Kwingo Launches to Bring Productivity Tools to Mobile Professionals

First Mobile App Provides Frequently Needed Workplace Phrases in a Second Language on Any Web-Enabled Device

Minneapolis (PRWEB) February 29, 2008 -- Kwingo (www.Kwingo.net) announced today it is launching a business to bring simple, useful tools to professionals working in field occupations using web-based mobile devices as a platform for delivery.

As labor workforces continue to globalize, language challenges multiply. Kwingo provides the tools workers in the field use to communicate with coworkers who speak a different language, helping everyone work more productively and safely.

The company's first application serves commercial kitchens in restaurants and institutions, providing thousands of food-prep and cooking phrases in English and Spanish. The application can be accessed on any web-enabled handset, PDA, or PC-type device, and usage is free. This fast, intuitive tool provides the most frequently used productivity and safety phrases in English and Spanish, with Spanish pronunciation. Supervisors and coworkers can use the Kwingo food-prep application immediately on their cell phones

or PDAs with no instruction.

"The best mobile applications will be built from scratch specifically for mobile devices," said CEO

and cofounder Lisa Foote. "Kwingo will be a leading provider of such applications. Our obsession is

to deliver simple, useful tools to professionals working in all mobile occupations."

Kwingo mobile applications - using both its Kwingo.net and Kwingo.mobi domains - provide opportunities for "location-based advertising," which Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently predicted

would be "a very, very good business". Kwingo's location-based advantage for advertisers is knowing exactly which professionals - chefs, landscapers, construction supervisors, etc - are using an application, and knowing these users of the application at the worksite are buyers of specific products.

For large enterprises, Kwingo offers cost-effective, fast development of language and operation manuals for all workers in every location. It enables corporations with many locations to be more environmentally friendly by eliminating most or all paper-based operations instructions. These new "online manuals" can always be kept up to date without expensive reprinting. And Kwingo can communicate critical information alerts daily to workers in the field who have no access to voicemail or email.

The Market and the Need

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2006 data reports 3.1 million Hispanic workers in food preparation

and serving occupations, 2.5 million in construction, and 1.6 million in building-grounds cleaning

and maintenance. In total, these three sectors alone employ more than 7.2 million Hispanic workers.

In the U.S., restaurants are the number-one employer of Hispanics with limited English proficiency.

Kwingo is addressing this initial market by providing:

• Custom web sites with proprietary food names and operating procedures unique to those chains

• The Kwingo app as a bolt-on to existing web-based technology providers to these industries

• Free public-use web sites

The application can also be provided as a Spanish-to-English application, or in any other language pair.

Company Management

Kwingo was founded and is led by CEO Lisa Foote and CIO Bradford Roberts. Foote has held leadership positions at Target, GE, Capital One, and Prudential in both information technology and operations. She earned an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. Roberts' experience includes extensive business communications work with firms including Shell Oil, Navistar International, IBM, and the Carlson Companies. Kwingo's seed-stage funding has been provided by the founders. The company is in discussions to raise additional growth capital.

Comparison to Existing Solutions

Unlike traditional translation or language-training solutions, the Kwingo app requires no memorization, download, registration, or fee, and gives immediate access with no proprietary or additional hardware or booklet. Created using the Ruby on Rails agile development environment, custom sites can be developed in a few weeks; updates can be published to the generic public site or any custom site within hours.

Product Release and Rollout Plans

Kwingo's mobile app for commercial kitchens is now in production at www.kwingo.net. The company will announce initial clients for customized versions of its application in the restaurant and food-prep industry early in 2008. A provisional patent application for the company's software has been filed.

About Kwingo

Kwingo (www.kwingo.net) develops mobile software applications focused on workplace productivity, for delivery on any web-enabled device. Its mission is to be known as the company that provides field professionals "The tool you need for the work you do™." The company has a blog located at www.kwingo.net/kwingoblog/. Kwingo generates revenue through (1) fees for developing custom, constantly updated web sites unique to each company's needs; (2) providing its applications as bolt-ons to existing technology providers; and (3) in the future through advertising to individuals who use the public Kwingo web sites free of charge. Kwingo's highly focused, differentiated versions of its mobile application - for verticals such as food service, hospitality, construction, and landscaping, among others - will give advertisers access to highly targeted buyers. This powerful model will deliver ad impressions multiple times per day - in the buyers' hands, at the workplace.

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