TODAY I AM INTERVIEWING DR. FELIKS KRAVETS, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF LINKIBAG INC. LINKIBAG PROVIDES USERS WITH A FREE PLACE TO SAVE LINKS ONLINE AND MANY ADDITIONAL FEATURES. MY FIRST QUESTION IS TO TELL US ALL A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF, AND YOUR BACKGROUND AS IT PERTAINS TO WEB PORTAL TECHNOLOGY?
I began building my first startup at the age of 27. After realizing how lucrative the technology sector was and all the opportunities within it, my team and I started providing website development services to small businesses. This was back in the 1990s when the internet market was emerging, and every small business was starting to realize the advantages of getting online.
IS LINKIBAG A PRODUCT OF TEAMWORK, OR IS IT ONE-PERSON’S BRAINCHILD?
It was a product of my needs as a graduate student, my needs as an instructor, and something which I considered would be very useful for me, as well as for many of my colleagues and students whom I was teaching. When I shared this idea with my friends managing their own business and working in different industries, I received an even greater interest in it. It was initially an idea to build Linkibag for our ‘in-house’ use. What we see today is the product of intense work, numerous updates, and constant improvement. In the beginning, it looked completely different. However, in time, I added and removed various features to develop it into a user-friendly product.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF LINKIBAG?
In my experience of more than 20 years as a faculty adjunct and administrator, I always thought about the tools that students and teachers might use in the future. As we move forward to adding “e-“ to all products and services and adopting new technologies, and as we all face the challenge of a global pandemic, that process is becoming even faster. We rely heavily on Google Meets, Zoom, and Skype than on anything real or physical. These services are building a foundation for the future of society where we will use technology at every minute of our lives. LinkiBag is a tool developed to allow users to share web links and our goal is to become the best place to keep your links.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LINKIBAG AND OTHER PRODUCTS YOU JUST LISTED?
With LinkiBag users not only can save their links on the fly, but they can also share them by exchanging email messages, they can share links using LinkiBag Instant ID, users can create and share LinkiBooks. We learned about users saving too many emails in their inbox. In LinkiBag, any links saved in your Inbag (equivalent to inbox in email environment) will be deleted after 30 days, if the user does not move that link to My Links or any other folder. We also added some information security features. We had an idea of a product like that but did not find it, so we made it. We are always open to recommendations and collaboration as this is our Beta version.
WHY DID YOU MAKE LINKIBAG FREE?
Users like free products. Another issue besides information overload is application overload. Just think about it! Apple has over 2.2 million apps. There are 3 million apps available for download on the Google Play Store. The numbers are staggering! There are more than 3.5 billion internet users, which is about 51% of the world’s population. All these people use websites and web links, which lead to more than 1 billion web addresses worldwide. If each website would be a person, this “web country” would be the 3rd largest country in the world after China and India.
With this far-reaching offer on our hands, it is difficult to stay organized and keep track of all the information and applications we access. LinkiBag aims to help users organize their resources, plus this version of LinkiBag is free.
I AM NOT A STUDENT NOR A TEACHER. WHY SHOULD I DOWNLOAD AND USE LINKIBAG?
I will answer this question with a hypothetical scenario and a personal experience.
Think of a first-time home buyer! I remember myself in this exact situation learning about septic chambers, drywall, and solar pumps. There was a lot of information to take in and plenty of data resources to organize. Back then, I would have used a list of the best possible sources of the information that I needed. If someone could have shared a LinkiBag containing all this information with me, I would have found it easy to understand what a septic tank is and how it works.
SURE, IF YOU HAVE A BABY IN THE FAMILY, IT WOULD PROBABLY BE HELPFUL AS WELL.
Great example! Yes, especially if that is your first child. You need to have quick and free access to a lot of information about how to take care of a baby. Relevant data, such as the best places to buy diapers or what to do if the child is not sleeping, would also be helpful. Things like what toys to buy to assist with child development or what medications have organic ingredients can be critical information to know.
With LinkiBag, sharing links to websites that provide accurate and helpful information becomes simple and even crucial for people who are desperate to find the best resources on the internet.
The list of LinkiBag use cases goes on, and it works the same for buying a car, organizing a trip, or teaching an online class, etc.
WHAT DOES THE LINKIBAG CEO HAVE IN HIS INBAG?
On LinkiBag, you have something similar to an email inbox, called Inbag. This feature is easy to organize because, contrary to my overloaded Inbox, here I am forced not to keep all my “Important” links forever. Inbag will delete any of the links if I will not move them to other folders after 30 days of storage. This feature gets me a deadline. I save links which I need and share some with my friends. I also like virus scan for links. I check results before opening a link. In today’s’ world of information, it is enough to click on a link and view a website for a few seconds for a hacker to find a security breach and get access to your computer.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT OUR READERS TO KNOW?
Our goal is to optimize LinkiBag to be the best place to keep your links on the internet. For the time being, this is our beta version, and we keep working at fixing any potential bugs. We invite everyone you know to check out LinkiBag.com. We are working diligently to get there and look forward to providing you a free bag to keep your weblinks at LinkiBag.com.
To know more about LinkiBag.com don’t forget to follow them on Linkedin @linkibaginc, Facebook @LinkiBagLinks, Twitter @linkibag, Instagram @linkibag, Pinterest @thelinkibag and YouTube –
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp2hsP62INPQ3n4CVOYlvqQ
Interviewed by Mr. Iulian Lesanu
