You’re likely familiar with Doodle. At some point in the last 4 years, you’ve probably had a series of email back-and-forths trying to find the common denominator between everyone’s schedule, ultimately culminating in someone saying “forget it, let’s just use Doodle.” That’s at least how I got introduced to it, when a few former coworkers were trying to set up a meetup in a bar to catch up.
What you might now know about Doodle is that they’re Swiss. Or that they also offer a Premium service as well as MeetMe. Or that they have 20 Million people using their service.
To date, Doodle’s growth has been entirely viral, and earlier this year they brought in a new CEO, Michael Brecht, as the company looks to keep up growth (traffic has grown over 300% since 2011) as well as revenues (currently 85% ad-generated). His job will be to bring Doodle’s offer together under one roof, to make their premium offer on Doodle as well as via MeetMe more distinguished, and to prepare the group for its eventual acquisition by Tamedia (the company took a 49% stake in the company in 2011, and will exercise its option to acquire the rest at the end of 2014).
Doodle’s strongest asset today is its brand. There aren’t many products that can become verbs – To Google, To Instagram, To Pin(terest), To Tweet – “Doodle Me” or “Let’s Doodle” aren’t quite household names yet, but users of all ages have a close enough relationship with the product that they feel comfortable saying “Do you Doodle?”