On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2017. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Heshan ↗
In their words
Our initial target for this application is university students. University populations have the best density for Asscky to grow and be utilized.
As a presenter I could do this two ways: I can interact with the crowd during my presentation, or I could simply put up a board to let my audience put up comments and questions, and then later engage my audience well beyond this event.
Within Asscky we hope to generate publicly available, location-specific, user-generated content and allow communities to interact and get to know each other on a much larger scale.
Quick answers
Who is Heshan Modaragamage?
He introduced himself on the TechTO stage in October 2017 as CEO and co-founder of Hyfer Technologies, presenting alongside his partner Mohit Kishore. Hyfer's own team page lists him as Project Manager and Director. FWD50's November 2021 speaker page describes him as a Canadian Armed Forces veteran and a product manager with the Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group. His current role could not be verified from a first-party source.
What was Asscky?
A location-based messaging app built by Hyfer. Opening it showed a map of the message boards active around you; inside a board you could read location-specific questions already posted, drop a pin of your own and let anyone in the board reply to it. Private boards were shared by a short board code and never shown publicly.
How did Asscky handle moderation?
Users could issue a badge to someone posting offensive content. Anyone who collected a badge lost access to boards that had switched the feature on, and it escalated over ten levels — reach the top, he told the room, and you were moved to one global board with everyone else who had. Users also could not upload their own board pictures; the app generated them.
Why start with universities?
Density. In the presentation he said university populations have the best density for a location-based board to grow, while naming dense cities like Toronto and New York as the next fit. Asked in the Q&A how the app would get traction, the Hyfer team's answer was partnerships with large student groups at universities across Canada and the US, acting as brand ambassador teams.