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Twin Cities Startup: Peerparazzi Tagging Photos At A Whole New Level

Photo apps are now just about a dime a dozen. Many startups think they’re innovating in the photo space, but come to find that another six startups have had the same idea. Tagging photos for social reasons isn’t a new idea. In fact we just reported on Brooklyn startup Kapture that allows you to take pictures, on assignment, tag them and become a “brand ambassador” for rewards.

A new startup in St.Paul Minnesota is looking to maximize tagging in a social photo app. The startup is called Peerparazzi.

Peerparazzi says they provide an exciting new picture taking and social experience. Everything in the photo can be tagged, the people, places and things. Tagging photos within Peerparazzi allows you to automatically send the photos to the people that are in them.

On the business side, businesses can claim themselves in photos so that tags become interactive. A tag for a Wendy’s or McDonald’s could send a user to an interactive promotion. A tag for a shopping mall could send out a daily deal. A tag for a museum could send a user to a website.

Peerparazzi founder Damen Johnson believes that people are more likely to interact with product photos shot by their friends and family rather than just regular advertising.

We got a chance to talk with Johnson about Peerparazzi. Check out the interview below:

Failing Gracefully: Minnesota Startup Altsie Closes It’s Doors

Back in April we brought you an interview with Lucas Rayala, the founder of Minnesota startup Altsie. Altsie provided a new socially charged way for independent movie go-ers to enjoy independent films.

Altsie built partnerships with independent film producers and local businesses to show movies in their establishments. The platform brought more customers to local businesses, let independent film fans comingle with each other and served as a platform for independent film producers to have their movies screened.

Back in April it seemed that things were chugging along for Rayala and Altsie. Altsie was showing films in the Twin Cities, getting press from the likes of Paul Carr at Pando Daily, and Rayala had even had the chance to meet with Tony Hsieh at the Downtown project in Las Vegas.

But two years creating Altsie and 8 months running it was taking a toll on Rayala’s psyche all the way around. He writes in this piece at techcrunch.com that he was overweight for the first time in his life, he was losing touch with his new wife Kathryn, and he was smoking more and drinking more.

While many of us startup go-hards constantly try to one up each other with stories about sleeping on floors, eating ramen or not sleeping at all, startup life can take it’s toll.

To compound these issues for Rayala, he also continued to work a full time job which meant in between contacting movie distributors, venues, designers, customers and friends he actually had a job to do.

Unlike many startup founders Rayala found it inside himself to gracefully exit, and shut down Altsie. He could have kept going, but he made the conscious decision to say enough is enough. Often times this is one of the hardest things for a startup founder or entrepreneur to do.

In an email to his cofounders Rayala wrote:

“I’m folding up Altsie. It’s been a great experience but we didn’t get the outside interest I was hoping for, and I want to end things neatly instead of bludgeoning a great project to death over time. Want to have a postmortem beer?”

Do you know when to say when?

Read Rayala’s personal account of “Killing Your Startup On A Thursday Night” here at TechCrunch.com

Linkage:

Our interview with Rayala

Source: TechCrunch

Startups “everywhere else” , this event will provide you with the most facetime with investors, ever!

Startup Spotlight: Minnesota’s Altsie A New Way To Watch Indie Films

Nibletz takes pride in being the startup voie for “Everywhere Else” as such we love bringing you stories about startups from everywhere under the sun, especially startups that are doing something uniquely different and uniquely fun. Altsie is one of those startups.

Altsie hails from the Twin Cities. It’s about socially mixing indie films, but not online, offline. How’s that for a change. Of course you use a website to find out where to go but after that it’s a fully immersive experience with you, the movie, the venue and the attendees.

Lucas Rayala and co-founder Joe Dolson launched Altsie in the twin cities with plans to refine the experience and then roll it out at other areas across the country, but what is it exactly?

Here’s how it works. You go to the Altsie website which will tell you what the current movie is for that month. Rayala curates the movies himself through relationships with indie film producers. They then partner with a venue which agrees to host the film. It could be a sports bar that’s trying something different for a night or a coffee shop or anywhere in between.

More after the break
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