Find your friends nearby with Kismet
Social discovery app was the winner of the People's Choice Award at Vator Splash SF
At Vator Splash SF last month, two winners were announced: one was picked by the judges, and the other won the People’s Choice Award, where members of the audience texted in their favorite presentation.
The judges' vote went to real estate website Apartment List, which was profiled by my colleague Faith Merino in her piece: "Apartment List poised to thrive on Generation Rent."
The People's Choice Winner was Kismet.
So what is Kismet?
Kismet is a social-discovery app, which allows users to see which of their friends are in the area, even if they do not have the Kismet app installed. If they do have the app installed, Kismet works passively in the background, meaning users do not have to do anything. If people do not have app, Kismet can also locate people in the area who are checked in on Facebook and Twitter.
Kismet also allows people to create events and invite people to attend. It will then allow you to see when the people you are meeting have arrived.
In an interview with Kismet co-founders Kevin Stephens and Michelle Norgan, they told me that the philosophy behind Kismet is to foster face-to-face connections between people.
For example, Stephens said, he used to travel when he worked for Google, visiting 30 to 40 countries altogether. He said he once found out later that a friend of his that he had not seen in a few years was in the same city that he was, but he had no way of knowing. With Kismet, they may have found each other and been able to meet up.
“Kismet’s goal is to connect you to people you care about in the real world,” Stephens said.
While some people may worry about privacy issues when it comes to Kismet, Stephens and Norgan have set up provisions to help take care of that. Not only does someone have to opt in to be found, by either downloaded Kismet or checking in on another social network, but they can also change the settings on the app to only be found if checking in on another network. They can also choose to only reveal their location to friends, or friends of friends. The app will also not allow you to be found if you are at home.
The social discovery space
Social discovery is a crowded space with a number of startups trying to get traction.
Glancee was a similar service to Kismet, in that it helped users discover if their Facebook friends or Facebook people with similar interests were nearby. Glancee was one of the semi-finalists at Vator Splash Sept. 2011 before it was picked up by Facebook in May.
Another startup in the same space is Nextdoor, which acts as a social network for neighborhoods, so that people who connect with people who live near them. The service launched in October 2011, and raised $18.6 million from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners, Shasta Ventures and Allen & Company Pinnacle Ventures in July. It currently has over 3,600 neighborhoods in 48 states.
Location services can also be used for apps designed to help people find dates. For example, one of the judges noted during Vator Splash that Grindr could be a competitor. Grindr is a social discovery app geared toward gay, bisexual, and bi-curious men.
There are other location services, such as Sonar and Banjo, which offer a similar service to Kismet, allowing people to find each other across social networks.
What makes Kismet different from services like Sonar, Banjo and Grindr is who it is trying to connect people to.
"I don't know as I'd consider Sonar and Banjo necessarily in our space, since they're mostly focusing on connecting you with strangers," Stephens said.
And Kismet definitely is not a dating app.
"Kismet has a unique feature that none of these other apps have on mobile, which is the ability to easily invite a group of friends to an event, such as a Happy Hour or BBQ, for example. The user's invite is delivered seamlessly to their friends, whether or not they are users of the app."
When it comes to location services on the larger social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the different is that those site have features that are built around a website or an app, Norgan said.
They were not built to be location centric, as Kismet was, Stephens said. A site like Facebook is less about where you are, and more about what you’re doing.
On top of that, people are already wary about Facebook knowing too much about them. For it to all of the sudden tell people that it will know where they are at all times, “it’s a tough sell.”
Kismet, on the other hand, is built around that, which Stephen says makes it a lot less creepy, and more comforting to users, since the app is upfront about what it does.
“When you have 800 million users, you can’t just one day turn on location,” he said. “You have to tell people about it from day one.”
What also sets Kismet apart is it’s ultimate goal.
For other social media networks, their goal is to keep you logged on; once you go off their sites, they lose monetization, says Norgan. Kismet, on the other hand, is meant to drive people together, and off their phones.
Kismet will make its money by offering users targeted offers to come to certain venues. While it does not yet have any partnerships with any advertising companies, Stephens says that Kismet has been approached, and that it does have a deal made with a ticket company, the details which have not been revealed yet.
“We want to make it good for both the advertiser, and good for the user,” said Stephens, who also said that the company is more worried about building a good product at this point, rather than making money.
Kismet is currently only available on iOS. While Stephens would not disclose the number of times the app has been downloaded so far, he did say that it is growing fast.
Palto Alto, California-based Kismet was founded in February 2011 as part of AngelPad's winter 2011 class. It launched at the SXSW Festival in March of this year.
The history of Kismet
The company has raised a total of $1 million in seed funding from a host of investors, including Triple Point Ventures, NEA and a number of angels investors, including Shiva Rajaraman, head of consumer at YouTube, Stephanie Hannon, an early product manager at Gmail, Ben Narasin and Roham Gharegozlou.
Rohini Chakravarthy, a partner at NEA, told VatorNews that the reason the firm invested in Kismet was that it fills a hole in the market and solves a real world problem that everyone faces.
"This may not be apparent at first, but the app has some exciting technology on the cutting edge of location services. Two years ago, it wasn't possible to be nearly always on without huge battery drain – Kismet’s technology overcomes this in a unique way," she said.
"Geo-local targeting has some of the best monetization potential of consumer facing apps. With the use case proven, this will be a tremendous opportunity for Kismet."
Thomas Korte of AngelPad told Vator that what really drew him to Kismet at first was the team, as he had known them when they worked at Google. But what really sets Kismet apart from earlier location based services, that Korte says didn't succeed, such as Glancee, is that Kismet put the service to real use.
"It's the first app where amblient location is used to enhance what people are doing," Korte said.
As for Kismet's business model, Korte said that would not matter unless the app was successful and had millions of users. If it does get to that point, though, he said "the potential for business is phenominal."
"There is nothing more monetizable than knowing where people are."
Winning at Vator Splash
Now that the app won the People’s Choice Award at Vator Splash, the founders say that are already seeing the benefits.
Calling the award, “great market validation,” Stephens told me that he was able to make numerous connections and meet potential partners at the event. On top of that, the publicity from winning the award has also helped spur addition user growth.
But what he most appreciated was the feedback he got from the judges during his presentation, which he has already used to improve his messaging.
For example, the judges told him that it seemed that Kismet was entering into a crowded market, and Kismet has now adjusted to talk more about the significant hole in the market that it fills, namely creating more personal interactions between people.
Stephens is currently the CEO of Kismet, while Norgan serves as CPO.
Stephens is a former employee of YouTube, Apple and Boxee. He also spent time at Google, where was a member of the mobile team, and a key emmeber of the AdSense team. He worked across Engineering, Product, and Business Development to help build Google's mobile presence in Asia Pacific and Latin America. At Boxee he headed the company’s Device Partnerships and architected the company’s distribution strategy.
Norgan was a founding member of a social startup where she designed and launched the company's Consumer Mobile and Web products. She presented Kismet during the AngelPad W2011 Demo Day to investors, and launched the company onstage at the 2012 Women 2.0 PITCH competition.
You can watch Kismet's presentation at Vator Splash below, and can you follow it on Kismet Vator here.
(Image source: https://getkismet.com/beta)
Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Glancee
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Remember the feeling of talking to someone new, realizing that you have a dear friend in common and that you both love that artist only you know about? Glancee helps you discover these hidden connections and meet with people important to you. Explore the profiles of people nearby and be notified when somebody has common friends or mutual interests. Text or call, meet up for a coffee, and stay in touch. Create new, meaningful connections with new people just like you.
Kismet
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Kismet connects you to your existing friends in the real world by simplifying getting together face to face. We show you which of your friends are nearby or alert you when the app isn't open, then make it simple to invite them to meet you.
When you're planning to get together with a group of any size, Kismet makes the experience simpler and more social. Users can invite their friends whether or not they are Kismet users. Non-users can easily reply from the web or their phone without having to install the app.
No longer do you need to send hundreds of text messages or try to follow long email threads just to meet for Happy Hour. Users are also notified automatically when other users arrive and depart the event, meaning you’ll never have to ask “Are you here yet?”
Kismet was one of the most talked about companies of SXSW 2012, in the hot "ambient location" and "social discovery" space. Founded in 2011, Kismet was part of AngelPad's Winter 2011 class of startups, and has been lauded as one of the most privacy and user conscious apps in the space.
Apartment List
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Apartment List is the fastest-growing online rental marketplace, and we’re on a mission to help everyone find a home they love while making the search process simple. By asking our renters the important questions, we offer personalized results that meet your apartment wishlist. With over four million units on the site, we’ve reached over 150 million renters in over 40 cities.
Since inception, Apartment List has raised $110 million in funding from investors including Allen & Company LLC, Canaan Partners, Industry Ventures, Matrix Partners, Passport Capital, Quantum Partners LP, a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management LLC, Tenaya Capital, and WTI.
Founded in 2011 by CEO John Kobs and COO Chris Erickson, Apartment List calls San Francisco home.
Learn more at www.apartmentlist.com.
Nextdoor.com, Inc.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Nextdoor (www.nextdoor.com) is a private social network for the neighborhood. Using Nextdoor’s free online platform, neighbors create private neighborhood websites where members can ask questions, get to know one another and exchange local advice and recommendations. Nextdoor is specifically designed to provide a trusted environment for neighbor-to-neighbor communication. Hundreds of neighborhoods are already using Nextdoor to build happier, safer places to call home.
Based in San Francisco, California, Nextdoor was founded in 2010 by Internet veterans who have spent their careers creating thriving online communities.
NEA
Angel group/VC
Joined Vator on
NEA is the entrepreneur’s venture capital firm.
When it is time to take a promising business or business idea to the next level, entrepreneurs want a venture partner who understands and believes in the power of big dreams, bold visions and fresh ideas that have the power to change an industry, a sector, the world.
Moreover, entrepreneurs want a venture partner who knows what it takes—through first-hand experience and carefully nurtured relationships—to make a company succeed, to turn an idea into an action, and to make a plan a reality.
For more than 30 years, NEA has been helping to build great companies. Our committed capital has grown to $13 billion, including a $2.6 billion fourteenth fund closed in 2012. We invest across stage and geography in technology, healthcare and energy.
Remaining nimble as we’ve grown—with more than 65 investment professionals working out of our offices in the US, India, and China and investing across the globe—NEA is the entrepreneur's venture capital firm, consistently ranking among the top firms in portfolio IPOs each year. Since its founding, the firm has backed more than 175 companies that have gone public and invested in more than 290 companies that have been successfully merged or acquired—more liquidity events than any other venture capital firm.
Whether you are seeking investment to get your idea off the ground or looking to propel a proven idea toward greatness, NEA is the venture partner who will be there—because we’ve been there—every step of the way.
AngelPad
Angel group/VC
Joined Vator on
AngelPad is a mentorship program founded by a team of ex-Googlers to help web-technology startups build better products, attract additional funding and ultimately grow more successful businesses.
Kevin Stephens
Joined Vator on
Co-founder and CEO of Blink, previously an early engineer at Google and YouTube. Also worked at Apple & Boxee. BS Computer Science, UCSD.Roham Gharegozlou
Joined Vator on
Partner at Rising Tide Fund. Also: startup advisor, mentor at TechWadi.org, cofounder of Launch Labs. Relentless optimist.Ben Narasin
Joined Vator on
Michelle Norgan
Joined Vator on
Michelle Norgan (Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Kismet) was previously on the founding team of a social startup where she designed and launched the company's Consumer Mobile and Web products.Steph Hannon
Joined Vator on
Rohini Chakravarthy
Joined Vator on