Page 100 - Life In Naples Magazine December 2014 Edition
P. 100
Naples Native
New App fromNaples Native
Simplifies Your Social Media Management
by Ron McGinty and Courtney Caldwell
I t was a crisp day in Everglades City last winter when I had a peek into the future. I was with
my friend and fellow photographer, David Bankston. He told me social media had become
too cumbersome to enjoy. David had my interest because I follow over 1,900 Twitter feeds plus
another 1,000 between Facebook and LinkedIn. Knowing David as socially connected, fiercely
intelligent and revolutionary, I had to know more. These five words define the visionary mind behind
Sparksfly, the new mobile discovery app that aggregates multiple social media feeds and organizes
posts according to the things you love, saving valuable time in the real world. Too many posts, too
many feeds? Sparksfly is a brand-new way to manage your social. I was immediately hooked, because
I am a disciple of the power of social media.
Naples’ own David
Bankston first birthed the
idea behind Sparksfly out of
frustration. In an attempt to
follow and keep up with the
myriad of conversations on
each of his Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn feeds, he
became overwhelmed with
social media fatigue. Learning
that he was part of the 43
percent of consumers who
also share his concern, he
became eagle-eye focused on
solving the big problem of
applying the simplification movement to social channel fatigue. In 2012, David started to do the
one thing that serial entrepreneurs are so known and revered for: he stared at the problem until he
unhinged a solution. Ask any leader, and you’ll learn that those entrepreneurs who succeed the fastest
are laser-light focused: following one course until successful.
But developing a next-generation technology is nothing new to David Bankston, Sparksfly
inventor and CEO. A 20-year pioneer in the creation and deployment of successful social
technologies for Fortune 1000 companies, he co-founded an enterprise social software firm alongside
his Naples business partner, Kim Kobza, Sparksfly co-founder and COO. The dynamic duo went
on to co-patent the “Platform for Management of Internet Public Comment” software (Patent#
US 7,548,930 B2) that is used in hundreds of governmental agencies, cities, and counties today,
including the Department of Defense, and as the technology base behind the American Express
OPEN Forum and HGTV’s Rate my Space.
At the heart of Sparksfly, David’s new creation, is a proprietary fuzzy inference engine that
interprets your social feeds to determine your personal behaviors. Sparksfly then learns your routines
. . . similar to how Pandora learns your music preferences. The more you use the app, the better it
gets at recognizing and showing you content from your feeds that best suits your personal patterns.
But here’s the industry game- changer: the built-in “Sparks Detector” cuts through the clutter of
your multiple social media accounts to discover content and contacts you didn’t know existed! By
uncovering these valuable “sparks,” Sparksfly improves your productivity by aggregating your personal
social media into trails you can actually follow.
In just fourteen weeks, Sparksfly has amassed more than 100,000 users, 90 million card flips, and
an above-average rating of 4.3 in the Google PlayStore. Sparksfly has been touted as an intelligent,
personal discovery mobile application and next-generation aggregation tool that helps users focus.
Check out www.sparksfly.com to see why it’s been dubbed the next darling of Naples tech.
Download the app today—available in either the Apple iOS or GooglePlay stores—to simplify your
social. And try it out on Android Wear devices, too!
100 Life in Naples | December 2014
New App fromNaples Native
Simplifies Your Social Media Management
by Ron McGinty and Courtney Caldwell
I t was a crisp day in Everglades City last winter when I had a peek into the future. I was with
my friend and fellow photographer, David Bankston. He told me social media had become
too cumbersome to enjoy. David had my interest because I follow over 1,900 Twitter feeds plus
another 1,000 between Facebook and LinkedIn. Knowing David as socially connected, fiercely
intelligent and revolutionary, I had to know more. These five words define the visionary mind behind
Sparksfly, the new mobile discovery app that aggregates multiple social media feeds and organizes
posts according to the things you love, saving valuable time in the real world. Too many posts, too
many feeds? Sparksfly is a brand-new way to manage your social. I was immediately hooked, because
I am a disciple of the power of social media.
Naples’ own David
Bankston first birthed the
idea behind Sparksfly out of
frustration. In an attempt to
follow and keep up with the
myriad of conversations on
each of his Twitter, Facebook,
and LinkedIn feeds, he
became overwhelmed with
social media fatigue. Learning
that he was part of the 43
percent of consumers who
also share his concern, he
became eagle-eye focused on
solving the big problem of
applying the simplification movement to social channel fatigue. In 2012, David started to do the
one thing that serial entrepreneurs are so known and revered for: he stared at the problem until he
unhinged a solution. Ask any leader, and you’ll learn that those entrepreneurs who succeed the fastest
are laser-light focused: following one course until successful.
But developing a next-generation technology is nothing new to David Bankston, Sparksfly
inventor and CEO. A 20-year pioneer in the creation and deployment of successful social
technologies for Fortune 1000 companies, he co-founded an enterprise social software firm alongside
his Naples business partner, Kim Kobza, Sparksfly co-founder and COO. The dynamic duo went
on to co-patent the “Platform for Management of Internet Public Comment” software (Patent#
US 7,548,930 B2) that is used in hundreds of governmental agencies, cities, and counties today,
including the Department of Defense, and as the technology base behind the American Express
OPEN Forum and HGTV’s Rate my Space.
At the heart of Sparksfly, David’s new creation, is a proprietary fuzzy inference engine that
interprets your social feeds to determine your personal behaviors. Sparksfly then learns your routines
. . . similar to how Pandora learns your music preferences. The more you use the app, the better it
gets at recognizing and showing you content from your feeds that best suits your personal patterns.
But here’s the industry game- changer: the built-in “Sparks Detector” cuts through the clutter of
your multiple social media accounts to discover content and contacts you didn’t know existed! By
uncovering these valuable “sparks,” Sparksfly improves your productivity by aggregating your personal
social media into trails you can actually follow.
In just fourteen weeks, Sparksfly has amassed more than 100,000 users, 90 million card flips, and
an above-average rating of 4.3 in the Google PlayStore. Sparksfly has been touted as an intelligent,
personal discovery mobile application and next-generation aggregation tool that helps users focus.
Check out www.sparksfly.com to see why it’s been dubbed the next darling of Naples tech.
Download the app today—available in either the Apple iOS or GooglePlay stores—to simplify your
social. And try it out on Android Wear devices, too!
100 Life in Naples | December 2014
