Lymabean founders test the waters for new social network

Tonight I hung out with the founders of Lymabean.com - a new Flash-based social networking site that serves a dual purpose - to connect college students with their friends, and to connect these same college students with local businesses.

Businesses can use the site as a marketing tool for events and jobs in a different way than Facebook or MySpace. Instead of paying for banner or sidebar ads, businesses set up profiles and try to lure users to their "fan club." Fan club members can opt in to receive realtime updates about new job openings, product promotions, sales and exclusive events at their favorite local shops, bars and restaurants.

In theory, it's a win-win for everybody - and when it's completed it probably will be. But at its current stage, the founders say they're still tweeking a lot of things, while also trying to market the site well enough to reach a critical mass of users.

Since launching the beta version of the site among University of Arizona and Arizona State University a couple weeks ago, Founder and CEO Jeff Wurtz said about 500 students have created online profiles. Reaching a critical mass, or enough users to make the site worthwhile, is one of the obvious challenges all social network startups face. And this challenge alone is enough to make or break a new site.

But I was interested to learn of some of the other challenges Wurtz is facing as a startup founder.

The site, he said, is not complete yet. Several components, including the events and favorites sections are still under construction. While his staff of six is working diligently to roll out these components as soon as possible, at the same time they're getting feedback and suggestions from their beta users. It's a business call - does he focus on making the changes and fixing a lot of minor errors, or does he focus on rolling out the rest of the site as quickly as possible?  As an entrepreneur with limited resources he has to decide - which is the first priority?

This week, three of the Lymabean staff members are in Tempe and Tucson, Ariz. promoting the site. They have a guy in an 8-foot lima bean suit who attends Greek Life meetings, walks around popular nightlife spots and talks to students. What makes this a wise investment? How does a startup decide how to divide time and money on traveling and marketing, versus research and development?

The answer is: there is no answer. It's not a science. Entrepreneurs have to weigh these kinds of decisions all the time. I think it will be interesting to see how the guys at Lymabean fare.

In the meantime, check out their site at lymabean.com, and if you're a student, give it a try. Even if you don't like it, you'll probably like the free T-shirts.