Chicago Tech Startup: Grabio
Grabio is mobile application for classifieds that allows users a safer, more efficient way to buy and sell goods and services using a unique “Wish List” function, and a mapping feature that allows users to see what people are buying and selling nearby.
TINC: What growth phase is your company in currently?
Pre-A Series
TINC: Give us your Elevator Pitch.
Grabio is a location-aware and mobile classifieds marketplace where you can discover in real-time what people nearby are buying and selling!
We created Grabio to solve four fundamental issues Craigslist has:
- Inability to display listings based on the distance from your location
- Inability to show the exact location of the listing
- Lack of trust factor between sellers and buyers
- Lack of real-time discovery of the things you want most
TINC: To quote your website, “Grabio helps discover what people nearby, in your community, are buying and selling.” Can you tell our readers more about the process and reach of the product or service you provide?
Grabio is a mobile classifieds marketplace which employs the power of proximity, transparency, and social user experience to disrupt and enhance the way people currently search, buy, and sell goods and services.
We created Grabio to address the challenges we faced with Craigslist and other traditional marketplaces – lack of transparency and inability to search, while on the move, what people nearby are selling or willing to buy in real-time.
Grabio for Sellers/Providers:
From the convenience of your mobile device, Grabio allows you to take a photo of the item for sale or describe the service you want to provide, assign a price and then post it to the Grabio marketplace for people nearby (i.e. neighbors) and friends on Facebook/Twitter to see. To enhance transparency and build trust, sellers/providers have to create user profiles and will be subject to a rating/ranking system on Grabio as well as have the option to provide feedback on the buyers.
Grabio for Buyers:
Consumers recognize first the visual characteristics of a product condition and are more likely to respond to nearby listings in their community. Grabio addresses both, visuals and distance, by displaying pictures and sorting listings in order of proximity to user’s current location. Grabio saves time and connects you to your neighbors, coworkers, or just people nearby in your community.
One of the most innovative features we bring to the table is a real-time search assistant. We call it “Wish List.” Let’s say you’re a Yankees fan or you’re an Apple fan always on the hunt for something. Go to Wish List, enter Yankees or iPhone. Then go on with your day, put the app in the background, walk around the city. Grabio knows when your location has changed significantly and we do a real-time search in the background. If we match any listings with your keywords in the Wish List, we send you a push notification.
TINC: How is your product different from the other guys? What makes your company unique to the scene?
Craigslist is a major classifieds marketplace but it lacks transparency, mobility and location-awareness, friendly user interface, and the real-time experience – all of which Grabio is providing. Above all, Craigslist’s major problem is lack of safety. Grabio provides the same benefits of exchanging goods and services but in a transparent way.
Zaarly is a buyer oriented mobile location-based platform and focuses mostly on services. Grabio targets both goods (i.e. tickets, textbooks, electronics) as well as services, and sellers and buyers are allowed to post listings. Grabio provides a photo rich shopping experience, a feature not available on Zaarly. Zaarly also portrays itself as a bidding service and in this sense it is closer to eBay, while on Grabio you set a fixed price that you can negotiate in private with the seller/buyer using Grabio messaging.
EggDrop advertise themselves as the closest mobile app to Craigslist but they use the same biding principle as Zaarly does, also they have a seller focused approach (currently sellers can only post by taking a picture first), while Grabio fulfills the needs of both sellers and buyers. EggDrop is focused mostly, if not exclusively, on products. It uses product categories, while Grabio concentrates on both products and services, and allows you to use a tagging system which makes searching easier and gives you the opportunity to make your own categories that you can “follow”/search by, instead of using predefined listing categories.
Tapp.It uses the categories approach (i.e. for sale, wanted, housing, etc.) mimicking Craigslist or similar services but on a mobile platform. Grabio, on the other hand, shows listings in order of their proximity and empowers users to use relevant tags for their posts. In addition, Taap.It does not currently provide a rating/ranking system.
TINC: How many employees do you have on board right now?
1-10
TINC: Who are the founders and CEO’s of your company?
Horatiu Boeriu – Co-Founder & CEO
Zsolt Bencze – Co-Founder & CTO
Cristian Popa – Co-Founder & Chief Engineer
Alex Vintu – Co-Founder & Director of Marketing
TINC: When was your company established? What is the official founding date?
Grabio was founded in January 2011 and the iPhone app went live in August 2011.
TINC: Tell us about development platforms you may be using, or what you’re coding this in.
The backend of Grabio was developed in PHP and MySQL, while the front-end was designed for IOS.
TINC: What is your technical approach that makes your software better? How are you getting the details right or working in a more optimized way?
Grabio employs a series of battery savings techniques, as well as optimized code that runs efficiently and fast on iOS devices. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use.
Very nice. However, I’m not convinced this popular “building of a company around an app” is going to work forever. Not unless it’s a truly unique idea. Regardless, they took a previously created idea and made it better. That deserves some props. Interface design looks great.
Thanks for the article.
To a certain degree, I am inline with the previous comment, but we, at Grabio, are trying to build more than just an app. This is just the beginning and the plans for a dynamic marketplace are far bigger. Our Wish List innovation is the first one to be executed accurately and to actually be useful and will continue to build on the idea of discovery.
Thanks for the interface design comment, but stay tuned for v3.0. It will look absolutely amazing! We’re excited!
Best of luck on your ventures.