Posts Tagged ‘Yobongo’

Posted on April 28, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Podcast: TheSocialGeeks Episode 35 – Tungle, Delicious, Yobongo and Fring

Click here to listen to the entire podcast: TheSocialGeeks: TheSocialGeeks Episode 35 – Tungle, Delicious, Yobongo, Fring.

Posted on March 8, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

My iPhone SXSW group messaging / group texting app plans

There’s a secret “SXSW facebook group” that I belong to and most of the conversation so far is about the parties and which apps to use to keep track of everything during SXSW interactive. Too much is happening this year and there’s no way to stay up-to-date with everything. You’re going to miss some parties, some panels, some meetups and some people. But with this year’s hot startup app topic group messaging / group texting apps they’re all hoping you’ll not miss anything by messaging your friends during the conference. This also means some of the best conversations may happen offline on mobile devices vs being on twitter or facebook.

With that being said here’s my unofficial iPhone SXSW group messaging /group texting app plans that I posted in the “secret SXSW facebook group” I’m going to check into the hotel room and have a hurricaneparty, invite a fastsociety to kik it in a beluga pod, then yobongo to nearby friends that will turn into a messageparty where you can groupme and yell HeyTell in Pingchat … see you in Austin!

Just kidding, but if you want to reach me during SXSW interactive just call or text (prefer text) at 919-816-2230.

Posted on March 3, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

yobongo! Out of private beta, ready for you to chat with people nearby but in selected cities

That’s right, those of you who have been dying to test Yobongo and/or attending SXSW the wait is over. Yobongo is finally out of private beta and ready for you to chat with people nearby on your iPhone. Today Caleb and David the cofounders of Yobongo announced first in the Yobongo private beta room that you can now download yobongo from Apple iTunes App store. But there’s a catch, Yobongo is launching in selected cities starting with Austin, New York and San Francisco, Yobongo’s HQ. More from Louis Gray about the Yobongo launch.

The service is following Foursquare’s roots in starting slow geographically, which will no doubt draw some irritation from expectant users outside the covered geographies, but there’s a method to the madness. San Francisco and New York are well-known social media hubs, central to the success of Twitter and Foursquare, and Austin is home to the SXSW event starting next week, which could be a high-profile beginning for Yobongo.

The launch also comes only days after the announcement of Facebook’s acquisition of Beluga, a well-received group chat application also expected to make waves at the show. Caleb Elston, cofounder and CEO of Yobongo, says, “If we are not in your city, don’t fret! You can vote to bring it to your city next ”

As a yobongo beta tester I’m excited to see yobongo launch and use it at SXSW next week. As a NC resident I’m crushed, but it’s a smart move by yobongo to launch in selected cites. You can download Yobongo iphone app at here [iTunes link]

Update:

You can vote to have yobongo launch in your city at http://yobongo.com/cities. Raleigh, NC is on the list and can be requested here: http://yobongo.com/cities/North-Carolina/Raleigh You can expect to see more we want yobongo tweets and facebook status updates for users still wanting in. Other cities on the list are Los Angeles, CAm Chicago, IL, Boston, MA, San Diego, CA, Salt Lake City, UT, New Haven, CT, Seattle, WA Dallas, TX, , Miami, FL. Kansas City, KS and Atlanta, GA.

If you live in Austin, New York or San Francisco let me know about your yobongo experience in the comments

Posted on March 2, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

How did the cofounders of yobongo come up with the name … yobongo!

Yobongo! If you’re lucky enough to be one of the early beta testers of the much anticipated location-based mobile startup then I’m sure you don’t mind yelling Yobongo out loud and you get it. For others waiting to beta test are posting tweets with a sense of frustration, jealousy, all with a nervous sense of anticipation to see if Yobongo is going to live up to the hype. If you don’t believe me just look a some of the tweets below.

Like many web/tech mobile startups, sometimes the hardest part of launching a startup after you come up with an idea is coming up with the name. This had me thinking about how did Caleb Elston and David Kasper the cofounders of yobongo come up with the name yobongo. It seems as though I wasn’t the only one as while we were “yobonging” one day someone asked Caleb the big question. How did you come up with the name yobongo? You can see the answer via a yobongo screenshot below.

There you have it, someone just yelled yobongo, then a domain registration and six months later yobongo is getting ready to take sxsw by storm. More on yobongo coming soon and you can sign up for a beta invite at yobongo.com

Does the name yobongo work for the startup that’s going to provide a new way for people to chat with others nearby?

Posted on February 21, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

First look at the new Yobongo commercial and screenshots to see why it could be the next big thing

I first wrote about Yobongo back in early January when it was seeking more beta testers quietly sparking interest from location-based geeks. A lot has changes since then. Yobongo now has a new logo and is one of the most anticipated startups to open to launch for the general public to test along with being predicted as one of the breakout apps of SXSW 2011 on Quora and other news sites. I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the few East Coast beta testers of Yobongo and I must say the app is great.

Yobongo is founded by Caleb Elston and David Kasper. Caleb is former VP Of Product of Justin.tv and David is programming ninja. Yobongo’s goal is to make “it fun and easy to chat with people nearby on your iPhone“. By creating rooms based on your location, Yobongo will connect users to serendipitous conversations. For example lets say if you’re at a coffee shop, conference or university and launch Yobongo. Based on your location you would be “magically” placed in a room with other Yobongo users to start a conversation about what’s happening. From there you can leave the room and/or join other rooms or send private messages to have a private conversation with someone nearby. Yobongo is a chat app but with a slick and simple interface but has powerful functionality to live up to the hype and be used not only by early adopters but the everyday mobile users.

As Yobongo is prepping for public release they recently recorded a promotional video to show how you can “Yobongo”. Take a look.

There are still a lot of questions surrounding Yobongo as the two cofounder competes with other Location-Based Messaging Apps but between the current users and conversations I’ve seen in Yobongo so far I believe the app is a winner. For instance I’ve seen employees from Twitter, Zynga, foodspotting, groupon, along with bloggers and entrepreneurs such as Om, Robert Scoble, Louis Gray and Andrew Hyde using Yobongo. Just yesterday I had conversation with Boy Genius Report founder Jonathan Geller in Yobongo and conducted a short Yobongo interview as you can see below.

For Yobongo to succeed it will depend on the continued growth of mobile users starting off with the iPhone iOS platform, the social media/word of mouth buzz and early beta testers telling their friends. Yobongo cofounder Caleb Elston says “Yobongo’s goals is to create a stealer communication experience” and so far with Yobongo they have done just that.

Here are few more screenshots of Yobongo.

Yobongo is still in private beta but you can sign up for early beta at Yobongo.com.

After watching Yobongo commercial video, do you think you will use Yobongo?