WhoDoYou Launches Next-Generation Social Local Search

WhoDoYou converts free text conversations on social media into structured recommendations

Tel Aviv, Israel, February 20, 2014 WhoDoYou today announces a better way to find trusted recommendations. A mash-up of Yelp, Angie's List and Facebook, WhoDoYou captures authentic, local advice shared on social networks in everyday conversations. With more than half a million trusted opinions already gathered in a matter of months, WhoDoYou now helps people find local businesses in the top 500 US cities and more than 50 international markets.

People searching for dentists, plumbers or hair stylists will find all referrals come directly from conversations between friends; virtually all the opinions can be relied upon without fear of bias or review manipulation. People can also tap into their own network of recommendations by logging in to WhoDoYou. The average user has 408 Facebook friends, belongs to 20 groups and typically finds 153 private recommendations in their personal WhoDoYou vault.

"I was compelled by WhoDoYou's ability to scale," said Net Jacobsson, former executive at Facebook and investor in WhoDoYou. "Angie's List adds 60,000 reviews per month, and it took them nearly twenty years to get there. WhoDoYou is now gathering more than 30,000 public recommendations per month, and they've been at this less than a year."

"I found it frustrating when doing my own home renovation recently that all the trusted referrals shared with me on Facebook, email and by word-of-mouth, were completely lost. There was no single location to capture - and share back out - all this incredibly useful advice," says Yoav Schwartz, Founder and CEO of WhoDoYou. "So I decided to build a platform that would store all these nuggets of gold. Now people can 'reclaim' the advice shared on social networks. We are passionate about helping users find the professionals they need, recommended by the people they trust. It's a totally new kind of social local search."

WhoDoYou was founded in 2012 by Yoav Schwartz, formerly of Microsoft, and Jeff Schneiderman, previously CTO at Answers.com. A mobile app for Android and iOS is under development. The startup recently raised a $900k round of angel funding from top Israeli and international investors, including Gigi Levy (former CEO of 888.com and prolific angel investor), Jon Medved (founder & CEO of OurCrowd), Isaac Applbaum, Mike Granoff (first investor in BetterPlace), Net Jacobsson (early executive at Facebook), HanJoo Lee (founder of Hostway), 18 Partners, Ronald Lauder Ventures, and several other private investors.

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About WhoDoYou

WhoDoYou is a new social recommendations engine that helps people find local businesses recommended by friends and neighbors. People searching for dentists, plumbers, pediatricians and other local businesses see results based on authentic advice publicly shared between friends on social networks. Users that login with Facebook can see their own private recommendations from friends and closed groups, in their personal vault, regardless of when the original advice was shared. For more information visit www.whodoyou.com.

For more information or to request images please contact:

Email: press@whodoyou.com

Phone: (US) +1.201.655.7219 (Israel) +972.54.772.9580