Featured Startup Pitch: Drippler—building a community of gadget enthusiasts

Company: Drippler

Website: www.drippler.com

Founders: Matan Talmi, Dotan Galron, Ronen Yacobi

Headquarters: Tel-Aviv, Israel

Year Founded: 2010

Investors: Reuven Agassi, Yanki Margalit, and David Assia, among others

Twitter:  @drippler

Brief Company Description: Drippler is the ultimate information source for gadget users, keeping you constantly excited about your gadgets!

By Matan Talmi, CEO and co-founder

Product Overview

As gadgets become smarter, gadget users must stay up-to-date in order to make the most of their gadgets. There’s plenty to know—usage tips, software and firmware updates, apps, accessories, tech-support and more, and with online content exponentially growing, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up. Drippler provides consumers with personalized updates on the gadgets they love, and helps them make the most of their gadgets while making sure they don’t miss any valuable content.

Getting started is very easy—you can either connect with your Facebook account or fill in your name, email and password. Once you’ve signed up, you just need to choose the gadgets you own (“Have it”) and the ones you want (“Want it”) using Drippler’s friendly wizard. When you’re done, Drippler takes you to “My Drips”—your personalized dashboard, where you will find all the most important news and updates on your gadgets. For gadgets you want—you’ll get the latest rumors, reviews, comparisons, price drops and any relevant news. For the gadgets you already have, Drippler will bring you the latest updates, tips, apps, accessories and more. You’ll also receive a personalized weekly email with the most important updates on your gadgets. You can always change your gadget settings and add new gadgets you buy or want to get. Drippler also has an Android app which keeps you updated directly on your smartphone.

Founders’ Story

Drippler was founded by Matan Talmi and Dotan Galron, soon joined by Ronen Yacobi. The three served together in IDF’s elite technological unit and have vast experience in the high-tech industry. After missing out on many important firmware updates, cool apps, tech issues and other important content about our gadgets, we decided to help others stay updated on their gadgets, and created Drippler.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

Drippler’s goal is to get maximal exposure to our web application and mobile app. Our main channels are:

*Search – users search for news and updates on their gadgets and find Drippler

*Word of mouth – users share interesting content and their actions on Drippler such as “I just added the iPhone 4S to my gadgets on Drippler”

*Press – Drippler gets covered by the media. Just last month The Economist, along with other sites and blogs used Drippler market research in Blackberry-related news.

*Features – Drippler has been featured as a recommended app by Sprint and others.

How We Differentiate Ourselves from the Competition

Drippler is the only service providing personalized gadget updates on both web and mobile.

As demand for gadget information rises, there are many solutions for consuming such content. However, most existing solutions are either a “one size fits all” experience, such as news sites and blogs where users have to constantly browse and search for relevant content, or User Generated Content sites, which rely on users to post the info and as such don’t provide everything you need to know.

We are differentiated by making sure each and every user receives only the most relevant information and engaging the user in an ongoing and personalized experience.

Business Model

Our business model is based on tailoring commercial offers to our users, according to the users’ preferences, the gadgets they own and the ones they want—new gadgets, upgrades, apps, games, accessories, warranties and other related products.

Funding

We raised seed funding last year from high profile Israeli entrepreneurs and angel investors including Reuven Agassi, founder of SAP Business One, Yanki Margalit, founder of Aladdin Knowledge Systems and David Assia, founder of Magic Software Enterprises.

Drippler – www.drippler.com