Hey, remember those bulletin boards in your neighborhood coffee shop? The ones where people would post all kinds of fun, random crap? To a certain extent, Craigslist has replaced those boards (heck, you could argue that the entire Internet has replaced those boards) but there’s a new startup called Tackk that’s trying to replicate that experience.
It is, in other words, a simple publishing tool for content that’s “single use” and “disposable” — basically the online equivalent of a flier. The goal, says co-founder Eric Bockmuller, is to create something that’s simple to use, but also expressive and customizable. He describes Tackk as filling a gap on the publishing side. Sometimes Facebook or a Twitter are too limiting, but you don’t want to have to go through the trouble of creating a blog post on a platform like WordPress. With Tackk, users upload an image (or embed other media), enter some text, and then customize the appearance (colors, fonts, that kind of thing) as much or as little as you want . Then they can share it via the Tackkboard or other social networks.
The service was in private beta until today, but there’s already some impressive diversity in usage. For example, here’s a flier for an album release party. Here are instructions on how to make homemade bacon. And here’s a commemorative Tackk for Neil Armstrong.
Tackk is also announcing that it has raised a seed round of $400,000 from Hatch Partners and other Cleveland-area investors. In fact, the investors are getting extra hands-on with the company, with Hatch partners Christopher Celeste and Robert Hatta becoming CEO and COO, respectively. (Tackk’s co-founders remain involved, while Celeste and Hatta say they will be pulling back from active investing, at least for the next six to 12 months.)
As for making money, Celeste says Tackk will be working with marketers to create branded content on the site, and also offering premium features for consumers.