Trōv: How Does It Work?

There are several ways for consumers to enter information into their personal trove, says Scott Walchek, founder and CEO of Trv.

He outlined the various ways Trv helps consumers collect information on their possessions.

“We start with the mobile app. As soon as you log in as a new user, it knows you’re using an iPhone. Because we can query the phone that you’re using, we know all about that iPhone and we add that immediately. We know the current value on eBay or Price Geek, and we give you the fair market value of the type of phone you have.”

The mobile app will be available initially for iPhone in the first quarter of 2014, but will eventually be available for all major smartphones.

The application then asks about real estate users own, suggesting the location they are currently at or asking to enter addresses of other property. “As soon as you do that, we will grab all the attendant descriptions and legal documents that are public,” Walchek explained. “Everything that’s been filed with the county or the state will be immediately grabbed and updated in your trove, including the aerial shot from one of the mapping services; descriptions and number of bedrooms; the current comparables that allow us to determine the current fair market value and other related information.

“We also integrate, on that same theme of automation, with the popular vertical databases like CellarTracker, MyClassicGarage and Collectify. Furthermore, in the first release, you’ll be able to add your credentials from wherever you shop online. The first one will be eBay, and then we’re going to figure out where our users are most likely to shop online. We’ll be able to grab all of their purchase histories and remain active as they make new purchases. We’ll do the same thing with ArtFact, which powers all the online auction houses. We’ll do the same thing with Paddle8 and 1stDibs eventually, where all the information and your interactions with them go directly into your trove.