Sonar Blog

Bing Fund Invests in Sonar!

Big news aboard the sub! We’re excited to tell you about a new relationship we’re kicking off with some fantastic new crewmembers: the folks at Bing Fund! Today we’re announcing that the Microsoft-backed angel fund is making a strategic investment in Sonar.

For the occasion, we’ve created what we believe to be the world’s first ever “Vine-nouncement.” Enjoy! http://vine.co/v/bXZa5BQj7e2

Sonar & Microsoft have done some fantastic events together in the past, including PSFK’s Need to Know at last year’s SXSW, and Social Media Week, Xconomy Mobile Madness and the For Humankind gallery all in New York, so we’re particularly excited to be hooking up with the team at Bing Fund. We’ve found we share quite a lot in common; they too recognize the value of understanding location and social—the intersection of time and place—in providing customers with great experiences. They’ll be great friends to have along on our adventures in helping customers connect with the most relevant people, places and things nearby.

Onward!

What We’re Reading*: Jack Dorsey on Users and Customers, along with a Sonar spin from Intergalactic HQ

Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame wrote a little post on how his new startup, Square, thinks about the distinction between “users” and customers.” We’ve always felt a little awkward calling our Sonar community “users,” something it seems Jack and others in the startup community are also sensitive to. 

Here’s what Jack says:

“The entire technology industry uses the word ‘user’ to describe its customers. While it might be convenient, ‘users’ is a rather passive and abstract word. No one wants to be thought of as a ‘user’ (or ‘consumer’ for that matter). I certainly don’t. And I wouldn’t consider my mom a “user” either, she’s my mom. The word ‘user’ abstracts the actual individual. This may seem like a small and insignificant detail that doesn’t matter, but the vernacular and words we use here at Square set a very strong and subtle tone for everything we do. So let’s now part ways with our industry and rethink this.

The word ‘customer’ is a much more active and bolder word. It’s honest and direct. It immediately suggests a relationship we must deliver on. And our customers think of their customers in the same way.”

(Full blog post here.)

Jack’s conclusion differs from ours - “customer” feels a bit too transactional for the way we feel (and gush!) about you - in large part because we are building a very different product, for a very different set of people. But his point that “users” isn’t quite accurate - that it’s abstract, and therefore a little meaningless - that holds true to Sonar, too. We’re much more interested in calling you, dear Sonar friends, our friends, or fans, (if we may be so bold!), members of our community.

Ultimately, Sonar is all about building connections, keeping in touch, and hanging out with friends. When we think about the folks that have downloaded Sonar, we think about the types of people that make up the Sonar community, the histories they carry, and the stories they share. (And you can read about them in our Sonar spotlight series.) We think of you as members of a community that we hold near and dear to our hearts, because that’s the kind of product we’re building.

Of course, if there’s a nickname you, dear Sonar friends, are coveting, let us know! We’d be happy to oblige. Just as long as it’s not “user.”

Well, That Was Fun: We Launched Sonar for Android, and Lived to Tell the Tale

Hey, hey Substers!

It’s been a couple weeks since our big Android release and now that our champagne hangover has subsided, we thought we’d share highlights. The excitement was contagious—we loved seeing so much love from you all on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Seems there was a lot of anticipation, too… For the entire week of launch we saw an average of a new download every second. Talk about opening the floodgates! So, we’d like to take this opportunity to welcome all the new Android users aboard the sub! We’re so excited to have you join the Sonar fam.

We’d also like to give a huge thanks to Google, who caught wind of our exciting launch and featured us in Google Play as a Staff Pick, where we were also Trending and Featured in tons of international countries and here in the US.

A special shout out to our international friends and users! Your presence on our social media platforms skyrocketed during launch, with Brazil, Mexico, Italy, France and Germany in particular logging some super impressive stats. Much love to all of you.

We’d also love to thank all the reporters who wrote about Sonar and the launch, including folks at Gizmodo, Mashable, The Next Web, InsideMobileApps, Appolicious and the Inside Network. Can’t tell you how much we appreciate the love!

Lastly, the biggest hooray goes to the team, who stayed many a late, late night to make the app look fab and work great, and who, on launch day, went into overdrive, replying to feedback and tweets galore, and welcoming new users with typical Subby flair.

All-in-all we couldn’t be happier, and are super excited for what’s next (and we hope you are too). Onward!

Love and submarines,
the Sonar Crew

Poppin’ Bottles with Little Green Men: Sonar for Android Launches Today!

We spill a lot of ink here telling you about team Sonar, who we are, what we’re up to, and you can see we’re a pretty diverse crew aboard this ol’ submarine. That means it’s extra incredible when we all rally around a super exciting project like the one we’re unveiling today. And so it’s with great pleasure that we announce the release of Sonar in Google Play!

Completely redesigned for the platform and slick-as-can-be, Sonar’s new Android app brings the great friend-finding functionality of Sonar’s here-now social network, and adds a brand new Friends tab, where you can find and chat with any of your Sonar Friends even when they’re not nearby. We’re also adding localization in 6 languages. What a great day to invite all your friends—especially Android-owning international friends!—to join you on Sonar. We’ll wait… go ahead.

Ahem.

So if you’re in New York, swing by Sonar Intergalactic HQ today and you’ll find us raising a glass (or many) to a huge milestone and team effort we’re all incredibly proud to reveal. And be sure to keep an eye out for a special friend hanging around in the Sonar app over the next few days; if you’re seeing little green men, trust us: it’s not just your imagination!

Also, a huge thank you and admiring shout out to two superstar devs who helped out: Mark and Yang!

Happy Sonaring, iPhone and Android users alike!
the Sonar Crew

Subby and Andy Travel the World!

Hey fellow Subby lovers!

September is a big month for us - we’re taking our Android platform from beta to Google Play, and not only that, we’ve been working here to make Sonar available in six other languages. That’s right, Subby is traveling the world, and you can join in!

But we can’t take all the credit for this big win. Without our international friends who have translated, proofread, and perfected our app, none of this would have happened. With that, all of us here at Sonar would like to thank Emmanuel, Edgar, Javaughn, Torsten, Luca, Diogo, Pedro, Omar, Dunja, Akshay, and Sasha, for all of their help in making our app even better.

Thanks to them, we’re so excited to say that Subby is crossing oceans and exploring new places with his BFF Andy. The pair are having a grand old time enjoying a little taste of a big world, and have even sent us some photos of their trip together.

Take a look at some picture perfect postcards from their journey! 

Subby and Andy continue their trip down South to Rio de Janeiro in Brasil to enjoy the beach!

Subby and Andy take their exploration down South in Italy and pose with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We’re jealous of all the pasta they got to feast on!

Subby and Andy finished their exploration out further east in Russia where they visited Saint Basil’s Cathedral!

The Summer @ Sonar!

Dear Sonar friends,

They say that after Labor Day, it might as well be fall, but we’re not ready to give up on summer just yet.  We’re looking forward to apple picking, Halloween candy, Thanksgiving turkey, and catching autumn leaves in all their glory. But before the weather turns crisp, we’ll hold tight the memories of sun and sand as long as we can. Here’s a look back at what we did this summer:

This August:

Our fearless and former intern Wendy organized and hosted a student startup tour for NYC college and MA students interested in startup life. Wendy led a tour of NYC startups Grovo, Oneclipboard, and of course, Sonar Intergalactic HQ. We were pumped to have so many smart students come by and chat with us about the startup scene and what it’s like to work at Sonar.  If you’re an NYC student or startup interested in participating in the future, holler at us!

Speaking of interns, we’ve now said goodbye to our amazing summer interns, Shyam, Jack, Mark, Wendy, and Sundi, and welcomed a new intern, Meghna, who will be helping us out with all things content and community.

Look out for her posts, and if you’d like to be featured in our blog or have a great idea for a post, please get in touch with her! 

Our intern Mark, cutting his farewell cake!

Our most recent adventure this summer? The team retreat to Ocean City, MD, hometown of our CEO Brett Martin. There was corn, crab, and old bay aplenty, accompanied by some quality team time to talk about what makes Sonar, Sonar, and what makes working on a mission to connect friends and future friends so darned great.

Team Retreat in Ocean City, MD!

But enough reminiscing, we’re moving forward with full speed ahead and working on some pretty exciting projects. Keep an eye on our blog - we’ll tell you all about them here, soon enough!

X’s and O’s till then, Sonar friends.

Team Sonar

47 People Checked In, 0 People Checked In

We’ve heard from a few of you, loyal wonderful users, wondering why you sometimes see inconsistencies in the number of people checked in when you open Sonar in a venue. Why does the total number of people in a venue seem different from how many appear as checked in? 

When you look at the list of venues in the Places tab, you’ll see a number next to each venue, representing the number of people currently checked in. This is to give you a sense of how busy each venue is. When you click into the venue, you’ll see friends who are checked in there, but will need to check in yourself if you want to learn about the people there who you are not already connected to. Once you check in you will likely see more people checked in there, but the two numbers still may not match, as some of the check ins may be private or be limited in visibility based on the users’ permissions settings.

We’ve made some changes to adapt to minor modifications in one of the public APIs Sonar is built on, while continuing to re-emphasize friends and connections over those folks who you are not already connected to. This way we tell you as much as we can about your friends nearby first, since that’s what we’ve found many of you care about most!

As always, we appreciate your feedback ever-so-much, and continue to build and tweak features based on the smart thoughts and opinions you share. Please keep it coming! 

How To Rock TechCrunch Disrupt

Howdy! Brett, here. As a 3x veteran of TechCrunch Disrupt (Battlefield runner up + two alumni updates), I hear from a lot of people asking for advice on how to maximize their time on stage. So with Disrupt San Francisco kicking off shortly, I’ve laid out a few thoughts on what you can do before, during, and after your presentation to get the most out of any pitch.

Prologue

Break in. Firstly: how does one even get on stage to start with? Hint: NOT by sending in a blind application and putting your feet up waiting to get picked. That’s the equivalent of sending your business plan to start@sequiacap.com and expecting Roelof Botha to hit you right back. In other words: don’t hold your breath. Start by emailing every single person you know that has ever met anyone at TechCrunch.

Leading up to the event

Define and prepare for success. What do you want to get out of Disrupt? If you’re looking for funding, do you have your documents ready? Customers? Are you set up to accept payment? If you’re gunning for more users, have you built your viral landing page? Be prepared to capitalize on the opportunity that you fought so hard to get.

Practice, practice, practice. This is an obvious one, but it’s surprising how many very smart people mess this up. You probably have more experience writing slick optimization algorithms than keeping your cool in front of 10,000 people, so write out your speech (yes, speech). Once you’ve memorized it practice it for everyone that will listen. Twice. If you are looking for inspiration, this guy was pretty good.

Eliminate contingencies. Are you seriously going to have wi-fi problems on game day? Be like Steve and have plans B and C ready.

Leverage your airtime. Your time on stage is a valuable asset. If you are trying to lock down partnerships or customers, consider dangling the carrot of mentioning them on stage. We used our time on stage to help score a fantastic, early partnership with Media Temple that served as a reference for subsequent deals.

Game Day

If you are new to tech like I was, Disrupt will be your introduction to everyone that matters in your industry. You’ve got this.

Sell the dream, not the app. People watch Disrupt because they are genuinely interested in technology; how is yours going to change their lives? Crystal clear, real world use cases will win over the audience; five minutes of poking around on your half-baked app will not.

Go big or go home. The absolute worst thing to do with your six minutes is to squander it on a perfectly safe, completely forgettable presentation. You are competing not only with 30 other hungry startups, but Twitter, dwindling attention spans, and hangovers. Getaround beat us by having their really smart, hot, coder/co-founder Jessica Scorpio roll up on stage in a red sports car that she opened up with her own app. Respect.

Be confident during Q&A, not obtuse. It is a privilege to receive live feedback from anyone, let alone from the brightest minds in tech. Don’t blow the opportunity by being defensive and pigheaded. Listen to and internalize what the judges say before responding. If you don’t have a clear rebuttal, it’s totally OK to simply say “Thanks.”

Be strategic about who you meet. Make a list of everyone you want to meet and decide exactly what you want to say to them. Use Sonar to see who’s there and set up meetings to tell everyone you can about your product and your vision. Spend plenty of time hanging out backstage; you earned the right to be there! Prolong your video interview with Jordan or Colleen, high-five Eldon, psyche out, er, compare notes with the competition, schmooze the speakers and judges. Meet Greg Barto. That guy rules.

Party like a rockstar. This may be the closest you ever get to being one.

Post Pitch

Drop it while it’s hot. You won’t be at the center of the tech universe forever — leave it all on the table. We’ve adhered to a strict “ask for forgiveness, not permission” strategy. There may have been Sonaritas served; there may have been blatant on-stage recruiting; there may have been commandeering of demo tables in high traffic areas that we had no claim to (love you, Peter & Leslie!); there may have been party crashing. Just do it with a smile and always say thank you.

Don’t believe the hype. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor will be your company. Don’t let the buzz get to you. What separates the real winners from losers are the founders that keep their heads on their shoulders, stay focused, and keep shipping.

Thanks for listening. Good luck and get after it. 

Sonar Spotlight: Diogo Da Silva

Sonar Spotlight: Diogo Da Silva

We’ve been tweeting a lot looking for foreign language speaking Sonar lovers to help test our recently Android beta app. Diogo Da Silva has been a great help with the Portuguese translations and he’s the focus of our Sonar Spotlight today!

Pleasure to meet you! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi! My name is Diogo Da Silva. I’m a 26 year old entrepreneur, native of Portugal, currently living in Germany. I worked for a company called BetaFabrik (an organization that funds and fosters startups), was the business developer for a startup called UPDT, and the product manager for another startup called NextLevel. Currently, I’m trying to launch my own startup.

That’s awesome. So how did you find Sonar?
I was reading an article on TechCrunch and was intrigued so I downloaded the app and began to use it. I’ve also seen it featured on Fox and other blogs.

What do you use Sonar for? Business, socializing, or both?
I use Sonar primarily at business conferences. I often attend those on my own and Sonar makes it easy for me to connect with other people that are in the same room as me. At conferences, I’ve seen people on Sonar that were nearby and had similar Twitter interests and was able to start conversations with them. I’ve also found it useful on vacations because not only can I check in and show my other friends where I am in the world, but also I can see if any of my friends’ friends are vacationing in the same area as well! 

What are you favorite Sonar features?
I really like that you can see who has checked in near you regardless of whether or not they’re a Sonar user. That way, if I see a friend of a friend and they don’t have Sonar, I can invite them to use the app and chat with me. 

How do you think Sonar is changing how people connect in today’s world? 
Sonar is part of a technological revolution that is changing how people are connecting with one another. With Sonar, connecting with friends who are nearby is easy with a push notification. It also allows you to connect to people that are in your extended friend groups (Facebook) or are interested in the same things you are (Twitter). In today’s world, networking is key to becoming successful and Sonar is a great tool for that. Sonar gives me information about my surroundings that I couldn’t uncover otherwise.

Thanks Diogo for letting us interview you and we hope that you experience success with your new startup and that Sonar can help you get there!