Shapr Launches App for Matching Up industry Leads, Raises $three.1M
With a dose of the matchmaking mechanics found in relationship services and products, on Tuesday a startup known as Shapr unveiled its app that connects experts searching for leads, jobs, and alternatives.
The startup additionally raised $ 3.1 million in a seed round with private buyers that include BlaBlaCar CEO Frédéric Mazzella.
based totally in new york and Paris, Shapr created a social discovery app that tries to place every other spin on networking. It fits experts who wish to in finding someone, through their mutual connections, with sure expertise or information.
Co-founder Ludovic Huraux says Shapr customers can add up to 50 folks from their current LinkedIn contacts to create a circle of people they can turn to. The person and their circle together share their extended skilled networks with each and every different for the aim of creating industry connections. Huraux compares Shapr to breaking bread with your friends to find new leads.
“In real existence, you have got lunch with anyone you trust, you speak to them about your issues,” he says. That contact may suggest certainly one of their connections to assist.
The Shapr app sends 5 really useful connections to customers day by day in line with the sorts of new contacts they searching for. users may additionally put up to a forum referred to as Shapeline to get the phrase out to their current contacts with important points on what they need.
This could be used to alert people to job opportunities, for instance. It may also be used to search out mavens with explicit expertise, akin to a patent attorney. The app’s matching will also be achieved through tags and data fields to detail what the user is concerned about, which is able to embody finding funding, mentorship, or hiring ability.
nonetheless, this is an idea with some caveats.
despite the flurry of attention matchmaking relationship app Tinder has gotten, building a business around software that introduces individuals to new contacts isn’t easy. Sonar in the big apple tried to adapt in a similar area, but did not acquire the traction it needed.
although Sonar was basically a social app used to search for new pals, its group also added connectivity with LinkedIn to assist mavens find new contacts. alternatively, these efforts didn’t bring Sonar substantial positive aspects, and it shut down in 2013.
Huraux is accustomed to making connections via digital way. He in the past founded sexy World, a dating web site in France. Shapr happened through an opportunity meeting with a brand new contact. Huraux came about to take a seat subsequent to the grandmother of Zane Groshelle on a flight to France.
Huraux realized that Groshelle, a veteran of track advice carrier Songza, was once also in the expertise scene, and the grandmother offered the duo to one another. Groshelle and Huraux and when put next concepts, and then went on to cofound Shapr.
the corporate has thirteen fulltime workers, cut up between the technical personnel in Paris and the selling and group management personnel at WeWork Soho, a co-working house in ny.
For all its ambitions, Shapr’s plans might carry questions of overlap with the paid services LinkedIn subscribers get—particularly for messaging new contacts. on the other hand, Groshelle believes the Shapr app augments moderately than competes with its information source for profiles. “We see ourselves as complementary to LinkedIn,” he says. “for those who’re on the lookout for a job, you should utilize Shapr as your individual referral gadget.”
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