When you send an email out into the virtual world, it’s kind of like dropping something into a black hole. Did the person you send it to read it? Did it end up in the spam folder? Do they secretly hate you and delete everything you send?
Well, obsessive information trackers, rest assured: Bananatag is here to rescue you from your email sending related stress. This new product from founder Corey Wagner lets you know if and when your email has been opened, whether or not the receiver clicked on any links you included, and even has graphs with all your email-related analytics available on the website.
Corey is a classic live, breathe, and sleep startupper but he took some time to answer some questions we had about what he’s been up to these days.
How long have you been involved with the internet? What were your first steps? What was your first computer? How old were you when you first got one the world wide web?
We’ve both been involved with the internet ever since we got our first dial-up modems at our parents houses. I can’t even remember my first computer anymore. When we first got on the web we were probably about 8. In school we both dabbled in some computer mischief.
What time do you usually start work each day? Do you have an office or work at home?
I usually start work at 8:30. I go into the office most days and work from home every once in a while during the week, and then at home during the weekends.
What’s the first thing you do when you leave the office at the end of the day?
Usually the first thing I do is go home and get on the laptop for some evening work. Wife doesn’t like this much.
When do your best ideas come to you? In bed in the morning? During dinner? After working for 16 hours? While out jogging? On your third beer?
There’s no specific time for me. Its usually as I come across a problem and think, “there has to be a better way” or just by tackling it and figuring out the solution.
We want to know about where you spend your day! What’s on your desk right now?
Pretty boring, but on my desk is my desktop screen, laptop beside me, printer and speakers, and a lot of paper notes. My home office is kept pretty tidy due to rules imposed by my wife. My desk at work is cluttered with pieces of different projects (electronics etc) that are all on the go at the same time.
Favorite book? Author?
Sounds bad, but I haven’t read a book from cover to cover in quite a while. With the way I work I find it difficult to shut it all off and really concentrate fully on a book. I’ll be thinking about the next plan instead of the book. I’m not a fan of fiction and am into self-improvement/ business type books. Anything with a real lesson, or some learning to it. It’s massively over-mentioned so has lost it’s coolness, but The Art of War is one of my favourites.
A lot of people have big ideas. What gave you the confidence to actually put your life on hold and realize yours?
I think it was just using the product ourselves that we realized how beneficial it was. It wasn’t just an idea that we thought, hey this could be col. We actually built a simple in-house version and after using it I realized we had something. The idea was already real, and we now knew what it could do. That’s what gave us the confidence to move forward.
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs struggling to get their business off the ground?
It’s maybe too early for us to be giving advice, but I’d say plan your launch early and what it will look like in terms of reaching out to people and getting attention for your startup. It’s easy to get so caught up creating a product that all of the sudden you’re finished and now you need to start looking for users. While you build your product start building relationships with key people so that you can come out swinging.
Who has been your biggest cheerleader throughout this process?
I think the biggest cheerleader that’s really pushed us forward wouldn’t really be one person but everyone in general. There have been ideas before, or things I’ve told people about, that people don’t really get that interested in. With Bananatag there’s hardly a person that isn’t interested, and lots of people want to get involved. Having such positive feedback from every person you talk to really helps you feel you have something good happening.
3 people you recommend we follow on Twitter, and why?
To be honest I’m just figuring out Twitter (horrible I know). I was in Swaziland working with an NGO during the whole Twitter revolution and seriously missed the boat.
DaniFankhauser tweets some pretty good stuff and her writing’s also really good.
Frankieboyle brings a good laugh now and again.
We also love to know the fact and figures. Care to share?
We just launched so we don’t have any revenue numbers yet. So far everything has been self-funded. There are three other people that are part of the company and help with marketing, .NET development etc.
Where can our readers get ahold of you? Facebook? Twitter? Google+? Personal blog? Any other projects you’re working on that we should check out?
Best place to get ahold of us is really email, Facebook works too, and I’m working at Twitter.
