Nihal Mehta

Age: 33

Company: buzzd

Year founded: 2008

Site: buzzd.com

What buzzd does: Buzzd is the real-time social city guide for mobile devices. The app delivers up-to-the-minute reviews and ratings from friends, buzzd members, and other real-time content from Twitter, Gowalla, foursquare, Loopt, and Brightkite. Buzzd also provides aggregate content from sites like Zagat, Flavorpill, Citysearch, and Metromix. It has been the number two top overall app for BlackBerry, and the number 64 top free app for Apple.

How he is changing the game: Mehta is a game changing veteran at the ripe old age of 33. Prior to buzzd, he founded four startups including ipsh!, one of the first full-service mobile marketing agencies in 2001, which he sold to Omnicom  in 2005. He also founded

Urbangroove, an online nightlife portal, in 1999. “After we sold ipsh! to Omnicom, I was there for a year and a half,” says Mehta. “It was a great experience, but I had another itch. That pet project literally was wanting to know what was going on inside the bar across the street right now. I was dreaming of a live Yelp or Citysearch. I wanted to know, is there a line to get in? Are the drinks expensive? What is the guy to girl ratio? The best businesses are created out of personal need.” And so buzzd was born. Mehta believes mobile is the platform for users to consume and create content. The concept for buzzd was influenced by other technologies, such as Twitter and foursquare. Since the vast majority of Internet users are voyeurs—1percent of users are creating content and 99 percent are pursuing content —Mehta knew it would be more effective to aggregate social media and attach that content to venues, rather than creating a venue completely from scratch. In addition to getting real-time information about venues, you can book a reservation at restaurant and get on the guest list at a club.

Recent highlights: In 2009, buzzd reached 1 million users per month. The company was also the first app that BlackBerry invested in.

What’s next: As of press time, the company was set to launch a “buzzd 3.0,” which allows for increased access to Facebook, Twitter, and Gowalla. There will also be an influence leaderboard that will weigh each post based on how many other people open it. The idea is to rate the quality, not quantity, of posts. They also have a new Android release coming out this year. Buzzd is just Mehta’s 9-to-5. He is also launching ENIAC, a mobile seed venture fund, with three partners who are also former classmates from University of Pennsylvania. He also co-founded the non-profit Project Ahimsa, which runs 80 programs in underprivileged communities around the world. The programs work to improve self-esteem of children in those communities through learning music and dance. Mehta also co-chairs the innovation advisory board for Reshma for Congress.

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