a review by Tom Piper
The earliest examples of business cards were actually called "visiting cards," first appearing in China in the 15th century, as small cards that people would carry around, describing how awesome/interesting/important they were. In the 17th century, addresses were not commonplace so "trade cards" were invented with one side containing promotional business information while the other side featured a map to the business location. As the industrial revolution emerged, visiting and trade cards were combined into interesting and informative business cards, which have now progressed beyond paper.
At CES 2022, I encountered Linq, which is a networking platform that allows me to share my information with others using completely customizable pages. They make it easy to share my Linq remotely, and with one of their SmartProducts. I can share my links and socials, my webpage (using Leap can connect to any website), my personal contact and business information, and much more. A free Linq app is available to help customize everything, and, since my Linq page is 100% dynamic, my Linq products are also 100% dynamic. I can change the info on my page an unlimited number of times.
The other person does not need the Linq App; they can just tap my product, or scan my QR code with their camera, then they instantly have my info. 99% of phones can point the camera at my Linq QR code (on my iPhone 13 Pro Max or in the app) to get to my Linq page. 95% of phones can also get to my Linq page by simply tapping my iPhone and reading the NFC chip inside.
Linq Pro is an optional, supercharged upgrade that gives my advanced analytics and allows me to add more rich content right to my page, like video embeds, buttons to book a meeting straight to my calendar, Spotify and Soundcloud players, forms to collect info, and more.
To learn more about Linq Digital Business Card products, go to https://buy.linqapp.com where the Linq Card is available for $11.99 (many other products are also available there). Linq is free to use, or they offer advanced features through Linq Pro for $5/month or $50/year, but it is a completely optional upgrade.
Elliott Potter, Jared Mattsson and Patrick Sullivan (three longtime friends and all colleagues at Birmingham tech giant Shipt) cofounded Linq in 2019 to provide an alternative to the business card exchange. After an awkward business card exchange at a networking event, as software developers, they thought, there had to be a better way, so they created it. (see https://www.birminghambusinessalliance.com/regional-news-1/linq for more information about this company).
