iFund Bingo: Pelago’s Whrll a Go!
Way back in March at the iPhone SDK Roadmap Event, Steve Jobs brought a little company up on stage called Kleiner Perkins and, more importantly, he brought out Kleiner Perkin’s wallet and waved a nice, crisp $100,000,000 dollar bill in developers’ faces: the iFund.
Well, it’s been a while but it looks like some developers are finally getting a taste of all that green!
First out the gate is Pelago, developers of Whrll, which mashes up map data with — you guessed it! — social network-style location based data from you, your friends, and your network:
Say you’re lost in Las Vegas and need a restaurant recommendation. With iPhone in hand, you can scan the locations of nearby restaurants, just Italian restaurants, or just those recommended by foodie friends.
Everyone (including us!) is saying location-based services could be the next big gold mine for companies like Google, and every start-up and their venture capitalist want to stake a claim and strike it rich.
Apple seems to think so too. Pelago has reportedly set up shop near Infinite Loop, is working with Apple to become a featured app, and has their fingers crossed for more.
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It seems to me that Google Maps already takes care of this. I currently use Google Maps on my MinMob device, and it works awesome. I’m not sure how investing in this particular start-up makes a lot of sense. Frankly, I would rather see a heavier investment in add-on GPS devices (via bluetooth) and the accompanying software.
The problem with Whrrl is that it’s another walled garden that requires millions of people, or at least all of your friends, to sign up in order to make the application worthwhile. How do these startups just not ‘get it’?