Pegg

I’ve been watching my friend Kirk and his colleagues Bart and Marc building a mobile app called Pegg for the past year. I’ve had almost every build on my iPhone during that time so I’ve been watching them up close and it’s been a pleasure to see them refine, simplify, and ultimately ship a really fun and engaging product.

Pegg is “your mobile mini mood board.”

Here’s my current Pegg board

my pegg board

 

Here is Kirk’s current Pegg board:

kirk's pegg

 

 

My favorite feature is the ability to quickly drop into a chat with anyone on their pegg board. Here’s the current chat on my pegg board:

my pegg chat

If you have an iPhone and want to try out Pegg, you can download it here.

And there’s also a discussion of Pegg on Product Hunt today.

I recall having my first conversation with Kirk about Pegg at breakfast a year or more ago. He was inspired by the pegg board in his dad’s workshop. He thought that would make a nice metaphor for a board you could update daily with the little things in your life that represent how you feel and what you are doing. His initial concept was a website but he quickly turned his attention to mobile. Along the way Kirk and Bart learned how to design and build a mobile product and added Marc to the team.

The thing that I’ve been the most impressed by is how Kirk has stayed true to his initial vision through all the ups and downs, back and forths, and redesigns they’ve been through. It is so easy to get lost in that process. The product they shipped last week is pretty much the thing he described to me at breakfast when he first mentioned the idea to me. That’s hard to do and so congrats on that Kirk.

#mobile

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    And you can Like the Pegg page on Facebook:https://m.facebook.com/peggco (I received this reminder from Kirk yesteday)

  2. kenberger

    Nice work, Kirk, indeed.Also a replacement for the array of post-its we used to keep.Looking fwd to the android version (I’m happy to test, or even develop it).

    1. kirklove

      Thanks man, I may take you up on that. Will reach out.

      1. Joe Cardillo

        3rd’d, looking forward to android

    2. William Mougayar

      I second that Android motion. I use Pegg only on my test iPhone which doesn’t leave my desk.

  3. Anne Libby

    Go, Kirk!

    1. kirklove

      Thanks Anne! It’s Orbital magic! 😉

      1. Kirsten Lambertsen

        Did you do the Orbital thing?

  4. Tom Labus

    Congrats. Kirk. Looking good! Ya needed a guide to get through my father’s basement

  5. LIAD

    the more i do this job the more i realise how software development and design is the epitome of creativity and art in our day and age.few non-builders understand the sophistication required to conceptualise a product borne with software that ultimately becomes a living breathing entity in it’s own right.the attention to detail required to successfully engineer, design and explain a software product well cannot be understood by those looking in from the outside who’ve never had to do it themselves.the personal fulfilment as you refine the product, better understand the value, see through the fog of distribution and market segmentation is reward in itselfonwards Kirk and all of us in the ring.

    1. creative group

      LIAD:Few engineers and builders understand that a successful app build from concept to completion needs to be simple enough a fifth grader can use it.The Weekly Reader concept.After builders, engineers, etc finish jumping up and down and impressing themselves the end result is can the average person use it, does it improve on an existing concept, does it help and improve productivity, etc.If Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes app couldn’t evolve so non builders could understand how using the app benefited them the app would have been ineffective. K.I.S.S.To really see how effective and useful this app will be a build for Android forthcoming will help.

      1. kirklove

        Agree 100%. We pulled out a ton. Simple is HARD!

      2. Twain Twain

        At Harvard, Zuckerberg enlisted McCollum to help with the site’s appearance, he says. (As a computer science major not a graphic designer, he initially protested. “There’s no one else to do it. You just have to figure it out,” is what he says Zuckerberg told him.) He was responsible for what was once the face of Facebook, a picture of a young man peppered with binary code. He went on to be responsible for a lot more, working in the team’s first California headquarters. But in 2005, McCollum decided it was time to go back to college.”* http://www.newser.com/story…Meanwhile, Chris Hughes was the communicator for Facebook and suggested Facebook open up to other campuses.@kirklove:disqus isn’t an engineer but maybe is Pegg’s equivalent of McCollum and Chris Hughes?

    2. kirklove

      Thanks man. I’m a big fan of your comments and opinions. Appreciate it greatly. Lion’s share of credit goes to my co-founder Bart and iOS developer Marc for “building” Pegg. I’m not joking when I say we are a 2.5 person team. I’m definitely the half! 😉

      1. ShanaC

        You’re smart to know how you function in this 🙂

    3. Mario Cantin

      I’m non-technical, but I’ve had three software development / design products built back-to-back over the course of well over three years and so I have at least a clue. And I agree with the premise.

      1. LIAD

        you’re still a builder then.just not a techie

        1. Mario Cantin

          Thanks, I’d say so too, but I have to do it through the skills of others and through collaboration.

          1. LIAD

            we all do.don’t forget – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

          2. Mario Cantin

            That’s a useful reminder, thank you.

        2. JaredMermey

          @liad:disqus I like this comment. At what point does one become “technical?”I always feel like one can become more “technical” — there is always something new to learn. So when does one cross the threshold to qualify?

          1. LIAD

            if you can somehow hack together a first MVP independently – for these purposes you can call yourself a techie

    4. sigmaalgebra

      the more i do this job themore i realise how software developmentand design is the epitome of creativityand art in our day and age. Gee, is it really that much? Computersmostly do just what they are told! few non-builders understandthe sophistication required toconceptualise a product borne withsoftware that ultimately becomes a livingbreathing entity in it’s own right.Yes, two weeks or so ago I got the codefor my project — a Web site — running.The code is supposed to be productionquality and not lean or prototype.Yes, using the code, it does a little seemto be a living breathing entity init’s own right. if only because there’s enough code,processing, and logic that, while seeingthe site work, I’m amazed at some of whatit does and have to stop and think alittle to remind myself of just how thesoftware did that.The main parts were four programs withtotal file lines = 51,923total code statements = 11,802This counts the two Web pages withrelatively complicated internals, the Website session state server (I wrote myown), and some code for some applied mathcomputations.For all the code currently running andneeded in production, the statistics are:total file lines = 74,597total code statements = 18,515So, there are many more “file lines” than”code statements” — right, lots ofcomments.It’s all run essentially as expected: TheSQL Server data base schema (tables andcolumns) and the software and server farmarchitecture all worked with little or nochange. The data base has some clusteredkeys but no foreign keys. There is oneminor use of a transaction, but there areno joins.Maybe the biggest change was that, digginginto the details, I didn’t likeMicrosoft’s options for a Web site sessionstate store, didn’t want to dig intoRedis, so just wrote my own, just someclass instance de/serialization and twoinstances of a collection class.The biggest delay — frustrating butroutine — was working through Microsoft’sdocumentation, about 6000 Web pages andabout a cubic foot of books. Other delayswere from parts of computer systemmanagement, especially for SQL Server, andfighting computer viruses. And there weresome delays independent of the project.Really, none of the delays was particularto the project; the conception andplanning of the work itself were fineright from the beginning.For “keep it simple …”, that is, theKISS principle of design, at least for theUI/UX, I fully agree.The fifth grade criterion is good. I’mhoping that even fifth graders who don’tknow English will be able to use theEnglish language version, learning how ontheir own or just having a friend showthem in a few minutes.For users who know English, there arenice, tutorial help pages; but a fifthgrader in China should be able to do fine.I don’t know about Fred’s: The thing that I’ve been themost impressed by is how Kirk has stayedtrue to his initial vision through all theups and downs, back and forths, andredesigns they’ve been through. It is soeasy to get lost in that process.Mostly in the projects I’ve attempted, Ihave not had that problem.I had one cute victory: At one point theUS Navy wanted an evaluation of thesurvivability of the US SSBN fleet under aspecial scenario of global nuclear warlimited to sea, and they wanted theirresults in two weeks. To get the answer,the firm I was working for started twoindependent projects, and I was one ofthem.I got done in the two weeks, on time –derived some math, typed in some software,and passed a technical peer-review.Right, it was a Monte Carlo simulation.The random numbers were from multiplyingby 5^15, adding 1, and taking modulo 2^47– thank you D. Knuth, R. Coveyou, R.MacPherson, and J. Fourier!Being on time was good if only because theday after the due date my wife hadvacation reservations for us atShenandoah. She got her vacation!The other effort didn’t finish at all!Before leaving on our vacation, we went toa DC French pastry shop and got a bigcollection we put on ice. On the way toShenandoah we stopped at an A&P in FrontRoyal and had them cut for us the twobiggest Porterhouse steaks ever! Thosetwo, some big baking potatoes, some sourcream and chives, with the cooking over acharcoal fire in the woods, some decentred wine, some garlic bread, the Frenchpastries, maybe some Asti, it was good!Later my project notes and software weresold to a leading US intelligence agency.I could tell you which one, but then I’dhave to …! So, apparently my work wassuccessful — good two weeks.But there was one case of the danger Freddescribed! We wanted a good next eventsimulation for the physical design andoperational rules for the FedEx hubsort facility; when I got the full list ofwhat everyone wanted, it was too big; wedropped the project.

    5. andrewparker

      “[Generation 2.0] spent a decade being berated for not making the right sorts of paintings or novels or music or politics. Turns out the brightest 2.0 kids have been doing something else extraordinary. They’ve been making a world.”- Zadie Smith on Mark Zuckerberg and The Social Network

  6. Kate Hodsdon

    I never comment on stuff but this is too fab not to. Feelings and moods are so easy to lose with time so this is so cute and so simple. I love it. Sending founder smiles from London 🙂

    1. kirklove

      Thanks so much Kate. Means a lot. We actually use cute and simple as two of our guideposts (fun and easy the other two). Def what we set out to build.My wife said the same exact thing. She doesn’t use any social media. But she does use Pegg every day. Clearly she’s biased, ha, but she said it’s just so cute and simple that I really enjoy it. Hope you do as well.

      1. Kate Hodsdon

        I mean it, honestly. And I like your wife’s thinking too. It helped me too because today I fear I committed feature creep. I stared at some mockups wondering how something so “simple” (it’s a mobile marketplace for mums) could be so hard to actually build.So I had my coffee and Fred’s blog flew in, I smiled as I like it when good people give other good people a good plug.I read the last line about how you stuck to what you set out to build a year back, and crossed off 4 features that are just muddling things for the moment. So thank you. Cute and simple rock.My Pegg mood is ‘brightening up with clouds shifting’.

        1. kirklove

          yeah, if I can give you two pieces of advice:1) Stick with it2) Kill 80% of what you think you need. Maybe even 90%.

  7. awaldstein

    Big congrats.I’m gonna let this announcement draw me back in to retry.

    1. JamesHRH

      likewise

      1. kirklove

        Ditto!

    2. kirklove

      Thanks man!

      1. Rohan

        Nice job, Kirk! 🙂

  8. LukeH

    Congrats, Kirk. Disappointed there’s no Android version yet for me to try, but hit me up when it arrives and I’ll give it a spin.

    1. kirklove

      Same. Sorry man. Just a matter of time and resources. It pains me because I can’t give Whit a hard time about not using Pegg ;pOur hope is to have an Android version in the near future.

  9. Chimpwithcans

    Neat product. Is it updated daily by the user? I don’t have an iphone unfortunately, or would try it out. Out of interest, How much would one of those orange hats your wife is wearing, cost?…i hear they’re expeeeeeensive 🙂

    1. kirklove

      That’s kind of the beauty of Pegg (we think). It’s totally up to the user. You can update it every minute, every day, every week. Totally up to you. You get 5 slots. Once they are filled, something old has to come down to make room for something new.I wanted to build something with constraint. Something that didn’t have a feed. I think this does that really nicely. Makes it light and breezy.I really like this quote from William Caxton. It sums up my thinking super well on Pegg:”Today nothing is allowed to just go away any more; the archival nature of the web means if you make something, you’re consenting to its decontextualization and reuse forever. I’m at peace with that, because why fight the tide, but I’m not into “just leave everything lying around forever.” Things that exist for a season and are gone are some of the loveliest things in the world, in my opinion; few share that opinion now, but that’s ok, too.”We’re looking for people that share that opinion. We think they are completely unserved in the social space. It’s why we built Pegg.

      1. Chimpwithcans

        Thanks for the clarification. That possibility of a boundary around a post is the first thing that stood out to me. It’s neat. It reminds me of MS OneNote. I look fwd to android version, or to my investment in an iPhone. Whichever comes first.

  10. JimHirshfield

    Creating memories… like Kodak Moments. Let’s call them Pegg Moments.

  11. pointsnfigures

    Congrats! I think I would put this on my Pegg site today<img src=”http://media.ycharts.com/charts/f3dd02eea524772da794ad5cab3d0198.png” alt=”^DJI Chart”/>^DJI data by YCharts

    1. Tom Labus

      Nantucket Sleigh (slay) ride

  12. laurie kalmanson

    If I’m understanding this — a place to pin things, share them and talk about them; gathers social functions of Pinterest, Facebook and TwitterConversations enhance Pinterest boards; findability improves Facebook threads and chat blends in Twitter style conversationsWhoa awesomeAdd a buy button

  13. Twain Twain

    kirklove – congrats and check out…Poppyseed which is also about moods, memories and place experiences.* https://vimeo.com/99847581Pegg is sort of mobile “Pinterest for places” and lends itself for ads triggered by interests and location?“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs.”Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he.” — Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes.My team and I have prototyped something so simple a 2 year-old can use it. That’s been my constraint for both technologies I’ve invented and my nephew is 2 so he’s one of my guinea pigs, LOL.The engines, algorithms and hardware under the hood, though, are hard.I agree with @liad:disqus : “few non-builders understand the sophistication required to conceptualise a product borne with software that ultimately becomes a living breathing entity in it’s own right.”In our case it’s software, hardware, social, sensors and commerce in a KISS form factor.

    1. kirklove

      Yeah, I know Poppy. Very neat idea.

    1. kirklove

      Fucking classic! AI against the entire Shaq/Lakers team. And he stole game 1. I love him so much. He’s like, “How ya like that Lue!?”

  14. falicon

    +infinity on every level possible. #HUGE_FANBOY_OF_THE_TEAM

  15. Bart Lewis

    Thanks for this post, Fred! You really summed the journey up nicely. This entire thing (so far) has been quite the experience. Build, iterate, re-build, bob and weave, u-turn.

  16. LE

    Ok, signed up and works great. Easy and painless.Here is what I want as a features in v2.1) I want the ability to email a link to my pegg to someone else.2) I want the ability to email a link to an individual post or picture.3) Ditto above for text messages4) I can choose videos from youtube, but I want a way to show videos from photo library or to be able to take one using the camera. (I am only seeing this for photos right now).The ability to text and email will add the virus (because you can infect recipients with your name) so that they know about this app and Pegg.5) I am getting a certificate error when doing http://www.peggsite.com (the cert is for pegg.co). You need a cert for peggsite.com so people don’t get that error. (You already blew by this so you don’t know it’s happening to anyone new arriving at your site).6) Peggboard.com (which you already own) should redirect to peggsite.comAbove is the way I understand the product from my 3 minutes of signing up and posting two pictures.7) I see this product also as a good way to trade info with contractors and people that you are working with. I could have used this just the other day to keep tabs on a job that I am in involved in that is in process. (Separate product but could easily be adapted for that.) Send a picture, make a commment, get a comment back etc. Similar to how we now use text but the ability to have a “project peggboard” so that everything is in one place is key. So the organization is by project not by person.

    1. kirklove

      Boom. Tough Philly love. That’s what I’m talking about LE! Here goes1) You totally can. Tap a pegg, tap share. Kaboom!2) Ditto. Zoom up any post (not just your own either) tap the share icon3) Text messages? You mean the convo panel? That you can’t do. Sorry.4) Ya, we want that too. Way harder than integrating YT API5) Yup, we’re updating that now6) Doing that as well.7) We’d love to see something like this, too. Multiple boards for projects, etc.Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out and the feedback. Means a lot.

  17. Alex Wolf

    Yay @kirklove! I love visual mobile. This is nice and smooth.I’m at a toy fair today so have a Pegg board of our games up now. I will do a board of STEAM toys and games and of other new cool stuff- ie great gifts.I’m at Wolf. All my other aliases were taken!

    1. kirklove

      Very cool. Thank you so much.

    2. ShanaC

      🙂 Also, new picture? I <3 it

  18. Marc DeLegge

    Thanks for the post, Fred. Kirk and Bart are amazing guys with a ton of vision and talent. I feel truly fortunate to be a part of Pegg and its evolution.

  19. Dave Pinsen

    Reminds me a bit of Canvas or Pinterest.

    1. kirklove

      ya, for sure, we don’t shirk the comparisons. The fundamentals are quite different though. Have to experience it to feel it. We are the un-feed. The world needs one for sure in our opinion.

      1. Josh Skolnick

        Re: “unfeed” concept, I’ve been trying to figure out why Snapchat is so popular and I think the lack of a feed is the reason why. People want a way to share that’s less ‘intense’ and makes you feel less exposed than texting or posting on Facebook/Instagram. Just a quick ‘hey this is what’s on my mind, no need to even reply.’I do think this improves on Snapchat in two major ways:1) you can share more than just something on your camera. Screenshots, pictures taken a week ago, videos, etc. It doesn’t need to be immediate. Which means it requires less conscious thought and can be done at the time that works for you.2) Along the same lines, posting on Pegg just takes less effort. No pressing on a button the whole time, no four different steps just to add one picture.I’m curious if you see this as an extension of that no-feed Snapchat sharing experience, or if you just see the two apps as totally different?

        1. kirklove

          Precisely. I had the concept for Pegg for a while (in my head) and when Snapchat stories rolled out I simply said, “Brilliant”. It really was a stellar move on their part.We’re closest to that “type” of psychology for sure and that low-pressure posting. Though I’m also a control freak, so I wanted something you curated and controlled how long or how short content stayed up.

  20. Jacqueline

    pegg

    1. kirklove

      Meta. We’re trying to get him to create a board. Our work would then be done!

  21. OurielOhayon

    i don t understand what a moodboard is

    1. kirklove

      Simple way of saying what your feeling that day or moment. Could be shown through a vid, a photo, doodle, etc. You’re happy, you’re at an event, your appreciative, etc. A board that reflects your current mood.

      1. OurielOhayon

        why do i need a board when i can publish something on facebook?

        1. kirklove

          Why do you need any other restaurant when you can eat at McDonald’s every day? Because having a choice is good. And one size does not fit all.FB is amazing. I have a ton of respect for Zuck. Though it’s also a feed, one driven by algorithms and optimized for ads.Pegg has no feed. You control your space, you show what you want and you decide how long or short items stay up.It’s just a different option is all. It might not be for you. Heck, it might not be for most people. But, there are a folks out there who want this. We sure did. So we built it.

        2. ShanaC

          useful for collating ideas, especially a nonverbal idea such as how two colors work together, in a way that facebook isn’t, which is why they are heavily used in creative fields.

        3. LE

          Why does a business need Twitter or Facebook when they can provide updates on their own website?Anyway specific to Facebook: Sharing on Facebook means everyone and your aunt or the cousin that you don’t like sees what you are saying or posting. It’s a legacy product with all of that baggage. [1] This is more like a new hangout not your aunt’s musty old house.If Kirk is lucky his product will suffer the same fate several years down the road.[1] For me at least the same way that linkedin jumped the shark from something that was cool and helpful to something that is totally annoying at this point and I would never post anything on. Filled with people that I barely know.

    2. Prokofy

      I think you ignore that and just put up stories, pictures, whatever. I don’t even see that it has any sort of button where you display your mood, and if it did, I’d ignore.

  22. kirklove

    will do

    1. ShanaC

      The name is shana

      1. kirklove

        Gotzzzz it. You need to add some stuff. Rock that board!

  23. Ron Williams

    A slight pivot and you could have the next Evernote.

  24. LE

    ultimately ship a really fun and engaging productI just found out that you can only have 1 pegg board and once you fill that you have to replace what you already have. [1]That’s probably good because otherwise I would end up using this quite a bit and spend way to much time doing so. So definitely keep it to one page of peggs, not multiple ones.[1] Hold down an image to delete or move it. Choose a new item to simply replace an existing item.

  25. Judy Liaw

    Pegg is “your mobile mini mood board.” ???????? what the ………….no more apps for my mobile. they are sucking the juice out of me. all meaningless shit flooding in the market

    1. kirklove

      Sorry you feel that way. Totally your prerogative (somebody queue Bobby Brown!).

  26. Cam MacRae

    Very cool @kirklove:disqus , and I think you got the tone of your “Need help…” email is absolutely perfect — I bloody well want to help, dammit! Unfortunately I switched to Android a few months ago!

  27. davidhclark

    I really like their UX.

  28. thewallace

    @fredwilson I’m interested to know: when you think about something like Pegg getting really, really huge, what does that look like to you?

  29. Mark Essel

    I dig it, wish more than YouTube videos were supported (local/Vimeo/etc)

  30. Prokofy

    I joined and put a post on it. I wish it let you search by hashtags or topics, but maybe that’s coming. I like collecting badges.

  31. Prokofy

    Basically what I like about Pegg is that it has hard constraints, there are five boxes to fill and that’s it, and the shapes are what they are, and you can’t change them. So it’s like a haiku or iambic pentameter, you have to follow its rules. The “mood” thing is something I just ignore, this is a “narrative” that the makers imposed on it. Some might put “mood” but other people will tell a story which I’d rather do which maybe will invoke a thought or provide some fact or something. The best thing about Pegg is that it disappears like an Etch-a-Sketch when you want it to. I’m going to blog about this on my own blog. Most new apps bore me especially Path-like apps but I liked this one because it’s simple and yet creative and you can either talk to people or not. I think Pegg has done the world a service by relieving us of the huge stream of people’s content that comes at us from Twitter and Facebook. This lets you reconstruct your world block by block.

  32. kirklove

    well played

  33. ShanaC

    I actually need that service badly

  34. kirklove

    Cool thanks Charlie. It’s even better when you get a small group of friends. Even just two or three is all it takes. It’s intimate and fun. You can send an invite to anyone via the magnifying glass icon > People > Invite.To share any post or pegg simply tap on it and you’ll see share options.

  35. kirklove

    True, it’s crowded and a lot for sure. We’re not looking to be the next Facebook. We are aiming for folks who don’t want giant feeds in their lives, but a place to showcase a more holistic view of themselves. We’ll see.

  36. kirklove

    Aww shucks. You had me at ‘just signed up’ 😉

  37. Bill Hiel

    You seem to be passionate about this. Please do think differently. Only yesterday I ran into an other app Jutt or something that requires no data plan or wi-fi. all these apps takes us nowhere.even screwing up everything in the name of social media. people are fed up with all the apps already.

  38. kirklove

    Hi Bill. We’re definitely passionate about it, and we do believe we are thinking differently. Understand there are a lot of apps in the space. Also agree there is good use and bad use of social media. But I’d rather live in a world that allows for both, then nothing.The good news is people are free to completely ignore us and I’m certain many will. That’s fine.