# roam research: conaw

> conor white-sullivan's early posting and writing, where he argued for the idea in public before roam was a company.

## writings

- 2009 — ignite amherst talk (talk, ignite amherst): five minutes, twenty slides, on tech, media, and political power — the earliest surviving conaw talk. the thesis is already there: change the medium, change the polity. [source](https://twitter.com/conaw/status/1265893478321385473)
  > "an abundance of hope and the reckless confidence of a 21 year old. still stand by most of this."
- 2010-07-29 — tedxboston: localocracy (talk, tedxboston): localocracy as an online town common: verified residents, structured deliberation, collective intelligence for civic decisions — roam's thesis wearing civic clothes. [source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb6PMb-cL5o)
- 2012 — the white house posts (document, whitehouse.gov): obama white house blog posts on participatory democracy under his own byline — the 'anthropology major who founded localocracy' era, before the medium-building turn. [source](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/author/conor-white-sullivan)
- 2018 — the roam research white paper (essay, roamresearch.com): roam's founding document, written winter 2017/2018 with journalist richard meadows: notes as a directed graph of linked thoughts, bidirectional links and block references as primitives, 'better thinking' as the product. [source](https://heckler.roam.garden/@white-paper/)
  > "an online workspace for organizing and evaluating knowledge … built as a directed graph"
  > "collaborative reasoning, allowing groups to build shared mental maps"
- 2018-07-18 — roam demo, july 2018 (video, youtube): the earliest dated public roam demo — block refs, bidirectional links, the daily page — a working product a year before the public beta. [source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwI5mu39U3w)
- 2018-12-25 — 365 propositions (thread, twitter): a living thread of numbered daily propositions — thinking, consent, communal living, attention — public thinking before the product, and the thread-as-publication form he never abandoned. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1077392657494593537.html)
  > "the set of thinkable thoughts is vanishingly small"
- 2019-02-23 — why evernote is a terrible second brain (thread, twitter): forty-five tweets against evernote as a second brain — 'twitter can actually be a better second brain than evernote.' the white paper links it as the related twitter thread. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1099181050045952006.html)
  > "writing isn't just a tool for communication. first and foremost, writing is a tool for thinking"
- 2019-05-18 — the zettelkasten thread (thread, twitter): the luhmann tie-in that gave roam its intellectual pedigree in public — and opened the invite spigot, naming joshua brown as co-builder. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1129788853189955584.html)
  > "the zettelkasten — it's like the gtd for intellectual progress"
  > "you can't put a deadline on insight though"
- 2019 — welcome to roam (document, roam help graph): the founder introduction inside roam's own public help graph — ending with his personal gmail. the medium demonstrating itself: the docs were the product. [source](https://bardia.roam.garden/)
  > "much love — conor"
- 2019-09-05 — how i met my co-founder (thread, twitter): the founding story in first person: meeting joshua brown at 42, the prototype, the co-founder offer — written as the beta was already moving. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1176276601048199168.html)
  > "just started bringing in users from the public a couple months ago"
- 2019-12-17 — interview with tiago forte (interview, forte labs): an hour with tiago forte: demo, debate, privacy, security — the first public interview, weeks before the hype wave crested. [source](https://fortelabs.com/blog/interview-with-conor-white-sullivan-founder-of-roam/)
  > "first time i've publicly spoken about roam!"
- 2019-12-20 — the cannonical roam demo (video, youtube): the gtd-flavored walkthrough the help graph designated the canonical demo — roam selling roam in roam's own medium. [source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcNW-eidDJk)
- 2020-04-08 — mindful makers interview (interview, ness labs): the mindful makers interview: roam as compounding cognition — the friendliest framing of the mission in the hype window.
  > "compound interest on your thoughts"
- 2020-05-08 — conor white-sullivan on 20vc (podcast, the twenty minute vc): the mainstream-vc moment: low floors and high ceilings, hiring for grit and autodidacts, living with the team, the tesla go-to-market. [source](https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/conorwhitesullivan)
  > "roam is not about taking better notes"
- 2020-05 — creating tools for networked thought (podcast, venture stories): the intellectual influences stated plainly: nielsen's reinventing discovery, adler's syntopicon reading as roam's actual origin, roam against twitter, github, notion. [source](https://podcastnotes.org/venture-stories/conor-white-sullivan/)
- 2020-09-19 — api, fellowship, and the roam fund (thread, twitter): days after the seed: new backend, api and multiplayer, the roam fellowship (first fellow dhrumil mehta), $2m for a roam fund — $1m balance sheet, $1m option pool. ecosystem-builder mode at full throttle. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1307107745397604354)
- 2021-01-22 — trust in the gatekeepers (thread, twitter): the continuity thread tying localocracy to roam across eleven years and 'a third of my life' — institutional decay as the problem, a new medium as the answer. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1352457087230480384.html)
  > "trust in the gatekeepers / all time low"
  > "the answer is not a new channel. it's a new format, a new medium, with a new power structure"
  > "if had been no @localocracy there would be no @roamresearch"
- 2021-01-23 — roamgames (thread, twitter): $10,000 every two weeks for three months to community builders — judged on intermediate packets, on growing the commons. the cult economy, formalized. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1352824113019056129.html)
  > "whose public work pushes the frontier the farthest"
- 2021-01-24 — the 'i was broke' thread (thread, twitter): the conor mcgregor thread: sold localocracy to aol at 23, five broke years, the roam v1 that convinced meadows to invest and josh to join. the autobiography as thread. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw)
  > "felt like a fraud"
- 2021-04-08 — the local-first architecture thread (thread, twitter): the candid admission that the 2017 local-first, event-stream architecture still ran underneath — technical debt confessed as a design philosophy defense. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1380087612652675073)
  > "like changing the engine on an airplane in flight"
- 2021-04-16 — roam depot and the e2ee bounty (thread, twitter): roam depot announced as imminent — revenue share for plugin authors, a $10k e2ee bounty. the depot shipped fifteen months later; the promise became the archetype of roam's velocity problem. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1371019347355783173.html)
  > "this week, if god wills it, inshallah"
- 2021-05-06 — why i said no to roadmaps (thread, twitter): 'why i said no to roadmaps': the map-of-questions doctrine — questions public, dates never — while acknowledging the roam-hosted roadmap page itself had gone dead. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1390228109140574208.html)
  > "dangers of link-rot"
- 2021-05-19 — the anti-college thread (thread, twitter): the flagship anti-college thread — lambda school over debt-shackled degrees — the credentialism controversy's source text, from the founder whose company sold belief. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1394873575543382018.html)
  > "strongly prefer my kids wind up going to ls vs debt-shackling college"
- 2021-05-26 — the #roamcult theology thread (thread, twitter): the #roamcult theology at its most sincere: the product as mirror — people love what they put in, not the tool itself. the most honest account of what the cult was actually for. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1397428552790908933.html)
  > "the thing people actually fall in love with with roam are the ideas, memories, and work they put into it"
- 2021-07-13 — the quest pod interview (interview, the quest pod): the two-part justin kan interview: the anthropology degree, nine months embedded in evangelical communities, collective intelligence — the fullest autobiographical record. [source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=polm57MvmRE)
  > "excel for thoughts"
- 2021-10-04 — the subreddit bans thread (thread, twitter): the long-form explanation for banning critics from r/roamresearch — the founder-moderation flashpoint, argued in the medium he controlled. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1445301361994833920.html)
- 2021-12-29 — the ceo confessional (thread, twitter): twenty-nine tweets: the hidden agenda of localocracy, the 'anti-role modal for roam culture,' the concession to the critics — the founder processing the company in public, in the medium the company sold. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1476090219321380865.html)
  > "three times i've written drafts of this thread in my roam, and three times i've failed to publish it"
  > "the reddit revolutionaries were actually right"
- 2022-01 — the #roamcult disavowal reversal (thread, twitter): disavowing #roamcult, then un-disavowing it — the internal identity crisis documented in public, a month after the confessional. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1477190770897653761.html)
  > "one of my worst mistakes of 2021"
- 2022-07-10 — the local-first defense (thread, twitter): the technical-identity defense: in-memory frontend database, offline from day one — arguing the clones had the story wrong even as they took the market. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw)
  > "roam was literally built local first!"
- 2022-07-28 — the apple notes quip (tweet, twitter): the most-quoted conaw provocation of the plateau era — read as elitism by critics, as mission by believers. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw)
  > "if you're smart enough to solve all your problems in apple notes, i question your ambition"
- 2023-02-08 — the 30-demos sprint (thread, twitter): thirty tweet-sized demos of small improvements and experiments with nikita prokopov — the last sustained building-in-public burst before the quiet. [source](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw)
- 2023-03-02 — metamuse: collective intelligence (podcast, metamuse): the late retrospective: severe adhd, roam as working-memory extension, 'program your own mind' — the founder framing the product as the tool his own brain needed. episode page now 404s; date verified via mirrors. [source](https://museapp.com/podcast/75-collective-intelligence/)

## controversies

- 2020-06 — the believer plan: the $500 five-year believer plan — conaw claimed roam earned more in its first 48 hours of paid plans than in its first two years. read by analysts as ltv genius and by critics as monetizing devotion before the product was proven. reaction: jack baty paid it while 'twitchy'; rob litterst decoded it as 'the cult packaging playbook'; the sticker shock never fully wore off. (sources: [roam research's cult packaging strategy](https://goodbetterbest.substack.com/p/roam-research-the-cult-packaging), [so, i went with roam research and am a true believer](https://baty.net/posts/2020/06/went-with-roam-research/), [customers grow business: roam's cult-of-personality flywheel](https://www.strategyinprocess.com/blog/customersgrowbusiness))
- 2020–2022 — cult engineering: #roamcult was engineered, not accidental: the fertility-cult jokes, the tattoos, the golden-kitty mobilization threads, then a 2021 disavowal conaw reversed months later as 'one of my worst mistakes.' reaction: believers quote the theology thread — 'the ideas, memories, and work they put into it'; critics saw a founder manufacturing attachment as distribution. (sources: [the #roamcult theology thread](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1397428552790908933.html), [the #roamcult disavowal reversal](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1477190770897653761.html), [why roam is cool](https://every.to/divinations/why-roam-is-cool-364257))
- 2021-04 — no roadmaps, missed dates: roam depot promised 'this week, inshallah' shipped fifteen months later; the no-roadmaps doctrine — 'map of questions,' never dates — made every missed window a philosophical position rather than a bug. reaction: the base loved the doctrine; everyone waiting on mobile, offline, or api parity read it as permission to under-deliver. (sources: [roam depot and the e2ee bounty](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1371019347355783173.html), [why i said no to roadmaps](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1390228109140574208.html), [roam change log](https://roamdocs.fyi/help/change-log.md))
- 2021-10-04 — the subreddit bans: conaw banned critics from r/roamresearch and defended it in a long thread — founder-as-moderator of the community where criticism lived. he conceded the point two months later in the ceo confessional: 'the reddit revolutionaries were actually right.' reaction: the single most-cited founder-conduct incident — shipper's 'the fall of roam' folded it into 'well-documented community issues.' (sources: [the subreddit bans thread](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1445301361994833920.html), [the ceo confessional](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1476090219321380865.html), [the fall of roam](https://every.to/superorganizers/the-fall-of-roam))
- 2021-05-19 — the credential threads: the anti-college threads — 'strongly prefer my kids wind up going to ls vs debt-shackling college' — extended the critique of credentials into a position many users with degrees found glib. reaction: consistent with the autodidact hiring he described on 20vc; read against a $15/mo tool sold to knowledge workers, it landed as provocation. (sources: [the lambda school / anti-college thread](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1394873575543382018.html), [conor white-sullivan on 20vc](https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/conorwhitesullivan))
- 2021–2022 — customers as investors: the wefunder round let 760 customers buy ~$1.26m of the company — on a page whose 'reasons not to invest' section disclosed crypto treasury and plans to buy a campus. devotion became a securities offering. reaction: oversubscribed in under an hour; later looks like the apotheosis — and the risk — of selling belief. (sources: [roam wefunder campaign page](https://web.archive.org/web/20211229192736/https://wefunder.com/roam), [roam research crowdfunding campaign oversubscribed](https://www.businessinsider.com/roam-research-crowdfunding-campaign-oversubscribed-2021-4))
- 2022-07-28 — the apple notes quip: 'if you're smart enough to solve all your problems in apple notes, i question your ambition' — the quip that crystallized the elitism critique at exactly the moment the product's lead was gone. reaction: screenshotted into every 'roam founder' thread for years — the persona outliving the roadmap. (sources: [the apple notes quip](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw), [the local-first defense](https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw))

AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

Canonical page: https://hraness.com/roam-research/conaw


Published by @ben in profile revision 1.
Original document: https://hraness.com/roam-research/conaw
Original credited author: Hraness
AI-drafted at Ben Guo's direct request and credited to Hraness; every claim links to its cataloged source.

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this.'","originalId":"src-ignite-amherst","published":{"precision":"year","text":"2009"},"publisher":"ignite amherst (shared via twitter)","title":"ignite amherst talk on tech, media, and political power","type":"archive","url":"https://twitter.com/conaw/status/1265893478321385473"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-a8263ae9701a2bda0345","note":"the first-person founding story: meeting joshua brown at 42, the prototype, the co-founder offer — and 'just started bringing in users from the public a couple months ago.'","originalId":"src-conaw-origin-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2019-09-05"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"how i met my co-founder (origin thread)","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1176276601048199168.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-9dac4fab6215d82fdab3","note":"the readable export of the white paper — 'we wrote this white paper in winter of 2017/2018'; co-authored with journalist richard meadows, who became roam's first investor.","originalId":"src-whitepaper-mirror","published":{"precision":"year","text":"2018"},"publisher":"roam garden (mirror)","title":"the roam research white paper (mirror)","type":"archive","url":"https://heckler.roam.garden/@white-paper/"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-a9ff696d29853e38c6fc","note":"the founder introduction inside roam's own public help graph — ending with his personal gmail and 'much love — conor.' the medium demonstrating itself.","originalId":"src-welcome-to-roam","published":{"precision":"year","text":"2019"},"publisher":"roam garden (mirror)","title":"welcome to roam — founder introduction","type":"archive","url":"https://bardia.roam.garden/"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-6f184e4e1b50a71577a9","note":"the living thread-as-publication: hundreds of numbered daily propositions on thinking, consent, communal living, and the limits of thinkable thoughts — public thinking before the product.","originalId":"src-365-propositions","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2018-12-25"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"365 propositions","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1077392657494593537.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-4333ff1a240aa84479c7","note":"the 45-tweet thesis the white paper itself links as 'related twitter thread': 'writing isn't just a tool for communication. first and foremost, writing is a tool for thinking.'","originalId":"src-evernote-rant","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2019-02-23"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"why evernote is a terrible second brain","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1099181050045952006.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-089f83a687297628a24e","note":"'the zettelkasten — it's like the gtd for intellectual progress' — the thread that tied roam to luhmann and opened invites, naming joshua brown as co-builder.","originalId":"src-zettelkasten-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2019-05-18"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the zettelkasten thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1129788853189955584.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-a584141a32af5b6ba88f","note":"the continuity thread: 'trust in the gatekeepers / all time low' — 'the answer is not a new channel. it's a new format, a new medium, with a new power structure.' 'if had been no @localocracy there would be no @roamresearch.'","originalId":"src-gatekeepers-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-01-22"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"trust in the gatekeepers / all time low","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1352457087230480384.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-8063d65515713fc2bb2d","note":"the peak ecosystem-builder thread days after the seed: new backend, api and multiplayer, the roam fellowship (first fellow dhrumil mehta), and $2m for a roam fund — $1m balance sheet, $1m option pool.","originalId":"src-post-raise-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2020-09-19"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"api, fellowship, and the roam fund","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1307107745397604354"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-60929d381aca8fa10015","note":"$10,000 every two weeks for three months to community builders 'whose public work pushes the frontier the farthest' — judged on intermediate packets and growing the commons.","originalId":"src-roamgames-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-01-23"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"roamgames announcement","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1352824113019056129.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-68a1edce6016f4da2304","note":"the autobiographical thread: sold localocracy to aol at 23, 'felt like a fraud,' then five broke years building roam v1 — the thing that convinced meadows to invest and josh to join.","originalId":"src-mcgregor-broke","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-01-24"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the conor mcgregor / 'i was broke' thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-2b674749339951c954c0","note":"the 29-tweet capstone: 'three times i've written drafts of this thread in my roam, and three 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backend he built at the start — 'like changing the engine on an airplane in flight.'","originalId":"src-architecture-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-04-08"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the local-first architecture thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1380087612652675073"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-7b43bc6191dbef20e4d7","note":"roam depot 'this week, if god wills it, inshallah' — revenue share for plugin authors and a $10k e2ee bounty. the depot shipped fifteen months later.","originalId":"src-depot-e2ee-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-04-16"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"roam depot and the e2ee bounty","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1371019347355783173.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-93f170e02209c6deda0b","note":"conor's own long-form explanation of banning critics from r/roamresearch — the founder-moderation flashpoint.","originalId":"src-subreddit-bans","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-10-04"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the subreddit bans thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1445301361994833920.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-5938b811029b075c0a2b","note":"'roam was literally built local first!' — the 2022 technical-identity defense against the clone narrative: in-memory frontend database, offline from day one.","originalId":"src-localfirst-defense","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2022-07-10"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the local-first defense","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-1d77056440f029bdc870","note":"'if i was intelligent enough to accomplish my goals with apple notes i would never have needed to build roam. … if you're smart enough to solve all your problems in apple notes, i question your ambition.'","originalId":"src-apple-notes","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2022-07-28"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the apple notes quip","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-8359bbbe3be5eddaae6a","note":"the flagship anti-college thread: 'strongly prefer my kids wind up going to ls vs debt-shackling college' — the credentialism controversy's source text.","originalId":"src-lambda-thread","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-05-19"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the lambda school / anti-college thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1394873575543382018.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-83c689c8a1bad43ad54e","note":"'the thing people actually fall in love with with roam are the ideas, memories, and work they put into it' — the cult theology at its most sincere.","originalId":"src-roamcult-love","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-05-26"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the #roamcult theology thread","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1397428552790908933.html"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-006738499f9948b1d945","note":"conor calls disavowing #roamcult 'one of my worst mistakes of 2021' — the internal identity crisis documented in his own words.","originalId":"src-disavowal-reversal","published":{"precision":"month","text":"2022-01"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the #roamcult disavowal reversal","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1477190770897653761.html"},{"author":"tiago forte","id":"source-cee9c5b4893456cdc88b","note":"december 2019: an hour of demo and debate on knowledge management, privacy, and security — conor called it 'first time i've publicly spoken about roam!'","originalId":"src-forte-interview","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2019-12-17"},"publisher":"forte labs","title":"interview with conor white-sullivan, founder of roam","type":"interview","url":"https://fortelabs.com/blog/interview-with-conor-white-sullivan-founder-of-roam/"},{"author":"harry stebbings","id":"source-18d1322a650e85989e3c","note":"'roam is not about taking better notes'; low floors and high ceilings; hires for grit and autodidacts; lives with the team; the tesla go-to-market.","originalId":"src-20vc","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2020-05-08"},"publisher":"the twenty minute vc","title":"conor white-sullivan on 20vc","type":"interview","url":"https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/conorwhitesullivan"},{"author":"erik torenberg","id":"source-2960615ca20d7028d2d8","note":"the influences stated plainly: nielsen's reinventing discovery, adler's syntopicon reading as roam's origin, roam versus twitter/github/notion.","originalId":"src-venture-stories","published":{"precision":"month","text":"2020-05"},"publisher":"venture stories (village global)","title":"creating tools for networked thought","type":"interview","url":"https://podcastnotes.org/venture-stories/conor-white-sullivan/"},{"author":"justin kan","id":"source-f21de648a47288d1ab95","note":"the two-part autobiographical interview: the anthropology degree, nine months embedded in evangelical communities, collective intelligence, 'excel for thoughts.'","originalId":"src-quest-pod","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2021-07-13"},"publisher":"the quest pod","title":"networked thought with conor white-sullivan","type":"interview","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=polm57MvmRE"},{"author":"adam wiggins & mark mcgranaghan","id":"source-79b00533a97f46542c0c","note":"the late retrospective: severe adhd, roam as working-memory extension, 'program your own mind.' episode page 404s now; date verified via podcast mirrors.","originalId":"src-metamuse","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2023-03-02"},"publisher":"metamuse (muse)","title":"collective intelligence with conor white-sullivan","type":"interview","url":"https://museapp.com/podcast/75-collective-intelligence/"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-0eb97f9c1cdf2d3b40d4","note":"the earliest dated public roam demo found — a working product a year before the public beta.","originalId":"src-demo-2018","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2018-07-18"},"publisher":"youtube","title":"roam demo, july 18 2018","type":"archive","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwI5mu39U3w"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-795e54a133d8e7993359","note":"the flagship gtd-flavored demo the help graph called best-of.","originalId":"src-canonical-demo","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2019-12-20"},"publisher":"youtube","title":"the cannonical roam demo — complete version","type":"archive","url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcNW-eidDJk"},{"author":"rob litterst","id":"source-9c47011972477abdb3c1","note":"the definitive decode of trial/pro/believer pricing as deliberate cult mechanics — syndicated to paddle as 'the cult packaging playbook.'","originalId":"src-cult-packaging","published":{"precision":"month","text":"2020-06"},"publisher":"good better best (substack)","title":"roam research's cult packaging strategy","type":"reporting","url":"https://goodbetterbest.substack.com/p/roam-research-the-cult-packaging"},{"author":"jack baty","id":"source-afcf8f46ac059aeb992d","note":"the believer's ambivalence in one post: the $30/mo rumor made him 'twitchy' — then he paid the $500 anyway.","originalId":"src-baty-believer","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2020-06-10"},"publisher":"baty.net","title":"so, i went with roam research and am a true 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page, archived: $1,256,376 from 760 investors, leeds ut hq, ai-safety-community bootstrapping, and a 'reasons not to invest' section disclosing crypto treasury and campus-buying plans.","originalId":"src-wefunder-archive","published":{"precision":"year","text":"2021"},"publisher":"wefunder (wayback)","title":"roam wefunder campaign page","type":"archive","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20211229192736/https://wefunder.com/roam"},{"author":null,"id":"source-6c095e04b288d6af095c","note":"the customer-investor moment: $500k target oversubscribed in under an hour, ~$1.6m committed in a day, open only to pre-2021 users.","originalId":"src-bi-wefunder","published":{"precision":"month","text":"2021-04"},"publisher":"business insider","title":"roam research crowdfunding campaign oversubscribed","type":"reporting","url":"https://www.businessinsider.com/roam-research-crowdfunding-campaign-oversubscribed-2021-4"},{"author":null,"id":"source-fedb3eb40545d8e3c4a9","note":"the dated feature history — depot, encryption, apis, mobile, the 2024 attack — mirrored from roam's own help graph (not roam's domain).","originalId":"src-roamdocs-changelog","published":{"precision":"approximate","text":"2021–2026"},"publisher":"roamdocs.fyi (mirror)","title":"roam change log","type":"archive","url":"https://roamdocs.fyi/help/change-log.md"},{"author":null,"id":"source-7c9b2c6658552dc65d1c","note":"the analyst read of the believer/customer-investor model as a cult-of-personality flywheel.","originalId":"src-strategy-flywheel","published":{"precision":"month","text":"2021-07"},"publisher":"strategy in process","title":"customers grow business: roam's cult-of-personality flywheel","type":"community","url":"https://www.strategyinprocess.com/blog/customersgrowbusiness"},{"author":"conor white-sullivan","id":"source-6ea9a117f8edf8a1d527","note":"the february 2023 shipping sprint with nikita prokopov: '30 tweet sized demos of small improvements and experiments' — the last public building-in-public burst.","originalId":"src-30-demos","published":{"precision":"day","text":"2023-02-08"},"publisher":"threadreader app","title":"the 30-demos sprint with nikitonsky","type":"archive","url":"https://threadreaderapp.com/user/Conaw"}]}
````