Seed fund and accelerator TechStars put on its “Demo Day” in Boston to present 12 new companies to more than 350 VC and angel investors. TechCrunch’s Rip Empson says in the last five years TechStars has grown significantly in both size and reputation, and the accelerator says seven of the first 20 companies to go through its program have been acquired by larger companies, and about 70 percent of its companies have raised follow-on funding or have since become profitable. READ MORE
Anybody who uses public transit knows scheduled departure times rarely match up to actual departure times. To improve that situation comes Google to the rescue, which is now providing live transit updates on its Google Maps mobile and desktop platforms, initially in six international cities: Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid, and Turin. FastCompany’s Ariel Schwartz checked in with Google to find out why big cities such as London and New York weren’t included. READ MORE
While it might seem innocuous that Groupon is offering a deal on seafood in Massachusetts, it’s actually the first time the daily deal giant is letting shoppers use supermarket loyalty cards to conduct the transaction, writes Advertising Age’s Jack Neff. Groupon has partnered with two Boston marketing and analytics firms on the test with grocer Big Y, which is offering the deal. READ MORE
The woman who topped the list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by our sister publication, Fast Company, Lady Gaga, is turning on the in-game marketing. Specifically, she’s going to be debuting her new album inside the uber-popular Facebook game FarmVille. That’s right, you’ll hear new tracks from her album, Born This Way exclusively inside the game, made by Zynga. Don’t think you can just login and sit back with your headphones on, though: The in-game marketing experiment requires players to complete tasks and enter a Gaga-themed neighboring farm dubbed “GagaVille.” According to the Associated Press, the songs will be unlocked in GagaVille between May 17 and 19, and the album is released on May 23. READ MORE
A suit filed in a Massachusetts court by Skyhook Wireless is ostensibly a battle with Google over location-based services. But the ramifications are far greater, writes New York Times’s Steve Lohr. In the suit, Skyhook, a pioneer in location-based services for mobile phones is alleging that Google’s assertion of “compatibility compliance issues” for handset makers is a thinly veiled attempt to squelch competition in the space. READ MORE
As more and more companies turn to green technology, investments will continue to pour into clean technology ventures. With over $335 million invested in 27 deals, April was another solid month for clean tech. Solar power, which have been the hottest clean tech venture all year, dominated in April with $147 million in investments, according to Greentech Media, a news and research firm based in Boston. LED lighting systems were the second most funded group in April, bringing in about $62 million. READ MORE
Like many young companies today, Telltale Games — a development studio that creates and digitally distributes games for PCs, consoles and mobile devices — is a frequent user of new technology. And tablets are no exception. Specifically, the Apple iPad is a popular tool at the San Rafael, Calif.-based company, which employs roughly 80 people. “My iPad has sort of become hardwired to me in a way my laptop never was,” says senior marketing vice president Steve Allison. “The form factor makes it more like grabbing a magazine than lugging an 8-pound laptop around the office, at home or on a trip — and that changes everything about my usage pattern.” Allison says the iPad is a convenient way to catch up on email with multiple accounts, plus he can easily stay on top of sales information in real-time via the Safari browser. But for everything the iPad offers, Allison concedes it’s missing a few key features. “I’d love to see a front-facing camera for video chats and rear facing cameras with a flash and built-in photo apps.” “I’d love to be able to use the same mobile phone number across my iPad and iPhone, if that was possible,” Allison adds. Turns out, Allison may get his wish: a successor to the iPad may be more suited for work. Speculation about the iPad 2According to consumer analyst Rob Enderle with the Enderle Group, the next iPad will use a multi-core processor. That means the tablet will likely run faster and handle multi-tasking chores — running a back-up while you download e-mail, for example. “This is important for business as one core could be dedicated to, say handling virus checking, which will become more important for tablets. The existing iPad bogs down, it doesn’t handle multitasking very well,” he says. Enderle says there will likely be a design change with the iPad 2 to match the iPhone 4, which uses a more flat design and holds up better to abuse. “The iPad 2 will likely have a higher-resolution ‘Retina’ display, more storage, such as 128GB of memory, a camera or two and a thinner and lighter design,” predicts Laura DiDio, a principal at Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC), a research and consulting firm based in the suburban Boston area. On doubling the existing iPad’s flash memory, DiDio says “when it comes to business, you can’t have too much storage.” That means more memory for rich documents such as slideshows, massive high-resolution photos, and a complete collection of Word files. On the front- and rear-facing cameras, DiDio says there are many businesses that can benefit from this added functionality. “Construction managers and insurance adjusters, for example, could take pictures, add notes and send them on via email, from wherever they are.” Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies in Campbell, Calif., a tech consultancy, confirms a front-facing camera would be handy for video conferencing. “It would be great to ‘FaceTime’ with colleagues [using the Apple app for video chats on the iPhone 4] or clients — and on a Retina display for better resolution.” Near-Field Communication? Bajarin also says Near-Field Communications, or NFC, might be integrated into the second-generation iPad. On the short-range wireless technology, Bajarin says a small chip and software could let the iPad be used for mobile payments “when waved across a terminal, not unlike a car fast-tracking through a toll booth with an on-dash transponder.” “NFC integration is the one thing you could argue could have significant impact on SMBs,” adds Bajarin. “iPads in business are really in its early stages, [as] companies [are] trying to figure out how to use them — but there is strong interest, indeed.” For business, the timing is just about right for an iPad follow-up. DiDio says the current iPad model is making inroads at work. An ITIC survey found roughly 86 percent of respondents say they use the iPad for both work and play. One reason, she says, is due to a deal with Unisys in October to service iPads, which covers businesses from a support angle. Will the iPad 2 become as popular as the original? We’ll all have to wait and see.
Credit cards are extremely low tech — they contain simple data to authenticate a transaction. Now, several players, including banks to mobile carriers to financial networks, are looking at a new transaction device: your smartphone. Indeed, financial institutions such as PayPal and MasterCard have issued some customers adhesive chips for their phones. The credit card information is stuck to the phone and can be used at any of the 200,000 contactless readers in stores around the nation. That’s the low-tech version. What’s really a hot topic now, though, is Near Field Communication (NFC), which allows two-way wireless communication between a chip inside a phone and a receiving terminal. This means that soon, if you have a phone that supports NFC, you’ll be able to not only pay for a purchase by waving your phone near a contactless reader, but you can also get instant loyalty points, coupons and rewards. While the idea is intriguing for consumers and merchants alike, the question is whether NFC will work for US merchants — and work well. “Technology is usually only one small component that leads to the success or failure of ventures like this,” said Charles Golvin, principal analyst with Forrester Research, explaining that the technical infrastructure, customer adoption, and low fees must all line up as well. Smarter smartphonesEven though countries like Japan and South Korea have been using mobile phones for payments for a while, paying with a smartphone is off to a slow start here, mostly for financial reasons. “It’s a business model problem,” said Omar Green, the director of strategic mobile initiatives at Intuit, a company highly interested in using NFC with its millions of small business customers, who explained that there is still uncertainty about how merchants will actually be charged to use mobile payments from smartphones. That said, several indicators point to 2011 being the year when mobile payments and NFC reaches a tipping point. First and foremost: Samsung now offers the Nexus S as the first NFC-enabled Android phone. Nokia says its smartphones will support NFC in 2011. Visa’s head of mobile Bill Gajda says the company has been holding pilots with four of its largest issuers. As part of that, all New York City taxis — a whopping 13,000 — now have a contactless readers in the backseat. Chicago and Boston taxis are also being outfitted with about 3,800 readers so far. In fact, transit is a no-brainer for mobile payments. Most people have their phone in hand all the time anyway so waving it past a reader to get through a turnstile seems beautifully efficient. Mobile commerce expert David Eads of Kony Solutions, writing in his blog, says the iPhone 5 is expected to support NFC when it comes out. In the blog post, he points out that, considering the trillions of dollars run through financial networks annually, Apple stands to increase revenue dramatically by getting involved in processing payments for things out in the real world. Conveniently, iTunes already has payment information for its 160 million customers. That’s a match made in Heaven for Apple. Most impressive, though, is an announcement from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. In November, the companies announced that they’re working together with Discover to build a NFC contactless payment network called Isis for the cell phone companies’ 217 million customers. While holding hands with the competition might raise eyebrows, it’s actually a brilliant idea. According to Jaymee Johnson, the director of strategic development at T-Mobile who is also the Isis spokesperson, the joint venture has worked to provide a single unified platform to consumers, merchants, and banks that will streamline adoption of NFC. They realize that mobile payments using NFC aren’t going to work if the merchant is seeing a different interface for every customer that walks through the door, says Johnson. Intuit’s Green says they’re also trying to figure out how to deal with transaction fees. Once they are low enough, a smartphone will be an ideal transaction device. About those fees, Forrester’s Golvin said, “There is a going rate that is established for transaction fees on payment. I would be extremely surprised to see a merchant fee schedule for these payments that was radically different from what currently exists from the existing acquiring banks and payment networks.” Using a smartphone for transactions makes sense, especially for merchants who can capture new information about a customer, such as buying habits and preferences. According to Jeff Miles, the director of mobile transactions at NXP Semiconductors (www.nxp.com), the company that invented NFC with Sony in 2002, NFC tags in stores are another tool that will benefit merchants and their customers. ”Think of a small hardware store,” says Miles. “I walk in and I’m looking at a new drill and Bosch has a promotion, so they put a smart tag in the store. I tap the tag and it gives me some product information and potentially could give me a coupon.” Consumer concernsThere are concerns with using a phone to pay for goods. For example, some wonder: what if your phone is stolen? “[It would be] probably no worse than someone stealing a credit card and perhaps somewhat better because you can password protect a phone,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group, adding that the Web service a consumer would be using with a NFC-enabled phone would likely contain financial information and it would not be on the phone itself. Whether people will be eager to adopt NFC is another question. “Consumers are used to using existing methods of payment and as a race we are not very fond of change,” Enderle said. Golvin agrees. “The engrained behavior that people have for paying is pretty deep and it takes a lot to change that,” he said. The coupons and loyalty rewards that would come along with NFC phone payments will help, he said. “Those things do make a big difference. If you can do all of that in the transaction, now you’ve given the customer a real incentive to change their behavior and use this alternate payment method.” Experts aren’t sure at what point the average consumer will be paying for things with a wave of a smartphone. Regardless of when, it stands to chance that while today our phones rule much of our lives, tomorrow they just might control our money as well.
When Pampers recently offered its new line of Pampers Cruisers through a storefront on its Facebook Fan page, the limited supply of 1,000 packages for $9.99 each sold out in less than an hour. For eager would-be diaper-purchasers who missed out, the company offered the chance to pre-order the Cruisers with Dry Max from online retailers Amazon.com and BabiesRUs.com. Also listed were outlets where the diapers would be sold once they hit shelves. That Pampers can create buzz for a diaper is indeed testimony to the power of Facebook and social media as business marketing tools. But that’s not news to most businesses, which recognize Facebook Fan pages as inexpensive yet highly effective means to boost business. What’s telling about the Cruisers is the use of Facebook as a retail outlet. How you can sell on Facebook “E-commerce on Facebook is something we’re watching rather closely,” says Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, which helps its clients sell online through multiple channels. The idea of actually selling on Facebook is in its frontier days. However, what Wingo and others see are retailers both large and small working to create a social selling experience more than a transaction. “A lot of what people do is try to get people engaged, talking about the brand,” says Andy Lloyd, CEO of Fluid, Inc., whose Facebook social shopping platform yielded eye-opening results for Rachel Roy, a division of Jones Apparel. A three-day pop-up store with Facebook-only merchandise sold out in the first six hours, the brand added 1.5 new fans a minute and the company’s fan base increased 35 percent, according to Fluid. “The challenge with shopping on Facebook is you’re training users to do something different than they’ve done in the past,” Lloyd says. “People really haven’t shopped within Facebook. A number of avenues are emerging to turn Facebook Fan pages into retail outlets. Lloyd recommends a cautious approach for small to mid-size businesses embracing Facebook retailing. “Start out and do something basic,” he says, advising that you utilize existing technology and ecommerce systems. Among the options: Fluid Fan Shop and shopping tabs. To implement a Fluid Fan Shop shopping setup like Rachel Roy used could cost $20,000 to $25,000, estimates Lloyd. However, he anticipates costs dropping with the needed technology in place. These fan shops allow consumers to shop and choose products on the Facebook page, then the completion of the transaction is moved seamlessly to the retailer’s traditional website. The consumer has some security in completing the transaction in the traditional online manner, Lloyd says. “Whether the checkout process is within Facebook or within the retail site, they’re focused on the checkout at that point,” he says. “By the time they get to the cart, they’re pretty well committed to the idea of performing the transaction. Heather Logrippo, who owns a Boston-area public relations firm is working with an author to build a shopping cart tab within his Facebook fan page. “You click on the tab that says order his book, and you order right from his website,” she says. “At the end of the day, I don’t know whether it’s a big deal whether you send someone to another site to order something or you have them do something on Facebook. They both allow you to capture the audience on Facebook.” Payvment. For retailers, Payvment offers a relatively simple way to add a free shopping cart application to your Facebook fan page. The company allows payment through PayPal. Payvment tries to address the issue of shopping cart abandonment with its universal cart. Leave an item in a Payvment cart with one retailer, and it will show up as you shop with another Payvment retailer. Consumers must click to allow the application access before shopping. The basic setup looks fairly rudimentary, with rows of items on the page. Alvenda. Wingo, the ChannelAdvisor CEO, thinks -ecommerce within wall posts is where Facebook shopping is headed. “We think 2.0 is on the way. It’s going to be wall-oriented and very interactive,” he says. Alvenda made headlines with its launch of the 1-800-Flowers store within Facebook last summer, and next up are newsfeed stores. Shop on the 1-800-Flowers site, and you never leave Facebook. Shop on a newsfeed post, and you shop within the newsfeed. Facebook created something of a furor with its failed Beacon experiment, which was designed to share information about users’ purchases elsewhere online. Sharing information about purchases in the newsfeed will raise similar questions. CartFly. This shopping widget collects three percent of each transaction, and transactions must utilize Amazon Payments. What you should consider about Facebook shopping Understanding the inherently social nature of Facebook is critical to successful sales ventures, says Lloyd. Consider a “curated product set” such as special Mother’s Day sales items. “Present it in a way that’s more compelling, more interactive,” he advises. Allow consumers a way to express themselves, such as creating like buttons for items. “Subsequent shoppers can say, ‘Oh, 45 people liked this product,”’ Lloyd says. Find a way for people to share opinions or the shopping experience. Offer incentives to Fans, such as limited product lines, one-time deals, promotions, and contests. “What you don’t want to be doing is basically pick up your online store and dump it into a tab on your Facebook page,” Lloyd says. “You’re using Facebook as a mechanism to engage with them as people as opposed to just credit cards.”
There was a hush in the room when Apple CEO Steve Jobs (finally) took the wraps off the long-rumored Apple iPad in late January. Perhaps it was because the audience — populated primarily by journalists and analysts — realized this portable tablet would blur the lines between work and play, much like the iconic iPhone that came before it. Now the iPad is available, and many are wondering if this digital device is truly suitable for small to mid-sized business — or even a boon for it. The basics The iPad (from $499 for 16GB) is a thin, 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet, ideal for reading electronic books and digital newspapers, surfing the Web, reading e-mail, flicking through photos, watching videos, and playing games — all via your fingertips instead of with a keyboard and mouse. Sure, other manufacturers have launched WiFi-enabled tablets in the past — aimed primarily at businesses — but more often than not have proven bulky, slow, and limited in software. The iPad, on the other hand, is a svelte 1.5 pounds, powered by a 1GHz processor and out of the box works with most of the 150,000 plus applications (“apps”) available at Apple’s popular App Store (part of iTunes). Built for business A recent business survey conducted by Information Technology Intelligence Corp. (ITIC) found 42 percent of participants planned on purchasing an iPad within the first six to nine months. Only 14 percent said “no,” leaving the remaining 44 percent as “possibly” or “undecided.” “Interestingly, the line that divides home life and corporate life has blurred considerably over the past few years,” says Laura DiDio, a principal at ITIC, a research and consulting firm based in the suburban Boston area. When asked how they’ll use the iPad, 64 percent of respondents said they’d use the iPad for business, 31 percent for personal use, and 86 percent for both. “Ten or 15 years ago you can be reasonably certain your IT department would issue you a desktop device that was more state of the art than what you had at home,” says DiDio. “Now, consumers get more state of the art, feature-rich devices than what’s issued by the company, and in many cases they can use them for work, too.” Top 5 reasons iPad is good for business DiDio says there are a number of reasons why the iPad is good for business. Here are the top five reasons to consider an iPad for business: Price (under $500) Power (better than netbooks) Portability (1.5 pounds, 10 hour battery) Usability (home and business use, which fits today’s telecommuting trend) Functionality (150,000 apps and counting) “With a list price that begins at $499, Apple has broken price barrier, making it appealing to consumers and businesses alike,” explains DiDio. “Plus, the iPad has the performance and graphics capabilities not found in most netbooks.” Another advantage: many corporate workers are “road warriors” these days, adds DiDio, “from the smallest businesses all the way up to enterprise.” The iPad’s svelte 1.5-pound frame and 10-hour battery make it ideal for travelers and telecommuters alike. “Many today juggle home and business life simultaneously, so while the iPad is great to keep the kids entertained in the backseat of the car, mom or dad can then edit a sales report when they reach their destination,” says DiDio. A wide range of applications also make the iPad very appealing to small and mid-sized businesses. Not everyone agrees Tim Bajarin, principal strategist at the Campbell, Calif.-based Creative Strategies research firm, says he recognizes Apple has added some productivity software to the overall iPad model, such as the iWorks programs, but still believes the iPad is more of a consumer device than a business tool. “You saw Jobs demonstrate the iPad reclining in a chair because the iPad is optimized for a ‘lean back’ experience rather than a ‘lean forward’ one,” explains Bajarin. “This is fine for browsing the Web, reading a book, or watching video, but business is more of a learn forward experience — such as writing long e-mails and reports, or working on spreadsheets and presentations.” Bajarin says the success of the iPad in the workplace will also depend on the type of job at hand. “Those who need bigger screen real estate will stick with a PC monitor, such as those in graphic arts,” says Bajarin, “but vertical markets — such as hospitals, transportation, police and fire, and small medical clinics — might find this tablet of use, where ultra portability is important.”
