TTL recently caught up with LoveIt team member and PR Manager, Kat Garcia, for quick look at the impressive new site.
Through the Lens: In the grand scheme of things, where does LoveIt come in; What is LoveIt's mission?
Kat Garcia: We are social company establishing ourselves in the visual sharing industry. Our mission is to create a dynamic platform with powerful tools that provide the most engaging user experience possible.
TTL: What was the inspiration behind the creation/launch of LoveIt?
KG: LoveIt was co-founded by a team of entrepreneurs with decades of experience in the internet industry. Our three Co-Founders (Ron LaPierre, Tom Soulanille and Wei Guo) and our two Board Members (Talmadge O’Neill and Harry Tsao) got together toward the end of 2011 to figure out what their next business should be and how their backgrounds in search and discovery would help their new venture stand out from the competition. They noticed a significant interest in visual sharing sites and the concept of “pinning.” What interested them the most was the opportunity to be at the leading edge of the next stage of how people search and explore the web based on images. They hand-picked a team to build LoveIt in early 2012 and we’re opening up to the public today (6/7/2012)!
TTL: The LoveIt logo features a squirrel and his(her?) nut, what is the symbolism?
KG: LoveIt users create collections and squirrel away photos of everything they love, so using a squirrel holding an acorn felt like the right way to go in terms of logo selection. Squirrels love acorns!
TTL: LoveIt boasts a ton of features, can you pick a favorite?
KG: My favorite feature is our recommendation engine. If I’m scrolling through my feed, the recommendation engine shows me a handful of images I might like based on my interests. And yes, they’re clearly marked with a yellow background and folded up corner on the bottom right hand side so you know the content is a recommendation. Also, anytime I click to enlarge an image, the recommendation engine will show me entire collections I might enjoy AND I can easily follow the original content source where the image originated.
TTL: What sets LoveIt apart from its competitors, besides the incredibly awesome logo mentioned above?
KG: We love our little squirrel too!! We’ve developed several tools for our launch today that set us apart in discovery, organization, and collaboration. I’ve separated them out so it’s easy to see:
Discovery: LoveIt connects users with their friends as well as with people who share similar visual tastes. LoveIt also helps users discover influencers, brands, websites, RSS feeds and blogs that have content related to what the user loves. LoveIt takes things one step further by showing users the original content source and allowing them to directly follow that source with a single click. The company’s patent-pending image recommendation engine consistently identifies and shares new compelling images to provide a more engaging and dynamic user experience.
Easy Organization: Users can set up private collections, public collections, and favorites to easily find images they like. The order of collections can be easily rearranged and images can be reorganized between collections by using convenient and intuitive drag-and-drop tools.
Collaboration: Users can interact with other people in the LoveIt community to create a variety of collections from chic fashion to quirky art, tasty recipes to dream vacations, geeky gadgets to hot cars and anything else they choose. The private collection feature also makes it easy for multiple people to collaborate on professional work projects or for groups to plan special personal events.
TTL: What can LoveIt users expect in the coming future?
KG: Our community can expect us to always be actively listening and responding to them. We have a product roadmap in place but we’re keeping it flexible so we can quickly innovate and build the most in-demand features that they want to use.
TTL: Alright, enough with the sillyness. Let's get down to brass tacks. If LoveIt were a superhero who would it be most like?
KG: LoveIt’s superhero IS our squirrel!
TTL: Who at LoveIt can I direct me disgruntled emails for always making me so hungry?
KG: For your disgruntled, hAngry, emails – you can reach out to me directly or tweet us @LoveIt and we’ll get back to you right away.
TTL: I see what you did there! And that's a great point... You guys are always chatting and helping fans on Twitter, kudos!
TTL: It's 1920, somehow, what are the first three things in your collection?
KG: Well, I have big, frizzy, curly hair…so I’d probably have a collection of cool wigs to match the flapper girl hair style. I’d definitely have a collection of cool dance photos too. My third collection would probably be dedicated to the speakeasy culture.
TTL: Perfect answer.
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It's clear that LoveIt has a bright future ahead of it. To become a part of the LoveIt experience head on over to www.loveit.com and sign-up now!
A special thanks goes out to LoveIt and Kat Garcia for taking the time out to answer our questions and give us a closer look at the incredible work they're doing. Thanks guys!
