Startup game tight (Photo: @KanyeWest)

Earlier today, New York City startup The Fancy* emailed Betabeat to let us know that "One of our favorite users stopped by the office today :)." Oh, yes we'd noticed. And retweeted.

We've documented Kanye West's interest in The Fancy--a fast-growing startup that turns posted photos into a consumerist's dream--before. But what exactly was Yeezy doing palling around the office?

"He gave some advice to our CEO Joe Einhorn, who looks up to Kanye the way most tech folks idolize Steve Jobs," the company replied. "It's all about building the future of commerce. Social, mobile, swag." Funny, we always thought it was social, mobile, local.

Mark Zuckerberg himself is a Fancy user, but the startup's members also includes Nas (who has posted 33 photos of must-have items like a magnetic floating bed and his own album) and Rick Ross.

Makes sense, we guess. After all, this is practically Startupland's theme song:

*Disclosure

Merchants need to claim items already posted on the Fancy site in order to sell there. Right now, the startup will only accept one merchant per item. Eventually, like Google, it will list many merchants who sell an item. If no merchant claims an item, users still need to travel to a third-party site in order to make the purchase.

Joe Einhorn launched The Fancy in 2011. High profile backers include Ashton Kutcher and Twitter's Jack Dorsey sits on its board. Until today, though, it was a lesser-known Pinterest competitor and like that site unprofitable. Business Insider, however, says The Fancy's users are "highly engaged" and the site is more "male-focused" than Pinterest.

The Fancy is doubling down on becoming profitable by also allowing users to plan vacations there. Based on images of vacation destinations site users can book hotel rooms, even making group deals at a discount.

In an interview for GigaOM, Mr. Einhorn told blogger Ryan Kim that he intends The Fancy to "turn commerce on its head."

"Up until now buyers for specific stores and different websites tell us what we’re allowed to buy, how much it costs and when we’re allowed to buy. In this case, we’re going to fancy the product or hotels that interest us and we’re going to let the owners or brands or merchants come to us with the appropriate offer," he said.

Another reason Pinterest should watch its back in the dog-eat-dog world of image curation and monetization--The Fancy has Kanye on its side:

My friend Joseph's site is really dope...thefancy.com

— Kanye West (@kanyewest) February 20, 2012