Cupertino Group Launches App for iPhone

When Cupertino resident Shafath Syed describes Mezz, the mobile application he helped create, his quickest explanation is that it’s all about being local.

Mezz makes it easy to discover your local community and share it with everyone nearby—a concept that makes Syed’s free app, which is now available for the Apple iPhone and iPad, stand out from other location-based apps like Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook.

“The high-level big picture is what is happening in your local area,” said Sayed. “This app makes it easy for people to discover things nearby and be able to share it with everybody in your local area.”

The Mezz app lets users post a comment promoting a local small business, restaurant or event, and share a mobile-optimized picture and map onto a real-time news feed so everyone in a controlled radius can see the post, whether or not if you are connected with those people.

Once you have shared your post with other Mezz users, you can post in to your Twitter and Facebook profiles with one easy tap.

Syed, who has worked in product management and marketing for Valley tech corporations such as Adobe Systems, Apple and Microsoft, says the app can be used to make posts for lost cats, garage sales and live music gigs.

“It’s like a digital flyer,” he said. “It’s like free advertising. You could share a great restaurant in Cupertino that you just discovered, or your favorite hiking spot. It could be anything, that’s the beauty behind it.”

The whole idea came from 19-year-old Safeer Mohiuddin, who developed the app and gives himself the creative title of “Brainchild” in the operation.

Mohiuddin, a Monta Vista High School graduate, was hanging out with friends on a summer day and wanted to discover something new and fun to do.

“We tried looking up spontaneous things to do and wanted an easy way to find information about local events happening nearby,” said Mohiuddin. “I’ve lived in the Cupertino and Saratoga area my whole life and I still don’t know everything that is going on. This app is a great way to discover and share real-time content going in the area right now.”

According to Syed, a few thousand users have already downloaded Mezz, which appeared on the Apple App Store about a month ago. Last week, he and his team launched a Web site for the app, www.mezz.com, where people who don’t have a smart phone can view posts by users.

Mohiuddin, who has also developed an app for the e-learning Web site Shmoop, is currently working on developing a Mezz app for the Android mobile device.

He said his experience working with Syed and the rest of the team has been unforgettable.

“It’s a really good learning experience, I’ve learned a lot more here than I did in school,” he said. “I like doing the hands-on learning and I get to work on stuff that I actually get to see.”

The Mezz group has partnered with San Jose State University and University of California at Irvine to integrate Mezz widgets for real-time feeds on their online student news sites.

While the app is a good device for finding local hotspots and hangouts, Syed, says it is also designed to help small businesses that are hurting from an unstable economy attract new customers and create jobs.

“Most jobs are with small businesses, who are really struggling right now,” Syed said. “Our app is a great way to get the word out, we have this great vision that Mezz can get people back to work by bringing more customers to local businesses.”

Syed saw the strength of the app when some old Apple colleagues who are based at the main campus on De Anza Boulevard saw a feed from Syed from the Cupertino Square farmer’s market.

“My friends at Apple didn’t even know that Cupertino had a farmer’s market until they saw my post on Mezz.”