List of startup companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010

September 29th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I couldn’t make the event this year but have been enjoying the webcasts. Some interesting companies that are providing interesting market solutions people might want to start tracking. I’ve noted below a few cool companies that caught my attention but if you want to see the full list of startup companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 Microsoft’s Bing Visual search engine does a really cool job and shows all the company names and logos – looks good Microsoft!. Just click the image below to go to Bing visual search results page.

screenshot of Microsoft Bing visual search results for startups at techcrunch disrupt 2010

TechCrunch Disrupt Startups Listing

UPDATE 21:45 PST. It seems that Bing visual search is no longer displaying these results.You get the same error when searching on “tc disrupt” directly on bing so It might be down now or something. Please try again later if it fails. Sorry.

Here’s some of the companies that caught my attention (no particular order):
Marketfish
Always can use more cloud service providers and targeted, qualified leads and keep costs of starting a newco low.

Qwiki – The presentation was interesting and has me curious to know more. Will definitely want to get my hands on this and see if it’s really that simple and engaging.

GameCrush – This was totally cool and might be very successful…I’m just a bit old and married though so not something for me. where was this when I was in my 20′s! :-) Pretty clever matchmaking service guys. Young, single gamers, men and women, should definitely check this out.

MyBandStock This one seems very cool. The emotional magnetism of music – especially to youth – combined with the ability to actively engage with your favorite musicians seems like a very powerful force. Check em out

Teamly is also very cool. I’m a fan of cloud services like this that help startups lower costs.

Well here’s one that I question will make it. One of the thing most investors ask themselves when investing in a company is if the company is building a feature, product or company. Bubbalon, while cute, is a feature. They are tackling a very short term problem that Yelp can add quickly (and should already offer). Yelp simply has the customer base and I think you will need more than an mobile post, short brief reviews feature to gain any traction. Sorry Bubbalon :-(

UPDATE – 21:57 PST

Something odd is going on with Bing visual search. When searching for “techcrunch disrupt” and #tc disrupt” as I had done earlier i still get the no results found. I took a screenshot of the bing search results listing but when you click through now you get page not found. As you can see from my screenshot above, and from the listing, that Bing DID show the full list of startup companies earlier. Maybe it’s a tech issue or maybe they were asked by TechCrunch to remove the search, does anyone know? Here’s the screen on the search listing. Maybe they will display again tomorrow.

UPDATE – Sep 30 14:55

Looks like Bing is back working…enjoy.

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Gesture controls coming on strong as in3Depth Systems gets $10M in funding

September 10th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I don’t know if gesture controls will be as pervasive as “user interfaces as the touchscreen and accelerometer have become in smartphones”, as Michel Tombroff, chief executive of Softkinetic said in this VentureBeat post. But i do agree that the space is very exciting with numerous possibilities across many different devices.

While video games are an obvious market for gesture tech, Other applications like TV menu navigation (kill the remote :-) , kiosks in malls or public venues like sports arenas, information booths, subway/train/bus ticket purchases. Think of the health benefits by not having people spread germs by all touching the same screen/buttons (I know, so many other places germs get passed but this is a big one and every little bit helps).

I’d love to see someone add gesture on a kiosk and then add holography video. That way you can change the interface from a menu to a person (or whatever you want really). Imagine the possibilities if you enabled interaction with a holographic video of a person. I think such a kiosk would be very cool.

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Do ALL Silicon Valley VC’s Avoid CE Hardware Investments?

September 7th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

As I go through the process of speaking to other entrepreneurs to learn from their experience when they started their own companies I keep hearing a common theme – VC’s don’t invest in hardware. Now of course this is a broad statement and it was also coming from entrepreneurs that started software companies and not CE devices. But it makes me wonder if I’ll need to look outside of silicon valley for my funding.

What I’m working on now is a completely untapped MASS-MARKET potential of over $5 billion dollars. Yes, $5 billion dollars! It’s also the first CE product to incorporate IN THE PRODUCT DESIGN social media and UGC. Mine is not a me-too type of product or one that enhances an existing product; its a completely new and innovative product experience that meets an untapped market demand and has never been done before. Of course I plan to have the actual product manufacturing done in China. Lets face it there’s really no where else that can do it as cheap but with quality than China. But what about the innovation factor? Do VC’s value that anymore?

Look at pure digital and the success of their flip video product. While it took them over 7 years to finally make the right product for the market the fact that they did it is impressive.

flip video cameras

I have to believe that while VC’s may shy away from me-too hardware products or those that can be easily duplicated that they will appreciate and fund true innovation in un-tapped markets – especially if it can yield them 100x returns. I’ll keep working on my prototype and eventually see where silicon valley VC’s stand on HW investments for myself but I have to believe that they are open to ideas that can make them money – a LOT of money.

Stay tuned…

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Pixels video short by Patrick Jean

August 20th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I really like this animation short I just had to post it here. This is worth watching and sharing if you’ve not already seen it. Here’s a good description of the movie from switched.

  • It was a humorous two-minute video, which whimsically imagines that characters from 8-bit video games like ‘Tetris’ and ‘Donkey Kong’ invade New York and eventually destroy the earth. The seamless graphics and Eighties nostalgia were a huge hit online, as ‘Pixels’ received over a million views in less than 24 hours.

ENJOY !!! :-)

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Jesse Schell Gamepocalypse – San Francisco Jul 27 2010

July 28th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

Jesse Schell game his gamepocalypse presentation at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last night. As expected he had the crowd engaged and enjoying the presentation. I personally enjoy his presentations and think he should be considered in the same class as Will Wright when it come to best presenters in the games industry. You can view his presentation here. Enjoy! :-)

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Company culture 2.0 – Woot shows us how to be authentic and fun

July 13th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I’ve told a number of people about the awesome Woot video on the Amazon acquisition that I figured I’d post it here. While Zappos and Tony Hsieh get most of the media attention on the next generation of customer service, Woot is a great example of an emerging type of company culture – fun! Think of the 150K + users that saw this video and shared it with their friends.

People like to be associated with COOL COMPANIES. If you deliver a great and valuable benefit – in this case sales – then users will be satisfied and YOU will be satisfied.

Watch the video, its awesome! :-)

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Poor Online Display Advertising Implementation

April 15th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I don’t understand why so many of the traditional media sites still don’t get the Internet. They think because they have an online website or blog or “ooh, a facebook page” that they are now net savvy marketers. Not so fast guys. Just because you are placing your content on this new medium (to you) does not mean you have all the the skills mastered. Even more importantly, Internet advertising is not just about technology or tactics. It’s about connecting with people in a way that no other medium has ever afforded. I wish these traditional media guys would start thinking how to make those affordances more available and give people more symbiotic advertising methods.

To truly be Internet marketing savvy one needs to understand the spirit of the medium and what drives people to use it. Not only understanding their intent but knowing the best ways to help them accomplish what they came to your site do do in the first place. How does a site provide an “authentic experience” that provides people not only with what they came to do but a memorable experience so they will want to come back. Especially if you are one of many sites in the google search results displaying the same story or similar content. People in the hospitality business get this, brands like Apple get this and companies like Nordstrom built their brand on delivering an incredible experience. The medium does not take away the importance of delivering something people will remember as a positive emotion.

What brought me to write this post was my “experience” today with Inc the business magazine. A colleague had referred me to an article about facebook about companies selling product from their facebook fan pages. I decided to check out the article and I have to say the experience was horrible!

After the initial superstitial ads when the site was loading I finally got to the page. Not a fan of superstitials but fine, not a big issue. But then, as I was trying to read the article I get the survey popup ad, dancing right in front of the text of the article I was reading. No thanks, click and go away. Then another, larger ad pops up and blocks the text I was reading. This last one had no cancel button and no way to get it out of the way of the text I was reading. wtf?! See the picture below. I thought this might be a bug so I tried the same page with three different browsers and all did the exact same thing. In the words of Metallica, “sad, but true”.

Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about. Has anyone experienced similar? On Inc or other sites? Maybe we should start collecting all of these and media companies might get the point and stop trying to ‘throw ads in front of us so we can see them’. It’s actually worse than turning the volume up on tv ads.

screen of terrible online advertising experience

Inc throws ads in your face

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Jesse Schell Talks Future of Video Games at DICE

April 7th, 2010 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

I think I’ve watched this a few times now, Jesse is brilliant! Needed something for my blog since I’ve been so busy with work (I’ve not touched it in a LONG time). Thought this would be a good one to post – even if it’s not my own content.  Enjoy!

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Sharks vs. Ducks – Sep 25 2009

September 26th, 2009 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

Image posted by MobyPicture.com
- Posted using MobyPicture.com

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Measuring the ROI of Social Media

September 21st, 2009 by Robb Lewis 0 Comments »

The last post got me thinking more about social media and how to take those benefits and apply them to a measurable ROI. Depending on your business model this can be either simple or complex to measure, but there is a way to place a reasonable estimate on the contribution value of social media.

The simplest model is web based media that basically has 1-3 revenue streams – ads, leads and info (data for market research). Measuring the number of mentions on twitter, facebook, shared links, word of mouth, RT’s, widget installs, etc. and plotting a time line that maps these against the business metrics (clicked ad, provided some demo data, etc.) that contribute to your revenue. Also don’t forget to include the users off your website if you have widgets or distribute your content to other sites.

A more complex type of business to measure the ROI of social media would be a retail chain with physical stores as well as a website. Since I’ve not been in the physical retail industry for a very long time (pre-internet :-) ) I decided to see what others have been doing. I found this great presentation given by a marketing consultant named Olivier Blanchard. This was given at a small conference in South Carolina called Social Fresh. It is not only very helpful but its also quite entertaining as well. I would have loved to have been in the presentation. Thanks Oliver, this is great! :-)

Check it out here:Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

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