This Rapper From The Nineties Has A Sick New Startup

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/vowch-2013-11

Jesse Itzler, also sometimes referred to as Jesse Jaymes, left his relatively successful career as a rapper to become an entrepreneur.

During his rap career in the nineties, Itzler had two songs in the Top 100 billboards charts, one of which was called "Shake it Like A White Girl" (see video below). At the age of 22, he wrote and recorded "Go New York, Go" — a song that has since become the official theme song for the New York Knicks basketball team. Itzler also wrote an award-winning song called "I Love This Game" for the NBA.

"When I was 24 I realized I could never be one of the best rappers but I knew I had some of the best ideas," Jesse Itzler tells Business Insider.

After leaving the rap game, Itzler went on to help create Marquis Jet, one of the largest private jet card companies in the world, which eventually sold to Warren Buffett. Itzler was also an early aprtner in Zico Coconut water, which sold to Coca-Cola. He's now married to Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx and the youngest female self-made billionaire.

“Jesse is a cool guy, he knows everybody," Vowch co-founder David Parker tells Business Insider. "Together we came up with the idea of this concept of Vowch.”

At its core, Vowch is a social recommendation platform. With Vowch, you can easily get a snapshot of who someone is based on what they vouch for. Users can vouch for things like movies, TV shows, musicians, hotels, conferences — you name it. 

The more you Vowch, the better your chances are for becoming a true "boss." "Bosses"on Vowch have the most street cred in the app. There are fashion bosses, reading bosses, music bosses, and so on. 

So how do you become a boss? Well, if I were to Vowch something, and someone revowches it, I'll get points. The more points you get, the closer to a boss you become. 

I've been testing out the app for the last week or so ! and I'm pretty into it. Just last week, Apple featured Vowch as one of the best new apps in the U.S.. 

Vowch is by no means the first startup to try to tackle the recommendation space. But given the team behind the app, Vowch may end up faring better than some of its predecessors. 

Be sure to check out Itzler laying raps on tracks: 

Now, check out some Vowch screenshots below: 

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