The Gnonstop Gnomes are here and they cannot be stopped. Gnonstop Gnomes is the first mobile app to come out of Churn Labs, Omar Hamoui’s product lab that he started after he left AdMob/Google. Hamoui demoed Gnonstop Gnomes at Disrupt NYC (see video below) and today the app is available both in iTunes and the Android Market.
The app is a real-world social game and photo-sharing app. You create a Gnome, insert him in different pictures, and record his journey via GPS. The fun part starts when you pass your Gnome onto a friend. You do this with a new gesture Churn Labs invented called Lyft. Using your phone’s camera lens, you can “lyft” a gnome from another screen to yours and help him continue his journey. Anyone who has touched a gnome can follow his adventures and photos as he moves around the world.
It’s a simple app that creates a new experience by combining elements of mobile apps in new ways. Hamoui is having fun with it. In a blog post, Churn Labs notes that it is “already the #1 location based gnome photo sharing application in the world” and quotes him saying, “This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. “I got sidetracked with the whole mobile advertising thing for a bit, but it’s good to finally see this becoming a reality.”
Omar is an entrepreneur with deep roots in the mobile industry. After earning a degree in Computer Science at UCLA, Omar founded and ran several companies in mobile software and services. At the time, he was frustrated by the lack of available options when it came to promoting and monetizing mobile products. Omar realized that mobile service and content firms needed better ways to advertise and make money on the mobile Web. While earning his MBA at the Wharton...
Mike is an entrepreneur, website scalability engineer, founder of the Silicon Valley Mobile Monday group, and one of the organizers of the Mobile 2.0 conference.
Churn Labs focuses on building and iterating on new Internet and Mobile products and bringing the best to market. There are plenty of places where existing startups can get help, funding, and mentorship. Churn is not one of them. It does not want to just politely assist; it wants to do. Rather than find companies to help, Churn Labs finds entrepreneurial people: engineers, designers and product specialists and we brainstorm, prototype, and build companies together. It’s often said that the...
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