Below is the presentation I gave at the 2nd Annual Mobile Marketing Summit hosted by Marketing Mix. I spend a great deal of my time working on mobile targeting capabilities, technology and theories at TinyImpact. The presentation was just a high level introduction into the targeting capabilities that mobile as a medium offers.
23
Jun 09
Thoughts on Venture Capital
The most common topic discussed in the South African start-up community has been around the lack of venture capital (VC) or the ease of access to venture capital in South Africa. I am no VC expert, however I have had my fair share of discussions with them as well as people who have had experience in the VC game.
In the venture capital game it’s all about increasing the return on their investment in your business. Unfortunately, South Africa’s internet population can hardly be considered a market in global terms and we also lack a VC eco-system. Therefore, your start-up needs to be thinking global from day one.
If you are thinking global and raising venture capital, please start thinking about raising in dollar / euro conversions. While R5mil is a lot of cash, globally it would be considered as angel funding. It doesn’t make sense to raise angel funding under the label of venture capital.
I also get the feeling that entrepreneurs in South Africa are some how excited by the hype of venture capital and think it’s their best bet. I urge you to please take a look at the types of funding available to you. I would rather consider early stage venture capital once your product / service needs the capital to expand rather than to keep it a float or build a prototype.
The most important advice I can share is that you should build something tangible and don’t go looking for venture capital with a concept. If your product or service is already generating revenue then you are in an even better position to negotiate. The more risk a VC has to take, the less negotiating power you have.
There are many articles and blog posts on the internet about venture capital, however the best I have come a cross is a talk by Guy Kawasaki. I suggest you watch it over here.
Do you have any thoughts on VC in South Africa?
22
Mar 09
TinyImpact Interview – From the Couch
I just thought I would share a recent interview I had with the guys from the online video show From the Couch while I was down in Cape Town the other day. David Perel rushed down to the Cape Town airport to ask me a couple of questions. I told him what I’ve been up to and finally broke the news about TinyImpact otherwise known as Project Wolf. Enjoy.
22
Oct 08
MobilePress – WordPress on iPhone and Mobile Handsets
Today is really exciting, we’re launching MobilePress one of our first components to Project Wolf. It’s a plugin for WordPress, the most popular blogging software in the world, which allows users, designers and publishers to extend their audience and service by having specific themes for specific mobile devices or browsers.
We have a very neat iPhone theme in production, however due to some bugs we have held it back. The iPhone theme available with this release has some minor AJAX enabled on certain pages.
Note: This is not Project Wolf, only a component of Project Wolf. Our launch date for the new product will be announced shortly.
7
Oct 08
Mobile – Location Based Search & Advertising
Location is one of the rising trends in the mobile industry at the moment. In a world where relevant content and information is starting to become more important, location based technology is a great enabler to relevant content and information. Imagine being able to find and locate almost anything you are looking for, all from your mobile handset.
The Case: John Needs Sushi
I’ll quickly run through a case scenario. John, who travels a lot, has found himself in a town he has never been to before. He has no idea where anything is and all he has is his mobile handset. He is hungry and in the mood for Sushi, and he is not sure if there is a Sushi restaurant nearby.
John grabs his mobile handset and types in “sushi”, using CellID technology his location is automatically determined. After John has clicked the “search” button, the results are shown on a map and John can now find the nearest Sushi restaurant. He can also request directions to the address of the restaurant.
Types of Location Based Search
In terms of structuring location based search results, I have identified two types. These types depend on the type of search you are performing.
- Radial Search
If a user performs a search for something nearby, then a radial search is performed. The radius can be set to a default by the search engine or changed by the user. Lets assume the default radius is 5km, if no results are returned within 5km then the search engine will increase the radius until it finds results. The search engine will return no results within 5km, however display that there x results within ykm radius. The nearest results would then be the most relevant and important in this case. - Point-to-Point Search
If a user is traveling or looking for directions from Point A to Point B, then a point-to-point search is performed where the results are confined to anything between the two points. The challenge with this type of search is either to return the results from all possible routes or ask the user to define one route. Once the route has been determined, the search engine can then perform the search within the selected constraints.
Location Based Advertising
Why is location based advertising so special? Once again, it ties in with being able to target people who looking for specific information at or withing a specific location. Therefore if advertising is location relevant or specific, it has a greater chance of being more relevant to the person. Even if they are not performing a search, information that is location specific to the person’s current position can be just as relevant.
Google – Search with My Location