An interview with Hollrr CEO David Hegarty

Hollrr is the newest social product that’s getting a lot of attention lately (TechCrunch, Mashable, etc.). I posted a blog recently about Hollrr but the easiest way to describe it is FourSquare for products.

I reached out to their “Chief Hollrr”, David Hegarty (his Hollrr page), to find out more about this new service. I find founders of companies like this extremely inspiring and he certainly didn’t let me down with his answers in this interview.

Tell me how you came up with the idea for Hollrr.

David: I’m a sucker for discovering new stuff. The discovery of an awesome new product makes my day! It makes me happy to find out that someone has been thoughtful or clever enough to create something that brings joy or solves a problem I had.

All the really good discoveries I make … come from the recommendation of a friend. I wanted a better way to hear about all the cool things my friends were discovering.

So why Hollrr? There are a few other services trying something similar, what is it about Hollrr that is different and most likely to make it succeed?

David: Hollrr is about the little guy… its about rooting for that awesome new product that none of your friends know about yet. Its about getting giddy on finding a really cool new product…. or discovering that someone already makes a solution for that problem that’s being really bugging you the last couple of weeks. Its about finding that perfect birthday present for your mum.

We’ll succeed because that’s what we’re passionate about what we do…

What’s the team look like at this point?

David: There are five of us in total: Me, Benny (co-founder who looks after tech), Noonie (our stellar community manager), and two rockstar engineers (Jozef and Marcin) in Poland who are the driving force behind development.

You guys seem to be getting a lot of great press. And advice to other startups on how you’ve achieved that so quickly?

David: I dunno… i guess we’ve been lucky. I LOVE Hollrr… I love what it stands for… I like telling people about it… I guess if you tell enough people, some of them will start to write about it.

Outside of press, are there things you’re focusing on to drive usage? And do you have any tangible goals for users at this point that you’re trying to reach?

David: Hollrr is about building community. Its about building connections between people who are passionate about discovering new products. That’s the phase we are in now…building community. The next phase is about about connecting that community with the Entrepreneurs and Business behind those products. We want to recognize people who are great at identifying great new products… and allow companies of the products they support connect with them.

Are you able to talk about whether you’ve received funding or if you’re actively pursuing funding?

David: Hollrr is 100% bootstrapped. We are currently talking with investors….. but to be honest, we’d rather focus on building product and community that pitching!

Are there any plans to integrate Hollrr with online retailers? For example you could have a Hollrr This button in a confirmation email after a purchase. Are you looking at partnerships like this?

David: Yes! In fact there are already a couple or retailers that have the button on their site. Check out one of our favorites: http://www.appstandstore.com/

Any features we should be looking out for in the near future?
David: So many features to build… so little time! We definitely want to build bookmarks and plugins real soon, and an iPhone app in the very near future!

If you have questions for David, ask them in the comments section!