Poken: Touch and Go
Poking around to uncover the Swiss start-up scene, I went to the Federal Department of Economic Affairs website and to the pages of the Confederation’s Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI), that has an annual budget of about CHF100 million, and found the incubator Venturelab. My good luck led me to the Swiss startup Poken, provider of social business cards exchange services.
A peek at the Venturelab site will let you see how much is happening in this small and steady European economy, better known for its mountains, precision instruments, and luxury watches.
Poken received $1.8 million from the leading telecom provider in the country, Swisscom. Besides the nice cash infusion it has the advice of Dominique Megret, Head of Swisscom Ventures.
If you ever attended a mega fair like CEBIT, or a small gathering of investors, you know it takes time to “work the room”. Not to speak of the awkward card searching. Or the "out of cards" problem. Poken has found the answer to that: a social business card that exchanges contact information with one simple touch.
Instead of printing cards you can now go online, buy a Poken (even design one!), create an account, and manage your contacts on their website.
The basics: Poken provides a timeline of when you met someone. It does that with the info that matters, so your potential clients will no longer be floundering around the web to find you. And, just in case, you can afterwards choose the company you will keep.
I spoke via Skype with the founder and CEO of Poken, Stephane Dutriaux, who was in Lausanne, at the headquarters of Poken, to ask why they have been so quickly adopted by great brands such as BMW.
He answered: "high-quality service, and constant product enhancement". Add to that a life on the move that provided insights that are hard to match. Stephane grew up in Canada, US, and Switzerland. The concept for Poken came while saying goodbye to his classmates at the end of his MBA program. Why scribbling down your email in a piece of paper in this digital age?
With seed capital from family and friends, Stephane developed a global marketing strategy that works with local partners in the mobile space. Poken is now distributed in 50 countries and serves corporate clients all over. Hey, how many brilliant ideas are there that are profitable from the get go?
Follow Technorati