An early employee of Priceline.com Inc. has established a Westport headquarters for her California startup on the promise of funding from the state of Connecticut, as the company develops software to ping preset groups of contacts on mobile phones, tablets and other devices.
Last winter, the Connecticut Innovations venture capital fund initially approved $750,000 in funding for deets Inc. on condition it raise matching capital. This past summer Connecticut Innovations extended a deadline for that purpose to the end of October.
Deets now lists an address of 20 Ketchum St. in Westport, having previously had its main office in Los Olivos, Calif.
Founder and CEO Linda Miller worked for both Norwalk-based Priceline.com as well as Hotwire.com before launching her first startup in Style-Card.com, which was in New York City.
Deets”™ software allows people to synchronize information for all of their contacts from a single dashboard on iPhones and iPads. That allows deets users to ping messages to select groups of people, for instance golf buddies scheduling a tee time. From a single deets account, users can create or join relationship-based groups to collaborate and share contact information.
Other features include file and photo sharing and custom “push notifications.”
“I don”™t think I”™m alone in juggling ”“ for better and for worse ”“ a ton of different people, projects and relationships,” Millers said in a press release announcing the company”™s product. “Now I can organize everyone in my life into relevant and efficient conversation groups. It means less time looking at my phone and more time for the people and activities I care about.”
Deets has not disclosed its revenue model, with the app at press deadline available for free on iTunes from Apple Inc.
In September, Stamford-based Gartner Inc. estimated that nearly 90 percent of apps today are free, with many adopting “in-app” purchase models that charge users for content after they have downloaded an app and begun using it. That model will drive more than 40 percent of app revenue within three years, Gartner predicted.
“App stores should support in-app purchases as soon as possible as this offers a new path of monetization and helps to attract developers as they attempt to extend an app”™s momentum by providing easy access to upgraded services and functionality,” said Gartner analyst Brian Blau.
