by Dave McLaughlin, CEO & Cofounder of Vsnap

Over the weekend we moved our test site to the www.vsnap.com url. Might as well test it in a live environment, right?

Startuppers will recognize this as a classic minimum viable product (MVP). But even in its early form, this simple web app makes it a piece of cake for users to attach items to a short video – which we call a vsnap.

This is super powerful because it allows you to contextualize the information in the attachment, making sure that the recipient understands your meaning.

How many times have we had emails misinterpreted? Right?

Here are a few examples where Vsnap could save the day…

• You attach a client invoice to a short vsnap. You use the simple video message to explain a cost overage that the client will see in the invoice. Now you’re not worried that the recipient might think you tried to pad the bill. Now you have clarity – and you’ve put a personal touch on delivering the news to that important client. 

• You’re a college administrator, and you have a ton of information to get out to the new freshman class. The schedule for orientation is particularly confusing. You attach it to a vsnap and offer a few pointers on the critical events they NEED to make note of. 

• You send your friend a vsnap and attach photos you took at a sofa showroom. In the vsnap you tell her how you like the cushions on the gray one but the fabric on the print one, but how you love love love the arms on a third choice. How would she know to zero in those specific details without that vsnap as context?

The common way to contextualize something, if we aren’t able to connect in real time, is to attach it to an email. But a text-based email is totally open to interpretation – and misinterpretation. As often as not, the result is confusion rather than clarity. 

The other thing that happens a lot is you spend a ton of time crafting and re-wording the email, trying to get the perfect balance of information and tone – and brevity. It’s a total time killer.

Video is better than text here because so much of what really makes communication work is not about the words we use. It comes from tone, emotion, facial expression, cadence, gesture, etc. Which is why the vsnap is so powerful. So clarifying.

And now we’ve put it in an interface that can’t get much simpler. In the coming months we’ll add a couple more features as well apps for iPhone and Android. In the meantime, try it out and send your feedback to our community manager Trish Fontanilla or to me. Thanks!