Some entrepreneurial ventures are born out of necessity. That was the case for Kenshi Arasaki, who simply wanted a better way to communicate with friends about meeting up at Seattle bars for weekly happy hours.

Frustrated that he couldn't send a simultaneous e-mail, text message or instant message, the 24-year-old former software developer at Amazon.com took matters into his own hands and co-founded Chatterous with former Amazon.com developer Wilkins Chung. The four-month-old startup, which is finishing a stint in the Y Combinator incubator program in Silicon Valley this month, launched the first version of the service late last week.

"Chatterous at its core is group chat that combines IM, SMS, e-mail and the Web in terms of communication," explains Arasaki, adding that the system allows people to create groups and have messages directed to the preferred communication channel for individuals.

No longer would friends miss out on the happy hour location because they cut out of work early and missed the e-mail. In the long run, Arasaki says they want to become the "switchboard for your communications" no matter if you are using e-mail, text messages or instant messaging.

Chatterous draws comparisons to the super popular messaging service Twitter, though Arasaki says there are some key differences between the two.

The big one, he said, is that people who receive messages through Chatterous do not have to become members of the service in order to respond.

"On Twitter when I talk to my friends, I can't reach my non-Twitter friends," he said.

Other possible competitors include Orgoo and Meebo.

At this point, Chatterous only supports Google Talk. But other instant messaging services will be added in the near future.

The company plans to make money by marketing the platform to other organizations or selling a version of the service to corporations. Arasaki thinks corporations will need to address different communication systems as younger people -- like himself -- who grew up with instant messaging and text messaging enter the workplace.

"We feel we could also offer services for companies to be able to bridge all of these channels of communication together. I might be able to talk to my boss who uses e-mail through my IM window and it is all transparent. He would see my messages at work in his e-mail inbox."

With the Y Combinator program coming to an end this month, Arasaki and Chung are not quite sure where they will end up.

"Right now we are pretty much nomads. There is an equal chance that we will go back to Seattle or stay in the Valley," said Arasaki. "It basically depends on who we raise funding from."

More on that topic coming up as I discuss the pluses and minuses with RescueTime's Tony Wright, who also is debating whether the startup should stay in Silicon Valley or return to Seattle after its time at Y Combinator.