Managing business cards on the cloud

AT his previous job, founder of Sansan, Chika Terada, had to wait six months just to get an appointment with a potential client, only to find out that his higher-up knew the exact same person he had tried so hard to reach. If only he knew the contacts his bosses had. And this was the inspiration that led to the creation of Sansan - a cloud-based business card management service.

Founded in 2007, the Tokyo-based startup established its Singapore subsidiary, Sansan Global in October 2015, employing Rio "Popeye" Inaba to helm its operations in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region. Explaining that his previous boss gave him the nickname due to his physique, Mr Inaba goes by the moniker Popeye these days, saying that the name stuck as it's easy to remember.

In an interview with The Business Times, Mr Inaba highlights that the power of business cards as a networking tool should not be underestimated. Instead of going through the arduous process of rummaging through name card boxes or manually keying in contact information, he says, using a cloud platform not only saves time and money but increases efficiency.