stickK is designed to promote a healthier lifestyle by allowing users to create “Commitment Contracts” that oblige them to follow through with commitments such as exercise and quitting smoking.
stickK was developed by Yale University economists Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres who tested the effectiveness of Commitment Contracts through extensive field research. Economic and behavioral research before Karlan and Ayres considered the effectiveness of the model, and their own testing found that people who put stakes (money or reputation) on the table are far more likely to achieve any goal they set for themselves.
Taking out a commitment contract though doesn’t mean a thing unless there is a penalty for breaking the contract, and stickK covers that as well. Users can set up a contract to include payments to charities if they fail to meet their contracts, and friends can be used to make the final call on the result as well, reducing the chance that users will lie about the result of a contract.
Steven D Levitt of Freakonomics fame wrote about stickK in January (Ayres is an occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger) and approved of the concept, a strong endorsement for the site.
stickK has raised $1.2 million in angel funding and had over 1,000 commitment contracts as of early February.
This may be just me, but does the name “stick” with the shooting arrow bent upwards remind you of something?
Misspelled words used as company names is so 2006.
the concept is completely logical.
the funny question is – would this ever have been funded if there wasn’t extensive field research done through Yale?
This is fantastic news for the owners of stick.com… they just got a boat load of new visitors
Jon
http://buzvia.com – Share Influence
the contract aspect may be a nice spin and the interface might look cool, but in the end this is another habit tracker.
This one has been around for a long timewww.joesgoals.com/
I find it hilarious that a Yale economist would launch a website called “stickk” using reflection graphics and a huge beta sticker…not to mention the gradients.
He must be in the valley with the rest of the best of the best.
Ooh, someone submit it to ReflectyLogo.com! Disclaimer: ReflectyLogo.com is my site.
dave: Gotta have a gimmick…
Oh, and I think it’s probably pronounced “stickay.”
Stick, stupid! Fetch!
I just entered a goal to cleveland steam the next person who says “social graph”
I don’t understand why you need Stikk. If you tell people you’re quitting smoking, or even post it online as I’m doing, doesn’t that accomplish the same thing?
Steve
Quitting smoking later this month
@10, Steve, Stikk is a different startup. We are talking about Stickk with a c and possibly pronounced stick-ay.
Stikk is very much different in that it deals principally with phenomenological descriptions of a recognizable hiatus between affectivity and sensibility of social graphs as applied to modern stigma of emotion being perceived as quasi-aesthetically disconnected from the apparently conditioned mundanity of cause end effect, representivity and determining contextuality.
Aloha all, we launched a site that also allows for anyone to create and tag onto commitments – part Digg, part Facebook, and part wikipedia. You can check it out at http://www.kanuhawaii.org/. In a few months, we already collected 3,585 commitments and it is growing every day. Laters, Olin
@6 Philip Just out of curiosity … Why do you do this ??
@Duncan Happy moving
hay evaryone! i made a wiki and u can list ur goalzz!! http://www.mywikigoalzz.com! u can set it to email u evarytime some1 changes tha page 2 say ur a fag!
Is it safe to say yet that Web2.0 boils down to “anything for a profile?”
EH: No. It is safe to say your comment is very stupid though.
I actually like the idea. I will be checking it out. I think it is very effective.
It could work if you attach enough pain to your commitments if you don’t do them. I watched the guided tour and it sounds interesting. Worth trying on something you might really have problems following though on.
http://www.i-gu....ro/blog/Ro/en/
nice blog
can you please hold this for me??
if yes, thankyou very much.
search for yes we can on ebay com
thank you!!
they lost my interest with “read the bible”
To Steve:
Hi Steve. The idea behind stickK.com is not just to encourage people to reach their goals by simply making them think about reaching them, but to help them actually meet them through commitment contracts. We encourage people to bet on themselves to meet their desired goals.
Our research has already shown the effectiveness of commitment contracts and we hope our users will make full use of this to read a book, climb a mountain, quit smoking or maybe even go on a road trip. You indicated you were thinking of quitting smoking, how about you try signing up with stickK, and making a commitment to quit smoking. I wish you all the best in reaching your goal.
Regards,
Turab Hasan
Marketing Director
stickk.com
@11 You made that up? We will have the new buzz generator soon? Or read about a spoof in the American Psychologist?
I think putting money on a goal may help you achieve it. The bigger payoff comes in defining the properly in the first place. The key to goal setting is being clear that the goal is your priority and everything else takes second place. After that, it is a doddle. Actually it is usually so easy it is freaky. The expression is the universe conspires to help.
Deadool in a yer
Deadpool in a year
@Turab
I like the concept of stikk and think the execution is done pretty well. As far as a successful business model that’s going to be tough. Sure you may gain some active monthly uniques (given that you request weekly reporting), but their time on your website is going to be next to none which is almost certainly going to lower the potential revenue-per-user potential. To me the traffic almost feels (in terms of revenue potential) similar to promotional or gimmicky traffic which create nearly zero value for overall revenue. Nevertheless, I wish your team the best of luck.
@Duncan
Thanks for covering Stickk. You left out that Jordan Goldberg is the founder and CEO, and that the company came out of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Program (www.yale.edu/yei) – YEI is a really innovative program (full disclosure, I helped get it started). Students receive stipends so that they can spend the summer focused on starting a company, rather than slogging at an investment banking internship. Stickk is one of two companies that received funding coming out of the program with GoCrossCampus (www.gocrosscampus.com) being another. You guys cover seedcamp, YCombinator, etc… why no love for Yale and YEI? Whether or not SticKK succeds, it’s great to see how Jordan has taken solid ideas from two great minds and Yale and executed on bringing the concept to market.
Sean
if you’ve got an issue with the post, take it up with StickK, as it was I had to research some of the additional facts, none were provided by the company in their pitch. There’s zero conspiracy, that information was simply not provided to us.
Interesting article
Duncan,
Thanks for covering stickK. I hope soon you’ll think about making a commitment contract for one of your own goals.
Best,
Turab
Marketing Director
stickK.com
check out my new blog
http://www.i-gu....ro/blog/Ro/en/
Fair call here “Misspelled words used as company names is so 2006″
Noticing the explosion of made up names around then we took a new approach …………………..
We have bought about 1000 URLs which are NOT words but are shapes – particularly the circle dot coms you can create on a QWERTY AZERTY of QWERTZ keyboard (264 dotcoms!)
o In a sea of mind numbing dot coms we own the circle shape on the key board – every circle you can type! – There are 264 of them, and they are international in nature and memorable.
o http://www.erfcxs.com http://www.54edft.com http://www.hji87y.com http://www.wedxza.com are circle dot coms, and there are 260 others ………(including qwerty azerty and qwertz keyboards)
But – alas ……………..
We have recently run out of dough so are selling them on eBay: http://search.e...le=264+dot+coms
BTW
Also as defensive measure we have 500 others included some of which are ridiculous! …………. some examples:
o other TLD http://www.wedxza.org http://www.erfcxs.net http://www.wedxza.cn http://www.wedxza.co.uk http://www.wedxza.com.cn http://www.wedxza.us http://www.wedxza.net http://www.erfcxs.info
o triangles eg http://www.ertfcd.com http://www.zxcdes.com
o chevrons e.g. http://www.vgy7ujm.com http://www.xdrfv.com
o V’s big and small http://www.4rfvgy7.com http://www.wsxdr.com
o swooshs (Hello Nike™ ! e.g. http://www.fvgy7.com http://www.sxdr5.com http://www.fvgy.com (only 1 4-letter swoosh but have all the 5-letter)
o circles of 5, 6, 7, 8, http://www.wedxz.com http://www.wedxzawe.com
o Keyboard swipes e.g. http://www.xcvbnbvc.com http://www.3edc3edc.com http://www.4rfvvfr4.com
o X http://www.wsxesz.com
o XXX http://www.wsxe...dcrdxrfvtfc.com
o XY http://www.wsxeszedrdx.com
o Repetitions e.g. http://www.1qaz1qaz1qaz.com
o Qwerty etc http://www.qwer...wertyqwerty.com
o C http://www.ewazx.com
o Odd http://www.mko0.com
o There are also some really obscure ones – ouch!
I like the concept and think it is a winner. There is real pain involved if you do not follow through.
In addition to weight loss and quitting smoking, I see value in this as a motivator for the workplace (I’ll make 100 sales calls this month) and relationships (I’ll start spending more time/week with the family by the end of this month).
Regards,
George
To quit smoking need strong commitment, its looks overwhelming the way stick is heading with social networking approach to spread health awareness.
@Duncan
Wasn’t trying to criticize – I thought it was a good article…Certainly, if SticcK didn’t share the name of it’s CEO, or that they were in the program, that’s up to them.. Would love you guys to have some more involvement with YEI – that’s all… offering chances for stories…Yale get’s no love but look at some of the web 2.0 companies coming out from recent grads (VideoEgg, Meebo being 2 good ones). The bigger story of Yale helping students get Internet startups off the ground hasn’t been written yet. If you guys want to see the co’s this year, or to learn more – happy to arrange.
If you are looking for simple goal achievement site, try http://www.goaltribe.com. They just went into beta.
zkgj dnsl tgqf fnaxc ajpd xvbj wlvznjoku
nice!
From the Stickk FAQ page:
“Years of rigorous academic research conducted by the founders of stickK have proven that using Commitment Contracts can more than triple your chances of success!”
Where might one find this published research?
I recently developed an app for the iPhone that works on the same principle to help people quit smoking.
My app uses your Facebook friends so need to invite anyone and create new accounts, just start using , get help, and stop smoking…
Check it out here (iTunes link) http://appsto.r...lpMeStopSmoking