Platform to give smashrooms a beating

 A sour argument with the spouse, a tiff with a colleague or just a bad day.
Platform to give smashrooms a beating

BENGALURU: A sour argument with the spouse, a tiff with a colleague or just a bad day. While you can share some of this with family and friends, often these go as pent-up emotions. Which is why Sumit Mittal felt the need for a platform for people to shed their emotions. “Unlike other social media outlets, VentAllOut is a platform where you can post your thoughts and have the freedom to vent your feelings anonymously. The anonymity privilege offered to the user helps promotes freedom of expression and also helps to avoid any judgment,” says Mittal, the founder and CEO of the website and app, which recently included regional languages, including Kannada.

Believing that there’s a gaping problem staring at us, Mittal gave up his cushy corporate job after 19 years and decided to go ahead with this venture. “World-over there are smash rooms where people go break items to get rid of that pent-up energy. For this, they shell out a lot of money. Instead, we thought, why not create a platform where a person can speak his/her mind,” he says about the bootstrapped venture that he launched last year. He has invested about `55 lakh in it, and hopes to break even by this year-end.

“Some people want to frankly air their opinions about political parties. But there’s fear to do so. Or someone else feels like they need to separate from their spouse. So here, it’s all about saying what you please, judgement free,” he says, adding that for those who find it difficult to type, the voice-to-text feature, which can also capture the emotions, can be used. 

The platform, where the main users include those between the ages of 25 and 34, uses Artificial Intelligence which analyses the mood of the user. “For instance, based on their writing, the platform captures that mood, and creates a mood-board. So you can go back and see how you’ve been feeling over the last two months, let’s say. And if we find that someone has been low, we might just give out a coffee voucher,” Mittal says. In addition, you can also earn money for venting through a recently-launched cashback offer.

At the same time, recognising that there might be a serious issue, the platform has brought in mental health professionals, including therapists, psychologists, life coaches and motivational speakers, for consultations. While there is a moderator, every post that gets published is analysed for profanity. “Neither do we want to dilute the vent nor do we want to spread hatred,” he says.

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