I don't think of Pair as a communication app. I think of it as our time together when we're far apart. iMessage is gathering around the water cooler. Pair is pillow-talk in the bedroom. I know it's not a rational or testable statement but it "feels" private and personal. And emotions are a big deal when you're talking about apps and Pair seems to have got it right.
* above statements not sponsored by Pair, just a happy user :)
Never having tried Pair, I can't form an educated opinion but I'm assuming it's sort of like a Google+ circle with a cardinality of 2. Given the behavior I just described, there might be more of a need for "circles" of 2 than just about any other particular number.
Now take your "circle of 2", throw in some cutesy features catering to the nature of that circle, and I can see why their product is useful to a lot of people.
Probably not that useful in parts of Utah, but elsewhere on the globe, sure.
There is a lot of commerce that relies along that edge in the social graph. e.g. Valentines Day, Anniversaries, Dates.
The first step is to own the relationship and the second step is to monetize the relationship, both of which are challenging problems but solvable.
If you know a couple's anniversary and know the content of their relationship communication, you could conceivably suggest activities and gifts that are monetizable. Jewelry, dinners, activities in common, etc.
By focusing on a narrow relationship, you can build NLP tools around romantic/amorous banter that identify things that couple would enjoy doing together.
There is a lot of money here, but it ain't gonna be easy. This is the type of startup where hiring A players really really matters, because to become valuable, you need people that can execute solidly on the first problem and then people who can take that solution and execute solidly on the second problem. Many startups owning a valuable user base often fail to monetize those relationships.
Lots of potential in related verticles. Let the copy cats begin.
But that's a VC's job. To take risks and hope for the next big thing. I don't see it here. Maybe this team, but not this idea.
now allow me to overstep my bounds: your trypair.com site is nearly impossible to read.
here, i made a few changes: http://i.imgur.com/REGrI.jpg
i'll send the psd if you want. it's just 10 minutes of mods without much effort, but i think this should be easier to read.
Congrats to the team - (come home to visit velocity!)
I'm sure the YC team and Pair would say that it's more than just a mobile app though, which makes me curious...what do investors want to see when funding an app like this? Where is the distinction between something like Camera+, which is profitable but probably not fundable, and something like this or Instagram?
