Wahooly

Wahooly
Type Private
Headquarters Austin and Minneapolis
Area served Worldwide
Key people Dana Severson (CEO)
Tony Holmes (CCO)
Connor Hood (COO)
Peter M. Elias (CTO)
Employees 5
Slogan(s) Influencers and Startups Connect.
Website wahooly.com
Alexa rank negative increase 2,256,234 (April 2014)[1]
Type of site Social Networking
Users 28,000
Available in English
Launched July 2012
Current status Inactive

Wahooly was a crowd funding company that introduced social networkers to startup websites, giving them an investment stake in return for promoting the new business. It launched in late 2011 through a partnership with Klout.[2] Described as "a group of socially-connected individuals that together, help launch startups."[3] They launched with 27,000 initial beta members and are looking to help accelerate the growth of 200 businesses in 2012.[4]

Name

Dana Severson, founder of Wahooly, claims the name comes from the wahoo fish. “..it's the fastest fish in the world and it swims in schools. We're really based on collaboration and crowds. And, you know, we're accelerating the growth of startups.” [5]

Rebranding and Closure

Wahooly rebranded in May 2013 as Chasm.io.[6] Wahooly/Chasm.io closed in 2014 as announced in an e-mail sent on September 3, 2014. The e-mail included Severson's admission that a certain post on StartupsAnonymous was in reference to Wahooly/Chasm.io.

References

  1. "Wahooly.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. Wasserman, Todd. "Klout: Talk-Up a Startup, Get Some Equity". Mashable. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  3. "How Wahooly Works". Wahooly. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  4. Delo, Cotton. "Tweets-For-Equity Startup Will Try Harder to Comply With FTC Rules". AdAge. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  5. Steve Henn, “Fraud A Concern As Lawmakers Weigh 'Crowdfunding'”, NPR, 21 March 2012
  6. Pesek, Jeff. "Wahooly rebrands as Chasm.io, creating ‘influence exchange'". TECH.mn. Retrieved 3 September 2014.