A few thoughts from the Aug 12 Mobile Apps Conference
(First, a little disclosure - since we covered this topic at the May iBreakfast, everything I say may be tinged with professional jealousy. Or, I may just be right.)
Not a lot came out of the Mobile Apps Conference that we didn't already know - other than the fact that marketers are waking up to the App Business and so it is about to get much bigger. Since we were able to cover in 1.5 hours most of what took a whole day to discuss - and 3 months in advance - you can see why the iBreakfast is in its 14th year.
BOTTOM LINE
Fremium Model: Almost all sales models are Fremium based - give away the sampler and upgrade user to the paid version. Expect a 1% conversion rate.
Make Ad Deals: Everyone who can't sell their Apps - and that would be the vast majority of developers - needs to find a niche with a true need or a way to make a deal with an advertiser. Often, these deals are about expanding the free sample universe so they can get a higher number of paid conversions.
Jason Calacanis Keynote
The one-time publisher of the Silicon Alley Reporter asked who remembered that swashbuckling publication from the heyday of rebel internet world. Of maybe 150 people, 3 hands went up. Note to self - marketers are young and constantly being replaced.
As founder of Mahalo - a people-powered search engine - Jason's rationale was talking about the Apps he'd like to see. With App saturation being the topic de jour, that was a fairly lame pretext (several of the ideas which he pulled from his people-powered search list were already Apps) to talk about what he really wanted to talk about: Mahalo and the Evil Apple Empire.
No point in discussing Mahalo and human-powered search here. They have their place. So do pedicabs and Central Park buggies. But the Evil Apple Empire is a great topic and delivered by Jason with much aplomb. It is such a rich discussion that I'll devote a separate blog....
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Report from the Sold Out White Plains iBreakfast: Social Media for Business
Michael Terpin, Social Radius
David Berkowitz, 360i
Selina McCusker, Personal Branding
Stephen Gilberg
Alan Brody introduced the this first-time event by talking about the Obama campaign as more than a new way of succeeding in politics but rather as a whole new way of doing business - and a key indicator of how other businesses need to reinvent their customer relationships. The difference between economically thriving vs. contracting regions seems to be whether or not they are in on the conversation about the use of new technologies. The iBreakfast is all about the conversation.
Michael Terpin talked about the impressive “Yes We Can” video video used to help turn the Obama campaign around on Super Tuesday. The important element, he said, was getting the middle universe of bloggers at the largest section of the bell curve, interested in their message.
David Berkowitz began by offering his 4 Basic Rules of Social Media and then other elements of his Social Marketing Playbook. He followed that up with the ways Fortune 500 companies are using Social Media to engage customers.
Selina McCusker talked about using Social Media in unexpected ways for corporate clients.
Stephen Gilberg showed how he built his following of 37,000 in the wine business by focusing on the oenophile's desire to share notes on their favorite wines, and then monetizing it by selling them quality wine at below-market rates.
Notes: Sign up for the WineTwits beta site. To see the overall map of Social Media see the Conversation Prism.
Does your town need to be part of the conversation? Talk to us about opening an iBreakfast in your city.
David Berkowitz, 360i
Selina McCusker, Personal Branding
Stephen Gilberg
Michael Terpin talked about the impressive “Yes We Can” video video used to help turn the Obama campaign around on Super Tuesday. The important element, he said, was getting the middle universe of bloggers at the largest section of the bell curve, interested in their message.
David Berkowitz began by offering his 4 Basic Rules of Social Media and then other elements of his Social Marketing Playbook. He followed that up with the ways Fortune 500 companies are using Social Media to engage customers.
Selina McCusker talked about using Social Media in unexpected ways for corporate clients.
Stephen Gilberg showed how he built his following of 37,000 in the wine business by focusing on the oenophile's desire to share notes on their favorite wines, and then monetizing it by selling them quality wine at below-market rates.
Notes: Sign up for the WineTwits beta site. To see the overall map of Social Media see the Conversation Prism.
Does your town need to be part of the conversation? Talk to us about opening an iBreakfast in your city.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The Obama Campaign and White Plains iBreakfast: Social Media and the Tipping Point
Michael Terpin, who helped engineer the "Yes We Can" viral video with will.i.am is speaking tomorrow. Aside from telling us how he got to 40 million viewers and tons of press - this is a great time to ruminate on the power of Social Media. After all, it brought us an entirely new kind of President.
We all know the usual - harnessing the long tail, word of mouth, crowdfunding etc. But what about the gradual mass change of opinion anticipated by Obama's literary doppelganger, Malcolm Gladwell. While he never mentions Obama, Gladwell, whose 3 books (Tipping Point, Blink & Outliers) are still on the best-seller list was talking about a change in state, and he too is bi-racial. His books talked abut the paving new ways while paving the way.
Social Media, in other words, is not only a tool but a kind of change predictor and instigator. We're going to learn more about this tomorrow. But one thing is sure - we have entered into a new world of doing business, the likes of which we have never seen before.
We need all the change predictors we can get!
We all know the usual - harnessing the long tail, word of mouth, crowdfunding etc. But what about the gradual mass change of opinion anticipated by Obama's literary doppelganger, Malcolm Gladwell. While he never mentions Obama, Gladwell, whose 3 books (Tipping Point, Blink & Outliers) are still on the best-seller list was talking about a change in state, and he too is bi-racial. His books talked abut the paving new ways while paving the way.
Social Media, in other words, is not only a tool but a kind of change predictor and instigator. We're going to learn more about this tomorrow. But one thing is sure - we have entered into a new world of doing business, the likes of which we have never seen before.
We need all the change predictors we can get!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Report from July - New VC Vistas iBreakfast
"Who Moved My VC?"
Steven Arnold, Arnold IT
Allan Young, PCMexchange
Slava Rubin, IndieGoGo
Open Season for Open Source
Entrepreneurs looking for new funding got an eye-opener to the future at the July iBreakfast. Top of the list - according to Steve Arnold, is that open-source is becoming a mandate for all government-related RFPs. If you are going after of City, State or Federal money - these are the magic words.
Crowdfunding
For Entrepreneurs looking beyond the tight VC market - where many, many deals are chasing very selective investors offering low valuations - PCMexchange holds hope for the future. Here Entrepreneurs can raise money directly from pools of investors online. While this technique has been tried (Wit Capital to Prosper) sooner or later the SEC has moved in to shut them down.
But now we are seeing a new way of dealing with this.
PCM Exchange uses a new combination of techniques - it is founded by a broker-dealer and only accredited investors get access to the site. But it is it open to all entrepreneurs. The advantages for investors are that they can vet the entrepreneurs as a group - saving them from multiple due diligences. For the investors, the site will offer a kind of stock exchange thereby offering liquidity for their holdings.
IndieGoGo offers a crowfunding source for film and digital content. The trick here is that the pubic does not buy equity on the film only the equivalent of sponsorship or bragging rights.
Additional report by Guilherme Cunha
Monday, July 27, 2009
Film Funding iEvening Report
Picture by Seitu OrondeMartin Feinberg, Winner Media
Slava Rubin, IndieGoGo
As the first in a new series of events that cover the funding of content - this iEvening got off to a rousing start. 3 investors spoke to a packed house about the opportunities and difficulties of raising money for a film project.
The key today is audience and distribution - and most of it is digital. The old days of having a screenplay and a prayer and more or less over. There are exceptions but most indie filmmakers have to contend with using the Internet to build a pre-audience, and distribution and marketing methodology.
Symbiotic Pictures, a new veteran-driven enterprise is actively looking for close-to-completion projects that they can place and leverage into a compelling deal. Marty Feinberg, talked about his movie investments with Penny Marshall and Martin Scorsese and the film projects he is looking at today. Slava Rubin showed how his site, IndieGoGo can help moviemakers raise money from fans and build an audience at the same time - a critical ingredient in getting studio attention. And money.
A variety of projects were pitched making a powerful impression on the investors. The star of the evening was Frederic King of Fountainhead Films, two of whose projects - Manuela, about Simon Bolivar's mistress (hints of Evita) and B.I.K.E a film about counterculture cyclists - got the judges' attention. We will soon be posting these pitches online through an arrangement with IndieGoGo.
Additional report by Guilherme Cunha
Monday, June 29, 2009
Report from June iEvening
Investor Panel Included: Ellen Sandles, Tristate Private Investors Network • Mike Segal, Joshua Capital • John Ason, Angel Investor • Roy Simkhay, Greycroft Partners
After a few slow months when start-ups seemed to have left the marketplace - the tide turned. Really turned. But now, entrepreneurs are staring at another kind of challenged marketplace. The investors are back with money – since most stayed out of the stock market – but it is a buyers market, so valuations are down and investors can really afford to pick and choose.
Entrepreneurs today really have to be able to survive on their own for as long as possible. But then again, strange things happen once you they in play: one entrepreneur who pitched his plan and won an iEvening in 2008 wound up being hired by an investor on the panel to run a different, but related company.
So his start-up turned out to be his job application! We wish him well!
At this event we were oversubscribed but nevertheless managed to cram 8 new companies into the pitching arena.
First was Clothingwarehouse.com, a moderately profitable company selling men’s closeouts at highly competitive prices. Using SEO they have developed a good Internet presence but they need to build the software to handle more precise customer needs. Sometimes its better to be pre-revenue and offer the moon than be moderately profitable and ask for help to make the next step forward.
Myclasscancelled.com is a seemingly needed service that informs students if their class has been cancelled for the day. Apparently, this is a frequent occurrence and colleges have no obligation to inform the students. The investors however thought much bigger things than this and wondered if it could be used for all kinds of cancellations. As it happens, the next day I found that my dentist had unexpectedly cancelled my appointment and I never got the memo. So we get the pain!
Escapeer is an aggregator of escapist and adventurist events. There are plenty of these outings and the people who seek them out – the under 40 set - are a prized demographic. As slick as the site looked and as compelling as the presentation is, it appeared that the judges needed to be told just how big this market really is.
Parent Media is a company that first appeared to us as a profitable photo-contest site for proud parents. When we discussed the plan with the entrepreneurs before presenting - as we usually do - we found that the photo site was really the hook for a much larger enterprise: a loyalty site for parents with babies and of great interest to marketers like Proctor & Gamble and so on. So the pitch was duly restated and the proposition was compellingly delivered.
ClipboardMD is a great idea in a market that is clearly about to explode – digitized medical records. This system enables people to keep their medical records in one place and have them verified as well when being admitted with ease by a doctor or hospital. However, the issue with an idea like this – even though it only needs to be used by a relatively small number of practitioners - is customer adoption. What the investors want to know is which doctors are using it and what will it take to get more to adopt it in a cost-effective way?
Povertysdemise.org is an interesting non-profit that could, in a way, be a profit center. It also suggests how welfare and other government services will be cost-effectively delivered. With this site, you can pick a child, family, block or region that you want to help and how - then the site makes sure the insurance, grocer or whichever service you support is paid as the recipient needs it. The money goes out as it is used and never directly into the hands of the recipient. Unfortunately, it is tough getting angels to think of investing in non-profits or, as one angel said: “most of my investments are non-profit!” On the other hand, if the business partners paid for the service – it could be a profit center.
Hollyhood is a kind of hybrid music and social media site that also has a special hankering for the Philadelphia sound. Even though the presenter is experienced in the field and comes with a gilt-edged legal background, it is tough to differentiate in this market place.
ApparitionAds is a company that serial entrepreneur, Richie Hecker, has cleverly bootstrapped with some strong players from the online ad business. The idea is to sell ads that appear during that tiny moment between website loads. So the slower your site – the more you’ll be hammered. (All the more reason to get FIOS and drop your Wi-Fi router!) This could be the most successful little ad company since Gator, but it could also be just as hated! The judges probably felt it was somewhere in between.
The judges picked Parent Media as the winner with ClothingWarehouse.com as the runner-up. Congratulations, and good luck at Private Equity Forum.
After a few slow months when start-ups seemed to have left the marketplace - the tide turned. Really turned. But now, entrepreneurs are staring at another kind of challenged marketplace. The investors are back with money – since most stayed out of the stock market – but it is a buyers market, so valuations are down and investors can really afford to pick and choose.
Entrepreneurs today really have to be able to survive on their own for as long as possible. But then again, strange things happen once you they in play: one entrepreneur who pitched his plan and won an iEvening in 2008 wound up being hired by an investor on the panel to run a different, but related company.
So his start-up turned out to be his job application! We wish him well!
At this event we were oversubscribed but nevertheless managed to cram 8 new companies into the pitching arena.
First was Clothingwarehouse.com, a moderately profitable company selling men’s closeouts at highly competitive prices. Using SEO they have developed a good Internet presence but they need to build the software to handle more precise customer needs. Sometimes its better to be pre-revenue and offer the moon than be moderately profitable and ask for help to make the next step forward.
Myclasscancelled.com is a seemingly needed service that informs students if their class has been cancelled for the day. Apparently, this is a frequent occurrence and colleges have no obligation to inform the students. The investors however thought much bigger things than this and wondered if it could be used for all kinds of cancellations. As it happens, the next day I found that my dentist had unexpectedly cancelled my appointment and I never got the memo. So we get the pain!
Escapeer is an aggregator of escapist and adventurist events. There are plenty of these outings and the people who seek them out – the under 40 set - are a prized demographic. As slick as the site looked and as compelling as the presentation is, it appeared that the judges needed to be told just how big this market really is.
Parent Media is a company that first appeared to us as a profitable photo-contest site for proud parents. When we discussed the plan with the entrepreneurs before presenting - as we usually do - we found that the photo site was really the hook for a much larger enterprise: a loyalty site for parents with babies and of great interest to marketers like Proctor & Gamble and so on. So the pitch was duly restated and the proposition was compellingly delivered.
ClipboardMD is a great idea in a market that is clearly about to explode – digitized medical records. This system enables people to keep their medical records in one place and have them verified as well when being admitted with ease by a doctor or hospital. However, the issue with an idea like this – even though it only needs to be used by a relatively small number of practitioners - is customer adoption. What the investors want to know is which doctors are using it and what will it take to get more to adopt it in a cost-effective way?
Povertysdemise.org is an interesting non-profit that could, in a way, be a profit center. It also suggests how welfare and other government services will be cost-effectively delivered. With this site, you can pick a child, family, block or region that you want to help and how - then the site makes sure the insurance, grocer or whichever service you support is paid as the recipient needs it. The money goes out as it is used and never directly into the hands of the recipient. Unfortunately, it is tough getting angels to think of investing in non-profits or, as one angel said: “most of my investments are non-profit!” On the other hand, if the business partners paid for the service – it could be a profit center.
Hollyhood is a kind of hybrid music and social media site that also has a special hankering for the Philadelphia sound. Even though the presenter is experienced in the field and comes with a gilt-edged legal background, it is tough to differentiate in this market place.
ApparitionAds is a company that serial entrepreneur, Richie Hecker, has cleverly bootstrapped with some strong players from the online ad business. The idea is to sell ads that appear during that tiny moment between website loads. So the slower your site – the more you’ll be hammered. (All the more reason to get FIOS and drop your Wi-Fi router!) This could be the most successful little ad company since Gator, but it could also be just as hated! The judges probably felt it was somewhere in between.
The judges picked Parent Media as the winner with ClothingWarehouse.com as the runner-up. Congratulations, and good luck at Private Equity Forum.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The VC Outlook - Report from June 24 Event
Charlie Federman, Crossbar Capital • Jeanne Sullivan, Co-Chair, StarVest • Owen Davis, NYC Seed • Ben Boissevain, Agile Equity • F. Morgan Rodd, Milestone Ventures
We usually do a VC Outlook iBreakfast once or perhaps twice a year – and they are good. But somehow the June 24th event was special in an extraordinary way.
Maybe it’s the strange times we are in. People really needed to understand where we are headed and so Investors, by telling us where they are placing their bets – are also giving us a view into the future.
It is also a tricky time because, on the one hand, there appears to be a rising tide of private equity. On the other hand, we see a lot of entrepreneurs but for all their enthusiasm, also lack a vision about the future. Most of all, entrepreneurs may not be thinking of what the Venture marketplace wants – only what they want to do.
We understand that deals have become cheaper and investors can cherry-pick them in a way they may not have been able to do in the past. But what are they looking for?
So this iBreakfast was a wake-up call to “game” the Venture marketplace – getting your plan in line with what the market wants instead of wondering what’s wrong with the market…...
According this iBreakfast - here is the lay of the land:
Most of the exits are closed – the IPO market is all but dead, few investors speak of building a great profitable company in the old enterprise-building sense of the word. M&A is the main exit. Fortunately, many companies have strong balance sheets and after having laid off staff, they are finding that buying start-ups is the cheapest form of R&D. Great. Perhaps even better, foreign companies too, are eyeing the US market and they will often pay a premium if they feel they can get market entry.
So what are investors looking for? According to Jeanne Sullivan, the companies they look for include tech-enabled service businesses, platforms and any high perceived value service that once required custom tailoring, that can be delivered in a mass format is in demand.
Charlie Federman of Crossbar, a noted early stage investor looks for the first new idea in a marketplace. First to market is big deal and if properly executed, usually carries over in the long term. He especially likes ones that "export deflation" - i.e. offer a really low-cost alternative to a current business under price pressure. More importly, he looks for entrepreneurs who can adapt, since most start-ups find their real opportunity later. The business they end up is never quite what they started with. Somewhere, they’re going to have to take a left turn. Will they be ready to respond to that…..?
Owen Davis has analyzed various investment deals and has laid out a kind of roadmap that would be an invaluable guide for an entrepreneur to determine which sector has the highest probability of raising capital in the New York area. Hint: social media and communities highest pitch topic – least invested in.
(Note to Entrepreneurs: check back with us for the best bets.)
Morgan Rodd noted that Milestone Ventures was increasingly interested in tech-enabled medical services.
Based on the surge of investor/entrepreneurial interest we will be producing a new series of Start-Up bootcamps, business and deal structure sessions and more investor meetings.
View Presentations
Ben Boissevain - Agile Equity
We usually do a VC Outlook iBreakfast once or perhaps twice a year – and they are good. But somehow the June 24th event was special in an extraordinary way.
Maybe it’s the strange times we are in. People really needed to understand where we are headed and so Investors, by telling us where they are placing their bets – are also giving us a view into the future.
It is also a tricky time because, on the one hand, there appears to be a rising tide of private equity. On the other hand, we see a lot of entrepreneurs but for all their enthusiasm, also lack a vision about the future. Most of all, entrepreneurs may not be thinking of what the Venture marketplace wants – only what they want to do.
We understand that deals have become cheaper and investors can cherry-pick them in a way they may not have been able to do in the past. But what are they looking for?
According this iBreakfast - here is the lay of the land:
Most of the exits are closed – the IPO market is all but dead, few investors speak of building a great profitable company in the old enterprise-building sense of the word. M&A is the main exit. Fortunately, many companies have strong balance sheets and after having laid off staff, they are finding that buying start-ups is the cheapest form of R&D. Great. Perhaps even better, foreign companies too, are eyeing the US market and they will often pay a premium if they feel they can get market entry.
So what are investors looking for? According to Jeanne Sullivan, the companies they look for include tech-enabled service businesses, platforms and any high perceived value service that once required custom tailoring, that can be delivered in a mass format is in demand.
Charlie Federman of Crossbar, a noted early stage investor looks for the first new idea in a marketplace. First to market is big deal and if properly executed, usually carries over in the long term. He especially likes ones that "export deflation" - i.e. offer a really low-cost alternative to a current business under price pressure. More importly, he looks for entrepreneurs who can adapt, since most start-ups find their real opportunity later. The business they end up is never quite what they started with. Somewhere, they’re going to have to take a left turn. Will they be ready to respond to that…..?
Owen Davis has analyzed various investment deals and has laid out a kind of roadmap that would be an invaluable guide for an entrepreneur to determine which sector has the highest probability of raising capital in the New York area. Hint: social media and communities highest pitch topic – least invested in.
(Note to Entrepreneurs: check back with us for the best bets.)
Morgan Rodd noted that Milestone Ventures was increasingly interested in tech-enabled medical services.
Based on the surge of investor/entrepreneurial interest we will be producing a new series of Start-Up bootcamps, business and deal structure sessions and more investor meetings.
View Presentations
Ben Boissevain - Agile Equity
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