Frankly.me

Frankly.me was a video-based social Q&A platform launched in 2014 by co-founders Nikunj Jain and Abhishek Gupta. Headquartered in Noida, India, the company aimed to create a space for more meaningful conversations by allowing users to ask questions and receive answers in the form of short video selfies, known as "velfies". The platform's primary focus was to connect the general public with influential figures such as politicians, celebrities, and business leaders, facilitating direct and transparent interactions. A key feature was an up-voting system for questions, ensuring that the most popular inquiries were more visible and likely to be answered.

Nikunj Jain, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, had previously founded the mobile app development company InoXapps, which he partially sold before starting Frankly.me. Abhishek Gupta, also an IIT-Delhi graduate, was a co-founder of Zumbl.com, an anonymous chat platform that was acquired by Jain's previous company. Their combined experience in app development and social platforms informed the creation of Frankly.me. The startup gained initial traction, attracting notable personalities and was utilized during the Delhi Assembly elections, where politicians used the platform to answer voter questions. The company secured $1.2 million in seed funding across two rounds, with a significant $600,000 investment from Matrix Partners in January 2015.

The business model was intended to eventually incorporate subscription and advertising revenue streams. For businesses and brands, Frankly.me offered a video infrastructure to enhance their communication with a more personalized medium. However, the company pivoted its strategy in late 2015, shifting from a celebrity Q&A focus to a more general video social network, introducing features like video memes. This shift led to a significant layoff of non-technical staff. Despite raising a pre-series A round in early 2016, Frankly.me ceased operations in February 2016. The founders cited a failure to achieve a sustainable product-market fit as the primary reason for the shutdown, noting that while video consumption was high, video creation remained a challenge for mass adoption at the time.

Keywords: Frankly.me, Nikunj Jain, Abhishek Gupta, video Q&A platform, social media startup, velfies, celebrity interaction, Matrix Partners, Indian startup, Noida, Pochi Media Pvt Ltd, video micro-blogging, social networking, AMA platform, startup shutdown, product-market fit, video creation platform, Zumbl, InoXapps, Delhi elections