A New Hope – Daniel 32

 

[For back story go here: Story so far, and definitely this one.]

[Relevant back story links also within text.]

Daniel was very pleased to receive a message from Sandra pointing him in the direction of Trinny and their app Together… Apart. He’d had a pretty dismal weekend and half week if he were honest, one which even Daisy couldn’t lighten. Indeed, rather than leaping at the opportunity to play lots of fun and different games, he’d found the prospect of each new venture to be a bit exasperating. It required energy to follow up her suggestions and more energy to take them in new and interesting directions. Without that energy they were essentially just ticking boxes. Now we make the chocolate krispie cakes, now I clean the chocolate mix off the floor while you play on the iPad, now we eat the cakes, now you go worryingly quiet while I think you’re going to be sick…

The message was, of course, a great distraction from the fact that his most recent employer had dumped him on the grounds that his work as an innovation officer had ended up dividing the company rather than empowering and uniting it. Wendy had agreed this wasn’t a sacking offence, but it wasn’t exactly model behaviour from someone who held a ‘Chief Of’ title. After the group call they’d batted around a few ideas as to how the situation could be saved and how he could continue with the company but a few hours later, having mulled everything over, Daniel had decided it was time for him to move on. They could draw up as many protocols as they liked, the fact remained he would be forever referred to as the biscuit stealer.

Things became brighter when he called Trinny. Within a few minutes he was heartened to find they got on well at that he might have a good future working with this newish company.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” she started. “I’d been looking at developing a general boring looking dating app you know, not that dating would ever be boring, but you know what I mean? And then the whole pandemic thing took off and it was like, woo! Let’s ride this one out baby! And we just went for it like nothing else and it was all smileys everywhere.”

“Certainly the take up figures are looking good,” said Daniel. “what do you need from me do you think?”

"We need it bigger," said Trinny. "Headline grabbing stupidly over subscribed bigger. We did OK out of the kittens ransomware but it hasn't translated into constant users and with out them we have issues."

"Right. So do you need it out there at people or sticky?"

"Both," said Trinny. "We need new users and we want them to stay. It needs to be very very sticky."

"OK," said Daniel. "On it. I’ll get back to you asap.”

Daniel knew he’d made a good impression because he then receive three text messages from Trinny saying welcome onboard, good to have you and a stack load of positive and excited looking emojis.

So Daniel got down to thinking strategically about what he could do and how he’d take Together…Apart forward. The first thing he thought of was ascribing every user an animal avatar that would encapsulate what they were like and therefore keep them engaged with the technology as they explored it and the world around them. But after a cup of coffee he dropped that thinking he'd just end up where he was before. Likewise he had to abandon trying to incentivise everything with biscuits.

No, this wasn’t going to be about repeating the past, this was going to be about building a new and great future. It was going to take dedication. It was going to take a full on campaign, something on which he could really go to town getting everyone on board. He would get as many people as possible interested and interactive, because hell, everyone could do with a friend right now, however significant they might or might not be. Everyone could find someone, at whatever level they wished and that would spread joy everywhere. 

The campaign would be frivolous and joyous in bringing people with similar interests together. It would be serious and worthy by breaking into the loneliness and isolation the second lockdown had brought, and which came with the pandemic generally. Everyone would be able to get something out of the app, because this was no longer about finding your soul mate, it was that, but it was also about finding someone to help you through this part of your life. It would be news worthy, interview worthy, chat show worthy. It would be everywhere and it would take Daniel from the upper echelons of sales into the stratosphere of leading innovative business practice and strategy.

And that was when he received the text telling him there had been a case of Covid in Daisy’s class and she would have to stay come home and self isolate for the next two weeks.