Crytico.com: Yelp for the Mobility Industry?


As the purveyors of all things “Gear,” this week’s post takes a roll away from the product previews we’ve been doing to preview a new web site that hopes to change the way you chose your gear. Crytico.com, which launched its pilot phase last week, aims to become the leading website dedicated to reviews of mobility dealers and the products and services they provide. Think: the Yelp of the mobility industry.

If that goal sounds familiar, it’s because the last few years have seen a ton of companies and sites trying to establish themselves as Yelp-like presences in the disability community, mostly with little traction. “They didn’t have a focus. They tried to do too many things,” says Monique McGivney, an advocate who works for Crytico.com. “The only thing Crytico is for is writing and reading reviews of [mobility products and services].” Whether Crytico.com is able to find traction with users remains to be seen, but as someone who just spent a ton of money on an accessible van, I can attest to the need for such a service. It doesn’t matter whether you are paying for something, the VA is buying you something, or voc rehab is helping you out, vans, hand controls, home lifts and such are pricey affairs. Knowing you can trust the people you are working with and that the product you are getting is the right one, is critical.

I created an account at Crytico.com and had no trouble finding my local dealer. Writing and submitting a review (their first) was easy and I immediately received a confirming email. I asked McGivney why the site doesn’t allow you to log in with your Facebook or Google account, which I thought would make it easier to join and submit reviews. She said they decided not to go that route to avoid bogus reviews and to make it easier to verify the authenticity of posts.

Crytico is the brainchild of Bob Lundin, a South Dakota mobility industry leader. McGivney explained that the site had already identified over 140 dealers nationwide and was excited about expanding to cover all of them. Crytico’s current financial model is based on dealers paying regular fees to be featured, but she said any user could submit a local dealer that wasn’t yet featured to get them on the site.

“The scope of Crytico.com is massive,” she said. “Never in the history of the mobility industry has there been one website to display information on every product that our industry serves, which is estimated to be over 5,000.”


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