Sharing information online is complicated. Online, efficiency and accessibility frequently come at the expense of security and privacy. This is true whether we’re talking about the posts on your Facebook page, or holiday photos. Enter DAD, a London-based startup that aims to make private secure sharing simple.
From what I can tell, DAD’s an installable app like DropBox, but potentially more user-friendly, more tailored to sharing media like photos, movies, and music, and specifically designed for use within friend and family groups. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to try DAD myself, because there’s currently no Mac version—but it’s coming soon!
We got to know DAD when its CEO and founder, Julian Ranger, came to speak at Launch48 Edinburgh in October 2010. Julian is a serial entrepreneur; in the past, he sold one of his companies to U.S. arms giant Lockheed Martin. Back in October, Julian was giving Edinburgh startups and entrepreneurs some of his top tips for implementing a global strategy. Now, he’s looking for their advice. Julian says:
We launched DAD at the end of last year and have been reviewing early feedback on both our messaging and our product. As a result, we’ve made changes to the product and simplified the message, as DAD does a lot of different things. We’ve got a significant development program planned for the next six months and experience tells me that our plans probably don’t exactly match what our users will want—hence early feedback is useful, if not essential.
So what can you do? Well, for one thing, if you use a Windows machine and you like sharing music and other media, check out DAD. If you want to try it, let me know: I have a discount code for anyone interested in giving Julian some feedback on the product.
The code gives you two months’ service for free, plus three invite codes so you can start exploiting the sharing functionality immediately. The catch is that at some point in the future, I’ll send you an email and ask how you’re getting on with DAD. Simples.
If you’re interested, get in touch on hilary@startupcafe.co.uk.
StartupCafe 
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