Former Spotlight: LA Tech SuperDemo Namesake Drops Its iOS App
Yesterday was a great day for the Namesake community, their iPhone app dropped in the App Store.
For those of you not familiar with the Namesake community it is a “community for real conversation. It’s easy to find the people and topics that make life interesting — discover new people, build trust and improve your life.”
Namesake was founded by Brian Norgard and Danny Gould who have a string of successful startups under their belts. Newroo, their first startup was acquired by Fox Media interactive and both founded Ad.ly the world’s largest celebrity endorsement network. Most of you will remember Ad.ly from the Charlie Sheen Twitter story. Ad.ly brokered the deal to get Charlie a verified account up and running as quickly as he did. The duos newest venture, Namesake, could prove to be their most important.
Namesake will feel very familiar at first glance. Set up a profile, follow your friends, join in conversation. It looks, on the surface like Quora with a MUCH better UI/UX. The difference is in the overall experience. Namesake is set up so you can follow people, topics and join in real-time conversation. This real-time aspect is what sets Namesake apart. Every week the Namesake community has a live conversation with a thought leader. Noah Kagan (AppSumo), Bo Fishback (Zaarly), Om Malick (GigaOm), Matt Sandler (Cromatik Music), to name a few, have allowed the Namesake community to ask questions and learn from their experiences.
Conversations are happening at any given moment on Namesake and your involvement is determined by your interests, expertise and people you follow. For example, I have been “endorsed” as an expert in the iPad and I am invited to participate in almost all conversations relating to the topic. I do not have to always seek out relevant conversations, the community will invite me because I have been deemed an expert. This rings true for all topics on Namesake and adds another layer of context to the experience.
Just as important as the conversations on Namesake is the community. Social media has made the world extremely flat. No one is truly out of reach any more. In the Namesake community everyone is there to learn and contribute – so everyone does just that. The community drives the consistent and lively discussions that are as vast as the members.
So why was yesterday such a big day for all the Namesakers across the country? We can be enriched and participate while not chained to our computers. Prior to the iPhone app release you could not access Namesake from a mobile device. The product could not load in a mobile browser so participation in the community was impossible. The Namesake app allows for the community to participate in real-time anytime of day and with greater frequency.
What do you think? Are you on Namesake? The first 5 to leave a comment telling me why you should be there will get an invite. Follow me on namesake here
