6 ms·

Show HN: Intro – Easy way to intro yourself

29 points by blaurenceclark 12y ago

kumarski 12y ago
Ultimately weird timing with About.me launch. Godspeed Brian.
bdcravens 12y ago
Was at a conference this week. "Have a card?" Reaching into pocket takes 5 seconds. Doing it via an app? Pull out phone, unlock it, scroll through your pages of apps, open it, start typing, hope autocorrect doesn't mess you up, "wait how do you spell that?" I actually think there's a lot of good use cases for the way this app operates, but I'm pretty sure everyone will still be carrying around analog cardboard identifiers for years to come.
- bduerst 12y ago
  I routinely throw away stacks of those analog cardboard identifiers, because they're almost completely useless to me and the overhead to manage them isn't worth it. Manually enter them into a computer? No thanks. Take out your phone to take a picture of it? Well we're back at taking a phone out of our pocket again. If it were a little more expensive to share these identifiers, then maybe people would only share it when they are more meaningful? If that were easy to maintain, all the more better?
  - bdcravens 12y ago
    As others have commented, it's better to make capturing that info asynchronous. What we need is something like CardMunch, only more automated, that OCRs it into an actionable contact. (with context like LinkedIn and Twitter profiles) Even better, it would capture time, location, etc. Cardboard doesn't store context well, but when I've been at a busy conference as an exhibitor, and they have an app for scanning badges with notes, etc, in the time it took me to add additional context, I may have missed 10 potential leads while I was screwing with my phone.
  - rogerdickey 12y ago
    It's better workflow to get a stack of 50 cards & take pictures 1x1 than to manually enter contact info 1x1 at a conference. I want to optimize for facetime while I'm at a conference.
    - blaurenceclark 12y ago
      What happens when the people you meet don't have business cards? Either don't carry them or they run out. That's slowly starting to happen more and more
      - bduerst 12y ago
        I'm guilty of this. I stopped carrying business cards because of their supreme lack of value. If I meet someone who truly does want to connect with me, I end up directing them to linkedin or writing my email address on one of their cards.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - narrowrail 12y ago
    We used to use a scanner that would automate the process (scan in business cards>CRM, which was Salesforce in our case) in '05. I'm sure there's even more competition at this point, but I haven't looked. EDIT: There was a tray, so ~100 cards could be loaded with a couple clicks after being setup correctly.
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      Cool idea: Conferences should give you, as part of your swag bag, a prepaid postage envelope for you to drop all of your received business cards in. Partner with a provider who scans them in and sends you the results.
      - blaurenceclark 12y ago
        We're planning to add OCR to the email field to have that part :)
  - zippergz 12y ago
    If I want to stay in touch with the person, I keep it until I get home, connect with them on LinkedIn, and then throw it out. I only need it long enough to remember their name and company, but it's a real help for that.
    - blaurenceclark 12y ago
      And I agree with that! What happens when they don't have a business card? Or what if you lose it along the way?
      - zippergz 12y ago
        In both of those cases I either do my best to remember their info, or just do without. Not ideal for sure, but it's fairly rare in my experience.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    "Manually enter them into a computer? No thanks. Take out your phone to take a picture of it? Well we're back at taking a phone out of our pocket again." The cardboard lets you defer "taking a phone out of your pocket" until you're no longer engaged in the face-to-face interaction.
- atmosx 12y ago
  If both parties have the the same app, or an app's that can talk to each other (e.g. can read QR codes) then sending a QR code to one anther is easy. Otherwise, in real life, even writing down the email of just another guy is a pain.
Jack5500 12y ago
There is no benefit with this app
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  Why do you say that?
notahacker 12y ago
It would help to clarify what this app does that your mobile email client doesn't.
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  I only built this as a personal pain point to make connecting with people faster. I don't carry around business cards and send the same intro email to people over and over, and often forget where I met them. It's just a process improvement built with an app around it. The alternative is writing an email with the same intro HUNDREDS of times and hoping you add information on where you met
hayksaakian 12y ago
The best replacement I've found to "have a card" is "what's your twitter?" In which case I have my phone ready, and I can type their name in and follow.
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  Also not a bad response, but a use case I often have is I meet someone I want to do business with, and this will get the email conversation off the ground in seconds with relevant details. On twitter I'd have to go remember their user name and where we met, days later that can be easy to forget
- dublinben 12y ago
  Do you only meet people with Twitter accounts? I don't think I know anyone who has one.
  - hayksaakian 12y ago
    I followup that response with asking for an email address, if they say no to twitter. I find asking for something specific tends to work better than asking "how can I contact you." People will usually propose an alternative without any prompting if they don't have a twitter account or don't use it.
AndrewKemendo 12y ago
A replacement for business cards is a perpetually tried business that never gets widely adopted. Is having business cards a pain point? I don't find it to be a pain.
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  It's not a digital business card replacement. It's taking the process a business card tries to achieve and digitizes it. Only 1/10 people actually keep the business cards they get, even then do you remember where you met that person? Very likely not Source: http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time...
  - AndrewKemendo 12y ago
    No, I get it. I'm simply saying the idea of replacing the business card is almost a trope of startups and has yet to see much enthusiasm from adopters. Only 1/10 people actually keep the business cards they get, even then do you remember where you met that person? Very likely not I don't intend to keep business cards. Here is my use case: Go to an event, collect a ton of cards, go home and email the people a follow up using their cards as a reference point for contact info, throw card away. Analog cards interrupt the socializing the absolute minimum, I don't even have to look at it when they give it to me. Even if I intend to enter the data into my phone or another system I can do that in bulk at the end of the night or once I am home much more efficiently.
    - gfodor 12y ago
      seems to me this person is just scratching their own itch and not trying to sell this. i get it, this would reduce the friction for me, i'll give it a whirl next time i go to a conference.
      - blaurenceclark 12y ago
        Thanks :) The entire app is free to use and free for me to run as it all exists device side, use away!
rokhayakebe 12y ago
Perhaps if they could allow you to customize a vCard the recipient can easily save on their phone with one click. This way, instead of having them type my name, last, they just save me as I want.
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  Thanks i'll add this feature! :)
UnixHakr 12y ago
I Installed and used this a while back. It's seriously just an app that asks for an email address, then it sends the person a nicely formatted email with a link to your about.me and contact information. I agree this is far more steps than pulling out a business card and handing it to someone.
rogerdickey 12y ago
10,000 founders have tried this already. Why will you win? I agree w/ bdcravens, giving someone a paper card is way faster. The ultimate solution is Apple builds Bump into the phone which I'm 90% will happen.
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  I commented above but this is built to solve a big pain point. I don't carry around business cards. I meet hundreds of people that don't or they run out. Bump doesn't work because you have to both have the app and be on the same operating system (what happens when you meet someone using Android?) And how often do people throw away business cards? http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time... according to that article, just over 1/10 actually don't throw them away. This solution is built to be platform agnostic, and send a quick introduction to get the conversation started. Nothing more. It's not a digital business card replacement. It's taking the process a business card tries to achieve and digitizes it.
  - rogerdickey 12y ago
    I'm saying I think Apple will build Bump into the phone. Then it's game over for all of this.
    - blaurenceclark 12y ago
      What about Android users?
      - rogerdickey 12y ago
        Guess we need an open protocol! OP should build that
        blaurenceclark 12y ago
        haha, the problem then is still you both have to have Bump, that is a huge friction in and of itself unless Apple and Google and Microsoft banded together to make one universal connection method. As far as I've been able to find the only two mediums that match that friction are an email or a phone number. (And we're looking at adding text message support instead of just email)
blaurenceclark 12y ago
For those curious, I only built this as a personal pain point to make connecting with people faster. I don't carry around business cards and send the same intro email to people over and over, and often forget where I met them. This isn't aimed at being a huge startup, this is aimed at making it easy to connect with people.
finspin 12y ago
I attended a big conference this week and met a lot of new people. Very few of them carried business cards so we ended up exchanging emails. I typically closed the conversation with something like "Hey, it was great chatting with you, would you mind exchanging emails?". And then I would launch my Gmail, ask for their email address, enter some dummy subject and send it. Having an app with some quick intro where all I need to do is enter an email address would be much more handy. Any plans for making an Android version?
- blaurenceclark 12y ago
  Android version comes out next week! Email me brian@killthebusinesscard.com and I'll let you know :)

Ultimately weird timing with About.me launch. Godspeed Brian.

Was at a conference this week. "Have a card?" Reaching into pocket takes 5 seconds. Doing it via an app? Pull out phone, unlock it, scroll through your pages of apps, open it, start typing, hope autocorrect doesn't mess you up, "wait how do you spell that?" I actually think there's a lot of good use cases for the way this app operates, but I'm pretty sure everyone will still be carrying around analog cardboard identifiers for years to come.

bduerst 12y ago
I routinely throw away stacks of those analog cardboard identifiers, because they're almost completely useless to me and the overhead to manage them isn't worth it. Manually enter them into a computer? No thanks. Take out your phone to take a picture of it? Well we're back at taking a phone out of our pocket again. If it were a little more expensive to share these identifiers, then maybe people would only share it when they are more meaningful? If that were easy to maintain, all the more better?
- bdcravens 12y ago
  As others have commented, it's better to make capturing that info asynchronous. What we need is something like CardMunch, only more automated, that OCRs it into an actionable contact. (with context like LinkedIn and Twitter profiles) Even better, it would capture time, location, etc. Cardboard doesn't store context well, but when I've been at a busy conference as an exhibitor, and they have an app for scanning badges with notes, etc, in the time it took me to add additional context, I may have missed 10 potential leads while I was screwing with my phone.
- rogerdickey 12y ago
  It's better workflow to get a stack of 50 cards & take pictures 1x1 than to manually enter contact info 1x1 at a conference. I want to optimize for facetime while I'm at a conference.
  - blaurenceclark 12y ago
    What happens when the people you meet don't have business cards? Either don't carry them or they run out. That's slowly starting to happen more and more
    - bduerst 12y ago
      I'm guilty of this. I stopped carrying business cards because of their supreme lack of value. If I meet someone who truly does want to connect with me, I end up directing them to linkedin or writing my email address on one of their cards.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- narrowrail 12y ago
  We used to use a scanner that would automate the process (scan in business cards>CRM, which was Salesforce in our case) in '05. I'm sure there's even more competition at this point, but I haven't looked. EDIT: There was a tray, so ~100 cards could be loaded with a couple clicks after being setup correctly.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    Cool idea: Conferences should give you, as part of your swag bag, a prepaid postage envelope for you to drop all of your received business cards in. Partner with a provider who scans them in and sends you the results.
    - blaurenceclark 12y ago
      We're planning to add OCR to the email field to have that part :)
- zippergz 12y ago
  If I want to stay in touch with the person, I keep it until I get home, connect with them on LinkedIn, and then throw it out. I only need it long enough to remember their name and company, but it's a real help for that.
  - blaurenceclark 12y ago
    And I agree with that! What happens when they don't have a business card? Or what if you lose it along the way?
    - zippergz 12y ago
      In both of those cases I either do my best to remember their info, or just do without. Not ideal for sure, but it's fairly rare in my experience.
- dllthomas 12y ago
  "Manually enter them into a computer? No thanks. Take out your phone to take a picture of it? Well we're back at taking a phone out of our pocket again." The cardboard lets you defer "taking a phone out of your pocket" until you're no longer engaged in the face-to-face interaction.
atmosx 12y ago
If both parties have the the same app, or an app's that can talk to each other (e.g. can read QR codes) then sending a QR code to one anther is easy. Otherwise, in real life, even writing down the email of just another guy is a pain.

Jack5500 12y ago

There is no benefit with this app

blaurenceclark 12y ago
Why do you say that?

notahacker 12y ago

It would help to clarify what this app does that your mobile email client doesn't.

blaurenceclark 12y ago
I only built this as a personal pain point to make connecting with people faster. I don't carry around business cards and send the same intro email to people over and over, and often forget where I met them. It's just a process improvement built with an app around it. The alternative is writing an email with the same intro HUNDREDS of times and hoping you add information on where you met

hayksaakian 12y ago

The best replacement I've found to "have a card" is "what's your twitter?" In which case I have my phone ready, and I can type their name in and follow.

blaurenceclark 12y ago
Also not a bad response, but a use case I often have is I meet someone I want to do business with, and this will get the email conversation off the ground in seconds with relevant details. On twitter I'd have to go remember their user name and where we met, days later that can be easy to forget
dublinben 12y ago
Do you only meet people with Twitter accounts? I don't think I know anyone who has one.
- hayksaakian 12y ago
  I followup that response with asking for an email address, if they say no to twitter. I find asking for something specific tends to work better than asking "how can I contact you." People will usually propose an alternative without any prompting if they don't have a twitter account or don't use it.

AndrewKemendo 12y ago

A replacement for business cards is a perpetually tried business that never gets widely adopted. Is having business cards a pain point? I don't find it to be a pain.

blaurenceclark 12y ago
It's not a digital business card replacement. It's taking the process a business card tries to achieve and digitizes it. Only 1/10 people actually keep the business cards they get, even then do you remember where you met that person? Very likely not Source: http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time...
- AndrewKemendo 12y ago
  No, I get it. I'm simply saying the idea of replacing the business card is almost a trope of startups and has yet to see much enthusiasm from adopters. Only 1/10 people actually keep the business cards they get, even then do you remember where you met that person? Very likely not I don't intend to keep business cards. Here is my use case: Go to an event, collect a ton of cards, go home and email the people a follow up using their cards as a reference point for contact info, throw card away. Analog cards interrupt the socializing the absolute minimum, I don't even have to look at it when they give it to me. Even if I intend to enter the data into my phone or another system I can do that in bulk at the end of the night or once I am home much more efficiently.
  - gfodor 12y ago
    seems to me this person is just scratching their own itch and not trying to sell this. i get it, this would reduce the friction for me, i'll give it a whirl next time i go to a conference.
    - blaurenceclark 12y ago
      Thanks :) The entire app is free to use and free for me to run as it all exists device side, use away!

rokhayakebe 12y ago

Perhaps if they could allow you to customize a vCard the recipient can easily save on their phone with one click. This way, instead of having them type my name, last, they just save me as I want.

blaurenceclark 12y ago
Thanks i'll add this feature! :)

UnixHakr 12y ago

I Installed and used this a while back. It's seriously just an app that asks for an email address, then it sends the person a nicely formatted email with a link to your about.me and contact information. I agree this is far more steps than pulling out a business card and handing it to someone.

rogerdickey 12y ago

10,000 founders have tried this already. Why will you win? I agree w/ bdcravens, giving someone a paper card is way faster. The ultimate solution is Apple builds Bump into the phone which I'm 90% will happen.

blaurenceclark 12y ago
I commented above but this is built to solve a big pain point. I don't carry around business cards. I meet hundreds of people that don't or they run out. Bump doesn't work because you have to both have the app and be on the same operating system (what happens when you meet someone using Android?) And how often do people throw away business cards? http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time... according to that article, just over 1/10 actually don't throw them away. This solution is built to be platform agnostic, and send a quick introduction to get the conversation started. Nothing more. It's not a digital business card replacement. It's taking the process a business card tries to achieve and digitizes it.
- rogerdickey 12y ago
  I'm saying I think Apple will build Bump into the phone. Then it's game over for all of this.
  - blaurenceclark 12y ago
    What about Android users?
    - rogerdickey 12y ago
      Guess we need an open protocol! OP should build that
      - blaurenceclark 12y ago
        haha, the problem then is still you both have to have Bump, that is a huge friction in and of itself unless Apple and Google and Microsoft banded together to make one universal connection method. As far as I've been able to find the only two mediums that match that friction are an email or a phone number. (And we're looking at adding text message support instead of just email)

blaurenceclark 12y ago

For those curious, I only built this as a personal pain point to make connecting with people faster. I don't carry around business cards and send the same intro email to people over and over, and often forget where I met them. This isn't aimed at being a huge startup, this is aimed at making it easy to connect with people.

finspin 12y ago

I attended a big conference this week and met a lot of new people. Very few of them carried business cards so we ended up exchanging emails. I typically closed the conversation with something like "Hey, it was great chatting with you, would you mind exchanging emails?". And then I would launch my Gmail, ask for their email address, enter some dummy subject and send it. Having an app with some quick intro where all I need to do is enter an email address would be much more handy. Any plans for making an Android version?

blaurenceclark 12y ago
Android version comes out next week! Email me brian@killthebusinesscard.com and I'll let you know :)