#Seatgeek App Development

[harrywatson4u]

The Event Ticket Booking mobile application allows users to select their taste and place and make an order for any amount of tickets with the option of digital payment. To Build an Event Ticket Booking App like SeatGeek, engage Dev Technosys for comprehensive development. Employ a user-friendly interface allowing easy browsing and purchasing of tickets. Implement advanced search filters, secure payment gateways, and real-time event updates. Utilize robust backend frameworks and scalable infrastructure to ensure seamless performance. Incorporate personalized recommendations and social media integration for enhanced user experience.

[edwardpotts]

U.S. In-Person Event Ticketing App Installs Hit 86% of Pre-Pandemic Levels In July, Up 486% from January

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, in-person spaces such as concert halls, sports arenas, and theaters have begun re-opening throughout the world alongside an increase in vaccinations. Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals a corresponding surge in the downloads for the top ticketing apps for such events, with installs in the United States for last month reaching 86 percent of pre-pandemic levels while the United Kingdom set an all-time record for July.

U.S. Interest in Live Events Approaches Pre-Pandemic Levels

The top five most-downloaded ticketing apps in the U.S. experienced significant year-over-year growth in July. Installs of Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, StubHub, SeatGeek, and AXS Tickets collectively climbed 689 percent to 1.8 million, up from 228,000 a year before when the country was in the midst of ubiquitous stay-at-home orders. Last month, the cohort reached 86 percent of July 2019 when the apps collectively saw a little more than 2 million installs.

Ticketmaster Surpassed 1 Million Installs in July

Out of the top five ticketing apps in the U.S., Ticketmaster generated the most installs in July. The app saw more than 1 million downloads from U.S. app stores and climbed 18 percent when compared to July 2019.

Although Ticketmaster saw the most installs last month out of the group, AXS experienced the most growth. The app’s installs climbed 61 percent when compared to July 2019.

U.K. Demand for In-Person Events Exceeded Pre-Pandemic Levels

Installs of the top five ticketing apps in the U.K. have been climbing over the past seven months, and July was no exception. Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, Skiddle, AXS Tickets, and Fatsoma collectively saw installs climb 73 percent month-over-month to 296,000. This exceeded even pre-pandemic levels, representing 36 percent growth over the 218,000 installs seen by the apps in July 2019.

Eventbrite saw the most U.K. installs in July, reaching 106,000 first-time downloads from the country’s App Store and Google Play. Fatsoma experienced the most growth last month when compared to July 2019, with installs climbing 303 percent.

Uncertainty for Future Events

While it’s clear that user demand for in-person events is surging, that may change as the COVID-19 pandemic persists and more data emerges around the delta and delta-plus variants. As the future of real world events remains in flux, video conferencing apps are hoping to seize the moment with companies such as Zoom working to develop events marketplaces for their platforms. Usage of these apps remains high, demonstrating that, at least for some users, in-person events are still being deemed too risky at the moment.

Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform is an Enterprise level offering. Interested in learning more?

U.S. In-Person Event Ticketing App Installs Hit 86% of Pre-Pandemic Levels In July, Up 486% from January published first on https://spyadvice.tumblr.com/

[psychicanchortimemachine]

7 Successful Companies That Effectively Leverage Outsourcing

Leveraging nearshore outsourcing become the most essential tools for companies and businesses. Outsourcing development projects in Mexico hiring skills from U.S. The successful use of outsourcing helps the company and organisation with the products like-1. GitHub: It is world’s best software development program and web-based hosting service. 2. AppSumo: Easy for online payments3. AT&T: It is a telecommunication service provide outstanding service at call centers.4. WhatsApp: It is a best software, best for communication5. Google: It helps to grow the businesses exponentially.6. SeatGeek: It helps to develop the website and data- structure.7. Slack: It is a online collaborating app for business growth. Is Outsourcing a Good Business Strategy?It is important for business for the following reasons-· It reduce operational cost· New skills are gained· Include internal resources for critical business.· Efficiency must be increased. How to Successfully Outsource Software and IT DevelopmentHere are few tips for involving outsourcing to keep in mind:· Outsource functions app design, freelance writing, or shipping for operation.· One need designers and developers for the business function.· For setting goals and timelines in business one must be efficient. As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

[secretcupcakesublime]

7 Successful Companies That Effectively Leverage Outsourcing

Leveraging nearshore outsourcing become the most essential tools for companies and businesses. Outsourcing development projects in Mexico hiring skills from U.S. The successful use of outsourcing helps the company and organisation with the products like-1. GitHub: It is world’s best software development program and web-based hosting service. 2. AppSumo: Easy for online payments3. AT&T: It is a telecommunication service provide outstanding service at call centers.4. WhatsApp: It is a best software, best for communication5. Google: It helps to grow the businesses exponentially.6. SeatGeek: It helps to develop the website and data- structure.7. Slack: It is a online collaborating app for business growth. Is Outsourcing a Good Business Strategy?It is important for business for the following reasons-· It reduce operational cost· New skills are gained· Include internal resources for critical business.· Efficiency must be increased. How to Successfully Outsource Software and IT DevelopmentHere are few tips for involving outsourcing to keep in mind:· Outsource functions app design, freelance writing, or shipping for operation.· One need designers and developers for the business function.· For setting goals and timelines in business one must be efficient. As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

[mobappdevelopmentcompany]

The Key Factors that determine the cost of creating an Application like BookMyShow!

There was a time when people had to bear the hassles of long waits at the counters, for the simple activity of booking tickets. Thankfully, the advent of digital event-based ticket booking platforms has transformed the ticket booking experience altogether. Today, you just need to click a few times on your smartphones, from the comfort of your homes/offices, for booking tickets to watch your favorite movie, or show. No wonder, online entertainment ticket booking apps like BookMyShow have garnered unprecedented popularity.

BookMyShow, launched in 2007 is India’s most sought-after event-based ticket booking service. Using this app one can book tickets for movies, concerts, sports, events, etc., and also access the events calendar, film reviews, show times, and promotional offers. Here are some glimpses of its success stories.

The brand has established its online presence in 4 countries and over 350 cities; and has attained the loyalty of more than 16 million customers.

The app boasts of over 30 million downloads and over 10 million ticket bookings per month.

It bagged several titles like “The Hottest Company” for 2011-12;“The Company to watch out for”(CNBC Young Turks Award), and the “Best Omni-channel Customer Experience Brand” (OneDirect Quest Customer Experience Awards).

The aforesaid information indicates the humongous market demand for such applications. Therefore, several businesses are looking forward to architecting a ticket booking app. But, the very first question that arises in their minds is; “How much does it cost to develop a ticket booking app like book my show?”

This write-up discusses the key factors that determine the cost of creating an application like BookMyShow. But before we delve deeper, let me provide you glimpses of the trending online ticketing applications.

Top-rated Ticketing Apps

StubHub

Owned by eBay, it sells tickets for concerts, sports, and many other live entertainment events.

Ticketmaster

This is an American company that deals with the sales and distribution of tickets obtained from clients.

SeatGeek

This is a marketplace for event tickets and an aggregator for the tickets concerning sports, concerts, and other events. The users enjoy the option of browsing through the events, viewing color-coded seat maps, and receiving electronic or printed tickets after their purchase.

Ticketplease.com

This one-stop online portal sells tickets for all sorts of events and clubs up other offers with ticket purchasing activity.

Features to include in a ticket booking app along with Price Estimate

Take a sneak peek into the basic and additional features to include in an online ticketing app.

Basic Features

For App users

Login/Signup/registration

Forgot Password/Phone Validation

Splash Screen

Advanced search/Movies/Search Location

Booking Movie Tickets/Seat Selection Option with Layouts

Checkout Option along with ticket summary

Ticket PDF/Options for payment/pay later

Booking History

Push Notifications regarding upcoming events

View/Apply Coupons

Admin Panel

Dashboard

Login

Manage Users

Settings

Manage current and forthcoming events

Withdrawals/Wallet Management

Order Management

Vendor Management

The app development cost to integrate these basic features for Android as well as iOS ranges from approximately 32,000 to 35,000 USD.

Additional Features

App Users: Blogs, Support Chat, Mobile Wallet Integration, Loyalty and Rewards

Admin: Customer Analytics, dashboard Analytics, Management of Transactions, Managing offers.

Key Factors Affecting the cost of developing a Ticket-booking Application

The Choice of Platform

The two chief platforms targeted by mobile applications are iOS and Android. While both these platforms involve their specific set of features; Android app development turns out to be lesser costly than iOS. However, most businesses investing in app development target both platforms to cater to more audiences. But, platform selection entirely depends on your app development budget.

The App Design

Top-class and trending designs provide optimum customer satisfaction but are pretty more expensive to implement as compared to the ordinary ones. But, none the less, design is a crucial aspect of an application that not only affects the usability but also the UX. So, even though a high-end design incurs more expenses, it proves profitable in the long run.

The Size of the App

The integration of more tools and features increases the size of the app along with the cost. Therefore, select your features wisely. Remember, all the features offered by bestselling apps are not worthy.

The number of Features

The more features you integrate, the higher are the expenses. So, if you have budget constraints, it is advisable to conduct thorough market research and include only the key features depending on your target audience. However, you need to integrate some trending and unique features, for gaining a competitive edge over the popular applications.

Mobile Wallet Integration

The integration of a mobile wallet into your application elevates the UX by eliminating all types of hassles involved in online payments. But, this add-on will cost dearly, impacting the overall development cost.

Developer Selection

The project cost is directly proportional to the experience and expertise ofthe developers you hire. Nevertheless, it is better to choose proficient developers. Their charges might be higher than anticipated, but choosing quality over cost is necessary to sustain in this competitive market for a longer time.

The geographical location of the developers also plays a crucial role in deciding the development cost as the labor charges vary based on the location Have a look at the approximate developer rates per hour for the standard locations.

India and some of the Asian Countries: $20-30$ per hour

Eastern part of Europe: $40-$100

Australia: $50-$150

UK: $50-$180

U.S. and Canada: $50-$250

Final Verdict

My write-up must have provided you with a basic idea and approximate cost estimate for shaping your app idea into a fully functional mobile app.

If you hail from a non-technical background, it is absolutely essential to partner with a competent mobile app development company to achieve success. Biz4Solutions, a leading mobile and web app development company would be the ideal technology partner to pick for crafting top-class ticket booking applications. Contact us today!

The core technologies we offer:

Angular app Development Company 

React Native App Development Company 

Ruby on Rails (RoR) App Development

[rickhorrow]

10 To Watch : Mayor’s Edition 61719

RICK HORROW’S TOP 10 SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 17 : Mayor’s Edition with Jacob Aere

Forbes just released their world's highest-paid athletes list, which highlights the top 100 earners over the past year.  Forbes calculated earnings include prize money, salaries, and bonuses earned June 1, 2018-June 1, 2019, as well as endorsement estimates for the same period. No. 1 Lionel Messi led the way at $127 million, with $92 million in salary and $35 million in endorsements. That put the Argentine well ahead of fellow soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo’s $109 million ($65 million in salary, $44 million in endorsements) and Neymar’s $105 million ($75 million, $30 million). Quarterbacks Russell Wilson ($89.5 million, $80.5 million in salary) and Aaron Rodgers ($89.3 million, $80.3 million in salary) ranked sixth and seventh, respectively. Boxer Canelo Alvarez was fourth with $94 million ($92 million in winnings), while tennis icon Roger Federer was fifth, counting $93.4 million, led by $86 million in endorsements, the highest total among the group. Of note: 62 of the top 100 earners play in a U.S.-based league, with the NBA alone accounting for 35, including No. 8 LeBron James ($36 million in salary, $53 million in endorsements), No. 9 Steph Curry ($37.8 million, $42 million), and No. 10 Kevin Durant ($30.4 million, $35 million).

The LPGA and Group1001 have announced a new LPGA Tour event in Boca Raton. The first edition of the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio will be held January 20-26, 2020 at Boca Rio Golf Club. “We are thrilled to support women’s professional golf and to provide a platform for the sport’s best to compete and showcase their talents,” said Dan Towriss, CEO of Group1001. “We want to thank our good friends at Group1001 and Boca Rio Golf Club for their support of the LPGA and their desire to host a world-class event in South Florida,” added LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. The inaugural Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio will feature a 108-player field competing for a $2 million purse over 72 holes of stroke play. The new event will be one of two LPGA Tour tournaments held in Florida in January 2020. The year will kick off with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions on January 15-19 in Lake Buena Vista, one week prior to the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. The Sunshine State will also bookend the LPGA Tour season, with the year culminating at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples in November.

NBC reportedly reaped an eight-figure haul from the Blues-Bruins Stanley Cup Final Game 7. According to Nielsen, before last Wednesday, the most recent Stanley Cup Final Game 7, in 2011, averaged 8.54 million viewers and a 4.8 household rating, making it the most-watched NHL game in 38 years. Media buyers last week claimed NBC was asking north of $200,000 for each 30-second ad unit in Wednesday’s Blues-Bruins broadcast. According to Standard Media Index data, the average unit cost in the three 2018 Stanley Cup Final games that aired on NBC was $113,702, and overall spend for the five-game series added up to more than $27 million. NBC said that roughly 25% of its Game 7 ad sales inventory is pre-sold, mostly to traditional NHL sponsors. As with all Game 7s, the network’s ad sales execs scrambled to sell the remaining 75%. AdAge noted the last Game 7 on record also featured the Bruins, which likely helped advertisers “justify the expense of their additional investment in hockey." The Blues history-making victory also provided NBC with a significant ratings boost.

Amazon is the world's most valuable brand, according to the 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands rankings. The other brands in the Top 10 include Apple, Google, Microsoft, VISA, Facebook, Alibaba, Tencent, McDonalds, and AT&T. Amazon moved up from the No. 3 spot in 2018 with a brand value of $316.5 billion, a 52% change, while Apple held fast at No. 2. In related news, according to Recode, Bond Capital Partners' Mary Meeker released her annual Internet Trends Report at Code Conference in Scottsdale. Some notable data points from her presentation: Some 51% percent of the world -- 3.8 billion people -- were "internet users last year," up from 49% (3.6 billion) in 2017. Internet ad spending in the U.S. was up 22% in 2018. Most of the spending is "still on Google and Facebook, but companies like Amazon and Twitter are getting a growing share." The number of interactive gamers worldwide grew 6% to 2.4 billion people last year, as "games like Fortnite become the new social media." Between gaming and the billions in advertising and sponsorship spent by the top brands, sports is clearly central to these annual conversations.

MLS and SeatGeek partnered for a new in-depth study on female fans of the league, coinciding with the launch last week of a new campaign, “We Fan,” which highlights what women fans are looking for from the league. The study found that close to half of MLS’ fans overall are minorities, while 42% of the league’s fan base comprises women. The study also found that 71% of women say they are MLS fans because they “like bonding with family and friends who are fans,” while 75% of women usually attend games with family members. The “We Fan” campaign, created in-house, launched across social media and digital, MLS’ website, and various SeatGeek partner clubs. Of course, it’s likely no coincidence that the campaign launch was timed to the perfect quadrennial intersection of women and soccer, the opening of the Women’s World Cup in France. The Women’s World Cup typically has a carryover effect on women’s interest in top level soccer competitions all over the globe, as well as increased amateur participation.

Play video games with Miller Lite's new Bluetooth-enabled beer. The "Cantroller" is a 12-ounce can of beer that doubles as a gaming controller. The limited-edition, dual purpose can is being made in partnership with comedian and gaming fan Eric Andre. The brand also will launch its own Twitch channel later this week. The high-tech drinking container is Bluetooth-enabled, contains a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for a three-hour charge, offers haptic feedback, and can be refrigerated. According to Marketing Dive, Miller Lite produced 200 Cantrollers for the launch and intends to make hundreds more. Developed with tech company Unit 9, the controller was a reward for winning a game of “Street Fighter” against Andre at the video game industry's E3 event in Los Angeles. Gamers are big drinkers; 40% are drinking while they play – as such, Miller Lite looks to embed itself as a frontrunner for the beverage of choice in the gaming industry.

TikTok is growing amongst large sports teams. According to SportsPro, the short-form video app has reached one billion downloads and is catching the attention of sport’s social media strategists. TikTok only hit the international market in 2017. A year later it was merged with Musical.ly, a teen-friendly U.S. video app built around lip-syncing, which was purchased by ByteDance at the end of 2017 with the aim of leveraging the digital platform’s young user base. As of March 2018, unofficial data from App Ape Lab claimed that more than 60% of TikTok’s global users are under the age of 30. In addition, 40% of that user base is said to be under 20. This may be the platform for sports leagues to reach the young audience they have been striving for – since the launch of Liverpool’s TikTok on May 24, that club has amassed over 194,000 TikTok followers, which means over 100,000 fans under the age of 30. Leagues such as the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NASCAR that are looking to engage with younger audiences can use TikTok to build a new generation of fans.

World Surf League gets sustainable with Ikea. Determined to improve sustainability, the partnership between surfing’s largest association and the Swedish furniture giant is designed to raise awareness of climate change and to promote environmental initiatives, with the aim of inspiring people to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans. The WSL and Ikea will also collaborate to produce a specially-designed range of surf-centric products, using recovered ocean-bound plastic where possible. According to SportsPro, this partnership will be Ikea’s latest environmental team up. The Swedish company also works with the World Wildlife Fund to promote responsible forestry, environmentally friendly cotton cultivation, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. It is also a member of the Clean Cargo Working Group, which promotes sustainable product transportation. The WSL pledged to become carbon neutral by the end of 2019 and aims to set a new standard for pro sport. The WSL-Ikea initiative includes eliminating single-use plastics at its competitions and leaving venues in a better condition than before events took place.

Athletic company Saucony kicks off an Instagram relay race for charity. According to Mobile Marketer, Saucony launched a social media campaign called "Run for Good" that aims to raise as much as $50,000 for charity. The sportswear brand is urging Instagram users to run a mile and post selfies on the image-sharing app with the #RunForGoodRelay and @Saucony tags, then challenge three friends to do the same. The campaign began on Global Running Day, June 5, as the world’s first Instagram relay race, with a goal of collectively running one full lap around the Earth. If completed, the total challenge would eclipse 24,901 collective miles. Saucony will make a donation for every mile run to the Saucony Run for Good Foundation, Laureus Sport for Good, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.​ Saucony’s "Run for Good" utilizes Instagram and its younger consumer base in an effort to go viral for charitable causes, as the ALS Ice-Bucket challenge did in the past.

Maggie Murphy aims for the world's biggest game of soccer to support women in sport. According to the BBC, Maggie Murphy works in anti-corruption in sport and is determined to make sure the excitement and new investments in women's soccer translates into more participation in grassroots soccer for women and girls around the globe, beyond the Women's World Cup. In 2016, Murphy founded Equal Playing Field – a voluntary, non-profit organization – to encourage women’s soccer participation around the world. Now, overlapping with the Women’s World Cup, Murphy and Equal Playing Field will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of players involved in a single football match. She aims to bring together more than 3,500 women, girls, and allies from about 70 countries with the match to take place over the course of five days, from June 27 to July 1. If successful, this will be the third Guinness World Record that Equal Playing Field has helped break, as it recorded the highest altitude game ever played (on Mount Kilimanjaro) and the lowest altitude game ever played (in the Dead Sea). Murphy noted the U.S. is one of the best countries for women to play soccer, even as they continue to face economic struggles, while a woman playing soccer in Afghanistan may face death threats.

[gigslist]

50 Entertainment Angel Investors

When it comes to funding entertainment there are a few ways to skin an allegorical cat. There are prerelease sales, crowdfunding, donations, funding grants, fiscal sponsors, business loans and sponsors. The trend term of the digital age is venture capital, VC, and the darlings of venture capitalists are Angel Investors.

“An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angel investors usually give support to start-ups at the initial moments and when most investors are not prepared to back them.” Wikipedia

There are too many blogs about how to get funding and probably most of them are clickbait by fake influences. Fake social media influencers and fake experts are a bigger problem than you think, but that is for another article. So instead I’ve compiled a list of Angel Investors mostly in Silicone Valley and San Francisco who are interested in financing entertainment projects.

Entertainment Angel Investors

Babak Nivi Founder of @angellist and @venture-hacks · Investor in @uber · Advisor to @dropbox San Francisco · World Domination

Jayesh Parekh Co-Founder Sony Entertainment Television, Senior Advisor Jungle Ventures, Sanctum Wealth Management Singapore · All Markets

Artia Moghbel COO @dfinity // Investing @draft-ventures // Formerly COO @overnight and EIR @greycroft-partners San Francisco · B2B

Amir Mortazavi Cofounder of CANOPY (shared workspace), founder of real estate develop|design|build firm M-PROJECTS, angel investor, art collector. San Francisco · All Markets

Vamsi Sistla Advisor @sigmoid Operating Partner @laconia-capital-group Founder @WhatsNextAngels Angel @TIESV @arcfund @eniac-ventures Seattle · Location Based Services

Raju Indukuri,M.D Investor in healthcare and technology. Invests in startups to disrupt the obscenely costly healthcare market. Dallas · Productivity Software

Daniel Undurraga Entrepreneur, Software engineer and seed investor. Co-founder @cornershop sold to @walmart. Previously co-founded @needish & @clandescuento sold to @groupon. Silicon Valley · Bitcoin

Frederik Fleck Serial Entrepreneur, two exits, one company > $100m revenue, interested in mobile, fin tech,crowd sourcing, ... San Francisco · B2B

David Beyer Principal @amplify Partners • Founder @chartio • Founding Team @patients-know-best • Studied at @brown-university San Francisco · B2B

Jon Nathanson Venture Partner @ Taste Capital Management. Formerly PMM Lead @ Facebook for Media Monetization. Over $1 billion in product launches. Multiple big exits. San Francisco · Film

Ryan Spoon SVP Digital Product @espn. Principal at @polaris-partners-1. Formerly: @ebay, @berecruited (founder), Flite / @widgetbox. Palo Alto · B2B

Ling Wong Partners w/ entrepreneurs at every stage companies across industries life sciences health software consumer enterprise & emerging platforms Seattle · All Markets

Peter Livingston Founder/GP at Unpopular Ventures San Francisco · Internet of Things

Cameron Winklevoss Co-Founder & President @gemini • Principal @winklevosscap San Francisco · Location Based Services

Mark Friedgan Angel Investor; BS/MS Computer Engineering, @carnegie-mellon-university University; CIO Top 100/InfoWorld Top 25 CTO Berkeley · Personal Finance

Paul Sethi Co-Founder @2048 Ventures | @robuzz New York City · All Markets

David Sedano Investor. SWE, @google. PM of 20% Time. Founder, Google Garage. Silicon Valley · Robotics

Richard Kerby Venture investor New York City · B2B

Jim Barnett CEO and Co-founder Glint Inc. Prior: CEO/Founder @turn; President @overture Search; CEO @altavista; Chairman @sidestep and @sojern Silicon Valley · Crowdsourcing

Tristan Kromer 10 years in music, 5 in IT security, lived in 5 countries, blog at GrasshopperHerder and run Kromatic. Taught myself RoR and design. Silicon Valley · All Markets

Scott Schnaars VP Sales - Dynamic Signal Previously ran sales teams at @badgeville. @yahoo, @webex, @oracle & @socialtext. San Francisco · Health and Wellness

Conrad Wai VP of Product @yahoo. Previous: mobile ads @google, founded @jump-ventures, design+strategy consulting, CS+HCI @stanford San Francisco · All Markets

Blaine Vess Former Co-Founder and CEO @solveconcierge and Former Co-Founder and CEO of @studentbrands Los Angeles · Freemium

Philipp Stauffer Tech Entrepreneur & Investor: Co-Founder FYRFLY VC, Co-Founder Onor, Founding MD Accenture Interactive, Partner Accenture, IPG, Product Innovation, Adchemy Palo Alto · Mobile Infrastructure

Derrick Hsiang Vice President @wi-harper-group ; focus on investing in seed stage companies in mobile, internet, gaming, e-commerce, software, cloud computing, big data space San Francisco · SaaS

Dan Rua Founder, CEO, Chairman, Angel, VC and Advisor with combined company exits >$1B+. People-backer with a soft-spot for passion. Orlando · All Markets

Oskar Hjertonsson Founder @needish. Sold to @groupon. Ex CEO @groupon Latin America. Investor @skout. Investor @welcu. Investor @playcomo. Investor @monki San Francisco · All Markets

Rob Ness GP at Asymmetry Ventures. Obsessively hunts the world's best startups. Served time @harvard-university, @berkeley. Silicon Valley · Location Based Services

Reid Hoffman Entrepreneur. Product Strategist. Investor. Mountain View · B2B

John Giannandrea Investor in @tellme-networks, @onlive, @matrixx-software. Silicon Valley · All Markets

Tuoc Luong CEO MeID, former CEO of Shanda Online and SVP Global Search @yahoo San Jose · Life Sciences

Craig Sherman Managing Partner at @meritech-capital. Former COO of @ancestry.com, CEO of Gaia. Palo Alto · All Markets

Arie Abecassis Board Director/Investor at @seatgeek @adaptly @bizness-apps Founder @iconyc labs; Mentor @dreamit-ventures Philadelphia · Small and Medium Businesses

Jim Brandt Angel Investor Los Angeles · Mobile Commerce

Bill Zanker Founder: GRIT BXNG, The Learning Annex, Brainfuel, Great American BackRub Stores, FundAnything, Poetry.com. I start and/or invest in consumer companies. Park City · Film

Paolo Rubatto Managing Director, Founder at @start-capital San Francisco · Lead Generation

Anthony Saleh I am a man from LA. That is it. Los Angeles · Social Commerce

Dan Rose Chairman, Coatue Ventures & Coatue Growth. Previously 13 years at Facebook & 7 years at Amazon. Venture / Partnerships / BD / M&A / Product / Monetization. Silicon Valley · Productivity Software

Jim Pallotta Founder @raptor-ventures, @raptor-consumer-partners United States · Mobile Commerce

Gary Tsang Worked at @twitter, @serious-business • Studied at @university-of-texas-at-austin-1 San Francisco · All Markets

Colin Carrier Founder, CEO. Investor & Venture Partner. Ex-Chief Strategy Officer, Twitch. San Francisco · Computer Vision

Justin Davidson Enterprise Architect for eBay Inc. responsible for strategy and roadmap for Infrastructure, Cloud, ITSM and Collaboration San Jose · Business Services

Tyler Winklevoss  Co-Founder & CEO @gemini • Principal @winklevosscap San Francisco · Location Based Services

Ben Lam Founder Arical • Worked at @citicorp, @accenture  Hong Kong · All Markets

Varun Dalal Principal at Telegraph Hill Capital. Focusing on early stage mobile technology investments. Barcelona · Mobile

Abhishek Jain Hong Kong · Clean Technology

Alain Chuard Entrepreneur. Former Googler. Founder & Chief Product Officer at Wildfire (acquired by Google). Palo Alto · Mobile Commerce

Matty Yohannan Entertainment/Media/Consumer/Tech/FinTech • @robertson-stephens @sofi-1 @roasting-plant • @stanford-graduate-school-of-business-1 @stern-school-of-business Austin · Defense

Michael Ciklin Investor @shareroot, @idonethis, @hullabalu, @wedgies, @credfm, Advisor @primeloop Studied at @princeton-university, UF JD/MBA/MRE Nashville · Visualization

Sam Kokin Investor at CAA Ventures. Former VC in Tel Aviv and Associate at EY. San Francisco · Audio

Information source: angel.co

So there, go for it. You can also get the Film and Video Money Directory

[actutrends]

Iterable raises $60 million to optimize omnichannel campaigns with AI

Executing cross-channel marketing campaigns isn’t easy no matter what resources a brand has at its disposal. According to a recent survey, only 30% of marketers are highly confident in their ability to deliver a mulichannel strategy, followed by 67% who are only somewhat confident. Be that as it may, 95% of salespeople say they consider multichannel marketing important for customer targeting, which is likely why an estimated 51% of companies use at least eight channels to interact with customers.

That’s why Andrew Boni (who worked at Google on AdSense) and Justin Zhu (who built user growth systems at Twitter) cofounded Iterable, a startup developing a platform that enables brands to create, execute, and optimize cross-channel campaigns with flexibility. Roughly six years after the launch of its first product, the San Francisco-based company today announced that it has raised $60 million in series D funding led by Viking Global Investors, with participation from Index Ventures, CRV, Blue Cloud Ventures, Harmony Partners, and Stereo Capital.

The cash infusion — which brings Iterable’s total raised to over $140 million — comes shortly after Iterable opened offices in London and Denver. CEO Zhu says it will fund the expansion of its headcount to 400 employees by year-end 2020.

Iterable’s tools tap machine learning algorithms to analyze users’ behavior and optimize the time, channel, and frequency to engage them. The tools automatically suss out the best time for conversion — gleaned through event data — and designate the channels users are most likely to convert in. Plus, they leverage real-time interaction data to cap messaging volume in order to avoid fatiguing users with promotions.

From within Iterable’s control panel, marketing mangers can orchestrate welcome campaigns and trials, targeted sales, promotions, and product updates across mail, mobile push, SMS, in-app, web push, and direct mail channels. They’re able to deploy cart abandonment flows to drive more checkouts, and to define rules-based triggers that kick off post-purchase, as well as renewal sequences and more. Furthermore, using Iterable’s Workflow Studio component, users can build cross-channel segments with drag-and-drop filters and delay schedulers.

An analytics component — Iterable Insights — lets clients drill down into real-time user, behavioral, and event data from up to millions of users, and measure and fine-tune campaigns with an on-demand experimentation and A/B testing tool. Customers can be dynamically segmented and their preferences stored, thanks to support for profiles spanning hundreds of demographic and custom event data fields. And APIs and universal webhooks enable the retrieval of information from third- and first-party sources at scale.

The global omnichannel retail commerce platform market is expected to grow from $2.99 billion in 2017 to $11.01 billion by 2023, and Iterable isn’t the only firm vying for a slice of it. There’s 6sense, which in April raised $27 million for its cloud-hosted marketing and sales predictive analytics tools. There’s also Kustomer, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that automates repetitive processes by applying analytics atop data from multiple sources; RedPoint, which offers products that analyze customer data with AI; and Punchh, a startup leveraging machine learning and omnichannel integrations to create customer journeys.

But despite the fierceness of the competition, Iterable has made a name for itself, attracting heavy-hitting customers like AT&T, Box, DoorDash, ShopRunner, FabFitFun, SeatGeek, and Zillow. In another show of strength, this latest fundraising round is the company’s second in less than 12 months. (Iterable previously nabbed $50 million in a series C that closed in March 2019.)

Sign up for Funding Daily: Get the latest news in your inbox every weekday.

The post Iterable raises $60 million to optimize omnichannel campaigns with AI appeared first on Actu Trends.

[lakhwanabhishek]

7 Successful Companies That Effectively Leverage Outsourcing

Leveraging nearshore outsourcing become the most essential tools for companies and businesses. Outsourcing development projects in Mexico hiring skills from U.S. The successful use of outsourcing helps the company and organisation with the products like-1. GitHub: It is world’s best software development program and web-based hosting service. 2. AppSumo: Easy for online payments3. AT&T: It is a telecommunication service provide outstanding service at call centers.4. WhatsApp: It is a best software, best for communication5. Google: It helps to grow the businesses exponentially.6. SeatGeek: It helps to develop the website and data- structure.7. Slack: It is a online collaborating app for business growth. Is Outsourcing a Good Business Strategy?It is important for business for the following reasons-· It reduce operational cost· New skills are gained· Include internal resources for critical business.· Efficiency must be increased. How to Successfully Outsource Software and IT DevelopmentHere are few tips for involving outsourcing to keep in mind:· Outsource functions app design, freelance writing, or shipping for operation.· One need designers and developers for the business function.· For setting goals and timelines in business one must be efficient. As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

#b2b content marketing

#b2b ecommerce

#b2bservices

#Ecommerce

[gustavowilh]

How to Get More Insightful User Feedback

All feedback from your customers is valuable, but there are certain types of qualitative data that can give you more insight than others.

Truly insightful feedback can help you identify when people think something is confusing, why they made a certain choice, what they value most about your product, or how they view your product against the competition.

In turn, you can use this feedback to write more persuasive copy in your marketing, optimize your user experience, or prioritize new features to build. Ultimately, more useful feedback helps you make more informed business decisions.

So how do you gather this type of feedback? It’s all about the questions you ask.

Ask customers the right questions

Whether you’re sending out an email survey, gathering feedback in-app or conducting an interview, you’re going to be asking questions. But are they the right ones?

Preparing your questions might seem like a simple practice, but it can be deceptively complex. Decades of user research has shown that people can answer some questions more accurately than others.

Here are examples of questions people are good at answering:

Questions about their day-to-day problems

Whether or not they like your product (just like Apptentive’s Love Dialogue

What part of your product’s user experience they find confusing

How they currently complete specific tasks

If you ask inquiries outside of these parameters, people will probably still answer, and some might even answer with confidence. Unfortunately, their answers just won’t be as useful as the ones outlined above.

Questions people can answer with less accuracy:

Predicting how they’ll behave in the future

Whether or not they’ll pay for something in the future

What they think the best solution to a problem is

We know these aren’t great questions to ask people because behavioral data has demonstrated it time and time again that people frequently act differently than how they answer.

The first two questions ask people to predict their future behavior. It turns out humans are pretty bad at predicting how they’ll act in the future, yet they will readily make forecasts with unearned confidence.

This is because the human mind is full of cognitive biases that make it difficult to be objective.

The last question, which asks customers to solve a problem in your product, simply asks too much of the audience. Most customers are not designers; they are not trained to envision solutions that don’t yet exist.

We’ve seen this firsthand at DePalma. For example, we had an enterprise client who tried to design an app based verbatim on what their customers said they wanted. The end result felt more like a spreadsheet of customer comments as an app, and the customers really didn’t like it.

Good examples to follow

The Churn Survey

It’s important to gather feedback throughout the customer journey — even if it’s at the end. customers are actually very good at articulating their problems, so when someone quits your product, it’s an ideal time to ask them why and uncover opportunities for improvement.

When customers churn from Groove, the SaaS vendor sends a them a plain text email that asks a simple question: “Why did you cancel?”

After some testing, they got an even better result by asking “What made you cancel?” By switching the subject of the sentence to “what” rather than “you,” Groove inferred that the product was at fault, not the user.

Either way, the company harvested loads of actionable feedback by asking the right question to departing customers.

In most cases, people engaged with your product before they decided to cancel. This means the experience is relatively fresh in their mind when you survey them, and they won’t have to make any assumptions about why they did or didn’t do something.

The Behavioral Survey

Another important type of insight is understanding how your audience completes certain tasks. This can inform how you structure your UX design or let you know if you should be thinking about new features.

This questionnaire from SeatGeek is a great example:

Notice how the copy says “I’m hoping to learn more about how our customers find live events.”

SeatGeek knows the best way to improve their service design is to identify patterns in survey responses and use that data as guidelines for developing new features.

To avoid asking people to make too many assumptions, the survey asks about specific points in the past. One question asks “What’s most important to you when deciding to see a new artist?”

By asking what influences their audience’s choices, SeatGeek is uncovering how people currently accomplish tasks and why. That makes it easier to design a user experience tailored to the behavior of their audience.

The In-App or On-Page Survey

Sometimes you need to get really specific. For that, there’s a plethora of tools you can use to ask single question surveys about the user experience on a specific page or screen.

This modal from Apptentive is a common example:

By asking which qualities customers find most important, you’re gathering data about how they want to accomplish a task.

Again, this is the type of question people are good at answering. Another option would be to ask “What is missing from this screen?” This prompts customers to let you know what they find confusing about particular steps in the user experience.

The data you gather from these responses should enrich your understanding of how to align your product’s UX to your audience’s expectations.

A quick note on validation

Customer feedback is exceptionally important. Without input from people, customer-centric design is simply impossible. Plus, the nuggets of wisdom you can glean from qualitative data often lead to more effective design solutions.

However, it’s unwise to take qualitative data at face value. You still need to validate any new major design changes with quantitative data. This is particularly important when you’re trying to persuade stakeholders to make a design change or you’re working on a complex product, like an enterprise user experience. That will let you know whether you’ve actually struck gold with your user research.

The post How to Get More Insightful User Feedback appeared first on Apptentive.

from Blogger http://gustavowilh.blogspot.com/2019/05/how-to-get-more-insightful-user-feedback.html via IFTTT

[technicallyelegantruins]

7 Successful Companies That Effectively Leverage Outsourcing

Leveraging nearshore outsourcing become the most essential tools for companies and businesses. Outsourcing development projects in Mexico hiring skills from U.S. The successful use of outsourcing helps the company and organisation with the products like-1. GitHub: It is world’s best software development program and web-based hosting service. 2. AppSumo: Easy for online payments3. AT&T: It is a telecommunication service provide outstanding service at call centers.4. WhatsApp: It is a best software, best for communication5. Google: It helps to grow the businesses exponentially.6. SeatGeek: It helps to develop the website and data- structure.7. Slack: It is a online collaborating app for business growth. Is Outsourcing a Good Business Strategy?It is important for business for the following reasons-· It reduce operational cost· New skills are gained· Include internal resources for critical business.· Efficiency must be increased. How to Successfully Outsource Software and IT DevelopmentHere are few tips for involving outsourcing to keep in mind:· Outsource functions app design, freelance writing, or shipping for operation.· One need designers and developers for the business function.· For setting goals and timelines in business one must be efficient. As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

[michaelmikkelson]

How to Get More Insightful User Feedback

All feedback from your customers is valuable, but there are certain types of qualitative data that can give you more insight than others.

Truly insightful feedback can help you identify when people think something is confusing, why they made a certain choice, what they value most about your product, or how they view your product against the competition.

In turn, you can use this feedback to write more persuasive copy in your marketing, optimize your user experience, or prioritize new features to build. Ultimately, more useful feedback helps you make more informed business decisions.

So how do you gather this type of feedback? It’s all about the questions you ask.

Ask customers the right questions

Whether you’re sending out an email survey, gathering feedback in-app or conducting an interview, you’re going to be asking questions. But are they the right ones?

Preparing your questions might seem like a simple practice, but it can be deceptively complex. Decades of user research has shown that people can answer some questions more accurately than others.

Here are examples of questions people are good at answering:

Questions about their day-to-day problems

Whether or not they like your product (just like Apptentive’s Love Dialogue

What part of your product’s user experience they find confusing

How they currently complete specific tasks

If you ask inquiries outside of these parameters, people will probably still answer, and some might even answer with confidence. Unfortunately, their answers just won’t be as useful as the ones outlined above.

Questions people can answer with less accuracy:

Predicting how they’ll behave in the future

Whether or not they’ll pay for something in the future

What they think the best solution to a problem is

We know these aren’t great questions to ask people because behavioral data has demonstrated it time and time again that people frequently act differently than how they answer.

The first two questions ask people to predict their future behavior. It turns out humans are pretty bad at predicting how they’ll act in the future, yet they will readily make forecasts with unearned confidence.

This is because the human mind is full of cognitive biases that make it difficult to be objective.

The last question, which asks customers to solve a problem in your product, simply asks too much of the audience. Most customers are not designers; they are not trained to envision solutions that don’t yet exist.

We’ve seen this firsthand at DePalma. For example, we had an enterprise client who tried to design an app based verbatim on what their customers said they wanted. The end result felt more like a spreadsheet of customer comments as an app, and the customers really didn’t like it.

Good examples to follow

The Churn Survey

It’s important to gather feedback throughout the customer journey — even if it’s at the end. customers are actually very good at articulating their problems, so when someone quits your product, it’s an ideal time to ask them why and uncover opportunities for improvement.

When customers churn from Groove, the SaaS vendor sends a them a plain text email that asks a simple question: “Why did you cancel?”

After some testing, they got an even better result by asking “What made you cancel?” By switching the subject of the sentence to “what” rather than “you,” Groove inferred that the product was at fault, not the user.

Either way, the company harvested loads of actionable feedback by asking the right question to departing customers.

In most cases, people engaged with your product before they decided to cancel. This means the experience is relatively fresh in their mind when you survey them, and they won’t have to make any assumptions about why they did or didn’t do something.

The Behavioral Survey

Another important type of insight is understanding how your audience completes certain tasks. This can inform how you structure your UX design or let you know if you should be thinking about new features.

This questionnaire from SeatGeek is a great example:

Notice how the copy says “I’m hoping to learn more about how our customers find live events.”

SeatGeek knows the best way to improve their service design is to identify patterns in survey responses and use that data as guidelines for developing new features.

To avoid asking people to make too many assumptions, the survey asks about specific points in the past. One question asks “What’s most important to you when deciding to see a new artist?”

By asking what influences their audience’s choices, SeatGeek is uncovering how people currently accomplish tasks and why. That makes it easier to design a user experience tailored to the behavior of their audience.

The In-App or On-Page Survey

Sometimes you need to get really specific. For that, there’s a plethora of tools you can use to ask single question surveys about the user experience on a specific page or screen.

This modal from Apptentive is a common example:

By asking which qualities customers find most important, you’re gathering data about how they want to accomplish a task.

Again, this is the type of question people are good at answering. Another option would be to ask “What is missing from this screen?” This prompts customers to let you know what they find confusing about particular steps in the user experience.

The data you gather from these responses should enrich your understanding of how to align your product’s UX to your audience’s expectations.

A quick note on validation

Customer feedback is exceptionally important. Without input from people, customer-centric design is simply impossible. Plus, the nuggets of wisdom you can glean from qualitative data often lead to more effective design solutions.

However, it’s unwise to take qualitative data at face value. You still need to validate any new major design changes with quantitative data. This is particularly important when you’re trying to persuade stakeholders to make a design change or you’re working on a complex product, like an enterprise user experience. That will let you know whether you’ve actually struck gold with your user research.

The post How to Get More Insightful User Feedback appeared first on Apptentive.

[dorothydelgadillo]

4 Marketing Tools That Will Make Your Work Easier [IMPACT Toolbox Dec. 2018]

Would you have made it to work on time today without an alarm?

Would you get all of your important tasks done without some kind of to-do list?

How many messages would you miss if you had to get them all by phone and voicemail instead of email or other text communication?

Technology and tools have the potential to drastically improve our efficiency, especially when we can find the right tool for the right task.

We are here to help you do that.

This article is part of our IMPACT Toolbox series.

With IMPACT Toolbox, we’ll discuss all of the latest (and even underrated) marketing tools that you need to try. We’ll make recommendations by category, helping you figure out what tool is best for your situation, and introduce you to tools you may not have heard of otherwise.

Have questions about a marketing tool, whether or not we’ve reviewed it?

Reach out to us and we’ll see how we can help.

Today we’re going to look at:

Buffer’s Stories Creator: Easily create content for your social media Stories

Anchor Sponsorships: Making sponsorships better for podcasters and brands

Coda Automation: Automate the small, critical tasks in your workflow

MessagePath: Think Grammarly, but specifically for business communication

Stories Creator by Buffer: Easily Create Content For Your Social Media Stories

Price: Free

In case you haven’t heard, Stories may be the future of social media marketing. They’re such a big deal, even LinkedIn is trying to get in on the Stories action.

Well Buffer, a company known for its social media scheduling tool, released a simple editor so you can keep up with the trend.

With Stories Creator, you can quickly create content for your Facebook and Instagram Stories using a series of simple image and text editing tools. Veteran Stories users may find the toolset a bit lacking, but it is a great way for new users (or current users short on time) to create polished, consistent Stories content.  

It only takes a few steps to get going:

Start with a template to get some ideas, or use your own background image/color.

Add one or more graphics (like a logo, watermark, or other highlights).

Then add some text. The text input is a series of dropdowns and toggles. Again, keeping it very simple.

4. When you’re happy with your creation, click Download Image and you’re ready to add to your Story!

Now you can tweak a few things to keep a consistent look and feel or try something else entirely.

This removes a lot of friction from the Stories process. If you haven’t really dabbled with Stories, or you’re not sure you can keep a regular posting schedule, Buffer’s Stories Creator can make a big difference to your workflow.

Anchor Sponsorships: Making Sponsorships Better For Podcasters and Brands

Price: Free / Ad Spend

Anchor deserves a discussion unto itself, but their big news recently is a new sponsorship platform. That includes both sides of the sponsorship equation, podcasters and sponsors.

For podcasters, you can:

Be matched with a sponsor

Record your custom ad

Publish your ad to any of your episodes

Publishing the ad is completely optional on your part and you can decide which episodes you would like your ad to be included. You can also decide whether or not to work with a suggested sponsor.

Once your ad is playing, you will start getting paid whenever your ad is heard. Then cash out anytime.

Pretty sweet gig.

For sponsors, you can:

Find shows that fit with your brand

Pay for advertisements that are aligned with your budget and goals

Submit a script that will be read by the podcaster

Brands like SquareSpace, SeatGeek, and Cash App are already sponsoring podcasts with Anchor.

  Coda Automation: Automate the Small, Critical Tasks in Your Workflow

Price: Free (Paid options upcoming)

If I was a gambling man, I’d say you’re probably not using Coda right now, but you probably are using some kind of word processing doc or spreadsheet.

Coda is half document, half spreadsheet, and half app (yes, it is 1.5x whatever you were using before).

While it’s still in a free product feedback stage, this is definitely something to get your hands on and see where it can fit in your workflow, especially now that automation is built in.

In this tool, an Automation consists of two main elements: When and Then. When something happens, then do this other thing. When can be filtered by an optional If as well.

It can be used a number of your essential, everyday tasks.

For example, imagine you are using a spreadsheet to keep track of articles being brainstormed, written, and edited in your organization.

With Coda, when an article is marked as written, it could be assigned to an Editor, and that Editor would receive a Slack message letting them know.

Or if you are keeping a status document updated with important content and tables, every Monday morning, it could email itself to your team leading up to launch.

Having trouble getting started? Coda has an Automation Starter Kit to give you some ideas and see what’s possible.

And you can always check out the templates others have built, or dive into the documentation to learn more. If you have a useful template to share, post about it in IMPACT Elite!

MessagePath: Business Communication Version of Grammarly

Price: Free option (up to $29/user/month)

If Grammarly and Hemingway App had a business-focused baby, you’d get MessagePath.

MessagePath helps you be more direct, clear, and focused in your communication.

Think of it as the editor of your day-to-day communication, making sure that 30-second reply sounds right and that you don’t spend 30 minutes wondering how to make your response better.

It does this by highlighting the words/characters that may be taking away from your message, and a color-coded explanation will let you know what the issue is and how you could improve.

MessagePath analyzes your text based on the specified category:

General Business

Marketing

Sales

Support

Press Release

Web Copy

Based on the category, it will then make suggestions to help improve the clarity and effectiveness of your message, as well as keep it on brand and legally safe.

So what exactly is the app analyzing and trying to fix?

It checks against best practice patterns to help you get noticed and create better communication.

It reduces legal risk by checking for problematic language that could lead to HR or other legal communication issues

It checks for spammy terms, inappropriate words, and words/phrases that weaken your message

It analyzes the tone so you are also aware of how you are saying something

And it helps improve clarity, which can be particularly useful for internal communication

With the Web app, Chrome extension and Mac app, you should be able to access MessagePath where you need it. Try the free version and see if it can improve the results of your next few messages.

Tool to Keep an Eye on: Contentful

Hot off a Series D funding round of $33.5M, the Contentful team is continuing their mission to disrupt web CMSes (Content Management Systems) and improve how content works. They provide content management infrastructures for companies like Spotify, Lyft, and Nike.

Instead of being locked into a CMS, Contentful wants your content to be built on a more flexible infrastructure.

That means it can be included in virtually any technology stack, is friendly for developers and content creators alike, and can be scaled far more easily than a standard CMS. In this way, Contentful can be used for mobile, web, and application content, and even connects to enterprise services such as SAP and Salesforce.

Their near future focus is on developing more and deeper integrations with existing enterprise tools. Expect support for GraphQL and an improved rich text editing experience as well.

Tools Can Make Your Life Easier.

Take note of the things that cost you the most time or energy. Not everything can be replaced, but you would be surprised at what tools are out there.

Whether you’re trying to keep your Stories up to date, make money with your podcast or advertise to the right audience, automate some critical tasks, improve your business communication, or anything else for your business (or self!), there is probably a tool that can help.

Did you find something useful in our round-up? Let us know how one of these tools helped improve your business in IMPACT Elite! And if there’s a specific tool you have questions about, let us know and we’ll see if we can help you figure out the best option for you.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/marketing-tools-that-will-make-your-work-easier-impact-toolbox

[samzises]

Alumnus Profile: New York-Based Entrepreneur Sam Zises Sold His App to Budweiser, Now Leads Successful Marketing Agency & Invests in Startups

Originally posted on Northeastern’s Website on May 29, 2018.

Creative, passionate, innovative, and driven. These are just a few words to describe Sam Zises, a leader and entrepreneur who has launched several successful businesses and always keeps his finger on the pulse of marketing, branding, and technology trends. His forward-thinking mindset has helped many clients effectively tell their stories and grow their brands, and his leadership has connected, excited, and inspired other industry professionals.

Needless to say, Sam has been busy since graduating from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications, currently running his own business, [L]earned Media, in the heart of New York City. [L]M for short is a content marketing and design agency focused on websites, content and campaigns for real estate, tech and consumer brands. As the founder and CEO, Sam lives and breathes today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving world of media and marketing – and recognizes its incredible power and value when optimized.

His team of strategists, website developers, content creators and designers at [L]earned Media focus on creating the highest quality creative content that tell a compelling brand story and deliver meaningful ROI for its clients.

“First and foremost, I love all things media, content, and technology,” explained Sam. “Whether it’s reading a great article or watching an entertaining video, content can provide an escape from daily stresses; it is powerful.”

His love and appreciation for content marketing is nothing new to Sam. During his time at Northeastern, he held several internships in media and marketing, from MTV and NBC to esteemed ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal. While at school Sam even took production classes that taught him how to shoot and edit video and manage a crew while directing a shoot from a control room. After graduation, he continued to build and strengthen his marketing skillset at Big Fuel, a social media agency, and then at Ogilvy & Mather, a global advertising, marketing and PR agency, where he worked in group marketing and business development.

In true entrepreneurial fashion, it was around this time that Sam had the idea for a new location-based events planning app called Wendr, which allows users to see what their friends are doing on any given night. Inspired by his days as an undergraduate at Northeastern, Sam wanted to find an easier way to gather friends for fun things to do together – and the app, which integrated content from Fandango, SeatGeek and HotelTonight, did precisely this.

Right after launching the app, the stars aligned and Sam spotted a call for start-ups to pitch their ideas to Budweiser at an event. Sam’s app Wendr won, launching a successful partnership with the American beer company, who ended up hiring Sam and his team and acquiring the app brand rights, along with BlackBerry in Latin America. You can learn more in this Q+A with The Huffington Post.

With Budweiser and BlackBerry as effective clients, Sam launched his own agency to help other brands and startups launch and grow their businesses. He has now been leading [L]earned Media since 2012, and describes his leadership style as one that embraces coaching, encouragement, and making his employees feel confident and comfortable.

“The way I like to run the company is to make being in the office feel like being in a living room. I find that when people are comfortable, they will be happier, more present, and of course, do better work,” explained Sam. “I lead like a coach, and always try to focus on the positives and ways to improve.”

And while leading [L]earned Media is his day job, it likely comes as no surprise that Sam is also involved in several other groups and initiatives.

Sam, along with his partner and twin brother Ben, are early-stage investors through their BS Ventures, where they have had the opportunity to get to know, advise and invest in many innovative companies. One in particular, Quip, is getting a lot of publicity and accolades, labeled by journalists as “the Tesla of toothbrushes.” It produces slim, travel-ready electric and manual toothbrushes that are attractive, functional, and convenient. As an entrepreneur and self-starter himself, Sam enjoys surrounding himself with equally inventive individuals and companies.

Sam is also the President of the Branded Content Marketing Association (BCMA), USA Chapter, a position he has held since 2016. In this industry networking role, he manages and works with the community of people who work in branded content. And of course, Sam loves staying involved in the vibrant Northeastern alumni community! He has helped coordinate several alumni meet-ups in the New York City area, from bowling to networking, and looks forward to staying in touch with his alma mater.

“I really value the time I spent at Northeastern, from being on such a great campus to gaining real-world experience,” Sam said. “I always say you can only get experience by getting experience. Doing internships and being able to immerse yourself in the work environment and culture as a student sets you up for a successful career.”

On that note, Sam concludes by leaving current students with some honest, practical advice.

“Think about what it is you want to do with your life and then avoid making excuses,” he said. “Life is short, so figure out what you want to do and then do it now – make it a priority.”

[davewakeman]

What Is Happening With The Secondary Market In 2018? Part 2...

I posted a piece with predictions for the secondary market in 2018, but I have more predictions…so I need to do a part 2.

Again, I asked people in the ticket industry…what is the biggest challenge and biggest opportunity in growing the industry in 2018.

Jared Cutler, Chief Strategy Officer at DTI Management: 

Challenge: Biggest challenge this year is probably going to be transferability of tickets – TM Presence, Flash Seats, mobile transfer (SeatGeek QR codes via their app, TM mobile app)

Opportunity: Biggest opportunity is digital ticketing integrations – i.e. NFL deal with both Ticketmaster and StubHub

  Joe Rixon, Assistant AD at Seton Hall: 

Challenge: I think the biggest challenge they will face is this fan verification software/algorithms, that many primary companies are rolling out.  I think this is just the beginning, and will be used to limit access to the secondary and in-turn, if they aren’t careful, make things more difficult for fans by making them jump through hoops.

Opportunity: I think these secondary companies have data on lock.  Leveraging that data is key.  It’s why we work with certain brokers – because that data is GOLD!  It helps increase our leads, understand pricing trends, etc.

  Harris Rosner, CEO of VIP Tickets:

The primary and secondary markets are becoming one Market-how do you bring value to the food (pun intended)chain.

  Scott Spencer, Suite Experience Group CEO: 

Challenge: Smaller companies in the secondary market will continue to feel pressure as the primary market continues to push for a greater share of secondary revenue through alignment with consolidators (e.g., DTI, TicketGalaxy, Dynasty) and online marketplaces (e.g., StubHub, SeatGeek).

Opportunity: In the race for efficiency afforded by online marketplaces, a void has developed at the high-end of the secondary ticket market. With most providers, it’s hard to talk to a true expert on the phone who can answer more than very basic questions. Is food and beverage included in the price of the club seat?  Will this parking pass work for a 19 foot van?  Where in the stadium are the acoustics best for this concert?  As nearly all players compete on price, perhaps there is an opening at the high end of the ticket market to compete on customer service?

  Tom Patania, President/CEO of Select-A-Ticket:

To answer your question what’s the biggest challenge facing the secondary market in 2018 and where do I see the greatest opportunity for growth. That depends on what part of the secondary market you’re in.

If you were on the retail side or a marketplace margins continue to shrink and it becomes a challenge to offset your operating cost.

If you’re on the consolidation Side it’s finding the right partners in the right deals there is a lot of bad deals out there that consolidators a losing money on.

 Sandy Khaund, Founder/CEO of Upgraded: 

Top Challenge:  With so many options and large overlap in inventory, how can marketplaces differentiate. Also, how can resellers establish a brand when they are often masked by the marketplaces?

Top Opportunity: Value add beyond simply being a destination to find tickets. Most businesses compete on price or on quality. Competing on price can eventually be a dangerous game, but competing on quality (via value added features) can maintain healthy margins and create new revenue streams. Trustworthy tickets, loyalty programs, stronger relationships that go beyond the time of purchase, etc. The opportunities on where to add value are endless…

Ignacio Cubero, Co-Founder of Eventellect: 

The biggest challenge and opportunity lie in how marketplaces and resellers react to the the death of the PDF.

When the bar code is killed, how will the secondary react?

Is this going to drive more sales to the primary market or will the marketplaces react and adapt their technology/customer experience?

Cornel Lazar, Marketing Director at Vibe Tickets: 

Challenge

As a startup, almost anything can present itself as a challenge to us, but we’re in a good position, and we’re ready for the ride. Transparency, security, and being truly fan-first sits at the heart of everything Vibe Tickets is striving for, and these values will remain as our main points of reference in an industry that can sometimes be murky. 

If I were to drill down, GDPR and Programmatic are hot topics as Vibe transforms into a data-driven operation aiming to connect fans. 

Logistical issues such as ticket fulfilment, late primary dispatch, and an increase in mobile ticketing remain welcome challenges. Buying or selling tickets is part of the wider consumer experience around live events, but as it stands, buying tickets can be a painful experience when it should be secure, simple, and fun. 

The number one opportunity to facilitate change is putting the hands that feed the industry into the driving seat. In other words, the fan needs to become the disrupter. Consumer education therefore presents itself as an one of several opportunities, and Vibe wants to be part of that conversation. 

Opportunity

Vibe’s mantra, “We’re not a ticketing company but a social marketplace that wants to connect fans”, may sound like an oxymoron at first, but it in fact allows Vibe to operate in a way that is free from industry constraints. 

As a company, Vibe Tickets is in the middle of a digital and operational transformation. This transformation will pave the way to our vision of a people-powered fan community. 

We are not in the business of fighting the industry. Our focus is firmly fixed on building a strong alternative to existing models, and we have a hand-stretched out ready to partner with anyone who shares our approach towards being transparent and fan-first.

Dominic Laico, Co-Founder and CEO of AutoProcessor: 

The biggest challenge in 2018 and beyond is reengaging disenfranchised fans.  As it stands today people have many choices when it comes to spending their money on entertainment, and the value of purchasing a ticket for anything other than extremely high demand events has diminished significantly.  The opportunity for success lies within solving for this challenge.

BTW, I’ve opened up 8 spots in my private mentor program for 2018 and only a few spots remain. 

To apply for the program, send me an email to dave @ davewakeman.com with your answer to the following questions:

1. What stage are you at with your business or career? Can you tell me a little bit about what is going on with you?

2. What is the issue that is driving you crazy or where do you want to take your business in 2018?

3. Give me your top 2-4 goals for the next 6 to 12 months. 

Please follow and like us:

var addthis_config = { url: "http://davewakeman.com/2017/12/happening-secondary-market-2018-part-2/", title: "What Is Happening With The Secondary Market In 2018? Part 2…" }

What Is Happening With The Secondary Market In 2018? Part 2… was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[totalsoccershow]

2017 MLS Cup Final: Toronto v Seattle - Tactical Preview and Specific Predictions

We start off today's show by recapping the latest developments in the US Soccer Presidential race: Sunil Gulati won't be running but Kathy Carter of SUM definitely will be. Who is our newest candidate and what is she all about?

Then we turn our attention to Saturday night's MLS Cup Final: Toronto will be out for revenge against Seattle, who took home the honors last year. We take a look at the likely formations and tactical approaches of both teams, and throw out some of our (patent pending) Very Specific Predictions.

And, as ever, we close with some great scouting reports. which include the undershirt preferences of America's next great midfielder and passing problems in Wales.

---SPONSORS!---

FUTCHI! Get the holiday discount plus an additional $20 and 17 cents off a FUTCHI rebounder at https://www.playfutchi.com/products/futchi_rebounder 

SEATGEEK makes buying and selling tickets easy. Download the SeatGeek app and enter promo code "TSS" for a $20 rebate on your first ticket purchase.

  PLAY