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"The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nName: Localmind\nQuick Pitch: Localmind gives you the ability to know what's happening at any place you care about.\nGenius Idea: Adding a Q&amp;A layer on top of checkins.\nWhile no single checkin application has seen truly mass adoption, the combined user base of these apps means at any given time, someone somewhere in the world is probably checked in at a venue you want to know more about. At least, that's the premise behind Localmind. \nLocalmind, a startup with apps for web, iPhone and Android, is essentially a question-and-answer layer that sits on top of Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla. Sign up with Localmind, connect to one or more services, and the next time you check in, you could be fed a question about that venue from another curious user. \n\n\n\n\n\"The basic idea of Localmind is to give you the ability to ask a question of someone checked in at any location,\" explains co-founder Lenny Rachitsky.\nFor instance, imagine you want to know about the wait time at a nearby restaurant or get the scoop on the always-trendy bar downtown. Pop on to Localmind and ping a person checked in at the venue with your question. The individual will then receive your query via SMS or push notification and can clue you into what's happening at that place it that moment.\n\"The power of Localmind,\" says Rachitsky, \"is you can get remote omniscience. You can see what's happening anywhere in the world through other people's eyes.\"\nWhile Localmind may have local inquisitors in mind, it caters to users in far-away places as well. After the Japan earthquake and tsunami, for instance, Localmind users were pinging those checked in to nearby areas with questions about conditions and about their well-being. App users even started sending questions to individuals checked in at Ground Zero following news of Osama Bin Laden's death Sunday evening.\nLocalmind's asking-questions-of-strangers approach is a bit more purposeful than the random location-based chat engineered by other startups like Yobongo.\nAfter building Assisted Serendipity to alert Foursquare users about male-to-female ratios at venues, Rachitsky found himself thinking about more meaningful ways to use checkin data. \n\"I kept thinking about the power of the data available,\" says Rachitsky. \"I knew there was more we could do than to tell people when they should go pick up girls.\"\nThis time around Rachitsky saw an opportunity to build a business around the checkin-based Q&amp;A service idea. Rachitsky and his co-founder Beau Haugh took the concept to Montreal incubator Year One Labs. The pair launched Localmind in February, released an iPhone application at SXSW and followed up with a beta Anrdoid app just two weeks ago.\nLocalmind's next adventure will be in fundraising. The startup also plans to help uncover more ways for people to connect around checkins.\nSeries Supported by Microsoft BizSpark\n\n\nThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/05/03/localmind/>