Entrepreneur Interview: John Boyd of MeetingWave

Business Name:
MeetingWave

Website URL:
http://www.meetingwave.com

Year Founded:
2008

Business Partners:
Intelegencia (http://www.intelegencia.com/)

Other team members:
http://www.meetingwave.com/aboutus

Number of Employees:
contract only

What does your company do?
MeetingWave helps you arrange targeted networking meetings over coffee, lunch or other meeting with the exact type of people you want to meet.

Meetings are only confirmed if everyone agrees to meet and everyone can conceal their identity & contact info until ready to exchange.

MeetingWave can help members meet new people for business or social purposes, while providing:

Targeting – Describe the type of people you’d like to meet (e.g., potential new clients, customers, fellow alumni, or business contacts).

Control – Decide when, where, & whether to meet.  And who can attend the meeting.

Verification – Verify where you work or went college using our technology and ask others to do the same before meeting.  Search for verified profiles to target employees with certain backgrounds.

Privacy – Do not need to disclose your identity or contact information and use double-blind messaging provided to facilitate meeting planning.

Flexibility – Anytime, anyplace. Coffee, lunch, dinner, golf or other networking meeting.  And, no commitment to meet until everyone agrees and you can also cancel if there’s a change of plans.

Geolocation – Enable to let your Invites and Meeting Alerts follow you without disclosing your specific location.

MeetingWave helps you meet new people for business or social purposes, while giving you a lot of control, privacy, targeting and flexibility in choosing who you will ultimately meet in person.  You can propose networking meetings, yet control who attends and whether the meeting occurs.

Real Networking.  Real Easy.

Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level?

When I started recruiting impressive executives to join the team.

MeetingWave recently launched private label versions to license to colleges/universities (alumni networking), conferences/trade shows (attendee networking), hotels/resorts (guest networking) and associations (member networking):

http://www.meetingwave.com/alumninetworking

Many alumni, for example, like to meet other alumni for jobs or clients leads.

We also just launched a location-based iphone application:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id401143055

MeetingWave’s iPhone app will allow you can set up business networking meetings on the fly! Meet new clients, new customers, fellow alumni or new business contacts where ever you are. It’s free to download but we charge 99 cents for confirmed meetings.

The app allows members to verify work or alumni emails and display an indication of that verification on their profiles (e.g., @ibm.com or @alumni.mit.edu) to provide users with more comfort about who they are meeting (see also, http://www.meetingwave.com/verifyme)

MeetingWave hopes to launch an android app in February.

What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company?
We have an open site, SaaS closed versions to license to third parties and mobile apps.  There are synergies between all three business models (open, SaaS and mobile).

What is most rewarding about running your business?
I’ve learned a tremendous amount since launching the business and enjoy the flexibility and connecting with new people.

What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
There’s a steep learning curve when launching an Internet based start up and the landscape is always changing.

If you were starting over today, what would you do differently?
I would have focused on SaaS licensing first before the open site since it would have been easier to gain traction.

What advice do you have for other business owners?
Try to form the right team early on.  Most businesses require a wide range of skill sets.  Outsourcing too many skill sets can cause problems since its difficult to align people and look long term.

Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others:
Techsmith Jing (for screen recordings)

Pandora.com (listen to music while working)

Highrise – Sales and business development tracking.

What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you?
I’m an intellectual property attorney and recently resumed the practice at http://boydiplaw.com as I’ve shifted some management of MeetingWave to other team members.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
How MeetingWave Works.  You can organize in-person meetings with new people by:

1. Creating an invite for a proposed meeting that describes who you’d like to meet or the purpose of the meeting, whether it’s coffee, lunch, drinks, golf or some other activity.

2. You’ll be notified by email when someone accepts your invite.

3. You can approve or decline anyone’s acceptance for any reason – it’s entirely up to you. The other people will be notified of your decision.  Approve at least one acceptance, and your meeting is on!

If you invite a specific person to attend a meeting, you would not need to “approve” that person’s acceptance in order for that person to receive confirmation that he may attend the meeting. MeetingWave.com assumes that if you have specified someone to invite, you would not have any reason to decline that person’s acceptance.

You can choose to have the meeting location disclosed only to people you approve to attend. Moreover, the site’s messaging system allows you to communicate – directly and privately – with those who have indicated an interest in attending your meeting.
Members can also search through invites for proposed meetings posted by others and accept those of interest.  If the meeting organizer approves their acceptance, the meeting is confirmed and the member will be sent a confirmation to attend the networking meeting.

Members can click “Meeting Alert” to be notified by email of any new invites meeting the search criteria in the future.