The Obvious Corporation, the ideas incubator and firm started by Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman, has announced its latest investment—online community Neighborland. While it’s unclear how much the startup raised, other backers include True Ventures, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, CrunchFund, and Voodoo Ventures.
From the startup’s site, it appears New Orleans-based startup Neighborland is an online community for local neighborhood residents to share their ideas and insights for cities, support neighbors’ ideas, and connect with fellow residents who share similar interests. It aims to provide residents, neighborhood organizations, economic development groups, and municipalities with a simple platform to “connect and make good things happen.” And it’s a centralized place where people can share ideas and figure out how to make those ideas a reality.
For now, Neighborland is available in Houston, Boulder and New Orleans.
Obvious writes of the investment: Neighborland has the potential to connect residents virtually. A connected citizenry is amazingly powerful, as recent events have proven. When neighbors can collectively discuss issues, propose ideas, and unite to have their voices heard, there is virtually nothing they cannot achieve to improve their communities.
According to Neighborland, the process of engaging the community begins with a simple fill-in-the-blank form: “I want ____ in my neighborhood.” You fill this out, choose a location, describe your idea in detail with text, pictures, and video, and share it with your friends. Other members in Neighborland can support the idea and the top ideas for the month are featured on the site.
Obvious’ other recent investment include Lift, an app development startup; and Branch, a startup aiming to disrupt online conversations and public discourse.