About lokadot...

A mashup of the words "local" and "anecdote", lokadot (pronounced "low" + "kuh" + "dote") is a mobile application (currently for iPhone) that serendipitously streams crowd-sourced audio files based on your location, listening preferences, and the nearby points of interest you encounter. Lokadot provides a delightfully unique and effortless way to discover your world. It taps an ever-expanding audio archive of stories that people share about their experiences in and knowledge of the places we all inhabit and visit. Anyone can contribute, and anyone can listen. Could be in any language. About anything. Anywhere.

Where did the inspiration for lokadot come from?

We've simply visited far too many places while not bringing the resources we should have to fully recognize, understand and appreciate our surroundings. Lokadot is the natural outgrowth of our desire to create an effortless and enjoyable means for not ever letting that happen again.

Where are the lokadot offices located?

We are proudly based in Center City Philadelphia Pennsylvania - a vibrant city full of talented entrepreneurs, technologists and creative professionals that together make up a wonderfully inspirational community we fondly call home. We find ourselves particularly thankful to our closest friends in Philly Startup Leaders, Indy Hall and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia.

What is the revenue model?

Organizations who publish audio content to Lokadot pay a recurring subscription fee in order to do so. The organizations who are currently piloting Lokadot are doing so for free. Once we reach a critical mass of publishers, content and users, we'll be able to monetize Lokadot many different ways beyond subscriptions, including premium features and functionality, premium content, in-app purchases, professional and creative services, and commercial in-app (opt-in) audio advertising and Internet radio advertising.

Who's behind it?

Cliff Stevens, Founder, CEO & President

A Center-City Philadelphia, PA entrepreneur, Cliff Stevens and his wife Veruschka have founded and run multiple technology-related businesses in addition to Lokadot, LLC, including MyOwnITGuy, Inc., "The IT Staffing Company", and EverySAPJob.com. Cliff is a graduate of James Madison University's College of Business, and Singularity University's 2010 Executive Program.

Haseeb Yousaf - iPhone App Development Lead

Haseeb been leading all iPhone application development for Lokadot, LLC since early 2010. Haseeb has extensive knowledge in fields of Banking Software, GPS/GPRS vehicle tracking, and mobile application development. Haseeb is an independent contracting member and Co-founder of PentaLoop and currently acts as the Head of Technology there. He is a graduate of the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, majoring in Software Engineering.

Sergey Gerashchenko - Cloud Platform Developer

Sergey has been leading the programming and infrastructural buildout of Lokadot's website and cloud platform since late 2010. He is an experienced web developer, and independent contracting member of the Lamp Dev development team. His specialization is Zend Framework and advanced PHP complex web applications. He was born and living in Ukraine, Easter Europe, and teaches at Kremenchug National University.

Vee Stevens Veruschka Stevens - Chief Spark

Veruschka "Vee" Stevens has been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug too, helping Cliff get Lokadot, LLC off the ground and continuing to provide critical ongoing support. Vee also found and operates her own jewelry design business, Veru Designs, LLC. Vee is a certified SAP Finance Professional, with a graduate degree in Information Systems from Aachen Technical University, Germany (RWTH Aachen) and undergraduate degree in Systems Engineering from Universidad Católica Boliviana.

Bob Cooper – Advisor/Mentor/Connector

Bob Cooper is a serial entrepreneur who founded Frontier Media Group, Inc., one of North America's first full-service interactive marketing firms. Founded in 1991, he grew Frontier to be a nationally recognized Internet marketing agency of record for Fortune 500 clients, with engagements in the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Cooper sold the company to Icon CMT, a NASDAQ listed company, and earned his angel investors a 70X return on their investment. In late 1999 Cooper left Qwest to form Ricochet, Inc., a diversified holding and consulting company based near Philadelphia. Ricochet specializes in strategic planning and business development services for early stage technology companies and has worked closely with venture capital firms in the area. Cooper has lectured on entrepreneurship, marketing and service design as both adjunct professor and guest lecturer at Penn State, Wharton, Temple, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, University of the Arts, Cabrini College and Bentley University.

(i) - The BIA/Kelsey Group - "Digital Strategies for Broadcasting"
(ii) - Nielsen – "Smartphones to Overtake Feature Phones in U.S. by 2011"
(iii) - Nielsen – "How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio"
(iv) - U.S. Travel Assocation - "U.S. Travel Forecasts"
(v) - Gallop Poll - August 2007 - "Workers' Average Commute Round-Trip Is 46 Minutes in a Typical Day"
(vi) - The BIA/Kelsey Group - "BIA/Kelsey Sees Prospects for Radio Industry Revenues Increasing in 2010 After Bottoming Out Last Year at $13.7 Billion"

Lokadot is a FREE smartphone application, currently available for the iPhone. Stay tuned while we continue to build out our functionality, expand the geographic footprint of our content, and the number of mobile platforms on which lokadot will run.

Frequently asked questions

Need more information? Please email us at info at lokadot.com. We're a very small team and we receive a high volume of requests each day, so we apologize in advance if we're not able to get back to you immediately.