Things that influenced us
Writing
- Trust: A History (Geoffrey Hosking)
- Nexus (Yuval Noah Harrari)
- All About Love (Bell Hooks)
- PostHog Handbook
Companies:
- Costco
- ruthlessly efficient, pass on cost savings
- save customers money, provide high-quality products
- treat employees well
- long-term value > short-term profits
- PostHog
- extreme transparency - handbook
- marketing provides value to others
- product-led growth
- engineering, small team obsession
- long-term value > short-term profits
- Apple
- think differently
- top-down, clear leadership
- design obsessed, beautiful products
- long-term value > short-term profits
Handbook
As a company in the business of trust, the most important thing we can do is be transparent to the public. Heavily inspired by companies like PostHog and GitLab, we’ve decided to openly post our intentions and how we work.
By understanding how we work and our unwavering desire to tackle internet fraud, you can make an informed decision on whether you’d like to use our product.
Timeline
We’re at the very beginning of our journey here at Oath, building and iterating the product. Yet the story starts in 2022, when the lead engineer Jonathan worked at Roblox, a large online social gaming platform.
Working on the marketplace team, he helped oversee a vibrant economy of digital item exchange. Much to his surprise, he found users scamming each other for digital pets, clothes, and other items. Hearing similar stories from friends on Reddit, Discord, and Facebook, he realized this problem was persistent and commonplace across the whole internet.
This began a multi-year obsession on understanding the root cause of fraud, the antiquated financial system, and the extremely negative impact fraud has on consumers.
This led him to 3 insights that inform the product direction of Oath:
- As generative AI improves, fraud grows exponentially easier
- Most apps focus on growth and engagement neglecting security, privacy, and safety
- Lack of communication between communities leads to repeat offenders
Oath as a product aims to solve and counter these 3 issues.