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"Group-texting app GroupMe is undoubtedly one of the most buzzed-about apps here at SXSW Interactive. Which is why Mashable took a couple of minutes to sit down with co-founders Steve Martocci and Jared Hecht to talk about the growth of the app, as well as the competition.\nPrior to SXSW, GroupMe hit us with a slew of updates, adding location- and photo-sharing in version 2.0 (as well as push notifications), and groups and data connection evaluation (among other features) in GroupMe 2.1.\nGroupMe launched in October 2010 as a way to easily create an instant SMS chatroom on one's phone. The app's appeal was in its simplicity \u2014 one could use the app to start a private chat with groups of friends, even those sans smartphones.\nThe startup soon scored $10.6 million in Series B funding in a round led by Khosla Ventures (with participation from additional new investors, including General Catalyst Partners and First Round Capital, and previous investors Lerer Ventures, Betaworks and SV Angel) in January.\nObviously, this isn't the only app of its kind \u2014 there's also Fast Society, a party-centric service that recently updated with a slew of features and an Android app. And Beluga \u2014 which was recently acquired by Facebook. And let's not forget instant-messaging app Kik, which announced last week that it will add group-messaging and photo-sharing features to its iPhone and Android apps. \nCheck out our interview with GroupMe's founders above and weigh in in the comments: Which app will come out of SXSWi the victor?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/03/13/groupme-founders/>