Cloud Computing: Wayin Gets Second Round of Funding
March 2, 2012
Wayin, the 18-month-old Scott McNealy start-up, has topped up its funding with a $14 million B round lead by US Venture Partners with the participation of TIBCO, the big Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini and a very locker room crowd of private investors including TV producer Burt Sugarman, real estate developer Michael Meldman, Gunthy-Renker co-CEO Ben Van de Bundt, former Great Plains CEO and ex-Microsoft SVP Doug Burgum, sportscaster Jim Gray and others.
Financing so far totals $20 million…
Wayin is a mobile and online service that generates "one-to-many" conversations between individuals, brands, enterprises, schools and public sector agencies with their fans, customers, communities and citizens.
Like Twitter and Facebook it’s in search of more roughage for the Big Data maw.
Users have to post a photo and an opinion-seeking question with or without multiple choice answers. The site organizes the questions by category: sports, politics, entertainment and so on. The demographics of participants are accessible.
Wayin (think weigh in) can be accessed at wayin.com or by downloading a Wayin application for iPhone or Android. It can also be integrated into a brand’s existing mobile app, on its web site through a widget, or as a Facebook app and use a second screen for live events complements of set-top boxes.
It is already integrated into AT&T’s U-verse service and TIBCO is reportedly bundling it with its Tibbr workplace networking widgetry so companies can poll workers.
One can see McNealy’s hand in the early customers Wayin has attracted: Hertz, the Washington Capitals professional hockey team, the Romney for President campaign, and Curriki, an online community for creating and sharing open source K-12 curricula.
According to CEO Tom Jessiman, "Wayin sits at the intersection of media, gaming, social, and surveys. We offer personal or corporate brands the ability to converse with their fans in a fun, give and take environment."
A young thing, Wayin reportedly has 100,000 users.