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You’ll Never Guess What’s Behind The Secret Door

secret door

Today’s Killer Startup: The Secret Door

 

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Elevator Pitch:

The Secret Door is a simple website that “transports” you to amazing places around the world.

 

Why It’s A Killer Startup:

Some startups are useful. Some startups are gratuitous. Some startups have changed the world.

 

And then some startups are like The Secret Door, which is to say that they serve no real purpose for the user other than a bit of delight.

 

I stumbled upon The Secret Door on Product Hunt. It starts with a door that looks like something out of a children’s book. When you click on it, an overlay pops up of a hand “pushing it open.” The jerky motion combined with the music reminds me of computer games from the ‘90s. You know, the adventure ones that dorks like me played.

 

Once the door is “open” you can explore a 3D image of a random place on Earth. When I did it, I got everything from the Salisbury Cathedral to Shackleton’s Hut to what looked like a random vegetarian Indian restaurant with white people in it. If you want more info about the place, the site gives you an option of seeing it on Google Maps. Between the hypnotic music and surprisingly high-quality images, I totally got sucked into clicking on the door over and over again to see where it would bring me next.

 

Now, remember how I said this site served no purpose to the user except delight? Totally true. However, it does serve a purpose to the company that created it — Safestyle UK, which is apparently a windows and doors company that I definitely wouldn’t have heard of had they not created this odd little website. Strangely, their site isn’t nearly as nicely designed as The Secret Door is, but, whatever. I came here for the cool, random places anyway.

 

Tweetable:

Wanna explore the world but can’t afford all those flights? Check out #TheSecretDoor

 

Photo Credits:

The Secret Door

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