A bit about me

Jimmy Addison — the man, the legend! Or at least that’s what my mom (and my ex) say.

Seriously, I’m just a dude from Massachusetts with a dream. PinPal is going to totally change life as we know it for social media singles EVERYWHERE.

Sound huge? It is! Sound crazy? Maybe. So sue me!

The story is pretty simple. Back when I lived in Boston, a few university buddies and I were jamming ideas one night over pizza and beer (this was before I moved here and discovered Salsiccia from Pizzeria Delfina). And I showed them Pinterest on my iPad. I told them the site was going off the hook as a business, but they weren’t looking at the technology. They were looking at the stuff posted by all these smart, connected women…

And then I found Emily. And she was just shining on Pinterest. Emily with the junk jewellery collection and the Burning Man Art board, and the coffee shops of Marin County, and all her “Likes” on the vintage burlesque page. Rawrr.

And I thought: “Wow. How can I find out more about Emily?”

Then it hit me. Bam!

If I’m thinking this, how many thousands of other people are too?

So why not use people’s Pinterest boards and their Klout scores and their social media connections as a way to hook people up – to figure out who’s right for who? So I built a little Web-based tool that eventually became PinPal (thanks Emily!). Engagement, influence, conversation, sharing – all that information is out there, and at PinPal we’re all over them.

How far we’ve come!

Well, it never worked out with Emily. But the technology is solid. This stuff really works!

When I’m not rockin’ the clock developing the site, I love hang-gliding and surfing (although it’s hard to do it in the 617). That’s why I moved to the West Coast. We work hard on the site. It’s my life, and my dream. That’s why every day, even if it’s 20 hours deep in the code, I’m living the dream.

Until I become one of those rich angel-funders, I’m just another drone in a co-working beehive! But check out this beehive. Exposed brick on Fremont in SoMa with the VERY BEST up and coming tech and new media minds in NoCal! I won’t name the space – since we’re still in stealth, but let’s just say Zappos.com started here. Yeah. That Zappos.

Once you try PinPal, you’re going to learn to love influence. Visually.