Interview with Cory Schop of Tweepler.com
By now, there are tons of “follower management” tools on the market and hardly any of them is perfect, nevertheless, some gained more momentum than others, Tweepler.com is one of such. Techcrunch even ran a full length report about it early January. Months have gone by, tweepler’s growth seems holding up, so I decided to “ring” Corey up for a quick follow up interview. The idea is to get personal and some more “intimate” thoughts/conversation going, although the answers I got were a bit high level, many linking to its FAQ and the earlier report on TechCrunch, not nearly as informative as other twitter app founders that I have spoken to, but I definitely appreciate the developments/funding related information, and key insights from Cory on why the app is successful as is. Take a look.
1. What is Tweepler?
Cory: See http://www.tweepler.com/faq
In TechCrunch’s word back in January 09:Tweepler is definitely a time saver and an easier way of managing followers on Twitter than the currently available apps and Twitter.com, but it’s also something that you’ll likely use only once or twice, unless you’re really popular and gain dozens of new followers a day….But if you’re on Twitter, make sure you give it a spin and see if it’s a better way for you to manage your Twitter social graph (and follow @tweepler for updates).
2. How did you come up with the idea? How’s your past background serve up this venture?
Cory: See http://www.tweepler.com/faq3. How long did it take to bring the idea to launch? Are you a full blown start up with funding or bootstrapping?
Cory: No funding. Idea was for fun. Duration was a few weeks over christmas holidays, total time was probably 60 – 70 man hours.4. How’s user adoption so far?
Cory: Indexed over 1.2 million users on Twitter (3rd degree since our app imports everyones followers)5. There are so many followers-managing tools out there…If there is one thing that you think the key to the success of the Tweepler, what is it?
Cory: Not a lot of good tools for follower management though. Our app had one sole purpose that no one was addressing. Processing followers. 1st to market, intuitive and nice looking UI. Easy of use. simplicity. Viral features added into the app. Word of mouth that people spread because we have a great product. Our article on Tech Crunch definitely helped.6. What is the business model?
Cory: See http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/21/regain-control-over-your-twitter-social-graph-with-tweepler/In Techcrunch’s word: Essentially they would give people the option of advertising their account so they’d show up on top of the interface and/or as a ’suggested follow’ and pay up per follower they gain through Tweepler. As much as I like the application and the people who built it, I can’t imagine that this business model will work, and frankly I hope they’re not expecting too much from it.
7. Future plan? Technology, business partnership, products etc.?
Cory: Enhancements, we don’t like to go into too many details here. We have some neat ideas in store though.
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