you can see in a non creepy, aggregated way, you know, how what people are clicking on? Are they converting? Are they getting directions to a place that's on your map. And so that helps with, you know, businesses understand who are using maps, understanding, you know, all of this content that they're making, they often don't get insights into how it's actually being used. And so we provide that, and then those are the three we offer today. And then what we're moving toward is actually becoming a place where people can, you know, bookmark and well you can bookmark today, but bookmark and pin and and save these maps for later. So imagine you see an influencer or you see a local media guide to Austin, Texas, and you're going to Austin next weekend, you can put that in your virtual backpack. And then when you go to Austin, you then can open your proxy map, instead of maybe Yelp or Google Maps, that's going to have that curated guide for you know, whatever niche thing you're looking for. Anything else, you'll see that Yeah,

Chelsea Roney07:38

I think I would add on the level of customization, for maps. So not only can you customize your maps with colors, logo, make it very visually appealing to your audience or friend group. But you can also customize the categories in which you bucket points into and then you can also tag points with additional points of interest, like, you know, if a place is woman owned, or kid friendly, or kid friendly, something like this. So it just makes it very simple to search for points and find exactly what you want. Yeah, a lot of

Jeremy Caplan08:16

readers and users of these kinds of products are often curious about the business model, they want to know whether they're going to be sold to or their themselves their own data will be sold or sort of how the how the business makes money. So can you walk us through sort of how that how that works from your perspective?

Melinda Haughey08:32

Yeah, so today, we charge teams, so big teams who are using maps and maintaining them collaboratively. So you might imagine like a big media company or a hotel might pay to be able to work as a team on all kinds of different maps and have their branding, go there. But our big vision is around affiliate and advertising to be honest, we intend to, you know, our goal with that we have a really unique perspective on that we, we want our maps to turn into somewhat of an influencer type play, if you will, there will be advertising or opportunities for people who own maps. So connecting local businesses to local map makers, and not necessarily throwing points onto a map kind of like Google or Yelp does, but giving those creators the opportunity to reap rewards from their, you know, the maps that they're making in the way that they're sharing information with the public. And that's why we're really interested in conversion. So are people booking tables on Open Table? Are they ordering food from this restaurant, we're in, you know, opening up opportunities for conversion inside a proxy. So then, you know, that opens up revenue opportunities and then also gives, you know, advertising value to those creators.

Jeremy Caplan09:57

Nice Great. Well, I think it's a great product. So far from what I've seen of, as I said, been playing around with it. I'm curious if you have any additional sort of plans you can share in terms of new features or things that you plan on adding to expand on what you have.

Melinda Haughey10:16

Yeah. Okay. So one just came to mind. And I think this is a differentiator for us that I don't know if you've explored yet, but we just want to Google Chrome plugin. And that Google Chrome plugin is really cool. Because it allows you to pin points as you're doing research online. So imagine you are planning for a trip, if you have the proxy Google Chrome plugin on and you're looking at different blogs, I'm going to Mexico City soon and blogs about what to do there where to eat, you can just highlight things, right click and add to your map right in your browser. And that is super cool. Like that is, I mean, it's like this, you know, ability to pin things on to this, you know, map as you're going. And then when you go to that city, or when you publish your map, you know, everything is there and ready for you know, yourself or your friends or your user. So that's something we're really excited about. And that leads to, you know, the bigger vision that we have is becoming kind of a Pinterest of places, you know, as people build more guides on proxy, and we're going to invite people to make their maps public and make them searchable on proxy. So that, you know, if you do land in Seattle, and you are looking for a record store, you know, perhaps someone who is an expert in that in the Seattle area might have a map that you can use and find which one that's near you, and get directions there and go there. And so it's all about making things, you know, easier to find. And you know, quicker to get to these like niche things that you care about. Chelsea, what else do you want to add?

Chelsea Roney11:47

No, I think that's exactly I would have chosen the same thing. The Chrome plugin is really powerful and fun to use, useful for all sorts of people.

Jeremy Caplan11:58

And for folks in other countries, do you envision having, I mean, the Google Maps, I guess, give you give you access to add a map no matter where you are in the world, I would assume? Do you envision having different language? Languages available for people in other places?

Chelsea Roney12:14

Definitely, yeah, that's part of our future, I will do that. And another thing that proxy already does today, you know, you can map any place in the world, whether it has an address, or it's with a lat long location, you can just double click on the map and add a point anywhere, so might be useful. If you're adding like a parking lot without an address or a restroom or Trailhead or something like

Melinda Haughey12:35

this, you have lots of international users already. Because we are fairly light on the amount of language that is required to you know, figure out how to use proxy and our user experiences really nice. People from all over have started using proxy and some of our biggest maps are from international users. But of course, yes, making, you know, making it available in other languages will definitely be part of part of our future.

Jeremy Caplan13:02

Interesting. I noticed there's a date and time kind of functionality, presumably for events. Have you seen anyone using that to sort of mark historical things or to tell a story of you know, how something developed or any other kind of storytelling uses?

Melinda Haughey13:16

Chelsea? I feel like you should answer this.

Chelsea Roney13:18

Yeah. So we actually had, yes, exactly. So we we have someone who is mapping out their their villages like timeline, actually in Australia, and they are going back and marking different locations that are of historical importance. In there, they're doing it through the lens of an Aboriginal I guess, an Aboriginal lens. So they're trying to highlight historical events through that perspective. So really exciting. We've also had some folks do book reports, if that makes sense. Students that highlight like someone's life. In the past and event, we'll have some more features that addressed the historical events coming up, but we don't want to give those away quite yet. But yes, that is a really exciting part of what proxy can do. Yeah. And family

Melinda Haughey14:18

history could be a really fun one, too.

Chelsea Roney14:21

Yes. Don't give it away. So good.

Jeremy Caplan14:25

Yeah. Yeah, the night lab has a tool called Story mapper, which, which is has that sort of idea of putting historical things onto a map and, and most of the kind of consumer map tools aren't oriented around that way, but it seems like you could potentially use them use them for that kind of storytelling purpose. Anything else you want to add anything else you want to add that people might not realize about proxy or that they should know? as they as they take their first look?

Melinda Haughey14:54

I feel like we covered a lot of it. It's really easy to get started. I think I would love people to I As we learn, first of all, we're very user centric company, you know, my backgrounds in Human Centered Design and Chelsea and I spend a lot of time talking to users and listening to them and building the things that they ask us to build. And so you know, I would love it for people to get on there and just go in, it's free. You can play with it. Tell us how you're using it so that maybe we can make it easier for you. And we're just like, we're so excited to keep building this and seeing what it enables for the future.

Jeremy Caplan15:31

Great. Thanks Melinda and Chelsea for for sharing. I'm really excited to to keep learning more about it.

Melinda Haughey15:39

Thanks, Jeremy.

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