We have just launched our new service - www.dbtwang.com/guardian
After working with our group of initial users for months - listening to them and using questionaires (thanks to the iGap participation for that) we found a key issue which the majority of them identified with - getting back lost or stolen guitars.
In short the new verison of dbTwang does that - both by allowing subscribing members to record their guitars in details and also by offering a very effective one click alert service if an instrument is lost or stolen.
Have a look:
Now comes the marketing and selling.
We had a lot of help from Richard Hearn with the design of the new home and landing pages and will cover that iteration in a post later this week.
keith
Thanks to Alan O'Rourke and Emily Tully in particular who are putting in the hours in advance of Saturdays bizcamp.
Here are the speaker details (600kb pdf):
Download Bizcamp_10_schedule_web
And the details of our panel discussion.
“You’re never too young to start a
business”2pm - Guinness Storehouse
Moderator: Gavin O’Flaherty - Mason,
Hayes + Curran
Helen
Treacy, P.G.Dip. B.D., CEO & Founder of Cognitive Science Partners
Helen Treacy is the
founder and CEO of Cognitive Science Partners. CSP was formed in
November 2009 to bring science to life. CSP have engaged with a leading
psychology researcher and president of the European ABA Association to
develop an evidence based, online teaching application for children and
adults with autism. Since incorporation, CSP have secured first round
investment and are currently working with their DA in EI HPSU to
maximise funding opportunities.
C.S.P. currently
employs 5 full-time and one part-time employee and are busy recruiting
two more full-time developers to ensure our September 1st product
launch.
Cognitive Science
Partners’ mission is to launch three evidence based products
successfully in the market in five years with an estimated turnover of
10 million by 2015.
John Matthew Holt, (29) CEO Waratek Ltd.
John Matthew Holt is
the Co-Founder and CEO of Waratek Ltd, and principal inventor of
Waratek's RAIS technology. He founded Waratek in Sydney, Australia in
2002 to research a radical new design for
high-performance computing
(HPC) systems,
opening a Silicon Valley research and testing office in2006. Through 2002 to 2007 the company invented and
prototyped a radical high-
performance
computing architecture called Redundant Array of Inexpensive Servers
(RAIS), which it tested around the world with
leading IT
vendors, analysts, and academics. In 2008 Waratek closed a
Series A
investment round with Mangrove Capital Partners of Luxembourg and in December 2008
re-incorporated Waratek from Australia to Ireland
to drive the
world-wide commercialization of Waratek's RAIS technology. Today
Waratek Ltd operates with staff and associates in
Dublin, London
and Sydney, and will be shipping its first RAIS computing systems to
early-adopter customers in Q1 2011.
Rob
Ryan (26), LadyUmbrella Ltd.
Rob is the co
owner and director of LadyUmbrella ladies t-shirts (http://www.ladyumbrella.com) which launched in
January 2010. He has been involved in every aspect of the business and
is an advocate for social media as a marketing tool. Using social media
Rob has been able to get the word out about LadyUmbrella and has
resulted in LadyUmbrella being mentioned in national papers both here
and abroad. Outside of his work with LadyUmbrella he blogs about social
media and is also a member of an international podcasting group which
discusses effective use of social media.
Stephen O’Leary (26), O’Leary
Analytics
Stephen O’Leary
is the 26 year old owner of O’Leary Analytics, an online media and
social media monitoring and analysis company. Having gained a degree in
Journalism and Media Communications from Griffith College Dublin,
Stephen spent a year working with The Irish Examiner in Cork, before
returning to Dublin to take up a role with Meltwater News, a
Scandinavian Media company. He worked in London and Amsterdam, and
returned to Dublin to join Green 17, as a sports agent. In November 2009
he set up O’Leary Analytics, an online media and social media
monitoring and analysis company. Using a range of monitoring and
analytical tools, they track and report on coverage from over 120,000
online news-producing sources, and over 220 million social media sources
– including Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Message Forums.
John O’Dea, Manager of Enterprise
Ireland’s Start-up Division
John O’Dea is
manager in the Start-up Division of Enterprise Ireland, with
responsibility for early stage projects in various industrial sectors.
Enterprise Ireland promotes entrepreneurship provides advisory and
financial support to High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) businesses. EI has
supported and invested in a wide range of new businesses and we believe
Ireland has huge further potential to generate significant numbers of
new, world class, start-ups. As an engineer with an MBA, John has worked
in a wide range of sectors, mainly in early stage companies.
I spent about 180 euros on a report last week -
and having digested about 2/3's of its pages it was worth the price.
The business behind it are holding a free webinar on this topic next week - more details of the report and the webinar: Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
From their site blurb on the report:
Top 10 Subscription & Membership Site Questions Answered:
Created as a *practical* resource for online content publishers, this Report features exclusive, new research answering your most pressing business questions, such as:
#1. How profitable are typical subscription sites, and how long does it take the average site to reach profitability after launching?
#2. What percent of total site visitors should take my paid subscription offer? How about my free registration or email offer? What are conversion rates for trial offers?
#3. Should I be publishing as a "hybrid model" with several revenue streams aside from subscriptions? What specific types of non-subscription products and offerings -- such as advertising -- are worth our time and effort, and which are not?
#4. Which are the most effective Internet marketing tactics for subscription sites right now? How about social marketing tactics? How about offline marketing such as TV, telemarketing, and direct postal mail? What's NOT working?
#5. Is my site's search marketing up to par compared with other sites in my niche? Should I invest more in PPC and/or SEO?
#6. How many months do average month-to-month subscribers last for? If I offer both annual and monthly subscriptions, what percent of buyers normally take each?
#7. Are double-digit credit card decline rates normal for subscription site transactions these days? How do B2B subscription site card declines compare to B2C offer declines?
#8. What sort of renewal rate is normal for annual subscriptions? What about group subscriptions? How about B2B vs consumer sites?
#9. What's normal for pricing in each major topical niche? What's normal for trial offers -- how long are trials and should they require a credit card?
#10. What are the brand names of 550 typical subscription sites -- and what sorts of challenges do their own executives say they're battling to succeed?
Wish they had an affiliate model :-). UPDATE - they do, I joined. So the links above are to an affiliate link.
Keith
From Startupcfo (a ning based community started by Mark MacLeod) came this - "Don't Just Roll the Dice" by Neil Davidson.
It is wide ranging and covers everything from psychology to competitors and fairness with an advanced section with stuff like site licences, bundling and free trials.
While it does apply to good old fashioned software it also covers SAAS (software as a service). 81 page pdf download from his site.
keith
I may have to temporarily get over my dislike of being around talented young people if I get to the Contrast 1 year old party on Friday evening.
Either that or just stay grumpy and quote shitmydadsays for the evening :-)
"I'm having a Makers Mark, you want one? What? 7up? I ain't mixing fucking makers with 7up. Might as well put a lil' fucking umbrella in it"
"You're being fucking dramatic. You own a TV and an air mattress. That's not exactly what I'd call "a lot to lose."
keith
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