
Show HN: Intro – Easy way to intro yourself - blaurenceclark
http://killthebusinesscard.com/
======
bdcravens
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
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?

~~~
zippergz
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
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
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.

------
AndrewKemendo
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
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...](http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
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
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
Thanks :) The entire app is free to use and free for me to run as it all
exists device side, use away!

------
blaurenceclark
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.

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

~~~
blaurenceclark
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

------
rokhayakebe
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
Thanks i'll add this feature! :)

------
finspin
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
Android version comes out next week! Email me brian@killthebusinesscard.com
and I'll let you know :)

------
hayksaakian
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.

~~~
dublinben
Do you only meet people with Twitter accounts? I don't think I know anyone who
has one.

~~~
hayksaakian
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.

------
rogerdickey
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
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...](http://www.psfk.com/2014/11/olocode-contact-system-real-time.html)
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
I'm saying I think Apple will build Bump into the phone. Then it's game over
for all of this.

~~~
blaurenceclark
What about Android users?

~~~
rogerdickey
Guess we need an open protocol! OP should build that

~~~
blaurenceclark
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)

~~~
jaredsohn
As I mentioned in another post, Bump had a web app.

A third medium is that most people have the ability to access a website. I
built [http://near.im/](http://near.im/) (sorry for the ugly frontend) with
this in mind. An advantage here is you don't have to communicate to another
person your name or e-mail address (which can be hard for some people), just
describe a short domain name.

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

------
Jack5500
There is no benefit with this app

~~~
blaurenceclark
Why do you say that?

