Hobnob Automates Away The Pain Of Event Invites With Help From The TwilioFund Program
Time to read: 2 minutes
March 08, 2016
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To solve challenging problems with technology, you need the right set of tools and the right type of support. The TwilioFund program offers access to investors, technical resources, Twilio credits, and guidance that startups need to grow their business.
Hobnob is changing the way we send and receive event invites, using A.I technology, Twilio SMS and MMS. They’re growing at a rapid rate, and have recently joined the TwilioFund.
Making Event Invites Easier With Twilio
Companies use Twilio every day to automate technological problems using technological means. Want a text when that expense report is approved? That’s only a few lines of code and an API call away. Now companies are addressing social challenges using technological means. If you’ve ever been invited to an event through a massive group text, you probably wanted to automate yourself out of that conversation after 30 people texted the group with the same question. Hobnob knows your pain and they’ve coded you a way out using Twilio.
“One of the issues with group text is that everything is lost in the history. There’s no context and there’s no event container,” says Tina Fitch, co-founder and CEO of Hobnob. That’s a delicate way of saying when there’s too many cooks in a group text kitchen, event planning gets messy.
Hobnob lets you create custom mobile invitations with beautiful graphics and embedded links using Twilio SMS and MMS. The people you invite don’t have to sign up for Hobnob or download an app. They’ll get a text with an image and a link to click on to RSVP.
“We provide that event container to have a group chat that’s specific to an event. We have all the details, and all the updates from the host, whether that’s venue, time or other details,” says Tina. That’s it. There’s just one twist — artificial intelligence and NLP.
When guests text in common questions, Hobnob uses A.I. software they engineered to determine if this is a question that should be passed to the host, or answered programmatically. Hobnob is continuing to develop smarter rules for interpreting guest comments and questions to Twilio-powered numbers to save hosts from all of the friction of organizing social gatherings and get guests the answers they need immediately.
Twilio Fund
“Hobnob is the exact type of company that the TwilioFund was designed to support. Tina has built an incredible company that is solving an important pain point for many of us incorporating communications, A.I. and amazing simplicity,” says Arthur Johnson, VP, Corporate Development & Global Partnerships.
For young startups like Hobnob, making their product more intelligent and user friendly is no small task. To help accelerate their growth, Hobnob received investment from the TwilioFund. The choice to join the TwilioFund program was an easy one for Tina.
“A lot of times the smaller you are, the more support and responsiveness you need. It’s even more critical that you have a reliable service so customers can trust you as you grow. Conversely, that’s when you have to be the leanest and costs can be more prohibitive. With Twilio’s range of service, high level support and ability to prioritize a small company’s needs, it’s allowed us to grow and have a much greater return.”
Learn more about Hobnob at Hobnob.io
See how companies are accelerating their growth with support from the TwilioFund here
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