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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Pitch
Squeelr brings anonymous microblogging to the iPhone front
By Brendan Lynch
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Matt Mankins is working on two Internet startups while running a bookstore that served as a test for a third — he’s a busy guy.
Mankins’ latest startup is Squeelr, an anonymous microblogging platform made for the iPhone. Mankins, formerly of the MIT Media Lab, got the idea after protesters in Iran sidestepped censorship by using Twitter to organize. Mankins could see the platform being used for anonymous whistleblowing, but he said the Cambridge-based startup is mostly an experiment in the young medium of microblogging. “Sometimes what matters is the information, not who posted it,” he said.
Reading the information without a name listed allows a reader to absorb the information without the filter of the author’s identity.
“That may or may not be a good thing,” he said.
Squeelr also has a business model right off the bat — the startup is charging 99 cents for 5 posts and $5 for 20 posts. The app itself also costs 99 cents, a by product of Apple Inc.’s requirement that apps charging for in-app services must themselves have a cost. Apple has since rescinded the requirement, and the next version of Squeelr will likely be free. Charging per post is also a way to ward off spam, Mankins said. “Money is a useful technology,” he said.
Posts, or “squeels,” will be tagged by time of post and by location. Mankins expects future versions of the Squeelr software may focus more heavily on the location-based technology. The app is also integrated with the iPhone’s camera, so a user can take a photo and post it directly to the stream.
The bookstore, Lorem Ipsum Books, meanwhile, isn’t doing so well. Mankins said sales have been down dramatically since the recession started. The bookstore started as a test case for another startup called Ka-Zam Bookseller Software, which MHT wrote about in 2007. The startup, which made inventory control management software for bookstores, is on hiatus, Mankins said.
“Bookstores themselves don’t have the time to come up for air to be able to install something,” he said.
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Cambridge
Web: www.squeelr.com
Email: squeelr@squeelr.com
Twitter: @squeelr
Employees: 1
The Pitch: Mankins is launching an iPhone app for anonymous microblogging.
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