Following Aussie Startups and Tech Trends

ApartmentReviews - Australia's Largest Dedicated Apartment Resource

2009-04-26T16:09:00.005+10:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Brisbane, Australia, ApartmentReviews - Australia's Largest Dedicated Apartment Resource, founded by Shane Moore.

In a recent email based interview Shane, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took before it was up and running
From the initial concept to having the first basic site live was around 3 weeks. The current design took another month or so to get right, at which point I started advertising through Google Adsense and posting on forums.

• Stage of Venture
The site launched in 2007 and since that time I've been concentrating on building traffic and attracting real estate agents to list their details. The next step will be to transition the 30 or so real estate agents we have into paying customers (currently it is free for them).

• Which Market Segment
Anyone looking to rent or buy a residential apartment.

• Customers
Anyone looking to rent or buy a residential apartment, and real estate agents that specialise in apartment buildings.

• Targeted Age Group
All above 18

• Users Using Service
Around 6,000 unique visitors per month, plus around 30 real estate agents listing on the site. Over 500 individual real estate agents are subscribed to our monthly apartment popularity (traffic) report.

• Marketing Technique
Organic search results (where most traffic comes from), Google Adsense, letterbox drops in large apartment buildings, print advertising in local publications.

• Measuring Success
The site was ranked 29th in Australian Anthill Magazine's inaugral Smart 100 list. Traffic is growing each month (albeit a little slower currently as the marketing budget has been significantly reduced) and we're attracting more real estate agents wishing to list their details on the site.

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Currently Google Adwords plus individually negotiated banner ad campaignes. The next step is to monetise the agent listings. Each building has five positions available for agents to list their details on, and they will pay a monthly subscription fee for each building they list on.

• Main competitors
None yet, as we aren't a classifieds site like realestate.com.au and the like.

• money required
Around $10k has been spent on development costs and advertising so far. Ongoing costs related to the site itself is very low.

• Main Barriers
Hundreds of hours of manual research to get all of the apartment building information. The work never stops because more apartment buildings are popping up every week.

• Advice For People
Sites that use all user generated content, as opposed to our site which is half generated by us (the apartment info) and half generated by the users (the ratings and reviews), take much less work!

• External Funding
None

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

infome - Find Anything Nearby from your Mobile

2009-04-24T13:33:00.009+10:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Sydeny, Australia, infome - Find Anything Nearby from your Mobile, co-founded by Scott Middleton, Andrew Lowe and Brett McDowall.

In a recent email based interview with us, Scott gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
When I was about 12 - thanks to a book my parents bought me - I found out that I could create web pages, I was so excited I distinctly remember tossing and turning the entire night because I began imagining the possibilities, imagining what I could create; especially how I could build websites for local businesses.

A year or two later, still excited and full of enthusiasm I’d learnt how to create mobile games, a well-established local mobile developer bought my first game and it went worldwide – it even made it to a top 20 list for Australian developers.

Even now, I still love mobile. I love how it can make everything so simple and so easy to do. I love the possibilities and I love that there is always something new.

In my downtime when I’m not immersed in the world of technology I’m at the gym, the beach, the pub, diving, playing Aussie rules or trying something new.

One of my partners, Brett McDowall, spends his time as the Chief Technology Officer at Object Consulting, you can read about him here.

There are a few more of our team in the wood works at the moment, but I hope to introduce them soon.

• What is the name of your venture/company?
infome. Pronounced “info me”. infome is a free iPhone application and mobile service that allows you to search for anything local. You can check out what we are doing at infome or through my blog.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Like I just mentioned, searching with infome is like asking a friend who knows all about you as well as the details of every business and every product in the local area.

infome takes things a step further than your usual search, infome is about giving you the ability to search for everything in the world around you. Remember those times you’re out after a great party and you need to find a bar that is open, with infome you can search “bars that are open”. Taking it further, imagine you’re late for a dinner, in a suburb you aren’t too familiar with and your friend only drinks shirazs, just search infome with “open bottleshops with shiraz”.

At the moment we are building up our database and working on making our technology that little bit extra special. So you might not find exactly what you are after just yet.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
infome will be like your best mate that knows you and knows the area you’re looking for something in. Soon you’ll be able to say to infome “I’m hungry” and it will know who you are, where you are, what you like and present you with the best places nearby for you to eat.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
It's taken myself and my partners a few months of tossing ideas around to finally grab onto this one. Once we decided we were up in a month or so.

• Stage of venture
The version that is out in the open for everyone to use is very much an early version of our product, some would say beta. We want to get the ball rolling and we want to see what people think. We’re currently focusing on particular suburbs of Sydney and the iPhone. Soon we'll be branching to more suburbs and more technology.

• Market Segment
People that love technology and get out and about.

• Users sing service
We average about 30 searches per day and about 9 users using the service per day with little to no advertising.

• Marketing Technique
We've just finished testing both AdWords and flyer drops. We're now focusing on 'hyper-local' initiatives like focused websites for particular communities and needs.

• Measuring Success
First it was 1 user we didn't know. Then it was 1,000 users. Now we're looking at capturing the hearts and minds of a particular suburb.

• Monetising/Revenue Model
Similar to Google AdWords in that a merchant pays per view of their listing. Listing just the business details is free, listing products/special offers and more incurs a fee. It is all performance based because why should you pay for something that you aren't seeing benefits from?

• Main competitors?
TrueLocal, Sensis and to some extent PocketLife.

• Main barriers?
Finding a niche away from the big broad brushes of the TrueLocals and YellowPages.

• Advice for people
The most important thing I have learnt is that you need to get started and then, once you’ve started you need to keep the ball rolling – in footy we say “keep the legs ticking over”. It’s important because
(a) only by doing will you learn how to do greater things and
(b) you’ll find that when you’re doing something the world turns in your favor.

• Business partner?
2

• External funding
None

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

Mogeneration - Mobile 2.0 Web & iPhone Development House

2009-04-21T19:23:00.008+10:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Sydney, Australia, Mogeneration - Mobile 2.0 Web & iPhone Development House, co-founded by Tom Adams & Keith Ahern

In a recent email based interview Keith, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took before it was up and running
The co-founder Tom Adams and I had been talking about working together on iPhone and mobile projects for quite a while. In the end it took about 2 months from a decision to launch..

• Stage of Venture
mogeneration started in October 2008 and launched "The Australian" on iPhone within a few weeks. We have offices in Brisbane and Sydney are still under 10 people. We have created 9 iPhone applications for Australian and US companies.

• Which Market Segment
We help companies and individuals get a presence on iPhone. We have worked with a wide variety of companies from News Ltd to small startups like Lingopal and Xumii. We are experts in publishing content in an iPhone format.

• Customers
News Ltd, Xumii.com, Lingopal Pty Ltd, Perkler, ShakeAndPlay.com, Perkler and a few more confidential customers.

• Targeted Age Group
It depends on the app - our kids games are aimed at young kids but also seem to have a dedicated adult following! The Lingopal phrasebook application contains some flirting phrases and is aimed at the twenty something traveler.

• Users Using Service
We are bound to confidentiality by our clients but we can confidentially say its in hundreds of thousands of users per month.

• Marketing Technique
As a consulting and development company we market through a variety of channels including online ads, linked in, speaking events including Mobile Monday and Cebit, contributing to open source

• Measuring Success
We were cashflow positive almost immediately and profitable soon after. Internally we measure success on how close our project estimates are to reality. Also, several clients have come to us after having a bad experience with other companies - mostly overseas. iPhone development is new and it's hard - it does not have the 10 years of community and support other environments have. We have also had some repeat business and great testimonials from our customers.

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
We have several models, the simplest is the fixed price or time and materials straight development model. Tell us what you want, we tell you how much its costs and build it. Beyond that we have also sometimes enter revenue share agreements where we offer a reduced build cost in return for revenue share. We are moving to platform model for some vertical markets such as news/magazine publishing, music and movie promotion and interactive kids books publishing. In these cases we have a license fee per app.

• Main competitors
Traditional mobile development shops like Hyro and Tigerspike.

• Technology Stack used
Front End is Objective-C and Cocoa. Back end - Ruby on Rails and Scala.

• Main Barriers
Lerning curve on iPhone O/S and Objective-C. Working with Apples rules and regulations. Establishing a new name. Educating clients about development costs and timelines.

• Advice For People
In the wise words of Mick Liubinskas of Pollenizer: "Ideas are easy, execution is hard". mogeneration execute.

• External Funding
Some angel funding

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

Front Foot- Media Solutions for Mobile Phone and Internet

2009-04-11T20:28:00.002+10:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Melbourne & Sydney, Australia, Front Foot - Media Solutions for mobile phone and internet, co-founded by Anton Sher, Ben Astill, Richard Lennox.

In a recent email based interview Anton, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took before it was up and running
Front Foot started in April 2006 and we launched our first mobile site in January 2007. Since then we have built a number of mobile sites, including the Winner and Runner-Up at AIMIA's 2009 industry Awards for EA and Sky Racing respectively.

• Stage of Venture
Three years on and our portfolio is growing. We now have a mobile ad server, billing and alert systems, video platforms, and are integrated into Australian carriers. Currently Front Foot is looking at several export opportunities.

• Which Market Segment
Front Foot provides mobile solutions for all market sements depending on the business, brand, or site. Our core focus is on mobile, with our own sites built for niche segments that aren't fully catered for such as with our Flight Info, Traffic Info, and Winning Numbers sites. We have a strong background in Sport, Racing and Games which can be seen in our award winning work for EA, Sky Racing, as well as other clients such as Essendon FC and Sportingbet.

• Customers

We provide B2B and B2C products and services. Our customers include content publishers, telco's, ad agencies, and consumers. Our mobile solutions are powered by sophisticated proprietary technical systems that are best in market.

• Targeted Age Group
All ages

• Users Using Service
Across the board we are approaching six-digits for number of users, and doing well in excess of 1 million mobile page impressions per month

• Marketing Technique
This depends largely on the product and the clients objectives. We can tailor a broad range of marketing solutions ranging from portal advertising for carrier-integrated products, to strategic mobile ad banners for direct-to-consumer sites. We also utilise other digital mediums, all with the objective of providing clear and simple access to a mobile web page or site that we can provide detailed analytics and feedback on.

• Measuring Success
This depends on the client. Financially the payback period for the majority of our clients are measured in months and on occasion weeks.

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Front Foot revenue models are varied. We are able to work on mutually beneficial terms that differ from client-to-client. It is important to be flexible. Even our own sites use different revenue models ranging from subscription, to advertising, and even a combination of both. With our clients we also have a mix of fee-for-service and revenue share.

• Main competitors
Various companies in different spheres.

• Technology Stack used
Front Foot's proprietary Mobile Delivery System (MDS) is widely acknowledged. It is featred in Australian Technology Showcase and used to deliver multiple services with leading carriers. Its key features include:

modular framework enabling mobile / web development;
delivers both on and off-deck solutions in a single application;
Customisable to customer requirements;
integrated to multiple carriers;
highly scaleable and reliable

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
Mobile site prices start at a few thousand $AUD and go from there depending largely upon scope, complexity, integration and support.

• Advice For People
Quality of execution will maximise your success

• Your Education/Professional Background
Front Foot directors have substantial new media experience and are all tertiary educated in their field.

• External Funding
None

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

Debenu - Document Management Tools for your Desktop

2009-04-06T18:29:00.007+10:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Melbourne, Australia, Debenu Pty Ltd, Document Management Tools for your Desktop, co-founded by Karl De Abrew.

In a recent email based interview with us, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I've spent time my earlier years in the UK, Australia, the US, Ireland, and then back in Australia. I'm an avid technologist and have been for as long as I can remember. Back to the times when people would laugh at me for using a keyboard when they had their trusty ball-point at the ready.

I enjoy working with my friends, and consequently I try to involve them all at some stage in my businesses.

I have managed to create a working environment that doesn't feel too much like hard work. Sure, the hours are long, but as an entrepreneur -- well, I've got a great boss. I also get a lot of freedom and satisfaction from that. Having said that, I do always keep an eye out for some more diverse activities! For example -- this week I'm heading up to Sydney to visit some close friends, do a little surfing, and watch some AFL.

It's hard to beat a cold beer and a bit of kick-to-kick with your mates.

I've funneled large amounts of cash up via iTunes to Steve Jobs and I like my movies -- having gone through almost everything in the store (of course, with time spent reviewing first via IMDB). This said, I'm not quite as fussy as some of my compatriots which leads to renting some pretty low-budget movies that I really shouldn't bother with.

Basically, I've been "working" as an entrepreneur for (almost) all long as I've been working ...

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Debenu is positioned squarely in around "digital documents" -- we've one product, Benubird Pro which is a personal/desktop document manager for home and business users. It designed to provide an easy way to archive, manage and retrieve documents. It's has an iTunes-style interface which targets your documents, instead of music. Secondly, we have a product called Quick PDF Library, this is a royalty-free component that application developers can add to their products to "power" them up to operate with PDF files.
• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Myself and Rowan Hanna, my brother.
Basically all my working life (and the time before it), I've been working toward a goal of building a paperless office system. Or at least, a less-paper system. Why? I'm not sure, it might have been the result of my really early years working a paper round to distribute newspapers at 5AM each day -- or perhaps the 5+ years I spent operating a fax, telex and photocopier at a stockbrokers distributing their information to each desk in the organization.

After talking with all our customers for years, we established that there was a real need in the market for a lightweight-yet-powerful, desktop document management system -- that explains Benubird Pro. Re: Quick PDF Library, we've been working with PDF for well over 15 years, in the beginning I used to pitch PDF as being the "defacto" standard for electronic documents. Well, now, it actually is... so there's a huge demand for a product that can power up any application with true PDF capabilities.

• How long it took before it was up and running?

From my experience I know that it takes around 12-18 months of solid work before a startup will realistically start making money. This being the case we put aside enough money to last us 24 months -- but luckily, it only took us 12 months. Starting a successful business rarely happens overnight, so you need to keep at it over a prolonged period of time and have faith (and a good idea!).

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
We're looking for Benubird to become the main application of choice for SOHO users who are looking for a more intelligent way of working with their files (mostly documents, images, spreadsheets, etc...).

As for Quick PDF Library -- we're looking for it to become the #1 library of choice for developers around the planet. We've got a healthy start here...

• What type of customers/people you are targeting?
Benubird Pro targets the desktop professional -- so pretty much your SOHO users.

Quick PDF Library is focused on software developers, both enterprise customers and 3rd party applications. Quick PDF Library is royalty-free which is a big selling point. To be clear, this means we do not charge you "per seat" if you compile Quick PDF Library into your application -- it's a one-time low-cost payment. Less than a couple of hundred bucks.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?

Online marketing.
User-to-user communities
Demonstrating the capability of our products by providing free versions (Lite). As distinct from a demo version of software, a lite version can be used forever, however, it's features are reduced from the commercial edition.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
I suppose the biggest and most significant measure is a) the online 'buzz' about our business and products as well as b) the fairly obvious method, which is simply sales.

Hybrid setup of:

Google Analytics - Allows us to track our traffic levels, where our visitors are coming from, results from AdWords, keywords used to locate our site, etc...
Alexa - gives us a rough idea of traffic levels
UserVoice - allows us to gauge interaction with the user community and thoughts on new ideas
Constant Contact - talk to customers via newsletters, and receive feedback (more traditional "broadcast"). The larger the number of subscribers, the greater our success in intriguing users as to our progress.
SurveyMonkey, Again, for us, this can measure success in two ways, if we ask direct questions about our products and position in the marketplace, we can garner a clear idea about our progress, secondly something as simple as the number of people who take the time to complete our surveys -- again shows that people really care to contribute their ideas and feedback.
# of downloads, Pretty clear, no need to explain.
# of sales, Another obvious one.
Direct feedback from users... Likewise, with SurveyMonkey, the fact that our customers, or potential customers take the time to write us direct emails shows that they do care about our products and business.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We're based around the traditional product sale system. Our products are all software-based hence, for the most part, the costs are (fairly) mixed as revenues increase. Increasing our sales is directly correlated to the number of visitors/trial users that we have.

We have a short-term and long-term financial strategy - with products that will sell from day one, and others which -- as a result of their innovation, will take a lot longer to communicate/educate our users.

Our PDF library is based around a royalty-free sale model which is very compelling benefit of a high-quality component to within an application.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
There are a variety of PDF library vendors and a few small document management compaies.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
Regarding our document management product, Benubird Pro, we used Visual C++, SQLite and BCG ControlBar Professional.

Basically, re: our PDF component, Quick PDF Library, involves most development environments such as Visual C++, Delphi, ActiveX, basic Window development, PowerBasic..., however, the main technology was Delphi (surprising, but yes, true).

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
Visual Studio, BCGSoft. Delphi -

Note -- this is primarily due to experience, not necessarily due to use of use. As in, there may be a "better" method for working through to reach our goals, however, it's important that we make use of our competencies and experience.

We also use, standard open source online web-hosting, marketing and forum tools

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Not really -- excepting SQLite. Again, this is based around a) experience and b) the relatively low cost of these tools when measured against the price of our applications. It makes more sense for us to utilize applications.

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
Windows XP/Vista + SQLite.

• What's your thought on being an aspiring entrepreneur?
Chose your goal first. Don't worry about how lofty it is, or what other people think about. Make it your goal.

After that let everything else fall into line. If you can't get money -- use your own, if you don't have it, don't pay yourself, if you need money, get a 2nd, 3rd or fourth job. Remember, there's always someone doing it harder than you are -- and most likely for a lot less.
Just get on with it...

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
To be honest, I really don't know -- our customer base has primarily from the US for Benubird (and our previous entity, Nitro PDF) -- with Quick PDF Library, our most significant base is from Europe. As a consequence, we've had little need or requirement to involve ourselves in the local environment.

I'm certainly not saying that wouldn't be exciting and a dynamic place to be starting up a business, I just can't really provide any useful feedback.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation?
From a technology perspective, I'd say that there's a few additions that could help. Firstly, since it's the technology and innovation that's important, in the early years, take the focus off the standard business operating procedure. Provide early-stage support for new startups that handle offices, accounts, taxation -- basically your day-to-day stuff. Let the innovators focus on what they should be good at -- innovation. Some time during years 3-5, they move out (or you boot them out!), either out into the wide world, or back home to think of the next idea.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Work out the best way to move ahead, don't waste your time, do it today (not tomorrow). I mean, literally, stop right now, don't read the answer to the next question, send your boss an email saying that you've decided to move on. Then come back and keep reading...

• Do You have any business advisor/mentor?
No. But I should have. Not having an advisor meant that I "learned" a lot of lessons. That in itself isn't a problem. The problem is learning the same lesson, over and over ... and over. Of course, learning from experience has its merits too.

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

Windlab Systems - A Global Wind Energy Development Company

2009-03-24T22:39:00.009+11:00

Today we showcase story of an exciting venture, from Canberra, Australia, Windlab Systems - A Global Wind Energy Development Company, co-founded by Dr Keith Ayotte and Dr. Nathan Steggel.

In a recent email based interview with us, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took to launch
6-12 months from idea to launch. Several years of IP development prior

• Stage of Venture
Windlab formed in May 2003 with 2 FTE's and 2 part-time.
As at March 2009 we have 22 staff across 4 countries (Oz, South Africa, Canada, USA).

• Which Market Segment
Wind Farm Development

• Customers
Financial Institutions; Electricity Asset Owners, Operators and Retailers.

• Targeted Age Group
We are not a consumer service provider. Our customers are large institutions

• Users Using Service
Again, we are not an end-user service - we work closely with large institutions with a mandate to provide clean energy to their customers

• Marketing Technique
Approach individually

• Measuring Success
Business Model with partners built on success fees - we get paid as projects progress through success stages

• Monetizing/Revenue Model

Consulting - fee for service
Partnering on wind farm development - paid success fees as projects progress
Pure wind farm development - see projects for development margin at some stage of development e.g. Financial close

• Main competitors
Other wind farm developers e.g. Epuron and Wind Prospect in Australia.

• Technology Stack used
WindScape wind mapping technology developed at CSIRO by founders and now 100% owned by Windlab.
RaptorNL and turbulence models developed at CSIRO and in-house.

• Database
N/A - ?? - we use GIS systems with SQL to store large amounts of data about individual projects

• O/S
We mainly use OSX (Mac) for the computations and most of the post-processing. All of our number crunching machines are Intel Mac's (quad Mac Pro's and Xserves). Windows XP and Vista are used for the GIS work, which is a substantial part of the work flow.

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
The Company needed of order $1-$3 million to set-up and develop business model in early years.
Has required additional larger funding to expand and progress business model

• Main Barriers
Expansion capital

• Advice For People

Seek cash early and often
Get good legal advice for major deals and try to get larger partners/clients to pay for it as part of any term sheet

• Your Education/Professional Background
Both founders have PhD's

• External Funding
External funding has come from Epicorp, inQbate, Angel Investors, Blue Cove Ventures and Innovation Capital

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

Glynx - Your World of Private Applications

2009-03-23T10:56:00.010+11:00

Today we showcase story of an entrepreneur, Malcom Allen, from Melbourne, Australia, founder of Glynx - Your World of Private Applications, i.e; it is a software you run on your PC to control your online identities and make your internet private.

In a recent email based interview with us, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took to launch
From first concept to today six years. We have had several goes at it, realising the problems are far greater than we initially anticipated, both technically and in terms of the competitive intensity. It would be true to say that I am not sure we would have started if we had known how hard it would be (and the amount of sacrifice required). For us it has really been a "force of will" - we are creating a business literally from nothing. We didn't even really believe the meaning of "we don't know what we are getting ourselves into" until we experienced it!

• Stage of Venture
Our first public beta launch was Janary this year. We launched an engineering prototype mid last year to fifty or so interested parties. While the core platform is still static there is still massive amounts of work going on to build out the applications that use the technology - expect lots of interesting things...
We completed an Angel round early last year and have been using that (plus some top-up funds) since.

• Which Market Segment
We are targeted at anyone who wants to control the privacy of their information online.
Key consumer markets for us are professionals who distribute client documents and those who need to maintain databases of client details. Examples are professional contractors, lawyers, doctors, project managers, bankers, etc. At a broader level our technology substantially enhances privacy functionality for those who manage Identity details on behalf of users: Bank online portals, social networking sites, affiliate groups, etc. At an even broader level our technology enhances privacy for any user concerned about losing control of use of their personal details online.

We provide tools to support both producers of this Identity information and consumers of that information. Students are good producers - they create lots of new personal details as they change employment, residence, etc. and they are used to working online. Their friends are typical consumers: its tough keeping up with what everyone is up to today! You should expect at least one in three of your contacts to change their Identity information annually. Think of what that costs you today in maintaining your contact list, lost productivity, lost calls, bounced emails, and lost opportunities.But have you the right (let alone trust) to give all your private contact information to a third party website(s) to manage or advertise to? Glynx solves this problem.

• Customers
It's hard to tell because our model is total privacy so we don't actually know who all our customers actually are, by definition! You can use Glynx like Microsoft Word or Excel - we don't need to know. We do have a core group of users using our system today most of whom are concerned about online privacy and control. This includes bloggers, commentators and innovators working at the forefront of the field of online Identity Management, Trust and Social Networking.

• Targeted Age Group
Our user base seems to be more middle aged, if only because this generation understands the value of reputation. Once your data is on the public web you cannot take it back. Younger people do not tend to have built up sophisticated models yet for managing their online activity and they tend to have less to lose if their privacy is compromised by their favorite social networking site (for example).

• Users Using Service
It's still early days and I think most of the people that have signed up are tech heads checking out the interface.

• Marketing Technique
Our business is all about giving users power and control of their Identity online
"Your business is your business" Consequently our primary model is referral. To seed the market we speak to bloggers, commentators and leaders in the field of online Identity Management and show them a better way to manage user information online than trust it to third parties to manage.

• Measuring Success
Our game is all about user uptake. Do enough people care about managing their own information online to give us critical mass? Ultimately we could end up being a core technology for a larger business, but our model is stand alone. We have a business plan to cash-flow break even that we are working towards.

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Value added consumer paid services like those used by high end professional networking sites and Identity Provider verification services. Some limited advertising (without breaking our promise of user control and privacy), such as targeted employment ads.

• Main competitors
Those who provide centralised online Identity management services that observe who you are, who you have relationships with and what activity you do. The main players in this market today are Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google/Grand Central, etc..

• Technology Stack used

Server side: Linux, J2EE/Tomcat/Struts, Hardware encryption
Client side: Eclipse SWT,

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
Cash investment to date is well over six figures. Many people have made investments in our business as "sweat equity"..

• Main Barriers
We wanted to ensure our core technologies were patented before launch. This required substantial investment in time and money. Startups have to make a strategic decision early: Do you want to go for speed or securing a core technology first? Our last startup was based on speed and we spent the whole time looking over our sholders concerned that others could easily come over the top of us. It was a trememdous distraction and led to several reinventions of our business model. This time we made a tremendous effort to get to the root cause of competitive advantage in our market and secure that advantage before proceeding to build the business.
As with any startup, time and/or money remain barriers to speed to market - we can only do what we can do with the resources we have. To that end we have taken a fair amount of effort to ensure the business has the appropriate tools at the back end to make the staff as productive as possible.

• Advice For People
Get your app infront of users as fast as possible. You never have enough money to do what you want. How much do you really, really need? This comes down to understanding the competitive essence of your business and putting all your effort into expressing that in its purest form.
What do YOU really need to do or what can others do for you - and why?
Try/learn/try.

Speak to and learn from people who know more than you about what you want to know. Most of what you really want to know cannot be found online (or will not make the appropriate impression there). This is particularly difficult for people based in Australia as you need to establish relationships with those you aspire to be like. For us that means "The Valley".
It's hard work and you need to sustain the passion. Have a sense of belief in yourself. It is not easy and we would have given up many years ago if we had done it for the money.
We worked for many years at two jobs to pay for this - working nights and weekends away from the family until some of the team could afford to do it full time.

• Your Education/Professional Background
MA, MBA, Business Fellow in the US. However I wouldn't put too much store on this as there is as much to learn from a particular mindset and experience/historical background as formal education.

• External Funding
We sought $3m in an Angel round 18 months ago. We didn't get nearly that but we got enough to get going. A key message is just get going. We are interested in further funding from partners who know this space and believe they can add value.

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

JustRosters - Easy and Simple Staff Rostering

2009-03-18T21:20:00.015+11:00

Today we showcase story of an entrepreneur, Aulay Macaulay, from GoldCoast, Australia, founder of JustRosters - a web application for Staff Rostering.

In a candid interview with us, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took to launch
It took 3 of us 6weeks from brainstorming to launch @ about 25hours per week each. That is around 450 man hours all up.

• Stage of Venture
Launched on the 3rd March 2009.

• Which Market Segment

Industries that employ a high number of part-time staff (Hospitality and Retail)
Industries that employ shift workers.(Health, Emergency Services, and Manufacturing)
Industries that have staff working at multiple locations (Building and Construction)
Industries that sub-contract on an irregular basis (Government and Contractors)

• Customers
Business owners / manager. Whoever is in charge or rostering for the businesses identified to above.

• Targeted Age Group
All ages.

• Users Using Service
Just under 30 as of March 5th. It's still early days and I think most of the people that have signed up are tech heads checking out the interface.

• Marketing Technique
Funny you ask - I am looking for someone to help me with this side of the business at the moment. My team has a strong background in online marketing, but I know we need help with our offline marketing which is critical for this app!

• Measuring Success
First goal is 500 happy (paying) customers ASAP.

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Monthly subscription based on amount of staff the business is managing (50 staff account costs $US29 per month). Some SMS credits for notifications are included in each subscription, but they can also be purchased in blocks.

• Main competitors
Microsoft excel, findmyshift.com and about 50 other companies with over complicated solutions..

• Technlogy Stack used

Hardware: Dedicated LAMP server
Software: CakePHP Framework, jQuery to make the interface sexy

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
I developed JustRosters using my time and the time of guys from my web development company. I guess if we working on client projects instead of JustRosters we could have made around AUD$30-40K.

• Main Barriers
Learning curve on iPhone O/S, Objective-C. Registration/approval and compliance with Apple's requirements. Increasingly crowded space. Downward pressure on prices.

• Advice For People
If your app is NOT aimed at the tech crowd directly, get it out the door as quickly as possible. The tech guys (especially in Australia) are really cool and because they are the first ones to see your app, their feedback and support is golden. Now if your app IS aimed at the tech crowd, make sure it is polished, or they will cut you down :-)

• Your Education/Professional Background
I had a small lawn mowing business at the age of 12 and things kind of went from there. I was sick of the education system by the end of high school and founded Digital Acceleration, now Marvel Internet Group Pty Ltd, shortly after it finished. Through MIG we have provided hosting, web development and online marketing for a heap of companies internationally. My focus has shifted to building in-house start-ups like JustRosters, while keeping a handful of MIG clients for that bread and butter money

• External Funding
No

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

iPhone App OZWeather - Tracking Weather Conditions in Austraila

2009-03-05T18:29:00.009+11:00

Today we showcase story of an entrepreneur with successful ventures under his belt, Graham Dawson from Sydney , founder of OZWeather - an iPhone application for weather tracking and forecasting in Australia.

In a candid interview with us, he gave insights how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:

• How long it took to launch
From idea to web app took about 2 weeks, although it used back end infrastructure that was already in place. From web app to native iPhone app in iTunes took a further 10 weeks or so.

• Stage of Venture
Product was launched on 1st Nov 2008, and has had several incremental updates since.

• Which Market Segment
Aimed at general public - Anyone with an interest in the weather.

• Customers
Aimed at general public, iPhone or iPod Touch owners. Anyone with an interest in the weather.

• Targeted Age Group
All ages.

• Users Using Service
Currently about 30,000, typically increasing at a rate of 1500 per week.

• Marketing Technique
Relies solely on listing in iTunes app store, and maintaining a high ranking for visibility to prospective customers.

• Measuring Success
Breakeven occurred less than 2 months after launch of native app. Apple supply daily stats of sales

• Monetizing/Revenue Model
Sells for AUD$2.49 per copy - of which Apple keeps 30%. Apple forwards payments on a monthly basis.

• Main competitors
Pocket Weather, BOM Radar, AUS Weather and others.

• Technlogy Stack used
Backend - Linux server (hosted account), PHP. App runs natively on iPhone.

• How Much Money is Used/Reqd.
Development costs: until launch of first version approx AUD$15,000. Subsequent revisions have required approx AUD$10,000.

• Main Barriers
Learning curve on iPhone O/S, Objective-C. Registration/approval and compliance with Apple's requirements. Increasingly crowded space. Downward pressure on prices.

• Advice For People
Carefully polish your app before initial release, as early bad reviews can kill an app

• Your Education/Professional Background
B.Sc. Physics & Meteorology, Ph.D. Dynamical Coastal Oceanography. Career in IT in oil & gas industry. Owner of small business developing Windows consumer desktop application.

• External Funding
No

Note: For Video demo click here and iTunes link can be found here

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

One Year Later....

2009-03-01T17:55:00.009+11:00

Its more than a year, since this portal started following and discovering new ventures coming out of Australia across various domains. Its been an interesting journey learning about the stories of people behind these ventures and their success stories. To reflect upon what has been achieved in last 12 months I have compiled the list of top 5 reports and interviews published here.

Top 5 Reports

Top 5 Interviews

Note: This data is compiled from web statistics of this portal.

Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here

GoPC - Entire Desktop in Cloud

2009-02-28T17:51:00.005+11:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup - GoPC www.gopc.net - is next generation “cloud computing”. It is your entire PC desktop along with your applications and data, but runs across the Internet from a super computer and projects a screen image to any device you happen to be sitting at. Its founded by Graeme Speak from Perth, Australia.

In email based interview with Graeme, conducted in Dec 2008, he explained how he is progressing with his venture. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
My name is Graeme Speak. I’m the CEO/Founder of GoPC and currently based in San Francisco/Silicon Valley. I also founded and run another company in Australia, Central Data, which operates a data centre and specialises in Outsourcing projects (network and software development). It’s now been running 28 years. I studied Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science and Management. These days I have a strong interest in philosophy, social evolution and particularly Micro Loans.

My recreational passion is Kitesurfing. I broke my neck after coming down head first on the beach and after recovering joined the WA Kitesuring Association as an office holder to actively promote kite safety awareness. I’m proud to have been one of the founding organisers of Kitestock which is now the biggest kitesurfing event in the southern hemisphere, and along with the other committee members grew the WAKSA membership from 140 to 540. I believe WAKSA to be the most organised kitesurfing organisation world wide.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
GoPC is next generation “cloud computing”. It is your entire PC desktop along with your applications and data, but runs across the Internet from a super computer and projects a screen image to any device you happen to be sitting at. You no longer need to own or have anything installed on a single physical PC. The floating PC desktop, applications and data are compatible with standard file formats like MS Office and others, but without any licence costs. So it is a fraction of the cost of setting up a normal PC or network and gives you the freedom to run your floating PC in the cloud from anywhere.

GoPC has the most comprehensive “cloud computing” solution in Silicon Valley today, virtualising not only the desktop, applications and data, but also virtualising the complexity of the entire corporate network in the “cloud”.

We first started developing the technology in 1995 and were a pioneer of what became known as an Application Service Provider. GoPC was spun off as a separate company in 2005 and has now been running live 4 years with 99.999% uptime. The world media has recently picked up on the term “cloud computing” and this has dissolved our biggest barrier to adoption – peoples’ awareness.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
I’ve always been an inventor and entrepreneur at heart but with the day to day distractions most of my ideas were never given enough resources to be finished. I was determined to make sure this one did.

In 1995 I thought the Internet had plateaued. A few guys working in Central Data had left to go start different ISP’s and had become very successful. Their problem was the burden of supporting the home users who mostly had terrible PC’s. I decided to marry a Citrix Winframe/Microsoft server network with a ISP. I couldn’t afford to buy the ISP so set one up myself. It worked. But the cost with Citrix and Microsoft licenses was very high and the only people who could afford it were businesses. So from late 1995 that become our focus. In 1999 when the industry coined the term Application Service Provider (ASP) we had been doing it 4 years, had an Australia wide network with live paying customers. That business has been very successful and is still running today.

In 2002 I wanted to have another crack at doing the same thing with Open Source software. We had pretty deep technical skills and most of the data centre was running on Unix/Linux. It was originally geared at business customers as an alternative to a Microsoft/Citrix solution and would be a fraction of the cost. By 2005 it was flying. More scalable, more robust, equally functional.

We then set about building the business and working out how to market it. The penny dropped while I was visiting China. I had always been focused on the corporate sector. The two women who came to our hotel each day to work as our interpreters went to the Internet cafe each morning to use Yahoo email. I realised if I gave them a GoPC account each it would be better for them than owning a laptop computer and even though they had little money, if I could get 100,000 of their friends to pay something then we had substantial business. The friends I was travelling are also entrepreneurs and threw down the gauntlet saying I was dreaming and I couldn’t convince them there was a real need. I was absolutely certain I was right so committed fully to turning our technical project code named “Linframe” into what is now GoPC. Both these guys are now two of my biggest advocates and have invested in the company.

There’s been a large technical team over a number of years who have built and refined the business. Taking the product to market has been just as difficult a journey. This was helped along enormously by Mr Aidan Montague, the co-founder of Cisco Systems Australia, who became a Director of the company heading up marketing and business development.

We’ve now got a presence in Silicon Valley and have found enormous interest and support there for our technology. This has been crystalised with a new Advisor to our board in Mr Ben Lyon, a veteran of Silicon Valley with a number of successful ventures now including TellMe sold to Microsoft and Ingenio sold to AT&T. Ben will become a Director of GoPC once the company incorporates in the US. The business has taken on a new level of energy now having forged business relationships with industry giant Yahoo! amongst others I’m not able to disclose at this time. There’s very exciting opportunities now everywhere around us and we’re incredibly lucky to have someone of Ben’s calibre on board.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
We built the technology over 3 years while running in parallel with the existing ASP business of Central Data. We had the technical skills within the company running the data centre and created this as a side project. There was a lot of R&D and experimentation.

The hardest part for me however has been the personal journey, losing confidence in myself, risking everything I have, thinking the rest of the world is a lot smarter than me and knows something that I haven’t yet realised. Each week for years I would look over my shoulder to see if anybody else was doing this and couldn’t find anyone. Then somebody would send us an email saying they loved what we were doing. That was a joy to read these emails and just one ounce of encouragement is all it takes sometimes to keep you going. It was really only after moving to Silicon Valley and saw what others were doing there that my personal confidence started to soar. It’s been a real roller coaster journey.

Now is the last few months the world has suddenly adopted the term “cloud computing” and every media outlet is talking about this being the next wave. Suddenly we’re an overnight success, although we have been doing it now for 14 years.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
GoPC is a "disruptive technology" which changes everything!. It's our purpose to empower people everywhere with either free or ultra low cost computing. At present users who pay for the added services subside those users who can't afford it.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
GoPC is a floating virtual PC desktop that does everything a normal physical PC does at a fraction of the cost. You can run it across the Internet from almost any device, anywhere. Being a full managed service running from a secure data centre it is far more reliable than a normal PC.

Individuals no longer need to upgrade their old PC, worry about viruses , spyware or backups. They will never want to carry a laptop again as you can run GoPC from home, work, campus, or Internet cafe straight from a web browser or using a USB key as a key to your virtual PC.

SME’s can set up a new network using GoPC within hours, not weeks. Users will have identical managed desktop environments accessing centralised storage with collaboration equivalent to MS Exchange. GoPC gives Local Area Network (LAN) functionality running over a Wide Area Network (WAN) for a fraction of the cost. Old PC hardware can be recycled or new low cost hardware can be sourced at about $100/device. There are large cost savings in the set-up but the biggest pay-off is the elimination of ongoing support costs.

Save 90% of the cost of a new PC,
Save 90% of the logistics in setting up a network
Save 90% of the ongoing support.

• What type of customers/people you are targeting?
GoPC is targeted at SOHO, SME, Enterprise, Education, as well as Not For Profit , Clubs, individuals and children. The markets are global spanning First World through to Third World countries.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
We’ve been grooming an Internet marketing campaign but held back from releasing this because we needed to throttle the growth of the user base. It would have killed us in the early days to suddenly having 100,000 users subscribe in a day.

We are now implementing a B2B approach having other businesses sell GoPC to their established customer base.

An example of this is the partnership with Yahoo! who introduce GoPC to lead their products into large corporate accounts. The edge we bring is making their corporate products run many fold faster in addition to providing our other desktop services.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Yes, we use a lot of metrics. Basically everything, in every campaign can be measured.
Of course the main metric I’m interested in is customer numbers, revenue and growth rate.
We’re pretty open about most of what we do but we don’t publish those metrics.

• What's your thought on being an aspiring entrepreneur?
I’ve got a lot to say about this but will keep this succinct. Potential won’t get you anywhere, only action does.

Being an entrepreneur is the greatest adventure in life that anyone can take. It far outweighs any personal development course and you’ll learn more doing it for real in one month than talking or thinking about it.

If you’ve got an idea, try it. Don’t risk everything on the first go. You need to be able to weather some failure. Learn quickly, play hard, always be fair with people and make friends not enemies. It is certainly possible to succeed in business keeping your integrity and there’s no satisfaction if you cheat. My personal goal is to contribute something of value to the world and I believe we all have something unique in us that the world needs.

My passion is micro loans in the third world, helping seed entrepreneurship. My hero is David Bussau from Opportunity International who at the time I heard about him had funded 250,000 micro businesses and indirectly helped 5,000,000 people get out of the poverty trap.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
It’s fantastic. It’s far more realistic and pragmatic than most of what I’ve seen in Silicon Valley. The difference is that funding support is very difficult to find here if you’re not a mining company or a property development project.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation?
I’ve been extremely disappointed at the level of bureaucracy in grants and decided to do it all myself.

I think there’s a great deal more the government should do to improve it. In my case I thought the people administrating the process cost more in salaries than the grant would have been.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
I’ve got a strong interest in economics and know I’m no expert, but it seems that this looming recession requires the government to stimulate the economy by spending on new large projects.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
Silicon Valley has numerous industry seminars and groups. You can choose from a dozen to attend almost every day. I’m fairly selective in what I attend as they can be a waste of time, however the intangible benefits of a good idea sometimes are priceless. I try and do at least one a week.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
I’m full of encouragement to anybody who wants to start a new venture. It doesn’t matter whether its big or small, so long as it stretches them to become a bigger person than they already are. It’s one of the things I love doing most - giving others encouragement to chase their dreams.

I’m also extremely pragmatic and grill them as hard as I can so we make sure they continue to refine their ideas so it will work. Dreams without a reality check can lead to disaster.
Bottom line is step forward but don’t ever gamble everything. Taking a blind risk is just stupid and should be guaranteed to fail. Treat people well and look after all your relationships. It’s people that will help you succeed or pull you down if they don’t like you.

Thanks Graeme for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.
For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

RetailMeNot.com - Find & Share Coupon Codes For Online Stores

2008-12-15T22:56:00.005+11:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup - RetailMeNot.com. Its co - founded by Bevan Clark and Guy King of Stateless Systems, Sydney, Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Bevan, he explained how he is progressing with his venture. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Stateless Systems is a bootstrapped venture focused on building websites and tools that make the Internet easier to use. Our web properties include:

RetailMeNot.com: Find and share coupon codes for thousands of online stores
BeatMyPrice.com: A people-powered price comparison engine
CushyCMS.com: A super easy hosted content management system
OurSignal.com: Social news aggregator and visualizer
BugMeNot.com: Bypass compulsory web registration
PDFMeNot.com: Takes the hassle out of viewing PDFs online
JungleCrazy.com: Browse Amazon products discounted by at least 70%

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Our flagship website, RetailMeNot.com, was built over a weekend at the end of October 2006 - after Guy spent an hour or so hunting through heaps of 'spammy' coupon sites that promised coupons, but didn’t deliver, while shopping online. Stateless Systems was founded a few days after when Bevan came onboard to help grow and monetize the site. Our success with RetailMeNot.com—which now receives more than six million visitors per month—has enabled us to continue building new websites.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
It took about a week to get the website RetailMeNot.com up and running, but we’ve been making improvements ever since we launched. The most recent upgrade was creating a closely integrated social network so that shoppers can connect with each other to get the best offers and deals.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
RetailMeNot.com targets online shoppers.

• How many people are using your services?
RetailMeNot.com currently has more than six million visitors per month and traffic continues to grow by 20% each month since the site was founded in late 2006. More than eight million people visit Stateless Systems websites each month.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Public relations and word of mouth.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Google Analytics is our friend - we use it to measure visitors to RetailMeNot.com and how they interact with the site.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
Our revenue is mostly based on Google Adwords and commission on sales for some merchants.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
There are dozens of smaller coupon sites that compete with RetailMeNot.com, but none come close in terms of web traffic. We are successful because we put user needs first.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
PHP, MySQL and iTunes.

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
Macs, Firefox and Google Docs - forget unreliable PC operating systems, non-standards compliant browsers and expensive office software and go with the free stuff in the Cloud.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Yes

• What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
The Internet is the great equalizer. Anyone can build a website on a shoestring to launch a new venture, and being physically located in Australia is no excuse for not achieving success overseas.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the IT industry?
Remove the red tape and get the paperwork online already! The sheer amount of paperwork around and starting a business and hiring people is soul destroying for a startup operating on shoestring staff. Oh, and the ATO should really learn how to deal with Internet companies earning revenue 100% overseas.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
We have a bunch of friends in the industry that we catch up with on a regular basis, nothing really organised though because that would take the fun out of it.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
1. Place user needs before revenue—The users will follow and that will bring revenue.
2. Question traditional business practices—For example, we use free online services for email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and accounting in place of traditional software.
3. Fail fast, fail often—You learn the most from failures. The more you experiment with ideas the more likely you are to find a runaway success.
4. Build something you’d use yourself—Chances are, if you’re fixing a problem that bugs you then it’s also bugging a bunch of other people out there.
5. Sometimes it’s better to know less—It is possible to disrupt established industries by not being aware of the limitations. For example, many thought the search arena was pretty well stitched up before Google hit the scene. Common thinking at the time was search was about as good as it was ever going to be.
6. If you succeed, every man and his dog will copy you - The only real way to fight this is to out-innovate and never look back.

Founders Bio :

Bevan Clark, co-founder and director of Stateless Systems: Bevan have led Research and Development at a Top 10 Australian website and managed e-commerce and web development teams for over 5 years. He completed secondary school and then traveled throughout Asia and Europe including one year of study in Germany, 18 months working and traveling in the UK and the completion of a Bachelor of Business (Management Information Systems). It was during that time, he became infatuated with the quickly growing Internet.

He began his career at a financial services company's IT department, where he experienced the exponential growth of the Internet over a few short months; He was entirely overwhelmed by the power of the medium, and his fate was sealed.

Guy King, co-founder and director of Stateless Systems: Guy has worked in corporate R&D and Web development. He has more than ten-years of intensive experience in Web strategy, branding, interface design/development and programming.

Thanks Bevan for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Clivir - Learning Community

2008-10-06T23:04:00.008+11:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup in E-Learning - Clivir. Its founded by Simon from Perth Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Simon, he explained how he is progressing with his venture.

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I have always been interested in teaching people. I have been in training/teaching for about 8 years. I was a high school science teacher for a while then moved into training people with disabilities. The last few years I have been training specialist software.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Clivir features tutorial style lessons that can be created by combining text with web based resources from sites like YouTube, photobucket, flickr and scribd etc.
These lessons are grouped within member created classrooms that provide informal learning environments for discussions and member interactions.

Don’t let tutorials get lost in your community forums again.
Showcase your skills by teaching others what you can do.
Promote your service or product.
Add further value to your face to face study or teaching.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
It has taken a year to get it all together from concept. Well worth the time and effort though.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
Our objective is simple. Create a ‘learning community’. Ie create and maintain a community environment where anyone can learn and teach.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Everyone has something to teach and most people like to learn new things. So we are not targeting any particular user group. You can teach and learn almost anything at Clivir.

• How many people are using your services?
The numbers of people using Clivir is quite small at the moment. We only soft launched a few weeks ago. We expect fairly steady future growth as content grows.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?

Word of mouth .
We have touched based with a few bloggers and online news sites in Australia. We have got a few really positive reviews so far.
We have also few ideas up our sleeves for future marketing.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Success for us is a measure of the number of valued interactions between our members. This is not easy to measure but I guess in simple terms the more members and activity (lessons, comments, questions, discussions etc) the more successful the learning community is.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
About, ehow, wikihow, howstuffworks, sutree, learnhub and instructables are all offering different services within the learning space.

• What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?

If being an entrepreneur means investing time, energy and money in an idea that you passionately believe in then I think that’s cool. I’m really glad to be involved with something that will hopefully add value to people’s lives.

I don’t know if it is any tougher to start a venture in oz compared to elsewhere. It does seem that start-ups get more exposure in US though. Having said that all the journalist who I have been in contact with in Australia have been really supportive.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
If you think it will add value to peoples live and you are passionate about it then do it.

Thanks Simon for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Matt Ireland, Aussie Entrepreneur - Owner of 3 Successful Ventures

2008-09-28T20:49:00.010+10:00

Today we showcase story of an entrepreneur with 3 successful ventures under his belt, Matthew Ireland, founder of eTradesman.com.au, MineOnline.com.au & LawyerLink.com.au from Sydney, Australia.

In a candid interview with us, he explained how as an entrepreneur he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us :

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I’m Matt Ireland, founder and manager of eTradesman.com.au, MineOnline.com.au & LawyerLink.com.au. Based between Sydney & Newcastle i have a huge passion and interest in the possibilities and developments of the internet and am always keen to read up on entrepreneurs and people who have been there and done it. Huge sports fan outside of ‘work’ and enjoy a beer with friends and family.

• What is the name of your venture/company?
Our current portfolio of online businesses include: eTradesman.com.au, Mi neOnlin e.com.au & LawyerLink.com.au – stay focused for new developments!

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
eTradesman.com.au – aimed at the tradesmen of Australia who are looking for the best way to get their business online and reach the younger generation of consumers who prefer internet search as opposed to offline hard copy methods to find trades & services. It’s about giving our tradesmen value for money and a quality service – the offline directories ask huge advertising fees which most tradesmen cannot afford, so we looked to create something that all tradesmen could manage and really give the whole market a bit of a shake-up.

MineOnline.com.au – bringing the Australian mining industry and it’s many stakeholders together to one central, easy to navigate place. The industry has more mining magazines than is necessary and these are seen by equipment and service suppliers as the best way to get their businesses in front of the right people. Again, we’re about providing a value for money, up to date medium for businesses to advertise their products and services and further expand their online reach.

LawyerLink.com.au – providing people with an easy to use and convenient tool to research various law firms in their city. Allowing law firms to expand their online exposure and further promote their services and specialties. Law firms have long considered advertising as something of a grey area but this has changed in the last few years and many are now looking for new ways to market their firm and services and many of the larger firms have dedicated Marketing Managers who are pushing the direction of the firm.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
All websites were taken to market reasonably quickly – website development and testing phases took only a few weeks to a month to successfully launch. Constant development is always underway so the work never stops yet it keeps things fresh and up to date with the latest online trends.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
A combination of methods combined with natural & organic growth. Internet-based advertising and promotion, magazines, trade shows, telemarketing etc. Satisfied customers have proven to be our best asset to get the word out and bring more people on board.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Website visitor statistics are always a good sign of our growth. Repeat business from current clients is also helpful as listing renewals are very import to us and show a great sense of faith in the service we are providing to them and are viewed as a big thumbs up to what we’re doing.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
Listing fees paid either monthly or yearly – there are also other options like targeted advertisements across the websites.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
Too many to mention. Since we began our businesses we were mainly competing with one or two major players but now it’s extremely competitive with different companies trying to compete on price or various services. Of course our main competitor is the Yellow directories (Sensis) but we’re still eating away at them and trying to get more business owners to realise the value of having their business online as opposed to purely offline – we’re not about telling people to not advertise with offline methods, as long as they look at a mixture of options then that’s the smartest decision they can make, cover their bases.

• What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
Risky & Rewarding. For me the internet was the only real option to start a business as I began straight out of high school so you’re looking for options with small start up costs and as little or no barriers to entry as possible, so the internet was a no brainer. In terms of managing a business I think more could be done to help entrepreneurs get things done on their own, as majority of the financial and legal side of things seem incredibly hidden to the business owner and the only people with the knowledge are the professionals so you have to get a good accountant and solicitor to help keep things in compliance and this all comes at a cost. Also as an entrepreneur you need to know your own skills base – know when you need to bring in someone else who is better at certain things, so for me outsourcing is a great way to get things done in a high quality / fast turnaround way.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
On the rise. It will be interesting to see how it goes in the next 10 – 15 years as the mining boom could really tempt people away from trying their business ideas as many see it too easy to go earn big money in the mines without the risk of being an entrepreneur, the boom also brings business opportunities but so monitor that space.

• How do you see the battle between Sensis, Google & rest of the players?
I think Google is in the best position to really take control of things but it will be interesting to see if they can stay focussed as more and more is coming out about their different plans to diversify – i.e. mobile phones, internet browsers... – tough to even compare as they are in a different league to the others.
• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the IT industry?
Tough to say. At the end of the day it all comes down to the person and the business idea. Maybe some efforts could be made at the school level. How many careers advisers out there are tossing up the option of business ownership or entrepreneurship to the students? Instead of pushing mainly for university or trades, why not spend some time researching some successful entrepreneurs and letting the students know that all of this is an option for them if they have the drive and skills.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
I’m on the email to a few people every now and then just to check in and see how things are going.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Research! Really look into and it, try and see if the market is there for your idea or venture. Get the best advice, consult with others who have been there and done it or are specialists in their field. I’ve got a network of people who are hugely successful in their own right and i’ve found them to be incredibly helpful with tips and advice so look at getting yourself a mentor or help network. Of course the obvious tips to just give it a go, work hard, treat your customers/clients as best you can and try to have fun along the way.

Thanks Matthew for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Interview With Emily Freeman - Status of Mobile Advertising in Australia

2008-09-21T20:32:00.011+10:00

I recently did an email based interview with Emily Freeman, founder of Mobilist, one of the emerging mobile consultants on the Status of Mobile Advertising in Australia. Lets explore what she has to say about this emerging platform and the opportunity:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
My background is a mix of marketing and online. After my Marketing degree I worked in marketing & product management for companies like Ernst & Young, Fairfax & Microsoft in the UK. I've always been interested in technology - even in 1997 at Fairfax I managed CD-ROM products! In the dot com boom I worked as community manager for a startup and luckily ended up in a stable role at Sensis when the crash came.

At Sensis I managed websites like Whereis Online and in 2004 I was offered the opportunity to develop Sensis' first WAP products. Back then there was no mobile industry, so it's exciting to have been part of something from the very beginning. After developing Sensis' Mobile Advertising strategy in 2007 I decided it was time to put all that experience to the test and go out on my own.

Mobilist was formed 12 months ago and it's been a great ride. I love being my own boss, and working on my own terms. This is such an exciting industry and there are so many fabulous & passionate people to work with. It's the perfect time to be in this space. Everyone wants to know about mobile and mobile advertising and with my background I'm lucky enough to be in demand!

More about my career background here

• Please tell us about your venture/company?

Mobilist provides consultancy on mobile strategy, and services including mobile SEM and search, mobile advertising & marketing, product development and customer acquisition for mobile sites & campaigns.

• What do you see as the main issues and opportunities with regard to mobile advertising in Australia?

The main issues

awareness by advertisers of what is possible using the mobile channel
inconsistent approaches to targeting & pricing of mobile advertising by carriers/publishers makes implementation complex & time consuming
confusion around data charging still limits mobile usage, although data costs are reducing
consumer take up of 3G data services, but less of an issue in 2008 and beyond

The main opportunities

advertisers that take the time to learn about the channel now will reap the rewards later
extending existing direct marketing campaigns to mobile
better use of exceptional targeting capabilities in mobile, including mobile search
integration of media planning to include mobile channel

• To what extent are mobile operators in Australia taking advantage of mobile advertising as a revenue stream? Can you give some figures?

The Frost & Sullivan 2008 report on the Australia Next-generation Mobile Advertising Market put mobile ad spend in Australia at $2.5M in 2007. This is largely made up of revenue earned by carriers & the major publishers. Frost & Sullivan predict revenues of more than $10M in 2008.

All of the Australian carriers are exploring mobile advertising as a revenue stream, some more aggressively than others. In many cases mobile campaigns have been offered as part of a broader online/mobile package, in order to encourage advertisers to trial the mobile channel. Most will throw in a free 'mobile campaign site' with a media buy. Both Vodafone & Telstra take a CPM based approach to mobile advertising, advertising rates between $20 - $75 CPM to serve mobile banners across their mobile portal properties.

Vodafone has been the most proactive carrier in Australia to date, having published a Mobile Advertising charter and rate card. Vodafone offers a variety of ad products including mobile banner ads, sponsorships, campaign sites, push messaging and mobile TV sponsorship.

Telstra, through their advertising arm Sensis MediaSmart, has been delivering a variety of simple, banner based mobile advertising campaigns on the BigPond and Sensis mobile sites since running trials of mobile advertising capabilities in early 2007. The results of this trial can be found here . Recently Telstra has also been exploring the use of QR codes in print campaigns to drive traffic to mobile campaign sites.

Three has taken a different approach to mobile advertising to date. Their focus is on integrated content/advertising packages which they put together on a case by case basis, rather than delivering simple banners across their portal.

Optus has had some small scale trial activity in mobile advertising but does not yet have a scalable commercial mobile advertising product in the Australian market.

• To what extent are advertising agencies taking advantage of the mobile advertising format?

Many local agencies are using the mobile channel in integrated campaigns or targeting the mobile channel specifically. Often agencies will have a strong relationship with a single publisher (ie. NineMSN) or a Carrier and tend to focus campaigns around their capabilities and audience. For example, the WPP group of agencies entered into an agreement earlier this year with Sensis/Telstra to deliver mobile advertising for many of their major brands.

Most of the carriers (which are technically media channels) also offer agency-like services, including development of creative, destination sites and campaign planning, along with booking of mobile media. Equally, NineMSN through their 5th Finger business operate as both agency & publisher, enabling advertisers to go direct for a full mobile advertising solution, or work through their agency for selected services.

A significant opportunity exists for agencies to build cross carrier / cross publisher campaigns and thus reach the entire Australian mobile audience, rather than a narrow focus on users from a single carrier only.

Global mobile agency Hyperfactory recently set up Australian headquarters with a view to targeting local advertisers and have been actively recruiting a specialist team in Sydney. The Media Store has had ongoing mobile campaigns for several clients in the last 18 months, as have TigerSpike, who are probably one of the more experienced & active players in mobile advertising locally. Ad.IQ, an agency specialising in using SMS as a direct response to print ads have also begun using the mobile channel to drive traffic to mobile destination sites.

Many of these are small niche agencies, but we are seeing more of the larger digital agencies testing the water, often in partnership with carriers or specialty firms such as Front Foot Media, who develop mobile destination sites, or QM Codes who build campaigns linking print ads to mobile content using mobile codes.

• To what extent are media planners taking advantage of the mobile route?

To date Australian media planners have not been particularly innovative in adopting the mobile channel. Certainly some have been involved in booking mobile media through the carriers and/or publishers but often this is on request from the advertiser or digital agency rather than as part of the media planning service they provide. Opportunities to book Mobile SEM and off-deck advertising to supplement reach and pick up highly qualified leads are regularly overlooked. There is a great opportunity to offer truly integrated mobile media planning in the local market. At the very least, media planners should inform themselves about the various options locally.

• It is said that the mobile ecosystem has four stakeholders - advertisers, publishers, carriers and subscribers? How can they all benefit through mobile ads? Your comments please.

Opportunities for Advertisers (& their agencies)

extending reach beyond traditional channels
extremely targeted delivery of messages
highly measurable campaigns and improved measurability of other advertising mediums
accessing mobile users directly when they are out & about
positioning as an innovative brand
building deeper relationships with customers

Publishers

ROI on the costs of publishing content
offering users targeted, relevant messages from advertisers
delivering free or subsidised services paid for by advertisers

Carriers

delivering revenue and improved ROI on mobile networks
funding delivery of more & better content services

Subscribers

free or subsidised content & services which are paid for by advertisers
access to targeted relevant messages from advertisers

• What is your take on opt-in advertising?

Opt-in is an important factor in the delivery of Mobile Marketing, which is more often based around messaging (SMS/MMS). Obviously advertisers need an opted-in database or an opt-in mechanism before pushing content via these channels. Mobile Advertising is more often delivered within existing mobile content, in the form of search ads, banners or sponsorships. This reflects the way advertising works online.

The user 'opts in' to the advertising when they choose to interact (ie. click). In a good campaign this means they can go on to participate further, such as entering a competition or signing up for content. By interacting the user is expressing their desire to get involved with the brand.

Other forms of opt-in mobile advertising include signing up to receive SMS ads in return for a free or subsidised mobile service, such as that recently launched by SMS Pup. There is a great opportunity locally (particularly for carriers) to offer users opt-in ads in return for services. According to the 2007 AIMIA Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index, 89% of recipients said they would definitely use more content & services if they were free or subsidised.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the Telecom industry?

The Victorian government already does a lot through organisations like Film Victoria, Multimedia Victoria and the recently established Mobility Vic. There are numerous grants, programmes and opportunities available for anyone with some initiative. It's a shame not to have the Commercial Ready grants anymore though.

I think there should be more support for venture capital investment in technology based startups. Tax breaks or financial incentives for VCs to encourage their involvement in local startups would really pick up the pace locally. At Mobile Mondays we work closely with the VC community and intitiatives like MEGA to encourage investor involvement in local mobile businesses. In October our Mobile Monday event is called "Why you should invest in the mobile industry" and it will be a great opportunity for investors to learn about this space, but also for startups & small businesses to learn about how to tap into the investment community.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?

I don't pretend to have the first idea about politics or economics but I'd focus on local initiatives that could make a big impact in the long term. Things like providing every home with a water tank, helping set up community gardens or neighborhood groups to grow vegies & become partially self-sustaining. Secondly I'd provide incentives to support small, locally based business, even home based businesses.

And finally, I'd make sure any politician allowed to advise or make decisions on technology and innovation would have to pass a test to prove they can use twitter, blogs, rss readers, instant messaging and the mobile internet. Anyone with this kind of power should at the very least be able to download software, transfer music to an ipod and be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of a social network. Ideally they would have a blog and a significant community of followers from which to draw input to policy, but i suspect that's asking too much just yet!

• Do you have any advice for people who are looking for mobile as a platform for advertising?

Research. Talk to every carrier & mobile publisher before you do anything.
Get a second opinion and be informed - there is some really bad advice out there.
Ask your agency to present examples of how mobile advertising has worked locally - this will force them to find out too!
Insist that your media buyer knows about the mobile channel and present options
Read my blog, follow me on twitter and join the “Mobile Advertising in Australia” Facebook group

Thanks Emily for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

WasabiTV - Watch and Download Free Online TV and Video

2008-09-18T21:19:00.008+10:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup in online video platform segment - WasabiTV. Its co-founded by Ananth Sarathy from Sydney Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Ananth, he explained how he is progressing with his venture.

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Ananth Sarathy and Daniel Brunet meet at an Apple reseller and always remained in contact over the next few years.

Ananth Sarathy, Co-founder/The Digital Media and Strategic Partnerships Clown.- Has a degree in Business and IT, who has worked for Australias Largest retailers as a Senior Business Analyst and like Daniel has a passion for All things Australia, whether it be Content or Intellectual Property and Innovation.

Daniel Brunet, Co-founder/Code Monkey - Is a freelance web designer and developer, bringing his interest in the Arts, Video and Music to life with the tools of the web. A Graphic guru able to code anything as long as it is for the betterment of man kind!

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Launched November 11, 2006 by two young Australian entrepreneurs, WasabiTV is quickly becoming the leading online portal for commercial, community and independent television media.

With a continuous array of new shows, features and marketing strategies planned throughout it's growth, WasabiTV aims to provide the best solution for individual film and TV producers, production companies and television stations to professionally step into the online market, without having to re-invent the wheel.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
WasabiTV allows producers to directly connect with a core audience and to create a following of loyal supporters by offering a free, interactive, online TV experience. Producers can optionally offer episodes at a cost per download for premium video content. With this in mind, WasabiTV believes strongly in maintaining an accessible experience, aiming to ensure at least 90% of content on the website is available for viewers to watch and download at no charge.

Viewers can download episodes to mobile devices and desktops, as well as stream video directly into their web browser using leading internet video technology. WasabiTV has been developed to meet the needs of producers and viewers alike, while continous re-invention of the website allows room to expand and evolve with user feedback and fresh ideas.

Going forward, WasabiTV sees massive growth and potential in the online TV market and aims to globally provide quality online TV shows, organised with purpose, direction and meaning.

• How many people are using your services?
We have 200 thousand + Impressions per month, and 5000+ Subscribers.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
All our marketing is totally Viral, and Word of Mouth as we see it as the best and most effective and the cheapest for any startup!

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
We love and strongly believe in open source as an efficient way for us to grow. We have built on alot of Open Source solutions and have combined the best to come up with our own!

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?

Free Education for All - There is no reason that someone should not be able to be the best because they cannot afford education!
Establish Centres of Excellence in Medicine, IT, Humanity, Engineering, Sciences, Trade and Agriculture - So we can deliver the best services from Australia to the world.
Roll the NBN out ASAP - the information super highway in Australia is strangled!

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Never ever give up, listen to the bad and the good of what people say. Change Adopt Grow and Challenge yourself. You will never be happy, there will be always something to do. Be wary of miracles, and work hard towards your goals. Have a plan and aim towards it! and the last bit.. there is no such thing as good luck, just hard work and good results!

Thanks Ananth for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Digital will be about M3 and N3

2008-09-18T21:07:00.004+10:00

This is a second guest post by Rajesh Jain, an entrepreneur based in Mumbai, India, and Founder and Managing Director of Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd. He has put together his thoughts on News and Content in a Digital World. Lets explore what he has to say:

On Friday (August 1), I was part of a panel at an event organized by afaqs - “The Future of News.” My panel’s topic was “Who will subsidise Digital Content?” Here is a gist of what spoke:

It’s not about subsidising but about monetisation: Thinking subsidies necessarily implies that the primary source of revenue is somewhere else. How can we look at the digital world independently and see how content can be monetised? On the Internet, the only revenue stream is advertising. My belief is that the mobile is where the big action and opportunities lie. On the mobile, one can create multiple monetisation streams - from not just advertisers, but also subscribers, merchants and enterprises. For this, creating a direct-to-consumer relationship is essential. In other words, content owners need to think of themselves as “VAS (Value-Added Services) Operators” [complementing the Voice Operators] in the mobile space.

Digital will be about M3 and N3: Content in the digital space needs to focus on Mobile, Mass and My (M3) and Now, New and Near (N3). The Mobile will be where we will get our news first - before any other medium. The sheer numbers make it the biggest Mass medium in India. We will also want “My” news and other content to be personalised - things we are interested in. We want to know about things Now - as they happen. We want to also be kept updated on the New stuff - the Naya Naya. We also want to know what’s happening Near us — in our neighbourhood. Putting all this together will create the foundation for the opportunities in the Digital space. The mobile can thus provide not just instant updates, but also offer a window into reach media services (images, audio and video).

First, Create a Right of Way: The first step towards moentisation involves creating services that touch people multiple times a day. On the Internet, Search has done this very effectively and thus created the foundation for companies like Google to take that attention and convert it into cash. On the mobile, I think it will be about SMS and Subscriptions. Use free, permission-based push services on SMS to create the right of way to consumers thus building a subscriber base and creating ‘Media on Mobile’, and then leverage that attention to creating multiple monetisation streams.

Become a VAS Operator: An operator has a direct-to-consumer relationship. In the mobile world, Voice operators have done phenomenally well in using voice as the anchor service to create additional revenue streams. But their focus is still not on VAS. What India needs (and can lead the world in) are VAS Operators. Besides the direct-to-consumer relationship [starting perhaps with SMS subscription services], VAS Operators have three additional characteristics: multiple services, multiple revenue streams, and alternate payment channels. The VAS Operator opportunity in India in the next three years is to reach 50 million subscribers, generating a monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) of Rs 50-100.

Mobile can be an excellent Youth Marketing Medium: Mobiles are increasingly the centre of our lives for communications and interactions for most of us. For Young India, it is even more so. In a world of fragmenting mainstream media attention, the mobile can become the magnet for reaching out to youth - because it is personal, and always available and always on. Digital content companies need to think of strategies to use all the mobile bearer channels (SMS, Voice and WAP) to reach out to the Youth.

MyToday provides a good case study: My company, Netcore Solutions, launched MyToday’s free SMS subscription services in October 2006. Since then, 3.6 million people have subscribed to an average of 3 channels each. MyToday sends out about 12 million SMS daily - about 4% of India’s SMS traffic. While SMS advertising is the first and most significant revenue stream, the Right of Way to the subscriber base is enabling us to create innovative new revenue streams in the form of Pull services (request-reply on SMS), Email2SMS, WAP traffic to our portal (mytoday.mobi), Lead Generation and as we set up alternate payment channels, Paid Channels and Transactions. News is one of our most popular services - reaching nearly 1.5 million, twice daily.

Summary: The Digital world of Internet and Mobile offer rich opportunities because of their inherently interactive nature. What news media and digital content companies need to do is to start thinking of them as platforms in their own right, rather than simply as extensions of print or TV (which starts implying subsidisation). By building a right of way to subscribers, they can create many more monetisation streams than just advertising. The game has just begun!

Bio: Rajesh Jain is an entrepreneur from Mumbai, India. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Netcore Solutions Pvt Ltd (messaging and security solutions, and mobile data services), and have made a number of investments in various companies as part of his own fund (Emergic Venture Capital). He had earlier set up IndiaWorld, India’s first Internet portal which was launched in 1995, which was acquired by Sify in November 1999 for USD 115 million (then, Rs 499 crore). He blogs at Emergic.org

Cinergix - Share, Reuse, Innovate

2008-09-16T22:59:00.009+10:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, today we explore a promising startup in online collaborative tool segment - Cinergix Its co-founded by Charanjit Singh from Melbourne Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Charanjit, he explained how he is progressing with his venture.

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
See Profiles below - basically we are all staunch believers of Internet innovation and spend most of our free time exploring new technologies, products and thought leadership blogs like TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, Mashable, IT|Redux, Guy Kawasaki, John Battelle, etc.

• What is the name of your venture/company?

Company: Cinergix Pty Ltd
Product: Creately

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Cinergix is the Australian start-up developing the Creately platform and its patent-pending KObject technology, which is changing the way we solve design and modeling problems. Creately is a rich Internet application with a smart user interface and automated validation checks that will make the process of design easier and more accessible. It enables specialists in diverse fields to capture and share their knowledge and intellectual property. This new paradigm of leveraging user-generated content for design work will enable Cinergix to support the long tail of design problems.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Started in 2007 by a team from Sri Lanka, the UK, and Singapore, the company also runs a research and development centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka and will set up operations in the United States in early 2009. For more information, visit www.cinergix.com & www.creately.com

The founders met while completing their respective Master's programmes at Melbourne University and first mooted the idea as part of the Melbourne University Entrepreneurial Competition (MUEC 07/08). Originally conceived as a simple diagramming tool, we developed a prototype Facebook application to allow friends to comment and annotate on thier photos. We soon realised the potential of the platform we had created and decided there was potential in it as a general purpose design and modeling tool with intelligence. Cinergix was also selected as a finalist in the Vic Pitch 08 competition held in June 2008.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
With the initial idea mooted in Oct 07, we had a Proof of Concept ready for the MUEC competition by Feb 08.
Since then we incorporated an Australian business entity in Apr 2008 and have setup a R&D center in Colombo Sri Lanka where we have a technical staff of 4.
The team has been developing the code for the last 9 months in preparation for DemoFall08 and our private Beta Launch. Product development continues as we race to add more features and build out our community.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
We believe today's collaborative tools are mainly focused on textual collab like wikis, blogs and so on, whereas collab around visuals is very limited. Design and modeling is best done visually and most effective when a team of designers can work together in a collab manner. Often, people have used whiteboards, mock-ups or even Visio for design and visual collab, but each of these approaches is limited in the ability to capture, share and reuse knowledge. We want to build a visual collaboration platform that will let diverse teams collaborate and capture their knowledge and design intent within their designs, allowing experts and business users to work seamless across multiple domains of expertise on a simple and intuitive online platform.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
As a basic platform, it can be seen as a Visio replacement delivered over the web with collaboration and a community of users sharing their designs and expertise.
However, we believe the real value of our platform is its ability to provide visual real-time validation of the designs as we build them. This is done using our patent-pending Knowledge Object technology that encapsulates the experts knowledge into simple Visio-like icons, The Knowledge Objects or KObjects embody their real-world counterpart's attributes, behaviors and rules allowing non-experts to create workable designs and solve problems intuitively

• What type of customers you are targeting?
As a Visio-like tool, we are targeting the general market of professionals who currently use such design and drawing tools. Currently however, we are specifically targeting the business and IT consulting firms, who we believe will use this platform in their customer engagements and leave it behind in their customer sites after demonstrating the power and ease of our platform. In line with this, today Creately comes ready with a set of smart Knowledge Objects for Business Process Modeling, Flowcharts, IT Networks, Capacity planning, UML and so on.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
We are a Freemium product delivered over the web. A free subscription will allow a user to design and collaborate but limit the number of collaborators who can work on the design. After our private beta is complete we will also offer Professional and Business subscriptions with greater utility like unlimited collaborators, full revision control and User management for Business accounts.

We plan to also monetize the community, by allowing users to package and sell their expertise via an online marketplace - This is a new model, but we are not ready to reveal further details at the moment.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
Today, Visio is the largest player in this space but their offering is limited in its ability to share and collaborate. In the online space there are 2 small players who have developed some traction, but these are indirect competitors as they do not offer the range of functionality we do.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?
We are firm believers in Open source and its related technologies. Today the application is based on Adobe Flex and the Spring platform.
We believe we are pushing the limits of what you can achieve today with Flex and are very proud of the great work our R&D team has done with this platform. We are firm believers in the Flex platform and although there are still some issues with it, we believe its strong adoption in the community will help soothe these issues out inevitably.

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
We use Mingle from ThoughtWorks to support our Agile development and its been a great tool for planning and visibility. Although its a paid service, we see the value it delivers for a geographically dispersed team like ours.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Yes, lots of test and build frameworks that support our agile development methodology, including Spring, Subversion, Eclipse, Maven and a range of testing frameworks.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
We were of the believe after our participation in MUEC and Vic Pitch that there is a thriving community of innovators and investors in Australia, particularly in Sydney. However, after our recent trip to Silicon Valley where we met numerous entrepreneurs and investors, we believe we still have a long way to go in terms of developing the ecosystem required to support internet startups. Most people we have spoken to locally dont understand the scale of the Internet, perhaps because of the size of the local market, and as such dont understand the potential of these business models. Our American counterparts have both the foresight and the experience in dealing with such businesses to appreciate how the internet is a game changing paradigm that will have an impact on all industries.

Founder Profiles
Chandika Jayasundara – Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
MIS (Melbourne), Pg Dip M(CIM), BSc.(Hons)(London)

Chandika started to work on Cinergix in July 2007 on a full-time basis. Since then he has built a strong team, setup the infrastructure, a proof of product concept and proven the business case to various stakeholders to establish the start-up.

Chandika has over 7 years of experience in creating and deploying software products to serve organisations that range from SME's to Global 2000 companies. He has led international teams in technical and management capacities and supported delivery of large scale web enabled software to enterprise clients. He has also previously founded and led a small software consulting firm with a team of 4 that catered to small and medium sized businesses in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Recently, he has been the key member of a research project at the Department of Information Systems at The University of Melbourne focusing on online collaborative learning and is an author of several publications on this subject. Chandika holds a Master of Information Systems from The University of Melbourne, a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing and a Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems with First Class Honours from the University of London.

Chandika's long term business and technical vision, the innate feel for the market trends, and proven leadership skills will help Cinergix grow to its full potential.

Nicholas Foster – Director & Chief Operating Officer (COO)
BSc. CompSci (Hons) (Brunel), MInfoTech (Melbourne), GradDip e-Business Law (Melbourne), MACS (Prov)

Nick joined Cinergix in November 2007. Nick has worked in the IT industry in both the UK and Australia during the past 8 years. During his career Nick has been exposed to organisations of varying sizes. He has been intimately involved in the running of an Australian company which provided him with excellent decision making experience. Nick was also involved in shaping and bringing to market a new way of extracting value from intellectual property within the health care industry; using the Internet to sell and deliver the material to healthcare workers all around the world. Nick's other skills include software development; he has created many software solutions during his career all focused on networking and the Internet. Nick completed his postgraduate studies at The University of Melbourne and gained a Master of Information Technology and a Graduate Diploma in E-Business Law. His undergraduate studies were completed at Brunel University in London where he received Honours for his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

Nicks experience with start-ups and his ability to manage and lead company operations will allow him to excel at executing the business vision of Cinergix.

Charanjit Singh – Director & Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
MBusIT (Melbourne), BASc (Computer Engineering)(Nanyang, Singapore)

Charanjit joined Cinergix in October 2007 to help refine the idea and develop the Cinergix business model. He has 10 years experience in the IT industry consulting with large multinational and Internet start-ups in Singapore, Australia and India.

Charanjit started his professional career with a Singapore-based Internet start-up, where he led the application development teams across the Asia Pacific region, allowing the firm to list successfully on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Since then, he has led numerous large-scale Enterprise Application projects in the region within the Telco, Retail and Government industries, but has yearned to get back to his roots in the Internet business.
With excellent leadership skills, Charanjit brings extensive market knowledge and customer management skills to the team. His exposure to international markets and experience selling to C-Level executives will see Charanjit adding value to Cinergix's business strategy and growth vision. He holds a Masters in Business Information Technology from The University of Melbourne and a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Thanks Charanjit for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

PTY Auctions - Real Estate, Property Auctions, Bid Online

2008-09-16T22:16:00.009+10:00

Today we explore an exciting venture in Real Estate Industry - PTY Auctions Pty Ltd. It was founded in 2006 by Gavin Stuart from Sydney, Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Gavin, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I was responsible for the development and implementation of property application for PTY Auctions. The development and implementation took approximately 2 years with the majority of that time spent working with the regulators to ensure the service complied with each of the States regulations.

Since 2002, I have been involved in successfully conducting live on-line auctions worldwide selling ‘speciality coffee’. I also oversaw the development and implementation of a global document storage solution for the International Task Force for Commodities Risk Management – members of this task force include: ABN AMRO, RaboBank, Mitsui, World Trade Organisation, The World Bank and Ministry of Finance; and developed a high availability Federal Procurement Data System for the US Government leveraging Microsoft best practices. The solution handled in excess of 10 million transactions per year from 61 agencies of the US Federal Government.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
The PTY Auctions service, for the first time, allows vendors the choice of having their property auction broadcast live via the internet to a worldwide audience of affluent buyers. Breakthrough proprietary technology utilising streaming audio and video allows remote bidders to participate fully in the auction. The bottom line is that we make sure all the bidders are in the room whether they are located internationally or interstate.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
All in all, it took about 2 years to get to market. The software behind PTY auctions was written over about 6 months however, the rest of the development time was spent working with the regulators. Auctioning real estate is very different to auctioning consumer products on eBay. There are many more consumer protections written into the property act and for an online model to fully comply was challenging.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
The main objective was to optimise the process of buying and selling real estate across geographical boundaries - for consumers to be able to safely and easily bid for properties they may have previously discounted and for sellers to ensure that every possible bidder is in the room at the time of the auction.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
For sellers we provide both a webcast and a live online bidding service. The webcast service allows the agent to stream audio and video of their auction through the PTY website. The live online bidding service adds the ability for any of their buyers to register and submit their bids live online during the auction.

Members also have access to practice auctions, online tutorials and a historical database of past auction webcasts.

• What type of customers/people you are targeting?
We have a wide range of registered online bidders. Many are businessmen and women travelling interstate and internationally submitting bids from airport lounges. Many are expats bidding from their adopted home such as London, Dubai and Paris. Some are time poor families that cannot make it to the auction room.

We also have people signing up who are interested in watching the auctions as part of their research process before entering the market. All of these groups are targeted by our marketing staff.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
We market to both the trade (principals, agents and auctioneers) and direct to the consumer. We use a mix of trade journals, exhibition marketing, public relations and direct advertising. We are rapidly establishing links with the community of over 1 million Australian expats through specialists organisations.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
We have targets set for ourselves in the areas of trade penetration and uptake amongst buyers of property. We also use statistics such as memberships, time spent online, viewership of each auction etc.. to track our progress.

• What's your thought on being an aspiring entrepreneur?
As an aspiring entrepreneur you must ask yourself a simple question. “What is your definition of success?
a) A profitable company,
b) A company with huge growth or
c) Developing cool products.
If you answered a) you are well on the way to being a successful entrepreneur. All successful entrepreneur’s know that cash flow is king! If your company is growing too quickly and you don’t have the cash flow to cover your expenses your business will fail. I’ve also seen entrepreneur’s fail because they want to keep building software rather than selling their existing products.

Aspiring entrepreneur’s must also be a jack of all trades. When you start a new business you are the: accountant, lawyer, HR manager Marketing manager and IT manager. I would highly recommend doing courses in each of these areas before starting your business.

If you service(s) / product(s) are consumer focused make sure you get several hours of Public Relations training. This is invaluable in refining your marketing message and making sure consumers understand your message.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
The start-up culture and innovation in Australia is not as good as other developed countries. The US for example has a number of government funded mentoring programs which can make a huge difference for a start-up.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation?
Provide more small business loans and grants. Reduce company tax and provide a more efficient medium for young aspiring entrepreneur’s to be mentored by successful businessmen and women. An example in the US is the Small Business Administration.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?

Education is the silver bullet. Pay teachers more through incentive based programs that are managed and distributed by the principals of each school.
More resource / funding must be focused on alternate energy sources.
More resource / funding for the technology sector. Because of our geographic isolation we need to created better technology to bring us closer to the rest of the global business community.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
As part of our business I am regularly speaking with small business owners and entrepreneurs. While there is not a dedicated time or place to meet, when we do talk, we talk business. It is critical to learn from others experiences rather than trying to recreate the wheel. This is why I believe a government backed medium for the mentoring of young aspiring entrepreneur’s is so important.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?

Do you market research. Research you target market. Not all good ideas create successful businesses.
Know your customers and make sure you design your service / product around them and not what you think they need.
Make sure you have enough funding to get market traction. In the current credit squeeze you will not get funding for an idea easily. To get funding in the current environment you will need a growth curve and market traction.

Thanks Gavin for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Millstream Web Software - Easy Content Management

2008-09-16T21:57:00.008+10:00

Today we explore an exciting venture in web based content management software - Millstream. It was founded in 2006 by Adrian Lynch from Perth, Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Adrian , he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
I studied Graphic Design, graduating in 1990, and have run my own businesses since then. I have always been extremely interested in the technical side of 'design' especially developing automated systems to remove the incredible amount of wasted effort that goes into publishing.

I still do a bit of design work, but I now spend most time coding or on system design.

• What is the name of your venture/company?
Millstream Web Software, our product is Spring CMS.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
Since 2006 we have focused on turning Millstream from a 'web design company' into a product based 'SaaS' provider offering Spring CMS, a simple to use, standards based content management system.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
I started a graphic design partnership called 'The House' in 1990 focusing on corporate identity and magazine publishing.

In 1996 we had started to offer web design services to our existing clients, and within the next year I had started experimenting with database driven sites and rudimentary development of our first content management system.

In 1997 I moved into a new partnership with Haymarket, a printing and publishing company to focus on managing their existing print clients, and introducing full web development services. This new partnership called Millstream, developed several custom built CMS's over the years which we could deploy for all our clients, but we also offered general development services, static sites and design.

In March 2006, my wife Rosemary Lynch and I bought out Millstream, and 'Spring CMS' the content management system that we had been developing for the last year. The focus for Millstream from then on has been to offer a single subscription based solution to our clients.

The business now consists of myself, Rosemary and our developer Christian Inkster.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
When we took over Millstream in 2006, we started with the existing Spring CMS and a long list of clients. Over the next 6 months we completely refocused the business, no longer offering 'general web services' or custom development. We shed quite a few of the initial clients that did not suit the new business and concentrated on building our subscription base.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
We are entirely focused on development and adding new features to Spring CMS allowing us to expand the number of monthly subscriptions to increase revenue.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
Spring CMS was initially designed to allow us, as designers, to deploy sites for our clients that provided an extremely simple management interface for clients to use, while at the same time being adaptable to any site design.

This allows us to use the identical centrally installed system for small business clients through to large national clients.

• What type of customers/people you are targeting?
Primarily small to medium businesses - though we do have several national and international clients. We also have a large number of private schools using our system.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
We have established strategic alliances with several design and marketing firms in Australia - and the majority of work is now through them. We do also have a significant number of clients that have been through word of mouth.

We have also released several scripts developed and used in Spring as Open Source which generate a lot of traffic and interest.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
We measure success purely by the number of monthly subscriptions.

• What's your thought on being an aspiring entrepreneur?
The benefits far outweigh the risks, that is for sure. Personally the ability to completely focus the direction of the business, and to maintain and develop that focus over several years is something I have never felt I could achieve unless I ran my own business.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation?
I think the 'innovators' are out there doing it already - with or without government support. I am not convinced the government need to do anything or if it's even the government's problem.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
Only one thing, I'd make sure that the National Broadband Network was nothing less than FTTH (Fibre to the Home) - we are rapidly falling behind, and anything less than full FTTH will be a pitiful waste of effort by the time it rolls out.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
I catch up regularly (though not enough) with the web community in Perth and Australia through AWIA and Port80. Twitter of course keeps me up-to-date with the minute-by-minute tweets of most of the Perth crowd. Luckily the Perth web community is extremely vocal and extremely well connected - it's a great place to be a developer.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Only what has worked for me, focus on what you know, and what solves your problems - because it more than likely solves problems for a lot of other people as well.

Thanks Adrian for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Ankoder - More Than A Online Video Platform

2008-09-11T20:20:00.005+10:00

Today we explore an exciting venture in Online Video Platform, Ankoder (pronounced encoder). It was founded in 2006 by Rex Chung from Sydney, Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Rex Chung, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
We're more than just a white label video platform. We provide a flexible API that allow developers to easily integrate videos on their site while keeping full control of the videos and encoding options.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Ankoder is a product of RoRCraft, which was founded by Rex Chung in 2006. We started this project in house since late 2007. We got this idea from thinking how can we capitalise the power of cloud computing. We've designed our application to automatically scale using Amazon's EC2 so that we can guarantee the videos don't need to wait in a queue, and we open up this powerful system at a very low cost. We have very big plans on optimising the video transcoding speed and quality.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
It took us 3 months to build the first version. We released www.ankoder.net as a test project for our own API. Now we're improving our user experience and documentations before we release it to our public.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
The best experience for integrating video functionalities to your own website as well as the fastest and highest quality video conversion.

We believe youtube has solved the online video sharing experience but there's still another issue. Many users wish to see videos on their own devices. With our service, we can convert videos into different formats and sizes at the same time.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
We provide a platform that allows developers to make their own video applications easily. There are lot of solutions out there that provides a white label Youtube service or adding videos to social networks, but we're a lot more than that. End users can upload videos directly to our servers, we do the conversion to Flv or mpeg4 or any formats they wish. Our application will post back all the video information to our customer's application while the video file can be hosted on our servers.

Our servers are hosted on the Amazon infrastructure, fully utilizing the elastic scalability of S3 and EC2. Video conversion can take up a lot of CPU power and it is very costly to maintain if it is not their core business. Our value is our ease of use and our ability to scale our conversion servers automatically such that no video will need to wait in a long queue.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
We are developers that are creating new applications as well as established services that want to integrate videos onto their site. For example, since Flickr was born, alot of photo sharing sites flourished. However not all of them has the resource to add video functionalities for their existing customers easily. Another example maybe online CMS applications that already let users upload photos, but does not have video conversion technologies. Our solution is a good fit for these sorts of applications as they can have full control over the work flow of the videos.

• How many people are using your services?
There are two publicly viewable sites using Ankoder right now. First is our own project at ankoder.net. Another one is a vertical social network site for ice skaters, skatingcircle.com, they are one of our first beta testers. We have also integrated our plugin with an open source social network project, lovdbyless.ankoder.com.

Agentpoint.com.au, a CMS for real estate agents, has also recently added video functionalities using our service.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
Most video transcoding servers require thousands of dollars in license fee. Our model is pay per use. Although, when we first launch we will adopt the plans model. Different size plans will have different number of conversions per month. For high volume sites, we can provide a pay per use model at very low cost per conversion.

Thanks Rex for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

StreetAdvisor - Your Street, Your Voice

2008-09-10T21:55:00.006+10:00

Today we explore an exciting venture in Real Estate Industry - StreetAdvisor.com.au. Its co-founded in 2007 by Adam Spencer from Melbourne, Australia.

In a recent email based interview with Adam, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
My name is Adam Spencer, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of StreetAdvisor.com.au

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
StreetAdvisor.com.au is website devoted to helping people find the best place to live, it’s as simple as that. We have reviews of streets, cities and neighbourhoods from all around the world written by locals in the area. We also have photos, videos, guidebooks, forums and much more.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Jason Spencer (Co-Founder and Co-CEO) and myself came up with the idea for a website about helping people to find the best place to live. It was an idea born out of frustration with our own streets. We thought it would be great if there were a resource that told you what was great, or not so great about the streets people were living in.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
We had about 6 months of basic planning and dev before it was up and running. We felt it was important to get the site live very quickly and make updates often. We launched with a basic database of streets and a review process. That was about it. As you can imagine after about 18 months, the site looks a lot different now, and has much more content.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
Find, share and chat about the best place to live.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
Our mantra “Find, share and chat about the best place to live” can really be broken up into three main areas of StreetAdvisor. First of all people can “find” street reviews, city reviews, photos videos, maps etc. Then they people can “share” their own experiences of what life is like where they live, lived previously or have simply visited. Finally people can “chat” about the best places to live through our recently launched forums, or ask questions about existing reviews.

• What type of customers you are targeting?
Mostly home buyers, renters and sellers. This encompasses a lot of people. This is one of the main reasons we have partnered with some big players in the real estate space such as Realestate.com.au, X Inc Mortgage Brokers, RP Data and Opteon Valuation group.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
Mostly through word of mouth. We have tried radio advertising, competitions etc but the real key here is give something people to talk about with their friends. That’s the cheapest and best way I know how to get people to use your product.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Measuring the success of a website is tough because it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. StreetAdvisor is a long-term venture for us. Getting all the content we need is going to take time, and they key is to have enough capital to make sure you survive the long haul. Luckily we have more than enough capital to keep StreetAdvisor moving forward for a very long time.
In terms of monitoring progress, as long as we have one more review or photo each day, then it’s good progress. Lucky for us we get hundreds of new pieces of content daily, so each day is good for us.

• What is the monetizing/revenue model? Is their any new model, which is being tried?
2 ways.

Advertising on StreetAdvisor
Later in the year we are going to release a special version of StreetAdvisor that can enable larger companies to use StreetAdvisor data. That’s about all I can on that for the moment.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?
There isn't really anyone else focusing on the street level, so it’s hard to identify with any competition. Ultimately there are a number of neighborhood sites out there, but no one at the street level.

• What are the main technologies used behind this venture?

Microsoft .Net 3.5
Microsoft SQL2008 (Spatial Extensions)
Microsoft Mappoint
Google Mapping

• What has been the most easy to use, out of box and helpful technology?
All the tools we use have been extremely easy to use. Nothing has been too difficult from memory.

• Are you using lot of open source tool sets for this?
Nope

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
Windows Server 2003\2008 and Database is SQL 2008

• What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
On being an entrepreneur, it’s kind of like going on a date with a cute girl. It’s scary, exciting, daunting, thrilling, but at the end of the day you love it and you always go back for more.
I don’t think being in Australia is any different to being in America. A good idea is a good idea, no matter what country you are in. I suppose there is a lot less competition in Australia, but as I said, a good diea will work no matter what the location.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
To be honest, I don’t know of too many start-ups coming out of Australia. Maybe I just don’t read the news enough, or there’s isn’t enough exposure for growing Australian startups.

• How do you see the evolution towards mobile platform.
I don’t think it’s any secret that Apple has changed the game with the iPhone. Companies are scrambling to get their apps on the iPhone, and with good reason…it’s extremely useable. Over the next 10 years mobile will expand as the platform becomes more reliable, faster and cheaper. I’m very excited about this.

It would be interesting to see if we could get a “silicon valley” going here in Australia. There isn’t really a hub of technology as such yet here in the country. Perhaps the government could offer funding\tax breaks for start-ups in Victoria.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?

Better Internet Speeds.
Media law reform so we Australia gets more online content.
Can’t think of another – I love this country!

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
Nope

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
You haven’t lived until you have tried. You will be amazed at how much you will learn by doing your own venture, regardless if it is a success or not. Go for it.

Thanks Adam for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Interview with Founder of Linky & GymPrices

2008-09-04T16:33:00.013+10:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, Today we explore an emerging entrepreneur Isaac Forman who has set up two ventures, Linky and GymPrices. Linky is an exciting venture and it got some encouragement from Fred Wilson (see the comments section).
In a recent email based interview with Isaac, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say:

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?

I have worked in web development for more than 10 years, and run my own company, Triplezero ( since 1998. Online ideas are a habit I can't break. I enjoy reading about them (and thinking 'I should've thought of that!'), seeing new ground being broken, or trying my own hand at online services.

• What is the name of your venture/company?

I have quite a few in progress, but two recent efforts are Linky and GymPrices.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?

Linky is essentially an extension of the well-known TinyURL. It adds in the ability to track referrals as well as traffic over time, and I'm also looking to extend it with other statistics. It's a very simple idea and has had a gradual pick-up so far, though with no marketing efforts.

GymPrices is an attempt at price comparison for the Australian gym market. The fitne ss industry as a whole does not advertise pricing and, while they have some legitimate reasons for doing so, I think it can remove some of the typical price-based market competition that might otherwise deliver better prices to customers. I see it as having good potential for those just wanting somewhere to run on a treadmill, but not needing trainers, classes or anything more advanced (and expensive).GymPrices can show pricing averages by state, franchise and individual gyms to give users an indication of whether they are generally paying too much or getting a good deal. It also has a basically function whereby existing customers can put up a brief review of their gym.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Mostly just myself handling frontend and backend. Linky was born out of an interest to provide a basketball forum I run a way for non-HTMLers to add links to their post. Some of the development was done by a Triplezero employee, Joel.

GymPrices was an idea from a friend after we had been discussing niche opportunities in online price comparison.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
Linky was built in 1-2 days. GymPrices took a week or so to build, of an hour or so here and there late at night, but the harder work was populating the database with initial data on gym franchises (and there are still a lot to put in). Both are very modest efforts to date, mostly trying to get a feel for whether it's worth investing more time developing either.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
None at all for either at this stage. GymPrices is generally discovered through Google while, going by the stats, Linky appears to have been picked up by a few people having noticed it within the basketball communities. I will probably look to further spread the word via plugging it on various sites I operate. In the future, Linky will only ever be something that's discovered online by spotting it in use, or by word of mouth. If GymPrices shows more potential, it may be something worth pushing harder.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Nothing out of the ordinary or beyond something like Google Analytics right now. Both are low cost efforts (personal time only) so no real return is required for me to consider them useful to someone.
GymPrices can be monitored by incoming price reports, but unfortunately they are few and far between at this early stage. The challenge with zero marketing is that most users arrive looking for gym prices. No one searches for 'where can I tell everyone what I pay at the gym' and the gyms are not likely to be very cooperative either. The site may need to expand into a better directory or add new services to attract enough traffic to become really useful at price comparison.

I see it as being a good opportunity for smaller, non-franchise gyms especially. They could actually benefit by quietly encouraging their members to submit a price report, topping the rankings, and perhaps drawing in new customers as a result.

• Which are the main competitors or major players in this market segment?

For Linky, competition comes from the incumbent TinyURL while there are related ideas from Bit.ly and Adjix. GymPrices has no apparent competition in terms of fitness price comparison, but there are a couple of gym directories that rank well and have been around for some time, namely GoodGymGuide and GymLink.

• What is your operating environment (operating system) and what type of database you are using?
My sites are built on ColdFusion/MySQL.

• What's your thought on being an entrepreneur? How tough it is to start a venture in Australia?
I enjoy having an idea, building it and seeing if anyone uses it - it is low cost and low risk given that I can build these sites myself. My main challenge is losing interest and starting up the next idea before I finish the current one.
I imagine that a challenge both for myself and others would be that the population of Australia typically limits the potential customer base for any idea intended for Australians. Also, I have a gut feeling that we're not as community oriented as the US where a lot of social/cooperative sites outside of the typical Facebook and MySpace gain a following. e.g., we don't have an equivalent to EveryBlock or Front Porch Forum, and no review sites have quite the following of a Yelp or Zagat. The same goes for more highbrow or political sites (such as The Nation, Dailykos, etc).
With our small population, it's also hard to justify the content production that would go into some online media ideas. Beyond the established media and a site like Crikey, other efforts tend to be solo blogs or amateur ventures as a result.
As for being based here, but building an idea that can scale internationally, I think the risk is not having a feel for what will appeal to those in other countries. I also believe that many ideas are hamstrung by trying to cater for everyone immediately, rather than starting with a small location or niche, and building from there. For example, unless you had an unlimited advertising budget, if you wanted to tackle Trading Post in online classifieds, you'd be far better off starting with a niche and taking a wedge approach, than by going up against them on all fronts.

• What do you think the government (federal and state) should do to improve the culture of innovation and the telecom industry?
It's cheap to register a business and domain and give it a shot online. One issue however is the cost of bandwidth in Australia - it must surely limit many great ideas from taking off locally. As a result, I host a number of my clients and overseas abroad due to the superior value for money that is on offer.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
Actually, never. I discuss things at the pub or trade emails with friends about ideas to get feedback on what might have legs and what's worth giving up on early.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?

If you have the skills to do it yourself, don't die wondering. Give it a shot, but dip a toe in before you dive - no need to start off with expensive hosting, servers, a $20k corporate identity, etc until you're more confident that your venture will take off. If you can't build things yourself, look to partner with someone who shares your vision and maybe work partly for equity - a level of ownership will encourage them to work harder.

Thanks Isaac for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Interview with Ofer Tziperman - Co Founder LocatioNet

2008-09-03T22:58:00.010+10:00

After silicon valley in US, if their is another place where innovation & entrepreneurship is flourishing, then it is Israel. The culture of start ups & innovation is widespread across Israel considering the challenging & some times hostile environment they face their. Today we explore more about LocatioNet & their flagship service amazeGPs.

In a recent email based chat with co-founder, Ofer Tziperman of LocatioNet, he gave insights into the emerging opportunity in Location Based Services(LBS).

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
My name is Ofer Tziperman. I am the President and co-founder of LocatioNet. I have over 15 years experience in the marketing of hi-tech products and with startup companies.

• What is the name of your venture/company?
LocatioNet Systems Ltd. Is the company name. Our flagship product today is the amAze service.

• Please tell us about your venture/company?
LocatioNet was established in 2000 and acquired Totem Multimedia Ltd., a profitable Israeli technology company established in 1991. So the core team is together for the last 17 years. Totem was established by Meir Dan who is now serving as the CEO of LocatioNet. Meir is the inventor of the company’s technology and patents.

• How long it took before it was up and running?
Due to the acquisition of Totem the company already started with serving existing customers. The idea was to further develop the legacy technology into the telecom market. Initially LocatioNet was focused in selling LBS infrastructure to mobile operators around the world. However, towards end of 2004 it was realized that the market conditions have changed and operators are more interested in a readymade service, preferably a hosted service that they can launch immediately and start generating revenues rather than to invest in expensive infrastructure.

Accordingly, we have developed the amAze suite of services on top of our own developed technological infrastructure. This has proven successful almost instantly with the launch of the service first by orange Israel.

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
We are aiming to lead the market for ad-funded off-board navigation services.

• What services it provides it for consumer or customers?
amAze is a first of its kind mobile local search and navigation application, and it's totally free!
amAze turns your regular Java-enabled mobile phone into a powerful navigation tool as well as comprehensive information tool.

With amAze you get all these options and more:

Visual and voice guidance to any destination
Search or define any location by its address
Search and navigate to businesses listed in local search directories (where available)
Present any required location on the map
View and use dynamic high quality maps at various scales
View and navigate over high resolution satellite images
Calculate the fastest way between two locations
Save and manage personal favorites list

amAze enables to calculate the route of a journey to any address or point of interest. a GPS will indicate your location along the route with vocal and graphical guidance to your destination in the shortest possible way. amAze is a collaborative effort led by LocatioNet Systems Ltd., together with some leading vendors in the fields of mapping, local search directories and other geographically related content.

• What type of customers/people you are targeting?
Any user with a mass market Java phone can use the service.

• What sort of marketing you are using to spread the word?
We have started simply by word of mouth. It is amazing to see how well and fast the word about a free service travels. We are now gearing towards the second phase where we are appointing distribution partners in the different countries around the world.

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
We have a very accurate daily statistics about the number of users, transactions, data consumed, type of information, geographic take up rates and more. So we can see some very nice exponential growth as it happens.

• What's your thought on the start-ups culture and innovation coming out of Australia?
While we also operate in Australia, we can only speak about the start ups coming out of Israel. Apparently Israel is the world’s second largest start up industry after California.

• What do you think the government should do to improve the culture of innovation?
In the case of the Israeli start up industry that was a major starting point where the government initiated the venture capital industry that only later was taken by the private sector.

• If you are given an opportunity to change the nation, what 3 things you will do?
To better nurse entrepreneurs. Eventually they are the drivers but they must receive a fair chance to succeed as their success can pave the way for entire prosperous industries to follow.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
Yes, this is common here in Israel.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
It’s going to be very tough… If you can’t face many negative answers and if you can re-invent yourself again and again during the process then don’t even start it. But if you have been made from the right materials you’ll simply love every minute of the process.

Thanks Ofer for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here

Student Entrepreneurs - Agents of Change

2008-09-02T16:10:00.010+10:00

In the ongoing coverage of exploring new startups coming out of Australia, Today we explore a new initiative by a young entrepreneur, Amir Nissen from Melbourne Australia, Student Entrepreneurs - Agents of Change

In a recent email based chat with Amir, he explained what motivated him to start this initiative.

• Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?
Amir Nissen. I'm currently a fifth year commerce/arts undergraduate at Melbourne uni. Interested in social entrepreneurship mainly, but also raising awareness of entrepreneurship, particularly amongst the student population.

• Please tell us about your venture?
We run a few initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship on campus. These range from spotlighting some entrepreneurial students on our site, to bringing successful entrepreneurs in to talk about their experiences. Our most recent event was 'Entrepreneurs Week' - comprising a series of seminars on various aspects of entrepreneurship, and a innovators competition that spanned the week, giving students a first hand experience of being an entrepreneur. We've also launched an entrepreneurial mentoring service for students, and are working on a few more before the year's out.

• Who are the people behind this and how it started?
Started with myself roughly a year ago, have had help from many many people (too many to name). It started when I wandered into MUEC - The Melbourne University Entrepreneurial Challenge - a business plan competition run by the Melbourne Business School - and found I was the only undergraduate there. With two weeks to the submission date, and little chance of joining a team with MBA students, I spoke to the competition organisers about getting more exposure at an undergraduate level. They seamed keen, and the rest is history...

• What is the main objective/mission behind your venture?
The vision is to create a culture of entrepreneurship on campus. A platform for entrepreneurship. I don't want any others to have to go through my experience when I first came to MUEC.

• What type of audience you are targeting?
The students who are smart enough to get in and stay in, but aren't satisfied with doing the work others set for them. A study of one of the big US universities found that the most successful students - those who went on to start their own business or make CEO etc weren't the top achievers in class. They where the middle band who had the talent but not the drive for the academic program. Those are the people I want!

• How are you measuring the success of your venture? Are their any special mechanisms/tools in place to monitor the progress?
Our current concern is the student population at the University of Melbourne. We've got a mailing list that keeps an account of the people who are interested in keeping abreast of what we're up to. I look at the web stats now and then, more out of curiosity then any pressing need. It doesn't matter too much if we get however many outsiders on the site at this point, given the scope of our market.

• How often do you catch up with others trying similar things and where do you catch up? Do you have dedicated communities in your city?
I go to The Hive - a network for Melbourne entrepreneurs that started up earlier this year. It's got a great atmosphere, full of people keen to get things of off the ground. A fairly young crowd too.

• Do you have any advice for people who want to start their venture?
Quote I heard from somebody successful: "If you aren't absolutely embarrassed by your first attempt - you waited to long"

Thanks Amir for sharing your thoughts with us. All the best for future.

For coverage on other Australian startups, innovation, and tech trends, check this out and our coverage on interviews can be found here