Nudge – SaaS application for networks

The best products start with passionate founders.

The beginning of the partnership?

Julie Landeroin is one of them. Being a management consultant for companies across 4 continents, Julie had already tasted intercultural management before the actual development of Nudge began. She found out about Paralect’s very first Accelerator program and applied. That’s how our long and fruitful partnership began.?

“I wanted to build a product to help people follow their dreams — how do you find people who really have your best interest at heart and are qualified to help? And I wanted people to give first, to get into that habit of giving before they ask for something."?

Julie Landeroin, Founder of Nudge

Accelerator phase

The idea

The original idea was to improve how alumni networks at universities operate.

Schools and universities often have their own alumni databases and tools for students and graduates, but they are often outdated and difficult to use. As a result, many alumni do not use them, which can lead to the storage of outdated information.

Nudge is designed to solve these problems for both the alumni community and the community managers (schools and alumni associations) through its algorithm:

• Providing the alumni community with an easy-to-use mobile app for communication
• Offering schools an up-to-date alumni database
• Helping schools generate revenue from their alumni community by re-engaging with them and offering paid memberships and donations in the mid-to-long-term.

The implementation

Julie had a good idea and knew the audience well.

We helped her at Paralect with our skilled team, including leaders, founders, and students from Startup Summer.

Together, we made Nudge's idea into a real product by working on the discovery stage, design, and engineering. We launched the MVP in just four months, which includes two mobile apps (iOS and Android) that are free for students to use, and a web app for schools and universities that you can get by subscribing.

After the Accelerator ended, Julie decided to keep working with her team at Paralect.

New perspective

Collaborating with educational institutions in France can be time-consuming because of long negotiation procedures and restricted funding.

To tackle challenges in hiring and job rejections resulting from the Covid pandemic, a new "companies" section was introduced alongside the existing "schools" section.

The idea is that staying connected with alumni can assist companies in rehiring former employees and obtaining potential candidates, which can lower recruitment expenses and risks.

Key features

At the center of Nudge is the peer-matching algorithm that connects members based on their career goals and experience so that they are qualified to help each other achieve their professional dreams.

Nudge offers various features for both companies and schools and universities.

For companies, Nudge provides the following features:

• Getting up-to-date personal data through the Nudge dashboard
• Building a true corporate alumni community with interest and industry-based groups, as well as 1-to-1 matching based on the ability to help each other with projects
• Leveraging data for targeted communication, including creating curated content based on interests and priorities, tailoring re-hiring communication, and knowing when people are looking for a new job
• Reconnecting with alumni that you've lost touch with by sharing the Nudge download link with ex-colleagues

For schools/universities, Nudge offers:

• Peer-to-peer matching and mentoring, with statistics on alumni interactions that allow the creation of events and content in line with their interests and priorities
• Building relevant communities with interest-based communities where schools can send targeted content and event invites
• Keeping alumni data up-to-date with a smart notifications system that ensures schools can reach them, and Nudge can also be connected with existing alumni databases and send them updated info
• Re-engaging inactive alumni by allowing users to share the Nudge download link with alumni friends
• Targeted advertising that increases school revenue by recommending programs and training offers to alumni who fit the target audience, while ensuring that alumni feel supported at turning points in their careers instead of feeling spammed by irrelevant content

Working process

Since the beginning of our partnership, Paralect was fully involved in Nudge development.

From the discovery stage, we conducted a lot of user interviews to shape the features based on the feedback received. We also invested a lot of time into the design of the app.

The selling process required personal meetings of the founder with potential customers. The features added to the app were also customized to the needs of each client.

“Working with Julie is a pleasure! We shared areas of responsibility and trust each other. I think this is the key to success. Julie is excellent in sales and negotiations, while our area of responsibility is product development — plus any content or video marketing assistance required.”

Kseniya Starodubova , Chief Product Officer, Paralect

Nudge now

Initially built for school/university communities, Nudge helps institutions reach the full potential of their community: to improve their reputation and attract higher financial contributions from their members.

The latest version of the app focuses on ex-employee engagement to make the re-hiring process easier for companies.

Technologies

WEB: Nextjs, redux-toolkit, back-end: Koa, MongoDB,

Mobile: react-native, redux