WedJinni is not your usual small time wedding planner app, because in that case you would just uninstall it as soon as the event is over. WedJinni is a solutions simplified platform for both, the couples who are about to get married, and also for the professionals seriously involved in the noble profession of connecting soul mates.
The best thing about WedJinni is, it is built keeping both the ends in mind. Its a complete platform with a built in marketplace. Yes, the market place is the real deal, it brings mulitple options and solutions for the end user i.e. the couples and also more opportunities for the vendors and service providers.
And no matter, what country or culture you belong to, Wedjinni is culture-free and crafted well to simplify your wedding needs.
We’ll get into conversation with Theodore, CEO, WedJinni and learn about this unique management platform, how did this all start and the startup scene in Greece and Bulgaria.
An online wedding planner and management is something we are viewing for the first time, Tell us something about this platform.
Wedjinni is a wedding task management application, much like a project management system that is specialized in weddings. It is running on the cloud, so it’s available everywhere as long as the user is able to access the Internet, but it can also be used offline when the users have the complementary mobile version. We tried to make wedjinni as culture-free as possible, after we researched the wedding market and realized that weddings have extreme differences from country to country because of the strong influence from local traditions. So, our main focus was to cover “what all weddings need”, regardless of the location of the couple. Another thing, that we came to conclusion early, was that wedjinni should be available in as many languages as possible. When you plan something that personal, like you wedding, you want the tools you use to feel friendly. And your mother tongue is a key to that.
Wedjinni offers to the couples a complete toolset like budget management, invitations with e-mail rsvp, reception management, gift / registry tools, todo lists, calendars, contacts and a super cool system for finding wedding professionals, called jinniQuest. Best of all, every account is for 2 users, so both the bride and groom can work together on their wedding planning.
wedjinni is not targeting only couples but wedding vendors as well with jinniQuest. Can you detail this service a little more?
Sure. JinniQuest is a complete b2c solution integrated in wedjinni. Every user of wedjinni, has access to jinniQuest for free. The basic idea was to take the usual vendors-safari that all couples have to go when they plan a wedding and turn it upside-down. With jinniQuest, users detail their needs and budget limit and vendors send proposals to get the job. It’s a unique marketplace, which takes all the weight to find the perfect vendor away from the couples and place it on the experienced shoulders of professionals who do their best to cover their client’s needs.
From the other side, wedding pros, can register to participate in jinniQuest and they will get informed immediatelly as a new request that fits their criteria (distance, price etc), enter the jinniQuest’s database. They can see all the details of the request and if they are interested, they can send their proposal by spending some oilDrops, the currency jinniQuest accepts.
How did you come up with the idea of an online wedding management system?
I realized how much an application like wedjinni is needed, when I had to plan my own wedding. Managing wedding tasks is not an easy job, and most couples realize it when they are in deep trouble, struggling to put everything together. You need a budgeting system, a way to manage your guests, your reception, gifts, todo lists and so many things that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Of course, wedjinni wasn’t there for me, but it will be from now on for all soon-to-get-married couples.
At present Wedjinni is in a Beta phase, but how soon do you pan to launch the mobile version?
The mobile version for iOS (both for iPhone and iPad) will be released together with the first public release of wedjinni. This is scheduled for mid September. Android version follows before winter. The mobile versions of wedjinni will be complementary apps, free to download and available to use only by registered wedjinni users. They will do almost everything the web app does, but will feature some new functions, like a gps-aware vendors search, import contacts from the phone, etc. Of course, the mobile versions are continuously syncing their data with the web app and they can be used even offline, postponing the sync when Internet access is available.
How has been the response so far?
We have a really good feedback from our beta users, who seem to love the app and already use it for their wedding. In numbers, we already have around a thousand users that are/have tested the app, who have more than 10,000 guests in total and our users have already managed 1,5 million USD in wedding expenses. This number is important to us, because this money could be distributed to jinniQuest’s vendors.
Also, we already have a cooperation with an online personal payments service, named TippingCircle When a user of TippingCircle connects her account with wedjinni, she can watch in real time, the “tips” she receives from guests in TippingCircle right within wedjinni. We have a complete API under our platform, waiting to get integrated with other services as well.
You guys don’t seem to be much active on social networks, how do you plan to spread the word?
The truth is that we are so deeply focused in development and testing, that we miss our social face a little. After we covered our beta needs to sustain a continuous feedback, we haven’t marketed wedjinni alot. Ofcourse, social networks are extremely important to us, and we ‘ll use them even more after our initial release and when our marketing plan kicks-off. We are also planning to get wedding vendors actively involved by inviting their clients to use wedjinni in exchange for oilDrops. Traditional media, is also a channel for marketing wedjinni in important local areas.
How is the Startup scene in Greece and Bulgaria?
We are pretty far away from where significant stuff happens in the online startup scene, but Bulgaria and also Greece has a rapidly evolving tech community, with great ideas that can go global and achieve great recognition. Being involved with online services, is actually opening the borders, so I think brilliant ideas always find their way to the user’s screen.
Tell us something about the team behind WedJinni?
Although Imperatus is a new company, the wedjinni team has a closely bonded team, that works together for many years. I am involved with the project management, analysis and testing, as well as with managing the infrastructure of wedjinni. Jim Stoikidis is our CTO, working with the development and benchmarking of wedjinni and Vaso Hadjitsaousi is a long-term partner who
is responsible for graphics design and character design for our jinni. Also, we have a good cooperation with external partners, mostly in the accounting and legal work.
From Left to Right – Jim Stoikidis CTO, Vaso Hadjitsaousi Graphics Designer, Theodore Batzakas CEO / Founder – Team WedJinni
What are your future plans of Imperatus? Will we get to see some more unique apps and products?
We have a couple of really good projects in early alpha stage that are also targeting the global market in the area of e-commerce, but for now, our full energy goes to wedjinni and it’s first public release.
