Launching Today

Posted on Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

DashGo

What do they do?

DashGo connects independent artists with music distribution services like iTunes, Amie st, emusic and the rest. They also manage social media promotional services like imeem and last.fm.

What are they like?

They are competing directly with services like TuneCore and SongCast, but DashGo appear to have more of a focus on marketing through social media.

What else should they do?

They need to put their name all over whatever they distribute through social media. Indie artists listen to other indie artists so this is the perfect direct marketing.

How they can fail

Unless they are competitive with other similar services from a costs perspective, they will have trouble. Indie artists generally don’t have much money and most think they can do all of this social media stuff themselves. They need to look into showing indie artists that they are better than they are at this kind of stuff.

Final word

It’s pretty obvious that social media is the best way for indie artists to get their name out there, so packaging social media and digital distribution makes perfect sense. It all comes down to how well they can do the social media stuff.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

GenePartner

What does it do?

GenePartner matches your DNA against other members, to find your perfect match. They have analyzed a sample of couples to determine an algorithm which will show you your perfect match for a partner.

What are they like?

Nothing that I know of. They compete with the usual players like Match.com and the rest of the big dating websites, but if you are willing to pay a fee ($200) to find your DNA match, I don’t think a regular dating website is going to cut it for you.

What else should they do?

I have no idea. This is obviously a very new industry, which I doubt will take off, but I suppose making it free or cheaper will help, at least at the start. They should also hire some lawyers to see if they are even legally allowed to do business in the United States (GenePartner is based in Switzerland). 23 and Me ran into some legal troubles with their DNA testing.

How they can fail

The matches don’t work. Does DNA have anything to do with your perfect couple? I don’t think so, but I have never tested anyone I know. Who knows, maybe it does work, in which case, they should patent this and they will be a multi-billion dollar company.

Final word

It was hard not to write this with an extremely sarcastic tone. I’ve done my best. I just think this is ridiculous. Best of luck to the company, they certainly have some very unique ideas and the business model is there.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Posted on Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

Grabitnow.com

What does it do?

Offers a new deal every day to buy a different item an a drastically discounted price

What are they like?

There is quite a few of these, the biggest being woot.com. There is also Amazon Gold Box, and other country versions like Catch of the Day for Australia.

What else should they do?

Nothing really - providing they have a big launch. They are doing everything they need to do. Most of these websites operate on word of mouth and repeat business. Widgets would be a good idea, for Google IG and even Facebook.

How they can fail

As long as they can continue to offer really good items at really low prices, they should be OK.

Final word

Idea has been done to death, but there isn’t really a big UK version of a website like this, so there is a good opportunity to become a market leader.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

StumbleAudio

What do they do?

StumbleAudio let you discover new relevant music that you haven’t heard before - all indie music across all genres. Users can rate music which allows the service to provide more targeted songs based on what you liked and didn’t like.

What are they like?

Pandora is the obvious one here, however StumbleAudio does have a very different aim which is music you don’t know already. There is also Jango.

What else should they do?

They pretty much do everything they need to be - they have duplicated Pandora’s service and created what I think is a better interface. All they can really do for now is get as many users as they can to continue to improve the recommendation algorithm. They say they they have social networking widgets on the way.

How they can fail

I don’t know if I am correct or not, but I always assumed that the only real way that Pandora is making money is by triggering memories of a song/artist that a users once liked but long forgot about. Once they hear the song they buy the track/album and Pandora gets their commission. It is a lot harder to convince someone to invest in a nobody that they didn’t know about 5 minutes ago, when they can just hit the back button and hear it again and again for free. Copyright might become an issue and they will have to block most countries like Pandora have.

Final word

Solid product from a development perspective, but I don’t see any exit for this company. They claim to be paying the artists that they play, which makes it even more difficult to monetize. I don’t like the name either, blatant copy of StumbleUpon’s StumbleVideo

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Sunday, 20th July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

Startuply

What does it do?

Startuply is a job listing website aimed at startup companies who can post open jobs for free.

What are they like?

Where to start? There is Dice who are aimed at IT companies, every other job website on the internet, as well as Craig’s List. Than there are the more startup job websites, usually attached to web2.0 websites, such as TechCrunch’s CrunchBoard or Gigaom’s GigaomJobs which appear to complete in the exact same space (except that they charge).

What else should they do?

Get their name out there. It’s the only thing they need to do. Getting startup companies to list their job page straight to the Startuply listing would be a great idea, maybe in exchange for the #1 spot on the main page). They are a free website which is great for startups with limited capital. As for their plan to make money? I guess they will introduce premium listings or something like that.

How they can fail

Too much competition. They allow startups only which is great, but a Job at Google or Fox Interactive Media is just as good and people will still want to see these. I suppose a site like this won’t exactly need a bunch of employees to run, so costs won’t be too high to keep alive.

Final word

Good idea, but all I can see for Startuply is cruising along with good enough traffic and revenue, only to be acquired by a bigger employment company for an acceptable figure.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 18th July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

MobiFriends

What does it do?

MobiFriends from Mobissimo allows people to update friends on their travels as well as see reviews of places they are going from their peers.

What are they like?

TripAdvisor and the rest of the travel dot-coms have the reviews functionality, but most haven’t yet grasped the fully fledged social networking element which appears to be perfect for the travel niche. TripUp did a similar thing and was acquired by SideStep, later to be shut down. None of the travel social networks seem to be taking off at the moment, it appears that Driftr is leading the way at the moment.

What else should they do?

Why is this not on it’s own sub-domain? This would certainly popularize it more, keeping it separate from the main content of the website and getting it’s own full front page to highlight its features.

How they can fail

Mobissimo are still a very small player in the travel space. While they are certainly up and coming and have a big future, if MobiFriends were to take off, TripAdvisor could very quickly take this market share as they already have the content and the users - it’s just a matter of linking it all up into a friends network. They are also completely competing with Facebook in this space. The user’s friends are there, they can send their status, add images, and they are already a member. Tough competition.

Final word

Keep it all coming Mobissimo - we really like what you are doing, developing very quickly ahead of the rest of the market - accelerated growth like this is a rarity without enormous venture capital (Mobissimo currently has taken about $1 million in VC). Hopefully the company didn’t invest too much money on developing this - I just don’t see it taking off.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 18th July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

Schmap for the iPhone

What does it do?

Schmap is a digital travel mapping website which integrates reviews and photos. They are the company that keeps telling you you have won an ‘award on flickr’ as asks for permission to use their image. Moving to a mobile platform is a natural step for anyone in the travel industry.

What else should they do?

Schmap offer a desktop application already that works very well, so this should be an iPhone application rather than just a mobile website.

Final word

This should just be a mobile site which is compatible with the iPhone. Let the iPhone users install the application.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 18th July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

UEatCheap.com

What do they do?

UEatCheap let users find places to eat in their area for less than $10. Users can rate restaurants and add new listings. Listings are displayed on the usual Google map, and you can sort by cuisine type and distance from your specified location. The site will also send the place’s address to your phone.

What are they like?

There are countless websites which do restaurant ratings, many of them with the usual $x, $xx and $xxx pricing guides, however I don’t recall ever seeing one with such a focus like this. I must admit I am a sucker for a cheap meal, and while traveling I would be using a service like this every day.

What else should they do?

It’s all good and fine that the show me what’s under $10, but what am I getting? Menus would be a great addition as well as user comments to compliment the ratings. They should also let users rate restaurants without creating an account, at least for the beginning to build up the database faster. Use a cachpa if bots are a problem. A better domain would go a long way, too.

How they can fail

If Yelp.com decide to focus more on separating restaurants by prices UEatCheap will face very tough competition as Yelp have a pre-existing ratings system in place as well as an enormous amount of users.

Final word

I like the concept and design, I will think of this service when I am traveling next, but they will need to build a lot of users very quickly to build the ratings service faster, which is the most important part.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 18th July 2008 by Launching Today

Name

Google Business Search

What do they do?

Google have added a new feature to their website where if you visit Google on your phone and search for a business, you will get a link to rate and review it.

What are they like?

Yelp Mobile does this, but it’s Google, so you it doesn’t really matter what anyone else does.

What else should they do?

Google should add some kind of feature where it asks you for the recommendation at a later date. They know you searched for the business, maybe the next time you visit the business search section, it could ask for a quick review or at least a rating in the sidebar of the map? I suppose people won’t like that one too much though.

How they can fail

It’s pretty hard for a feature like this to fail, however it is kind of backwards which will certainly limit it greatly. You would search for the business before visiting it, so how are you going to be able to write a review? For example, once you have eaten at a new restaurant, there is no reason for you to be searching for it again to be able to rate it. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I’m sure that people will still be using it.

Final word

Google are working harder and harder in their goal to ’store the world’s information’ and this is just one more step in the right direction.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)