Shizzler shifts gears, gets address

The direction and location of the locally created social-networking tool Shizzlr has shifted.

Shizzlr.com, the brainstorm of Stonington High School graduate Keith Bessette, will be launching a new version of its website in the next few days that the company's founder said is more like a "social newspaper" than the previous incarnation, which he had described as a social-planning tool.

The difference, said Bessette, is that the new Shizzlr will emphasize discussions among friends in addition to making social plans. The refined business concept was based on feedback from the few thousand users who checked out Shizzlr over the past few months, he said.

"We just go with the flow," Bessette said in a phone interview.

And the flow for Shizzlr Inc. led to the company's first permanent location in January, when it moved into the Science Park at Yale in New Haven, a business incubator managed by the state program known as Connecticut Innovations. Previously, Bessette, along with business partner and fellow former University of Connecticut graduate student Nick Jaensch, worked out of their homes in Stonington and Orange.

"Finally, we have an actual address - you can't beat that," Jaensch said.

The pair are also working on finalizing mobile applications for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry. And, in mid-March, they are planning to meet with the state's Angel Investment Forum in anticipation of an eventual public stock offering.

Bessette said Connecticut Innovations, which is providing Shizzlr with space in New Haven, also has given the website start-up $150,000 in funding, to go along with $200,000 the company previously raised. Shizzlr will be using some of the capital to help launch the latest version of its website and to evaluate the feedback it will receive over the next couple weeks, he said.

Shizzlr won the collegiate 2010 Connecticut State Business Plan Competition.

l.howard@theday.com