What is Fostr? Fostr is an iPhone app created by Sean Fournier that lets you share the creative projects you’ve always wanted to finish. Why am I writing about this? Well, sometimes I when browsing the web I will stumble across a new start up or company that I find intriguing and I think “man that could be awesome if they had the right amount of support” and I wish I could somehow back them or help them out.

Then I came across this new start up called Fostr, and it gave me an idea. Why not start a Company Spotlight section to get some of these start ups noticed? So here it is, the first Company Spotlight post featuring the upcoming mobile app, Fostr.

I figured it is only fitting to make the first spotlight feature a company that is aiming to do the same thing Enfuzed is aiming to do, help designers get noticed. Fostr is an app driven toward helping creatives gain support and finish the projects they’ve always wanted to finish. Support, Follow, & Cultivate Creativity is their slogan and that’s what they are trying to do.

Let us take a look at the key features of Fostr:

Discover – Discover great projects that people are working on by filtering by a whole bunch of creative categories.



Support & Contribute – Follow the progress of projects that you believe in and contribute your feedback and guidance.

– Follow the progress of projects that you believe in and contribute your feedback and guidance. Increase Ranking – Based on the quality of your feedback, you could be among the Top Supporters.

– Based on the quality of your feedback, you could be among the Top Supporters. Earn Badges – The more you engage with the community, the more badges you earn.

– The more you engage with the community, the more badges you earn. Create – With an invite, you can share your own creative projects and gain support and feedback from the community.

– With an invite, you can share your own creative projects and gain support and feedback from the community. Finish – Gain the motivation, support, feedback, and guidance to finally complete that project you’ve always wanted to finish.

Fostr is a mix of all the great creatives websites out there (like behance, Dribbble, and Creattica to name a few) but with one key difference that caught my eye – it’s geared toward helping each other. Don’t get me wrong, people on behance and dribbble and those other portfolio sites help each other, but in the end they are just portfolio sites set on self promotion and helping #1 get noticed. Now that we’ve covered that, let’s get to the fun part of taking a look at the app:

The Menu

Support

Discover

Project

Profile

Badges

Rank

Fostr comes with various ranks based on the user. The first is a supporter, all members who sign up are supporters. As a supporter, you can discover great projects that other people are working on. By supporting these projects, you can follow their growth, gain inspiration, and even contribute your own input. With an invite, supporters can be upgraded to a creator.

Creators are supporters that can create their own creative projects, allowing them to share their creative progress and gain feedback from their very own supporters.

Fostr is set up similar to dribbble in that only invited members (creators) can create a project. All creators (members who can create projects) are invited by Fostr or other creators. Having members take responsibility for those they invite sharpens the focus on sharing quality and interesting work. Fostr also limits invitations, which helps the company scale the app and their support of it.

Now to the important questions you are probably asking:

How Do You Get Started?

Once Fostr is available, you can sign up as a supporter using an email address. Once you’ve logged in, you can discover projects to support, request an invite to become a creator to post your own projects, and more. You can sign up to be alerted for when private beta comes out at http://fostr.com/

How Much Will It Cost?

At launch Fostr will be free, and their goal is to keep it free of charge forever. Like Evernote and Dropbox, they hope to add a _premium set of paid features over time.

When Will the App be Available?

Fostr is currently in development and aiming for a private beta launch this summer (July or August 2013). Visit the blog at http://blog.fostr.com or follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/fostr for the latest news and updates.

What devices does Fostr support?

Fostr is currently for iPhone. We’ll be adding support for other devices as we go.

Who’s Behind Fostr?

Fostr was created by Sean Fournier, a musician and designer who wanted to make a place for people to reach their creative goals. Find him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/seanfournier

What is Fostr Video: