I get a ton of announcements in my inbox, that’s why I publish a Yahoo email address publicly, as a catch all. Most of what I get, well, you can imagine I’m on a lot of lists. More emails go unopened than get opened, though I always try to make sure I don’t skip over reader mail. In fact, I do my best to answer all reader questions within 24 hours.
What strikes me is that it’s really easy to sift through the junk from what’s useful, most junk or press releases have really clear subject lines that make it clear I don’t need to open the message.
I did however get pinged n something this morning that struck me interesting, TechCocktail‘s South By Southwest Event has a #StartupLife ‘Peoples Choice’ award that you can vote for. And among the 33 finalists are a couple that are travel-related.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the tech startups, most will probably fail, but some of them were interesting and certainly cutting edge of what’s next.
Here’s Zamp:
Automatically map and track your travel and statistics, discover and get connected with others, and get perks for completing travel!
Here’s how TechCocktail describes it:
Zamp is Foursquare + Klout for travel. Users check-in to travel, connect with others, and provide expert ranked feedback to providers.
I’m a fan of earning points for FourSquare check-ins using TopGuest, this sounds like it has the potential to be at least as interesting.
Another startup that struck me was Kula, because it marries charitable giving with commercial loyalty.
KULA is the world’s first global currency for giving. We drive charitable and cause-oriented giving by enabling businesses to create meaningful brand loyalty and monetizing the value of their social responsibility.
Struck me perfect, given my interest in supporting charitable efforts on Milepoint, such as its Kiva lending team, it’s a great way to marry a very personally fulfilling and selfish interest in travel with a selfless interest in improving the world around.
Check out a few startups, consider the ones in the loyalty space, and vote here.
Excited for this, but now thinking of WHAT I should actually do when I land somewhere! Do I check in on foursquare AND zamp now? 🙂 The joys and troubles of more apps..
Thanks for the shoutout! We’re happy that some of you find Zamp useful.
We’ve been looking at adding automatic foursquare check-in which could check you in to your flight and your gate. Zamp also automatically marks you as having landed once you get to your destination so it’s relatively frictionless.
Please feel free to send us any and all feedback and suggestions to info@zamp.co, and please follow along on Twitter at @Zampco.
Good post. I would also like to say a big thanks for answering emails. I was stunned! when I got a reply that quickly. Also, wanting to get involved with KIVA. How long does it take to get repaid?