Ripple, the Tinder of professional networking apps
A team of former employees of tinderLed by Tinder's original CTO, Ryan Ogle, they launched a new app aimed at professional networking. The app, called Ripple, aims to be a mobile alternative to LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Today it focuses primarily on job searching and although it solves many of the problems of professional networking, it is plagued by unwanted connection requests and spam in the inbox.
Furthermore, LinkedIn It emerged in the days of the desktop web, which has since limited its capabilities in mobile environments, Ogle explains.
However, he is careful to clarify that Ripple (which should not be confused with cryptocurrency(by the way), it's not just a Tinder for business networking.
"You have to address the problems with professional networks themselves. It's not as simple as throwing profiles onto a screen [...]",
Ogle says about competing applications that have tried to enter the enterprise networking space in the past.
“People have misunderstood why Tinder was successful,” he continues. “Certainly, the interface spin off It was interesting, engaging, and fun. But the reasons Tinder was successful ran much deeper than that. We thought a lot about the psychology of social media and the issues… what holds people back and prevents them from achieving what they want to achieve.”
On other dating platforms, it was common to allow people to message whomever they wanted. Tinder, on the other hand, changed the approach in terms of Who's next?.
With RippleThe goal is to adopt a problem-solving approach to business networks, which differs from that of the dating world.
Ripple started as an internal Tinder hackathon project. But instead of introducing enterprise networking as a feature of Tinder (as Bumble has now done), the company realized it deserved to be its own app.
IAC's Match Group, owner of Tinder and other dating apps, reached an agreement with Tinder to spin off Ripple App Corp. into a fully independent company. Match Group now holds an undisclosed minority stake in the new app. The company has no other outside investment, although the founders have invested some of their own money.
In addition to Ogle, other co-founders include Tinder's first Android developer, Paul Cafardo, and Tinder's lead designer, Gareth Johnson.
Despite Ogle's claims that Ripple is not just a business-flavored Tinder, using Ripple feels very familiar.
Getting started is quite simple. When you first use it, the app can automatically pull your information from existing networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google when you sign up, making filling out your profiles faster.
Then it takes you to a screen where you can select your interests, such as sales, marketing, technology, etc.
And while it takes advantage of the swipe mechanism, it tries to minimize Tinder's focus on photos by putting more text information on users' cards that can be viewed without having to leave their profile, such as work history, skills, education, mutual connections, and events they attend.
The app also offers a way to find potential connections nearby, a way to create events and groups that other users can choose to join.
"Face scanning" is one of the standout features, allowing you to find someone on Ripple by simply pointing your phone at their face. In theory, this will make adding new connections faster and eliminate the need for physical business cards.
There are certain concerns with the application, such as the potential wrong use of people who might use the app for non-professional purposes. Ripple will try to address this through a built-in reporting feature in an upcoming version.
"That's going to be one of our biggest differentiators. We're going to be very aggressive in removing people who are doing things for non-professional reasons," Ogle says.
Ripple is available from iOS y Android.
