Contra — A slick app for voicing your most honest opinions

“ Hey guys! When we put out v1 in high school a couple years ago (now freshmen at Stanford and Yale), we found a lot of young people using it to express themselves and talk really thoughtfully about important world problems in the context of their personal issues like sexuality, family conflicts, bullying experiences, etc. It was super inspiring. You couldn't find that element of thoughtfulness and openness amongst teens anywhere else. I got super hooked fast, and started arguing with people all around the world, on the platform I helped create. (It's super easy to get addicted, heh.) Contra got featured by Apple in multiple places like "Best New Apps" and "20 Under 20", among others. In general, the app was created because I would argue in Facebook comments a shit ton, but felt there lacked a single place online to talk about stuff. Facebook comments was way too cluttered, Twitter even worse (endless Twitter threads much?), and I didn't like Reddit's design and how dicourse was super scattered. So Lenny and I decided to just go ahead and design/build a platform just for debate. Surprisingly, nothing else existed on the store. We had little experience building that kind of stuff before, so it was immensely rewarding to create it and then launch it with people actually using it and getting addicted to proving their point and voicing their honest, vulnerable thoughts. Was super refreshing for me -- such a contrast compared to other social networks; found my friends and other people showing a new side of themselves. Anyways, regardless of who you are, you can go on Contra to vote on topics, debate with others about them, and learn more about the issue at hand. It's a really fun cycle, and IMO a productive way to spend your time :) ”
– Rohan Kapur

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