Kyle
Food trucks, pop up stores, pop up restaurants, and pop up fire sales seem to be increasing in popularity. It’s like the old days of the mystery rock concert where an artist would come and play a show and then they’d have some mystery show and you’d have to listen to the radio station to get clues as to where to go.
Well nowadays these kind of secret pop up businesses tend to take to social media to spread the word. Washington DC, New York, San Francisco and other major cities have had an outbreak of “pop up” restaurants. A lot of times chefs will take over an abandoned or closed down restaurant location for a very limited time. This can be a week, a weekend or possibly a month. They do this to either test the waters with their restaurant idea or just as a temporary way to make people crave even more.
Apple, Samsung and other major electronics manufacturers have been known to set up “pop up” stores at major events. Apple set one up at SXSW in 2011 when the iPad 2 was released. Samsung set up pop stores at the Olympics.
Popngoseek is about unique experiences in unique places. They aren’t looking to be your everyday check out the app and see who’s playing platform. They want to be the go to app to find the really cool once in a blue moon events.
Now when your girlfriends call you and tell you about the awesome pop up store or trunk show a designer did, you won’t miss the tweet or the Facebook post.
Popngoseek has taken to indiegogo for their first round of crowdfunding so if you’re one that doesn’t want to miss out on unique events, you should support these guys here.
We got a chance to interview the team behind Popngoseek. Check out the interview below:
What is Popngoseek?
We are building a a website / App to connect people to different unique events that are near them that they might have not know about. We found that it is hard for busy people to keep up on all of their social feeds to find out where these new Food Trucks, Popup Restaurants, clothing stores or events are going to be. Especially if they are a mobile business. We are going to give people who want to know about these one place to find it all, vote on what they like and share with their already established social networks. For the businesses they are going to go beyond just sending social messages on where they are. We are going to allow them to build a custom page for free. They will be able to give details about them customers can post reviews to the page if the business lets them and it will host all their social feeds on their page. If the businesses are to busy to create their page we can do it and yes all of this is free for the businesses.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
The founder and the concept creator is Tim Obarski. Tim has spent the last 10 years in the digital space working in Advertising agencies, Web development companies and in house for brands. He has consulting on numerous web projects concerning concept, design, marketing and user experience.
Where are you based?
We are currently based in Vermont with Plans to open a New York City and California office.
What is the startup culture like where you are based?
The start up culture in Vermont is a thriving one. It seems like when someone makes a go of there project the community is usually there to help support what they are doing.
What problem does your startup solve?
We take the not know the Who, What, When and Where out of the picture so people can find out about these great businesses and events that they might not have know about.
What is one challenge that you’ve overcome in the startup process?
The platform concept. Offering something that is easy for these busy people to use. Another challenge is simply letting the businesses know that they can do this for free.
Who are your mentors and role models?
There are quite a few but I shouldn’t start naming names because of the fear of leaving someone out.
Whats one thing the world doesn’t know about you or your startup?
You don’t have to have the biggest office with the best toys to be mighty and create a great user experience and something useful for these businesses.
What’s next for Popngoseek?
After this round of funding we are planning to move into full development and launch of the site and app in the U.S and Japan. This is one of the hardest parts with out the support from all of these businesses we are trying to promote this project is not going to live up to its potential.
Linkage:
Support them at indiegogo here
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