Talk to strangers you don’t know, but probably should with Yobongo [Video]

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If there’s one part of location that hasn’t been sussed out yet it’s how utilize smart phone data to connect with strangers who are in the same place as you and who also might be an extremely beneficial business or social connection.

Yes, you can check in at different locations with Places, Foursquare and Gowalla and see friends who have checked into the same place, and yes, you can use dating apps like OKCupid and Grindr to see if there’s any potential suitors in your area. But what about that man sitting opposite you in the coffee shop? How can you find out if he’s the CEO of a company you’ve been wanting to connect with for months?

Que: Yobongo a mobile communications startup currently in private beta testing. The keys to the service are location, realtime, and identity. Started by Caleb Elston, former VP of product at Justin.tv, and David Kasper, a software engineer at Justin.tv who both left the company last October, Caleb tells me they are building a new ‘communication system’.

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I always leave events feeling like I could have made better connections if  I had known who was in the room, what they do and what they look like . It surprises me that no-one has cracked this market yet and I’m very excited to see how people will adopt Yobongo, due to launch at SXSW in March this year.

Caleb and I talk identify, why Yobongo is not focusing on the dating market and what really makes it special.