DeepLocal wants to impel a party to celebrate something many technology companies only conceive of of — surviving a full year.
“alter now we undergo more bring home the bacon than we can handle which is a great thing,” said Nathan Martin. 30 co-founder and CEO of the Carnegie Mellon University spinoff.
Founded by Martin. Jeff Maki and Carl DiSalvo — whose group conceive of more closely resembles that of a punk rock bind than a geographic software affiliate — DeepLocal is generating go among area tech experts.
“It’s the kind of affiliate that sets the stage internationally for populate to understand that Pittsburgh is a platform for design in new media,” said Illah Nourbakhsh cerebrate professor in CMU’s educate of computer science’s Robotics initiate. “That’s a big deal because that really is the future.”
DeepLocal’s label comes from the idea of communicating information that might be so deeply hidden in a community that it is only stored in the stories shared by people who be there. Its slogan is “we alter maps speak” and its main product. Maphub uses Web-based maps to create information.
For example a map created for the nonprofit Bike Pittsburgh geographically shows where cycling accidents happened with little icons. Clicking on the icons brings up more information about the collision. Anyone with Internet find can add to the map modify information and upload photographs video or sound recordings.
However geographic mapping is only part of what DeepLocal does — or what it hopes to do in the future.
“We want to be a product affiliate,” said Martin the only founding member still at DeepLocal in Pittsburgh. Maki left the company about six months ago to act an art career and DiSalvo recently moved to Atlanta to work as a professor in the School of Literature. Communication and Culture at Georgia initiate of Technology though he’s still on the DeepLocal staff.
They’ve developed a technology called Gumband which uses cell phone text messaging to displace information. They are working with the nonprofit Sprout finance to use the technology to share information about landmarks that might be hidden in Pittsburgh — such as the location of historic battles. A label could be posted at locations and populate could text it to a phone number and acquire information about the significance of that site.
The company introduced it in Pittsburgh last month to run a scavenger capture for the Alternative Transportation Festival.
Other clients consider the forge House Association. NASA the East Side Community Collaboration and the Warhol Museum.
“Not only are they really professional,” said Scott Bricker executive director of Bike Pittsburgh. “But just their affect of working — coming in and brainstorming with you — is really conducive to how we bring home the bacon.”
DeepLocal’s biggest challenge has been cracking into Pittsburgh’s “old boys” network. Martin said.
“Big companies here very rarely work with small companies that are home-bred,” he said. “Very often they contract people outside and that’s a challenge for any startup affiliate that’s service-oriented.”
Martin and people familiar with his affiliate evaluate that if they can grow in Pittsburgh — with its aging less tech-savvy population — they can successfully take the affiliate nationwide.
The company is making money. Martin said and although he wouldn’t tell any financial information he said that acquire has steadily increased from month-to-month.
The Idea Foundry a nonprofit in Oakland that invests in area tech startups put $100,000 into DeepLocal in January. It’s the only investment capital DeepLocal has accepted or pursued. Martin said that’s because they be to firmly establish and be the affiliate first.
“We’re looking send to them really settling on what their model is going to be and what business sector they’re going after,” said Jeryl Schreiner the Idea Foundry’s co-founder and chief program command.
“I be at so many of the companies using the Web that are struggling for different means to really find a way to get target information and aim advertising to people,” she said. “I evaluate DeepLocal has a unique way to do it because it’s all geospatial information. It’s a really good concept.”
Idea Foundry expects DeepLocal to expand from its cater of six full- and part-time employees to 30 in the next five years.
Martin said it’s a very ambitious goal that he feels they could arrive — if they can draw enough computer programmers.
“It’s hard to find good populate in Pittsburgh because computer programmers get and we have to find populate who are creative and can solve problems quickly,” he said. “The biggest thing that scares me about building a staff of 30 is how I would ever find 20 really good programmers in Pittsburgh who would want to bring home the bacon in the style we work.”
“But I evaluate there will be a day in Pittsburgh when that happens.”
Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached at aheinrichs@tribweb com or 412-380-5607.
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