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p/ping-7Digital business card
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Murat Mutlu

Ping - Digital business card

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Ping is a simple way to exchange information with people you meet - a digital business card if you will. However this is just the foundations for a personal CRM - a tool that will help you keep on top of and organise your network.

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Ryan Hoover
I used this for the first time last night and while I've seen a ton of "next gen" business card apps, this is the best execution I've seen. Any plans to support integrations with zapier, IFTTT, or Airtable, @carlmartin? I'd love to integrate this with a CRM I'm building inside Airtable.
Carl Martin
Maker
@rrhoover Dude. First off, thank you for such an amazing compliment! First slide of the deck when we try and raise :D As for your question, totally. We want to supplement, not replace other experiences. We have no interest in being a CRM, but want to help feed into what people use. We'll be experimenting some hacky options with power users, so I will keep you in mind if you fancy being one :)
Ryan Hoover
@carlmartin keep me posted! Would love to try it out. Also cc'ing the CEO of Airtable, @howietl.
Jason Dainter
@rrhoover @carlmartin +1 for Zapier support. I current use a similar system ti this but instead Typeform (I have a basic form I use by default, but then customise it for larger conferences/events where I'll likely meet more people) combined with Zapier. The zapier part is essential as lets me extract emails to spreadsheets for reporting, passing into email lists, and a bunch of other stuff. Would be curious if there are any advantages of Ping over using this Typeform/Zapier combo?
Randy Miller
@rrhoover You're building a CRM inside of Airtable? Begs the question...why? I ask genuinely, although over the internet it could look sarcastic, because I have my own issues with existing CRM's. But, is it for fun, or because nothing meets your needs, others too bloated or lack features? Also, are you so far able to accomplish what you're wanting to in Airtable for a CRM?
Ryan Hoover
@milla_killa most CRM's are too heavy or restrictive. Spreadsheets (like Airtable) are infinitely customizable and can integrate with so many other services.
Carl Martin
Maker
UPDATE: We're now called >we and we just launched our 2.0 update over here! https://www.producthunt.com/post... _____________________________________ Thanks for the hunt Murat! And hey everyone! Excited to launch the first product from Wurqs today! Ping was born from a personal frustration with having a super computer in my pocket, and not having a simple way to exchange information with the people I meet. We’ve seen so many people sending others blank emails as a way to connect, and knew there must be a way to capitalise on that behaviour. By entering just one email address, Ping does the following: Share - Sends your new contact your personal profile via email, which includes a selection of customisable prompts to inspire new conversation or further connections Learn - Discover more about the person you met and the company they work for, as well as one click to find them on alternative social networks Tracks - Explore your connections by when you met them, and add notes to each contact as reminders as you see fit We would love any and all feedback, this is obviously just the start of this product, we're still learning, so look to the community for their support. Here to answer any questions all day. Carl
Kevin Leneway
@carlmartin This is really clever, congrats on the launch. Sign up was very smooth, looking forward to using this soon.
Carl Martin
Maker
@kleneway Thanks Kevin! Really love to hear. We've worked hard to make sure people can create a profile as quickly as possible - so glad it shows!
David Ryan
@carlmartin I really enjoyed that "new contacts by date" view, and the overall UX is sweet. Really pops from the digital business card apps out there. Great to see some more London tech here too!
Carl Martin
Maker
@davedri Thanks David! Chuffed to represent London tech on Product Hunt :)
Jared Schaffer
@carlmartin can't wait to use this at SXSW. would love to be able to share my card from apple wallet!
Matt Marsh
as mainly Android user, interested in release date?
Carl Martin
Maker
@mcmarsh Hey Matt - you certainly aren't the first to ask :) As a bootstrapped company, had to focus our efforts for now, but we hope we would be able to release an Android version before we hit summer. Will keep you updated :)
Someone
@carlmartin @mcmarsh It'd be great to find out when you do release the Android version. Maybe you could create a basic landing page where we can add ourselves to an email list for product updates?
Jeff Nolan
I don't understand the strategy of releasing iOS and not Android at launch. I understand that small teams need to focus but the result is that you release an app that shows preference to one platform and in the process alienates a large segment of the early adopter market that can be used to drive your user growth. There are companies that succeeded, wildly, with the iOS-first strategy but I'd also pont out at there are more that failed and the mobile app market is a more mature now and the expectations of have gone up as a result. To say "early summer" also betrays a lack of confidence in your own ability to deliver an Android app in a timely manner.
Carl Martin
Maker
@jeffnolan Really appreciate you taking the time to write a considered response Jeff. For us, we're not even close to thinking about 'growth'. We're thinking about how can we create an indispensable experience for a small subset of users, and once we have confidence in the product, make the growth push. Developing for 2 platforms so early just isn't an efficient use of our time and resources. As for the 'early summer' shout - nothing to do with confidence sir! More the access to the capital and people to make it happen. We're a boot strapped team and doing the best of what we have at our disposal for now. Hope to not leave you disappointed for too long :)
Andreas Duess
@jeffnolan The reason is most often simple: Android is a pain in the proverbial to develop for. Apple, for all their shortcomings, well documented too, are easy to develop for. If you're wishing to test stuff out, the path of least resistance makes sense.
Nick Clement
Onboarding was smart Carl, the data pulled in about contacts clever too. Nice, wish you all The success with this, we still need to have that ☕️ too.
Carl Martin
Maker
@nickclement Thank you sir! Hope it proves a useful tool for you! Will follow up with you on email chap about that coffee!
Nick Frost
@carlmartin do you pull in contact info with Clearbit or?
Carl Martin
Maker
@thinker Exactly that sir! We were going to build proprietary, but speed, quality and ease of integration of Clearbit made it seem silly to try build bespoke for now! Ambition to move away in longer term however.
Hugo Besley
LinkedIn?
Pascal Vuylsteker
Some ideas: + Provide a way to attach multiple emails to a profile. I used my private email, and now, I can not be recognised by people knowing me through my work email. Another reason for that is that there are the long official emails, and there are shortcut that you want to spell out + In the company profile I can not modify the name of the company website (just its URL)
Randy Miller
@pvk @carlmartin I have 3 emails I use regularly for different companies, definitely would like this.
Saif Al Falah
Maybe sharing something simpler than an email would be better. I hate typing emails with its special characters like '@' and '_'. I think email has a lot of friction attached to it and sometimes it's long too. Something shorter would be better IMO.
Carl Martin
Maker
@saifalfalah Thanks for the feedback Saif! Have to agree with you here - but it's actually the best place for us to start, in order to call information pertaining to the person you just met. What's more, sharing email address' is something people are currently doing to connect IRL, so we're piggy backing on that habit. Our ambition is to build habits via email, but make a shift to a username or something even more simple down the line. Keep um peeled :)
Shaun Tollerton
@saifalfalah If it's your own email address that you struggle with I would suggest adding it as a keyboard shortcut (Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacement). Saves me a ton of time.
Ryan Hoover

I’ve seen several business card-like apps over the years. Ping is probably the best executed version of this, although it doesn’t quite meet my needs.

After entering someone’s email, it adds them as a contacts within the app; however, these contacts are only accessible on mobile (iPhone), housing only a small subset of people I know. I’m seeking a more comprehensive tool to use as a personal CRM of all the people I know, indexed, categorized, and easy to update. Ping isn’t that (yet!?) but for those looking to simply replace the business card exchange ritual, this is the best solution I’ve found.

Pros:

Simple, clean design. Automatically captures social info.

Cons:

Doesn’t (currently) work well for those seeking a personal CRM

N. Pearson Wright
Awesome - This seems to be a pain point that no one is yet to crack. Look forward to giving this a try!
Carl Martin
Maker
@npearsonwright Thank you! Do let us know your feedback when you can.
Armin Talić
This is how connections should be made. Simple, frictionless and purposeful. If you're PH user, give this an up-vote.
Carl Martin
Maker
@armintalic Thanks for your support Armin!
KerryBodle
This looks really slick! Now I just have to figure out how to meet people..🤔
Carl Martin
Maker
@liquidchickenqq haha thanks Kerry. If you need a friend, can always try adding me on carl@wurqs.com! :D
Shahab Shabibi
Had trouble signing up due to the fact that our company's email address end with .ventures and it does not get accepted. :(
Carl Martin
Maker
@shahab_21 Oh really?! Well that's no good! We'll take a look at that and see if we can't rectify it! Thanks for letting us know!
Shahab Shabibi
@carlmartin Ended up signing up with personal email. Hope you fix it and also add the option to change email address. Excited to try this out once that's fixed.
Andreas Duess
@carlmartin @shahab_21 same issue here. My .marketing email does not get accepted. Come on guys, these domain extensions have been around for a while.
Carl Martin
Maker
@andreasduess @shahab_21 We're looking into it Andreas. Appreciate your patience.
TJ
@carlmartin Does the person you are connecting to require Ping as in Bump the app?
Carl Martin
Maker
@tjwise_ Nope! That's the beauty of Ping! It will email them your profile, and we use open data sources associated with their email to learn more about that person. If you do happen to connect with someone who has Ping, they will show up in your contacts list as you'd expect :)
TJ
@carlmartin Smart indeed. I believe that added to Bump the app ultimate uselessness and a downward spiral of low adoption.
Carl Martin
Maker
@tjwise_ Why thanks! Actually did a little write up which mentions exactly that, which you might enjoy :) https://medium.com/wurqs/introdu...
Bob
Having a product named Ping be number one on PH two days in a row is confusing.
Carl Martin
Maker
@ninjinka haha this was me yesterday :D https://twitter.com/carlmartin/s...
Sumeet Shah
So proud of you, @carlmartin. I was one of the beta testers for a while and what Ping is now is fantastic. Simple, clean, intelligent, and just getting started. Can't wait for a universal search opportunity that could go into a web version (e.g., search Notes for "KittyCon 2017" - @rrhoover this should be a thing btw)
Carl Martin
Maker
@pe_feeds @rrhoover Oh search is a coming, don't you worry about that Sumeet :) Thanks again for all your mega feedback during testing dude. Invaluable.
Jason Towns
I like it a lot. I've been using the Intro app by About.me for a year or so now and haven't missed using business cards even once. I'll try Ping for a while. Here's something to look into - the Twitter and LinkedIn icons in the email that the new contact receives appear stretched when viewed via Gmail on an iOS device. Also, I agree w/ Ryan. Create some easy paths to get contacts into CRMs and you've got a winner on your hands.
Carl Martin
Maker
@jhtdc Thank you Jason, appreciate that! Will take a look at that icon distortion, and the CRM integration is definitely shifting up the pile after feedback today :)
Micaela Dawn
Fantastic already; I'm looking forward to what more Ping will be able to do in the future. Most notably, our team thought these two would be great features: - Ability to change the color of the message in the e-mail (Purple is sweet, but doesn't match a brand, if you're using Ping at, say, a trade show.) - Sync all contacts to Infusionsoft for our sales team to use. Great work anyway! Keep it up!
Carl Martin
Maker
@dawnmicaela Thank you Micaela! Glad you are excited! As for your feedback: Change colour - we've already had some enquiries about white labelling so watch this space :) Integration with sales - Definitely something we hope to explore in the near future!
Julian Lozano
This is so awesome, very clever and looks simple to use. I am hopeful for an Android release. Also, you tech companies have to be a little more creative with naming their Product. We just had another Ping on PH just yesterday.
Carl Martin
Maker
@julianlozanoaz Thanks Julian! Hopefully Android won't be too far away! And noted on getting creative with our name ;)
Andrew Ettinger
I haven't deleted a contact in 12 years. My phone no longer saves new contacts for some reason (read: iCloud). This is the best executed "virtual business card" app I've seen. I'd love this function with SMS as well. Auto-send a text with my details and save their number and note in the same fashion.
Carl Martin
Maker
@andrewett Andrew! That feedback makes the slog all worthwhile! Interestingly request for SMS has been common from folks in the US! Definitely could creep up the backlog :) Thank you for the feedback!