E-Commerce & Software
Popl
I helped start Popl in late 2019 as the first founding member and employee #1.
Starting with just a simple product hacked together in a 500sqft apartment, we went on to create the world's most popular digital business card, now serving over 500,000 active users.
Although Popl started as an e-commerce start-up, we are mainly a software technology company. We tap into both markets, selling different forms of our physical products through our website, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and mobile shops.
Our true scale comes from our software, specifically our mobile app. We have a strong free-tier that allows all users to upgrade their networking, as well as a powerful premium tier that provides the user with extra features.
Our mission was to improve your networking experience. We made it easy for people to instantly share your contact information, social media, or any website link with a simple tap. The best part was: no app or product is required to receive information.
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background
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growth
As the Head of Sales & Growth, I focused on creating synergies that propelled our brand forward. This included working with our Head of Data to find user growth opportunities to drive decisions, directing marketing campaigns with marketing and creative agencies, and leading our entire brand partnerships process. I built our international presence quickly, and was blessed to work with brands, distributors, and retail sellers around the world.
We didn't always serve a professional audience.
Here's the video that launched our company into the spotlight:
80M+ Views | 4.2M+ Likes
Over $200,000 in sales | Cost: $0
On February 10th, 2020, we recorded a Tik Tok inside our UCLA gym. This was our fourth video on Tik Tok, and we were originally marketing ourselves as a social media sharing device for Gen Zs.
As a small team, we would constantly cross-collaborate across multiple departments. I worked closely with our Head of Data on growth & marketing initiatives.
After conducting user research and analyzing our retention rates, we found that we had a particular subset of "power users" that retained over 40%. We analyzed the biographies on every user, created a keyword map, and found that our strongest users were business owners and real estate agents using our products as business cards. Here's where we began to pivot into a company serving professionals.
At first, we did everything by hand.
Check out this video of us writing data into every single one of our chips. This was the process we went through so that each Popl could be linked to a special unique code that allowed the customer to link their Popl to their digital business card.
Before launching our app, we had to do this with every single Popl before we could fulfill the order. After writing data into the Popl, we had to make sure we didn't mess up the order of the Popls, as each one had a unique code that was generated through a script Jason (in the video) wrote. We then attached each Popl one-by-one to its respective packaging.
By late 2022, we had grown to over 500K users, locked down $2,500,000 per year in annual subscription revenue from our app, and generated high seven figures from e-commerce. Although profitable, we did raise a $2.2M seed round from notable investors, and completed the Y-Combinator program as batch of Winter 2021.
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Today & Future
20,000,000+
connections made with Popl
Reflection
When we first started, the reality was that we didn't really know what we were doing, and where this would take us. However, most people have no idea what they're doing when they first start anything. In my opinion, what really makes the difference is a willingness to take the time to learn and to constantly be open to change.
Everything can be accomplished if you just make the effort to start. If you look around you, every product, invention, software, was made by other humans, often not much more capable than you. You'll often find that you enjoy the process just as much as you enjoy the result.
Team is everything. Our founding team lived together in a start-up house in Beverly Hills. We worked day-and-night together, ate together, and celebrated together. This allowed each of our members to cross-collaborate on projects, and learn all aspects of running a technology start-up. Although remote work is taking over the world, I still believe in the strength of in-person connection, especially when it comes to early stage work.