The co-founder and CEO of “bump” …
The co-founder and CEO of “bump” is David Lieb.
Bump is an app for android phones, iPads, iPhones, and iPods. It works between each of these devices to share information including contacts, pictures and your own social network pages. To share information you “bump” devices physically. The information you would like to share is bumped from your device onto the device that you hit. This is done by sending the information to a server which then sends it down to the receiving device. There is also an option to send information from your phone to your computer. The founders started bump because they felt that with an android phone you should be able to perform real-world actions. They wanted to transcend current technology because the sharing technology that was already available required specific hardware. Bump utilizes any hardware existing on a phone (or device) and uses algorithms to send information.
David worked creating algorithms at Texas Instruments before creating Bump. He went to school for Electrical Engineering, getting his BSEE from Princeton and his MSEE from Stanford. David is personable, passionate and knowledgeable in the interview that I watched. The team has experts from a variety of backgrounds. Their co-founders include a quantum physicist, someone with a background in technical sales and marketing at Texas Instruments, and David. They have an eclectic team with people who have a proven background in their particular area. They are actively recruiting, looking for people with drive and brains, who they are willing to teach what they need to know. In addition, bump has a strong group of investors whose knowledge and experience are applicable to this venture. One thing about bump that I particularly liked was their focus on employing people based on attitude/fit over their experience. For me this is a good sign of a company’s viability. The right people can be taught things, but you can’t teach someone how to “be”. They want to keep their employees happy and encourage participation on every level from every member, and hire based on this idea.
Personally, it is a little daunting when, coming from a very humanities-based education background, I see people who have so much background in technology, engineering, IT, etc.. Trying to find a place for my ideas within the abilities of technology is sometimes uncomfortable. One thing David mentions in an interview with Princeton Startup TV, is that the best place to create a new venture from is a problem. Find a gap in the market and seek to fill it. If this is the case, then real-life experience and good listening skills, are some of the best background tools you can have. This was reassuring.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlieb
http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110516/best-young-tech-entrepreneurs-2011#slide12
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Jonathan 10:54 pm on September 25, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Rebecca,
Great post on the CEO of Bump. I remember using this app on my iPhone when it first came out and being really excited at the novelty of the idea (high novelty factor! ;). Idea is simple and really caught on. I wonder how well it is doing now, perhaps still popular?
No need to be intimidated by all of these great ideas. I like what you said about “finding a gap in the market and seek to fill it”. I think sometimes we get the whole idea that we need to find a super innovative idea. Sometimes, fixing an existing problem is more than amble. As did David with his Bump idea. How do we exchange contacts easily? 🙂
Cheers,
Jonathan
Mike Rae 11:46 pm on September 25, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Rebecca,
Nice post about bump. Just curious of where you found this “bump has a strong group of investors whose knowledge and experience are applicable to this venture” . For my CEO/Founder of ALL in Learning, I was looking to find out who investors were and came up empty. Finding investors like that who have stake in the company and can add value to it, not just with their pocketbook, but with their experience and knowledge, seems like one of the keys to a successful venture.
rebecca42 11:28 am on September 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Jonathon,
Bump is still incredibly popular and they have expanded creating an app called flock where you can share pictures in folders based on who is present when the picture was taken. Everyone who was present has access to the picture folders. Very interesting stuff, and “cleans up” the process of photo sharing.
Mike: On the website for bump they actually list the investors and their backgrounds on the “team” page. I found that really interesting and useful for understanding how the company functions.
Jonathan 9:22 pm on September 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Ahh! Sounds like the new thing that the Samsung Galaxy is trying to amp up in their commercials. I just downloaded Flock and gave it a try. Really neat. I always found it interesting how designers have developed the apps to do unique things.
I wonder if it’s something that a lot of people use? Clearly he has tapped into a market that is growing with users. Do you know how he profits? Ad based?
jkotler 2:18 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Rebecca,
I was really interested in your post on bump, particularly because this was the first I had hear about it. I am curious to know more about how it works and users response in how well it works or doesn’t. Do you use it yourself?
I also really like David Lieb’s comment you added about how a great way to start a new venture is from an existing problem or gap found in the market. This is actually quite reassuring for me because I am currently working on developing a new venture that stemmed exactly from a gap I had found within the ed. tech market in Canada (something which has been quite successful here in Israel).
kstackhouse 9:20 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great point with created a solution to a problem. It is like our earlier reading that discussed the “pain” in the market and how it would be solved. It also reminds me of when students talk about what they should write a story or speech about. I always tell them that problems always make interesting topics. I am interested in this app and will be sure to check it out.