Product Review | Shopilly
October 3, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Note: I serve as an Advisor to Shopilly and have seen the product grow from concept through static screen shots to a fully functional shopping service.
I believe we are witnessing the emergence of the next generation of ecommerce. While online shopping continues to grow and is dominated by Amazon and eBay — as well as retailers such as Apple, Walmart and Target — there are newer firms redefining ecommerce as inherently mobile, social and local. Shopilly is one of those new players and just recently launched its service.
What is Shopilly?
Shopilly is a new service for consumers that brings together offers, deals, and promotions from leading stores and brands in a very attractive, visual and easy-to-use interface. Read more
Product Review | Kinkast Mobile Video Sharing
June 7, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Disclosure: I’m an advisor to KinKast.
It seems of late that mobile video is going (or has gone) mainstream. Distribution of smart phones, higher quality video cameras embedded in those phones and the social phenomena of sharing appears to have hit an inflection point or has reached critical mass. In the wake of this, a plethora of video sharing apps have hit the scene: Viddy, Vlix, Socialcam and KinKast.
Most of the recent video apps seem to be imitating the success that Instagram has had with still pictures – allowing people to share their videos broadly with others (friends and strangers alike).
I’m Tired of One Night Stands
February 21, 2011 by admin · 6 Comments
At the risk of mixing metaphors, Luke Hohmann recently described Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as enticing businesses into one night stands. At first I laughed but as I thought about my direct experiences with a plethora of group buying sites, I think he may be right. There is no doubt that these daily deal sites can deliver a deluge of coupon-grubbing customers to a small, local business’s door step. But at what cost? Negative margin, stretching service delivery to breaking point, alienation of regular loyal customers, attracting customers who don’t spend more than the deal amount and won’t ever come back are some of the well documented potential pitfalls. (And hopefully not STD’s!)
I often describe Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal sites as providing small businesses a large, fishing drift net to cast broadly into the ocean; the result is you will no doubt collect a lot of sea life, but only some of which will be the targeted species you are actually fishing for. Luke’s metaphor is certainly more colorful and may, in fact, be truer than mine.
Hanging Out My Advisor Shingle
January 10, 2011 by admin · 3 Comments
In my consulting practice in working with software and Internet companies on strategy, product innovation and marketing issues, I often get approached by smaller, early-stage companies who, without a doubt, have needs for assistance. The rub for me professionally is that, because of where they are in their maturity (and funding) cycles, they often don’t have cash resources to hire “consultants” per se. In turn, I have made it SmokeJumper Strategy’s policy to not provide consulting services in exchange for equity. I have attempted this a couple of times in the past and it doesn’t work out. (I know the risk is I turn down equity in the next Google or Facebook, but I’m willing to live with the odds of that happening).
I do love working with early-stage companies and the entrepreneurs responsible for them – there is nothing more exciting, challenging and rewarding when you can see ideas come to fruition or changes in a product to better fit a market or insights about a market drive the direction and engineering efforts of a new product. This feeling is universal in all the spaces I’ve worked in: consumer, enterprise, education and developer tools. I’ve struggled with how to help entrepreneurs who I know and who have approached me to get involved at an earlier stage with regard to the fact I am a consultant and to a large extent am “coin operated” in delivering the services SmokeJumper Strategy provides and the fees that charged for their provision.