HoodHot Travel is dedicated to making Asia more accessible, especially for those that do not speak the local language.  HoodHot was founded in January 2008 by William Cheung and John Martin, with help from Mike Margolis and Niels Gabel of Sugarcube, Inc.  The HoodHot Beijing Taxi Guide is the first of many localized guides built specifically for the iPhone, including HoodHot Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  HoodHot - the hottest venues in neighborhoods around the world.

William Cheung graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  During his time in Tokyo and Beijing, he realized that getting around in Asia is difficult, even for a fluent speaker of the language.  Using his background in ethnography, user interaction design, and new product development, he created the HoodHot Travel Beijing Taxi Guide, the first of many transport guides that strive to make Asia more accessible.  He is interested in continuing to grow the HoodHot brand, as well as helping companies, particularly in fashion and design, brainstorm and implement their iPhone app ideas. Please email with any inquires. 

John Martin recently finished a nanoscience researchship at Tokyo Keio University, after completing his degree in Chemical Engineering at USC, and will be continuing to consult for the HoodHot brand from MIT’s Chemical Engineering Ph.D program.  His experience in Japan and engineering background were invaluable to the development of the Beijing product and will be instrumental in developing the Tokyo Guide next year.

Mike Margolis and Niels Gabel have over 15 years combined experience in Cocoa software development at Apple, and Mike has since started a Cocoa/Cocoa Touch software development company SugarCube, Inc.  These two miraculously put together a great app in only two weeks and are working hard to update the app with neighborhood sorting capability.  They are great to work with and very responsible.  Please contact them for your iPhone or Mac development needs, and let them know Wil referred you.

Special thanks to Steven Do for coming out and exploring Beijing with me, good times, but tiring!

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