Pingup’s Mark Slater: Why ‘Task Completion’ Scheduling is Key to LODE

More than 75 companies are now providing scheduling solutions, resulting in a super fragmented marketplace where no single company has even five percent of the existing market. One by-product of the glut: the need for a one stop, API-driven product that can confirm bookings across the different platforms.

MyTime, which has been developed by Red Beacon founder Ethan Anderson, is one aggregator. Another is Avalon Ventures-funded Pingup, which has been in development for two years and just announced a deal with CityGrid Networks’ Citysearch and InsiderPages to embed task completion on their pages.

Pingup CEO Mark Slater talked with BIA/Kelsey about the space. He says it has become especially critical with the development of the Local On Demand Economy (LODE), which allows consumers to set up appointments on an on-demand basis (and is also the subject of BIA/Kelsey’s June 12 LODE conference in San Francisco.)

“We want to be the platform that powers LODE,” he says, noting that the traffic that had once been focused entirely on search has now broadened to also include task completion. Services such as Pingup are “an extremely efficient way to provide access to businesses,” he adds.

Pingup, which is based in Boston and has 19 employees, is “only about integrating the software,” says Slater. It has no aspirations of its own to be a media player or a destination in its own right. “We don’t represent a competitive threat to the demand side or the supply side,” he says.

Slater adds that its deal with CityGrid Networks’ Citysearch and InsiderPages will bring in thousands of businesses on the appointment supplier side. The company expects to name at least five more publisher announcements in 2015, potentially including listings partners, search engines, ecommerce companies and messaging companies.