Bloodhound Evolves Its Events App To Focus On Its Most Popular Feature: Lead Capture

Bloodhound, a company previously focused on providing software tools for the conference space, today released Android and iOS applications focusing on mobile lead capture.

In short, Bloodhound built a set of tools for event planners and attendees. Part of that suite was the ability to quickly take down the information of someone you just met, and then follow up with them quickly. Lead capture, in other words. If you, like myself, lack sales experience, it’s harder to fully grok the importance of this, but it does appear to be a material need.

Problem is, Bloodhound’s lead capture tool was locked inside of an events-focused application. The company has broken it out of that box, thrown away the box itself, and has released the tool as a standalone. You could call this a pivot, or even a double down. The company pre-announced this coming change of tack in a blog post, several weeks ago.

Bloodhound has raised $4.77 million to date.

Now called Bloodhound Lead Management, the application allows users to take photos of business cards, and then manage their follow-ups using a blend of automated tools and the like. Sales, it appears, leans closer to the spammish end of the stick, but I’m not sure if it has ever been different.

Out in the newly slimmed Bloodhound app is the ability to send documents and other media from your phone, a lead “history” inside of the application, and improved tagging.

You can snag the Android version here, or the iOS edition here.

I spoke with the company about the new apps, and why they had focused away from the event space — though, they would tell you, their new app is still something that fits into an event environment. In essence, CRM isn’t as popular as  you might think outside of the technology-savvy space. Those businesses need a tool to both accrete, and manage the contact information and relationships of those they meet in a way that avoids endless manual entry. That pain point is Bloodhound’s business model gambit.

In its early days, Bloodhound had a business model. Now, with its simpler product, the company will charge teams for its use on a monthly basis. Individual use with a basic feature set will be free.

Simple.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER JOHN LESLIE UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED) 

Disclosure: I once moderated a panel that Bloodhound hosted. The company gifted all panelists hoodies. Normally I give such things to friends, but in this case, it fit so darn well that it has become my workout hoodie.