Chatfe: Audio, Interest Based Random Connections On Skype?

Paul Orlando

I got to meet Paul Orlando at a Microsoft event towards the end of January: his startup won an award. I hung out for hours after the formal event was over. We then exchanged a tweet or two over the weeks. We were angling to meet again. Finally we met near his office in Chinatown.

We went to two dumpling places after that. Eating dumplings is the best thing I learned in Kathmandu where I did a bunch of my schooling. Paul introduced me to a place - Lan Zhou on 144 E Broadway - that I have revisited many times after. Great quality, super low price, how do you beat that? 50 frozen dumplings for $8. That is cheaper than if I were to buy the ingredients and make them myself, only I would not know how to make them.

I am mayor of that place on FourSquare. But since I check in through text message on my prepaid, I have ended up mayor of another establishment of the same name. But who is counting?

Paul is married to a Taiwanese. The dude has spent a few years in Hong Kong. He has a MBA from Columbia.

Chatfe

Chatfe: Start a Conversation
Chatfé on Twitter
Chatfe.com - Talk With Strangers Over The Web | Visit chatfe.com
chatfe' on Vimeo
Chatfe - Start a conversation | Facebook
Web2NewYork | Networking for post-internet media, advertising and...
Talking with Chatfe at the recent BizSpark camp for Windows Azure...
Chatfe Conversations (New York, NY) - Meetup.com
Chatfe Wins Microsoft BizSpark Award for "Best Viable Business"
Chatfe: Equalizing the Chance for Interest Based Conversation...
Chatfe Blog
Chatfe.com – Talk With Strangers Over The Web | Startup Websites
Chatfe: Start a Conversation
YouTube - Chatfe's Channel
Chatfe: Start A Conversation With Someone New
Chatfe Conversation - ThisIsLike.com
Chatfe Inc. - Company Profile on LinkedIn
Chatfe.com – Talk With Strangers Over The Web - Programming Blog
Bringing Omegle and Chatroulette to plain old telephones: Chatfe...
Chatfe.com – Talk With Strangers Over The Web « Startup Ranking
Chatfe Blog: Fantastic Data
Chatfe.com - Talk With Strangers Over The Web - Moopz
Web2Barcelona | Networking for post-internet media, advertising...

Paul dropped a nugget over lunch that day. Instead of expecting people to talk over their phones, what if Chatfe made a switch and used the Skype platform instead? I got excited. I started having visions of Chatfe exploding to Chatroulette like numbers.

Chatfe is in the random connections space. It is based out of New York City. And it is run by a friend of mine. That's three strikes. I am excited.

There are a few advantages Chatfe has over Chatroulette. Sticking to audio only is a good move. With video you end up with a hugely distorted male-female ratio and some roudy behavior, it seems. Also with Chatfe, it is not completely random connections. You register a topic you want to talk about. But maybe Chatfe is tightening that noose a little too much. It should be a little more random than that.

I should be able to insert my location into my profile and topics and subtopics I am interested in talking about. And I should be able to similarly do searches based on location and topics of interest. Also, you probably want to be able to specify your language(s). In my case that is more than half a dozen. And you want to be able to arrange talks for later. As in, I want to talk in Hindi to someone in Mumbai about Amitabh Bachchan's latest movie for about 10 minutes at 10 PM NYC local time. Any takers? And if I have more than one person interested, I want that to be turned into a conference call on Skype. I would like it medium rare.

This much tweaking and I think Paul Orlando is going to be running all over Chinatown for server space.

Chatfe: Audio only, interest based random connections on the Skype platform. And Chatfe takes off into the stratosphere.

Venmo Could Make Moves
Adam Smith And The Inbox Space
Venmo And Frictionless Payments
Could 2011 Be Venmo's Year?
Reimagining The Inbox The Simple Way
Dropio's Indian Cofounder Darshan
The FourSquare Appeal For Me
What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger
FourSquare Must Cut A Deal With Yahoo
Digital Dumbo: Here I Come
FourSquare Office, Dropio Technology
4:16 PM @ FourSquare
I Have Been Quoted In Fast Company
Not Union Square Ventures
2010: Location, Random Connections, The Inbox, Frictionless Payments
Fred Wilson: A DJ
Chatroulette Is For Real

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nepal Maoists rally in Kathmandu (news.bbc.co.uk)
• New Hotmail takes aim at Gmail's top features (Paul Boutin/VentureBeat) (techmeme.com)
• Clashes hit Nepal 'peace rally' (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Prachanda's Second Big Mistake? (demrepubnepal.blogspot.com)
• Colorado man goes to Nepal to seek missing daughter (cnn.com)
• Naked Apartments Strips the Hassle out of Real Estate Hunting (mashable.com)
• Share Your Latest Purchases With Scordit (mashable.com)
• Design Free Digital Business Cards with DooID (mashable.com)
• TextMarks Makes Sending Mass Text Messages Easy (mashable.com)
• Hollrr: Foursquare for Product Reviews (mashable.com)
• Keep Your Online Calendar in Check With Plan.fm (mashable.com)
• Swipely and "Will People Do ___ Online?" (leehower.com)
• Foursquare and Starbucks team up to offer mayoral perks (business.financialpost.com)
• Maoists rally in Kathmandu (cnn.com)
• Sprout Social Raises Funding, Offers Business Tools For The Social Web (techcrunch.com)
• Chatfe: Start A Conversation With Someone New (techzulu.com)
• How Venture Capitalists are Using Social Media for Real Results (mashable.com)
• OpenBook Lets You Search Public Facebook Updates (techie-buzz.com)
• Hollrr: Foursquare for Product Reviews (mashable.com)
• Startup Riot Pitch Hour 3 (weatherby.net)
• Track Your Favorite Band's Online Buzz with Next Big Sound (mashable.com)
• The New Hotmail Challenges Gmail (thaibrother.com)
• The New Hotmail Challenges Gmail (googlesystem.blogspot.com)