Introducing Ping 1.2
The shift from digital business card to personal CRM begins
In February this year, we launched Ping to the world and were blown away by the response. Hitting the top spot on Product Hunt on launch day with over 1300 votes, closely followed by a feature across the app store in Europe, meant we finished week one with over 5000 users. One of those 5000 people became an investor, along with 3 other angels from Europe and the US, and provided us with runway to get us into 2018. Safe to say we were chuffed to bits (for any American readers, that’s english for ‘very pleased’).
Despite being unable to evolve the product as we might have liked these past 8 months, we learned a lot, and formed a solid understanding of how we wanted to move forward. Ping has proven immensely valuable to people attending events and conferences, but it hasn’t managed to quite work it’s way into daily or weekly habits of the majority. If we were going to be building the home of your professional relationships, we’d need to find ways to create more value, more often.
And that’s what brings us to Ping 1.2. This update focusses firmly on finding new ways to create more opportunities to create genuine value for users.
Search
Being able to search contacts certainly isn’t anything new, but we’ve noticed that many tools that allow you to search your contacts or network aren’t really geared towards the way you think. It isn’t always by name or company that we’re thinking. Sometimes we recall people by the context in which we met, whether the venue, or something else we’ve noted at the time. V1 of search in Ping will allow you to search your contacts in the ways your used to, but also by the location where you met, and by any notes you’ve added to each contact.
Reminders
We have no interest in becoming the platform that tells you who should be important to you or not. We simply want to find ways to utilise data to help you get a better hold of your network, and allow you to make choices as to who to spend time with, or not. Reminders is our first exploration of what this might mean. We’ll alert you on days 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and 1 year after you have met each contact, to give you a shot at reconnecting if you see fit. You’ll only get one notification a day, and the icon badge will let you know how many people we want to get back on your radar.
Where we go from here
Just as was in February, this launch barely scratches the surface of what we hope to achieve. We’ve got a heap of updates to come in 2017, including tagging and sorting, an all new profile and more, but we know in order to become a personal CRM, there are some significant and fundamental gaps in our offering that need to be addressed. Other than making Ping available for Android, and building out our desktop proposition, we have two primary goals in 2018.
Leveraging new data to deliver actionable insights
We know you don’t only meet new people at events, and we recognise there are a million ways in which you maintain contact with the people around you. By integrating with calendars, email, social networks, we can not only start to collate everyone you connect with online as well as offline, but also start to form a more rounded view on the ways in which you maintain relationships with people. With these insights into your relationships, we can start to provide practical guidance and advice to help you be more mindful and thoughtful in building those relationships.
“It’s been 3 months since you last hung out with Nafisa. Maybe think about finding time to catch up.”
“Doesn’t look like you’ve spoken to Kwame in a while. Is it worthwhile us keeping him on your radar anymore?”
“Neef Rahman and Katie Ellis are at the same event at SXSW right now. Worth connecting them?”
Building the most intuitive network search tool on the planet
Being able to better connect with the people you know, as well as tap into that network to support those same people, is a fundamental part of building great relationships .Imagine a tool that allows you to effectively search your network in the way you think. Imagine the impact such a tool could have! Not just on efficiency, but on creating connections and collaborations that might not otherwise surface.
“Who did I meet at the Facebook party at SXSW last year?”
“What investors do I know interested in health tech?”
“What designers do I know in New York that specialise in prototyping?”
Want to get involved?
Does all this sound like something you’d like to be part of? An awesome multi-talented human being who fancies joining our team? A socially minded and ambitious investor who wants the heads up on our next round of funding? You can reach me directly on carl@wurqs.com. Let’s talk!
Alternatively, if you have any feedback for us whatsoever, fire an email to feedback@wurqs.com and will get back to you sharpish!
