From foursquare to FIVEsquare

In a recent post ("Blogging like it's 1999") we mentioned Fred Wilson's portfolio company Foursquare. One of Fred's regular commenters, entrepreneur and investor Andy Swan, also mentioned it on his blog. This was his take (Introducing FIVEsquare):

By now you’ve probably heard of foursquare, the mobile internet sensation that has everyone talking, and VC’s opening their checkbooks.

But just like 7 minute abs and 6 hour power crushed their competition, we are here today to bring an even more effective product to the world.

Introducing, FIVEsquare…. the “mobile meets local” web pi app of the future. It is to local-mobile-apps what dippin’ dots is to ice cream, if you catch my drift.

So how does FIVEsquare work?

Because FIVEsquare is common-sense based, it requires no download, no install and no login. There are several ways to make FIVEsquare work for you:

One to One communication: When you want to know where a friend is on FIVEsquare, you simply pull your phone out of your pocket and either dial their phone number (VOICEsquare), or send them a SMS message (TEXTsquare) with the following message “Hey, where are you?” Unlike foursquare, if you are leaving where you are at and going somewhere else, you can tell your friend where you are going, and what time you can meet there (PREDICTsquare)

One-to-Many Location notification: Let’s say you want to tell all of your friends where you’re at or where you’re going. With FIVEsquare, you simply send out a message on twitter (TWITsquare) something like this “I’m going to the saloon around 7:00 if anyone wants to meet up!”. Let FIVEsquare do the rest. Before you know it, individual friends will be meeting you places or using VOICEsquare to get more details and let you know where they are going!

Friend Nearby Alerts: FIVEsquare utilizes “visual recognition technology” to alert you whenever your friend is in the same location as you. To utilize this service (SEEsquare), simply put your phone into your pocket when you walk into a location, look around and see if there is anyone in there that you recognize. Another FIVEsquare miracle!

Badges and Titles: With FIVEsquare, you don’t have to go into a place a certain number of times or compete with others for rewards and titles. Simply decide (CLAIMsquare) what you want to be for this location (King, Mayor, Lord, Peasant, Dictator, etc) and claim it! Then, tell people that you are the ____ of _____ and they will give you just as much respect as anyone is getting on foursquare!

Locations: While foursquare only works in select cities, FIVEsquare already works world-wide. Any location, anytime. That’s our promise to you.

So…what are you waiting for? Whether you want to invite friends to join you somewhere via VOICEsquare, figure out where your friends are via SEEsquare, or increase your prestige via CLAIMsquare, you’re in business with our new startup. Get out there and start using FIVEsquare to improve your social life today!

p.s. To help spread the word about FIVEsquare, please use the #fivesquare tag and let your friends know that you connected to them via fivesquare. We’ll be running a beta-test in Louisville this evening.