Innovation & Job News

Encore, a startup cofounded by James Li, Felipe Lopes and Tammy Cho, has shifted gears and changed offices, and is capitalizing on some new strategic partnerships. The startup, which recently finished a four-month tenure at Acceleprise, is now positioning itself as a social media listening tool, or B2B marketing tool that sends stakeholders instant alerts when their brands pop up in social media conversations.

Companies that help businesses make sense of their social media traffic typically focus on building a "dashboard" for marketers, but the D.C.-based startup thinks that that approach simply provides too much information. "New marketers don't like looking at all that data. It takes too much time to analyze it. They just want the bottom line."

 

 

"We have a lot more brands that are waiting to come on board, but we don't have the bandwidth to support them yet," says Li. Encore is hiring a developer and a data scientist/developer to help. The money for those positions is coming from a current funding round.
 

"We're raising $400,000 and we're a quarter of the way through, thanks to local angels Bill Smith and Michael Goldstein," Li says. Smith and Goldstein cofounded D.C.'s startup accelerator Exhilarator.
 

Currently, Encore's listening algorithm pulls data from conversations on Twitter. In the future, Li plans on adding data from other sources, including Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram and consumer reviews on platforms such as Yelp. Push alerts are sent via email now, but will be sent via mobile app at some point down the road.
 

As for the change in offices, Li jokes, "Acceleprise forced us out in September, so now we're working at the new UberOffices in Dupont." Kidding aside, he says, "It's really quiet and they're looking for a few more tenants."