A company called Graphight just announced a new service that it describes as a4‚¬AeHarmony meets Mint.com for professional networking,a4‚¬¯ which it says will make salespeople more effective.
So does that mean Well, Graphight is like Mint.com in that aggregates information from a number of online accounts &8212' in this case ita4‚¬a4„s your social networks and email inboxes, where you might be doing professional networking. Then like eHarmony, Graphight recommends connections you might want to reach out to. So it might recommend an important sales lead who you haven&'t spoken to in a while.
Therea4‚¬a4„s also a mobile application, which means you could be in the airport with an hour to kill and quickly bring up a list of contacts who you can reach out to, or you could find yourself in a new town and immediately see who you should try to meet.
Graphight demonstrated its product at the Launch conference today in San Francisco.
Now, this might not sound like something you might use &8212' one of the event judges, Joyent chief executive David Young, said it sounded a4‚¬Avery dystopiana4‚¬¯. But Graphighta4‚¬a4„s spokespeople noted that their target audience includes salespeople who have 2,500 to 5,000 business contacts. At any given time, they might be talking to 5 to 10 percent of them to close deals, but ita4‚¬a4„s probably a good idea for them to reach out to other contacts and lay the groundwork for deals in the future.
Salesforce.com is clearly interested in this area as well, since it purchased Etacts, a startup trying to bring similar features specifically to email. Basically, get ready for a future where you get many more calls from salespeople saying, &''So, uh, how&'s it going&''
Lowercase Capitala4‚¬a4„s Chris Sacca argued that this could actually apply beyond salespeople. For example, what about guys who want to manage all the women they&'re trying to date Not that I recommend that use case.
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Companies: Graphight
Companies: Graphight
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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