Teaneck Startup Digitizes the Business Card

In the spring of 2011, three local entrepreneurs created a mobile business card service that’s both easy to use and easy on the environment.

David Berkowitz, Elli Orlinsky and Daniel Harcsztark are the co-founders of Fetchly, a mobile technology company based out of Teaneck. Berkowitz and Harcsztark are Teaneck natives, and Orlinsky is originally from Fair Lawn. All three men have known each other since childhood.

Orlinsky said Teaneck is a great area in which to have a business because of its proximity to Manhattan.

“There’s good, affordable office space here,” he said. “It’s also a nice place to bring people if you want to take a client out to lunch because there are a lot of nice restaurants in Teaneck.”

Describing the company’s product as a green solution for business cards, Berkowitz said anyone can register for a free digital card. He’s proud of the fact that the system works with any phone – not just smart phones – and it doesn’t require downloading an app.

“This was built with the foresight that people want simplicity,” Berkowitz said.

Harcsztark said having a digital card that can be updated at any time is economical, especially if a person's job title or contact information changes, which then requires ordering a new batch of cards.

“And you don’t have to worry about clients having the wrong information in their possession,” he said.

Orlinsky added that being able to text your card to someone means never losing a chance to network.

“No matter who you are or what industry you’re in, you can be out somewhere at night or on a weekend and just not be thinking to carry your card with you and then meet someone viable to you in your business,” he said. “So this is a really nice crutch to basically never look unprofessional.”

And business people aren’t the only ones who can make use of a digital card, Berkowitz said. From recent grads networking for a job to parents who need to swap contact information in order to set up play dates, anyone looking to relay information to another person can do so by sending a text to Fetchly's system.

HOW IT WORKS

To be able to use Fetchly, a cell phone that can send and receive texts is needed. All messages will be composed to 83432, which is Fetchly's short-code system. The number can be saved as a contact on your phone if desired.

People can join Fetchly through the company’s website, where they'll create a user name and add the details that they want others to see on their digital card.

“Every field on the digital business card is optional, so users control how much or how little they want their card to say,” Berkowitz said. “The mobile number entered at the time of registration is not shown on the card unless the user types it in to show on the card.”

People also can join Fetchly via their cell phone.

• To join from your phone, compose a text message to 83432. In the body of the text, type the word “join” (without quotes) and your email address and full name. After sending the message, you’ll receive a text stating your card is ready to use. The temporary card will list your name and email address. You can log onto Fetchly at a later time to create a user name and add other information to your card, such as a cell-phone number, job title, etc.

• To send your digital card to someone, compose a text message to 83432. In the body of the text, type the word “send” (without quotes) and the other person’s cell phone number. Hit send, and your digital business card will be sent to the recipient's mobile.

• To retrieve someone’s digital card, you would need to know the person’s user name, for example, JOHNSMITH. You would compose a message to 83432. In the body of the text, type JOHNSMITH and then hit send. You’ll receive that person’s card, and the owner of that card will be notified that your cell-phone number fetched his information.

Through a Fetchly account, users can view all the dated and time-stamped transactions that take place when a card is sent or retrieved. Text and email notifications can be turned off, which can be beneficial to those who get charged per text through their phone plan.

People also can turn off the ability to have their card fetched, but they will be notified that someone tried to retrieve their card so they can follow up with that person if desired.

“We still allow a transaction to take place, but we want to protect people’s privacy,” Berkowitz said. “You may want to send your information to the people you choose but not have it requested.”

If someone loses their cell phone, they can go into their Fetchly account and disable their card from being sent as well.

“We didn’t roll this out to replace business cards because people like their business cards and there are instances when you’re at a table or at a conference and you just want to slide your business card over to someone quietly,” Harcsztark said. “Fetchly creates a social business card because the paper business card is a one-directional tool. With Fetchly, when you request my card, I get your contact information and when I request your card, you get my contact information; it’s a two-way link. And when one of your associates requests the card of someone you pass along, then it becomes a three-way connection.”

Berkowitz said a user’s information is never sold, nor is it published anywhere. There’s no online database or web page that lists the number of active users or shows a person’s business card.

“It’s all stored in our system and can be requested, and if the requesting option is turned off by the card owner, the information can only be sent by the card owner,” Berkowitz said. “There’s no public profile like Facebook.”

FETCHLY CONNECT: TRADESHOW PLATFORM

To sustain the free digital card service, Fetchly brings in revenue through its tradeshow platform called Fetchly Connect.

“We have expanded on our business-card solution to be a lead-generation product for exhibits, trade shows, conferences and events,” Berkowitz said. “It will function in the same fashion as a digital business card does, but it will be relaying over a company’s information.”

Fetchly Connect includes some of the following features for organizers:

• Session cards, which allows attendees to ask questions via their mobile devices to a moderator of a speaking event. This allows attendees a chance to ask questions instantly and allows moderators to choose what’s appropriate to answer for the allotted time.

• Virtual Fishbowl, which collects digital cards and randomly selects a predefined number of winners, who can be notified instantly either privately or through a message sent to all those who entered the contest.

• Blast Messaging, which allows tradeshow organizers to communicate a direct message to all attendees or exhibitors and track responses.

Berkowitz shared some statistics from the website Techipedia, which in a Dec. 20 posting about SMS text messages stated that 77 percent of the world’s population owns a mobile phone and that 98 percent of all SMS messages sent out daily are opened, with 83 percent opened in the first three minutes of arrival.

“Text messaging is a medium that is very widely used and widely read,” Berkowitz said. “If you email a business card to people, it might get read or it might get in their spam box. With a text message, it pops up on a phone’s screen and is likely to get read.”

Berkowitz said that by being able to see what information was fetched by attendees, exhibitors can follow up on leads and complete sales after the show is over. Attendees benefit by having a quick and easy way in which to retrieve information that they find relevant to their needs.

“It’s very effective; we’ve seen it,” Harcsztark said. “The target audience doesn’t even have to be tech-savvy because the concept utilizes text messaging.”

The three founders see a future in both their free digital card business and tradeshow platform. They said their only challenge lies in getting people to see the possibilities in the various services.

“We’re always going to have two separate tracks,” Berkowitz said. “We’re always going to offer the digital business cards; we’re never going to get rid of that. We’re a startup – a small company, and we don’t want to forget where we came from. At the same time, we still need to generate revenue, and our tradeshow platform is our sustainability product that allows us to do the good that we do and offer the business cards to people for free.”