Bump Technologies (YC S09): The Quest To Destroy The Business Card

I lost my iPhone, so I can't use this, so here's my question: if I bump phones with someone, does their information go into my Address Book?<p>You have to earn your way into my Address Book on my phone by getting drunk with me or being related by blood (seriously, no exceptions - same as with Facebook).<p>Business card hate is way overblown; there's a nice natural segregation and there's enough room to write notes for follow-ups. I mean, business cards are a <i>solution</i> to the problem of exchanging information amongst casual acquaintences; they're not a problem <i>themselves</i>. I think this is where "business card replacements" (and we've had them since the Palm Pilot days) fail.

Good app, but I doubt it'll gain traction in the business world. The business cards are too ingrained into our society.<p>Its like the don't shake hands techcrunch post, I'm not going to stop shaking hands, just because techcrunch thinks its an outdated method of greeting people.

Could you make the process any more complicated? I hear there's this thing called Bluetooth and all you have to do is activate it and zap the phone directly with it. Why communicate with the "cloud" at all?

How well does this scale?<p>They sortof glossed over the ninjitsu that is being used to link the two "bumps" together. My guess is that (since internet access is required), it syncs a clock within the bump application to the bump server, then looks for phones that were "bumped" at the same time.<p>I'm sure I'm wrong, and would love to hear of other ways that this is happening.<p>If I'm not, how does this scale up to the millions or hundreds of millions of users that it would require to actually <i>replace</i> the business card (which is what it sounds like it wants to do).<p>Even if it isn't at millions, how well does it function at events where lots and lots of people are "bumping" (clever name, I have already verbed it)?<p>Finally...and this is what would--to me--kill it: the blackberry does not have an accelerometer. :(

Business cards are about more than data in many parts of the world. Japan, for example.

Somehow I think the twitter generation will overstep the business card by miles.<p>The last time I was at a conference(in Bangalore), which is miles away from the hustle bustle of Silicon valley, insted of exchanging business cards people were just exchanging twitter ids.<p>I think this is cool to show to your friends, etc. But when it comes to exchanging business contact, twitter has an upper hand.

I <i>beg</i> all YC alumni to use Bump.<p>The last YC meet-up was great, but nobody had biz cards (I took pics with my iPhone instead).<p>Prolly one of the funnest/coolest useful apps I've seen come through YC. I'd love to see massive mainstream adoption.

After reading this, I just ordered a batch of business cards. Is that telling? :)

So why is the bump necessary, vs just both people turning the app on and being in proximity to each other? Or is that just the gimmick?

Ok, we've pointed out a lot of the flaws with a system like this. But what if there were advantages beyond just 'exchanging data'?<p>One drawback to the business card is that it is very passive. I just cleaned out piles of business cards and threw them away. However, a priceless one or two were very handy. I wished I had kept track of them better.<p>What if, when I 'bump' someone, it also lists all the people we have in common through linkedin and facebook? It could also tell me all the other people at the function who I have previously 'bumped'. (or are 1 or 2 degrees from me) Now I went from a basic 'hi how are you, what do you do' conversation to bonding over a common associate.<p>I can only assume there is more to this than basic contact exchange functionality. It's gotta have more of a pull that their working on for Bump 2.0. (points if they name the extra functionality 'grind')<p>(maybe there is a dating element to it as well?)

The author thinks that a handshake is "an annoying relic of the past.", and launching an app and bumping phones is somehow superior? Whatever. A handshake can tell you a lot about a person and gives us a little, sometimes much needed, human contact from people outside our normal circles.<p>I'm not dogging the app, just the author's assertion.

I remember seeing years ago (long before the handheld device took off) researchers were working on a device that would swap business/contact information digitally through a handshake. The device was contained in your shoe.<p>While I like the idea of digital exchanges of information (the above idea never really took off), I just don't think this is terribly practical, especially the deep rooted customs, such as business cards and handshakes.<p>All the best of luck though, I'd sure as hell like to be proven wrong.<p>Now, if you could figure out a way to exchange information through a handshake with the phone sitting in your pocket, you have a goldmine right there sirs. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even have to give it away.

Something like that is never going to fly. What if I meet somebody who doesn't have an enabled phone? I'll still need to carry around the business card. So why put in the extra effort for other systems?<p>For the first time I see a benefit in putting a QR code on my card, though - maybe the "enabled" people could just scan the QR code and would not need to bother with taking the card.<p>I thought QR codes would be superfluous because of OCR, but apparently the technology is still not there yet?

Currently how big is your market here? How many ppl have an Internet centric phone vs. a regular handset?<p>Are you looking 3 to 5 years into the future re: market potential?

I &#60;3 business cards. One of my weaknesses is buying expensive business cards. And I even suspect that they have some impact on my dealings. All part of the brand...

might have been a better idea to build this for the Blackberry. Not that I'd install it anyway. 15 seconds vs 1 second to exchange cards and I can do cards in parallel. Imagine how silly you'd feel in an actual business setting bumping iPhones with one another... A better idea would be to point the iPhone at someone in a mtg and it identify them using some form of augmented reality. we don't need tagging, there are much better ways.

How bout this for a business card service:<p>1. I create my "virtual business card" online and upload 5 pictures of myself<p>2. Someone meets me at a conference, takes my pic (in 5 secs), then uploads it (via mobile app or web)<p>3. Facial recognition confirms who I am and they get to download all my information to their address book

Do I have to bump (touch) someone's hand when doing cards exchange? What about Asian market (millions of iPhone units are sold there), where business etiquette is that you should hand your business card to someone while holding it with both of your hands, and you should not touch the receiver?

He lost me as soon as he said that the handshake is outdated. I'm incredibly wired into the digital world, but some things just shouldn't be 'digitized'. We live in a physical world and our brains are built to deal with a physical world. Everything else is a hack.

Going after the BUSINESS card market with an IPHONE app?<p>Now, the Pre would be compelling, but the Blackberry is where this app should live, and Windows Mobile. The latter 2 are all I see in the UK. The odd iPhones I encounter are people's personal phones.

If Apple would let the bluetooth built into the phone actually be USEFUL then you could do this without any need for an intermediary.

Congratulations.

Just another silly app. A whole company just to build this?

Put together one jpg and some xml in one package, standardize it and share it with everybody on the web, mobile, bluetooth, wireless, etc.<p>Kind of like a vcard on steroids.<p>Let everybody show it on their webpage, blog, etc.<p>Show it, share it, send it, shake it, transfer it.