Todd McNeal's company Snapline looks like a whole lot of money: slick website, professional press release. "Snapline is just me," says Bella Vista based McNeal, who presented his idea at this month's Philly Tech Meetup.
Snapline uses information readily available on the
Facebook API to provide a better shopping experience. McNeal has developed a set of plug-ins based on the social data. The first one, now in use, looks at your profile and gives recommendations based on things you like, as well as what other people of similar gender, age, and interest like.
A retailer using the Snapline plug-in can segment and market specific products. "A jeweler shows engagement rings to people who are single, and anniversary presents to people who are already married," says McNeal, who is now beta testing Snapline with one of the largest online flower and gift retailers. McNeal does not want to publicly divulge the company name just yet.
"I was with IBM out of college, working as a consultant with an e-commerce platform that was used by a lot of top retailers." It was there that McNeal developed a deep understanding of what was lacking in the retail interface.
McNeal plans on releasing several more plug-ins for e-commerce data management over the next month. "My goal is to get enough information to prove that we are a viable business, and then go look for funding in the early part of next year." McNeal's current marketing strategy is personalized face to face demos, making a go as a bootstrapped one-man startup with an enterprise solution.
Source: Todd McNeal, Snapline
Writer: Sue Spolan