The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Uberlife
Quick Pitch: Uberlife lets users create real-world hangouts, share them instantly with their social networks and let whoever is free join them.
Genius Idea: Making hanging out with like-minded people easier, faster and more fun.
Planning to hang out with friends is pretty complicated these days, especially when it involves endless back-and-forth texts, e-mails, messages and phone calls.
Uberlife is a free app that lets you instead create a "hangout" when you plan to do something, share it instantly with your social networks and invite friends and like-minded people who are free to join you.
"Uberlife helps users gain more real-world relationship building and face time with their friends and new people around them, instead of relying so much on catching up online," said Uberlife CEO Sanchita Saha in an interview with Mashable. "While most social apps today are for sharing moments of our lives with friends and networks, Uberlife is about making those moments happen."
To start using Uberlife, just download the app to your iPhone, sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account and then connect to your Last.fm account. Uberlife will use some of your personal information from these accounts, such as your location, likes, interests and photos. Next, create a "hangout" by typing in where and when you plan to go, and then add tags that will match to other Uberlife users' Facebook likes, interests and Last.fm bands.
Once you create a hangout, Uberlife lets you share it on your Facebook and Twitter accounts and invite whomever is free to join. People who join can also invite friends by sharing the hangout on their own networks. Users can then check in at the hangout, post comments and upload photos on the hangout's page.
Uberlife users can follow other users they'd like to hang out with, and the app will notify them as soon as any of those users create a hangout close by. However, users can only become Uberlife friends if they are following each other and have attended at least one hangout together.
If you create a hangout, you automatically earn a "Connector Score," which increases when more friends connect in Uberlife after attending your hangout. In the future, Uberlife hopes to reward users with the highest Connector Scores with discounts and free items.
"Online networks give us the tools to connect with friends and family easily, instantly and frequently," says Saha. "Uberlife brings that same ease and opportunity to "offline" interactions, informal get-togethers, and events."
Although there are a number of ways to plan events with friends, including through Facebook events and MeetUp, Uberlife is different because it's free, more flexible and allows anyone to create a hangout. Facebook events are mostly geared towards big occasions such as birthdays and parties while MeetUp is restricted to only group organizers.
Launched in 2012, Uberlife is currently in invite-only beta. The company plans to implement its business model when the app is public, which could be based on offers from local venues for Uberlife users and location-based advertising
Uberlife has raised $1.6 million in funding and had approximately 7,000 users sign up within one week. The app is available for iPhones and as a mobile web app for Android and Blackberry devices.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, skynesher
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