A Hungarian Rekwest to pull through
Anyone with a smartphone will be familiar with the so-called “push” facilities, a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction is initiated by the publisher or central server. Now an Indianapolis company founded by four Hungarians claims to have come up with the first private-messaging “pull” application, designed to make it easy for users to ask for the content they want whenever they want it.
“We designed Rekwest to facilitate a return to relationships online and bring people closer together with the ones most important in their lives,” says Attila Schillinger, President of Indianapolis-based StorySafe Digital. “Rekwest users can thus enjoy the full benefit of private, two-way social media.”
Using patent-pending technology that StorySafe Digital developed, Rekwest allows users to create a private, exclusive social media channel in order to share messages and pictures only with the people in their life closest to them. Asking for content means that in most cases, people get specific content tailored just for them, saved in a private timeline.
The app was developed for iOS and is available free of charge in Apple’s App Store. There are plans for Android and Windows versions to follow. The backend infrastructure operates on an Amazon Server (AWS) and is cloud-based.
Pull services (where the request for the transmission of information is initiated by the receiver) are not new, and Facebook has added an “Ask” function recently, so users can ask for personal (dating) information from friends. Schillinger and his co-founders, Csaba Esztári, János Kurdy-Fehér and Akos Pöltl, say the intention behind their app is different.
“Rekwest provides a private platform for those who — due to work or living circumstances — are often physically separated from their loves ones. It was developed to help relieve the anxiety coming with separation and increase users’ personal satisfaction and happiness leading to stronger relationships. It does not use its users’ phone number or access their contact lists. Users can simply register for Rekwest using an email address and avoid spam and advertising. Once registered, users can invite the one most important in their lives and start getting more out of their relationship.”
But why would four Hungarians set up business in Indianapolis? Schillinger says there are a number of reasons, some small, some big, all, in their different ways, important.
“I graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana in ’95,” Schillinger tells the Budapest Business Journal. “So bringing the business to Indiana is – in a way – a return for me to my second home. Many friends there regard me as an ‘honorary Hoosier’ (the official demonym for a resident of the state): it just made so much sense to set up there. Also VCs are now moving in to the Midwest on the lookout for new opportunities and many are tired of the dominant players of Silicon Valley. We are well positioned in Indianapolis for both users and future investors.
“And small things matter, like the attorney we are working with; I babysat her while studying at Ball State when she was just ten. Csaba Esztári, a co-founder of mine, has also taken summer courses at Ball State when he was a young attorney. I have family in Indiana; many of my cousins live there. Our thinking was why start somewhere we will be completely foreign to? Why not somewhere where we know many people and can get local support much faster than elsewhere?”
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