This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Fast Society
Quick Pitch: Fast Society is a free iPhone app that groups contacts into an instant, short-term team, combining group text messaging and one-touch conference calling.
Genius Idea: Ever attended a crowded show with a group of friends, only to notice that John-Boy has wandered away to the merch table, Esther (who is shorter than the rest) has been lost in a sea of concert-attending ogres and Marcel has passed out somewhere in the corner? Well, Fast Society is the perfect solution for those crazed, crowded situations.
Fast Society takes the group texting experience to the next level with conference calling as well as geolocation. The other week, we covered GroupMe, a mobile app that lets you create an SMS chatroom on any phone. The app is awesome in its simplicity, but its use-cases are still up for debate. Yes, group texting is fun and useful for a brief period of time, but after a while it either becomes (1) annoying, or (2) forgotten and replaced with another diversion.
Well, Fast Society co-founders Matthew Rosenberg, Michael Constantiner and Andy Thompson set out to fix that issue after attending a Bloc Party concert during which their friends kept getting separated. While group texting would have been helpful in this situation, Rosenberg and Co. wished that they could create a specific group (i.e. the Bloc Party concert-goers) that would be able to converse for a specific time (i.e. the duration of the show). Enter Fast Society.
Fast Society’s more advanced interface makes it a much more useful app than GroupMe. After downloading the app, start by choosing a time frame for your team to be in communication (three hours to three days), and then add friends by searching through your phone book or adding a number. You can add anyone to your team, even if he or she’s on another carrier. People receive text messages alerting them to the creation of the team, and they can choose whether to join (you can also leave at any time by texting “leave”). Upon joining, they enter a kind of text chat room.
During the allotted time period, you can text your team (a process that works much the same as apps like GroupMe), call it via an instant conference call service and easily find and share your location via geolocation. Note: Those using the app can see others as a pinpoint on a map, but geolocation is a lot more barebones when you’re on another device. Still, you can text your location to your Android-using friends as well.
Once time runs out, so does the group, leaving you with a blank slate. That way, you won’t have any annoying text chain forever active on your phone.
Again, it’s a shame that this service is currently limited to iPhone users — at least in the fullest sense of the experience — but co-founder Matthew Rosenberg told us they’re currently developing apps for Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. Once this opens up to other handsets, we can see this service coming in handy for much more than attending shows. From work events to group vacations, Fast Society has the potential to be a real boon to mobile users.
Right now, the current iteration is free, which begs the question: How do Rosenberg and Co. plan to make money?
“The next version of the app is going to have what we are calling ‘powerups’ in app purchases to enhance your experience,” Rosenberg says. “Longer groups, more people, and some other fun stuff I am not quite ready to share.”
Fast Society itself is rather an ambitious effort, as it is currently entirely self-funded. Still, the app managed to snag the role of the official mobile partner of New York’s CMJ Music Festival, which is quite the achievement, and gained the team direct access to their target audience: young, concert-obsessed music fans.
Will you test out Fast Society during your next event, trip or speed metal show?
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Bliz
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Reviews: Android, iStockphoto
More About: android, cmj, fast-society, groupme, iphone, Mobile 2.0, music, spark-of-genius, startup, startup review
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