Collegiate Times

Image: 2012-05-30 17:05:08

“We don’t even know on the server side,” Marusco said. “We wanted to make sure not to send up the exact locations. Even people who don’t use Roundpop will still show up, because they have entered their current location on Facebook. But they don’t get to enjoy the features of the app.

“We want the user to feel that they’re in control and we’re not freaking them out. We provide something that we hope is not ordinary.”

Pulak said the intention for the app right now is for high school and college graduates to use as their friends move to various places.

“Eventually we want to incorporate your interests and have those pop up on your map,” Pulak said. “We don’t want to overload users with ads.”

Jennifer Marits Plank, a Roundpop Facebook member, asked on the page if an Android version of Roundpop would be available soon.

“We’ve had money saved up, but hopefully somebody that really likes it will invest, so we can take a step to get an android version,” Pulak said. “So next, we want to get an Android version and add more features.”

The creators said they also aspire celebrities and sports teams to use Roundpop in the future through the broadcast feature.

“The broadcast feature is like our messaging system,” Marusco said. “Let’s say you follow Barack Obama, and he travels to New York and puts it on Roundpop with a status about a campaign rally he’s doing. It will then go out to his followers in that zip code.

“With this, you don’t have to check all of his tweets or blog posts. It let’s your favorite things come to you.”

Marusco said the celebrity aspect was part of the inspiration for the name.

“Pop was the idea of celebrities and teams using it without having people flood where they are specifically,” he said. “It makes it sound cutesy and reminds you of a childish thing that is there to help you out.

“Round is from those around you. And in the app, if there are a lot of people in one area, it puts them in one circle.”

Roundpop was live and available for free on the app store May 16. Now, the recent graduates are traveling to promote their creation.

“We’re trying to be evangelical of our app,” Marusco said. “The first thing we want to do is to get it out and let it get traction.”

Pulak said the most important thing about social networks is how may users there are. Their main focus right now is letting people know it is available.

He said this is why they are adamant to find an accelerator or investor that is willing to nurture their business and allow them to expand.

“They’re willing to take that chance with us because they believe in us,” Pulak said. “They’re long-term thinkers and don’t just care about how much money it will make them by next year.”

As far as advice goes, Marusco had one simple idea in mind.

“Do not be afraid to make mistakes, that’s one of the biggest things that we learned,” he said. “The communication aspect of it is a whole other beast that we had no knowledge of how to do.”

As they attempt to tackle the marketing and advertising aspect of a business, Roundpop is capturing attention through social media. The Facebook page includes links to posts from The Roanoke Times and the Wired State blog about their product.

Sebastian Misset gave the app five stars in the App Store and reviewed Roundpop as "amazing." He said he would buy it, even it was $5.

App user "Danter 213" also rated it with five stars and said it is easy to use and nice if you can get a group of friends to all have it.

Continue Reading:  « Previous12

A version of this article appeared in the May 31 issue of the Collegiate Times.