FriendlyApp: An App for Marketing through Word of Mouth

 

FriendlyApp is a Bangalore based startup founded by Sunil Sulegai. The main purpose of this app is to utilize word of mouth for marketing activities.

 

The platform of FriendlyApp will be a virtual business franchise, where any person can own multiple businesses for free. Imagine an example, you find a client who is willing to go to a best restaurant. Just help him to choose one which you have tried once.

 

We got an opportunity to talk with Sunil, the founder of FriendlyApp and see what he has to say? I am sure his interview with us will inspire you.

 

 

Give a brief info about your startup?

A mobile app to discover, promote and manage word of mouth marketing.

FriendlyApp is a powerful tool, which monitors word of mouth generated sale transactions within mobile app and business owners can control it by switching ON/OFF.

Once a user signs up, he/she can become brand ambassador of multiple businesses. Under the open platform, any user can market their business for free of cost by just adding a fixed percentage of commission varying from 1% to 99% upon transaction value. The brand ambassador’s account will be directly remunerated for every transaction generated due to his/her word of mouth as per the percentage prescribed in the business banner.

 

 

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

Many business owners and young entrepreneurs are intimidated by marketing. There’s a good reason for this: marketing is expensive, can be time-consuming, and can be a waste of time.

Whether you plan and execute traditional and online marketing strategies yourself, or pay consultants or vendors to help you, it’s important for you to understand marketing is a huge expense irrespective of getting leads or not. Even if the leads are achieved, the sale conversions could be extremely low.

FriendlyApp is a free platform to promote your business and empowers unlimited people to be working behalf of your company as brand ambassadors absolutely free. In short, we eradicate marketing cost.

 

 

Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?

Innovating processes or recreating systems are always my passion; I am illusionary person spontaneously keep questioning why? And explore the better alternatives. Sometimes I do find good alternatives and sometimes crazy ones.  Chuckles J

I have worked with a couple of corporate likes Oracle India, Visa Inc. And I have been the founder of two startups ‘The U Turn’ & ‘KamaiLevo’. It was the MBA, Android development course, Couple of corporate jobs and previous two startups gave me abundant exposure to begin with an open platform which will be helping almost every user to Save Money, Earn Money and Monitor Word of Mouth Marketing through FriendlyApp.

 

 

 Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

FriendlyApp will be launched in Bangalore in the month of July 2018 and we will be taking it to PAN India as per our strategic positioning segments.

Bangalore is my birthplace and I have good identity over here than any other places. FriendlyApp is about word of mouth marketing and my identity in Bangalore will surely give a boost for my startup.

 

 

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

Sometimes things do not go as expected, as a startup founder it is very important to keep a track of dependencies and try to complete or find an alternative for things which did not work, most of the times it does not matter whether it is day or night.

This time I am enjoying the process with a balance in social and work life. Also, take care of my health and do make sure I get ample sleep by keeping ‘Plan B’ ready before implementing ‘Plan A’.

 

 

 

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

Any lead generating companies/modes are our competitions.

Offline Mode – T.V ads, Radio Jingle, Newspaper ads, Pamphlets, Hoardings etc.

Online Mode – Facebook, Google, Justdial, Sulekha, Askme, IndiaMart etc.

We are purely word of mouth marketing company bringing valuable leads, which will derive highest sale conversion rate and this service is absolutely free of cost.

 

 

How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?

My recommendation is to choose a startup based upon your passion, which makes you happier working upon it. When you are doing this, there will be no need for balancing. Indeed structuring gets little messy but it is part of startup journey, my life experiences are helping me to manage things by finding priority aspects and delegating things.

 

 

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

We are self-funded with help of family & friends. Right now we do not have any plans for it.

 

 

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

People want to know, how “Word of Mouth” be tracked.

Practically, it is impossible.

But logically with help of technology it is possible and FriendlyApp is the reality which is launching soon.

 

 

What gets you excited about this company?

The platform of FriendlyApp will be a virtual business franchise, where any person can own multiple businesses for free. Imagine an example, you find a client who is willing to go to a best restaurant. Just help him to choose one which you have tried once. Bingo, you became a brand ambassador for the restaurant and the restaurant loves to reward you with percentage upon sale transaction and also gives your client same amount as friendly discount. Similarly, you can refer people for anything they are in need of just by searching product/service name within FriendlyApp.

 

 

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

I divide my day into 4 parts:

1. Personal and Family time.
2. Thinking and planning process about the company/spending team with team and delegations.
3. Afternoon onwards, I keep meetings with prospects or clients.
4. Evening onwards for social life, learning, playing or partying.

 

 

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

We are team of six members, who are specialized in their respective field. Being a founder I strongly feel a good team is formed then success comes along. It takes a lifetime effort to form a team, but never be too choosy in finding people. After all, it is founder’s passion which attracts people to work together.

At FriendlyApp, we are cousins and friends, who have been together, even before inception of FriendlyApp. We share deeper insights and understand each other personally. J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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