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Great companies are made up of great people. Finding those great people is hard. Very hard. Sometimes however, serendipity is on your side. A couple of months ago we bumped into Potsie at a hackathon she was participating in here in San Francisco, while we were both getting snacks during a break. From that first meeting, to the interview, to the final interview … we had a strong feeling that we found our fifth employee. Potsie is an insanely talented designer, has shipped her own iOS apps, and has a strange knack for winning hackathons. We’re extremely lucky to have her joining our team, and are excited to put another key puzzle piece in place as we continue making Localmind the most useful app you have on your phone.
Great companies are made up of great people. Finding those great people is hard. Very hard. Sometimes however, serendipity is on your side. A couple of months ago we bumped into Potsie at a hackathon she was participating in here in San Francisco (while we were both loading up on snacks). From that first meeting, to the interview, to the final interview … we had a strong feeling that we found our fifth employee.
Potsie is an insanely talented designer, has shipped her own iOS apps, and has a strange knack for winning hackathons. We’re extremely lucky to have her joining our team, and are excited to put another key puzzle piece in place as we continue making Localmind the most useful app you have on your phone.
Three interesting things about Potsie:
- She can’t go on the Bay Bridge (afraid of heights)
- Her favorite people are 2 feet tall (her niece and nephew)
- She loves Los Angeles (blasphemy here in SF)
Localmind for Android users, meet your new best friend:
Nick hails from the wondrous lands of Vancouver, British Columbia where he studies Computer Engineering at The University of British Columbia. His degree program sets aside time to work at a company of his choosing, and, lucky for us, we snagged him. Since moving to San Francisco just last week, he’s been hard at work on the Localmind Android app. Nick is a passionate Android enthusiast and developer, so his #1 focus will be forging an app to make us proud. (His #2 focus will be trying to learn the ways of wacky Americans.) He’s already hard at work. We expect big things from Nick and are super excited to have him on the team!
Three interesting things about Nick:
- He’s a golfer
- He builds robots for fun
- His first visit to California was the day he moved here to work for Localmind!
P.S. A big THANK YOU to Atlee, David, and Michael at the C100 for helping us find Nick!
Dave Olson found a perfect opportunity to use Localmind in Kelowna, British Colombia to save hours on his commute:
“I’ve been a LocalMind user for a while but mostly just answering questions and checking in. However, I recently had an opportunity to experience the real power behind Localmind. A collapsing overpass, resulted in brutally slow bridge traffic between Kelowna and West Kelowna. I had tried earlier in the afternoon to get across the bridge but it took me nearly an hour to go one block and I still wasn’t near the bridge so I gave up and went home. I tried without success to get some updated information by googling and checking the local news and twitter feeds but then I remembered Localmind. I quickly found a user who had checked in on the bridge within the past hour and asked what the traffic was like. He gave me great feedback and even pointed out that the left lane seemed to be moving quicker than the right lane. So based on his information, I headed back across the bridge and took the left lane. It only took me 40 minutes to get across although I had from others that it had taken up to 3.5 hours to cross the bridge. Without the time-sensitive feedback from a Localmind user I would not have been able to time my trip to beat the traffic.”
Thanks Dave! There’s nothing like getting the real scoop on what traffic is like from people stuck in that traffic right now.
Black Friday has come and gone. Through the crowds, empty shelves, and stressed nerves, Localmind was there. Hundreds of eager shoppers used Localmind to figure out where to go, what to avoid, and when to call it a night.
For this momentous festival of commerce, we ran a contest looking for the best answers to questions sent that day. We were blown away by the response! The winners of the contest have been contacted. If you haven’t been contacted, better luck next time, and hang tight for more contests in the future.
Check out some of our favorite responses throughout the day below. Enjoy!
Apple Stores were always big draws:
If you weren’t there at midnight, you usually missed out on the big-ticket items:
Simple things can yield the biggest rewards:
Leave the kids at home! Black Friday is a war zone:
Or maybe it’s not even worth leaving the house?
But there were bright spots:
Even indie shops went all out:
Gross:
And we close with some sage advice:
Thank you again to all our contestants!
Avoid the lines, save time, and win an iPad®!
Use Localmind to find the shortest lines and the best deals around town. As a special promotion for Black Friday, when you check in and answer any question this coming Friday, you will become eligble to win fabulous prizes. Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up
If haven’t already, grab the Localmind app and sign up. No iOS device? That’s OK! See below.
2. Connect Foursquare®
Connect your Foursquare account to Localmind (under Profile/Settings).
3. Check in
Check in with Foursquare anywhere you shop on Black Friday (11/25/2011).
4. Answer and Win!
The best answers on Black Friday win!
The holidays can get busy. Localmind is here to help.
Use Localmind to find the shortest lines, locate the hard-to-get items on your shopping list, route around traffic, and participate in the holiday fun in your community. This contest is just an example! We’ll be paying attention to all the creative ways people use Localmind this season, and the best ones will go on our blog.
On Friday, check out all the Black Friday activity at http://www.localmind.com/blackfriday2011:
The rules:
- We’ve giving away an iPad 2, an iPod Touch, and a $50 Apple gift certificate for the three best answers to Localmind questions on Black Friday 2011 (11/25/2011).
- Answer as many questions as you like, but you are only eligible to win one prize.
- You must share the answer on Twitter (tap the Twitter icon before submitting your answer).
- Answers will be judged on: creativity, quality of the answer (a photo attached to the answer is highly encouraged!), how quickly the answer is received, and how many times other Twitter users re-tweet your answer.
- If you do not have an iPhone, or do not receive a question, simply tweet a photo of a crowd with a mention of “@Localmind” and “#blackfriday” to enter the contest.
- Entries will be judged by their creativity and how well they capture the frenzy of Black Friday, so writing a Perl script to sign up a thousand Foursquare and Localmind accounts will not increase your chance of winning. (Localmind likes the way you think, though; have you perused our jobs page lately?)
- Apple® is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion. iPad® and iPod touch® are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
- Complete contest rules can be found here.
Happy Holidays from Team Localmind, and good luck!
You told us what you wanted, and we’re delivering!
Download the latest version of Localmind iOS, hot off the presses. This is only the first in a series of releases that bring together everything we’ve heard from you since the day we launched Localmind. Stay tuned for a lot more over the next couple of months. Seriously. When you see where we’re going, we know you’ll be as excited as we are.
You want answers?
The new Localmind has a brand new tab dedicated to just that: Answers. We heard that you want answers, but don’t always want to ask a question. This new tab allows you to browse answers to questions asked in your neighborhood or anywhere else around the world, simply by panning and zooming the map.
Looking for the best shopping downtown? Move the map to downtown, select “Shops,” and see answers instantly. Looking for outdoor fun in SF? Move the map to cover SF, select “Parks & Outdoors,” and see what local experts are suggesting. We’re planning to do a lot more with this tab, so stay tuned.
You want to know more about experts?
We heard that you found Localmind experts around your city extremely helpful, but you wanted to know more about who these experts were. We (inadvertantly) did a great job hiding this information in previous releases. No more! Tap on a venue to see who has leveled up to a Localmind Expert there. Get a sense of who will be receiving your question if you were to ask about that venue. Learn more about your local community, and find people with similar interests.
You want to know why you got a question?
Ever get a Localmind question, and wonder why you got it? Not any more. From now on, every time you receive a question, we’ll explain why Localmind determined you were the most likely user to give a good answer. We’re starting very simple here, but we plan to give you more and more control over what kind of questions you want to answer.
There’s more? Yes!
- Privacy controls: Show your profile to other Localmind users only when you want to
- Improved performance: Major improvements! The app will be much snappier, especially the map
- Refreshed interface: A brighter, happier, look
- If you’ve read this far down: See if anything happens if you shake the map a few times …
This is only the first step in series of very cool releases. We have some extremely exciting things coming, many of which have been a long time in the making. We’re so excited about all of the things that are finally coming together, and we can’t wait to show them to you. That’s all we can say for now, so stay tuned!
Tracy Lee, founder and CEO of the scrumptious Dishcrawl, recounts her recent chocolatey experience with Localmind at Trader Joe’s:
It’s that time of season when I crave holiday sweets. I was daydreaming of those chocolate calendars at Trader Joe’s, and I opened Localmind to see if anyone knew if they were there. I got two responses, including one from my friend @marshmelones! I didn’t even know she was on Localmind! Localmind saved me a good hour of driving to TJ’s to see if my precious chocolate calendars were there. :)
That’s one less hour driving and one more hour with that sweet, sweet chocolate.
Not for long!
We’ve been asked to present at the upcoming Under the Radar conference (in Mountain View on Nov 10th), where we’ll be a part of the Fast Pitch session.
How we expect it to go
We’re big fans of Under the Radar, and of the incomparable Debbie Landa who founded the conference. We’re honored to be a part of it this year, and we can’t wait to spread the word that is Localmind.
