@rrhoover @brimer @jonathan_swerdlin Thanks Ryan! We all know that our friends have been to way more places than they have published online, and unless there’s an easy way to set your preferences for each context - like what’s my favorite place for date night, pasta, sushi - then people are hard pressed to remember and usually fall back on old email lists, starred maps, custom lists of 100 coffee places, excel etc. What we wanted to create was a way to make curated lists automatically through conversations with friends. What we realized was that each friend has a slightly different perspective on the map, and they can teach us a lot about places to go not just when we're traveling, but just when we're trying to find new places in our own city. Now that ridesharing makes it super easy to get everywhere the idea of researching where to go eat has become a lot more daunting than it was back in the early web and mobile days. Text messaging is definitely the biggest challenger in terms of behavior, but it's also a channel where we can acquire users. We feel that there’s a way to empower people with better tools both in the app and via text if you’ve set your preferences in Truffle and can use those as conversation starters wherever you’re chatting.

@eriktorenberg @brimer Thanks, Erik! Truffle will allow members of the Truffle community access to one-of-a-kind dining experiences at unique restaurants, produced and curated by Truffle in collaboration with restaurateurs and chefs. Longer term, Truffle will be able to provide restaurants with data and technology so they can know who their most loyal customers are, and who is referring their friends to their restaurant.

Be a pioneer--there is adventure in offline discovery and reward in sharing that which you unearth! Truffle is a community. Adding places you've discovered is the yin to the yang of finding places your friends love. There are no anonymous reviews, no information overload, just a list you can rely on because it's curated by people you actually know. It's early days, so sometimes there will be no places yet shared in a city. The fact that you don't see random places is the beauty of Truffle. This is an opportunity to contribute to your community.