Thank you, from a grateful founder.

Originally published on Kapuno in the Ocean Conservation community

I have the greatest appreciation for people who take risks, small or large, and am truly thankful for the group that has come together to get this community and product started.

When looking for our first communities, we hoped to bring together people who weren’t as immersed in the noise and churn of the technology world. We hoped to learn what was needed to create a better forum for authentic voices to share in meaningful discussion. We’re determined to create a simpler way to gather feedback or share experiences with the right people. In the end, we want to make it easy for anyone with an amazing idea or knowledge to have a place to go to share it without building their own audience.

We have been consistently working to improve (and fix) this pilot and a new version we’re working on behind the scenes. I’m personally thankful for a number of you who have been helpful in providing us with feedback and ideas along the way.

Some of you know this product hasn’t been launched and promoted to the public. That’s our next major milestone. That’s the goal we’re marching towards and we’re aiming to share the product with our first members. You’ll receive and email (if you allow Kapuno Announcements) as we finalize a date with more information about how you can help.

Yes, it’s time to polish it up, tell our story, and hope the world joins you here and across the thousands of communities we’re hoping to fill to create hubs for meaningful conversation between passionate minds. We will be a place where individuals build real relationships without defining them with titles like “follower” or “friends.” A place where we define ourselves by who we are capable of helping.

If you haven’t given the product a once over or tried to publish — we encourage you to give it a try. Try the cross-posting to Facebook and Twitter by connecting your accounts and maybe you’ll realize it provides a longer shelf life for your thoughts.

As always, if you run in to problems or have feedback, please email support@kapuno.com or,  if you’re not shy, start a conversation here: http://kapuno.com/community/aolffsyaabt6o

And if you missed the “Getting Started,” check this out: http://kapuno.com/conversation/ao4r27aaaaioa