Local Co-founders Of Positive Social Media App Raise Money Quickly On Kickstarter
Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Mark Anderson
Photo: Tech 2U founders John Worthington, at left, and Todd Fiore are launching social media app Sircles. (Courtesy of Tech 2U)
A crowdfunding effort by a pair of Sacramento entrepreneurs exceeded its $20,000 minimum goal in less than three hours Thursday, raising capital for the development a new social media network focused on providing positive recommendations for restaurants and other businesses.
John Worthington and Todd Fiore said in a news release that they plan to launch their app, called Sircles, in September. Worthington and Fiore previously started the Sacramento-based computer repair and information technology business Tech 2U.
The money raised through the campaign on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter will be used to fund the development of Sircles, Worthington and Fiore said. By Friday morning, they had raised more than $33,000 — and the campaign continues through April 20.
“People love this product. When it comes to the messaging, this is what people are begging for,” Worthington said in an interview. “Social media has really let people down because there is so much negativity, bullying and even fake news.”
The premise of Sircles is that it will be inherently positive, because users would only recommend things they like, Worthington said.
“This is our attempt to fix what’s broken with social media,” he said.
Worthington expects Sircles to be used to recommend restaurants, movies and retail outlets, among other things. Users will be able to earn points by making recommendations, and points will be redeemable for discounts at participating businesses.
Tech 2U fixes computers and acts as an external IT department for businesses. The 15-year-old firm has 11 locations and 100 employees, Worthington said.
Tech 2U has already invested about $400,000 in the development of Sircles so it can scale up very quickly, he said. Worthington said that the investment was on the lean side, since Tech 2U employees did the development.
The company is going to use the money raised from Kickstarter to continue development, Worthington said.
“They say success is 98 percent preparation and 2 percent doing it. That’s what we did with Kickstarter,” Worthington said. “We had a professional video made. We had graphics, and we had the campaign done two months ago.”
Sircles will be free for consumers to download and use, and will offer subscriptions to businesses that want a presence on the site.
Posts on Sircles will be visible to a user’s network, which Worthington expects is likely to consist of friends and family.
“You trust your friends and your family. Why would you take recommendations from strangers?” he said.