Jennifer Puno (Co-Founder, Octoplace.com)
Octoplace describes itself as “a delightful way to find and save places by dish.” Who wouldn’t love that? Though the web app isn’t live just yet, we were lucky enough to catch a moment with Co-Founder Jennifer Puno to ask her just what to expect when this delicious “visual community for foodies” launches.
[ibimage==27596==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-right]Currently bootstrapping, Octoplace was created out of the recognition that, while wildly popular, food blogs aren’t typically a go-to source when searching for places to eat. Not so, for Puno, who says that she and her husband have been using these foodie goldmines for dining info for years. Pointing to blogs like Gastronomy, Joylicious, and The Delicious Life, Puno says that when she shows the sites to friends, “They’re stoked, but they forget to bookmark the website, or they don’t sign up for the newsletter.” Her solution? A web app that allows users to follow food bloggers all in one place.
Puno says that bloggers are only the beginning though, and she and her team are curating foodies from all kinds of industries – in the photo world, the restaurant scene, literary types, and Instagrammers alike. “It’s all about the people at the end of the day,” she says. “The type of people that document food in such a way that you want to follow them and go to all of those places.”
And that community is just as excited about Octoplace. Cultivating a group of featured members, Puno created Family Style - the kind of people, as she describes it, who she would want to ask for dining recommendations even if there were no Octoplace. “[The response] has been amazing!” Puno says enthusiastically. “Really cool people that love food and just want to sit and laugh. It's like Thanksgiving all the time.”
Users can expect to become part of that dinner table conversation very soon. The web app, which will be free of charge, is nearing its beta phase. Puno says that Octoplace will be launching with a core set of features, while the next few months will consist of user testing and modifying features.
Connect with Jennifer Puno at [email protected] or on Instagram and Twitter: @octoplace
