Introducing ttagz, the tool that will help your business to grow its social media presence by offering incentives in exchange for Instagram promotion.
Here to tell us more about ttagz, and answer our 10 questions, are co-Founders James Laden & Will Yates.
1 – In your own words – what do you do?
We believe customers are the best “influencer”, we therefore wanted to create a tool that allowed businesses to leverage the online influencer of every customer. At its very essence, ttagz is an organic marketing tool that allows, both big and small businesses, to create incentives for their customers to redeem in exchange for user-generated content.
2 – What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing?
We found a way to address pain points many businesses have when it comes to organic content, social media relevancy and social media marketing. What’s most exciting is the idea of giving businesses their marketing power back which, for many years, has been dominated by influencers. Moreover, businesses no longer need to rely on luck when it comes to customers tagging their venues on socials, now it’s a given!
3 – What are you most proud of so far?
What we can be most proud of is the ingenuity of ttagz, yet how simple the very concept of it is. We managed to develop something that brings value to any and all businesses. What’s even more amazing is how far the company has come since launching. If a small team we have launched the tech in both Bristol and London.
4 – What have you found most difficult about being a startup?
We’ve been through a lot of changes throughout these past months and we’ve seen a lot of challenges along the way. Including originally starting life as an app, after spending a lot of time and resources on the app we had to make the decision to quickly pivot and moved toward a B2B2C solution (web app). It was clearly the correct decision but a hard one to make due to the hard work that was put into the app.So, finding our feet, testing, trialling, having holistic conversations with business owners and consulting with leaders in the hospitality industry, played a huge role in getting us to where we are today. No doubt there will be so much more to shift and change around as we continue to immerse ourselves and
grow in this industry.
5 – What would you do differently if you started now?
When building an MVP make sure it’s an MVP. It’s difficult not to keep adding features and trying to build a fully developed product. You should be embarrassed about your first version, if not you have waited too long to release it. The key is speed, get something to market as fast as possible and listen to customers.
6 – Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?
If all goes well, we’re hoping to have expanded across sectors (outside of hospitality). We are currently running trials with e-commerce and delivery.
7 – What tools/people/services/organisations helped you most?
One service that has help me personally have been Tech Nation.
It provides everything from cashflow templates to investor networks. I would recommend it to every start-up.
8 – What’s the best thing about the Bristol & Bath tech cluster?
It feels like the tech scene here is on the rise with lots of networking events appearing however an increased profile is the community. Other tech founders and business owners have been extremely helpful. Providing guidance and advice with strategy and more general.
9 – Who will you be nominating for a SPARKie next year?
I think Foodstuff is great.
10 – Where can we find out more about you?
You can visit our website at www.ttagz.co.uk to learn more about who we are and what we
do.
Interested in reading about more of the amazing startups working here in the South West? Check out our full back catalogue of Startup for 10 features here.
