Bibo - The Drink Discovery App [Interview]

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I can’t recall how I stumbled upon Bibo. The only thing I remember seeing is “drink discovery app” and my mouse took over. It’s fun to try new concoctions and with Bibo now I'll know where to find what I want.

I had a chat with Natan, one of three co-founders of the app, to find out the details of this not-yet-released discovery app and "go behind the scenes" of their development. We also learned who drinks more: iPhone users or Android users.

What is Bibo?
Bibo is greek for “to drink”. It's a drink discovery app that allows you to see the different kinds of drinks available around you. People can find new beers, wines, or specialty cocktails they haven't tried before.

I noticed that you considered putting your project through Kickstarter. What held you back from using the crowdfunding site?
We decided since we had the talent in-house we wouldn’t need a large amount of funding to put together a fully functioning app. We surveyed Kickstarter to observe projects similar to ours and monitored the response they were getting. The outcome looked very positive for us so we started it on our own.

What were some of the struggles in getting to market?
Well, because we’ve been doing web consulting on the side, it’s taken us 7 months to develop the app. Finding the time was the biggest challenge and since we’re not getting paid to put this together it was hard to dedicate time to Bibo when we had clients with needs as well.

How is the user recruitment going?
We have over 200 users signed up already. The app isn’t even available for download yet so that’s very encouraging. People are very excited.

When will the Android version be available?
Surprisingly, we found a study indicating that iPhone users drink more than Android users so that’s why we started with the iPhone. Depending on the usage we’ll be incorporating it onto Android phones as well. We’d like to reach 500 users before entering the Android marketplace.

What can fans look forward to seeing inside the Bibo app?
Our goal was to streamline the ratings system. We didn’t think people wanted to spend as much time rating drinks on Bibo as they do rating restaurants on Yelp so we incorporated a much less intensive process. Users upload a photo then rate three associations:  Taste, Presentation, Strength.  Based on those three ratings, an average will result. It shouldn’t take as long as a Yelp review.

Is there a social aspect within Bibo?
Yes. Users can share the drinks they’ve discovered and rated within their Facebook accounts. Within the Bibo app, users can be followed and engaged with as well.

How are restaurants jumping on board to gain exposure through your app?
We’ve encouraged restaurants to upload their drink menu and become a flagship restaurant on Bibo. Because we’re in beta phase this allows them to be the flagship location visible on Bibo in certain areas and gain more visibility to Bibo users.

Do you have any other projects you’re working on?
We’re working on a few side projects actually. At our company office [GoSolid Labs] we installed a Knock Lock where you can enter our office without a key if you use the secret knock. The video is posted on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/GoSolid.

We also put together JobMango.com which is a job tracking management website. We knew people were mainly using spreadsheets to track all the jobs they applied to and the notes associated with them. We figured there had to be a better way so we launched JobMango. http://www.jobmango.com/

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Natan and his team reside in Seattle and with all of their creativity and enthusiasm it wouldn't surprise me if they land funding on a future project from the likes of Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz, both currently backing popular consumer sites like Airbnb and foursquare.

Bibo will be available in the App Store beginning late November 2012. However, you can reserve your user name now by visiting their website http://www.biboapp.com/ and registering with your email address.