I recently got a pitch from a San Diego company that has developed a new social media app called Tower, which connects people living in residential towers, dorms, barracks, etc.
I have to be honest: I don't know how successful this is going to be because something similar has already been tried.
Tower sounds a bit like Kinjoe, a locally developed social media networking site that recently joined Friendster and ConnetU in the "Nice Try Memorial Gardens" for defunct social media websites.
Kinjoe was intended to bring strangers together based on common interests but circumscribed within a limited geographic radius. The idea was to connect neighbours so they could meet up to go jogging or practise Tai Chi. The basic (perhaps flawed) assumption here is that people living in residential clusters necessarily want to get know their neighbours.
It's hard enough to get yet another new social media site to fly, but it can be even tougher when it's a Canadian startup because, with the exception of companies like HootSuite, it is tough for Canadian entrepreneurs to raise venture capital in Canada.
Kinjoe simply never caught the interest of venture capitalists. It can even be tough for American startups, which may explain why the folks at Tower aren't even trying to raise venture capital – they are trying to raise money through a direct public offering.
Kinjoe's founder, Emir Aboulhosn, launched the social media network around the same time he launched Roam Mobility which addresses the bill shock that Canadians travelling in the U.S. suffer when they forget to turn their phones on airplane mode or are unaware of just how much it costs to roam in the U.S.
It provides cheap talk, text and data for Canadians travelling in most parts of the U.S., including Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
While Kinjoe would have had to fight literally dozens of other social networking sites for air, Roam was able to take a big deep breath from the moment it was born. Recently – reluctantly – Aboulhosn pulled the on Kinjoe.
"That was a very tough one for me," Aboulhosn told me. "That was my baby.
"We had Vancouverites that really liked the product, but we just couldn't get the additional resources to carry it forward. I think being a Canadian was a little bit of a disadvantage for us."
Roam has an advantage in that it did not need the kind of VC backing that Kinjoe needed: Canadians are happy to pay for this new service.
Roam Mobility is a solution to a problem that most Canadians travelling in the U.S. have experienced. A smaller market, perhaps, but something people will actually pay for, unlike a social media site.
Aboulhosn reached an agreement with T-Mobile in the U.S. to provide coverage for Canadians using Roam SIM cards. All it requires is an unlocked phone. You buy a Roam SIM card for $20, and you then pay about $4 per day for text, talk and data. It includes free long distance to Canada or within the U.S.
You can also buy a basic talk-and-text phone for $50 or a mobile hotspot for $100 that allows you to connect up to five devices (ideal for families with multiple devices.)
For non-Canadian travellers, Roam also sells Ready SIM for anyone travelling in the U.S.
Earlier this month, Roam announced a deal with Best Buy to sell Roam SIM products at 247 Best Buy and Future Shop stores across Canada. That's a pretty significant distribution deal.
Roam Mobility was already available in 7-Eleven stores, Staples and London Drugs. By summer, Aboulhosn said Roam Mobility products will be available in 2,000 retail outlets across Canada.
The company now has 100,000 customers, hopes to hit 200,000 by the end of the year, and is now negotiating with carriers in Europe to launch Roam products for Canadians travelling in Europe.
Had Kinjoe survived to this point, it would now be competing with Tower. Right now, it doesn't look like Roam has any competition at all.
