I’ve met a lot of impressive people in the course of Loopt, but I’ve only been intimidated once.

Before James Howard and I presented on stage at WWDC in 2008, we had to audition with some people at Apple, culminating with Steve in the Apple Town Hall.

James and I were standing around outside waiting and I remember thinking “wow, I’m about to go present a product to the best presenter and product designer in the world”.  I had idolized Steve Jobs since before I got an LC II for my 8^th birthday, which is what got me into computers and startups in the first place.

So I walked into the room thinking about how excited I was finally going to get a chance to meet my hero.  And then, looking out into a dark auditorium and only seeing two round pieces of glass glowing back, I froze up for the first and so far only time in my life.

I recovered after 5 or 10 seconds stumbled through the presentation, there were a few seconds of silence, and then Steve said “Cool, thanks”.  I usually present pretty well but this one was terrible, and I left the room sure that any chance of presenting at WWDC was over, and that I had disappointed one of the few people I cared about not disappointing.

The story has a happy ending, and we ended up getting to present at WWDC in what turned out to be a hugely important moment for Loopt.

I’ve thought a lot about that moment in the time since.  I’d know what to say to Barack Obama, I’m sure.   And I’ve never been quite sure what was so overpowering about talking to Steve until right now, as I sit typing this on my Macbook Air, running a company that basically exists because of a market created by the iPhone, listening to the Beatles on iTunes, iMessaging with friends about how sad this is, and emailing my Grandma the news, which she’ll read on her iPad (she never did manage to figure out any other computer).  I didn’t know how to talk to the guy that made everything I do now possible.

– Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO, Loopt

By now, we’re all super familiar with the ol’ air travel drill: you arrive early at the airport, whine about the security line, and eventually crawl onto an airplane that will take you to your exciting (at least we hope it’s exciting!) destination. Sometimes, in the midst of your travels, you might read an especially good book or sip on a foamy latte, but mostly, you’re on a mission: get “there.”

Basically, what we’re saying is that your time spent in the airport has never, ever been close to the most exciting part of your journey. Well, we’ve got some big news that’s going to change your mind faster than you can remove your shoes at a TSA checkpoint: we’re teaming up with Virgin America and SFO Terminal 2 to amp up the fun factor of air travel with VX Deals on the Fly – T2.

Starting today, September 26, a simple check-in at Terminal 2 in San Francisco International Airport (AKA, SFO-T2) gets you a random deal from Virgin America and other T2 partners including Cat Cora’s Kitchen, Kiehl’s, Mondrian and Clift Hotels, Napa Farms Market, Natalie’s Candy Jar and SFO. Yes, you read that right – a simple tap of your iPhone or Android could land you a serious deal!

Haven’t been to Terminal 2 yet? We’re not quite sure what you’re waiting for – that place is awesome. Virgin America and Gensler (the architecture firm that created T2) made this video to show off its Bay Area home, so check it out!

So whether it’s the first time you’re rolling through T2 or if you’re a seasoned T2 vet, pull out that smartphone and get to #winning. Here’s what you need to do:

• Open Loopt, or download Loopt for free from the iPhone App Store or the Android Market
• Tap “PLACES”
• Select Terminal 2 – SFO
• Check In, and discover your reward!

Examples of rewards on Loopt for iPhone

We couldn’t be more excited to bring you these awesome deals, and it’s icing on the cake that we get to work with such awesome brands in SFO-T2. The best part is that you can keep on racking up the wins every time you hit T2 from now until December 22. Every 48 hours, you’re eligible for a new deal, so get out there and Check In! In our minds, SFO air travel will never be the same.

For all of us young, broke and beautiful city dwellers, Broke-Ass Stuart has been our go-to guy for uncovering all things cheap. This Friday night, you can hang with this SF cult hero at the Make-Out Room, where he’ll be kicking off his “Broke as Hell” Book Tour with readings and a swell dance party.

SF Bay Area Community Manager Connie C. was able to catch the pimp daddy of budget travel before he embarks on his East Coast tour for Young, Broke & Beautiful: Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply and asked him five Qs about his fave SF spots.

Since you’re the King of Cheap, we’ve gotta know: What’s your fave spot to grab a meal for under $10?

I guess that all depends on how much I’ve had to drink. Late nights have been finding me at Escape from New York on 22nd St. and El Farolito on Mission and 24th. If I’m trying to eat like a grown up though and not a childish drunk, I’d say Cafe La Taza on Mission. I go there at least twice a week. Their salads are delicious and huge!

Where do you like to meet your friends for happy hour drinks?  

To be honest, I don’t really do happy hour. Happy hour is the refuge for those who do the 9-to-5 thing, and since I work for myself at this point, I’m usually still working during happy hour. I sometimes don’t leave the house until like 7pm, at which point I start to get crazy and end up at El Farolito at 2am. But the Elbo Room does have a really long happy hour. I think it goes from 4pm-9pm.

What are some of your favorite late-night spots?

I’m excited to try the new Palace Family Steak House. I haven’t been since it reopened and it serves late. I also like 15 Romolo late at night.

Any SF secrets to spill?

Jesus Christ! SF secrets, huh? I know so much dirt about this city. When people drink they tell me all kinds of shit, but my lips are sealed. But if you want those other kinds of SF secrets, you should totally check out Tyler MacNiven’s site: SF Secrets. It’s great!

Niiiiice! Now, where would be your last meal on Earth here in SF?

That’s a tough one. I’m obsessed with the Tropical Tacos at Lolo. But otherwise, I’d have to say it would be a tasting menu at some fancy place like Boulevard or Fleur De Lys. I actually had the tasting menu at FDL one time. I was so full afterwards that I was down to one word sentences like, “Must. Leave. Cab. Home. Now. Dying.”

Hope to see you all at this Friday’s Kick Off Party and be sure to follow @BrokeAssStuart as he ventures out on his book tour!

Our friends over at Rich Kid Cool made these awesome new T-shirts for us, and we love them! Connie, our SF Bay community manager, and Daniel, from our web team, took to the streets of Mountain View to model the hot new design.

Loopt Qs Now Available Globally

As of today, Loopt’s Qs feature is available on iPhones, iPod Touches, and on loopt.com … everywhere Loopt is available (includes the U.S. and select other countries, which were announced today). Loopt Qs are the super social way to get bite-sized reviews and share opinions about the place you’re at — making you a true insider wherever you go.

We just rolled out Qs to some additional cities last week, and our users there have been eating it up. Now, it’s everywhere, so you just have to try it. It’s useful, informative and – let’s face it – just plain fun.

How Did We Do It, You Ask? (Behind the Tech Scenes)

Loopt Qs have been out in select areas for a couple months. So, you may be asking, “what were we working in the Loopt labs this whole time?” Well, in order to quickly expand Loopt Qs across the U.S., Loopt has developed “Training Qs,” which let users guide Loopt’s reading of a specific place.

Here’s how training Qs work: If Loopt doesn’t have enough information to generate the right Qs at a place, it will ask training Qs like, “Dang! We’re Q-less! What do ya do here?” Users will vote and guide Loopt toward the right category. Once Loopt gathers the appropriate intel on a place, then it’ll automatically start populating relevant Qs there. Once Loopt knows the general category, it will dive even deeper, “Are you here for the music?” and if so, the user can specify that they are, “Here to see a popular DJ.”

Loopt users will play a key role in starting up the local conversation about a place. After all, nobody knows local places better than Loopters!

We’re very excited to announce Loopt is now available in 13 countries! Starting today, you can download Loopt for the Android, iPhone and iPod Touch in…

• Australia
• France
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Singapore
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

…and we’ll be adding more locations soon.

Loopt was originally an app available for feature phones, so our system required a U.S. phone number to register. Well, that’s all changed. You can sign up for Loopt for free with your email account as a login. We’re happy to bring new Loopt users into the fold. All new launch countries will have access to the English-language version of Loopt.

Loopt is an essential app for finding your friends, Checking In, meeting up, discovering places and sharing information about places. One of our latest (and extremely popular) features, Qs (short for “questions”) introduced a completely new way to share quick, micro-reviews about a place in a poll format.

Check out this Qs video to get a better idea:

We have more exciting things to come. So, stay tuned! Download Loopt in one of our 14 available countries by searching in the iPhone / iPod Touch App Store or the Android Market.

As always, please let us know if you have any feedback. We’d love to hear from you on Twitter or Facebook.

Count it: 50,000 Qs Answered, 11 More Cities Get Loopt Qs

Loopt reached a fun milestone today – Loopt users have answered 50,000 Loopt Qs (community micro-reviews) about the places around them. And we’re not stopping there!

Loopt Qs are the super social way to get bite-sized tidbits and share your own opinions about the place you’re at — making you a true insider wherever you go. This is a pretty new feature in the Loopt iPhone app, and as we’ve been refining it, it’s been available in limited areas. Well, we’re working to fix that!

As of today, the Loopt Qs feature is available on iPhones (and on loopt.com) in…

• Atlanta
• Austin
• Chicago
• Dallas – Fort Worth
• Ft. Lauderdale
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Orlando
• San Diego
• San Francisco (Bay Area)
• Seattle
• Washington, D.C.

If you’re in one of these places, then you’ve gotta try out Qs. It’s a lot of fun and super-useful for both locals and visitors.

Enlisting Loopt Users to “Train” Qs Service

Loopt prompts interesting / funny / useful responses from its users with Qs tailored to each place (or type of place).  In order to quickly expand Loopt Qs across the U.S., Loopt has developed “Training Qs,” which let users guide Loopt’s reading of a specific place.

Here’s how training Qs work: If Loopt doesn’t have enough information to generate the right Qs at a place, it will ask training Qs like, “Dang! We’re Q-less! What do ya do here?” Users will vote and guide Loopt toward the right category. Once Loopt gathers the appropriate intel on a place, then it’ll automatically start populating relevant Qs there. Once Loopt knows the general category, it will dive even deeper, “Are you here for the music?” and if so, the user can specify that they are, “Here to see a popular DJ.”

Loopt users will play a key role in starting up the local conversation about a place. After all, nobody knows local places better than Loopters!

New iPhone App Version

Just in time for our new Qs cities, we released a few updates to the Loopt iPhone app. For this release, we focused on Loopt Qs interactions. Here’s what’s new:

• While answering Qs, the full Q results dynamically update – right at your fingertips – while you’re locking in your answer. View your social influence in the making.
• We’ve heard from a lot of our community members that someone’s Q answer totally made their day. If someone’s stellar recommendation stands out to you, you can now give them individual “Props” for their local prowess. You can also now “Thank Everybody” who voted for a specific answer.
• You’ll also notice some new notifications, which fill you in on your friends Q-answering activity. There’s nothing better than a friend’s recommendation. With these new notifications, the recommendations come to you.
• If you’re as addicted to answering Qs as we think you are (or you’re about to be), then you’ll love the street cred we have for our top Loopters. The more Qs you answer, the more you’ll level up. Maybe you’ll even become “Master of the Qniverse.” Only time (and Loopting) will tell.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get out there, Loopt it up!

You can download the latest version of Loopt for the iPhone here or in the iPhone App Store.

Two of Loopt’s co-founders, Sam Altman and Alok Deshpande are standing by to speak at SXSW 2012 (Already?! Yea, it’s coming up again!). Check ‘em out, and vote ‘em up. Both Sam and Alok have a lot of tips to share with the SXSW community on two very interesting topics. Loopt is also in good company, with speakers from Facebook (Jon Fougner), American Express (David Wolf) and BIA Kelsey Group (Michael Boland) participating with us.

Here are the proposed sessions (which need your VOTES):

Is That Your Final Offer? Mobile Dynamic Pricing – Dynamic pricing is back. In 1845, people walked into price-free stores, and the price was decided then and there. More recently, we’ve seen this with airline tickets, fluctuating in price based on demand. Now, with mobile advances, we’re seeing the first signs of dynamic pricing at a local level. VOTE HERE: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/9792

The New Deal: Use This Service, Get a Payoff – Using a mobile service should be like a gym membership…the more active you are, the more it should pay off, right? This panel is with Loopt, Facebook and American Express (moderated by BIA Kelsey Group). This awesome panel of experts will explore what makes a mobile app, service or campaign pay off for the everyday consumer. VOTE HERE: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/13031

Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook if you have any questions on the sessions!

Update (8/22/11): You can view Heine’s presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/hfrifeldt/loopt-unit-test-experiences 

Hey, Bay Area Loopters and developers!

We’re hosting a meet-up on August 18 at Loopt HQ for Test Driven Developers Bay Area. You’re invited! Our very own Heine Frifeldt, the lead of Loopt’s server team, will be the featured speaker.

Heine and his team make it possible for Loopt to quickly crank out new features while maintaining stability for our services (translation: Loopters can loopt it up freely…without a care in the world while Heine sweats the small stuff). Heine has been integral in the progression of our apps, ensuring that our new and existing features meet the high expectations of our users.

If you’re a developer and have noticed our recent launches of Qs and u-Deals, Heine can fill you in on how Loopt was able to push out these features while keeping the backend servers stable. C’mon out, we’d love to have you.

Where: Loopt

When: August 18, 6:30 p.m.

RSVP: On Meetup.com (hurry! Limited spots available)

If you can’t come to the meet-up, then please enjoy this engineering joke in consolation (sorry, we couldn’t help it), and Loopt’ll catch you at the next one!

—

One day, a Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Chemical Engineer and Computer Engineer were driving down the street in the same car.

The car broke down.

The Mechanical Engineer said, “I think a rod broke.”

The Chemical Engineer said, “The way it sputtered at the end, I don’t think it’s getting gas.”

The Electrical Engineer said, “I think there was a spark and something is wrong with the electrical system.”

All three turned to the computer engineer and said, “What do you think?”

The Computer Engineer said, “I think we should all get out and get back in.”

—

Har har