It’s exciting times at Karmies; we have a working prototype, we expect to have a fully functioning product in the next few days, we expect to have a product in the app store in January and investors’ ears perk up when we mention the progress we’ve made on Karmies in the past five months.  We’ve overcome many of the technical challenges thus minimizing technical risk leaving market risk as the remaining unknown.

The Karmies team and its followers have pontificated effective methods and target demographics that are most amenable to behavioral change.  Questions such as who is Karmies target demographic, where does that demographic learn about new, cool technologies and how does Karmies get in front of early adopters. 

Thinking up ways to attract end users is like answering an infinite question, there is no wrong answer.  The solution to attracting users hits terra firma when we map out implementation, budget and the metrics we will use to measure its effectiveness.  The thought of committing to quantifiable results based on my bravado causes my guts to flip and a shiver shoots through my body like a giant north shore wave.

My dream is to have Karmies explode with popularity like the Dumb Ways to Dies campaign and avoid the malaise of mouthee (a clever app that is struggling to gain traction).  Somewhere between the two is the intersection of good app and 100,000 downloads.

Facebook and Twitter have a common genesis, American college campuses.  Fortunately this approach is more affordable than a national TV ad campaign, but it does require us to know more about our users.  We are researching why a student uses any specific app, what keeps them using it and who are the influencers that spread the word about an app.  It’s a tough nut to crack but critical to solve or risk suffering in a sea of could-have-been apps.

The answer of course is…42.