Since 1995, when Classmates.com began hooking people up online with the folks they missed at the last high school reunion, social networking sites have become among the most popular sites on the Internet. Myspace, the largest of these, is the fifth-most visited Web site on the planet, and more than one hundred and sixty million people are registered to the site. Facebook®, a smaller site particularly popular with college students, claims more than nineteen million users.

Along with the explosive popularity of social networking sites, a number of problems have developed. One of the most obvious is that every hour a person spends staring at a computer is an hour spent isolated from physical contact with other people. This means that, while socializing online can be a fun and efficient way to share time with friends, it can be too easy to lose a sense of balance between real and cyber relationships.

A more sinister problem has also sprung from the relative anonymity of the Web world. Sexual predators and cyber stalkers have used social networking sites to locate and contact victims, and several lawsuits are pending against some of the major sites. Seung-hui Cho, the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, is alleged to have stalked female classmates through their online accounts.

BarCardz addresses these problems with a straightforward (but patent-pending) solution; users build their networks of friends face-to-face. They add people to their online networks by handing them a “BarCard,” which includes a name, a photograph, and a unique “bar code.” If the recipient is interested in pursuing the interaction, he or she can log on and send back a “friend” request. If, in the cold light of day, it seems like handing out that particular card was not such a great idea, simply ignoring the request will cancel the whole transaction.

BarCardz founder and president Alexander Lubyansky realized that if college students could use “business” cards to introduce themselves to each other and invite online friendships, they could provide some safeguard measures against both stalking and spam.

He also realized that the cards were a powerful marketing opportunity for bars, entertainment venues, clothing stores, restaurants, and other local businesses, who could offer discounts to BarCardz members. Once they have the member’s card, they can send their own friend request. This double opt-in process gives the member complete discretion over the contact he or she wants from the merchant, and provides the merchant with a very high-quality lead.

The BarCardz site features an event calendar, which provides an opportunity for businesses to post events of interest to BarCardz members, providing them with a powerful free promotional vehicle. BarCardz verifies the legitimacy of the business, ensuring that only valid events make it to the calendar.

The BarCardz site also includes plenty of entertainment and humor, designed specifically to appeal to college-aged kids. This includes various games (like Sudoku or Beer Pong), a “Play Book” of inventive ways to give somebody your BarCard, handy tips (like how to get your apartment deposit back without hiring a hit man) and a “Wall of Shame” documenting world-class shoot-downs.

BarCardz is launching the site with a Life of the Party competition. This awards $1000, a BarCardz money clip, and the official title of Life of the Party to the most social (measured by the most friends) BarCardz user in the opening year.

The company that wins the most friends will win the coveted title of MVB (Most Valuable Business), with all the love and adulation that entails.

Commercially-printed BarCardz are available for $11 for 50 cards, $20 for 100 cards, or $30 for 250 cards. Or, you can download your BarCardz template and print your cards on your own printer for free. Visit: www.barcardz.com

Founder's Bio

Alexander Lubyansky
Founder and President
BarCardz® BarCardz.com

BarCardz® Founder and President Alexander Lubyansky has a perfect set of qualifications to head up the Web’s most unique new social networking site for young adults. His first venture into the world of publishing and online entertainment was a site called “Humor Me Luby.” The site got thousands of hits per day, and was eventually banned as a distraction - in his middle school. It’s a point of pride for Alex to this day. Later, as editor of his high school newspaper his humorous editorials led to new readership records.

His parents are both automotive engineers in the Detroit area. They brought their young family to America from their home in Chernobyl, fleeing Russia in the aftermath of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. Lubyansky became an American citizen and grew up with his parents’ strong sense of the value of hard work.

Lubyansky attended the University of Michigan, graduating in the spring of 2007 with secondary teaching certificates in English and Psychology. He is currently student-teaching at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School. Despite four years on the honor roll and a 3.6 GPA, his college years included a heavy concentration on FUN. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and worked as an Event Model, filling roles as varied as male cheerleader and race driver.

He was also an elite soccer player, with two national championships and a playoff MVP trophy to his name before he could order a drink in a bar. He worked as goalkeeper coach for North Farmington, Michigan boys soccer team and the #2-ranked Northville, Michigan girls soccer team. He was the first US citizen ever invited to try out for the prestigious Dynamo Kiev FC soccer team in Kiev, Ukraine.

Lubyansky is a card-carrying member of “Generation Y.” The first seed for the BarCardz™ concept was planted when he noticed a businessman in a bar handing his business card to someone he met. He thought at the time that it was a shame that young adults did not have anything like that. Later, he found himself discussing with a fellow psychology student the fact that most twenty-first century kids were spending more time with their eyes glued to computer screens than interacting with other kids. As they talked, the idea of business cards for young adults came back to him, along with the thought that those cards would be even better if they could get you a discount at the bar, and BarCardz was born.

Lubyansky developed the BarCardz concept during his senior year at the University of Michigan, preparing the applications for patents and service marks while he was getting ready for his final exams. With the launch of Barcardz, his competitive nature, honed by years on the soccer field, has once again come to the surface; “I plan to blow Facebook, MySpace, College Humor and Ebaumsworld right out of the water.”
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