Boulder's RAQUE Uses Pinterest + Others to Fuel Social Decision Making

Fresh off winning the BDW Pitchfest, in which start-ups pitched against each other for funding, the three co-founders of RAQUE (Lindsey Jones, CEO; Nathan Igdaloff, CTO; and Jon Solove, CIO) officially launched a beta version of their site yesterday.

Here's more about the product.

As we all know, Pinterest is blowing up right now — it's the third most popular social network and according to TechCrunch, it's now beating out Twitter, StumbleUpon, Bing and Google (organic) in referral traffic. Jeremiah Owyang, an Industry Analyst at Altimeter Group, recently made an interesting observation about Pinterest. He said it's "like millions of people going to the mall, filling up their shopping carts and then walking away.” RAQUE is going to help solve that walking away problem by guiding people to the checkout line.

RAQUE is tapping into a cultural phenomenon taking place online called social commerce — e-commerce with a social overlay. According to Mashable, revenues for the social commerce market are expected to reach $30 billion by 2015. With this growth comes an abundance of discovery and inspiration, which can lead to an overwhelming barrage of options. Deciding what to buy can be rather challenging. That’s where RAQUE comes in. It’s a social decision-making tool. RAQUE’s mission is to help you make a decision on what to buy through the help of your friends and a great user experience. Social decision-making is already a widely adopted behavior. 81% of consumers get advice on a product purchase from friends and family through a social networking site. And 74% of consumers rely on social networks to inform their purchases.

RAQUE works in conjunction with the social commerce sites that are all about discovery like Pinterest. For beta, you will sync your RAQUE account with your Pinterest account (or any Pinterest account). You will then import your Pinterest boards, create a RAQUE with up to five pins, and share it with the people whose opinions you trust most. They will have 10 days to vote/comment and help you reach that decision.

Deciding what new kicks to buy. Where to grab a bite. Or what city to visit on your next road trip. These decisions don’t have to be a struggle. Just RAQUE it. Your friends are there to help.

Give it a whirl and let them know what you think.