We recently caught up with Brendan Lim, who along with Pradeep Elankumaran, co-founded Receivd. Receivd is a very interesting file sharing service that allows you drag, drop, and share files with friends, family, and other contacts through a desktop app.
Last week we reviewed Receivd and we were so impressed that we awarded Receivd a score of 9/10.
We asked Brendan a few questions about his startup, its services, and where they want to be in 2 year’s time.
Can you describe Receivd for our readers in a sentence or two?
Receivd is the simplest way to share files with friends and family. Our goal is to make sharing files as easy as possible so that you share more with the people you care about.
What motivated you to develop Receivd?
It was difficult for us to share large files with our families. There are always family members and friends who aren’t that technical. We just wanted an easy way for us to get files from our computer directly to theirs with as little effort as possible.
What problems does Receivd solve for people wanting to share files?
Most non-technical people have issues sharing large files. E-mail doesn’t work for large files and Mom & Dad might not know how to use more complicated sharing solutions like Dropbox. Receivd also allows you to “passively” download files from connections that you trust.
Are there any investors in Receivd? How are you being funded?
We’re currently bootstrapped but are planning to pursue funding soon.
What is the revenue model for Receivd?
We have a few things in mind that we’re not at liberty to share at the moment. Rest assured, our revenue model will be tailored to what our customers really want.
Why should I use Receivd instead of Dropbox or Cloud App?
First of all, Receivd is so easy that your Mom and Dad can use it. Second, solutions like Cloud App requires you to share the link that you’ve uploaded and then the user you share it with has to open it in their browser and download it. Receivd passively downloads files from trusted connections in the background, making the act of sharing almost effortless for all parties involved – for example, your mom can send you photos and they will be downloaded to your hard drive at the same high-resolution that they were sent in. Also, instead of dealing with “synced folders”, Receivd allows anybody to share with lists. Sharing to a list allows you to privately share with multiple people at once without having to worry about syncing files or managing permissions.
At the moment Receivd is a Mac app. Will we see an iPhone or iPad version? Any plans to move onto other platforms?
There is an iPhone, iPad, and Android version in development. There is also a full featured web version, which should be available really soon.
What cool new features will be released in the next few months?
Our number one feature request is replying back to the people who sent you files. We’re also cooking up some interesting mobile features.
What’s the biggest challenge for Receivd to be a successful app?
Getting the word out is our biggest challenge, since we’re a very small development shop.
How many people are using Receivd at the moment?
We’re adding lots of new users everyday, but over a thousand people have already signed up for Receivd and have shared thousands of photos, videos and other files.
Where will Receivd be in the next 2 years?
We’re hoping that by the end of the year Receivd will be the go-to platform for sharing with the people you care about. We’re going to be adding a lot of unique features that make it effortless to communicate and share the things that are happening in your life with the folks that matter to you the most.
Big thanks to Brendan for taking the time out to answer our questions. And be sure to check out Receivd. It’s a great file sharing app and we’re really excited to see it develop.
