Ness Computing

For crafting a sleek, social food app that recommends what to eat next. Since its launch in August, Ness (short for Likeness) added more than 100,000 users and generated more than 1.5 million ratings in just a few months, a feat that took Yelp three years. Ness provides recommendations via “radical personalization” but also integrates with a user’s social media–Foursquare check-ins, Facebook friend’s ratings–in an unprecedented way. CEO Corey Reese has plans for taking Ness beyond food recs: “We want to build a digital replication of a person’s preferences. We eventually want to be able to make nightlife, concerts, movie recommendations.”