They say a picture paints a thousand words, and in the case of Snapfix, this adage is certainly true.
Snapfix is the brainchild of Paul McCarthy. Paul is obsessed with not wasting time, and it’s a mantra that has stayed with him throughout his life, from his childhood days in Co. Cork to his current role as CEO and founder of Snapfix.
Growing up as one of 12 children on a farm in Co. Cork engendered in Paul a sense of teamwork, keeping things simple and making do with limited resources from a very early age. After studying Computer Ccience in UCC, he spent 15 years working in computer companies in New York, the UK, Australia, and Germany before returning to Ireland to settle down and raise a family. Living in Dun Laoghaire, he worked in the family business of property management and development.
About five or six years ago, Paul had the opportunity to bring his experience in IT and property together to create Snapfix. As he explains, “I was managing a number of commercial and residential of buildings, and I was getting very frustrated with the number of emails, post-it notes, WhatsApps that I was getting from tenants, and then I was WhatsApp’ing to engage with contractors. The insight was that everybody seemed to be gravitating at that time to WhatsApp.
“I saw that the world was gravitating towards using photos and messaging for communication. And I did actually look to the market to see if there was a solution for managing buildings, that was similar to WhatsApp or Instagram, and I didn’t find anything simple enough. So, I set about on a mission to create the simplest solution on the planet for managing buildings, infrastructure and equipment using simplicity as my North Star. Essentially to use all the techniques from WhatsApp and Instagram and bring that into the business space.”
He continues: “And I was walking by my house one day and I literally just looked at the traffic light and said that’s it. The traffic light is the universal symbol of teamwork. I set about to combine a WhatsApp type interface with the traffic light – Red means something needs to get done, Yellow means it’s in progress, Green means it’s done. It’s that simple!”
And with this ‘traffic lightbulb moment’, Snapfix was born.
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