Loopd is hard to explain in a few sentences. It is quite interesting but a bit complex. Right now, Loopd is a social discovery app, aimed at business professionals. However, they are in the middle of an Indiegogo campaign in which they are raising funds for a litany of new discover apps. Apps “targeting music festivals, sports games, restaurants, bars and smart homes, and for its developer platform. The apps address the challenge of detecting and exchanging data between nearby Smartphones and other connected devices on a one-to-one basis.” We had a chance to ask the Loopd Team about the product: Loopd What is Loopd, and what do you guys do? Loopd is a Bluetooth LE contact exchange and social CRM platform that streamlines the interaction between business professionals. Loopd is a hyper-proximate application that enables business professionals to connect instantly with contacts within a few feet, message back and forth, add descriptive notes, create personalized contact lists, and easily export everything to Evernote and CRM systems. How is your product different from what is currently available? Loopd is an opt-in app used in face-to-face peer interactions at events. Other social discovery products work anonymously at long distances and scan mobile devices to find people Was there an “ah ha” moment? Loopd was inspired by a project at Draper University of Heroes: invent a better way to build and maintain relationships. This university and incubator in San Mateo, CA, was started by legendary VC Tim Draper. The emergence of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and the prevalence of smartphones encouraged us to reinvent this common human experience and make it even more simplistic. Within the first five minutes of the project, our team talked about how frustrating everyone felt it was to exchange business cards and otherwise collect professional contact information with context at networking events. We also agreed it was tough to build relationships with important people, and even tougher to sustain a high quality network over time. So we decided to focus first on releasing an app focused on business events that could change the way people approach professional networking. Tell us about your founding team and their backgrounds. Brian Friedman, CEO at Loopd He is currently pursuing his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh University, and is also the Main Organizer for the Bay Area Wearable Technology Startup Meetup. Sambhav Galada, Head Engineer at Loopd He is currently pursuing his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M. Sambhav has implemented and designed an ARM low power chip for wearable technology that enables users to get feedback on their personal fitness analytics. Allen Houng, Head Developer at Loopd He is currently pursuing his M.B.A. from National Taiwan University. Allen has been featured on TechCrunch and StartUp Weekend Blog for his startup called Drimmit, which he built by himself from the ground up full stack. What’s the next step? What are your short-term goals? Loopd Inc. has a new and novel Bluetooth contact exchange app for events. We are also in the midst of an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign to build the first Bluetooth P2P app library for music festivals, sporting games, bars and restaurants. We would like to thank the Loopd team for answering our questions. Check out GetLoopd.com and their Indiegogo campaign for more info.
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