Why I’m building Muze
I’ve started three companies, two of them acquired. The third is Muze. This is why it exists, what it is, and what i want it to change for the users on it.
Why Muze
Most social networks are built around who you follow. Reach flows to users who already have an audience, and everyone else posts into the void. When you have something to share, finding the community that wants it is harder than it should be.
Some background. In 2015 I co-founded Spoonfed, a premium food delivery platform (acquired by Noon). In 2017 I co-founded Roam.ai, a location intelligence platform (acquired by Echo Analytics). Both taught me how to build, ship and sell a company.
Muze comes from a thesis about where social networks fall short. If a network could understand what you’re posting about, it could connect you to the users who care, whether or not they already follow you. Discovery would start from your contribution, not from knowing the network already. That bet is the reason Muze exists.
What Muze is
Muze is an interest-based social network, built around what you care about, not who you know. It’s a collection of communities, each built around a topic. Communities set their own rules, and moderators run their own spaces.
The feature that shows the thesis best is Boost Mode. While you write a post, Boost Mode reads what you’re saying and suggests the communities where it fits. You start with what you want to say, then find the audience for it.
You choose the audience for every post: your followers, or a community where it belongs. Conversations work at two levels. You can post your replies, and discuss in the threaded comments.
Creators can earn directly. Users can applaud posts and comments they appreciate. An applause is a fixed €3 or $3, the creator keeps 90% minus Stripe’s processing fees, and payouts run through Stripe Connect into an account the creator controls. Users can also send a tip directly. Applauding comments matters to me: some of the best writing on any network sits in the comments, and the users behind it should earn too.
Boost Mode, Applause, community creation and post replies sit behind a premium ”@username”, a one-time fee starting from €5 up to €1M with no subscription. It discourages spam, bots and automated accounts while keeping the cost to get started low.
Muze runs on web, iOS and Android.
What it changes for users
You don’t need an audience to find one. Today, reach belongs to users who already have followers. On Muze the post itself is the starting point. A first post from a new account can land in front of the users who care, because Boost Mode routes it there.
Good contributions earn, including comments. On most networks the reward for a great comment is nothing. On Muze comments can earn too. Users can applaud a great comment just like a post, so the users who make a discussion worth reading get rewarded for it.
Communities stay on topic. When you post to a community, its rules are checked in real time, so the conversation starts on topic and moderators aren’t cleaning up after the fact.
Wrapping up
I started Muze because I wanted a place online where what I care about matters more than how many followers I have. We're still early, and I'm building it from Amsterdam with a team in India. But I know where I want it to go: a place where a new user with a good idea can find a community that wants to hear it, and where the users who show up and contribute shape what Muze becomes. If that's the internet you want, come find your community. I'd like to build it with you.