For years I was that guy with the fancy matte Moo cards. Spent a couple hundred quid every time my title changed or we refreshed the branding. Half the stack would sit in a drawer, the other half would end up in someone’s bin or washing machine within a week. I’d come home from a conference with 40 new cards in my pocket and exactly zero realistic way of following up without typing everything in by hand.
Then one random day at a networking event someone tapped their card on my phone. Three seconds later I had their full profile, a saved contact, and they already had mine. No typing, no “I’ll email you,” no lost scraps of cardboard. I was hooked on the idea instantly.
I wish I could say I was smart and went straight to the best option, but I spent months testing everything out there. Tried the pretty wooden ones, the cheap plastic stickers, a couple of the “free forever” apps that lock everything useful behind paywalls. Eventually, I landed on Popl Pro and never looked back.
Here’s the real-world difference it made for me:
What Actually Changed
- Stopped printing anything. Zero printer runs in 18 months.
- My details stay perfect. Changed job title twice and moved offices once—updated everything in about 45 seconds from my phone.
- People I meet actually save my contact. Before, maybe one in ten bothered. Now it’s automatic.
- I get their details back without the awkward “can you type this into my phone” moment.
The Feature I Didn’t Expect To Love
Popl’s “Exchange” mode is stupidly good. When someone taps my card (I use the black metal one because it feels indestructible), they get a tiny form: name, phone, company, and one box that says “How can I help you?” Most people fill it out on the spot because it takes ten seconds. Those leads drop straight into my CRM. In the last six months I’ve traced 17 new clients directly to a tap that happened at an event or coffee meeting.
Numbers Don’t Lie – My Actual Before-and-after
- Cards handed out / taps given: went from ~1,200 paper cards down to just 308 taps
- Real conversations that actually turned into something: jumped from 31 to 189
- New paying clients I can directly trace to networking: 3 → 17
- Total cost for the whole year: £380+ on paper → £299 on Popl team plan (and that covers my entire team)
Yeah, There’s a Subscription
The free version of Popl is fine for playing around, but if you network even semi-seriously you’ll hit the limits fast. I pay for the Pro team plan and it’s still cheaper than what I was spending on printed cards—plus my whole team uses the same account and I can update everyone’s profile in one click.
Look, if you only go to one conference a year and love the romance of thick cotton paper, keep doing you. But if your income depends on the people you meet—like mine does—paper is officially dead.
I’ve been sending the same Popl link to friends and teammates for the last year (full transparency, it’s my affiliate link, but I’d share it anyway because it’s that good): Popl
Bottom line: I’m never going back to paper. My only regret is not switching sooner.
