500 Strong!
We’re super proud and happy to announce that CardFlick is now a part of 500 Startups!
You’ve probably noticed we’ve been quiet the last few weeks and that’s because we’ve been heads down working hard on building the next version of CardFlick. Along with the support of Dave McClure, Paul Singh, Christine Tsai and the rest of the 500 gang, we know it’s going to be awesome.
Having investors like Dave and the environment at 500 is electrifying to say the least. We’re constantly learning and pushing ourselves along with the rest of the teams in our batch. BATCH 4 RULES!
You can read more about 500 Startups and our involvement here - http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/meet-the-next-27-members-of-the-500-startups-accelerator-program/
Safe Shepherd: How to write an intro email like a BOSS
I’ve been receiving quite a few terribly written introduction emails lately. Intro emails that don’t actually introduce anybody, and add more confusion than add value. This is a problem, so I wrote a quick template for my team to use, when in doubt. As with many things, open source is best for the…
This is 500 Startups :)
Safe Shepherd: Startup chaos, and Crashing our way into 500 Startups
I’ve been asked to write this blog post by many, many friends over the past few months; here it is.
Everything changed when Dave McClure checked-in on Foursquare three blocks from our apartment…
My co-founder Geoff and I began our start-up adventure with nothing more than blind ambition, a…
PC world gives InstaCards a phenomenal review!
Rick Broida at PC World just gave InstaCards a glowing review. Our mom’s would be proud!
I believe you might be well intentioned. Actually, I believe you might be *partly* well intentioned. The part that isn’t interested in the promotion of BBH, that is. But the idea is unseemly. Yes, it may generate engagement with a homeless person, but the level of engagement is foremost transactional. By literally labeling the person as a “hotspot,” you are priming an affluent, iPad-toting public to think of that person as a commodity, a quick ad hoc way to access Twitter on the go, and only secondarily as a human being.
To answer your question, the distinction between a newspaper seller or a coffee server and a homeless person holding a WiFi hotspot should be obvious. The act of providing internet access, as opposed to pouring coffee or running a newsstand, is completely passive. It involves no active engagement on the part of homeless person after the initial transaction, and in fact DEPENDS on the person inhabiting park benches or street corners for hours at a time without moving! Isn’t this the exact human condition we are seeking to eliminate?
Further, I’m not sure how acting as a WiFi hotspot is supposed to encourage consideration for employment? Aside from an apparent willingness to be dehumanized for money, what skill is being demonstrated here?
CardFlick Puts Your Instagram and Facebook Pictures On Virtual Business Cards
Virtual business card company CardFlick is giving its products a new look with the introduction of InstaCards, a web-based feature that now allows you to create virtual business cards using your Facebook and Instagram photos. Cards created using the service can be shared — or “flicked” — to …
cool new thing: cardflick
I’m off to SXSW Interactive today with the Foodspotting team to help host our Street Food Fest on Saturday!
For those unfamiliar with SXSW, the first week is like spring break for nerds (self included) where tech people from all over descend on Austin to meet and eat and drink and cure hangovers with free brunch sponsored by companies like Groupon. It’s an opportunity to network and, usually, a great escape from the cold still plaguing New York City and Silicon Valley at this time of year. Except for this weekend, of course, with blue skies and high 60’s projected for New York and rain and humidity in Austin. Ah well, what can you do…
So, you know all that moving around I did back in November and December? No? Well, let’s just say I moved three times in thirty days and, somewhere in the shuffle, left my Foodspotting business cards at my cousin’s apartment where Mittens and I were staying for a few weeks.
Enter CardFlick to save the day. I just learned about these sexy - free! - digital business cards from Foodspotting CEO Alexa yesterday. You can design your cards however you’d like, but even the stock templates are pretty good looking if you’re feeling lazy. CardFlick lets you link to all your social networks and allows you to display everything you would expect from a paper card except it’s all hyperlinked and you can email the card to anybody. (Muy importante because not everyone has a smartphone, but most people have email addresses.)
Sign up at cardflick.co and then download the iPhone app to share your contact deets easily without having to trek all the way to Queens to retrieve the boxes of business cards that you abandoned at cousin Lily’s.
Foodspotting + CardFlick Pro = Delicious
Foodspotting was hungry for design. It was three days before SXSW and they had no business cards. They had no time to wait for a printer, so they came to us.
Not just any card would do. Foodspotting has some of the best culinary shots around, and keeping that brand strong is important to them. We whipped them up a card with CardFlick Pro that looks good enough to eat.
In no time at all they had cards for the whole team, ready to make mouths water at SXSW.
CardFlick Rolls with StartupBus
One of the coolest events at SXSW every year is the StartupBus tour. From all over the US and Mexico, they come rolling into Austin with new companies ready to make their mark on the world, starting with SXSW. We dig their mission and we love startups, so this year we are one of StartupBus’ sponsors.
We have designed them an awesome card for their conductors to use, which they embedded using our widget.
We are also offering cards to all of the startups created on the road. With Instacards, all they have to do is upload their new logo, set a theme, and choose their colors. Then when they hit Austin, they already have cards in the palm of their hand.
We will be posting some of the cards the new startups build, so stay tuned and we will see you in Austin.
