Stories
Tables littered with business cards at the end of a networking event have always been a sad sight for Wendy McCormack Stunt. For the serial entrepreneur, the card is a representation of who you are and what you’re doing and should not be cast aside once initial introductions are over.
“I always remember when I first got my very first business card printed and I was like, ‘I am now an official businesswoman’,” McCormack Stunt told The Currency in this week’s podcast.
The serial networker decided to come up with her own enterprise based around the traditional business card but with a tech twist. In 2017, McCormack Stunt created Go DigiCard, a B2B company that creates personalised digital business cards that can be used and sent to anyone with internet access on their phone. The cards are branded with company colours, logos, fonts, and they can carry an employee’s photo and links to all their social media platforms.
“I always say do what you love the best and I realised what I love doing is actually networking and connecting people. And now obviously with Go DigiCard, I’m really, really lucky that my product is actually allowing me to do what I love best and I’m making money too,” said McCormack Stunt.
Apart from being able to distribute the card faster, Go DigiCards provide action buttons that can be clicked to direct you to company promotions and events. The company also offers analytics on how the card was distributed and how many people saved the details of a card. There is space at the bottom of the card as well that can be used or sold for advertising.
These functions have been useful for businesses during the pandemic as people have been scrambling to try and connect with people in the absence of networking events.
“Luckily, with the pandemic, people and companies started coming to us saying, ’look like we need to be able to connect with people. We’re not in front of them, how do we share our contact details?’ And I suppose the great positive is that we were giving them back reports to see how many people were liking sharing, adding to contacts and things like that with their cards,” said McCormack Stunt.
McCormack Stunt believes that when networking events return to normal post-Covid-19 there will still be a place for Go DigiCard. The cards work as an ice-breaker for the more nervous networker, she said. Plus, she sees the potential for the business to grow into a “Golden Pages type of an online book of Go DigiCards, that people could share other people’s business cards”.
One of the main ways businesspeople have been networking across the globe during the pandemic has been through social media. McCormack Stunt does not see these platforms as a threat to her business though.
“I wouldn’t think that we’re in battle with social media at all. I think the card can be a very individual, personal thing and not necessarily a social media thing and it’s for the businesses,” said McCormack Stunt.
Go DigiCard has partnered with 300 organisations, across over 20 countries worldwide. Employees of companies that use Go DigiCard have a link to their own personal card which they can distribute through text, WhatsApp, email, and other means.
“If I was to give you my digital business card, for me what that means is I’m giving you a tool to be able to share that on, for me. If you were to meet somebody that wanted to do business with me, you could say, ‘oh, do you know what, she sent me her business card on a text message. I’ll forward it on to you.’ So, it’s another really great way to be able to share businesses with people. And that’s really what I love doing most,” said McCormack Stunt.
The business has been steadily expanding over the years, but it has recently entered into a partnership with a large company in the United States which will be extremely beneficial for Go DigiCard, according to McCormack Stunt. “We’re really excited about it. And I think that will be the one that will really launch us,” she said.
One of the biggest achievements to date for the company was establishing a presence in the Chinese market as businesspeople there take such pride in their business cards.
“There’s a ritual around presenting your business card in China. It’s an honour to be giving it out. So, you’re supposed to take it from the person and stop and you look all around it, you flip it over, you look at the back. So, to get Go DigiCard being used in China was important as well too, for me,” said McCormack Stunt.
McCormack Stunt wants the business to grow further and increase its presence around the globe. To do this, the business will be putting more agents on the ground and doing more advertising. The company will soon be going through a rebrand as well.
“I do believe that you have to refresh every now and again. And sometimes when you’re in the whole marketing space, sometimes you forget about that. It’s like the saying that ‘a hairdresser’s hair is never cut’,” said McCormack Stunt.
McCormack Stunt does not want to make the traditional card completely redundant but wants her digital cards to compliment physical ones.
“A lot of our customers might have both. They might just have a handful of maybe 100 cards in the drawer. For me, it doesn’t completely replace the paper business card. I think there is something very lovely about giving someone a business card,” said McCormack Stunt.
“People have said to me, ‘you’re trying to put printers out of business,’ but that’s not what I’m trying to do at all. I’d love to work with printers, where they’re selling a package where you buy a digital business card and you’ll get a batch of paper business cards too,” she added.
While running her company Go DigiCard, McCormack Stunt was a former managing partner for a year with Aster Connects, a company that helps people network. During that time, she launched The Voice of Irish Business, which helps businesses with their foreign direct investment, with Christopher Plant as well. McCormack has since left Aster Connects but continues to work on The Voice of Irish Business in addition to other enterprises and is an ambassador for The Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
Due to her passion for professional networking, McCormack Stunt created the Virtual Business Network to help people connect with each other during the pandemic. Earlier this year, McCormack Stunt also joined Alan Hennessy’s social media consultancy firm Kompass Media.
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