Buzz’d is Buzzing

Check out this scenario: you’re in a new neighborhood, you’re hungry and don’t know where to go. You don’t want to overspend and you want to ensure that the restaurant you visit is not over-crowded. Well, if you have a cell-phone with you, the magic word is “Buzz’d!” This enterprising service started by entrepreneurs Nihal Mehta and Deepen Shah makes sure you get the most out of your dining experience. The two earlier founded Ipsh!, the first mobile marketing agency in the U.S. which was acquired by Omnicom Group in 2005.

Buzzd is a city guide and social network for mobile phone users which puts them in the loop as to happening bar, club and restaurant information and even allows them to connect with friends through what almost everyone has nowadays – the mobile phone. This New York company partners with several carriers and content providers like Virgin Mobile, AT & T, T-Mobile, ZAGAT and Citysearch, and has received funding from Monitor Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Blackberry Partners Fund and Qualcomm Ventures. It’s probably a marriage made in heaven because technology and food are two things most Indian entrepreneurs are savvy about!

Nihal Mehta, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, has three successful startups under his belt and has been an early innovator of wireless technologies, being named BusinessWeek’s M-Commerce Baron and among AdAge’s Top 20 Marketers in their 20’s back in 2005.

Deepen Shah, a graduate of Stern School of Business at New York University in business technology, had already created eZtext, one of the first mobile self-service applications that allowed businesses to send out text message alerts and was acquired by ipsh! in 2003. The two have since flourished with the successful sale of ipsh! and the creation of buzz’d. What’s next on the agenda? Says Nihal Mehta: “Aggregating real-time activity around certain locations. People want more than reviews. They want a sense of what is happening now.”  Also on the drawing board is a new buzz’d app for I-phones.

Just goes to prove that it pays to eat –  and chat on your mobile all day!