Ben Trenda

Founder, Backchannel · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveoperatorLinkedIn ↗wearebackchannel.com ↗

Ben Trenda is an adtech and media executive who previously served as CEO of Are You a Human and CRO of Spaceback. He founded Goodtalk, a platform aimed at troll-free public conversations, before going on to launch Kula and private executive network Backchannel.

8statements → 4claims → 0claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 2.38/5average debate potential →

4 not checkable as stated how the 4 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

4 assertions · 2 opinions · 1 insight · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 4 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

What they said8 Episodes1

Everything Ben Trenda said on the Pitch that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Trenda: Good Talk is first since Instagram or Snap with celebrity PMF

“So we're the first company since Instagram or Snap to create product market fit with that segment of users.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 11:43 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Insight

Trenda: The driver of Twitter's success is what makes it awful

“And it led me to the conclusion that the thing that makes Twitter successful is the very thing that makes it awful.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 21:38 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Opinion

Trenda: Overture basically invented Google's business model

“Early in my career, that was a company called Overture. So we invented Google's business model basically.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 7:41 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Opinion

Trenda: Major platforms cannot solve toxicity due to open participation model

“This is antithetical to those platforms. On those platforms, and you even hear these CEOs when they talk about, like, Jack Dorsey talks about the power of Twitter, it's that every user can participate in every conversation. And so you can't solve a problem tha…”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 8:53 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Trenda: Good Talk SMS notifications achieve a 51% open rate

“The next time Brad Feld goes live, you're going to get a text, and you're going to open that at a rate of 51%.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 5:22 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Trenda: 90% of Good Talk users eventually download the mobile app

“We're an SMS first product, although 90% of the users do eventually download the app, but we just believe you have to show them the value before you get them to download an app.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 11:14 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Trenda: Good Talk beta reached 500 high-profile users and 20M followers

“Since we launched our beta five months ago, we've had over 500 high profile people like that broadcasting to over twenty million followers.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 3:24 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Disclosure

Trenda: Good Talk is shutting down as a consumer platform

“We have decided to take a very different direction and we're actually shutting down Good Talk as a consumer destination.”

Ben Trenda Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 19:47 #80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
#80 Can This App Silence The Trolls?	Mar 3, 2025	8m

Ben Trenda

Appearances (1)

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