CultureMob, Expanding Across the U.S., Says Get Out and Vote, Then Party

Want to find out where the best election parties will be on Tuesday night? Check out CultureMob’s top 10 list for Seattle here. The list includes a big drinkfest, the Stranger’s Election Party at Showbox at the Market downtown, as well as the more serious Election Night Special at Town Hall Seattle, complete with political consultants and reporters. My personal preference would probably be for Neumos or the Nickerson Street Saloon. (Any place that calls itself a saloon is OK by me.)

No word yet on where the founders of CultureMob—or rather, Green Couch Conspiracy, the site’s holding company—will be partying themselves. (Wait, I have a green couch, and so do two good friends of mine…) The Seattle startup, which launched a local site in December 2007, helps people discover, promote, and share local events in art, music, sports, and the like. CultureMob expanded to the Portland, OR, and Denver, CO, metro areas in May, and then to the top 25 U.S. markets in the past month. The company is largely self-funded, with some support from Benaroya Capital and angel investors, and has about a dozen employees. Its founders, including entrepreneurs Steve McCracken and Chris Pierard, previously co-founded Serials Solutions, a Seattle company that built digital information management tools for libraries. In 2004, Serials Solutions was acquired by ProQuest; its co-founders exited in 2006 for about $18 million.

There’s more expansion to come in CultureMob’s future, so watch this space. In the meantime, be sure to get out and vote…

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.