Difference between revisions of "LikeALittle"
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=== Prasanna Sankaranarayanan === | === Prasanna Sankaranarayanan === | ||
| − | Prasanna Sankaranarayanan is from Chennai, India. He previously worked for Google and Microsoft Bing before winning first place in the TopCoder competition. Additionally, he is the youngest person to ever finish as a finalist in the Google Code Jam. | + | Prasanna Sankaranarayanan is from Chennai, India. He previously worked for Google and Microsoft Bing before winning first place in the TopCoder competition. Additionally, he is the youngest person to ever finish as a finalist in the Google Code Jam. <ref>http://startuphoodlum.com/tag/topcoder/</ref> |
== Ethical Issues == | == Ethical Issues == | ||
Revision as of 16:56, 30 November 2011
LikeALittle is a company based in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 2010 by Evan Reas, Shubham Mittal, and Prasanna Sankaranarayanan. It is a "flirting-facilitator platform" that allows users to anonymously discuss possible love interests in a specific area[1]. In the first six weeks of its operation, it generated 20 million pageviews. Since its release, it has created two websites and released a mobile phone application.
Contents
History
LikeALittle was founded on October 27th, 2010 as LikeALittle.com by Evan Reas, Shubha Mittal, and Prasanna Sankaranarayanan; the initial coding for the site was produced in under a day. It achieved national attention when it hit virality via social networks, such as Facebook.com, and attracted 20 million pageviews in its first six weeks.
In early 2011, LikeALittle received $1,000,000 in Angel funding[2].
On June 30, 2011, LikeALittle received $5,000,000 in Series A funding[2].
As of October 2011, LikeALittle is still in its initial growth phase.
The company's long-term goal is to achieve maximum growth and generate dynamic mobile phone-based leads for revenue.
Products and Services
lal.com
LikeALittle's first website was LikeALittle.com, which is now lal.com. Each campus has its own subpage, typically of the form LAL.com/[school name].
On lal.com, users can anonymously post "flirts" about someone that they find attractive, complete with location and their physical appearance. To promote a positive and fun environment, users are given temporary fruit names to identify users within a thread or conversation. A chat feature is included, as is the ability to privately message the author of a flirt.
people.lal.com
LikeALittle's next website, people.lal.com, stripped a layer of anonymity from their initial project. The company gave users the ability to sync their Facebook profiles with their people.lal.com profile. The site combines GPS technology from mobile phones and IP addresses with users' interests via their Facebook profile. The resulting service provides a user with other users who have similar interests AND are in close proximity to them.
Founders
Evan Reas
Evan Reas was a valedictorian at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2007, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University in 2009.
Shubham Mittal
Shubham Mittal was a valedictorian at India Institute of Technology. He was also a gold medalist at the International Physics Olympiad, and worked at Google and Microsoft before joining LikeALittle.
Prasanna Sankaranarayanan
Prasanna Sankaranarayanan is from Chennai, India. He previously worked for Google and Microsoft Bing before winning first place in the TopCoder competition. Additionally, he is the youngest person to ever finish as a finalist in the Google Code Jam. [3]
Ethical Issues
Similar to many websites that are driven by user-generated content, LikeALittle's services are prone to abuse - specifically bullying. In its relatively short life, there have already been countless examples of posts that have targeted individuals or groups offensively.[citation needed]
Due to the anonymous environment that LikeALittle provides, anyone can make inappropriate comments with no affiliation to themselves. This is a common problem among most websites and communities that provide anonymity. LikeALittle attempts to control the quality of its content by employing moderators to edit offensive or threatening posts. Additionally, on some campus pages, any user with a .edu email address of the corresponding school can delete a post.
