Have you paid for a personal CRM app / did it work for you?
I have always always struggled at maintaining relationships with people. In my past 10 years of working, I have come across so many amazing people (some of who are unicorn B$ founders, others popular sportspeople and artists)
But I have always gotten out of touch and then its always awkward to bump into them again (or worse, spamming them to tell them about your latest product launch)
I was wondering if personal CRM apps do ever work? I dont want to make this a sales funnel but it would be amazing if I can learn to just remember whom to help, when to buzz someone (of course without agenda, always be helping philosophy).
This article made me think about the industry too https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/personal-crm-software-uphabit-dex-google-spreadsheets/601531/
I've used Monica* a bit, although i got lazy and shut down my instance. I like it because its open source and you can self host, and it has all the features I need. Its not quite as snazzy as some of the paid options out there, especially on mobile.
Worth checking out.
*https://www.monicahq.com/
This looks great. Has it been packaged into a native app at all?
I dont think so, I've only used the web client.
Its open source with an API, so you could make your own!
Wow this is great! Didnt know about Monica - and open source sounds like a great route to take considering how this is a super privacy sensitive space
Heyy. I know one solution - it's iOS app https://ordemio.com
I have the same problem.
I feel like the main things that are most important about an app that helps you be a better friend or professional relation to someone, are the following:
It's hard to find a good one, so I'm building one: Friendtime.co
Love this tread! (obviously)
My co-founder & I are actually building a Personal CRM :) I saw that Monica was mentioned a few times and while it's the oldest personal relationship manager out there, I think we can do much better! (I'm saying this because I tried Monica and all the others... Dex..Uphabit...)
As you said, the goal of such a tool is to help you stay in touch with the great/cool people you meet. Obviously, a tool can only do so much and we don't want to "automate" our relationships... So let's see what a relationship management tool should/can actually do:
No manual data entry: That's the worst about Monica for example, to get set up, you need to spend countless hours... We've solved this by syncing data from Gmail, google calendar & G contacts.
Your CRM should understand your relationships (better than you!). You don't want to set up your own reminders (it's time-consuming and random). We've built a tool that looks at your interactions and figures out by himself when it's time to reach out or write a note about a contact.
It should be fun! That's why it's a PERSONAL CRM, we don't want another SAP type of thing. For ex: Daily tasks & streaks, a leaderboard, a "networking" score, a Mario bros type of health bar for each contact, ...
I'm not yet "in love" with my own product, I believe that we're 2 months away from the "perfect" personal crm or so, but would love you to try it out!! --> https://nat.app
Sounds like a great idea. Are these relationships more personal or business?
Mix of both in my case .. e.g. an old colleague who I was great friends with and had great business conversations too - I recently got in touch with him again after quitting my job and would love to stay that way. But us staying in diff cities and being busy with work will surely lead to getting out of touch again
At least thats my worry
I've been thinking about this too.
I was thinking about what it would take to merge something like Contactually with Cardhop with a much smaller subscription fee.
Hmmm Contactually looks too "salesy" to me. Has a lot of "sales funnel / leads" kinda approach - which I am sure works well for brokers
I actually haven't come across a personal CRM before so thanks for sharing the article. I can def. see a need for those who have busy lives. I just started using a CRM for work about 18 months ago. It def. has helped keep me on track when keeping up connections with people, follow-ups, etc. If you do use one of the personal apps, it would be great to hear your feedback.
I havent used one yet - but have started doing this in excel sheets myself. Will solve my problem + help me understand the space better.