One of the best parts of being an early-stage investor is having a regular excuse to meet with entrepreneurs and learn about what they’re up to. I also love reconnecting with teams I’ve met with previously to hear how things have changed (which they always have).
This afternoon I sat down with a very smart team that I last met with (they reminded me) in December of 2008. In the 18 months since they’ve built up a nice little business in the enterprise property management space. In the process they’ve also come up with some very interesting insights about how location-based communities work (or don’t). One of those ideas is now out in the wild as Yaketee, and if you’re interested in location-based social software you should take a closer look.
Here’s what I like about it:
- Location-based – “instant” community bulletin board for a specific location
- Frictionless – no signup, no install – just point your browser to http://yaketee.com and start chatting
- Simple – just a textbox, a “Submit” button and a list of recent posts
- Sticky – once you’ve participated at a location you’re always a ‘member’ and can jump back into the conversation anytime
It’s easy to imagine Yaketee becoming a popular way for impromptu local communities to form and stay in touch. It’s also easy to see how venue owners might want to participate in the discussion – and might even pay for the right to play a more visible role. But for now Yaketee is just some cool beta software, and what the team needs most is feedback.
So next time you’re on a shared WiFi connection – in your office, a coffee shop, a hotel – jump on Yaketee and start (or join) a conversation. If you think it’s interesting and have ideas or suggestions, send the team a note at fyi@yaketee.com
P.S. – It doesn’t hurt that the lead developer on Yaketee – Assaf Arkin – also built Vanity, an open-source Ruby on Rails framework for A/B testing that we use and like at AppStoreHQ.