Uber Co-founder Launches App To “Spot” Locations

Spot might come across as yet another app for finding food, sightseeing, shopping and reviews, but Uber’s co-founder Garrett Camp, whose incubator just funded the company, is promising a lot more.

Using data science to comprehend and analyze users’ preferences over time, the app calculates and makes suggestions to help users decide, according to Fortune.

The app, which was released for a private beta last Friday, gathers recommendations from the trusted sources of a user, like friends connected through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s not just about building a database; it’s about helping people really decide from people they trust,” said co-founder Luke Groesbeck in an interview with Fortune.

Though other similar apps like Yelp and TripAdvisor also allow users to integrate their social media accounts, the overall process continues to remain broken, he said.

While the app allows users to sort results using its filter functionality that segregates results by type of place and location among other things, it also lets users save recommendations in a list for reviewing later.

“We want to do in the real world what Google has done for the Web,” he said.

Unlike other similar applications, which rely on paid reviews for running their business, Spot, at least for now, doesn’t have that as a plan. The focus remains on developing a community around the application’s utility and not so much around making money, Groesbeck said.

Camp’s incubator Expa, which funded the seed round of the app for an undisclosed amount, has also supported other apps like Operator, a shopping concierge service, and restaurant reservation app Reserve.

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