Startup Tower – App That Will Change The Way You Interact With Your Community!

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San Diego based startup Tower has developed mobile app that builds communities within buildings. It allows people to share ideas, goods and services. Tower socially connects people within residential towers and office buildings or temporary towers such as resorts or festivals. They can connect based on interests, form public or private groups, and have events. Tony Silva, Co-Founder and CEO of Tower, talks with us about his startup.

Tower team (Scott, Romina, Andrew and Tony) at San Diego startup week:

Q: Tell us please your story and something more about Tower?

A: Tower is a mobile app that allows you to form communities in the buildings where you live, work, and play. What we found during our research is that 80% of the population in the United States lives in an urban area and although they’ve been given the tools to connect to people who are geographically-unavailable to them, social media users have not been given the tools necessary to connect them to geographically-available people that exist in the places where they live, work, and play. That means that over 240 million people in America have this intrinsic interaction distance between them and people in their communities. What Tower does is remove this interaction distance and create a tool that fosters civic engagement in our ever-evolving urban environments.

What we also discovered during our planning process is that there is a wealth of idle human capital and goods in every building of an urban environment. The effect of these idle resources means that there is enormous potential for a micro-economy where goods, skills, and services are shared within the building’s micro-communities. I’ll illustrate with a couple examples:

– Imagine you’re a web designer on the 10th floor of a building, just starting out, and you could use a little tax advice. Well, on the 5th floor of the same building, there is an accountant whose website is atrocious and he could use a little web design. What Tower does is allow you to list skills that you’d be willing to share with the community, at no cost. So through Tower, this web designer and the accountant could connect and solve each other’s problems.

– Next, image there’s a kayaker on the 19th floor of your residential building and he’s heading out of town for a couple months to backpack Yosemite. Tower allows you to list items that you’re willing to share with your community so that these goods don’t just sit idle. So this guy would lists his kayaks in the Shared Good section and any resident of the community that is friends with this guy is free to use them until he takes them down from the Shared Goods section.

As you can see, the potential for a cohesive, shared economy exists. There is a wealth of untapped resources in every building in the world and Tower facilitates the existence and growth of a shared economy as well as enhancing the level of civic engagement within these buildings. Since Tower is a first-mover in the geo-specific social network realm our team believes we can really make an impact and drive the direction of the shared economy while addressing the demands of the market.

Q: Where did the idea for Tower come from?

A: Andrew (our CTO) and I were walking back to my residential building after dinner one night and I asked, “Why isn’t there a way for us to communicate with the other people inside my building?” We both looked at each other with kind of a dumbfounded look and began racking our memories to try an think of an app that allows us to do that…with no results! So we looked at each other and decided there needed to be one and fast.

Q: Present your team please?

A: Our team is comprised of professionals that have a combined total of 30 years of experience in various industries.

Our CTO and co-founder, Andrew Reedy, is currently lead developer for an app start-up. He has 10 years developing in the app industry. He possesses a BS in Computer Science. Our CMO and co-founder, Scott Mosteller, is currently a lead designer for a software start-up where he is a key member in driving the artistic direction of the public-facing ecommerce portals. He possesses a BA Graphic Design. I (Tony Silva, Co-Founder/CEO) am currently an accounting executive for a software start-up. I’ve been in accounting and finance in key roles for 14 years. I hold a BS degree in Finance, MBA, and a JD.

Q: Are you looking for funding?

A: As with all start-ups, we are currently in the process of making angel and VC propositions. Considering we are a first-mover in the geo-specific social network environment, the level of interest is high, but it isn’t just money that we are looking for, it is a solid business partner who will have some participation in the success of our vision.

Q: What we can expect from you and your team in next six months?

A: We will launch our beta on July 11th in one of San Diego most prestigious commercial buildings where tenants will have the ability to experience all that Tower has to offer them. The building managers are excited about the prospect of enhancing the social dynamic of their buildings and turning their building into more than just a workplace. By the end of this year, we will have made our public launch of the app and reached critical mass in the Southern California region, beginning out expansion across the nation.