Member Article

Behind the business with CrumbTrail

Networking app, CrumbTrail, aims to contexualise your contact book. Founder and CEO, Eren Erman, takes Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

CrumbTrail has a number of target demographic markets and I have found reaching these via various marketing channels has proved challenging yet rewarding given the multitude of media outlet options. Also, identifying ambassadors and creating a marketing campaign aimed at university students has taken time and is an iterative process.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Finalising and launching a high quality app that delivers on performance and functionality, this was really crucial for me in the planning stages ofCrumbTrail. I wanted to ensure the experience for the user was perfect and it is an app they will love using. It took over one year to produce the requirements, wire frames, user experience, user design, and the front/back end code. It’s been hard work, but is very much a labour of love and we couldn’t be happier with the results, we can’t wait to hear our users reviews to hear what they think of CrumbTrail.

What is you biggest focus for the coming year?

After launching the app we will be looking to secure funding to buildCrumbTrail on Android and to promote the product in the app market space. We will also continue to build brand awareness about the benefits ofCrumbTrail while providing updates to the app based on customer feedback.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business or is currently operating within your industry sector what would it be?

Analyse your idea in detail and discuss it with neutral people (i.e. not your friends) in the market place to get an honest and objective view of your product. Do not underestimate the time it takes to develop your idea into a final product as there will be pivots along the way that change the way you build your product and hence add time to the project timeline. Listen to your gut, ignore the noise around you and follow your passion - if you truly believe in your idea, go for it and never look back.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business in your region or generally and where you organization sits within it?

Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn have become an integral part of our networking DNA. In addition, there is a new trend emerging in mobile social networking whereby people are meeting online via their mobile phone. As a result, the pace of networking and number of new people we meet has increased substantially. However, phonebooks on smartphones have not evolved to keep up with this pace, forcing us to remember people alphabetically, which is not necessarily how our brain works. There needed to be a better way to remember how and when you met that person. CrumbTrailfills this gap in the marketplace by linking contact management with location based services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .