CardMunch, iPhone App Story

[bond]

I'd been using this app since TBFMentor first told me about it. At the time (about a year ago), it was still independent. Just recently, I noticed that they had an updated version, one that was linked with LinkedIn. This very very simple solution to collecting business cards got sold to LinkedIn for $2.4 Million. At first, I thought that was such a small amount for the number of users they probably had.

But then I realized just how SIMPLE it was. You take a picture and someone (most likely in India) actually types in the information. Wow! That comes out to actually being cheaper than developing a strategy to do image processing. This is a great lesson I think- sometimes thinking too much about the solution is not as good as the brute force way.

Have a read:

A Year After LinkedIn Came Calling, CardMunch Poised To Make "The Rolodex Obsolete" | Fast Company

[Lukas]

I use this app all the time - absolutely love it. Probably a Top 5 favorite. For sure a Top 7 or 8.

[TBFMentor]

When I first saw it I was like wow! They will get snapped up fast, and they did.


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