Erik and Louise Wachtmeister, founders of exclusive social network ASmallWorld, have launched another private, online community called Best of All Worlds.
The invite-only social network -- which can be accessed via web, iPhone and iPad apps -- aims to provide the world's leading entrepreneurs, creative types, thinkers and influencers with a place to connect and plan their lives. Describing itself as a "social navigator", Best of All Worlds is designed to make sure that members don't find themselves "overwhelmed with irrelevant connections".
Erik Wachtmeister explains: "So much of social media is about focusing on other people's past. Best of all Worlds is about paying more attention to our own future."
When Wired.co.uk meets Wachtmeister, he is keen to point out that it's not just for the super-rich. Rather, it aims to bridge the social and professional worlds of influential people. However, a quick glance at the events that have been selected as crucial suggest otherwise -- it's packed with fashion weeks, polo matches and design fairs.
The platform lets users state their current and planned locations with the view to arrange to meet up with other members in those places. In order to find the right people to connect with, users can interact in a series of "worlds" that focus on a range of social and professional interests, such as business, food and wine, health, technology and art. Each world is curated and moderated by Best of All Worlds staff members.
Users can also set their "mode" to reflect their immediate interests, choosing between the likes of "professional", "social", "family" or "party" modes depending on their intent. Similarly users can easily flip between privacy modes, choosing visibility to the entire membership, just their network, friends of friends or being "invisible".
The plan is to work on building a strong network before starting to generate revenue from referrals and posh Yellow Pages-style listings for different events and venues.
Husband-and-wife team Erik and Louise Wachmeister launched ASmallWorld in 2004. The platform grew its user base quickly to reach 700,000. In 2006, movie giant Harvey Weinstein took a controlling stake in the company in what was his first internet investment. The Wachtmeisters left the company in 2008 after differing visions about the company's future direction. In March 2011,Weinstein described his investment as "one of my all-time doozies". In his own words, he "ignored technology and went after the bottom line" instead of concentrating on making the platform better like other social networking sites did. As a result, the "other social sites kicked my butt" and he sold the company for a loss.
Best of All Worlds has seed investment from members of the Saudi Royal Family. The team is based in Stockholm and Silicon Valley. A group of 25,000 people have been trialing the app in a closed beta. Users can invite up to 10 others to join the platform and it's coming out of beta over the next few days.
The challenge will be finding a balance between exclusivity and the network effect that makes platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn so powerful.
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