Mark McCormack

Will Big Brands Cut Out the Middleman to Go Hyperlocal?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:20:00 +0000

Most of the online publishing world still views “hyperlocal” as referring to a local news publication that is dependent upon advertising revenue. Yet, with the rise of Groupon, new revenue models are developing that support hyperlocal advertising outside of the traditional newspaper ad model.

Going forward, brands will start marketing at the hyperlocal level, creating another business model that isn’t quite apparent to traditional publishers. This week, Walmart announced the launch of My Local Walmart, a Facebook application that customizes marketing to every Walmart store in America. The value of these hyperlocal Walmart presences will be in the conversations that will take place within the Facebook app framework. Customers “liking” and commenting favorably on Walmart items will broadcast these opportunities to their immediate neighbors, which will have far greater marketing impact than any banner ad. Imagine if Whole Foods and Home Depot followed suit and developed hyperlocal networks of their own, either via Facebook or through websites that focus on nutritional food or home and garden, respectively. When this trend gets multiplied across a large swath of national brands, the hyperlocal space starts to explode commercially.

For national brands, it’s simply a matter of expanding from one main destination, like Walmart.com, to 3,600 web destinations based on locality. Positioning brands as local,social products is a new marketing concept that will cut across all product categories.

Movies, for example, are a social product but current movie marketing practice simply doesn’t engage audiences at a local level. We see a trailer, go to the movie and “that’s all folks.” Although there are a lot of review sites, local conversations revolving around movies don’t exist online, even though movies are talked about in high schools, around water coolers, everywhere. These local conversations need to be captured by the studios, by the theater chains, and by the local restaurants neighboring the cineplex, because influential social messages like “Hey, let’s all meet up at Romano’s at 6:30 so we can see the 9:00 Moneyball at AMC” are how consumers create business opportunities.

In sum, we’re on the brink of seeing brands start to carve into the hyperlocal pie simply by providing an online space to offer localized content and capture the “neighborhood” conversations that locals want to see.

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:53:00 +0000

I was just reflecting on my thoughts about Steve Jobs death. I didn't have a deep, personal connection with him like many people do but I always admired his passion and commitment.

One of my favorite quotes from Steve is, "It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Without this, many, probably all, of the products he championed would never have become a reality.

With knowing much about his professional career and little about his personal life, I believe he had a great 56 years but still died way too young from a disease that all the money in the world couldn't cure.

Tablet Computers / Kindle Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:23:00 +0000

I was just reading about the new Kindle Fire and its $199 price point, which is pretty amazing.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-fire-tablet-unveiled-7-inch-display-199-price-tag/

It's not an iPad killer in terms of all the bells and whistles but at $199, you can by two for the price one of the cheapest iPads ($499) and still have money left over. I don't know if this will have an impact on the iPad but, at this price, I think it will have an impact on iTouch sales as well as other non iPad tablets.

Kudos to Amazon for what looks to be a solid product launch strategy!

Google Plus Opens to All & Announces 9 New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Just ahead of Facebook's f8 Conference, Google has announced nine new features for Google Plus, and there are some doozies. First of all, the social network is now open to the public. No sign-up required. Just go to google.com/+ and join the party. For the past 12 weeks, the network has been in "field trial" mode, but Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra says that it is now "ready to move from field trial to beta." Open sign-ups is touted as the 100th feature of Google Plus.

Hangouts - the video chat feature - have come to mobile, currently supporting Android 2.3+ devices, and iOS support is "coming soon." Hangouts also now have an "On Air" feature, which allows any Google Plus user to tune in and watch. Furthermore, Hangouts now offer screensharing, a shared sketchpad, and names for Hangouts. But perhaps the killer app is Google Docs in Hangouts, which will open up the possibility of live collaborative work (especially once Google Apps accounts get access).

The big announcement for developers, following last week's initial opening of the Google Plus API, is the opening of a "Developer Preview" of the Hangouts API, which will allow third-party developers to implement the same basic set of capabilities as the existing YouTube integration uses. The announcement calls it a "basic set" of APIs, but it's a big step up from what was announced last week.

Finally, the update also adds native search to Google Plus, which turns up Google Plus content as well as stuff from around the Web for easy sharing.

Conspicuously absent? There are still no brand pages, and Google Apps accounts still can't use Plus. The latter is especially frustrating, since Google Docs in Hangouts will dramatically expand the possibilities of using Google Plus for work.

Search Ads Galvanize Local Media: $8B By 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:43:00 +0000

Local media will get a big shot in the arm in coming years from local search advertising revenues.

Revenues are expected to jump more than 50% in the next four years, hitting $8.2 billion in 2015 from $5.1 billion in 2010, per media researcher BIA/Kelsey. Overall, the media research group believes local search will represent 30% of all search volume by 2015.

Other media analysts believe local search revenue could be a significant benefit to local TV and radio stations in working together with the big search engines.

"Local search ad revenues hit an all-time high last year, driven primarily by better product integration across search engines, especially Google," said Matt Booth, senior vice president and program director of BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media practice.

"Revenues will continue to grow as better targeting, increased mobile usage and improving integration drive up local search activity," he adds.

An earlier BIA/Kelsey projection estimated local search will hit $8.1 billion in 2013, with overall search revenues at $26.7 billion. Local search revenues were estimated to represent around 23.6% of all search revenues.

Yahoo Paid $20 Million For A 12-Week-Old Company And It Was A BRILLIANT Move

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Yesterday, Yahoo bought a 12-week-old company called IntoNow.

Besides IntoNow's short life as independent company, there were two noteworthy aspects to this transaction.

It was a very smart deal.
It was a very smart deal by Yahoo.

IntoNow is a Shazam-meets-Foursquare-for-TV iPhone app.

What that means in English is that the app can actually listen to the sound coming from your TV speakers, identify the show you're watching , and then let you tell your friends what you're watching by "checking-in."

It's a smart acquisition by Yahoo. We like it for three reasons in particular…

It's cheap. Yahoo paid somewhere between $17 million and $25 million, depending on whether you include stock and earnout clauses in the price. Believe it or not, that's cheap – even though IntoNow has only been live for 12 weeks. Yes, Yahoo paid just $35 million for Flickr 6 years ago, but that was a different era. It bid $125 million for Foursquare last summer and lost out.

It was fast. The reason Yahoo was able to get IntoNow cheap was that it bought the company before the app got too popular. $20 million may seem like a lot for a company that launched in 2011, but if the app is any good, it would have cost 10X that by next year. Yahoo was slow to pounce on Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Good to see the trend turning around.

It's strategic. These days, everyone watches TV with another screen on. With IntoNow (re-branded as Yahoo TV?) Yahoo will be able to build specific media experiences around the TV shows its users are watching. That means Yahoo will have as good of a shot as anybody at being on that second screen at any given time. We imagine it won't be too hard selling ads in that space. Yahoo sells brand advertising to big mainstream audiences. TV shows attract big mainstream audiences. Yahoo can just pitch the brands that bought the TV shows its users are watching.

Just Like That, The iPad Is Almost As Big As The Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:31:00 +0000

Apple's iPad business has only been around for 9 months, but it has already generated almost $10 billion in revenue for Apple.

Specifically, Apple shipped 14.8 million iPads last year, generating $9.6 billion in revenue. Last quarter alone, it shipped 7.3 million iPads for $4.6 billion in sales.

That's amazing. And what's more amazing is that it's almost the same amount of revenue as Apple's almost-27-year-old Mac business, which just put in its best quarter ever, generating $5.4 billion in revenue.

But perhaps what's most remarkable is how fast Apple is still growing overall. At $26.7 billion in sales last quarter, Apple still grew 71% year-over-year. Pretty Amazing

Source: SAI

Smartphones Driving $5B in U.S. Mobile Ads By 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:42:00 +0000

The U.S. will join Japan next year in the $1 billion mobile advertising club and is expected to generate five times that figure by 2015. Due to the relatively larger population compared to most European nations, U.S. mobile ad spending is several magnitudes higher than in Europe on a per-campaign basis, topping $100,000 for the average ad effort. Datapoints such as these are the focus of a free whitepaper available today from Smaato, a privately held mobile ad network based in Redwood Shores, Calif., with additional analysis fromresearch firm mobileSquared.

What’s driving the uptick in the U.S. market? Smartphone adoption (and the generally required data plans that go with smartphones) is, plain and simple. It’s expected that 50 percent of Americans, or roughly 150 million people, will own a smartphone by the end of 2011, for example. With Nielsen today reporting that 28 percent of the U.S. population already carries one, the halfway point of adoption could come even sooner.

So, the flow of mobile ad money is increasing as richer activities more suited to smartphones vs. feature phones proliferate: 51 percent of the 2010 ad dollars are being spent on search, apps and digital media activities that favor smartphones with fast wireless network connections.

Other key data points from the Smaato / mobileSquared report:

More than half of U.S. mobile users (53 percent) haven’t yet seen an ad on their handset, indicating there’s still a large potential audience to capture: approximately 160 million consumers.
Of the 49 million who have already engaged with a mobile ad, 25 percent clicked and made a purchase, while 59 percent clicked but didn’t buy. The remaining 16 percent clicked an ad and completed the product transaction on a computer; more of the engaged consumers took positive and more immediate action on the handset.
For all of the prior and expected future growth, the mobile ad market still only accounts for one percent of the total advertising revenues in the U.S., suggesting huge potential going forward.

Notable to me is the flow of ad dollars in search: Apple with iAds and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Ad Service are solid investments for the future, but Google’s search dominance is still grabbing the bulk of mobile ad dollars. With the Android Market at 100,000 apps and counting, Google has a foot in the application department when it comes to mobile ads. Earlier this month, Google reported that display ads on YouTube increased 50 percent in the past year, giving it a rich mobile content play as well.

YPG Acquires Enquiro / Launches Digital Marketing Company Focused on National Advertisers

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Yellow Pages Group (YPG) just announced the launch of Mediative — a digital advertising and marketing solutions provider for national agencies and advertisers. Mediative is a roll up of Enquiro, Uptrend, and Ad Splash and will focus on national agencies and advertisers' needs through its two divisions: YPG Ad Network and Mediative Performance.

YPG Ad Network will offer digital media advertising, capitalizing on YPG's existing strong network of print and online properties including flagship destinations AutoTRADER.ca, RedFlagDeals.com and YellowPages.ca. Specifically, the YPG Ad Network will provide premium and performance display advertising and audience targeting on Canada's leading online and mobile ad networks, as well as vertical ad products and solutions in the automotive, real estate and retail categories.

Mediative Performance will offer a wide array of services, such as SEO, SEM, social media marketing, and location-based marketing.

Concurrent with the launch of Mediative, YPG announced a series of transactions. YPG acquired Enquiro, a leading search engine marketing company, Ad Splash Media, a national retail advertising leader, and UPTREND Media, Canada's leading independent online advertising representation firm. These companies will be combined under Mediative, a Yellow Pages Group Company. YPG has also entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Acquisio enabling Mediative to provide to its customers access to Acquisio's leading search, social and display advertising platform in Canada. YPG holds a 24% ownership interest in Acquisio Inc. since April, 2009. The total purchase price for these acquisitions will be of up to $60 million. An amount of $35 million was paid in cash at closing and the balance will be paid over time subject to future performance. These acquisitions will generate approximately $35 million of annualized revenues.

49% of Small Business Owners Use Smartphones

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Over the past few years, it seems that a few mobile devices have become ubiquitous among businesspeople: laptops, Bluetooth headsets, and increasingly, smartphones. The days of the pager are gone.

Small business owners seem to be outpacing the rest of America in smartphone adoption, according to a recent survey of nearly 10,000 small business owners. While only 17% of Americans own smartphones, according to a recent Forrester study, a whopping 49% of small business owners are reported to own smartphones.

Of those smartphone owners, 35% own BlackBerrys, 33% owniPhones, 25% own Androids, and 7% own Windows Mobile devices.

While the study didn’t include a comprehensive look at how small business owners are using their smartphones, we suspect that merchants are turning to mobile devices to stay on top of everyday business needs through e-mail, scheduling, and calls. We’ve heard success stories from business owners who alsotweet on the go, see the importance of location-based services, and are investing in mobile advertising.

While only 12% of respondents said that they currently market their businesses through mobile — via mobile ads and apps, for example — other reports point towards an upward trend in mobile advertising budgets. In fact, spending on mobile advertising is set to grow nearly 50% to top $1 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer.

Here’s the exact breakdown of smartphone usage among the small business owners surveyed:

Just One Third of Small Biz Uses Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Advertisers and marketers are obsessed with social media, but large parts of the U.S. business world remain hesitant or uncertain about using sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to a survey by RatePoint, which found that just 36% of small business owners are using social media to reach consumers. That's about half the rate among larger businesses: earlier this year a survey by KingFishMedia of 457 marketing executives found 72% of respondents said their company had a social media strategy, and the majority of the rest said they will have one in place by next year.

The RatePoint findings were especially interesting because they frankly seemed to suggest that a fair number of small business owners are out of touch with current trends in American society -- namely, the wide popularity and explosive growth of social media. 20% of small business owners said they didn't think that their customers spend time on sites like Facebook or Twitter, and 27% said they weren't sure.

This is almost certainly not true, considering that there are currently 139 million U.S. Facebook users, representing 62% of the U.S. adult population of 225 million. I can also imagine some skeptic pointing to the example of mom-and-pop stores serving geriatric neighborhoods, but the fact is social media now reaches into all demographics: according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, social network use among Internet users ages 50+ increased from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010, while the proportion of Americans ages 70-75 who were online in general increased from 26% in 2005 to 45% in 2009.

Among small business owners who are using social media, one of the key selling points seems to be its low cost, with fully 70% of the utilizing cohort saying they engaged with social media because it is inexpensive. At first blush, this makes sense for a small business with a small budget. But if a start-up has aspirations to become a national brand, taking a casual, low-cost approach to social media risks a bad user experience, or even blowback, if the brand should suddenly become broadly popular (or, heaven forbid, unpopular) but lacks that personnel to manage it social media presence.

Source: MediaPost

Business is the Next Frontier for the Wireless Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:47:00 +0000

The convergence of smartphones, smart networks and mobile business applications has created unprecedented opportunity for companies across all industries to transform themselves — and in the process, reap dramatic returns on their network and IT investments, John Stankey, president and CEO-AT&T Business Solutions, told attendees on the final day of CTIA's Enterprise and Applications conference.

"Business is the next frontier for the wireless industry," he said. "Mobility is going to transform the way companies do business in ways we have only begun to imagine."

Despite a challenged U.S. economy, "millions of companies are hungry for affordable, reliable solutions that can improve their productivity, increase their revenue potential and lower their costs," said Stankey, who estimated the enterprise mobility space — including hardware, software and services — would be at least $50 billion by 2015.

From discussions with companies across a number of industry sectors, it's clear that productivity improvements will drive the next wave of business growth, he said. Combined with technology trends, this is prompting a "tectonic shift" in the way companies do business.

"AT&T has the right network and the right evolution path to help make this tectonic shift," Stankey said.

"Our goal is to help enterprises mobilize everything.

"AT&T's wireless network creates the underpinnings for mobile solutions that allow businesses to change the way they conduct their business and unleash their full potential. We've extended our established strengths in the enterprise space to deliver the nation's fastest mobile broadband network to the world's most demanding users."

U.S. carriers are driving innovation in wireless broadband, virtualization and mobile and emerging devices to accommodate the demand for transformative solutions across industries like healthcare, energy, manufacturing, finance and retail, said Stankey.

"Companies from every sector are beginning to re-examine and re-tool the way they operate, with the help of the creative mobility solutions that wireless carriers deliver," he noted.

He called on providers to step up and help companies prepare for the fundamental changes in business processes that mobility will deliver.

"We need to build networks, applications and services that offer the full benefits of security and manageability," he said. "We need to offer robust routing and QoS capabilities from the integrated IP core to the end user edge. We need to create a technology support environment that enables greater levels of personalized customer service. We need to create a software distribution system that brings an enterprise maximum productivity, efficiency and flexibility."

Microsoft readies new phone launch with AT&T

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:12:00 +0000

Microsoft is set to unveil a new line of phones running its Windows software on Monday, as it attempts to pull back market share from Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android system in the fast-growing market for multi-featured 'smartphones'.

The world's largest software company is hoping that the new phones, from handset makers such as Samsung, LG and HTC, will propel it back into the mobile market, which many see as the key to the future of computing.

The new phones, initially available on AT&T's network, have already been shown off in prototype form, and are much closer in look and feel to Apple's iPhone, with colorful touch-screens and 'tiles' for easy access to e-mail, the web, music and other applications.

Some analysts say they represent Microsoft's last chance to catch up with rivals, which overtook them in the past few years. Handsets are not expected to appear in stores for a month, so their success may not be judged until the new year.

Microsoft has just a 5 percent share of the global smartphone market, according to research firm Gartner, compared with 9 percent a year ago. Google's Android system has a 17 percent market share, jumping from only 2 percent a year ago.

The market for multi-feature phones that allow users to e-mail, surf the web and play games, as well as have access to music and video is set to expand massively.

Gartner expects almost 270 million smartphones to be sold around the world this year, up 56 percent from last year.

In comparison, Gartner expects only a 19 percent increase in worldwide PC sales to 368 million units this year.

Microsoft, whose stock is trading at the same level it was eight years ago, has been struggling to find a footing in phones and mobile computing.

Its share price has fallen almost 20 percent so far this year.

Earlier this year, Microsoft yanked its Kin phone aimed at teenagers off the market less than three months after launch. There are still no signs of an imminent Windows-powered tablet device to counter Apple's hot-selling iPad.

TOUGH ENVIRONMENT

Microsoft's new phones will have a tough job elbowing aside a revamped set of rivals. In August, Research in Motion Ltd launched its new $200 BlackBerry Torch, with a touchscreen and slide-out keyboard.

In June, Apple launched its new $200 to $300 iPhone 4, which is selling well despite some antenna problems.

A slew of similarly priced Android phones, such as Motorola Inc's Droid X and Samsung's Galaxy series are also grabbing customers.

In the long term, industry analysts are not optimistic about Microsoft's chances. They expect the smartphone market to be dominated by Symbian, the system that runs on Nokia phones, and Google's Android.

Symbian is currently the market leader, with 41 percent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, according to Gartner, followed by RIM with 18 percent, Android with 17 percent, Apple with 14 percent and Microsoft with 5 percent.

By 2014, Gartner expects smartphone sales to have more than trebled to about 875 million units, with Nokia and Android leading the market with about 30 percent each, Apple around 15 percent, RIM around 12 percent and Microsoft around 4 percent.

Verizon Could Grab 23% Of AT&T's iPhone Users If Apple Ends Exclusivity

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:49:00 +0000

A new survey from Credit Suisse says 63% of iPhone owners will stick with AT&T, even if it loses the exclusive right to sell the phone.

Where would AT&T iPhone owners go if given the chance? 23% will join Verizon, while 3% will go to Sprint, and 2% will go to T-Mobile.

While it might sound scary to think about AT&T possibly losing 37% of its iPhone users, Credit Suisse is bullish on AT&T, raising its price target on the telecom to $35, up from $27.

The investment bank says the damage of losing the iPhone is being overblown, making AT&T cheap. Also, AT&T will deliver strong earnings, a good dividend, and stock repurchases.

Verve Wireless Closes $7 M Funding Round

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Verve Wireless Inc. closed a $7 million round of financing that it will use to accelerate the growth of its mobile advertising platform for local media because of an evident shift of ad dollars in the space.

Verve offers local publishers technology to distribute and manage news and targeted advertising across all mobile platforms.

Here is the Interview ...

What is Verve Wireless going to use this funding for?
Continued enhancements to our mobile distribution platform – Verve Gateway, as well as accelerating our partner's local and nation advertising growth via Verve Connect, our network of premium local media brands that provides reach and scale to advertisers of all sizes, from large national brands to the corner health food store.

What is the current state of local mobile advertising?
It is still early in the growth curve, but the shift in local ad dollars is evident.

We are seeing double digit growth in all of our key performance indicators, from number of local campaigns running per month, renewal rates, dollars per campaign and number of advertisers per partner.

The local ad dollars are following the consumer into mobile with the same level of expectations as the national agencies and brands with respect to level of engagement, rich media and performance.

Where do you see it going in the next year or so?
The reallocation of local ad dollars, estimated to be around $29 billion, will continue and mobile will continue to garner a larger share of those dollars at the expense of some other elements of the media mix.

The audience is now just too large in mobile to ignore and local brands are already tying other elements of their media spend (e.g. print, broadcast, out-of-home) together via mobile with time-based offers and specific calls to action.

There is nothing ground breaking about that statement.

National brands have been doing this for several years now.

But the sophistication and drive for hard dollar ROI is just as prevalent among small- to medium-sized businesses, as it is among national brands, particularly in this economy, and mobile is recognized among these in-market brands as a very effective advertising and promotion tool for their businesses.

Why does local and mobile go hand in hand?
One of the founding principles of the company when we started over five years ago was the belief that mobile is an inherently local medium.

People are out and about in their community, or visiting a new community, and are looking to either stay connected or get connected to the information that is part of our daily construct.

Increasingly, that information is becoming actionable, or stated differently, transaction-able.

The ability to curate news and information content and wrap that content in a local brand leading towards a specific transaction continues to make mobile the most promising local advertising medium on the planet.

Coupons are the most often cited, but we are working on several other transaction oriented programs that will help leverage the value of mobile being inherently mobile.

Can you talk about some of your advertisers and the type of results they achieve by targeting via location?
It is still early in the geotargeting game. We think it is the second inning of the ninth. Verve’s customers are seeing more success by being able to target to a region or a DMA. In order for geotargeting to be successful, you need a lot of reach and users.

Today, Verve is about building significant reach, meaning our publishers have enough users and inventory to be interesting to local advertisers from a geotargeting perspective.

Our goal is to deliver great products that grow user base so that ultimately they will be able to serve up interesting ads.

We do not see geotargeting really catching on for at least another 12 months.

Android Moving in on Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:05:00 +0000

Android has successfully overtaken Apple's dominance of consumer mindshare in the smartphone world, according to a new survey from ChangeWave Research about smartphone preferences.

ChangeWave found only 38% of the people it interviewed want iOS on their next smartphone. That's down 12 points from June when 50% of the people it surveyed said they wanted an iPhone.

Meanwhile, 37% of respondents say they want an Android based phone.

To be sure, the crash in iPhone interest is in part due to the fact that iPhone 4 had just launched in June. That makes for a tough comparison, becuase excitement over the iPhone was at its peak.

Still, this is the closest Android and iPhone interest has ever been in a ChangeWave study.

How To Get Investors to Write Checks

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:52:00 +0000

How can you get noticed? Don't expect to tell the whole story, just enough to get them curious and wanting to know more. You need several different pitches. The demo pit / exhibit area pitch is 1 minute. The on stage pitch to the audience is 6 minutes. The investor meeting pitch is about 30 minutes.

Do VCs really make investment decisions on a new startup in 5 minutes? Yes. They can decide to say NO in 5 minutes, but saying YES takes longer. The key to an “elevator pitch” is to get them interested, answer the basic questions, and get a promise to have a next meeting. Next week at TechCrunch Disrupt, startups will have 6 minutes to do an “elevator pitch” to a panel of experts and 1,500 investors, tech execs, and press. It is called the “elevator pitch” because you should be able to explain your new company idea to a prospective investor in the time it takes to ride an elevator up to their floor.

Don't waste time with people who aren't interested - At a conference like Techcrunch Disrupt or DEMO you will see hundreds and hundreds of people. The goal should be to connect with five people who can help you. Be clear about what you need; customers, investors, partners, introductions, or maybe new employees. Focus most of your time on the people who can hep you the most. Don't spend time on people who aren't interested, or can't help you get what you need.

How do investors decide who they want to engage with at a conference? They look for ideas that align with their investment thesis. The secret to success in the VC business is to spend a little time with a lot of companies, and a LOT of time with a few companies. They want a quick overview of everything to make sure they don't miss anything and to see macro trends. But, they only want to spend a lot of time with a few companies that align with their investment thesis. So, if you are in a demo area with hundreds of people walking by, don't waste time with someone who isn't really interested. The one person you really need to see might walk by because you are too busy with someone else who isn't interested. Be available when the right person comes along.

How do I know if they are interested? They self select. They nod their head as you are talking. They ask a question. If you don't see any of this, or just a blank stare...move on. If the name of your company doesn't describe what you do, then make sure you have a great tag-line or "bumper sticker quote" that does. As people stroll down the aisles of an exhibit area they are looking for key words that capture their attention. I try to talk to every single company, but sometimes I don't have enough time. So, I try to find companies that are in the areas I am focused on. For me it is things like; search, cloud computing, mobile infrastructure apps, location based services, or social applications that combine many of these things together. Help people decide if your company aligns with their interests.

Who is your Customer? - The first question I ask a startup is "who is your customer?" or "who pays you money?". This helps me understand where the company is positioned in the ecosystem or "value chain". You would think this would be intuitively obvious...but it isn't. Many companies use the same buzz words and technologies so they all start to sound the same. They aren't. Knowing who your potential customer is helps me understand if I am a potential customer, or if my customers might need your product to build a complete solution.

What Problem do you solve? – Start with the problem you are solving or the need you are filling. A real life story about a person who needs or wants your product helps the investor understand the problem or need in personal terms, and agree that it is an interesting problem that needs fixing. Too many entrepreneurs start by talking about their solution and whiz bang technology. How they do it, versus what problem they solve. If the investor is not interested in the problem…there is no way they will be interested in your solution. Once they are nodding their head in agreement about the problem, then move on to the solution. If they don't nod in agreement cut it off right there. Don't waste your time, or theirs.

What is your Solution? – Explain why your solution solves the problem, and why it is better than other solutions. We do X for Y, or we are the X (well known product) for the Y market. For example, "we are Twitter for the enterprise market". Or, we do "enterprise level security for mobile handsets". Once they understand what problem you solve, they might listen to why your solution is better. It might be cheaper, faster, smaller, easier, more enjoyable, or whatever. Don’t waste time explaining the technology, or flowcharting the process or value chain. Just explain why your solution solves the problem better than anything else.

Who is the Competition? – If there is no competition there probably isn’t a market. Naming competitors help the investor understand the problem, existing solutions, and potential size of the market. Even if you think you are inventing a new market, the problem has been there a long time. People have figured out some way to solve it. That is your competition. Acknowledge that there are existing ways to partially solve the problem, and companies that have part of the solution. Then explain why yours is better. Investors will be very nervous if there is no competition.

What is your Business Model? - Who will pay? Is your solution a vitamin or a painkiller? Vitamins are nice to have, painkillers are a must have. There are some problems that no one will pay to solve. There are other problems where the one getting the benefit is not the party that pays the money. Sometimes there are multiple players in a value chain. Be very clear about where you are in the value chain, who will pay for your solution, and how much they will pay.

The Team – What experience do you and your team have starting companies or specific experience in this market segment? Are there any well known advisors or financial backers helping you? Do you have connections to people who can help you get your first customers? This is important because in the end it is all about the team. The best ideas will fail if there isn't a team with domain experience that can execute. For example, I could have a great idea about making the best Whoopie Pie you ever tasted. But, I don't have any experience in running a bakery, or getting wholesale distribution, or Consumer Packaged Goods, so I would most likely fail to execute on the idea.

The Close – We are solving a big problem, in a growing market, with a model that works, and a team that can execute. We need X dollars to reach Y milestone. We need investor partners to help us achieve this success. Show passion and confidence. Ask them to join the crusade. This is going to be The Next Big Thing.

Spend one minute on the problem, three minutes on the solution and demo, and 30 seconds each on the competition, model, team, and close. That is 6 minutes. Practice it 20 or 30 times. Every founder and early employee should be able to do the elevator pitch. Practice in front of friends, then practice in front of strangers that know nothing about your idea. Quiz them after to see if you message got through.

The pitch is critically important to the success of your company. Every potential new hire needs to buy into the story just like investors do. Customers need to buy into the story too, before they purchase your product or service. This is important. Get it right and life will be much easier. Get it wrong…and you will get a NO in 5 minutes or less.

Source:

A Few Days in New York

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 23:19:00 +0000

A friend of mine, Doyal Bryant, at UBL.org invited me to a private equity conference in New York this week. All in all, a good use of my time and I learned a lot as well. I also ran into an old friend, Jerry Schwartz, the owner of G.S Schwartz Public Relations (www.schwatz.com) who did the PR / IR for Saville Systems when we took it public in 1995. It's always good to run into old friends in unexpected places.

Mobile First, Web Second

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:34:00 +0000

Great read from techcrunch related to the arguably stronger social network in your mobile phone contact list.
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The term “social network” is of course synonymous with online networks like Facebook. But think about what you’re actual social life is like for a second. Are you really closest to the people whose items you “like” the most on Facebook? What about the people you @reply or retweet on Twitter? The people you reblog the most on Tumblr? If you’re anything like me, probably not. Instead, the best indicator of who I actually interact with socially the most in real life are the calls I make and the texts I send — it’s all mobile interaction.

I’ve written before that I think location is the bridge between social networks and actual social life. But why do we even need that bridge? Why are so many startups content to build on top of the Facebook or Twitter social graph, when a lot of them can access your actual social graph in your mobile contact book? We’re seeing more and more apps go “mobile first, web second” these days, and that’s likely to increase going forward. This means that they start as services on mobile devices. So again I ask, why not just get to your actual social graph through your contacts there?

Sure, many do that to some extent already. APIs for Android and the iPhone give you access to contact list information to varying degrees. But most startups are still approaching that idea as a secondary tactic after they’ve hooked in your social graph through Facebook or Twitter. But I think we may start to see some that go right to the heart of your contacts on your mobile device. In fact, I met with one in the making last week, Addappt.

While they’re still building out the product, the core idea of Addappt is to connect people through their contact lists (in this case, on the iPhone). Specifically, their app scours your contact list to see which of your friends are signed up to go to various upcoming conferences. But you can easily see this concept transferred to any number of social utilities. “When was the last time the address book saw any innovation?,” is the way co-founder Mrinal Desai puts it. And he’s right.

It seems that companies like Apple and Google are sitting on a treasure trove of actual social data with these contact lists. Calls, texts, emails, it’s all right there. Google obviously has tried (and failed) to build a social graph through your email contacts before — but they went about it wrong, and they did so on the desktop. Mobile is the key to this.

Currently, we’re also seeing Apple also struggle in its first real attempt at social networking, with iTunes Ping. Their network is way too closed to be of much use — but at least they get thatmobile should be a component of it.

But imagine if Apple built social tools right into your Contacts app? Maybe it would start with short status updates (maybe this would even pull in tweets), and then it would move to something like instant messaging. Then imagine if they did something with location? All of this would be opt-in, of course, but it could be very powerful.

And think about FaceTime. It’s an amazing product, but it’s far too hard to use because you never know when someone else is available to chat. Apple won’t accept the FacePlant app which solves this, so I have to believe they’re working on their own solution. The Contact app would be perfect for this. You load it up and see who is available to FaceTime.

Obviously, using your mobile contact book isn’t ideal for all types of social applications. But for the ones you want to use with just your closest friends: location, photos, short messages, events — it could be a killer set of data.

Source: Techcrunch/MG Siegler

Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Starting A Business

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Source: WSJ.

When it comes to starting a successful business, there's no surefire playbook that contains the winning game plan. On the other hand, there are about as many mistakes to be made as there are entrepreneurs to make the

Here are the top 10 mistakes that entrepreneurs make when starting a company:

1. Going it alone. It's difficult to build a scalable business if you're the only person involved. True, a solo public relations, web design or consulting firm may require little capital to start, and the price of hiring even one administrative assistant, sales representative or entry-level employee can eat up a big chunk of your profits. The solution: Make sure there's enough margin in your pricing to enable you to bring in other people. Clients generally don't mind outsourcing as long as they can still get face time with you, the skilled professional who's managing the project.

2. Asking too many people for advice. It's always good to get input from experts, especially experienced entrepreneurs who've built and sold successful companies in your industry. But getting too many people's opinions can delay your decision so long that your company never gets out of the starting gate. The answer: Assemble a solid advisory board that you can tap on a regular basis but run the day-to-day yourself. Says Elyissia Wassung, chief executive of 2 Chicks With Chocolate Inc., a Matawan, N.J., chocolate company, "Pull in your [advisory] team for bi-weekly or, at the very least, monthly conference calls. You'll wish you did it sooner!"

3. Spending too much time on product development, not enough on sales. While it's hard to build a great company without a great product, entrepreneurs who spend too much time tinkering may lose customers to a competitor with a stronger sales organization. "I call [this misstep] the 'Field of Dreams' of entrepreneurship. If you build it, they will buy it," says Sanjyot Dunung, CEO of Atma Global, Inc., a New York software publisher, who has made this mistake in her own business. "If you don't keep one eye firmly focused on sales, you'll likely run out of money and energy before you can successfully get your product to market."

4. Targeting too small a market. It's tempting to try to corner a niche, but your company's growth will quickly hit a wall if the market you're targeting is too tiny. Think about all the high school basketball stars who dream of playing in the NBA. Because there are only 30 teams and each team employs only a handful of players, the chances that your son will become the next Michael Jordan are pretty slim. The solution: Pick a bigger market that gives you the chance to grab a slice of the pie even if your company remains a smaller player.

5. Entering a market with no distribution partner. It's easier to break into a market if there's already a network of agents, brokers, manufacturers' reps and other third-party resellers ready, willing and able to sell your product into existing distribution channels. Fashion, food, media and other major industries work this way; others are not so lucky. That's why service businesses like public relations firms, yoga studios and pet-grooming companies often struggle to survive, alternating between feast and famine. The solution: Make a list of potential referral sources before you start your business and ask them if they'd be willing to send business your way.

6. Overpaying for customers. Spending big on advertising may bring in lots of customers, but it's a money-losing strategy if your company can't turn those dollars into life-time customer value. A magazine or web site that spends $500 worth of advertising to acquire a customer who pays $20 a month and cancels his or her subscription at the end of the year is simply pouring money down the drain. The solution: Test, measure, then test again. Once you've done enough testing to figure out how to make more money selling products and services to your customers than you spend acquiring those customers in the first place, roll out a major marketing campaign. (See related article, "On a Tight Budget? How to Land a Client.")

7. Raising too little capital. Many start-ups assume that all they need is enough money to rent space, buy equipment, stock inventory and drive customers through the door. What they often forget is that they also need capital to pay for salaries, utilities, insurance and other overhead expenses until their company starts turning a profit. Unless you're running the kind of business where everybody's working for sweat equity and deferring compensation, you'll need to raise enough money to tide you over until your revenues can cover your expenses and generate positive cash flow. The solution: Calculate your start-up costs before you open your doors, not afterwards.

8. Raising too much capital. Believe it or not, raising too much money can be a problem, too. Over-funded companies tend to get big and bloated, hiring too many people too soon and wasting valuable resources on trade show booths, parties, image ads and other frills. When the money runs out and investors lose patience (which is what happened 10 years ago when the dot-com market melted down), start-ups that frittered away their cash will have to close their doors. No matter how much money you raise at the outset, remember to bank some for a rainy day.

9. Not having a business plan. While not every company needs a formal business plan, a start-up that requires significant capital to grow and more than a year to turn a profit should map out how much time and money it's going to take to get to its destination. This means thinking through the key metrics that make your business tick and building a model to spin off three years of sales, profits and cash-flow projections. "I wasted 10 years [fooling around] thinking like an artist and not a business person," says Louis Piscione, president of Avanti Media Group, a New Jersey company that produces videos for corporate and private events. "I learned that you have to put some of your creative genius toward a business plan that forecasts and sets goals for growth and success." (See related article, "Are Business Plans a Waste of Time?")

10. Over-thinking your business plan. While many entrepreneurs I've met engage in seat-of-the-pants decision-making and fail to do their homework, other entrepreneurs are afraid to pull the trigger until they're 100% certain that their plan will succeed. One lawyer I worked with several years ago was so skittish about leaving his six-figure job to launch his business that he never met with a single bank or investor who might have funded his company. The truth is that a business plan is not a crystal ball that can predict the future. At a certain point, you have to close your eyes and take the leap of faith.

Despite the many books and articles that have been written about entrepreneurship, it's just not possible to start a company without making a few mistakes along the way. Just try to avoid making any mistake so large that your company can't get back on its feet to fight another day

Facebook Places - Part 2: It's About Local Online Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:41:00 +0000

Most of the attention paid to Facebook Places has focused on the impact it could have on companies like Foursquare and Gowalla. However, I think Facebook’s real focus with Places is about a quiet entry into the local online advertising market. So Foursquare and Gowalla might be the casualties but they aren't the target

The prize is the local advertising market that the yellow page publishers still own and that Google has never been able to capture. The U.S. Online Search and Advertising market alone is $10 billion market and growing fast as media moves from traditional tv/newspaper/radio/yellow pages to the Internet.

So, while it remains to be seen, this could have a profound impact on companies that do online local listings, reviews, search, etc. I think companies like Yelp are at risk but I think this could have a measurable impact on the iYP sites as well as Googles initiatives as well.

Thoughts?

Facebook Places - Part 1: Nice BUT Huge Clutter Potential...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:17:00 +0000

I have been using the Facebook Places for a few days. Its a great feature for sure and I like the face that I can tag friends I'm with when I tag my location.

Is it better than foursquare? Gowalla? Not really, its a completely different deal. And it will catch on. But it will be annoying.

The repercussions of Facebook places though, will have a profound impact on the Facebook user experience which I, and a lot of others, find increasing cluttered.

In general, I find that I tolerate a 5 or so Facebook updates a week from people and I have to hide / remove anyone that integrates Twitter into Facebook based on the clutter it creates on my Wall. If you don't see your posts on my wall, thats why. Sorry.

So, while I like FB Places, its 'clutter potential' is right up there with Twitter. But why is it different?

Its different because as a discrete service, Twitter is basically a stream of consciousness service ... both for the people that tweet and the people that follow. Foursquare and Gowalla are built on game mechanics so, while different than twitter, alerts for checking in / badges / mayorships is part of the real time aspect of the platform that make it addictive to those who use it.

We are wired this way for Twitter and Foursquare but not for Facebook. Facebook is much more personal and its about updates, not about micro updates / hourly mood swings / following someone around all day.

So, Facebook is a smart company. Facebook Places will be successful. But why did the lauch FB Places? See Part Two ....

Mobile Apps - A $17.5 B Market

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:33:00 +0000

An independent study released by neutral app store GetJar indicates that the market for mobile apps should grow to a whopping $17.5 billion within the next three years.

This would basically mean that the value of apps sold would be greater than the value of CDs sold in 2012 ($13.83 billion).

According to the same study, downloads of mobile apps to handsets will leap from slightly more than seven billion in 2009 to nearly 50 billion in 2012, representing a YOY growth of 92%.

The figures are pretty much in line with other forecasts, such as research2guidance’s prediction that the worldwide smartphone application market will grow from $1.94 billion in 2009 to $15.65 billion by 2013.

GetJar had commissioned independent consulting firm Chetan Sharma Consulting to look into the global mobile apps market, in order to analyze the potential and real value of the mobile apps market worldwide, using first-hand data.

According to the study, by 2012, off-deck paid-for apps will be the biggest revenue generator, accounting for almost 50 per cent of all apps revenue. By comparison, in 2009, on-deck apps available from mobile operators accounted for over 60% of all apps revenue, but this will fall significantly to just under 23% by 2012.

The average app selling price for apps in North America was $1.09, significantly higher compared to that in developing markets such as South America ($0.20) and Asia ($0.10).

According to the study, revenue opportunities in Europe are set to soar from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2012, while in North America the figure will rise from around $2.1 billion to around $6.7 billion in 2012.

Currently, apps are most popular in Asia, with the region accounting for 37% of global downloads in 2009. However, while Asia had the highest number of downloads, users in North America spent the most money on apps, accounting for over 50% of revenue.

Mimvi

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:31:00 +0000

Mimvi is a startup that plans to combine its proprietary search, recommendation and personalization technology and thus enable consumers to rapidly discover mobile apps and content across all devices and platforms.

The Mimvi website allows you to search for apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry as well as web applications. Enter a keyword, e.g. eBay or fart, and you’ll get a list of relevant search results you can download per platform. In the future, Mimvi will also return results for iPad, Windows Mobile and Nokia applications and even for the upcoming Chrome Web Store.

Only interested in one platform? Mimvi also operates dedicated vertical search engines for them, e.g. Mivi Apple and Mimvi Android. They also boast a category-specific one, namely Mimvi Games.

The goal for Mimvi in this phase is to build an ecosystem of revenue-generating API partners.

Franks says that as a company, the plan is to be publicly traded on the OTCBB, a relatively new model for startups which need access to the capital markets, and move on to get listed on NASDAQ next.

Interestingly, Franks told me he’s currently in partnership talks with both Google and Microsoft – already. Pressed for what those talks entail, he said they are jointly exploring ways in which they could initially partner, but also grow the relationship where both parties benefit, potentially leading to a more extensive strategic partnership or even a joint investment.

It will be interesting to watch where Franks and his team can take the concept of a unified search engine for mobile apps, content and other products.

Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:08:00 +0000

Great read on the next wave of the Foursquare / Gowalla check in craze!