An advertising promotion for a Roswell car dealership has backfired.
A direct mailing of 50,000 scratch-off games touted a grand prize of $1,000. The small type said the odds of winning were 1 in 50,000.
But it turns out all 50,000 scratch-off ads were $1,000 winners.
The dealership's general manager, Jeff Kohn, blamed Atlanta-based Force Events Direct Marketing for printing the ads with a typographical error.
The dealership is offering $5 Wal-Mart gift cards to all participants.
The marketing company, Force Events, sent representatives to Roswell Thursday. Force Events said they would give anyone who came to collect that day a chance to win $5,000 in a drawing. The company would also hold another series of drawings where 20 people will win $1,000 a piece.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Start Up's king Working On New Idea
Some people can't stop thinking about food. Bill Gross can't stop thinking about new businesses. One of the world's great serial entrepreneurs, he's launched more than 50 startups through Idealab, his incubator in Pasadena, Calif. His track record includes both winners (CitySearch, Cooking.com, NetZero/United Online) and losers (eToys, Eve.com, Free-PC). But he's best known for inventing the pay-per-click advertising model behind Overture Services (formerly GoTo.com), the pioneering search engine he sold to Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.6 billion.
Now, after more than a decade of launching dotcoms, Gross has rediscovered the pleasures - and profitability - of the physical world. Idealab's current lineup is crowded with companies that make actual products: robots, 3-D printers, electric cars, rooftop solar collectors. As Gross puts it, he's much more interested today in "atoms businesses" than "bits businesses." He recently sat down with Business 2.0 Editor-at-large Erick Schonfeld to talk about why.
Q. What do you look for when you start a company?
We like to challenge the status quo, to take on something that other people wouldn't do to solve a big problem. So when we look for a disruptive opportunity, we're really looking for a big problem and a way to solve it that no one else was willing to try.
Q. Do you go after industry incumbents, or are you looking for white space where customers aren't being served?
I would say we're going much more after white space. There are opportunities in both areas, and looking for a big industry gives you a lot of confidence that there will be customers there. But we prefer to look for a big itch that isn't being scratched.
Q. What are the drawbacks to going straight after a big industry incumbent?
The main drawback is that they are actually quite powerful. I think people underestimate big companies when they think of them as dinosaurs, as if they didn't have the power to fight back. For me, personally, if a customer is already being served, but just a little bit less efficiently, that's not as exciting as a customer with a problem that no one is trying to solve.
Q. Of all the companies you've started, which one was the most disruptive?
Probably GoTo. That company was designed to scratch an itch that wasn't being met. We had a whole bunch of small companies in the building that were all trying to buy advertising, but small advertisers were not being well served online. We thought the small advertiser needed some voice, some way to do business on a more cost-effective basis than cutting big deals with AOL. We had no idea that cost-per-click would have such a big impact - that it would change the economics of the Web. It was a disruptive thing that went beyond what we were hoping for.
Q. Didn't it become the basis for paid search, the economic driver for Google and Yahoo?
Yes, paid search has had an impact for Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500). But it's had an impact as well on many small publishers. Just as eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) empowers people to make a business online, so many publishers use AdSense and the price-per-click model to earn money online.
Q. How are you bringing search into the next phase?
Cost-per-click judges how many visitors you get, but it doesn't measure how effective those visitors are. Do they actually complete a transaction at the end? Do they become a customer of your Web site? We started Snap with the explicit purpose of introducing cost-per-action into search. An action could be anything the Web site cares about: a visitor signing up for a subscription or buying a book or deciding to become one of your customers. Since we introduced Snap, other search engines are starting to blend measurable actions into their final results.
Q. Is it frustrating that everyone copies you?
Well, we start these new companies for multiple reasons. Of course we're looking for economic gain; we have shareholders. But we are also looking to have an impact - and that's what makes us most proud.
Q. Was there a company you thought would be disruptive that turned out not to be?
Well, we felt sure Free-PC would be very disruptive - and it was, in fact. We were giving away free computers solely based on advertising. We started this in 1999. With today's economic model of online advertising, we might have been able to sustain it. We were just too far ahead of our time.
Q. What were some of Idealab's early successes?
We had a very big success with our first company, called CitySearch. It was doing local search way before it was popular. That was 1995 to 1996, and that company eventually grew up, merged with Ticketmaster Online, went public, and is now part of the IAC/InterActiveCorp family. We wanted to show that you could find local merchants much more powerfully and efficiently online, and I think we did. Of course, today everybody accepts that.
Read Full Text:http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/news/companies/Startupking.biz2/index.htm
Now, after more than a decade of launching dotcoms, Gross has rediscovered the pleasures - and profitability - of the physical world. Idealab's current lineup is crowded with companies that make actual products: robots, 3-D printers, electric cars, rooftop solar collectors. As Gross puts it, he's much more interested today in "atoms businesses" than "bits businesses." He recently sat down with Business 2.0 Editor-at-large Erick Schonfeld to talk about why.
Q. What do you look for when you start a company?
We like to challenge the status quo, to take on something that other people wouldn't do to solve a big problem. So when we look for a disruptive opportunity, we're really looking for a big problem and a way to solve it that no one else was willing to try.
Q. Do you go after industry incumbents, or are you looking for white space where customers aren't being served?
I would say we're going much more after white space. There are opportunities in both areas, and looking for a big industry gives you a lot of confidence that there will be customers there. But we prefer to look for a big itch that isn't being scratched.
Q. What are the drawbacks to going straight after a big industry incumbent?
The main drawback is that they are actually quite powerful. I think people underestimate big companies when they think of them as dinosaurs, as if they didn't have the power to fight back. For me, personally, if a customer is already being served, but just a little bit less efficiently, that's not as exciting as a customer with a problem that no one is trying to solve.
Q. Of all the companies you've started, which one was the most disruptive?
Probably GoTo. That company was designed to scratch an itch that wasn't being met. We had a whole bunch of small companies in the building that were all trying to buy advertising, but small advertisers were not being well served online. We thought the small advertiser needed some voice, some way to do business on a more cost-effective basis than cutting big deals with AOL. We had no idea that cost-per-click would have such a big impact - that it would change the economics of the Web. It was a disruptive thing that went beyond what we were hoping for.
Q. Didn't it become the basis for paid search, the economic driver for Google and Yahoo?
Yes, paid search has had an impact for Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500). But it's had an impact as well on many small publishers. Just as eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) empowers people to make a business online, so many publishers use AdSense and the price-per-click model to earn money online.
Q. How are you bringing search into the next phase?
Cost-per-click judges how many visitors you get, but it doesn't measure how effective those visitors are. Do they actually complete a transaction at the end? Do they become a customer of your Web site? We started Snap with the explicit purpose of introducing cost-per-action into search. An action could be anything the Web site cares about: a visitor signing up for a subscription or buying a book or deciding to become one of your customers. Since we introduced Snap, other search engines are starting to blend measurable actions into their final results.
Q. Is it frustrating that everyone copies you?
Well, we start these new companies for multiple reasons. Of course we're looking for economic gain; we have shareholders. But we are also looking to have an impact - and that's what makes us most proud.
Q. Was there a company you thought would be disruptive that turned out not to be?
Well, we felt sure Free-PC would be very disruptive - and it was, in fact. We were giving away free computers solely based on advertising. We started this in 1999. With today's economic model of online advertising, we might have been able to sustain it. We were just too far ahead of our time.
Q. What were some of Idealab's early successes?
We had a very big success with our first company, called CitySearch. It was doing local search way before it was popular. That was 1995 to 1996, and that company eventually grew up, merged with Ticketmaster Online, went public, and is now part of the IAC/InterActiveCorp family. We wanted to show that you could find local merchants much more powerfully and efficiently online, and I think we did. Of course, today everybody accepts that.
Read Full Text:http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/news/companies/Startupking.biz2/index.htm
Who Is behind ThFunded.com?
As a successful venture capitalist, Howard Hartenbaum had grown accustomed to some measure of deference from the entrepreneurs who pitched him. So when one particularly brash CEO called him a "nut case" and then said that a meeting with him "made me want to vomit," Hartenbaum was livid.
Hartenbaum, a partner at Draper Richards in San Francisco and an early backer of the online phone service Skype, stumbled upon those comments, posted by an anonymous entrepreneur, on a website called TheFunded.com. Incensed, Hartenbaum fired off a series of e-mails, threatening litigation and demanding to know who ran the site. He also expressed interest in investing.
If this reaction seems a tad schizophrenic, it reflects the mix of indignation and curiosity that The Funded has sparked in the world of venture-backed companies. The site, which was launched in March, is at once a Zagat guide to VCs and a place for disgruntled entrepreneurs to gather. More than 350 funds have been ranked and reviewed, with the juiciest postings sending BlackBerrys buzzing throughout Silicon Valley. Although the site is ostensibly off-limits to all but the founders of fast-growing companies, they're not its only readers. "We all have friends who have passwords," says David Stern, a partner with Clearstone, a venture firm in Santa Monica, California.
Complaining about VCs is a practice nearly as old as venture capital investing itself, of course. But the VC world is small and entrepreneurs have had to keep their complaints under wraps if they hoped to attract future rounds of funding. Now the 1,500 company founders who have signed up for The Funded feel liberated enough to share opinions (most often anonymously) that range from balanced to harsh.
Adding to The Funded's mystique is the fact that no one knows who runs it. The site's founder is known only as Ted, and guessing his identity has become something of a Silicon Valley parlor game. Prime suspects include Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg (a company Ted is fond of referencing), Blogger co-founder Evan Williams, and Gawker founder Nick Denton, who until recently edited the site Valley Wag. Then there's Jason Calacanis, a former entrepreneur in residence at Sequoia Capital and the founder of Weblogs, a company that he sold in late 2005. Calacanis, who is now running Mahalo.com, a Sequoia-backed search start-up, was one of the first CEOs to tout The Funded on his blog. He says he "knows" Ted but denies that he's running the site. (Rose did not respond to Inc.; Williams and Denton declined to comment.)
Of course, it's entirely possible that Ted is an obscure, rejected entrepreneur with an ax to grind (Hartenbaum's favored theory) or a tech-savvy student. After exchanging a few e-mails, Ted agreed to call Inc. for a phone interview. He claims to be a well-known serial entrepreneur who is currently the CEO of a venture-backed company. He says he started The Funded following a run-in with a firm. A VC wooed Ted initially, treating him to sports tickets and fancy dinners. But after the deal was signed, the relationship soured. "It was straight-up bad behavior," says Ted, who has a youthful voice and a distinctive, slightly devious laugh. "The person was cursing in meetings and insulting other board members." Ted's revenge: a site that is, he asserts, "changing the venture capital world."
Some VCs dismiss The Funded as idle chatter. Money, after all, is money, and a start-up that intends to burn some cash can rarely afford to dismiss an investor no matter how rude he or she is. But The Funded's supporters hope to upset that balance of power. The growth of the venture capital industry--VCs raised $28.5 billion last year, up from $3.8 billion in 2002--coupled with a tepid market for initial public offerings has made the competition among VCs for good deals more intense than ever. Simultaneously, the very social networking technology that produced home-run returns for investors--and disrupted industries from publishing to air travel--is now being used against them, as entrepreneurs organize themselves into online communities and share information.
Indeed, The Funded is just one of dozens of insider blogs on venture capital that have sprung up recently, most prominently Pmarca, a site written by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, whose "The Truth About Venture Capitalists," a 4,400-word essay posted on the site, has become a must-read for any CEO raising capital. (One section, "How to make a VC's head explode in one easy step," suggests needling investors about preferential tax treatment.)
More at:www.TheFunded.com
Via-INC
Hartenbaum, a partner at Draper Richards in San Francisco and an early backer of the online phone service Skype, stumbled upon those comments, posted by an anonymous entrepreneur, on a website called TheFunded.com. Incensed, Hartenbaum fired off a series of e-mails, threatening litigation and demanding to know who ran the site. He also expressed interest in investing.
If this reaction seems a tad schizophrenic, it reflects the mix of indignation and curiosity that The Funded has sparked in the world of venture-backed companies. The site, which was launched in March, is at once a Zagat guide to VCs and a place for disgruntled entrepreneurs to gather. More than 350 funds have been ranked and reviewed, with the juiciest postings sending BlackBerrys buzzing throughout Silicon Valley. Although the site is ostensibly off-limits to all but the founders of fast-growing companies, they're not its only readers. "We all have friends who have passwords," says David Stern, a partner with Clearstone, a venture firm in Santa Monica, California.
Complaining about VCs is a practice nearly as old as venture capital investing itself, of course. But the VC world is small and entrepreneurs have had to keep their complaints under wraps if they hoped to attract future rounds of funding. Now the 1,500 company founders who have signed up for The Funded feel liberated enough to share opinions (most often anonymously) that range from balanced to harsh.
Adding to The Funded's mystique is the fact that no one knows who runs it. The site's founder is known only as Ted, and guessing his identity has become something of a Silicon Valley parlor game. Prime suspects include Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg (a company Ted is fond of referencing), Blogger co-founder Evan Williams, and Gawker founder Nick Denton, who until recently edited the site Valley Wag. Then there's Jason Calacanis, a former entrepreneur in residence at Sequoia Capital and the founder of Weblogs, a company that he sold in late 2005. Calacanis, who is now running Mahalo.com, a Sequoia-backed search start-up, was one of the first CEOs to tout The Funded on his blog. He says he "knows" Ted but denies that he's running the site. (Rose did not respond to Inc.; Williams and Denton declined to comment.)
Of course, it's entirely possible that Ted is an obscure, rejected entrepreneur with an ax to grind (Hartenbaum's favored theory) or a tech-savvy student. After exchanging a few e-mails, Ted agreed to call Inc. for a phone interview. He claims to be a well-known serial entrepreneur who is currently the CEO of a venture-backed company. He says he started The Funded following a run-in with a firm. A VC wooed Ted initially, treating him to sports tickets and fancy dinners. But after the deal was signed, the relationship soured. "It was straight-up bad behavior," says Ted, who has a youthful voice and a distinctive, slightly devious laugh. "The person was cursing in meetings and insulting other board members." Ted's revenge: a site that is, he asserts, "changing the venture capital world."
Some VCs dismiss The Funded as idle chatter. Money, after all, is money, and a start-up that intends to burn some cash can rarely afford to dismiss an investor no matter how rude he or she is. But The Funded's supporters hope to upset that balance of power. The growth of the venture capital industry--VCs raised $28.5 billion last year, up from $3.8 billion in 2002--coupled with a tepid market for initial public offerings has made the competition among VCs for good deals more intense than ever. Simultaneously, the very social networking technology that produced home-run returns for investors--and disrupted industries from publishing to air travel--is now being used against them, as entrepreneurs organize themselves into online communities and share information.
Indeed, The Funded is just one of dozens of insider blogs on venture capital that have sprung up recently, most prominently Pmarca, a site written by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, whose "The Truth About Venture Capitalists," a 4,400-word essay posted on the site, has become a must-read for any CEO raising capital. (One section, "How to make a VC's head explode in one easy step," suggests needling investors about preferential tax treatment.)
More at:www.TheFunded.com
Via-INC
Krillion For" Finding National Brands Near You"
Krillion, the local search service for purchase-ready buyers, is adding a new feature called StockCheck. This will display the in-store availability for items you’re searching. The data for inventory is real-time, so this should make it much easier for users to find the best store with the best prices and product availability.
The addition of StockCheck goes along with the other search result data you’ll get with Krillion, like price points for individual store locations, contact information, directions, reviews, and more. What’s also good about this tool is its ability to help retailers get additional data on consumer activity online, when it comes to search. Other recent developments in local search include the official launch of viewpoints, FastCall411 and.
More at:http://www.krillion.com/
Via-mashable
The addition of StockCheck goes along with the other search result data you’ll get with Krillion, like price points for individual store locations, contact information, directions, reviews, and more. What’s also good about this tool is its ability to help retailers get additional data on consumer activity online, when it comes to search. Other recent developments in local search include the official launch of viewpoints, FastCall411 and.
More at:http://www.krillion.com/
Via-mashable
FT.com For Free Content
FT.com, the Internet version of the Financial Times, is instituting a new model for free and paid content on its website. Starting tomorrow, users will be able to access content on FT.com for free up to a total of 30 views per month. After 30 days, they will need to purchase a subscription in order to access more content.
This gives users plenty of opportunities to get the content they want, for free. Only the serious users will need to purchase a subscription beyond this, and that aligns nicely with the monetary goals of FT, as well as the concept that more content should be free online. This new model is also being promoted as useful for bloggers, as any reference links will be available to readers for free as well.
After The New York Times made more of its premium content available for free, and Murdoch announced plans to do the same for the Wall Street Journal, it’s clear that the pressure is on for more publications to give up content for free. What’s not detailed regarding FT.com’s new model is where advertising fits in, and if there are any plans to completely free up content and supplement costs with advertising revenue.
Read at:http://www.ft.com/home/us
Via-Mash
This gives users plenty of opportunities to get the content they want, for free. Only the serious users will need to purchase a subscription beyond this, and that aligns nicely with the monetary goals of FT, as well as the concept that more content should be free online. This new model is also being promoted as useful for bloggers, as any reference links will be available to readers for free as well.
After The New York Times made more of its premium content available for free, and Murdoch announced plans to do the same for the Wall Street Journal, it’s clear that the pressure is on for more publications to give up content for free. What’s not detailed regarding FT.com’s new model is where advertising fits in, and if there are any plans to completely free up content and supplement costs with advertising revenue.
Read at:http://www.ft.com/home/us
Via-Mash
Queplix increases your company's profitability by promoting Customer Loyalty"Customer Care"
What Company is Offering:
Queplix increases your company's profitability by promoting Customer Loyalty, Brand Name recognition and Customer Retention.
Traditional CRM vendors focus primarily on the acquisition portion of the Customer's life cycle. It is a known fact that it takes a much bigger budget to acquire a new customer than to keep existing customers loyal.
QueWeb focuses specifically on the Customer Care portion of the life cycle, after the Customer has been acquired. That portion of the life cycle has been largely underserved both in the Enterprise segment as well as the Mid-market.
In order to stay competitive in today's global economy, more and more companies realize that their Customer Care must be treated as a Profit Center, as opposed to traditional thinking of it as a Cost Center. By enabling the superior Customer Experience, companies realize the full potential in Customer's Loyalty, Brand Name Recognition and Customer Retention, all leading to increase in profits.
How It Works:
Queplix solutions help these businesses create a customer care service that nurtures existing relationships with customers therefore providing continual future business with the customer. If your current customer service system is providing poor support it is time you visit Queplix.com and take a look at what they have to offer. Queplix provides solutions that work with your existing system and interface but allows you to easily update customer information .
More at:http://www.queplix.com/
Queplix increases your company's profitability by promoting Customer Loyalty, Brand Name recognition and Customer Retention.
Traditional CRM vendors focus primarily on the acquisition portion of the Customer's life cycle. It is a known fact that it takes a much bigger budget to acquire a new customer than to keep existing customers loyal.
QueWeb focuses specifically on the Customer Care portion of the life cycle, after the Customer has been acquired. That portion of the life cycle has been largely underserved both in the Enterprise segment as well as the Mid-market.
In order to stay competitive in today's global economy, more and more companies realize that their Customer Care must be treated as a Profit Center, as opposed to traditional thinking of it as a Cost Center. By enabling the superior Customer Experience, companies realize the full potential in Customer's Loyalty, Brand Name Recognition and Customer Retention, all leading to increase in profits.
How It Works:
Queplix solutions help these businesses create a customer care service that nurtures existing relationships with customers therefore providing continual future business with the customer. If your current customer service system is providing poor support it is time you visit Queplix.com and take a look at what they have to offer. Queplix provides solutions that work with your existing system and interface but allows you to easily update customer information .
More at:http://www.queplix.com/
They Become Millionaire With MyYearbook.com
Who: Catherine and Dave Cook
What: MyYearbook.com, a social networking site
Where: New Hope, Pennsylvania
When: Started in 2005
Move over, MySpace and Facebook--these young entrepreneurs have found a new way to capitalize on the social networking rage. Amazingly, Catherine Cook, 17, and her 18-year-old brother, Dave, were able to create MyYearbook.com while they were still in high school.
The 2 million-member, seven-figure-earning site, with 20 employees and ad revenue from corporations such as Disney and Procter & Gamble, got its start from an observation about yearbooks. Catherine says she and Dave were sitting around, flipping through their school yearbook and commenting on its poor quality. Their idea to turn a yearbook into a social website quickly became a reality when their oldest brother, Geoff, decided to come onboard as an investor. A Harvard graduate and a successful internet entrepreneur in his own right, Geoff gave Catherine and Dave $250,000 to start the company in 2005. With that, Catherine and Dave were on their way, working with outsourced developers in India to design a networking site that would meld the success of MySpace with the premise of a yearbook.
Pulling constant all-nighters and juggling schoolwork along with the business was "really daunting," says Catherine. Hoping to attract as many students as possible, the pair timed the launch to coincide with their return to school after spring break in April 2005. They turned heads by wearing promotional T-shirts to school, resulting in 200 people signing up in the first week. Word spread, and less than a year after opening up to all schools, the site had a million members. "At the start, [the success] was a joke," Catherine says. "We made fake press articles about us taking over the world and getting a million members. But then we actually got a million members, and we knew it was going to be big."
Catherine says the site owes its rapid growth to several factors: her appearance in CosmoGirl magazine, her and Dave's ability to gather feedback directly from the students at their school, and giveaways of free T-shirts and sandals to members who recommended at least five people to the site. "With high schoolers, something free is always good," Catherine says, adding that the site's optimal search and profile customization features have also fueled its success.
Catherine says she and Dave could not have done it without the help of Geoff, who runs the day-to-day operations of the company while she and Dave focus on schoolwork. "We're really close siblings," says Catherine. "We have the same sense of humor, and it [is] easy to work with Geoff."
So what's next for two kids who've already started their own company? College, of course. While she hasn't chosen a school yet, Catherine plans to attend a university starting this fall, and Dave is currently enrolled at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
More at:http://www.myyearbook.com/
Via-Entrepreneur Mag
What: MyYearbook.com, a social networking site
Where: New Hope, Pennsylvania
When: Started in 2005
Move over, MySpace and Facebook--these young entrepreneurs have found a new way to capitalize on the social networking rage. Amazingly, Catherine Cook, 17, and her 18-year-old brother, Dave, were able to create MyYearbook.com while they were still in high school.
The 2 million-member, seven-figure-earning site, with 20 employees and ad revenue from corporations such as Disney and Procter & Gamble, got its start from an observation about yearbooks. Catherine says she and Dave were sitting around, flipping through their school yearbook and commenting on its poor quality. Their idea to turn a yearbook into a social website quickly became a reality when their oldest brother, Geoff, decided to come onboard as an investor. A Harvard graduate and a successful internet entrepreneur in his own right, Geoff gave Catherine and Dave $250,000 to start the company in 2005. With that, Catherine and Dave were on their way, working with outsourced developers in India to design a networking site that would meld the success of MySpace with the premise of a yearbook.
Pulling constant all-nighters and juggling schoolwork along with the business was "really daunting," says Catherine. Hoping to attract as many students as possible, the pair timed the launch to coincide with their return to school after spring break in April 2005. They turned heads by wearing promotional T-shirts to school, resulting in 200 people signing up in the first week. Word spread, and less than a year after opening up to all schools, the site had a million members. "At the start, [the success] was a joke," Catherine says. "We made fake press articles about us taking over the world and getting a million members. But then we actually got a million members, and we knew it was going to be big."
Catherine says the site owes its rapid growth to several factors: her appearance in CosmoGirl magazine, her and Dave's ability to gather feedback directly from the students at their school, and giveaways of free T-shirts and sandals to members who recommended at least five people to the site. "With high schoolers, something free is always good," Catherine says, adding that the site's optimal search and profile customization features have also fueled its success.
Catherine says she and Dave could not have done it without the help of Geoff, who runs the day-to-day operations of the company while she and Dave focus on schoolwork. "We're really close siblings," says Catherine. "We have the same sense of humor, and it [is] easy to work with Geoff."
So what's next for two kids who've already started their own company? College, of course. While she hasn't chosen a school yet, Catherine plans to attend a university starting this fall, and Dave is currently enrolled at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
More at:http://www.myyearbook.com/
Via-Entrepreneur Mag
Google's now offering an ad creation tool
If you could use some help spreading the word about your small business, let Google lend a helping hand. Google's now offering an ad creation tool to help advertisers develop newspaper ads using pre-designed templates. The tool itself is free, though it's only available to AdWords advertisers. Marketers can also search through Google's inventory of 450 newspapers and chat directly with Print Ads account representatives.
More at:http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/FREE/70921005/1078/newsletter01
More at:http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/FREE/70921005/1078/newsletter01
Start Up Says Software As A Service Hit Among Them
Manish Agrawal heads Picsquare, a two-year-old Bangalore-based firm with a Web site that lets one order prints of digital photos. His company is made up of just 10 people, working on their laptops, designing and brainstorming. His servers sit in the US, rented at $140 per month. Storage, from Amazon.com’s S3 online storage service, is paid on a per GB per month basis.
“We are a small firm and just received funding of $75,000 from an angel investor. Our expenses need to be curtailed wherever possible. The idea of renting out servers and storage came about as we began the company. It made for an economical proposition. In India, you would have to spend around Rs 7 lakh for just the servers,” he explained.
Raman Fibre Sciences, another start-up, has opted for Microsoft’s ERP software as a service (SaaS) offering — Dynamics — for the same reason. “For a start-up, an upfront investment is an issue. The return on investment is also difficult to calculate. The subscription model offered by the software has made it easier for us to get to a running start,” said Mr Aroon Raman.
“Software as a service is still in a nascent stage of adoption in India, with few small and medium enterprises choosing it,” Mr Venkatesh Kumar Sivaraman, National Sales Manager — MS Dynamics, Wipro Infotech, told Business Line. “About 80 per cent of the companies we speak to still want to host the applications inside,” he continued. Subscribing to a three-user ERP pack (for basic material and financial accounting functionalities) costs Rs 25,000 per month, compared to the Rs 10-15 lakh upfront payment in the traditional model.
What makes SaaS and newer online models work for start-ups? “We do not have legacy software and hardware that is occupying space and needs to be used — the bane of a medium or large enterprise. We can start off with a flexible and light basic software and then add more modules to it as we scale up — perfect for a fast growing small firm,” he said.
Via-Businessline
“We are a small firm and just received funding of $75,000 from an angel investor. Our expenses need to be curtailed wherever possible. The idea of renting out servers and storage came about as we began the company. It made for an economical proposition. In India, you would have to spend around Rs 7 lakh for just the servers,” he explained.
Raman Fibre Sciences, another start-up, has opted for Microsoft’s ERP software as a service (SaaS) offering — Dynamics — for the same reason. “For a start-up, an upfront investment is an issue. The return on investment is also difficult to calculate. The subscription model offered by the software has made it easier for us to get to a running start,” said Mr Aroon Raman.
“Software as a service is still in a nascent stage of adoption in India, with few small and medium enterprises choosing it,” Mr Venkatesh Kumar Sivaraman, National Sales Manager — MS Dynamics, Wipro Infotech, told Business Line. “About 80 per cent of the companies we speak to still want to host the applications inside,” he continued. Subscribing to a three-user ERP pack (for basic material and financial accounting functionalities) costs Rs 25,000 per month, compared to the Rs 10-15 lakh upfront payment in the traditional model.
What makes SaaS and newer online models work for start-ups? “We do not have legacy software and hardware that is occupying space and needs to be used — the bane of a medium or large enterprise. We can start off with a flexible and light basic software and then add more modules to it as we scale up — perfect for a fast growing small firm,” he said.
Via-Businessline
FOREIGN VENTURE capital (VC) funds have realised that investing in Indian start-ups could be far more rewarding than the country's stock markets.
FOREIGN VENTURE capital (VC) funds have realised that investing in Indian start-ups could be far more rewarding than the country's stock markets.
They are now busy tying up with Indian boutique investment banks to extend their reach in the country. At least 11 such tie-ups have either been announced or were in the pipeline. Foreign funds such as US-based Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Quantum and Evergreen and Switzerland’s VGD have either tied up, or are in the process of tying up with Indian banks to leverage India’s blinding economic growth.
“We believe young people in India today are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs, and that is a great emerging opportunity we want to tap,” says Vinnie Vyas of Crossover Advisors, a boutique advisory firm he started with his partner in Mumbai earlier this year, having spent nine years at US-based investment banking major Morgan Stanley.
Boutique investment bankers say financial services, infotech services, pharmaceuticals and real estate are real hot sectors to be in. Not surprisingly then, foreign funds are actively eyeing these ventures to ensure that their high net worth portfolios get major returns.
Out of these, real estate and infrastructure has already very high valuations, making them unattractive for smaller VC funds. Other sectors like insurance, for example, has set a scorching growth rate of 50 to 55 per cent, says Vyas, who came back to try and tap the potential of India’s high growth sectors that have consistently outperformed annualised returns from the benchmark BSE Sensex that has given average returns of 33.5 per cent in the last five years.
Other bankers, however, said that foreign funds were tying up simply to acquire the networking capabilities of Indian banks and nothing more. Most of these funds were not really interested in seed funding, but in identifying more rewarding opportunities. That is where the tie-ups end, they said.
They are now busy tying up with Indian boutique investment banks to extend their reach in the country. At least 11 such tie-ups have either been announced or were in the pipeline. Foreign funds such as US-based Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Quantum and Evergreen and Switzerland’s VGD have either tied up, or are in the process of tying up with Indian banks to leverage India’s blinding economic growth.
“We believe young people in India today are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs, and that is a great emerging opportunity we want to tap,” says Vinnie Vyas of Crossover Advisors, a boutique advisory firm he started with his partner in Mumbai earlier this year, having spent nine years at US-based investment banking major Morgan Stanley.
Boutique investment bankers say financial services, infotech services, pharmaceuticals and real estate are real hot sectors to be in. Not surprisingly then, foreign funds are actively eyeing these ventures to ensure that their high net worth portfolios get major returns.
Out of these, real estate and infrastructure has already very high valuations, making them unattractive for smaller VC funds. Other sectors like insurance, for example, has set a scorching growth rate of 50 to 55 per cent, says Vyas, who came back to try and tap the potential of India’s high growth sectors that have consistently outperformed annualised returns from the benchmark BSE Sensex that has given average returns of 33.5 per cent in the last five years.
Other bankers, however, said that foreign funds were tying up simply to acquire the networking capabilities of Indian banks and nothing more. Most of these funds were not really interested in seed funding, but in identifying more rewarding opportunities. That is where the tie-ups end, they said.
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