Jambo

That’s probably the coolest tagline I’ve seen in a while (although Dennis isn’t doing too bad, with “Corporate America: Where Fun Goes to Die.”)

But, soliciting other Jambo users for hard-core statistics, not bad at all. If anyone can help her, fire up your Jambo client and get in there. Thanks people.

Technorati Tags: jambo, jambonetworks, osx, statistics, mba

D Magazine (the monthly mag for everything Dallas) featured Jambo in its January 2007 issue. Laurie Dent said Jambo was “GPS for the Lonely. A girl walks into a bar - and her next boyfriend gets a text message about her arrival. . . . The application . . . alerts users when someone they might be attracted to is nearby.”
People can use Jambo to solve all kinds of needs (reconnecting with friends, meeting group members nearby, etc.), but it sounds like the dating angle could make bar hopping a lot more fun! So, when you find Mr./Ms. Right through Jambo, please send us your stories, we would love to feature them on our blog. (If you find Mrs. Right, please keep it to your self).

Mother Teresa said “if you can’t help 100 people, then just help one.” Everytime I hear that quote, it gives me goosebumps. Given the roller coast life of a startup, when I need a recharge, my inspiration is Tanya Pinto, who founded a charity this year called Baal Dan to help children in need. Last year, Tanya took a three month sabattical from The Richards Group, the largest independent advertising agency in the U.S., to work for Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta, India. (How many of us actually do something like that?) The experience changed her life and she came back determined to do even more. She discovered that there are over 18 million street children in India. I can’t remember the last time I saw a child living on the street in the U.S., but in India, the number of homeless children is equivalent to the population of Texas.

Inspired by Mother Teresa’s philosophy, Tanya created Baal Dan. . . if you can’t help 18 million children, then just help one. . . Simple, manageable, actionable advice. Start small and work your way up. (Great advice for startups too!).

Given the exchange rate, $50 can can go a long way, so your money can make a meaningful impact. Last year, a friend gave her $50 and she was amazed to learn that it bought 300 pairs of underwear, 100 notebooks, 100 pencils and 2 bags of candy for the kids there. Another thing that makes Baal Dan different from most other charities is her transparency. She involves donors in how the money is used and she will be blogging, podcasting, and vlogging about the impact she makes. Tanya is leaving on Nov. 22 for Calcutta to help these children. I hope that some of you will help make a difference to even one child’s life by donating to Baal Dan too before she goes.

Tanya has also created a group on Jambo for Baal Dan to connect those that are passionate about helping children in need, so join this group to get notified when others that are making a difference are nearby.

Its been a terrific post-season for baseball fans, with plenty of nail-biting playoff games that sometimes went unexpectedly to the team you never imagined. This brings out the best of baseball. For Cardinal fans, its been the most improbably run we have seen in a long time. The numbness from sitting in the stands of the fourth game of the 2004 World Series watching the Red Soxs sweep the Cards, has finally worn off. Its a new day, and the Cardinals are finally World Champions again!!!

This year I wasn’t able to make it to St. Louis for game since I live in Dallas, TX, so I have been glued to the TV cheering them on, which pales in comparison with the adrenaline rush of standing with 40K other Redbirds fans in Busch Stadium. I’ve tried to watch the game at local bars in Dallas, but it doesn’t seem like any of the bars realize its the post season, which is why I rarely saw another Cardinals fan nearby. This year, I plan to change that. I’ve created a group on Jambo for St. Louis Cardinals fans to discover when other fans are nearby, so we never miss a chance to connect with other fans that are nearby, wherever we happen to be. We can meet up, chat about our favorite team, and maybe make plans to watch the next game together. Can you say Repeat?

Yesterday we gave a talk at a UVA class on Entrepreneurship, and had a lot of fun. The interesting thing was that we were in Dallas when we gave the talk. We assembled a poor man’s teleportec, compliments of Skype Video, an isight/ibook and a roll of paper towels. We simply ran my isight cable through the paper towels for a makeshift tripod and then connected to the class via skype - we could see all the students and call on them if they raised their hand to ask a question. The professor on the other end, projected his laptop in the lecture hall so everyone could see us, and ran his audio through the classroom speakers. Here’s what the rig looked like on our end:

Jambo Networks was featured on The Kim Komando Show Cool Site of the Day ! Kim Komando hosts the largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet and is heard on over 450 stations throughout the U.S.

Kim Komando says “Jambo is a different type of social networking site. You can add your networks from sites such as Classmates.com or LinkedIn, a business networking site. Then, you can find members in your area and meet face to face.”

Thank you Kim for featuring us! We got a ton of new members that signed up! For all of you who heard about us from Kim Komando, thank you for joining! We hope you all discover some great connections nearby to meet up face-to-face.

I ran into Blake Burris at a STIRR event in San Francisco last week and we started brainstorming about creating an office space/apartment for startups to stay in and work out of when they travel to Silicon Valley. For the price of a last minute ticket and hotel, you could almost afford an apartment in the Bay area. So, perhaps there is an opportunity to sell fractions or memberships in an office/apartment for non-valley startups to share when they have trips out there. Check out Blake’s post to learn more about how something like this could work.

We were on TV last week in San Francisco, as one of NBC’s TechNow:Websites of the week. Check it out.

Jambo Networks was featured in the New York Times Small Business section on May 1st.

“Chance encounters are the lifeblood of small companies. . . . . Now Jambo Networks is trying to increase the odds of serendipity. Its offering a kind of WiFi radar that helps people find and communicate with potential customers and business partners who are closeby.”

It was a great writeup by David Joachim, so check out the whole story at NY Times .