John Legend to Launch Food and Travel App ‘It’s Good’
Musician John Legend is venturing into tech, with a social app startup called “It’s Good” that is designed to provide recommendations for food and travel.
“We believe a restaurant rec from 1 trusted friend is more valuable than recs from 10,000 strangers,” the new company’s splash page states.
The idea behind the app is to change how people save and share their favorite places to eat and drink. “You’re invited to join our exclusive waitlist alongside celebrities, chefs, foodies and tastemakers already savoring It’s Good’s flavorful potential,” the site says.
It aims to take on sites like Yelp and Google reviews and help users find spots that were favored by their friends on social media and a presumably growing list of high-profile names.
The startup raised $5 million in funding this month, The Wall Street Journal reported, from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, a firm that has backed dozens of companies, including Snap, GrubHub and Nest, along with restaurateur David Chang and entrepreneur Jessica Alba.
Legend’s co-founder is tech entrepreneur Mike Rosenthal, who previously co-founded the luxury hair-care brand Ouai with his wife, Jen Atkin, The Journal reported. It took four years to bring the idea to the market after working out the details over Zoom during the pandemic, the story said.
The app launched in March with a select group of users and is so far invite-only, the Journal reported. Right now, Chang, Alba, NBA player Harrison Barnes and actress Minka Kelly are among the early users.
Legend, whose wife Chrissy Teigen has had her share of online run-ins, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference Monday, said the effort is in part a reaction against the negativity that pervades much of the internet.
He said that a key element of It’s Good is that users trust that the recommendations are sincere. “It’s actually not even built for negative comments,” the EGOT winner said. “Either you recommend it or you don’t.”
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