Every month, the owner of the cat voted "cutest" wins some free pet supplies.
Two musicians-turned web developers have created a product inspired by an online dating app, but filled with pictures of cats.
To swipe left or right? That's the deep question at the heart of Tinder, a dating app where singles (and others) look at side-by-side pictures of potential matches and pick the cuter one based on a simple finger motion.
Doug Slawin, co-founder of Super Panda Apps, said a while back he was on the dating scene, using Tinder and, at the same time, seeing a barrage of cat photos on Facebook. "And I thought, 'What if I somehow combine them to have people swipe to decide which cat was cuter?'" Slawin said.
He shared his idea with his business partner, Netta Hadari, who is also a musician, and Hadari quickly started working on a catchy jingle.
Soon, an app was born. It's called Smittn. User photos are submitted and shared. And, every month, the owner of the cat voted "cutest" wins some free pet supplies.
Down the road, the idea is to make the app profitable through advertisements, app purchases, and sponsorships with pet retailers, but Hadari said it's still the tech industry, which means, "everybody has a different take on how you should run your company," Hadari said. "In the start up community, ideas are almost worthless."
Take a listen to the jingle Hadari produced for the app:
What's valuable Hadari said, is staying true to your company's vision -- maybe making some money -- and having fun. "There were many conversations that Doug and I had where we we going down completely dark avenues. We just had to take a step back and say, 'OK, look. What is it that we're really doing? Who are we really? Let's just stay true to that and cut out the noise."
Doug Slawin said musicians face those challenges too. "It's always a struggle between something you're working on that has some integrity and staying away from distractions," he said.
New Haven isn't Silicon Valley, but Hadari says the city's tech culture is supportive of new ideas. He found Smittn's programmer through a "start-up luncheon" in the city, and, during the week, Harari works out of a collaborative office space in a local coffee shop.
Going forward, Hadari says the idea is to take their concept for Smittn to other well-trafficked corners of the Internet -- adopting the platform to allow users to decide on things like best cake or tattoo.
