Truple is a need-based social networking platform to get help by connecting and socialising with people nearby
The Truple Co-founders
When these group of IIT and IIM alumni started a need-based social networking platform back in 2014, the market was not ready for it yet. So they shelved the project and launched a different product — an online platform to book local services such as plumbing, electrical, carpentry, yoga and photography.
However, the road ahead was not rosy. While working on this product, they realised that the biggest barrier to scale the business was the huge labour cost. So, they switched to a marketplace model in May 2015.
All went well till the real challenge came.
“We were doing fairly well with many happy customers, but then came truckloads of VC money — not for us but for our competitors. VCs invested close to US$400 million in the sector, and it became virtually impossible for us to sustain with a few thousand dollars when our competitors were burning millions,” Madhvendra Kumar, one of the five co-founders of Truple, told e27.
So in February 2016, the co-founders decided to re-launch the social networking platform Truple ahead of its time. “It took us close to five months to get the basic version of the product ready. We launched the beta version in the last week of June 2016,” he added.
Truple, which stands for ‘Trust in People’, is a need-based social networking platform to get help by connecting and socialising with people nearby for our day-to-day needs. It can be used for getting recommendation and references for a particular job; borrowing and lending books and money from people in the close vicinity; asking people to join sports, events, hobbies and other activities, as well as contributing in giveaways such as donations and charity, etc.
Sharing is caring
“While other social networks like Facebook are being used for self-promotion by users, Truple is designed for sharing. People use traditional social networks to manage connections whereas Truple helps people manage engagement,” he added.
Also Read: The battle of social networks in Asia: Who is winning?
A user can create a post for his/her requirements and the post is viewed by other people on the platform. Those interested will connect with the user via chats and comments. The user can then engage with them and find help for his/her needs.
As of last month, Truple — which is currently available only on Android platform — had over 2,000 users on its public beta version. Most number of users came from the US and Canada (40 percent together combined) and India (33 percent).
Kumar feels that location-based networking is a tough nut to crack because of the proverbial ‘chicken and egg’ problem. There have been a couple of startups in the past but they could not crack the market and shut down. However, since then the markets and user behaviour have changed considerably.
“Being a location-based platform, Truple becomes useful when the user density is high. High user density can be achieved once the platform is useful. We’ve a plan to crack this problem with a couple of hacks like community-specific promotions and introduction of location-independent solutions by making subtle changes to the product without affecting or deviating from the core offering,” he said.
The co-founders believe that professional networking is very important in the lives of majority. Existing solutions are still not able to fulfil most of the user requirements other than content sharing among friends and family. “Our vision is to make it possible for every person on the planet to be connected with every other person for his/her genuine needs,” he concluded.
Although there are no need-based social networking apps existing in the world, there are apps like Hoy in the Philippines that lets users capture memories together with their favourite brands and earn rewards for sharing these memories.
Other co-founders of Truple are Jeet Kumar, Chetan Patil, Rohit Harlalka, Karthik CV and Sriram Sekhar.
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