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Technori Pitch - November 2012 Review
This was my first experience attending Technori Pitch. If you haven't had the pleasure of attending one let me explain how it works. Technori is a place where a future entrepreneur(s) can visit to learn more about how to start your very own company. What makes Technori a great resource is that you actually have people who have been CEO's of start ups and they do an amazing job of expressing the beauty of being an entrepreneur, and also paint the picture of the difficulty it is being one.
Every month, Technori hosts a unique event that allows Chicago start-up's to pitch a business plan or product. Only five companies pitch, in which they each get five minutes to talk about what they are all about and then prepared to be grilled by the audience for a three minute question answer session.
I am glad I went. It was an amazing learning experience and having the ability to network afterwards is a great way to share idea's while begining to build a business relationship. From now on I'm going every month just to learn about the new idea's that are coming from the Chicago tech scene.
With that being said, I have decided to review the five companies who pitched. What they are pitching, how I think the program works, and then give my two cents about the product with two different views: End user and "How would I sell this?". Let's begin:
Ox & Pen - Customer Loyalty Program
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www.oxandpen.com
What is it?: Customer Loyalty Program. Ox & Pen is taking a different approach. Instead of just "checking in" and earning points for that specific merchant Ox & Pen users will be able to use their loyalty points at any merchant that is part of the network.
How does it work?
Consumers earn points for each dollar they spend at the merchant. For example, I grab lunch at a local fast food restaurant and spent 10 bucks. The restaurant that day decides to give 5 points to consumers for each dollar they spent. So I earned 50 points for that lunch.
The restaurant allows the consumer to redeem their points for other specials. For example, get $10 off your bill if you redeem 10,000 points. Other loyalty programs are just merchant specific, but with Ox & Pen if I visited other merchants that are part of the network I can take those points I earned and redeem them at the restaurant.
Pretty cool.
In order to receive points, the consumer has to do the following:
1) Check in
2) Take a picture of the receipt
3) Enter in the total amount spent on the receipt
4) Submit to Ox & Pen.
Ox & Pen then confirm's the information on the receipt and sends that data to the merchant while the consumer collects their points.
End user: Experience is unique and pretty fun to use. It does require some work on the consumer part to take pictures of the receipt after each purchase but the rewards you can earn are worth it.
Selling this idea: I think there is enough benefit for the merchants to participate in this program to make it worth while. Giving consumers the option to spend loyalty points anywhere does create a competition to offer the best value of redeeming points. They can run the same specials that they run, but, loyal customers will get an extra boost. Happy customers are the best form of marketing and Ox & Pen can help make them happy.
JustBecause App
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www.justbecauseapp.com
What is it?: Customer Loyalty Program designed by consumers giving gifts to one another to try for the first time.
How does it work?
CEO Matt Hartman has created an app that allows people to send each other $1 gifts that actually have much more value than a dollar.
For example, if you have never used Uber before for your transportation needs I could use my JustBecause app and send you a ride for a $20 dollar value. It only cost me $1 dollar to send it.
Now you can never use that gift again and your future rides with Uber are full priced. So its another way of companies to earn new customers by giving away services at a fraction of the value.
End User: JustBecause could be useful. If I visited a merchant and I think it would be great for another friend of mine I can buy them that service or product for them and it only costs me $1 dollar.
If they don't use it I only lost a buck. I'm pretty sure I can find worse ways of throwing a dollar away.
Selling this idea: I think I would sell the idea of JustBecause to merchants that when people receive gifts that it allows the ability to upsell other services or products that typically don't sell. If a local coffee shop has low sales in food they could participate with JustBecause to have $1 dollar gifts to come in for a free cup of coffee and because consumers are getting that for free they may be more inclined to spend some money on food for the best experience.
SWIFT EXPO
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www.swiftexpo.com
What is it?: A SaaS platform that enables companies or event planners to schedule workers and volunteers for trade shows.
How does it work?: Like any other SaaS, users log in online to create an event. From there, and having planned events myself the toughest part, you can begin asking for volunteers to be part of the crew.
Swift Expo allows the crew to express what role they would like to participate. It's a nice touch that should help with volunteer no-show's. In the program you can set the schedule and send it out to everyone in the crew to ensure everyone is on the same page.
End User: Could have used this when I hosted iMeet:Chicago. I had a tough time for sure who was coming from corporate and was only working with e-mail trails. By taking those e-mail trails and orgainizing them into Swift Expo would have allowed everyone to see the progress of the event planning. Useful because we have offices in Atlanta, Chicago, San Fran, New York, Boston, and others in 24 different countries.
Selling this idea: Already Comic-Con in New York and Chicago have used this program. While its ideal to go after the companies who create these events I would still give major companies Marketing departments a call. I know my company has a team that is just about event planning and they go to Trade Shows all over the world. Be helpful that while planning a Trade Show to make sure that they know for sure who is committed to attending the event from the company and for how long. You can only do so much with e-mail and Microsoft Excel for event planning. In addition, you can jump on the Cloud bandwagon with this being a SaaS model which could come in handy if you one were to lose or not have acces to their main computer.
SnagPad
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www.snagpad.com
What is it?: A SaaS program for unemployed or active-seeking job searchers. Allows the end user to orgainize job postings that they like and using social networks to find who has jobs to offer.
How does it work?: By logging into SnagPad one can add job postings to create a to-do list. The program will help you every step of the way of what needs to be done next to make sure finding a new job that's right for you is orgainized, easy, and hopefully quick. By logging into your social media networks it also draws openings with other companies that are actively seeking new employees, or can also be used a quick way of getting references.
End User: My thinking is that I would use this very similar to Careerbuilder, Monster, and Linkedin. Keeping track of what jobs I actually applied to is key because there have been times that companies have called and I don't remember if I applied to them or not (Like my current role with PGi).
Selling this idea: Not sure with all of the free end user programs like Careerbuilder, Monster, and Linkedin that job seekers would pay for this type of service. My first target would be universities. Its becoming quite a battle for colleges to pound their chest on how many students find work after they graduate. SnagPad would help students stay orgainized and with social media integration perhaps make the job seeking fun. If SnagPad wants to keep this as a consumer product, I would really push online advertising to keep the service free.
Pear
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www.getpear.com
What is it?: Online database that matches sponsor seeking orgainizations with companies offering sponsorship.
How does it work?: By logging into www.getpear.com, you create a profile account for the group. Pear will then suggest sponsorships for your group and you can integrate your Facebook page for the group to share updates with followers. After Pear suggests sponsor's for your group it lists off what those companies are awarding.
Your group now has 3 days to win a sponsorship by visiting social media sites and inviting more members to join your group.
End User: I have been a part of non-for-profit activities in which it took quite some time to find companies who had the resources to offer sponsorships. Pear now finds them for you making that process hassle free.
I logged into Pear and just for kicks tried to find a sponsor for my bar trivia team. Thought Wheat Thins would be a perfect match. Every 100 points I earned by completing tasks (Sending out Tweets, visiting Facebook pages, taking quick survey's, sharing links, etc.) equaled to $1.00 that I can use for custom T-Shirts. Plus, everyone on the team can get a free box of Wheat Thins!
Selling this idea: This is marketing's dream service. A great way to expand branding by donating services in exchange a mass group of people taking survey's, participating in your social media campaign, and getting instant feedback. I truly believe all I would have to do is get people into my iMeet room, screenshare Pear, and would be worth while for companies to sign up for the service.
That's it for the review. Make sure to visit again on www.builtinchicago.org for December's Technori Pitch reveiw and hope to meet you at one!
WARNING: SELF PROMOTION - While that's out of the way if you enjoyed reading this blog post please follow me on Twitter @joshnelson3. I like to tweet about technology trends and sports, my favorite passions.
A little bit about me, I work for PGi - a global leader in collaboration technologies. If you or your company are seeking a collaboration platform to engage with clients, host more productive meetings, and combine both audio & video communications in one feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] or hop into my iMeet room.
