Friday Q&A: The creators of superfluid, a virtual currency for creative talent

When Technically Philly first met Nathan Solomon in April, it was hard to keep up.

The soft-spoken engineer was talking a mile-a-minute about a new project he was working on: an online barter exchange for creatives with a dailed-in currency system perfect for that online community.

It was evidence of passion that was simultaneously backed by the smarts of his partner, Branimir Vasilic, an engineer with a background in physics. You know, a guy that knows a thing or two about math.

A few weeks ago the pair launched superfluid, a social network that enables folks involved with web development, design, programming, writing, film, photography and other specialties to more easily collaborate with one another.

Say you’re a genius coder and you’ve designed a new app that just isn’t visually exciting. superfluid connects these different creative disciplines with a simple barter system. To pay a designer, a programmer offers ‘Quids’ for the work, and later, a designer can spend those Quids on his or her own projects.

It’s a novel idea based on a growing number of localised currency systems, like Ithaca Hours in New York. With these local systems, currency is kept within a community, beit Ithica or superfluid.

Currently, Solomon and Vasilic are working on the gig full-time, along with three others who are half-time. The team is preparing to announce a “well known” partner in the virtual currency before the end of September. They’ve also recently launched a contest to promote the new virtual currency with the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy.

We caught up with the pair to talk about the idea origins and just how they were able to create a new monetary system online.

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Friday Q&A: Catherine Cook of myYearbook.com

Earlier this month, New Hope-based myYearbook.com founder Catherine Cook was honored as the number one young entrepreneur in the country by paidContent, according to a press release.

Cook has been loved by media since she and brothers Dave and Geoff launched the high school-focused social media site in 2005 – when she was was barely old enough to drive – after deciding that traditional yearbooks weren’t making the cut in the age of new media.

The award was accepted with pride, we’re sure, but we wondered when one becomes a regular, old “entrepreneur.” After all, Cook isn’t sixteen anymore.

Could it be $10 million in sales and 9.8 million unique hits? Maybe being noticed as the third largest and only growing social media portal aside from Facebook would do the trick. Does a title even matter?

“I am 19, I do like having that added honor to it, but I feel like sometimes it’s glam’d up a little too much. When some people hear it they get some kind of skewed perception that you’re a millionaire and a big spender,” Cook told Technically Philly in a telephone interview.

“I drive a 1996 Mitsubishi Galant.”

We’d like to think that Cook might be considering an upgrade since the company recently decided to monetize its Lunch Money feature, a virtual currency with which users can purchase gifts for friends or donate to noble causes. One million fake dollars cost $9.99 real cash. Six months in, Lunch Money is making eight figures in sales, Cook tells us. Virtual gifts have become one-third of the company’s revenue.

We caught up with Cook to see what her and her brothers have been up to since launching the site almost four years ago, what’s happening with $13 million in venture funding raised last year, and whether the Cooks are rooting for the Phillies or the Yankees, after the jump.

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DreamIT-backed OurShelf to launch public beta today

DreamIT Ventures-backed OurShelf will launch a public beta today of its web-based personal goods cataloging service after several months of prototype testing, according to an announcement on the company’s Twitter account.

OurShelf’s free service allows users to borrow and lend items such as DVDs and books and keep track of what’s been lent to friends. Users can catalog and organize, share, discover and group collections of products they own or are interested in.

“I lend my books out all the time. Sometimes I borrow DVDs from friends, but [there isn't] a system to keep track of who has what and where it all ends up,” Co-founder and CEO Paul deGrandis said in an e-mail.

“With OurShelf, you can borrow and lend, or have a shared shelf in a group and keep track of where your items go.”

The company is polishing its user interface before launching the service this afternoon, deGrandis said. There will also be a launch party for OurShelf in the Poplar neighborhood’s The Institute Saturday night at 9 p.m. Can you say free beer and Nintendo Wii consoles at every table?

OurShelf currently is made up of employees working from home throughout Philadelphia, but the company has plans to re-locate to the University City Science Center.