https://proofleague.com (iOS, web app and android)

You create a private league, set a weekly goal (workout 3x a week), and tap Start when you begin a workout. Friends get notified and then have 30 minutes to ask for a selfie. If nobody asks, the workout counts automatically. There’s no public feed or strangers involved, just a small group keeping each other honest.

My friends and I had been doing a version of this via text message for years, but this app has been great. I am in 4 "leagues", all of them get notified at once and then I only share my selfie once and it automatically goes to any group that asks. It's motivating and hilarious to see people working out.

It's free and would love for you guys to try it and set up a league with friends or family. Please send me any feedback at amit@proofleague.com

My friends and I used to do a rough version of this over text. We’d tell the group when we were starting a workout, and someone could ask for a selfie to keep us honest.

It was simple, slightly ridiculous, and surprisingly effective. It was also clumsy to manage in a group chat, so I built ProofLeague:

https://proofleague.com

The rule is basically the same: create a private league and choose a weekly goal. When someone starts a workout, everyone else has 30 minutes to ask for a selfie. If nobody asks, the workout counts. If someone does, the person takes a fresh selfie in the app before the response deadline.

I’ve found that seeing friends work out is motivating, and seeing their exhausted post-workout selfies is often pretty entertaining.

What started with a few friends has grown into six different leagues for me. I can start one workout across several leagues, and each one gets its own chance to ask for proof. If multiple leagues ask, I can share the same selfie with the leagues that requested it instead of taking six different photos. A league that doesn’t ask doesn’t receive it.

ProofLeague is free. The full browser app is live, and the iPhone and Android builds are linked from the site. Workout selfies stay inside the relevant leagues rather than appearing in a public feed.

I’d especially like feedback on the central mechanic: does knowing that a friend could ask for proof feel motivating, or does it feel annoying or creepy?

So far the response has been positive, but most of that feedback has come from people using it with friends. I’d genuinely like to hear from other people.

Thanks!

Amit

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072945

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Each week, everyone emails in a few photos and a sentence or two, and Dearest sends the group a private Sunday digest with everyone’s updates. The catch is, you only receive the digest if you contribute that week.

It is meant for families, old friends, grandparents, siblings, or any small group that wants to stay close without another app or endless notifications.

It’s my way to be social and know what’s going on in my friends lives without social media.

So far I only have my friends using it but I love it.

I also am working on https://trypixie.com - a way to employee your kids legally. It gets money into their Roth and saves you taxable income all while teaching them about working.

So much of social media now feels built around whatever is trending that week, not the relationships you actually want to keep up with.

That’s why I’m building Dearest (https://dearest.co) : a private, email-based Sunday photo digest for families and friends. Everyone sends a photo and a short update by Saturday night, and contributors get the group’s digest on Sunday morning. Hopefully this keeps us social and in touch.

In elder care, I am building https://statphone.com - one emergency number that rings multiple family members simultaneously and breaks through DND. Would love to chat/collaborate.

I also built https://statphone.com - One emergency number that rings your whole family and breaks through DND.

I have young kids and elderly parents. Very much in the sandwich generation.

When I’m in the OR or busy and an unknown number comes in, I have no idea. Is this my kid’s school? My dad’s doctor? Something urgent? Or just spam?

So my wife and I built StatPhone (https://statphone.com).

It gives you dedicated phone numbers you can share with the people and places that may need to reach you urgently. When someone calls one, it can ring multiple people at once, break through Do Not Disturb, and if no one answers, escalate to others.

For example, we give one to our kid’s school. It rings both of us at the same time so someone alway picks up.

Or we can give one to my dad’s doctor. It rings me and my sister first, and if we do not pick up, it rolls to my wife and brother in law.

No matter what number they call from, it shows up clearly as something like “Dad Emergency” or “Kids School” on our phones.

If no one answers, it uses its own voicemail, transcribes it, and sends it to everyone. We can still see who actually called via text or the dashboard.

At first we built it for ourselves, but figured it might be useful to other families too.

PS- recently someone brought to our attention that this could be useful for patients on transplant list. This will be worthwhile if we even help one transplant patient!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47573249

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

My wife and I are physicians (YC S17), with young kids and also helping take care of our parents. Very much in the sandwich generation.

When I am in the OR or busy and an unknown number comes in, I have no idea. Is this my kid’s school, my dad’s doctor, something urgent, or just spam?

I end up being afraid to fully turn on Do Not Disturb because of that.

So we built StatPhone - https://statphone.com.

It gives you dedicated phone numbers you can share with people you trust. When someone calls one, it rings multiple people at once, and if no one answers, it can automatically escalate to others.

No matter what number they are calling from, it shows up as something like “Dad Emergency” or “Kids School” on your phone.

For example, we can give one to our kid’s school. It rings both of us at the same time so someone picks up.

Or we can give one to my dad’s doctor. It rings me and my sister first, and if we do not pick up, it rolls to my wife and brother in law.

It is also useful as a general family emergency line. For kids going to college, for pet sitters, or for things like a doorman calling one number and it ringing everyone in the apartment at once.

If no one answers, it uses its own voicemail, not your phone’s, transcribes it, and sends it to everyone.

We can still see who actually called via a dashboard or text.

We have been using it for school, babysitters, doctors, etc.

Figured we would share in case it is useful to anyone else.

Thanks, Amit & Puja

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47554224

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

The biggest benefit for me with StatPhone is the incoming callerID is the StatPhone number. So even if the kid's school is calling from a random number, on your phone it shows the StatPhone number and you know its a call pertains to your child.

Also grouped escalation, so if my father calls in an emergency, the kids get called first and then the in laws and our uncle.

If the first group doesn't pick up, it starts calling the second group, but first group continues to ring.

If the caller hangs up, all ringing is stopped.

The cool thing is if it encounters the native phone's voicemail, it hangs up and continues to ring so doesn't think it was a picked up call.

We do have our own voicemail that will eventually answer (user defined timing), which then transcribes and sends the voicemail+transcription to all the group members.

Unfortunately if a spammer called the StatPhone number, it would dial everyone. I thought about blocking or automatically categorizing but then you may miss an important call from an unknown number.

Most spammers are actually operating off of known lists, usually made off of some data leak.

I haven’t encountered that issue yet. I don’t have a great solution for that case.