As you probably know if you’re following this blog – we’re in super private BETA right now. A couple weeks ago, we ran into a software bug. Don’t get me wrong, most software bugs suck — but this one actually turned out to be great.
Why?
It resulted in a concrete real world example of a user scenario that happens all the time — and it only happened because of a software glitch. I won’t get into the technicalities of the bug, but the gist of it is that the wrong people were notified of one of my check-ins.
The user scenario that came from that is close friends introducing their friends to people if they happen to know their friend is in the same location as someone they know (& the connection would be mutually valuable). In fact, I just did this tonight with a friend who is in Las Vegas this weekend, where one of my closest friends from high school runs marketing for Koi Ultra Lounge. I sent texts to both of them, and told them to meet up if they can.
The problem with those kind of connections are that they only happen when you know where your friends are traveling to and when they will be there — and whether the people you know in that location are actually going to be around. Yet these types of introductions should happen at least twice as often, except I don’t always know where my friends are and think to introduce them to other friends in that city. If I didn’t happen to be on Facebook today, I wouldn’t have known my friend is in Las Vegas for the weekend and, therefore, never would have been able to introduce her to my friend that has lived in Vegas for the past 8 (ish) years.
You and I both know an inside connection from a good friend is always welcome when traveling in a foreign city. You and I both also know there is a better way to facilitate inside connections for travelers than the current process.
And we’re going to build it.
Drew Meyers
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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