Mapping the places of the world via social media is at the core of Spotsetter, a new app that takes users' social networks and places them on a map interface for category- or location-based exploration.
Co-founder Johnny Lee, leading a team of 7 that includes a former Google Maps engineer, spoke to Tnooz about the problem of creating actionable, useful recommendations from social media:
We started with trying to solve the problem of finding social content from friends that were location relevant. I knew that I had a diverse international group of friends who love to travel. So how to answer questions like: where are good bars in NYC where Lakers fans gather? What restaurant recommendations are there for Tallinn? What’s the best coffee shop in Memphis?
That has led to the product today, which finds these personal recs and content from existing social networks. We think (and hope) Spotsetter will be everyone’s ‘go to’ app when answering “where to go?”
Somehow combining the professional relevance of LinkedIn with the wealth of world movements delivered on social media, Spotsetter is refreshingly different. It provides the ability for users to "tag expertise" of individual friends: By scrolling through friends and tagging their relevant expertise, the app gleans knowledge into how and where to prioritize favorites, posts and other check-in information gleaned from social media.
Users can tag friends, and then let them know on social media, SMS and email that they've been tagged as experts in the space - a seamless, oh-so-clever way to both boost egos and bring a users' friends into the app.
Spotsetter also encourages users to "tag friends you trust," adding another verified layer onto the data stream. This allows the app to deliver more relevant results to each individual query, sorted by priority of trust and expertise.
Categories bring another layer of interpretation to the app, as users can assign friends specific categories that weight related social shares more heavily in assigned categories. Categories include: Coffee Connoisseur, Family Fun, Music Maven, Nightlife Ninja, Outdoorsy, Savvy Shopper, Sushi Sage, and Wine Wizard. Users can also request other categories.
The idea gets right at the heart of one of the most poignant criticisms about the "user review" space: Why trust just anyone's reviews, and why give weight to friends who may or may not have any idea what good food is? By giving users the ability to sort friends according to expertise - as determined not by that friend but by the user - Spotsetter is aiming to layer context onto the social media firehose.
This context means more useful results for users - something that not every "user review" or "trip planner" app can do, but are striving to master. The map piece is something that every travel startup is stepping into, such as Instagram's relatively new map encourages browsing visually by location, and beautiful mapping UX from travel startups such as Roadtrippers.
Spotsetter co-founder Johnny Lee shared more about the Spotsetter product in the following Q&A.
Why did you start this company and create this product?
We wanted to solve our own problem, which was finding social content that had location relevance. We had friends who mentioned different great places and venues but had no way to find that content using traditional tools like Google Maps or Yelp.
To date we have raised $1.3M in total seed funding, led by Javelin Venture Partners and participation from angel investors including Maximilian Thyssen, 2020 Ventures, Rahul Prakash of Coyote Ridge Ventures, and Euthenia Capital.
What is your revenue model and strategy for profitability?
Currently our product is free for users. Further down the road we will monetize based on search intent of our users.
Describe what your start-up does, what problem it solves (differently to what is already out there) and for whom?
Spotsetter gets users personalized recommendations for places to go. "Where to go" is socially relevant and the mobile app answers that through what friends have already shared across different social networks. As more information, from tips to photos, is shared on social networks, Spotsetter gathers and makes sense of it to present users with the best places.
We all have that one friend who knows the best coffee joints, and perhaps another who loves sushi so much that we trust their taste without question. And chances are they have shared their passion on some social network, be it Facebook or Instagram. Spotsetter helps users get that information quickly.
The product is unique to each user, because everyone has a unique network of friends and relationships with each of those friends. Spotsetter personalizes the experience and results for every user. We haven’t seen other products out there that do this.
Why should people or companies use your startup?
Finding new places can be both efficient and fun. If you’re traveling to a new city or even neighborhood, Spotsetter can help find the best places from your friends who are local. You don’t have to do a ton of research if you trust those friends’ tastes. And it’s also enjoyable because you can see the activities, photos, and comments from these friends.
Many of our users are surprised when they see activities from their friends in unexpected places. We tend to use ourselves a proxy for the amount of content available, but imagine multiplying the travels of hundreds of your friends – it adds up to a lot of great info. Spotsetter organizes it into one place, making it easily accessible.
Other than going viral and receiving mountains of positive PR, what is the strategy for raising awareness and getting customers/users?
One of the key features is for the user to identify friends in categories he trusts, for example I trust Bob’s taste in sushi and I can tag him as such. Users are then encouraged to share this endorsement with Bob, after all, who doesn’t like to get complimented on having good taste. This creates more awareness of Spotsetter.
How did your initial idea evolve? Were there changes/any pivots along the way? What other options have you considered for the business if the original vision fails?
Our starting point was to find local experts across social media. So if you wanted to just know who is the most influential coffee connoisseur on Twitter in Austin, we’d find out what this person has to say about the matter.
We soon discovered that both users and ourselves preferred personal connections instead of more public figures. Going forward, we strongly believe that search will become personalized for everyone. If our current version fails to gain enough traction, we think our technology can be adjusted to solve some big problems in personal social search.
Where do you see yourselves in 3 years time, what specific challenges do you hope to have overcome?
We hope to have a large user base who find our product engaging and useful. Specifically, we need to expand our coverage of social networks from the current four (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare) to the popular international networks, such as those in China, Russia, and Brazil.
Improving our recommendations is also a constant challenge, as each network requires a deep understanding of the way it is used by people. Finally, we need to keep expanding and updating our database of locations to have solid coverage in even the most remote locales.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that requires another startup to help it out?
Many companies help users “complete the transaction.” One can get suggestions, read crowd-sourced reviews and ratings, and then receive a plethora of options. Our approach helps with the decision making process by adding a social dimension.
Social content is personal by nature, so when users see the photos and comments from friends they know and trust, that experience becomes more than a linear goal to complete a transaction. Users can have an enjoyable time without making a booking.
Tnooz view:
Big Data and personalization have been trends that continue to be more readily understood, and implemented, by companies across the travel industry. One of the key areas that lacks complete mastery is accuracy and relevance - personalized results should not just be determined by a faceless algorithm, but also have a human hand that can guide results towards a more specific end.
Not every friend should be trusted as a food critic, for example. Just because someone has a voice doesn't necessarily mean that the voice is relevant for a particular search query. What Spotsetter is attempting to do is to drive computer-generated place recommendations with user guidance - those who know their friends best will know who they trust most.
One of the primary hurdles beyond user acquisition is getting users to scroll through friends to confer expertise tags. This takes some commitment, so perhaps there needs to be a slight gamification to encourage users to sort friends and thus get more relevant results.
This interface is also a new way to explore both home and destinations abroad, which may pull users away from Foursquare or other location-based place search and recommendation tools. However, there is no dominant player here - a clear opportunity for Spotsetter to be the clearinghouse for an overview of user reviews, content and opinion surrounding places around the world.
This could be a very clean and simple way to take advantage of social network knowledge, and a much better way at getting a cohesive overview of a particular place. Each online site has its own style of community - Yelp's users can be more snarky, TripAdvisor's more straightlaced, for example - and thus having a place to gain an overview of reviews, reactions and opinions across communities is vital for users seeking to make their own informed decisions.