I've got some exciting news to (finally!) share with you…
ZipMessage is changing its name to Clarityflow.
Yep, you heard it right. No, this isn’t an April fools joke. We're going through a rebranding process, and the new name is just one of the many changes coming…
First things first — Come check out our new website over at clarityflow.com. That’s where we’re previewing our reimagined vision for the product.
We’re currently taking applications for early-access to our newest features. To participate, you can enter your email at clarityflow.com.
Here’s the rest of the story (and what’s changing)…
In the rest of this post, I'll answer some questions you may have:
- Why are we changing names? And why Clarityflow?
- What changes are being made to the product?
- Will Clarityflow be priced differently from ZipMessage?
- Our domain is changing. How will our customers' URLs be affected?
- When will these changes go into effect?
Why change names?
When I started ZipMessage in early 2021, it began with a pretty unusual approach for a new product: It was a feature in search of a use-case. The feature? Asynchronous messaging. The use case? There were many, right from the get-go:
Remote meetings. Customer support. Sales. Hiring. Education. Podcasting. Audience feedback… But there was one particular use-case that stood out: Coaching.
Asynchronous coaching, specifically. Some of our earliest customers were coaches and this trend continued to grow. I soon came to understand just how impactful an async approach to coaching was having for them.
Coaches use ZipMessage to communicate asynchronously with clients, helping more clients and scaling their business. Async is particularly useful in group coaching, a popular approach among successful coaches who want to help more clients, and can even replace live sessions in some cases.
I learned that our messaging product was just one part of a coach's toolkit. Coaches need seamless integration between their async messaging tool and other aspects of their work, such as onboarding new clients, delivering content and courses, hosting coaching groups, and selling coaching programs. Duct-taping our tool using Zapier left too much friction in the relationship between a coach and their client.
Through countless conversations with coaches, our new mission came clearly into view:
To give coaches and their clients a simple, clean and powerful way to work together. For coaches, we aim to deliver the essential set of tools they need to build and scale their coaching practice. For clients, our tool should almost be invisible, so that they get the clarity they seek when engaging with their coach.
…Which brings me to our new name :)
Introducing Clarityflow
I chose the name Clarityflow for 2 reasons:
First, I think it speaks to the essence of what’s happening when a client engages a coach:
A client hires a coach to gain clarity, enabling them to improve and grow in life or work. And flow speaks to many aspects the coach-client relationship: Conversational flow, a path to improvement, the unique benefits of async when it comes to learning, communicating, and working with a coach.
The other reason for changing from ZipMessage to Clarityflow is strategic:
We want to present ourselves as something different from where we began. Yes, async conversations are still at the core of our product, but we don’t want to be perceived as just a messaging app. We’re evolving into a much more capable software platform to power a coach’s business.
Plus, we were able to get the domain, clarityflow.com ;)
How Clarityflow builds on ZipMessage
In regards to the product, let me be clear:
- We’re not rebuilding the product from scratch.
- Everything you can do with ZipMessage today will continue in Clarityflow.
Think of this as a continuation and evolution of our product, from the foundation that started with ZipMessage, into a fully realized product vision with Clarityflow.
This vision for the product brings together the 4 key components that power a coach’s business:
- Conversations
- Coaching Programs
- Group Spaces
- Payments
The first piece—conversations—is where we began with ZipMessage. Conversations are the building-blocks of the coach-client relationship and we intend to keep it that way.
Our conversations-first approach is unlocking a truly unique—and I believe far supieror—approach to solving for the other areas of how a coach’s business actually operates.
Here are a few examples:
Coaches often keep a library of reusable content such as video lessons, mental models, frameworks, and assessments. In Clarityflow, a coach can be in conversation with a client and hand-select the most relevant items from their library, all within the same conversational flow.
Coaches offer personalized guidance alongside courses. Rather than sending clients to a separate website to access a course or to ask questions, Clarityflow seamlessly combines courses and conversations. Clients can enroll in a personalized course and ask questions, all in the same conversational flow.
Coaches host groups, run cohorts, and offer community. Instead of directing clients to a separate forum or chatroom (which can be clunky at best and a ghost town at worst), Clarityflow allows you to bring client groups together in a branded area where all their conversations for this group or cohort can take place.
Coaches handle payments from clients and grant access accordingly. Some coaches manually invoice their clients, while others sell through one tool but end up inviting their clients to access it through multiple other tools, causing confusion. Clarityflow simplifies this process tremendously by allowing you to take payments directly in the conversational flow. You can sell subscriptions that grant clients access to conversations or a coaching group.
Some aspects of the product vision for Clarityflow are still in the works. If you’ve been following our progress lately, you’ve seen us shipping new features, piece-by-piece, and that will continue throughout 2023.
But so much of our vision is already in the product now and ready to put to use!
Pricing changes
Our transition to Clarityflow will bring with it new pricing plans. Specifics on our new plans will be published when the new prices go live for new customers starting in April, 2023.
The new plans will start at a price that’s a bit higher than our current plans. They will also be structured differenty, given the way our product’s features have evolved. Our newest features, including Programs, Spaces, Workflows, Library, and Payments, will only be available on the new plans. Legacy plans will continue to have access to features that they’ve had, primarily async conversations.
Some aspects of our new pricing will remove limits that our legacy plans had. Specifically, there will no longer be a recording time limit, nor a limit to accessing your history of older messages.
We’re sunsetting our Free plan and replacing it with a free trial period. This will enable new customers to try out all of our features without needing to enter a credit card (up until now, this hasn’t been possible).
We also plan to start offering paid setup & launch engagements, where my team and I will work with you to structure your coaching programs, migrate content to Clarityflow and ensure your success on our platform.
Changing domains & mapping your own domain
Our marketing site will changing from zipmessage.com to clarityflow.com. In April 2023, once the full Clarityflow website becomes available, we’ll begin redirecting to it.
More importantly—the domains and URLs for customer accounts will be transitioning from zipmessage.com/account-name to account-name.clarityflow.com. There will be a multi-month transition period for accounts to phase into using their new account subdomains, ensuring that links to older conversations are updated to the new links.
This will also enable us to launch (by popular request!) the ability to map your own domain to your Clarityflow account (yourdomain.com). Your clients want access to you and your coaching programs, so we want to give you all the tools possible to fully brand your clients’ experience with you. Mapping your own domain is big part of that.
When these changes will go into effect
We’re taking a phased approach to rolling out our transition from ZipMessage to Clarityflow. Exact dates are subject to change as we go, but we’re currently on track for this estimated timeline:
March 2023
- Clarityflow.com has launched as a preview. Enter your email here to apply for early-access to our newest features.
- ZipMessage.com marketing site is still live this month.
- Our old prices are still available, for now.
April 2023
- ZipMessage.com (marketing website) will redirect to Clarityflow.com.
- The new price plans replace our legacy plans for new customers.
- Our Free plan will end this month. It will be replaced with a free trial.
April through October 2023
- Customers who were on legacy plans (prior to April 2023) can upgrade to our new plans with a coupon, when ready.
- Customers on legacy plans can continue to use their zipmessage.com-based account URLs, or start using their new account-name.clarityflow.com URLs with the option to map your own domain.
- Legacy plans will our legacy domain will be fully phased out by October 2023.
April through July 2023
- Early access customer launches are available during this period. If you’re interested in getting personalized consulting and help with your launch or migration, and being featured in a public case study (plus a hefty discount), be sure to apply for early access now by entering your email on clarityflow.com.
We’re just getting started!
Our first 2 years as ZipMessage got us off to a great start. But I couldn’t be more excited to see our product and vision fully come into its own as Clarityflow.
We’re just getting started…