Ex-Google staffers are building a social-mapping platform for online and IRL communities
Courtesy of PamPam
- PamPam, a new social-mapping platform, wants to make maps more interactive and fun.
- Founded by ex-Google and Facebook employees, PamPam offers custom maps and AI tools.
- PamPam is bootstrapped, ad-free, and experimenting with a freemium model for monetization.
Maps are an everyday staple of our smartphone lives. But what if our maps were maybe just a little bit more fun?
That's what PamPam, a new social-mapping platform, is trying to do.
"We essentially see ourselves as a Google Maps for communities," PamPam cofounder Helena Jaramillo told Business Insider.
Only available as a website for now, PamPam lets users create custom interactive maps. Early examples include a map of startups in New York City or a small business directory map for Philadelphia. The platform also incorporates AI tools that help users find and discover places to put on their maps, as well as templates to go off of. The platform draws its data from Mapbox and Google Places.
PamPam quietly launched in December 2023, and Jaramillo left her full-time job at Figma earlier this year. Her cofounder, Carlo Jörges, is splitting time between a full-time job and building PamPam on the side.
Before PamPam, the two worked at design and productivity startups, as well as Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook. Jörges, specifically, worked on the Google Maps product.
Jaramillo and Jörges, who also happen to be married and met while at Google, are inspired by maps as designers and came up with the idea for PamPam after moving to Philadelphia.
"We've lived in so many different places, and so we always were having to orient ourselves around a new place," Jaramillo said. "We used all these apps obviously to do that, Google Maps or getting lists or recommendations from friends, but it just never really felt right."
But map apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps, which are dictated by mass reviews, ads, and algorithms, are limited in what they offer.
"We can look up any place and get directions to any place in the world, which is great," Jörges said. "What's not working, in our point of view, is helping me decide where to go."
PamPam is trying to step into that space of recommendations and discovery.
"This space of helping people decide where to go and finding places that are relevant to them still feels unsolved," Jörges added. And if there's one thing he learned from working on Facebook events and community features, it's that people want to find places where there are other like-minded people.
Are maps social media?
From Snapchat to dating apps, social media is no stranger to maps.
The team behind Zenly, which Snapchat acquired and morphed into its Snap Map feature, is building another new social map app called "Bump." Exclusive dating app Raya released a sister app called Places, which includes reviews of restaurants, hotels, and bars. Even Instagram is getting back in on the map action with a test of a new map feature for close friends to share their last active location or add notes on a specific spot.
Courtesy of PamPam
"We see a trend of people sharing more in smaller circles and we see an opportunity for people to come together around these viewpoints, around these maps," Jörges said.
On PamPam, maps are the content. And behind the content, there are creators.
PamPam sees its creators as "community creators," Jaramillo explained. Even if they are promoting events or places, they are also typically trying to create communities or bring digital communities IRL.
Jaramillo also sees use cases for travel and lifestyle creators to use PamPam. For instance, a travel blogger could create a map of sites to see in a city; a lifestyle influencer could map out the best restaurants and events.
With roots working on YouTube ads, PamPam's founders are also already considering creator monetization. In theory, creators could charge followers for access to a map or work with brands on sponsored maps, Jaramillo said.
But in the meantime, PamPam is focused on building its use case for everyday people, not just creators and curators.
"Everybody has the places in their lives that are important to them and that they would like to share out," she said.
In the end, PamPam wants to help people "get out there and do things," Jaramillo said. "Maps are super actionable."
Bootstrapping a social startup
To date, PamPam has not raised venture capital, but was awarded $10,000 from a local Philadelphia grant and is bootstrapped by its founders.
The two-person team knows quite well that scaling a platform will take time and experimentation — two things venture capital doesn't have a lot of leeway on.
Still, monetization is already on the agenda.
PamPam is ad-free and experimenting with a freemium model. In addition to a free version, it offers premium subscriptions with tiers of "Pro" at $12 per month and "Business" at $29 per month, which unlock benefits like the ability to expand maps with more destinations and optimize maps for broader reach.
"We want to make this a sustainable business," Jaramillo said.