On Your Permanent Record – Anonymity, Pseudonymity, Ephemerality & Bears Omfg!
Medium › Austin Hill
Anonymity seems to be all the rage in Silicon Valley and startups lately.
Recently Whisper raised another $30 million (supposedly at a $200 million valuation) bringing its total fundraising to $54 million. Secret announced that it had raised $8.6 million. Then there is YikYak, Shrtwv, Banter, Blink.
But despite the recent investor interest in anonymous apps, some investors like Marc Andreessen have pointed out that just because something is profitable doesn’t mean it is socially redeeming or moral.
Techcrunch summarized the Twitter conversation and some of the recent problems that have emerged with the anonymity apps that are causing discussion amongst venture investors. Sam Altman of YCombinator writes about his view on anonymity here. Mark Suster writes about his thoughts on Secret here.