After you mentioned academics/scientific content in the video, is when all of this came into focus and I understood how a document management/annotation app intersects with one possible interpretation of "reboot the internet". But I think there's some misguidance there.
Academic content gets paywalled for economic reasons, not technical reasons. The basic web as it exists right now can do just as good a job distributing such things as it did 20 years ago. If your technology doesn't change the economic equation, it's not going to change anything.
Social content on the other hand gets walled-in for social reasons. This is closer to being solvable by new technology, but the primary drivers are ease-of-use and network effects, not technical architecture. I don't see Polar really addressing those things. Facebook gained popularity because 1) any regular person could just visit a website and be off to the races for free, and 2) other people were on it. #2 isn't really addressable directly, but by requiring a native app download, you're already behind on #1.
If you want to usurp a walled-garden with an open one, you can't just build better technology, you have to give regular people something that's both effortless and uniquely compelling compared to what they already use. That's an incredibly difficult (if noble) thing to try and do in this space.
Academic content gets paywalled for economic reasons, not technical reasons. The basic web as it exists right now can do just as good a job distributing such things as it did 20 years ago. If your technology doesn't change the economic equation, it's not going to change anything.
Social content on the other hand gets walled-in for social reasons. This is closer to being solvable by new technology, but the primary drivers are ease-of-use and network effects, not technical architecture. I don't see Polar really addressing those things. Facebook gained popularity because 1) any regular person could just visit a website and be off to the races for free, and 2) other people were on it. #2 isn't really addressable directly, but by requiring a native app download, you're already behind on #1.
If you want to usurp a walled-garden with an open one, you can't just build better technology, you have to give regular people something that's both effortless and uniquely compelling compared to what they already use. That's an incredibly difficult (if noble) thing to try and do in this space.