We’ve written about Namesake, a stealthy startup founded by former MySpace execs Dan Gould and Brian Norgard, that aims to match opportunities with people in your network. Today, Namesake is launching its professional community at TechCrunch Disrupt.
Namesake, which aims to create a better way to match and route opportunities that come across your desk everyday, is part LinkedIn, part Twitter, and part Facebook. You essentially create a network on the platform by importing your Twitter and Facebook contacts (the sites doesn’t allow integration with LinkedIn contacts yet). You can then post jobs, recommend people for opportunities, connect people with each other and more.
Gould says that traditional search doesn’t work for professional match making opportunities, which is why Namesake can fill a gap in the market. You can get real-time opportunities routed to you from people you trust on the network, recommend others for jobs, endorse people as experts in certain subjects, post jobs and more. You can send messages to specific people in your network or route an opportunity outside your network. And you can simply post and update on what your working on professionally, similar to the way you would post this on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Gould and Norgard sold their company Newroo to MySpace in 2006 and also founded Ad.ly, an in-stream advertising network for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Q&A: Chi-Hua Chien, Keith Rabois, Sandya Venkatachalam and Lior Zorea weigh in on NameSake:
CC: How do you compete with LinkedIn?
DG: We are trying to blend the value that LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter provides in one platform.
SV: How do you make money?
DG: Performance matching (people only pay if the match was consummated on NameSake); premium subscriptions and Premium advertising will be key. We can offer highly targeted advertising.
SV: But I’m not sure I would want people to sell my private information for ad keywords.
KR: Who is this optimized for?
BN: This is built for someone who is building out their community.
LZ: Why would I come to Namesake if LinkedIn solves this problem?
BN: We are wrapping structure around your professional and social network, to route opportunities to Twitter, Facebook and more.
DG: The Algorithm is a custom routing algorithm.
CC: Job Search might be a hard place to start as opposed to perhaps expertise.
LZ: Perhaps you could work with enterprise CRMs.
KR: What’s your benchmark for a vibrant community?
BN: I think it’s about engagement; whether it be on other networks.