We just came across a pretty interesting mobile app. Toplist is a shopping app, but it takes a lot of cues from social networks. There have been a few social commerce apps and companies, but Toplist thinks that these guys had the wrong idea. Rather than just a repository for people to dump any and all products that they like and buy, Toplist incorporates interaction between users, and allows for personal, one-on-one recommendations. We had a chance to ask the Toplist team about their app, and their approach to social commerce
Toplist
What is Toplist?
Toplist is a social shopping startup. We have a pretty cool approach to social commerce; we believe we stand exactly between Fancy and Pinterest, providing the users value through receiving shopping recommendations from the people they trust. Since it first came out, social shopping has been all about sharing what you like, we believe that’s wrong. Social shopping has to be about interacting with your friends (who you know and trust) while shopping, just like many people do in brick and mortar stores; that’s Toplist. We have an up and running iOS app free on the App Store that with its friendly user experience lets people receive instant shopping recommendations from their friends.
Who is the target user?
We’re targeting NYC men & women ages 24 to 26. We call them the young achievers. It’s people that now have a steady job so they have covered they’re basic needs and now start spending on themselves. They tend to care a lot about what their social surroundings think about them.
Why did you guys build Toplist?
Before Toplist, there was no way to have a social experience while shopping online. People tend to interact with friends while shopping (on person or digital communication). Sometimes we need feedback and opinion to make a better purchasing decision but there’s no easy and fast way to do it while shopping online. So that’s why we created Toplist.
Was there an “ah ha” moment?
We’re three young entrepreneurs originally form Mexico City. We’ve been friends since we grew up and at 23 took the jump and founded our own startup. Started developing the app in August 2013 (just when we raised a $250,000 round) and moved to NYC on February to launch and handle operations from the city we believe is ideal for our product.
Tell us about your founding team and their backgrounds.
This is the team:
Pablo Rivera – Background in finance and banking. Used to work for Citi Bank handling data analysis for equity research.
Jose Arrieta – Background in finance. Handled investor relationships during the IPO of the company Credito Real.
Andres Teran – Background in Marketing and Sales. Used to work in Nestle and was part of the ream in charge of re-launching Nestea in Mexico and Latin America after the JV with Coca-Cola broke.
We would like to thank the Toplist Team for answering our questions. Check out Toplistapp.co for more info.
