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Here's where we're at.
Welcome to the Are.na roadmap. Here you can see what we’ve shipped recently, what we’re building next, and how we’re doing as a company.
By sharing this information we aim to demystify the weird and wonderful process of working on a mostly bootstrapped web company. We’re working our hardest to build a space that’s mindful, respectful, and accountable to our thousands of lovely members. We have lots of ideas for how to do a better job, as well as lots of challenges.
This is meant to be as transparent as reasonably possible. If there’s something you don’t see here that you’d like to know, just email [email protected]
Road to self-sustainability
Are.na’s mission is to build a member-supported community. Since we're accountable to our members instead of advertisers, our incentive is always to build a tool that fosters learning and genuine collaboration. This also means that Are.na’s future relies entirely on community contributions. Here’s how you can help:
Today
$30187 Monthly recurring revenue
16246 Monthly active members
770K Monthly connections
7124 Total paying members
Goal by Friday, December 31, 2021
$43000 Monthly recurring revenue
Premium
Premium members get unlimited private content, additional privacy settings, an invitation to our members’ Slack and more features soon. More about Premium:
Go Premium
Premium members currently contribute 
$28337  in monthly recurring revenue.
Premium Supporter
If you’re already Premium and want to chip in a little extra, you can upgrade to our Supporter tier. You’ll receive regular emails from the team, plus a free Are.na Annual.
Become a Supporter
Supporters currently contribute 
$1810  in monthly recurring revenue.
Product Plan
Last updated: Friday, June 4, 2021
In Progress

  • GraphQL library updates

  • List / table view

  • Backend infrastructure / performance improvements

Up next

  • Updated homepage

  • Upgrades to search infrastructure

  • Full-text search

On the Horizon

  • Comment management

  • Desire lines

Archived

  • New Android and updated iOS share extension

  • Asynchronous job queue refactoring

  • Hide notification counter on mobile

  • Delete comments on mobile

  • Mobile premium management

  • Mobile navigation upgrades

  • Mobile infrastructure upgrades

  • Settings for connect search

  • Reader mode (web and mobile)

  • Extract Reader mode for links

  • SPA performance upgrades

  • Revised text styling

  • Updated dark mode

  • Group invite links

  • Sunday Review emails

  • Integrate Ad-blocked screenshot service

  • Weekly digest email

  • Deep links / Universal links for iOS and Android apps

  • Safari Extension

  • Updated print.are.na

  • Explore block filters

  • Android App

  • Your connections

  • iOS dark mode

  • Replace thumbnail on links, embeds and attachments

  • iOS app / iPad landscape mode

  • Group feeds

  • oEmbed endpoints

  • Following views by type

  • Port extension code to bookmarklet

  • Connection limit updates

  • Browser extension / bookmarklet refactor

  • Channel grid view refactor

  • Publish Firefox extension

  • Channel embed infrastructure

  • Custom badges

  • Revamped block lightbox view

  • Sign-up optimizations

  • Group profiles

  • Channel preview

  • Onboarding banners 🏳️

  • Icon audit

  • Optimized billing flow

Changelog
Last updated: June 04, 2021
June 04, 2021

Are.na client

  • Upgraded Apollo to v3
  • Replaced all front-end instances of 'users' with 'people'
  • Fixed mobile link styling

Are.na mobile

  • 🔥 New share extension launched

Are.na API

  • Async queue optimizations, autoscaling, and management
  • Fixed bug with profile slugs not updating when names changed
  • Fixed bug with WAV file processing
  • Added API endpoint for groups /user/:id/groups

General

April 23, 2021

Are.na client

  • Workaround to allow right-click and dragging images to desktop (swaps out JPEG on click)
  • Fixed extension login for Brave browser
  • Adds more error logging

Are.na mobile (not released yet)

  • 🔥 New share extension work in progress for iOS and Android (97% complete)

Are.na API

  • 🔥 Completed async job refactoring (this should solve the job queue backups we've been seeing)
  • Updated thank you emails 🌞

General

March 25, 2021

Are.na mobile (not released yet)

  • 🔥 New share extension work in progress for iOS and Android

Are.na API

  • Migrated to a new version of PostgreSQL
  • Fixed issue with "Connect to Twitter" functionality
  • Fixed profile slug updating after name changes
  • Fixed uploading avatar bug

Are.na Client

  • Updated perks page

General

February 26, 2021

Are.na client

  • ➸ Extension now searches for underlying image when right clicking on an area
  • Allow "remove connection" when a block is still processing
  • Updates to Roadmap and Pricing pages
  • Support for Supporter tier
  • Remove outdated banners and update coupons
  • Fix issue with banner covering premium subscriptions (thx Bhoka!)
  • Fix bug where non-premiums couldn't unsubscribe from Sunday Review

Are.na API

  • Move all image URLs to image proxy, stop producing image versions (reduces processing time and page load)
  • Support for Supporter tier
  • Allow lifetime subscribers to manage premium settings
  • Countless dependency upgrades
  • Fix failed instagram blocks loading forever
  • Fix GIF processing errors
  • Allow subscriptions when coupon code makes the balance 0

Are.na mobile (not released yet)

  • 🔥 Hide notification counter
  • 🚨 Swipe to delete comments
  • Fixed back navigation bug
  • Fixed scrollbar bug

General

See all logs
Company Vision
Last updated: Friday, June 4, 2021
Revenue & Strategy

  • Reach $43K in monthly revenue by end of December 2021

  • Continue improving the conversion portion of Premium members vs Active members (currently ~40%)

  • Continue reducing the infrastructure costs portion of monthly expenses (currently ~25%)

Ethics

  • Become a public benefit corporation or an alternative community-benefiting entity in order to legally protect our mission.

  • Work to promote ad-free businesses and ethical design principles in the tech industry

  • Explore possible avenues for a more cooperative membership structure

Community

  • Create stronger community benefits for Premium members

  • Make grants to foster creative research by Are.na members

  • Create a structure for compensating our member-investors

Team

Our team is currently composed by two full-time engineering/product people, two part-time in charge of community initiatives and three advisors. Our goals are:

  • Pay our current team living wages with benefits

  • Hire 2 more developers to work on product infrastructure

  • Prioritize diversity for additional hires