Fanminder | 5 Questions for Paul Rosenfeld & Tracy Grover
I met Paul Rosenfeld last year when he came to pitch Savvy Cellar Wine Bar & Wine Shop before it opened in Mountain View, CA on the merits of his new mobile marketing service called Fanminder. Always being one to extend and try new things and wanting to dip our toe into the mobile world, I said yes (plus Paul is very passionate and convincing). He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fanminder. He spent about 15 years working for two of the best companies catering to small businesses — American Express and Intuit. At American Express Paul helped lead its first gift card program for merchants and worked in the Small Business Services division. At Intuit, he was General Manager QuickBooks Merchant Account Service; QuickBooks Online Edition; and led development of the FinanceWorks online banking suite.
Tracy Grover is Co-Founder and COO of Fanminder. Most recently, Tracy was Vice President of Product Management for AccountNow. Previously she served as Director of Marketing for LoopNet, which automates online marketing tools for small real estate businesses to help them compete with the big guys. Before that Tracy built, launched, and marketed online banking solutions for small businesses (for Bank of America & Silicon Valley Bank), a secure mobile application used by doctors & public officials (Certicom) and the first mass market online credit card, NextCard.
I recently sat down with Paul and Tracy and fired off 5 questions for them . . . .
1) What was the genesis of Fanminder?
Paul: Tracy and I started Fanminder literally in the teeth of the recession, in October 2008. We had very good paying jobs – I was the Chief Marketing Officer and Tracy was the VP Product Management for a local start-up. We saw how all the larger, Fortune-sized retailers were rushing into mobile and social marketing but when we “walked down main street” we didn’t see any local businesses doing anything.
Hanging Out My Advisor Shingle
January 10, 2011 by admin · 2 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.
Have Mobile Payments (Finally) Arrived?
December 6, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Based on investments, prognosticators and those that fuel the hype machine, this headline could have been written (and has) years ago. But something tangible may have occurred that mobile payments are poised to take off (really).
There have been many hurdles to the mobile payment market taking off. They included:
- Handsets. Lacked the appropriate SIM or RFID technology.
- Networks. Banks and credit card companies are notoriously slow, lack innovation and are conservative.
- Security. Communicating over unsecure mobile networks is one thing, but when financial transactions are involved, security becomes paramount.
- Merchant Acceptance. Establishing a large foot print of national and independent merchants is very difficult. In technology, we call this a problem of “scale”.
- Consumer Behavior. Consumers don’t change their behavior unless there is reason for doing so. Whether it be handheld technology, convenience, savings, security or access to locations that accept mobile payments, Consumers have not embraced mobile payments in large measure.
MerchantCircle’s Million Merchant March
January 21, 2010 by admin · 2 Comments
MerchantCirle, the company described as a “hyperlocal business directory” and a “social network for business owners” has signed up its millionth merchant. (Full disclosure: they are a former client). I have used MerchantCircle since they were founded, maintaining a presence on the service for Savvy Cellar Wine Bar & Wine Shop. As the site has grown and evolved, I have tried many of their new features and enhancements.
Here’s my $.02 on why they’ve been successful and what type of business owner can benefit by using MerchantCircle. Read more
Game On With Groupon
December 3, 2009 by admin · 26 Comments
As co-owner of Savvy Cellar Wine Bar & Wine Shop, I get to experiment with promotional services that are designed to help local businesses. Over the course of several years we’ve tried (no particular order): Google Adwords, Yahoo! Local, MerchantCircle, Local Newspapers, Local Magazines, Email, Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Peninsula Shops, Movie Theater Advertising, Rumbafish and now Groupon.
Groupon is an online coupon site. It is organized by major metro markets in the US. Each day they feature something unique to do in the local market (restaurants, spas, entertainment, etc.) at a special “group” price. There is a minimum level set for each offer – meaning that a certain # of people have to sign up for the daily groupon in order for everyone to get it. This drives sharing among friends on social networks. If enough people opt to take the offer, then the offer is “on”. At the end of the day, everyone who took the offer is charged. Then Groupon takes their cut 40-60% and pays the merchant the balance.
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