A Conversation With Center’d
We’ve heard bits and pieces over the past six months about Center’d — the company that was repurposed and re-branded from FatDoor. After information leaked out about the stealth-mode company back in April, we’ve been able to spend some time talking to CEO Jennifer Dulski to get the real scoop.
Dulski, who previously ran Yahoo Marketplaces, positions the company as a deeper dive into events that breathes more functionality into all the nuances of planning local outings. With the tagline “people, places, plans,” it also brings in some social features and local search functionality.
The value proposition lies in the integration of these otherwise disparate local media categories. The idea is that a group of friends can plan a weekday dinner outing, find the location, read reviews (Yelp integration), invite people, and set up a landing page as a central source for event management. One can argue that this already exists with Google Maps, Yelp and Evite, but the main point is that it doesn’t exist all in one place.
The combination of these functions has proved to resonate well with women — specifically rural mothers. As Evite has taken off with the twenty-something set, Center’d can be seen as a place to “graduate” when busier schedules, kids and other factors necessitate a more robust all-in-one tool for managing get-togethers with equally busy friends.
The company’s interface, general marketing and road map have been dictated to a certain degree by this targeting, says Dulski. There are lots more directions it could take, and it’s concentrating on prioritizing the right feature integrations that are core to its appeal as a local/social/events tool (think ticketing and payment processing for local events).
Look for more information to be revealed about the company soon, including upcoming announcements and more we’ll report here. In the meantime, you can hear Dulski’s views on local during TKG’s upcoming ILM:08 conference in the closing session titled “Parting Thoughts from Silicon Valley Leaders on Local/Video/Mobile.” Hope to see you there.
