Stanford University is known to have produced some big companies like Google and adding to that list is Flipora. Flipora, a venture started by Jonathan Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan, helps users discover great new websites based on the ones they already like.
Flipora, started in late 2008, analyses a user’s browsing history stream to learn where he/she spends most time.
“Signals like how engaged the user is on a page, how much time he/she spends on it, how frequently and recently he/she visits pages help the algorithm learn topics the user is interested in and recommend more websites,” Jonathan explained.
Jonathan and Vijay are originally from Chennai and went to pursue their higher studies at Stanford University.
Both of them initially wanted to pursue a PhD but changed their mind to do a startup.
Since the two of them have their roots in web search and information retrieval, they began looking to start a company based on that. “The idea for Flipora came late one night in our dorm room. I think it was one of those nights after a long day when the mind is very receptive to epiphanies,” Jonathan said.
Their idea was to make a user’s search more personalised and make recommendations that reflect the user’s ideas and interests. “It is like a tour guide who understands your interests and knows exactly where to take you,” said Jonathan.
“We envision our users flipping through website recommendations like they would flip through pages in a magazine, which is why we named the product Flipora,” explained Jonathan.
Jonathan explained how the site exactly works. “It involves four simple steps which begin with registering with us. This can be done with a Facebook id also.
Then follow topics you love, keep ‘flipping’ by hitting the flip button. The algorithm learns what you like as you use the product more and more and starts making suggestions,” he said.
Although the company is located in Silicon Valley along with giants like Cisco Systems and Google, it is already creating waves with over 12 million users in over 200 countries.
“We went from 8 million to 9 million users in 45 days and from 9 million to 10 million in just 25! We have a pretty big user base in India of around 4 million. We are actually bigger in India,” said Vijay.
Red Herring magazine conferred Flipora with an award for being one of the most innovative companies in America.
Jonathan and Vijay also have other projects in mind. “We will launch a mobile version of the product for iOS in 2013 and start Flipora Connect, which is an extension of Flipora and much more personalised highlighting the interest areas of the user on any website,” said Vijay.