Social Network Aims to Capture Movers and Shakers
By MARSHALL HEYMAN
For many of its New York members, the early social media site A Small World, which launched in 2004, represents a time that already feels like a distant memory, a time, perhaps, of dancing on tables at Bungalow 8. But just as Amy Sacco is attempting to reclaim West Chelsea, so is the former investment banker turned Internet entrepreneur Erik Wachtmeister attempting to reclaim the void left by his former endeavor, which he departed for good in 2009. A Small World, an invitation-only network, despite its original cache, was eclipsed by the more user-friendly Facebook FB -0.83% .
Louise and Erik Wachtmeister, who will launch Best of All Worlds Monday
Monday, he and his wife Louise will launch Best of All Worlds, an app and a site meant to help users "discover people, places and things in an intimate environment based on where you're located and people you know," said Mr. Wachtmeister, the son of Swedish Ambassador Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister and Countess Ulla Wachtmeister.
Within the app there are five modes users can turn on and off: social, party, professional, family and private. Each mode allows for different photographs of the user.
Mr. Wachtmeister is keeping Best of All Worlds invitation only also, he said, "to keep an intimate network" and "create organic growth of the platform where everyone is connected by three degrees." He said he felt there was a space in the market for something between Facebook—"which is mostly newsfeeds"—and LinkedIn, "which is extremely boring and professional."
"There's a huge gap in the middle for functional relevance," he said.
A first round of 5,000 invitations went out in mid-May, to coincide with the Facebook IPO, and since then the site has invited 5,000 more users.
As of midweek, Mr. Wachtmeister said 20,000 people had registered on the site from 120 countries.
"These are from all walks of life: fashion, media, banking and politics," he said. "They're people who are outgoing and very connected who travel a lot. Our goal is to capture the top 1% of movers and shakers. But I don't want to drop any names."
Write to Marshall Heyman at marshall.heyman@wsj.com