I am an avid reader of Gary Vaynerchuk’s material. He has proven himself time and time again to be a leading voice when it comes to entrepreneurship and business.
Gary’s motto is that he does not “predict” trends–he simply pays attention to what is happening in the marketplace, and then quickly reacts. It seems sort of obvious, but it’s surprising how many people are ruled by the “I think this is a winning idea” methodology with no regard for tangible marketplace data.
Here are the five apps Gary Vaynerchuk has on his radar–which means they should be on your radar as well:
1. Anchor
It’s funny, because I actually had an idea similar to this about five years ago (but of course, execution is everything). Anchor is essentially an “audio Twitter,” as Gary puts it. The reason why I’m intrigued by this concept as well is that podcasting his become so popular again. I imagine it’s because our society has become “on-the-go” and even easily-consumable videos have to be pushed to the side during time spent moving and/or commuting. This is when podcasting wins.
With the rise of podcasting, it’ll be interesting to see what social networks are built or take advantage of the concept of audio sharing (outside of the conventional video context).
2. Musical.ly
I first heard about this app on an episode of #AskGaryVee, where he featured two Musical.ly influencers on his show. Intrigued, I downloaded the app and searched through some of the popular users. I finally emerged and picked my head back up an hour later.
The app is wildly addicting. Think Vine for music. It is intended to create lip-sync videos to songs or sound clips, and is extremely popular among the 7-13 age demographic, according to Gary–although I’d argue it extends a bit more than that, up to the late teens.
Similar to Vine, this app has already turned some talented teenagers into celebrities. My question is whether an app so focused on just music can compete with more ambidextrous platforms such as Instagram.
We shall see.
3. Peach
I hadn’t heard of this app until I read about it, but according to Gary it is made by one of the founders of Vine, Dom Hofmann. Here, Gary says, “I’m betting on the jockey more than the horse,” meaning that he believes in Dom’s skills as an entrepreneur and innovator slightly more than the platform Peach itself–which is why he’s watching it.
Peach is a messaging app (as if there aren’t enough of those already) with a slew of bells and whistles reminiscent of Tumblr. Gary says is a blend between Slack and Twitter. I suggest downloading and playing around with it yourself.
4. After School
This is another app that was not on my radar until I heard about it in an episode of #AskGaryVee. It is a high-school-only app that requires a school ID to create an account, which Gary reminds us is similar to Facebook’s humble beginnings.
After School is a message board for high school students, and in a sense it reminds me of Yik Yak–a place to communicate with the people around you.
I’ll have to tap into my younger brothers’ network to watch this app, but the idea is interesting.
5. MiiTomo
Ah, this app has a special place in my heart, because it was made by one of my favorite childhood companies–Nintendo.
MiiTomo is a messaging app (see what I mean about saturated?) that allows users to create a “virtual you” (similar to a video game) to communicate with friends. Personally, I feel like of all the directions a company like Nintendo could have gone in the app space, this was an underwhelming choice. But still, it’s on the radar and worth watching as time goes on.
