TalkBin
A tool that allows customers to send feedback messages to local businesses.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor | €0.0 | round |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
TalkBin was a technology startup founded in 2010 by Qasar Younis, Michael Ma, and Sunny Dhillon. The company emerged from the Winter 2011 batch of the Y Combinator accelerator program. Younis, who served as CEO, had a background in engineering at General Motors and Bosch, later earning an MBA from Harvard, which was followed by his first startup, Cameesa.com. Ma, the COO, also a Harvard MBA graduate, had experience as a business analyst at Sears Holdings Corporation. The founding team's educational pedigree included degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
The company developed a platform to facilitate direct and private communication between customers and local businesses. Operating as a digital comment card, the service allowed consumers to send real-time feedback, questions, or complaints via text message or a mobile application directly to business owners or managers, who could then respond promptly. This model aimed to provide a more immediate and personal channel for customer service than traditional methods. The service was designed for local businesses like restaurants and retailers, enabling them to address customer concerns quickly without the public nature of online review platforms. For consumers, a key feature was the ability to provide feedback anonymously.
Less than six months after its public launch in December 2010, TalkBin was acquired by Google in April 2011. The acquisition was seen as a strategic move by Google to enhance its mobile and local offerings, with the TalkBin team being integrated into these divisions. Following the acquisition, Younis became a product lead at Google, working on business-facing products for Google Maps, while Ma took on a role as a Product Manager for Google My Business mobile. The plan was to integrate TalkBin's concepts and technology natively into Google Maps. However, after the acquisition, usage of the standalone TalkBin service dwindled, and Google officially shut it down on July 31, 2014.
Keywords: customer feedback platform, business communication, mobile feedback, local business tool, real-time messaging, customer engagement, Y Combinator alumnus, Google acquisition, Qasar Younis, Michael Ma, Sunny Dhillon, consumer-to-business messaging, digital comment card, anonymous feedback, local retail, restaurant feedback, customer service messaging, mobile CRM