Stiq.it allows users to ‘stiq’ private or public messages, called stiqqers, to their location, anywhere in the world. These stiqqers can only be seen by others at the same location, creating a feed. Stiqqers can also be upvoted or downvoted, which affects their position when ranked by ‘hot’ or ‘top’ instead of the default ‘new’ ordering. Registered users can also connect to other users as ‘friends’ and make use of private stiqqers. Trace back memories via pinned stiqqers on a world map. Follow cherished people’s trails, see the messages they left behind in that location. Stiq about the latest concert you attended. Leave messages at memorials. Collect stiqqers as you tour countries . . . there’s so much you can do with this. As Kajol Patel, one of the co-founders puts it, “We’re not a social network. We’re a social globe.”
Hakeem Javaid is another one of those crazy startup co-founders who risked it all and dropped out of Imperial College to follow his entrepreneurial dreams. He’s become a leading figure in the startup community in London – including having organized two StartUp Weekends and being VP of Imperial Entrepreneurs – in addition to freelancing in web development, graphic design, and video production. Kajol Patel, co-founder of stiq.it also attended Imperial College and completed her physics degree there, and has experience working within the financial industry as well. According to Kajol, stiq.it started out with vision to bring emotional personal connections between the real world and the virtual world. And it is alluring – the idea of location locked messages for people to genuinely gain a bond with the message, the location and the communities within that location. Admittedly, stiq.it has had to face the hurdle of getting in touch with the right customers, indeed a problem faced by many startups. But the team has tried to make the user experience unique – and they value each of their users as someone special. So they shape stiq.it to what users want, even going so far as to try and get ideas from holding video calls with users.
After all, technology should fuel our interaction with the real world around us, instead of pulling us away. We find increasingly people forget about their relationships, their friendships, their memories . . . but the team behind stiq.it believes that you deserve to be remembered. That your memories deserve to live on – which is what stiq.it is intended to solve. By placing messages across time, across the globe on top of real-world locations, the uses are endless. Stiq.it competes with Yik Yak – if you haven’t heard of them – they kinda do similar things but known for cyber-bulling within universities. That’s because they’re anonymous. Stiq.it was intended to be friendly and used fairly – so even though they have a flagging system, they’re making it NOT anonymous (and include photos too). And stiq.it has a lot of updates planned, if it all works out. Just for StartUp Dope readers, they’re thinking of merging treasure trails within cities, within landscapes and the ability to leave something behind for another to pick up – so it’ll be living like Indiana Jones! Another idea is that they’ll be having categories like events, activities, food and drink etc so you’ll be kept up-to-date with all the fine things going on in your location.
