Beansprout, Where Single Businesses Find Love
We’re going to open this article with some quick statistics on the online dating industry:
- The online dating industry is worth $1.049 BILLION per year
- The industry is projected to be worth $1.3 billion by 2013
- The mobile phone dating market is worth $550 million
- In the United States, there are 40 million online dating users
- (And just for fun), there are 140 million online dating users in China!
No, don’t get the wrong idea, this isn’t an article on dating websites. Well, not for single people anyway. Enter Beansprout, an interesting new start up with a quirky name (and even even quirkier logo) that describes itself as a business development service, but with an interesting twist.
Beansprout starts with companies registering and filling out a personals style profile. Beansprout is provided with the profile information and what sort of companies they in turn are seeking to match up with. Matches are automatically calculated through sophisticated algorithms and potential listing are provided to companies with a good chance of partnering. At this point, companies can then send ‘partnership requests’ where Beansprout will take a small cut of a successful connection. A successful connection results in exchanged contact information between companies.
This pay-per-connection business model allows companies to find their initial matches, then elect to pay fees once they want to go forward with a connection. For anyone who’s signed up for an online dating website like Craigslist, this particular process is all too familiar.
“We think business development is overdue for an overhaul and we’re making it faster and easier than ever,” says Alex Kehayias, co-founder of BeanSprout. “We hope to end the need for cold calls and cold emails by making information about what partnership opportunities a company is really looking for readily available.”
https://www.bnsprt.com/
Personally, we feel this is a fantastic idea. Though in depth studies might show that relationships stemmed from online dating sites aren’t as successful as statistics might lead on, there’s no denying that the online dating model is tried and true in terms of getting people interested in wanting to connect and signing up. At least with Beansprout, having a face only a mother could love won’t necessarily be a deal breaker. And flowers probably won’t be necessary at the first meeting. Arriving sharply dressed would probably be beneficial though.
Beansprout’s services cover a large range of companies from different industries including IT solutions, e-commerce services, biotech, SaaS, and international telecom companies. Channel partnerships, co-marketing, and technology integration & distribution are among their listed business development opportunities.
A quick navigation of the clean website proves easy and effortless. Creating a profile is a cinch with company name, email, and password required. We’re then asked a number of eHarmony style questions that would be the equivalent of finding out the personality of a hopeful single (Beansprout lists these qualities as company ‘values and beliefs’). To complete the profile, different categories of partnership goals and aims are also provided. Does the user want to generate more revenue? Expand internationally? Create new businesses? Etc.
This could very well shape the future of how businesses connect and interact. Let’s just hope Beansprout users post their real pictures and not outdated photos with deceiving MySpace angles. Let us know your thoughts on BeanSprout in the comments below. Would your company use it to find a potential business partnership?
