Zaarly team adds three, looks to launch in next 90 days

Even though Zaarly‘s left behind its Mobile HQ (a rented RV) following South by Southwest Interactive, the team has continued to keep its development wheels spinning since returning from Austin, Texas. Asked via email when users could expect a launch, Zaarly CEO Bo Fishback replied: “Launch in the next 90 days in our wave of cities.”…

Even though Zaarly‘s left behind its Mobile HQ (a rented RV) following South by Southwest Interactive, the team has continued to keep its development wheels spinning since returning from Austin, Texas. Asked via email when users could expect a launch, Zaarly CEO Bo Fishback replied: “Launch in the next 90 days in our wave of cities.” He also said they’re currently “heads down” preparing for that launch.

In addition to the three co-founders going heads down, the core Zaarly team doubled in size this week as they brought on two Kansas Citians as marketing managers. Adam Coomes (left), formerly president of Infegy (also an Infegy co-founder), and Adam Hofmann (middle), formerly the vertical specialist at Kauffman Labs, both joined the team. Zaarly also added current Austin resident and self-described nomad Matt Constatine (right) as a developer, or in Fishback’s words, a “rockstar developer.” (Photos from twitter.com/adamcoomes, facebook.com/hofmania91 and twitter.com/thismatt, respectively)

They’ve also begun to assemble an extended team as they’re adding three to four two-month contract marketers, which they’re bringing on in Kansas City and Seattle (base of COO Eric Koester), and city team representatives.

When I interviewed Fishback on March 15, two days after Zaarly’s beta release at SXSW Interactive, I asked him when he and the other two co-founders realized this was something they would aggressively pursue. “Saturday afternoon (February 19) around 2 p.m.,” Fishback said, “after the Friday night first pitch of Startup Weekend (Los Angeles), we realized that this was something different than other companies.”

Fishback said that the more they worked on it, the more they realized it was something that could matter. Fishback went so far as to say it could “maybe transform the economy.”

Addressing the three-week development leading up to the product release at SXSW, Fishback said:

It happened quick. I think that’s actually one of the most unique things about this. People see companies all the time, and sometimes they lay around for three years trying to find themselves and figure out if they can really scale. I think we were just uniquely positioned to see it very quickly, understand it in context and put the pieces in place to pull off something unique.

See the video below for more of my interview with Fishback, including discussion of how the three co-founders accomplished the quick launch and raised money and what he thinks is needed for Zaarly to be successful.

To learn more about Zaarly’s launch, see this recent article by Xconomy Seattle: “Zaarly’s Wild Ride: Winning a Weekend, Quitting a Job, and the $100 Midnight Cheeseburger.”

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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