Chris is not a stranger to startups with a few already under his belt. This is why he knows how to recognize a potential hit when he sees one. His new venture, DubMeNow, was founded by Manoj Ramnani earlier this year to solve a growing and elusive problem of mobile business card exchanges.
Sure, you have probably heard of LinkedIn or Plaxo. Granted, those early entrants do business information exchange well in certain aspects, but no one has cracked the mobile puzzle yet. It may seem simple, but then again, simple and elegant are often the hardest to accomplish.
DubMeNow might have finally cracked the code.
So how does it do it? In a great description in the August column in the Washington Post, the concept is this:
“When Bob meets Sarah, he asks her for her cell phone number, e-mail or if she’s a registered “dubber” and adds her to his Dub network using his mobile phone. Once Sarah agrees to become connected through the Dub Me Now service, Bob can access her contact information on his cell phone, on the Web and in any e-mail program like Microsoft Outlook. If Sarah changes her contact information with Dub, the new entry is automatically reflected in Bob’s contact list.”
The firm has developed a software application that sits on a mobile device using Microsoft Windows Mobile or the Blackberry platform and currently is working on a version for the Apple iPhone along with Nokia and Palm mobile devices.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Chris Hopkinson, Director of Business Development, about their upcoming product launch and his experiences as an entrepreneur. Here is Part 1 of 2 of that interview:
Chris on Mobile Communications and DubMeNow…
Steve: You joined DubMeNow in the last few months. Since this not your first startup and if fact you have founded one of your own in the past, what drew you to this company?
Chris: The market pain and opportunity. Like most people, I have a stack of business cards on my desk at all times. I go through it every few months and toss half the pile because I can’t remember how, why and where I met the person. My address book is full of outdated contacts; people who’ve changed jobs, email address, etc. It’s hard to believe we have all these communication tools; social networking sites, email, IM, mobile phones, etc. yet still hand out a piece of paper when we meet someone. I understand the pain and believe there’s a tremendous opportunity for Dub to become the solution.
Steve: You guys just are ready to release your flagship product, DubMeNow. What is the service comprised of?
Chris: The first release allows smart phone users to instantly text or email all their contact information to another smart phone. The contact data loads directly to the users mobile address book and updates automatically whenever a contact changes their information. You can also ‘tag’ or note information about the contact and see when and where you met.
We’ll be following up shortly with LinkedIn integration, where you’ll have the ability to send a LinkedIn invite along with your contact info and offer single sign-on (meaning your LinkedIn user name and password will get you into Dub as well).
We’ll also be releasing a standard phone version in January so anyone with a text enabled mobile phone can use Dub.
We’re working on many more exciting features for 2009, so stay tuned.
Steve: Mobile is a constantly evolving landscape whereas the exchange of paper business cards is a time honored tradition. Do you believe that your service will eliminate the pain and that a business person would benefit from using DubMeNow?
Chris: Absolutely, Dub will eliminate the time honored pain of collecting, saving and entering business cards as well as the updates and address book maintenance.
It also, as part of the evolving mobile landscape, will allow you to connect your social networks to your address book from your phone.
It’s not going to all happen overnight because I don’t believe people are ready to completely abandon business cards, but I do believe we’re heading in that direction.
Steve: Does this compete or work with a service like LinkedIn which is safe to say that most business people have an account on?
Chris: We work with LinkedIn. We’re not a social network and your address book won’t be viewable to others. We act more like the bridge between LinkedIn and your address book.
You send someone your contact data through Dub and invite the person to connect via LinkedIn. The contact data loads directly to your mobile address book and the contact gets added to your LinkedIn network.
We’ve been working with LinkedIn on the technology to provide our users with;
1. Single sign-on (your LinkedIn username and password work to sign-onto Dub) and
2. The ability to see contacts within LinkedIn who’ve also joined Dub, so you can update your address book with their contact info as well.
NEXT TIME IN PART 2: Chris on Entrepreneurship. Stay Tuned.
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