So your best friend had finally caved and agreed to make the trip up to Boston for a weekend visit. Naturally, you want to show him or her a great time, and wheel around town like you know the Hub–restaurants, museums, tourist spots and all–like the back of your hand.
Sure, you could crawl through the whiney three-star reviews on TripAdvisor or type a generic "things to do Boston" into the ol' search bar. But wouldn't it be great if you could get positive suggestions from the people whose opinions you value (your Beantown friends and other cultured cityfolk) and get the real feel of a destination rather than that PR photo that seems swiped from Google images?
Thankfully, Boston startup Favecast lets you in on your peeps' favorite spots and to-dos about town through easily shareable 30-second video clips, all from a free mobile app.
Founding team members Andrew Hall, Jon Staff, Artyom Shamtsyan and Alex Zito-Wolf began Favecast in February 2013 to foster a positive social video sharing community for urban "adventurers and discoverers." The app, and corresponding web platform, are designed to help people share everything from "an old favorite to a new place you've discovered that you're really excited about," Staff told BostInno, stressing the fact that the short videos are not reviews but rather recommendations for places.
The team wanted to get the inside-scoop from friends, but also find a way to ensure that the recommendation was genuine. "I love to go across town to find the new place... but we lamented the fact that there's so much negativity out there. If you read too far [on a travel or review site], you can and will find something that spoils the experience," explained Staff.
When they came up with the idea for the video aspect, the founders realized they were on to something. "With the right hardware and no negativity, a video suddenly creates a much more authentic recommendation of a place," said Staff. "You get to see the place in real color and in real-time, it's not marketing-driven...it's the next best thing to being there in person."
The first batch of Favecasters seem to agree. The app brought on Harvard and Boston University students for its beta testing last spring, iterated upon the platform and relaunched in September. Favecast has only been available in the App Store for three weeks, but its early adopters have already created and shared thousands of videos with friends and fellow users.
Users can sign in through Facebook, from which they can access the recommendations of, and share videos with, other Favecasters within their pre-existing social circles. In addition to Facebook, users can push their own recommendations over Twitter or send one of the video clips in an email.
Despite the app's quick uptake, the founders are refreshingly unconcerned with maximizing the number of downloads. "The goal is to avoid the temptation to go after tens of thousands of downloads, but rather to find a group of highly engaged people who really get this idea, who are discoverers and sharers," noted Staff.
Staff explained that they are trying to view the company as "software second and community first." Currently, the company is focused on building said community solely within the Boston area. In doing so, Favecast has been hosting events every week within the Greater Boston area. Given that autumn's in the air, Favecasters have gone on local adventures like apple picking and trampolining at SkyZone, along with the traditional posting up at a cool bar.
Want to get in on the action? Download the app and check out Favecast's upcoming community event on the startup's blog.
