Charlie, The ‘Killer Impression’ Business Meeting Assistant, Launches iOS App

Everyone knows that business meetings are best kept short. In practical terms, this means getting down to the nitty-gritty of the deal. This, however, is easier said than done—it can take quite a while to get past the introductions and the initial small talk with a potential client or investor.

As human beings, we are social animals who are naturally engineered to know someone before entrusting them with something valuable, and even so, clicking with the person or group of people that you’re meeting is never guaranteed. Given this fact, there are two main ways to increase your chances of giving a good impression in a more efficient way — you either wing it using a natural talent to deal with people, or you do your research before the meeting. For the latter, thankfully enough, there is someone that will do it for you — Charlie.

Charlie is a great little personal assistant that connects to the users’ calendar in order to “make sure you walk into every meeting prepared to make a killer impression.” It compiles one-paged pre-meeting insights of the people and companies you have scheduled to meet with. Charlie algorithmically filters through hundreds of online sources to give you all that you need to know about who you’re meeting and the company they work for, such as the latest news, common connections, common passions, company stats, and social updates.

Until now, Charlie was uniquely a great little web app that you could access from your browser and which would only work with Google Calendar. But Charlie has grown up and he’s relaunching himself, this time on iOS and with full Outlook support (as well as Google Calendar), making things even easier and smarter. Push notifications and calendar and contacts syncing straight from your iPhone provide a more close-knit and on-the-go user experience. Charlie is now a true assistant that goes with you everywhere you are.

Charlie was founded in Chicago, IL, by Rob Volk, Aaron Frazin, and Junaid Kalmad. It was funded by a group of Chicago angels, founders, and Dreamit Ventures. The app is the number one sales tool on Product Hunt and the number four ‘Best Tech Tool for Growing a Smart Business in 2015’, according to Inc Magazine.

Charlie is currently available to download for free on the App Store.