Thanks for Stopping By
Made by Ioannis Kyriazis
VRSCO isn't some global publicly traded company, it's made by me. Thanks for supporting a growing product handcrafted by yours truly.
Thanks for Stopping By
VRSCO isn't some global publicly traded company, it's made by me. Thanks for supporting a growing product handcrafted by yours truly.
TLDR: To let strangers instantly, safely, and frictionlessly communicate with each other.
Have you ever seen a parked car with its windows left open? I have. And there was about 6 inches of snow on the front passenger's seat. Yeah… someone forgot their window open during a blizzard. When they get back to their car they'll either be welcomed by unassembled Frosty the Snow Man or their seat will be drenched. Neither option sounds optimal.
This got me thinking… what if there was a way I could contact the owner of the car and tell them that they left their window down? They could remove the snow before it ruins the interior and then close their window.
Unfortunately, no one puts their phone number on their car. Well, at least I wouldn't. Random people don't deserve my phone number, they could find out a lot about me with it. They could get my name, address, age, and more. If you're curious, see what info strangers can access with your number using my privacy test. Don't worry, I won't keep your number.
What else is out there? Well, I could message them through their license plate using wheelbees. Wait, this requires me to download an app, and even if I do, the owner will also need to have the app to receive the message. This won't do either.
What if the car had a QR code on it's bumper? Then I could scan it with my smartphone and be brought to a chat box that directly messages the owner. That sounds like it could work. Without downloading anything, without making any accounts I can talk to the owner of the car. I wondered if this solution existed.
I did some research and found mypingtag, neverlost, and reachme. These were not quite what I was looking for, so I decided to make my own custom solution the way I wanted to use it.
Thus VRSCO was born. VRSCO is a trendy adaptation from the greek word βρίσκω which means “I find”. It took me around three months to make a working prototype. As soon as I did I made a big QR code with a fun design and stuck it on the back of my car. It's been fun seeing the random messages people send me. Every now and then it's a fun surprise to see a message pop up from someone that has walked by my car.
Since then, I've been making it better day by day. Adding new features like notifications on the scanner's phone when the owner replies, adding/deleting/renaming qr codes, randomly generated slugs as ways to identify people who messaged you etc.
I've also realized that VRSCO would be great for keys, luggage, pets and more. So I decided to manufacture VRSCO tags out of aluminum. This brought me to Technocopia, an awesome makerspace in Worcester, MA that you should check out if you're ever in the area.
Buy your VRSCO tags here so you can have extra insurance against losing your belongings.
Want to reach out to me about anything? Send me a message (and demo VRSCO) here.
