Get a big name to stand side by side with your company and watch as people's curiosity causes a spike in publicity. It's a marketing tool that works like a charm. So when Elite Daily caught up with T.I. in late May hyping up Yopima at the company's official launch party, we could help but wonder: What exactly is it?
"Yopima stands for 'your opinion matters,'" CEO Vernell Woods said in an interview with Arise Entertainment 360. "What we do is we take the location of people's Iphones and everything of the sort and when they walk into a venue, we actually tell everyone else how many of them are actually there. So we can tell you how many girls are inside and how many guys are inside."
Woods and business partner James Martin are the 23-year-old co-founders of Yopima, a smartphone app that aims to answer one of life's most asked questions:
"Where's the party at?" It is a pretty straightforward concept and one that was impressive enough to attract a healthy $600,000 infusion of cash from an investment group that included T.I., which means "Tip" was most likely more than happy to co-host the company's event along with Maserati of Manhattan. "We're trying to do something that's going to make your life easier," T.I. said as he warmed up the crowd before the start of the launch party. "We're trying to do something that's going to make your social experience a little be more pleasant."
Yopima does more than simply provide you with numbers before you head out. The app is tailored to help you make your decision on whether you're hitting a bar or event based on a number of factors, like drink specials and V.I.P. lines, besides the obvious and most important factor of "who's there?"
And while the road to becoming a widely used app might be a difficult one to navigate -- for now, it is only available in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Atlanta, where the company is based -- a world where Yopima is a must-have on all smartphones is easy to picture.
There will be no more wasting $20 dollars to get in a club only to find more crickets behind the door than people. There might not even be the need to leave your apartment and waste that night at a party that isn't worth it. That is, of course, if you have Yopima on your phone. A download that Woods, Martin and T.I. see becoming a necessity in the near future.
