The next generation professional network (to be), Zerply is going beyond its private beta and coming out for the public. And while this news is worthwhile another one is of Zerply heading over to 500Startups. This means they will be a part of the 500 Startups accelerator program in the Valley, bringing them closer to the big names in the region along with accelerating their learning during their 4 months.
The Sweden and Estonia originated (founders from both countries) startup had announced the Endorse Me button back in April and had been making steady progress. The most recent one includes a redesign of the site, where the layout has been tweaked a bit. While all this is not yet available for me on my personal profile, the Zerply blog has revealed the changes (you can view these towards the end of the post).
For example, on your home profile you get to see “The Network”, which has been replaced with “Users similar to you”. This will help filter the people in the Zerply network as per interests, tags and professional expertise. In short, it ensures you are at ease to connect with more relevant people, instead of saving time looking out for people. More like recommendations, to put more appropriately.
The other improvement is that of “Notifications” where users can view stats like the number of times their profile has been viewed. This would be quite valuable as the private beta doesn’t really make it appear very interactive. The public release would definitely be worthwhile and there is quite some anticipation of seeing more features added, especially for the fact that the Zerply community has made valuable suggestions.
500 Startups is a startup accelerator program that provides early stage funding ranging from $10K to $250K via seed funding. The program brings numerous startups together on the 10,000 square foot working area to interact and learn from over 120 startup experts. It’s managed by the one and only Dave McClure.
Preview 2: Notifications
