This weekend, one Denver company chose SXSW, an annual smorgasbord of music, film and interactive enthusiasts, as the site of its launch.
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Lasso, as it’s called, is a request-based network across which users can request items to be shared from their contacts. The theory is that people are too inundated by their own content, that they don’t always know what exactly to share with others. Founded by the creator of Photobucket, Alex Welch, Lasso functions on the premise that asking for digital content from your friends means you’re more likely to get what you want. Currently, Lasso allows users to request photos, while other content types will become available in the future.
So far, Lasso has raised seed funding from angels, in addition to discovery funds from Trinity Ventures and Greylock.
Along with the former Photobucket CEO, Lasso’s team includes two technical co-founders, Chad Podoski and Jason Skicewicz, as well as three Denver-based design and development employees.
We got Welch to tell us a bit more about Lasso and his connection to Denver.
What does Lasso do?
Lasso is a request-based sharing network that allows you to get the information you want from the sources that matter most to you. Today, the focus is on photos for two main reasons; first off, it builds trust in a network given that photos are personal. Secondly, it is very utilitarian to quickly share photos back and forth. Oh, I'd argue a third which is we all understand photos given our backgrounds. Every single day we use email, SMS or some form of communication to say "Hey, when you get a minute can you send me XYZ?" More times than not, you don't get exactly what you are asking for, and in many cases never get anything at all.
How did the idea for Lasso come about?
When looking at the vast array of sharing apps out there, they are all broadcast-based. Given the huge amount of information coming at us every day, it is getting harder to find the information that you want. We decided to flip the model on its head and let the person wanting information/photos to define who, what and when they want it from...so it is very easy for the person having the content to quickly approve what gets shared.
For example, I know a friend is somewhere specific during a specific timeframe because I saw this on a social network like Facebook, a checkin site like Foursquare, or they told me directly. Mobile devices and digital cameras attach information to photos known as "meta-data". This meta-data is embedded within the camera roll or photo library on your devices (both mobile and PC). Lasso allows you to see how many photos were taken for a specific date or date range so that there is confidence in asking for them. This leads to huge satisfaction when I quickly get what I want.
What need does Lasso satisfy?
Think of Lasso as the way to quickly get information that is specific to you, and in a personal and trusted way. If somebody uses Lasso to say they want photos from my ski trip last weekend, and the app pulls up my camera roll pre-filtered only showing photos I captured during that timeframe; I have no excuse but to simply select the photos I want to give them. We all capture so many photos and choose to only share out a very small handful. However we usually have no problem sharing out the other photos we have if someone specially asks for them. Using Lasso, you can easily which photos go to which people. We also believe that a request/offer based approach will lead to a much quicker and more satisfying experience.
It appears you are already live in the App Store. Why are you expanding to Google Play and the Mac App Store?
When launching apps publically, it is very important to make sure the app works and gets good ratings right out of the gate. We have quietly iterated on version 1.0 for iOS and have applied those learnings to Android. Information (photos) are stored in many different places including mobile phones, PCs and the cloud. Making it very simple to fulfill requests from anywhere is important.
Why are you based in Denver?
I am a native of Colorado, and there is a very smart talent pool right here. I also find that there are advantages to not being drowned in the typical Valley buzz. We try to build products that solve real world challenges that apply to the mainstream audience.
Visit Lasso's website.
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