Photo courtesy #besomebody

Social platform launch anticipated later this year

Kash Shaikh has taken his personal mantra, #besomebody, and turned it into a motivational blog that reaches more than 4 million people each week.

And because of a $1 million contribution in June from E.W. Scripps Co., #besomebody later this year will launch the first social platform that connects people with similar passions.

Shaikh, a Houston native and University of Texas alum, returned to Austin early last year to start his company. The former Proctor & Gamble brand manager left a lucrative executive role at GoPro to make Austin the #besomebody headquarters.

"I always believed in the power of words, but there was something special about this tag," said Shaikh, who started the #besomebody blog as a side project in 2011 with his twin brother, Rick. "#besomebody means something different to everyone, but it creates the same powerful energy."

Inspired by the same peer-to-peer business model used by AirBnB and Uber, the #besomebody social platform connects interested individuals with people who share their passion, who Shaikh dubs as "passionaries." Once the individual agrees how much to pay for lessons or one-on-one help from a passionary, Shaikh's company then takes a small cut. Austin will be the first city to benefit from the new platform, with users choosing passionaries from four categories: adventure, art, fitness and music.

"Those four categories align well with this city," Shaikh said.

#besomebody, 916 Springdale Road, Bldg. 5, Ste. 103, www.besomebodyblog.com, Twitter: @besomebodyblog