HARTFORD, Conn. - Nick Jaensch and Keith Bessette know that 500million online friends and $1.5 billion raised from investors arefor that other online social network.
The two University of Connecticut MBAs have instead received$350,000 in private and state money to develop shizzlr.com, a cornerof the Internet dedicated to college students and 20-somethings.
"Facebook is for every person you've met or have come across,"Jaensch said. "Shizzlr is for your actual 20 friends and the peopleyou hang out with."
Jaensch, who is 24, and Bessette, 31, raised $200,000 fromfriends and family and $150,000 from Connecticut Innovations, thestate's venture investment agency.
Shizzlr is intended to informally bring together friends who textmessage social plans. Users opt in those they want to include andsee what they are doing.
"Everybody is involved in a group message, everyone is up-to-date and everyone can give their input," Jaensch said. "We'rechanging the norm about how people make plans."
A few thousand users already have signed up and Jaensch hopesthat will grow to 50,000 by May. He said the business model for thesite could be the review site, yelp.com, where businesses pay tohighlight their market.
Or shizzlr could sell to merchants user data such as trends aboutwho is visiting a business and why, he said. Such data would helpmerchants tailor product sales.
Jaensch said he and Bessette will market the website in campusnewspapers to student groups, athletic clubs and otherorganizations.
Peter V. Longo, president and executive director of ConnecticutInnovations, said he met Jaensch and Bessette at a University ofConnecticut entrepreneurship program.
"The thing with this particular company, it has traction," hesaid. "We thought this is an interesting platform for ConnecticutInnovations to work with."
Jaensch said he and Bessette have no idea what the name of theirwebsite means. They came up with it after someone wrote a textmessage, "Do shizzlr," he said.
"We kind of took it on as slogan: Good luck, do shizzlr andenjoy," he said.
Jaensch said he and his partner came up with the idea for thewebsite by trying to answer the question, what's going on? Jaenschsaid that could be figuring out what is going on around the user,what friends are doing and the choices of things to do.
Jaensch said he and Bessette have set a high goal for theirbusiness. "We're changing the norm about how people make plans."
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