Linkcards digitises business cards for sales professionals, helps create database to be used company-wide

Linkcards lets users share their digital business card using SMS, emails, or social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.

Some might say it’s the salesman’s contacts that is his biggest contribution to his company. Others may disagree and say it is the way he sells himself and the company, his charisma, his je ne sais quoi that gets the job done. Well, whatever you believe, it is a well-established fact that on a typical day, a salesperson’s job begins with him or her flipping through their Rolodex. And, therein, lies the importance of not just making contacts, but having them filed away neatly to be used anytime. 

After his graduation, Kapil Agarwal worked in business development which involved outbound sales, appointments with C-level executives, managers, sales reports and followups. This experience made him realise the gap that has emerged between networking and contact sharing - while networking has gone digital, contact sharing is still done in the traditional way using business cards. The process of maintaining leads database, updates and making daily reports can be a hassle for a sales professional. To solve this, Kapil started working on Linkcards in March 2017. The Android app was launched in November and the iOS app in December 2017.

Linkcards allows users to create and share digital business cards with anyone. The receiver may or may not have the app to view the shared business card and can save the information in their phone's address book. Linkcards business cards is shared using:

. Bucket ID (6 digit) of other Linkcards users from a distance.

. Email, SMS, or any other social sharing apps on the users smartphone.

. Nearby - select multiple nearby Linkcards users to share business card with a click.

. Use SMS for offline sharing or with no internet connection.

The business card is shared as a link with a default formal message. 

Along with the basic contact details and logo, users can attach their social media profile links like LinkedIn, Facebook and others. Users can also attach a portfolio, Youtube links, resume or a brochure. A shortcut/widget allows the sharing of the business card directly from the home screen of smartphone devices, which reduces RAM consumption. 

Linkcards also has a wallet for users to even scan the paper cards received at meetings and events. The app converts the scanned card into a digital business card which is click to call, email or visit the website from the card. The scanned card image is stored along with the digital card as banner. 

Linkcards wants to monetise its product by offering Linkcards for Business - a subscription-based enterprise SaaS, which provides a dashboard for companies to manage teams, secure 100 percent leads generated by teams, back-up in Excel sheets, get Insights of each card shared such as views and clicks, predict true prospects to follow-up and increase the rate of conversion. 

Companies and business can create a centralised business cards database (cloud-based folder) for their staff so that anyone within the company can have access to business cards collected by their sales people, and that staff members don’t waste time on sharing other companies card with their colleagues. In addition, when businesses update the contacts of the employees or any other changes in contact information or media materials, their contacts can also get the updated details. 

Linkcards was initially bootstrapped, and then Afghan academic Nisar Taliman came in as a co-founder with a seed of $50,000. “I was thinking about finding an alternative that businesses can use to digitally exchange their marketing materials along with business cards and keep the information updated with their contacts. While still thinking of a solution to this problem, I got introduced to Kapil Agarwal and learned about Linkcards and its solutions. After several discussions and exchange of ideas and approaches, I saw a great potential in Linkcards and its team and their approach tackling the problem. Thus, I decided to back this idea and be part of their team,” adds Nisar.

Linkcards currently has around 7,000+ installs on both Android and iOS and a few enterprises teams are trying out the enterprise dashboard under the trial version.