State

About State

State.com was a venture launched in 2013 by brothers Marc and Alex Asseily, the latter of whom previously co-founded the consumer electronics company Jawbone. Alex Asseily, leveraging his experience from Jawbone and a desire to connect people through ideas rather than just social circles, envisioned a platform where opinions were the central organizing principle. His background includes a BSc in Product Design and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, where his thesis work on noise suppression technology formed the basis for Jawbone's initial success with a DARPA contract. State was conceived as a global opinion network, a departure from traditional social media that connects users based on who they know. The platform's objective was to structure online conversations and map the world's viewpoints on millions of topics, from politics to pop culture. Users would express their thoughts, which the system would then semantically analyze and link to related opinions and content, allowing individuals to see how their views compared to a global aggregate and to discover like-minded or opposing perspectives. This was facilitated by an iPhone app and a web platform, with plans for an Android version. The business model was intended to be distinct from advertising-driven social networks. Instead of monetizing user data by selling it to advertisers, the long-term plan was to generate revenue from the anonymized, aggregated opinion data itself. The company secured a significant $14 million in seed financing to develop and launch this ambitious project. Despite its public launch at TechCrunch Disrupt and a clear vision to democratize online discourse, the platform ultimately did not achieve the rapid user adoption necessary to become a sustainable business. Founder Alex Asseily later referred to the decision to shut down the company as a significant "lesson learned" in his entrepreneurial journey. Keywords: opinion network, social opinion platform, Alex Asseily, Marc Asseily, Jawbone founder, semantic network, data-driven insights, public opinion analysis, social media alternative, online discourse, structured conversation, collective intelligence, opinion mapping, tech startup, digital platform, social analytics, viewpoint discovery, idea networking, discussion platform, defunct social network