Got Klout? Now You Can Get Into The American Airlines First Class Lounge

American Airlines,startups,startup tips,Klout,Klout PerksThe “new” American Airlines has been doing a lot these days to come out of an airlines typical “business traveler” comfort zone. They are the only domestic airline that’s supporting startups at the ground level.  Through a variety of partnerships and a nationwide team devoted to small business, and specifically startups, American Airlines is promoting their BusinessExtrAA program to the business leaders of tomorrow.

Their efforts to help startups don’t just end with an extra layer of rewards, the American Airlines team that’s working with startups is routinely found at startup events, job fairs and even hackathons. At these events they’re telling people about American’s programs but also mentoring and providing sound business advice to entrepreneurs both young and old.

Paul Swartz, who heads the airline’s small business and startup outreach in the north east, is routinely found taking office hours at events. We saw him spend countless hours talking with startup founders and entrepreneurs at CES 2013, and at SXSWi. One founder at SXSW told us that during his office hours consultation they talked about marketing, and brand loyalty.

Now American Airlines has decided to beef up their social outreach. Sure they’ve had a Twitter account that tweets out business tips, blog posts and customer service tips, but now American Airlines wants to reach influencers.

ourkloutThrough a unique partnership with Klout, American Airlines is now offering 1 day access passes to their first class Admiral’s Club lounge for those with high Klout scores. The best part is, you can get the benefit and hang out in the lounge, even if you fly on a different airline that day (we’re not sure why you would want to).

From experience the Admiral’s club lounge typically has great wifi, comfortable workspace, workstations with printers and desk tops, a variety of snacks, soda, beer and wine and it’s all free. Many of the Admiral’s club lounges have favorable views of the tarmac, gates and runways and they make for a great escape while waiting on a layover. In some of the bigger airports, the Admiral’s lounge offers private call areas and lounge furniture so you can catch a quick nap.

There is no restriction on the Klout perk for more information you can visit klout.com and for info on American Airline’s BusinessExtrAA program click here.

We flew American to NY for TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, Here are over 30 startup stories from Disrupt.

Miami Startup: Sumpto It’s Like Klout For College Students, But Better INTERVIEW

Klout is still a big mystery to most, how do you get those crazy Klout scores. If you know how it’s really calculated feel free to send me an email. Klout Perks is a great program that puts manufacturers products into peoples hands. They presumably want the cream of the crop when it comes to Klout, but we have no idea who that really is.

Sumpto is looking to do something along those lines when they launch next week. They’re going to match products to college students with influential social graphs. Sumpto will rank a college students social clout (with a c not a k) and then link manufacturers with college brand ambassadors who can presumably get the word about those products out to the masses.

Manufacturers love it when they can get exposed to people with real influence. Ranking that influence can be a challenge but Sumpto’s Founder and President Ben Kosinski seems to have figured out the magic formula. Yes, Sumpto’s partners will most likely reach the hands of the right people. 

The college demographic is a hard one to crack, with free stuff though it may be easier. When you add the free stuff to an exclusive layer of folks, your destined to gain exposure down the lines to the masses. That’s exactly what Sumpto is going to do.

We got a chance to interview Kosinski check out the interview below:

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Minneapolis Startup: Wahooly Giving Away Equity At Chicago Tech Week 2012 VIDEO INTERVIEW

Wahooly has had a lot of buzz lately. Their model which has been described by many as Kickstarter meets Klout, encourages social rockstars to mobilize and support startups for an equity stake.  As serial entrepreneurs, Wahooly co-founders Dana Severson, and Connor Hood know that the hardest thing for startups to do is gain traction, especially startups “everywhere else (that’s one reason we’re even here).

So what is this novel model and how does it work?

Well Wahooly takes social media influencers who sign up and presents 200 startups to the influencer per year. If in 12 months you decide to “invest” your social media influence in each of the 200 startups, then you’ll actually own an equity stake in all 200 of those startups. The best part is you’re leveraging your influence, not your dollars.


Startups who use Wahooly set up testing groups between 5k and 8k people. Up to 8% equity is set aside for this group. The group of influencers are asked to “Promote, Improve and Engage” and also give guidance and feedback in exchange for the equity. You may think that 5k to 8k people with Wahooly being a startup themselves, is a lot. Well Wahooly already has 30,000 influencers signed up in their capped beta. They also have a pretty hefty wait list brewing.

As for startups, there are 450 or so signed up to date.

We got to talk with an enthusiastic Severson at Chicago TechWeek. Naturally because of our mutual love of startups “everywhere” we hit it off and Wahooly was one of the first companies on our list to see at TechWeek. Their booth was buzzing though so it took hours to get some face time with Severson. Below is that video interview.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linkage:

Find out more about Wahooly here

See more of our Chicago Tech Week coverage here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”