Zerply, as they say, 'the easiest way to present yourself professionally', it is an excellent source of creating connections with like minded people. This helpful tool lets you create your profile in a fun and easy way that looks professional but interactive at the same time. Profiles at Zerply gives a better understanding of the person as it calls for different tags, location, a bio and of course, a picture. Once you build your profile on Zerply (which is very simple), it will show you people who share common interests with you.You can connect with them and even download their vcards which is I think can be very useful to form a database.One of the most captivating features of Zerply is that it's more like a social networking site where one can find, interact and share with more specific people. Plus it is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.. One can see your profile from these sites also.We contacted Zerply's co-founder Christofer Karltorp, one of the creative minds behind this brilliant tool.
Catch his interview below:
Christofer, please introduce yourself to E-junkies.
I'm Christofer Karltorp, a Swedish entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. We moved out here about a year ago to make Zerply happen.
Enlighten us with the concept of 'Zerply'.
The concept behind Zerply is actually what we call "serious play" (and also where we derived our name). When you love what you do it doesn't feel like work, but more like play. We have long thought that business networks are too stiff and boring for the generation that has grown up with the web, and that's why we decided to build our own network that is both playful and serious.
My co-founder Taaniel Jakobs and I had for several years tried to make use of LinkedIn, but we never felt at home there. We'd rather use Twitter for professional networking, and that's when we thought of the idea to build something that's simple (like Twitter) but still has the base functionality of a business network.
What makes 'Zerply' stand out? How is it different from LinkedIn?
We think that you are made up of more than where you are working now, where you have worked in the past and who you are connected to. There is so much online that provide different angles of who you are - your tweets, answers on Quora, checkins on foursquare, pictures on Flickr etc. We wanted to bring all this together as a first step (our public profiles), and then let people get connected on the basis of self defined tags. The idea is that the basis of connection could just as well be a mutual interest rather than a person. If you can find someone with the same vocation and similar interests you should be able to connect even if you don't know anyone that can introduce you. We want to highlight the discovery aspect of professional networking - if two people are kiteboarding programmers (but have never met in person) there is a basis for connection that we want to highlight.
Yes :) We live in an open and social world - this needs to be reflected in professional networks as well.
Share with us your pre-launch experience. What was the major difficulty?
Getting users to understand what we were trying to do. We had our vision, but it was really hard to convey it. It actually still is in a way, but it's getting easier as we get more and more users who give us feedback. We had a core group that really liked what we were trying to do, and that helped immensely.
Share the best incident that you encountered on this journey from conceiving till present.
How we found our awesome designer Luke Beard (@lukesbeard) through our own service. He sent out a tweet saying he wanted to do something different the following year and we jokingly asked him to come out to CA, and he agreed. Less than five weeks later he came over from the UK, and by the end of the month he quit his job to join us full time. Since that day we have never lacked in pretty pixels and great design.
Would you like to share your dreams/vision for 'Zerply' with us?
There is a lot of people out there who are professionals, but that would never sign up for LinkedIn, Xing or any of the traditional business networks. They are usually on Facebook and they realize the importance of claiming their identity online, but there is a lack in how they can present themselves as professionals. Zerply wants to be the professional network for normal people - not just suits and ties.
What message do you have for our readers?
We have been carrying this idea for two years now. It does take quite a bit of time and effort to make something people want. We have had an incredible journey, but it has also cost us a lot of comfort. We had to sell everything we had back in Europe to make it out here, and it's been tough at times. I don't think startup life is for everyone, but if you have ever longed for some serious excitement, figure out how to build something for people. It's totally worth it.
Check out Zerply.
Zerply on Facebook.
Zerply on Twitter.
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Thanks for the article :)
Its our pleasure! :)