[Press Release] Chennai, India: 17 May, 2013: 3D Talent Services builds intelligent, simple and affordable apps for individuals and companies to use in the talent landscape. 3D Talent Services unveils its new platform to help individuals and businesses improve their skills and organizations better utilize their talent pool.

Hiring and identifying talent has moved beyond the silos of HR departments. Founders and CEOs have come down to this talent battlefield to scoop out the best workforce who fit their culture and vision. The bloodline of a business is its people. So understanding and evaluating talent have become essential. Talent profiling has become an integral part of team building with the use of state-of-the-art methods. The fact that hiring superior workforce is mandatory stresses on one single question, how to discover the best. While hiring and retention is an indispensable part for companies, they are scouting out for innovation that goes beyond the HR departments.

Throwing light on people powered businesses

3D Talent Services, a young startup from India is working on a mission. G Ramu, the CEO and founder, to 3D Talent Services has been toying with his idea to disrupt the talent space. He worked in a few HR departments for a lot of companies and he did experience a void in this space in 2010. After almost two rounds of revolution and research did Ramu lay down the foundation of 3DCP. Ramu believes, “there is a need to break away from the conventional methods of talent management by the use of new tools and techniques that help enhance the capabilities of individuals and the competitiveness of organizations.”

How 3D Talent Services started up?

G Ramu who completed his engineering from IIT-BHU, MBA from XLRI, spent the first half of his career in BHEL, Asian Paints, HCL Technologies. As an HR practitioner he noticed was the way most people weren’t able to really quantify their skills nor their career goals in a specific, scientific way or realize where they stood with respect to their skillset. Most people were not specific and could not relate to their learning in a scientific way or realize where they stood with respect to their peers in a chosen skillset.

Ramu and his team reached out through their surveys to understand the talent market dynamics. They noticed that most of them could not gauge where they were standing and where to head for. Most often when asked about their skills, they just related to their technical skills, without realizing that it just constituted one component of their talent spectrum. Many completely ignored or could not state succinctly their behavioral and managerial attributes. Many do not even realize that their technical skills may be attuned to a particular environment and they may need to make changes to adapt to another.

Bottomline, they failed to realize where they fit in and can hence add value to their careergraph. People were more prone to profiling themselves based on company needs. On the other hand companies never had a fixed way to measure and evaluate their talentscape.

Though large corporates have attempted skills profiling with varying degrees of success, small and medium businesses did not have any tool to evaluate their talent hub and figure out how they could be better utilized for faster growth.

This led to the emergence of 3DCP as a platform to allow individuals and job seekers and companies to profile their skills across technical, managerial and behavioral skills. Ramu along with Babu and Nandkumar started to work and iterate on this infectious idea. There are three main products that is being formed under 3D Talent Services.

Products under the brand umbrella of 3D Talent Services

Web applications hosted on the cloud have been launched built around 3DCP have been launched. These applications include My3DCP, 3DTAS and Training Orbit.

• My 3DCP is an individualized comprehensive and holistic profiling ones skills covering the different aspects of skills. It intuitively leads one to map ones skills in depth, whichever industry, function or level, one may be from. The visual representation of ones profile is a refreshing novelty in itself.
• 3D Talent Analytics System (3DTAS) is an enterprise application for profiling of employees which will enable them in carrying out analytics and better deployment and development of employee skills
• Training Orbit is a global marketplace on training. One will be able to identify ones training needs and select appropriate courses for their needs.

3D Talent Services now unveils its platform and kicked off this April, 2013. Companies across diverse industries can now use this platform for analyzing any department. Both active and passive job seekers will be able to create their 3D profiles and ensure that the global talent scape utilizes the power of this robust platform. They are working to build a solution for better talent development. The business world is torn by poor talent management and 3D Talent Services unveils itself as intelligent yet simple and affordable platform for individuals and companies across the globe.

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For media inquiries contact:
Mr. G Ramu (Founder and CEO)

Email : gramu@3dtalentservices.com www.3dtalentservices.com

The fashion world is rapidly evolving from being contained on runways and mediated through big name magazines to being democratized and taken back by the people. Fashion bloggers are now an influential force and social media is changing the way we look at the industry. Spearheading the revolution to make fashion relevant and accessible are these 7 women entrepreneurs who are changing the way we consume fashion altogether. 

Birchbox // Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna

Wine- or cheese-of-the-month subscriptions have been popular for a long time but it’s only recently that mystery subscription boxes have captured popular imagination. Birchbox is at the forefront of the mystery subscription box trend, specialising in beauty products. Launched by Harvard Business School alumni, Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna in 2010, Birchbox has now expanded to over 300,000 subscribers, men and women both. For $10 a month ($20 for the men’s version), you receive a goodie box filled with 4 to 5 samples from brands like Dermalogica, Dr. Jart, L’Occitane and Philosophy, and even non beauty brands like Ghirardelli and ModCloth. Beauchamp and Barna met in business school.

One day in late 2009, they came up with the idea for Birchbox when they realised that there was a significant gap in the online beauty market. Unlike clothes and accessories, people wanted to try out beauty products first before buying, but most found it a daunting task to tackle the thousands of available brands to find something that suited them. The duo decided to bridge this void in the market by offering a curated service in which samples of  beauty products would be hand-picked and delivered to the consumer’s doorstep for a flat rate every month.

According to them, “We were inspired by the idea that every woman would want a best friend who’s a beauty editor and is helping them curate the clutter.” Birchbox started out with 600 subscribers but the idea soon caught the public imagination, especially that of a growing breed of beauty bloggers. Birchbox has now spawned several other beauty subscription boxes in its wake, such as Glossybox, Amarya and Feelunique, but continues to be the market leader.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Snapette // Sarah Paiji and Jinhee Anh Kim

According to Snapette’s co-founder Sarah Paiji, “”It was crazy there wasn’t an app to tell me the best stores around and what they have!” So she set out to create an app which would do exactly that, along with fellow Harvard Business School grad Jinhee Anh Kim. Brick and mortar shopping can be a nightmarish enterprise, especially if you have to hunt through a string of stores and yet come back empty handed at the end of it.

Snapette provides you with an inventory of what’s available in stores around you, using GPS tracking, so once you go into a certain store, you can be sure of finding what you have been looking for. The service is crowd-sourced, with customers photographing items and uploading them, but brands like Uniqlo, Nine West and Rebecca Minkoff have been managing their own profiles, with other brands following shortly. Snapette is now active in 12 cities globally, and Paiji and Kim are working to let customers by products in-app.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Lookbook.nu // Yuri Lee

First launched in 2008, Lookbook.nu has now become a byword in the online fashion community with over 1.2 million users currently. Founded by art history major Yuri Lee and her partner, Lookbook soon transcended its humble origins to become one of the most popular crowsourced street fashion sites. Lee wanted to give fashion back to the masses by giving individuals their own voice.

As she said in an interview to Protein, “with the whole eruption of the blogosphere there’s a lot of power being taken out of the big fashion publishing companies.” Lookbook launched as an invite-only site where anyone could showcase their style and get comments and “hypes”. These days, it is a powerful publicity tool for fashion bloggers who want to reach out to a wider audience. Lookbook.nu has also collaborated with fashion brands like American Apparel, Mango, Dr. Martens, Levis, Jeffrey Campbell and many more. Not only this, but they also launched a scripted drama series called “Lookbook: the Series” this April, which is being broadcast on their website.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Polyvore // Jess Lee

Online shopping is no longer text driven – social media is the new face of e-commerce and image-based search is taking over. Polyvore, an online fashion community is at the forefront of this trend. Polyvore was founded in 2007 by Pasha Sadri, who got the idea after he created a virtual moodboard for a house redesign project. Soon, an early adopter and fan, Jess Lee emailed him with some suggestions. Lee, a Stanford alum and former Google Maps product manager, was invited to join in 2008, and was given the title of co-founder. Lee now heads the company as CEO.

Users on Polyvore curate products from all over the internet to a shared product index and use those products to create collages or “sets” which resemble the product pages of fashion magazines, complete with creative backgrounds, text and non fashion accessories. The New Yorker commented on this phenomenon, saying that Polyvore had created “small-scale Anna Wintours”. 20 million unique visitors visit every month and can browse through over 44 million sets or create their own. Revenue is earned through affiliate market links. If you like a product, two clicks will land you on the page where you can buy it. Polyvore is thus a huge, user created, shoppable magazine. In recent times, several high profile collaborations such as with Rebecca Minkoff, Bergdorf Goodman and American Eagle have boosted Polyvore’s popularity further.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Gilt Groupe //  Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson

Launched in 2007 as a flash-sale site, Gilt Groupe has now expanded to several speciality sites such as Gilt Man, Gilt City and Gilt Taste (they sold their upmarket travel deals site, Jetsetter, to Tripadvisor this year.) They are the first New York based fashion startup to have crossed the $1 billion mark. Typically, Gilt purchases goods from vendors at extreme markdowns, and adds a margin to make a profit, but still selling at a discount. The business model flourished when the site was launched back in 2008, with the recession resulting in brands’ warehouses filled with unsold stock. The initial flurry of excitement surrounding flash sale sites has abated somewhat, but Gilt is still going strong, with plans to go public by the end of 2013.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Modcloth // Susan Gregg-Koger

Modcloth was started by Susan Gregg-Koger and her partner, Eric Koger from her Carnegie-Mellon dorm room in 2002. Gregg-Koger was an avid thrift shopper and loved vintage clothing and wanted to share her passion with other people online. Today, Modcloth has grown into a fashion retailing behemoth, selling not only clothes, shoes and accessories but home decor and non-wearable accessories too. But even with such variety, the theme is constant and holds everything together. “Vintage and retro” are the keywords when it comes to what you can expect to find on Modcloth.

Although they have a small section selling vintage pieces which sell out almost immediately, most products on the site are contemporary with a vintage flavour. Modcloth has become the darling of the fashion blogging world, helped by their strong blogger affiliate program. More than 1200 independent designers are featured on the site, with 40 new items being added every day on an average. Modcloth’s incredibly creative fashion writing team names every one of the items they put up on the site, often with eye-catching results heavily grounded in wordplay. Examples are the “Mauve to the Country Dress”, “Haute-el California Dress” and “Odd One Owl Sweater”.

[Image courtesy: Here]

Nasty Gal // Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Amoruso’s retail success story is almost fairytale-like. In 2006, the 22 year old Amoruso was a community college dropout, living in her step-aunt’s cottage and working a $13 an hour job. Then she started selling vintage clothing on ebay and the rest is history. Nasty Gal sold $100 million of clothing and accessories last year to a focus group of 20-somethings who are looking for bold, edgy and unique pieces. Nasty Gal is for women who are not afraid. According to Amoruso, a typical “Nasty Gal” is “in her late teens or early-mid twenties and super body-confident. She knows how to dress for her shape and isn’t afraid of wearing makeup and short skirts and being sexy.

She’s into fashion but her taste doesn’t just apply to what she wears: It applies to food, interior design, and travel. She wants to have awesome experiences and be the best-dressed girl around — without spending an arm and a leg.”  Amoruso eventually outgrew eBay and created her own domain, which was called shopnastygal.com, as nastygal.com was owned by a porn studio (Amoruso has since bought the domain). Nasty Gal doesn’t have a marketing team, but the loyal and rapidly growing fanbase spreads the word around on various social networking sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Nasty Gal can boast of 6 million unique hits every month, and the company has been approached by retail giant Urban Outfitters with a view to acquisition.

[Image courtesy: Here]

It all started when Lauri and Henri met while attending the Reserve Officer School of Finnish defence forces (in Finland, military service is a duty by law) a few years ago. They became good friends and kickstarted a startup and testing some ideas. Soon after, they founded together a successful web development company, Lamia. But something was still missing, they wanted to create something new and not seen before.

The story behind Skibb

Henri and Lauri had been discussing about a platform that would democratize knowledge and allow people to solve problems and issues together, without any false authority telling how the things “should” be done. This would apply to many branches.

These two pals also shared the view that everyone has some useful knowledge to share with community, and people can derive pleasure from helping others. They wanted to allow people to do this easily, and offer a tool to solve problems.

Things started to roll high, when Lauri met Aapo by accident through a Finnish discussion board. From this ideology behind the idea, the team conceptualized the final service platform model and started to build it. Also as the admirers of services like Quora and Stackoverflow, they wanted to take those to the next level.

They are also big fans of Quora and Stackoverflow. They love the large communities these sites have developed and the connections people make on there. Their experience though is that Quora is very popular among only a subset of the general population and also doesn’t really help in problem-solving.

New style and approach to find out answers to your problems

Stackoverflow has “crowd-sourced” answer rankings and allows people to show expertise, but still, you need to know the full solution and how would you solve a problem called “I need to build a 2-flat house” with Stackoverflow? Also as the name tells us, it’s focused just on one segment.

So they wanted to cover the areas where Quora lags somewhat through employing the crowdsourcing aspect of Stackoverflow when they decided to create Skibb.

Their aim is to create a tool that will revolutionize the way you find answers to your problems. In a nutshell, Skibb will allow you to post your question/problem. The users will then break down your problem into branches and partial solutions. The final solution will build up piece by piece. Skibb will be the first place you go to for finding solutions to your everyday problems, but also when you have an unusual or rare issue.

As we said, Quora is a great tool but focuses on nice-to-know fancy answers. There are no tools for solving problems and the answerer has to know all about the question to be able to post and be recognized. Skibb is very different. Their driving vision is to make solving problems as effective but also simple, easy, and even fun, as possible.

Skibb is for the new age Internet users

Then there are of course the more traditional tools like Answers.com or Yahoo Questions but folks at Skibb don’t think that those avenues respond well to the needs of the 2013 Internet user. People expect clean, fast and smooth experience and Skibb will accommodate that.

What makes Skibb special is the power that comes from the collaborative problem-solving. Each user will bring their own expertise and unique point of view to the table. When it adds up, you will have a comprehensive, robust road map to your problem that you can use immediately – true to the saying that “a whole is more than the sum of its parts”.

In addition, each user will be able to develop into a true authority on his field of expertise and inside Skibb. The community will have an active part in this by voting, evaluating and enhancing parts of problems and solutions.

Mainly B2C, but in the end, both. Skibb will target end-users and brands alike. They have some very interesting revenue models prepared that includes sponsored solutions and selling know-how. The first one will allow companies to offer their own products as solutions for customer’s problems(and also to other companies) and the second one will allow professionals to earn money for solving problems and develop their reputation through our platform.

The Launch of Skibb

The launch of the Public Beta is slated for 1 September 2013. Closed beta will happen in the months leading up to that. We have already been getting a lot of inquiries on the Closed Beta access, but anyone who thinks he can contribute intelligently to the process is invited to submit their application to hello (at) skibb (dot) it.

On Skibb founders

• Lauri Järvenpää is the COO of Skibb. Currently studying at Aalto and in addition an entrepreneur. At Skibb responsible of the whole user experience and the service architecture of our cutting-edge platform. Weird mix of tech-nerd and customer oriented start-up builder.
• Then we have Aapo Kiiso, the lead developer of Skibb. Only 17-years-old, he is a real coding prodigy. Aapo has a couple of years of experience in web development, and Skibb has been a massive opportunity for him to learn new things and gather experience. Perfectionist in a good sense, hardcore developer rockstar despite of his young age. The Nick D’Aloisio of their team.
• Last but not the least, Henri Halmelahti is the CFO of Skibb. Henri is studying economics at the university of Vaasa. He co-founded the internet software company called Lamia together with Lauri. A swift number-cruncher, he handles hard key figures with a precision of a swiss-made watch. Intelligent business-strategist. A “work hard, party hard” type.

Silicon Valley has traditionally been the epicentre for startups in the world, but the rest of the globe has been catching up. The 3-4 ecosystems which have been breeding startup after startup have now been joined by other centres around the world which are proving to be fertile ground for entrepreneurs. Many of these hubs weren’t even on the global startup map 5 years ago, which speaks volumes for the way the global economy, headed by the new information economy, is growing. Here are 10 of the hottest cities worldwide for startups, after Silicon Valley.

10. Paris

Coming in at no. 10, Paris is one of the two European locations to make it to the top 10, apart from London. While it is one of the tourist capitals of the world, Paris still has a long way to go in attracting international talent. France’s stringent education system has resulted in about 96% of Parisian entrepreneurs holding at least a Masters degree before venturing into the world of business. However, due to the lack of venture capital and super angels, entrepreneurs are far more likely to be dependent on incubators, friends and family for investment. Unlike Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Parisian entrepreneurs are three times more motivated to create clones of successful startups for their own local environment. Technology adoption is also lower, with Parisian startups more likely to use PHP, C++ and .Net. However, compared to Silicon Valley, they are more likely to tackle niche markets. Paris still has a long way to go: according to The Economist, “Europe’s culture is deeply inhospitable to entrepreneurs; wanting to grow a startup into a behemoth is quite as countercultural as piercings and performance arts.”

Startup success stories: Stupefix, Appsfire, Hypios

9. Chicago

Groupon is probably the most well known startup to emerge out of Chicago, but the Windy City is an emerging player in the entrepreneurial scene in the Midwest. The average age of entrepreneurs in Chicago is 37, making them one of the oldest on the list. One fifth of these entrepreneurs once worked in Silicon Valley, so Chicago is well connected to it. The lower cost of living there makes it an attractive proposition for founding a startup. According to Builtinchicago.org, a new startup is founded in Chicago every 48 hours.

Startup success stories: Groupon, GrubHub, MentorMob.

8. Vancouver

The second largest startup ecosystem in Canada, Vancouver has traditionally been home to gaming studios (Douglas Coupland’s pop-culture novel about the gaming industry, JPod is set there) but has now expanded to a flourishing economy for tech startups despite the insufficient funding climate. Startups in Vancouver typically receive 80% less funding than their Silicon Valley counterparts and late stage funding is non existent. As a result, they employ less people per startup than in Silicon Valley. Vancouver acts as a magnet for local Canadian talent but after a successful launch, entrepreneurs might want to consider moving elsewhere.

Startup success stories: Flickr, Summify, PayrollHero

7. Toronto

Canada’s second entrant in the list, Toronto is the largest startup ecosystem in Canada and one of the largest in the world, even though it creates 85% less startups than Silicon Valley. Toronto entrepreneurs are motivated by creating a great product and changing the world with it and are as ambitious as their Silicon Valley peers. Their focus is on new, rather than niche markets. Outsourcing is rampant though, with Toronto entrepreneurs outsourcing almost twice as much as Silicon Valley in terms of product development. On an average they work an hour less every day than SIlicon Valley entrepreneurs. According to Mark Zimmerman, an advisor at MaRS, “Toronto attracts an incredible array of people from all over the globe. This gives us an edge in the war for talent and in taking products to a global market.”

Startup success stories: Wave Accounting, FreshBooks, Achievers

6. London

The most successful startup ecosystem in Europe, London ranks in at no. 7 and produces the highest number of startups in Europe. However, entrepreneurs in London are more cautious and risk averse than their Silicon Valley counterparts. They typically target much smaller markets, being 6% less likely to tackle markets ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion and 32% less likely to tackle markets bigger than $10 billion. London has also been slow in embracing mobile technology. However growth continues, and London is now emerging as the primary choice of US entrepreneurs for establishing their European presence. According to Rahul Ahuja, CEO of Taskhub.co.uk, “Setting up a business in the UK is probably the easiest in the world.” This is one of the reasons for London’s growing presence as a preferred startup ecosystem.

Startup success stories: Tweetdeck, Moshi Monsters, Wonga

5. Boston

Alongwith Silicon Valley, Boston has been one of the traditional hubs for startups and continues to grow, even though it has lost out to NYC as the preferred startup destination on the East Coast in recent times. Despite this, it has a healthy funnel of startups throughout the startup lifecycle. This is due to no major funding gaps in its funding ecosystem. Boston entrepreneurs are also more likely to be better educated than Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and 3 times more likely to have a Phd. There is a higher probability of them being serial entrepreneurs, especially in markets where they have prior experience. Boston’s ecosystem is balanced and its strength lies in areas like e-commerce, SaaS, gaming, hard innovation and particularly biotech. According to Simeon Simeonov, Founder & CTO at Swoop, “Boston’s key strength as an ecosystem is its diversity. There is no other place on Earth that comes close (…) My outlook for the Boston ecosystem is very positive. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen a level of innovation, growth and excitement that reminds me of the late 90s without the unsustainable cash burns.”

Startup success stories: Formlab, Runkeeper, EchoNest

4. NYC

East Coast’s frontrunner, New York has emerged as a serious alternative to Silicon Valley when it comes to consumer focused startups and those concentrating on advertising, media, e-commerce and fashion. It is the global capital for women tech entrepreneurs, with 18% of them being female. NYC differs from Silicon Valley in that the focus there is on consumer startups – 35% more startups focus on consumers as their primary source of revenue and are less focused on SMEs. According to Fabian Pfortmueller, Founder of Holstee, “I believe NYC is the most diverse ecosystem of all the three leaders – Silicon Valley, NYC and London. It has a quickly growing startup community, access to capital and a talent pool, but at the same time it is also the home of big media, of style, and of finance(…) [I]t makes more sense to be in NYC. Plus, we just love it here.”

Startup success stories: Foursquare, Tumblr, Bit.ly

3. Seattle

Seattle is best known for being the headquarters of Microsoft, thereby positing itself as Silicon Valley’s chief competitor – a fact that was only exacerbated by Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997. Seattle has a strong history of tech and links to Silicon Valley, with 41% of Seattle entrepreneurs once having worked there. Many startups in Seattle eventually end up being acquired by the tech giants which the founders of the startups had left to found their own.

Startup success stories: Amazon, Microsoft, Zillow

2. Los Angeles

Traditionally dominated by the film industry, LA has been a difficult place for startups to grow. However, in recent years, the startup ecosystem has flourished considerably and has a healthy funnel of startups moving through the startup lifecycle. LA is beginning to realise its potential to be an alternative to Silicon Valley. LA startups are as data oriented as their Silicon Valley counterparts, and more receptive to new technology. Python and Ruby are the preferred coding languages there. However, it has more web startups than mobile startups. According to Chris Grey, Founder and CEO of Caplinked, “I would say that Los Angeles is extremely different from Silicon Valley in the mindset of people. Silicon Valley attracts the top young people in the world who want to do a tech startup. LA is an entertainment mecca that also has a lot of tech start ups because it’s a big city on the west coast of the US.”

Startup success stories: Shoedazzle, Factual, Beachmint

1. Tel Aviv

Torn apart by political strife and unrest, Israel, however, has come around strongly to be home to the highest density of tech startups in the world, which have mushroomed up in Tel Aviv. In 2009, 63 Israeli companies were listed on the tech oriented NASDAQ – more than Europe, India, China, Korea and Japan taken together. Today, almost every major multinational has an Israeli presence, among them Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Intel. With a long tradition of entrepreneurship, a highly developed funding ecosystem, vibrant entrepreneurial culture, a strong support system and a broad talent base, Tel Aviv has a healthy funnel of startups across the developmental lifecycle. However, Israel’s technology adoption rate lags far behind Silicon Valley. Israeli startups are 27% less likely to use Python and 87% less likely to use Ruby. According to Dan Senor and Saul Singer, authors of The Startup Nation, “The great irony of the Start-Up Nation story is that Israel has transformed the challenges it has faced into assets that form the cornerstones of its culture of innovation. Adversity of all kinds, such as being under attack, small, isolated, and lacking resources, have forced Israelis to be resourceful, to do more with less, to innovate, and to be global from day one. The fact that Israel specializes in adversity is most dramatically seen in downturns.”

Startup success stories: Babylon, Mirabilis

Wildcard entrant: Berlin

There is a significant amount of hype surrounding Berlin as a startup hub right now. It has attracted investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world, such as The Netherlands’ Edial Dekker and Sweden’s Alexander Ljung. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, Berlin has emerged as a primary cultural centre of Western Europe, and now the constantly evolving city is the darling of entrepreneurs with its determined drive to move forward. Berlin entrepreneurs are typically less educated than their Silicon Valley counterparts, but startups are evenly distributed across the startup lifecycle. As Matthew Brimer, co-founder, General Assembly says, “Berlin is an up and coming community. If you look at where New York was a couple of years ago, you can see a parallel to where Berlin is now”.
Startup success stories: Soundcloud, Gidsy, EyeEm

I can see it now. You’re sitting with your fists slightly clenched, ready to hit the button. When it happens, hundreds of people will be using your app for the first time. You’ve spent all the resources and time you have building a solid beta list and now, it all comes down to this moment. Up to this point, it hasn’t been open to the public and just the idea of newcomers viewing and judging your app scares you senseless.

What do you do next? You realize you don’t have a solid plan so naturally, confusion starts to set in.

You briefly scramble while your heart is steadily increasing in pace. You face is red and now you’re getting upset. The funny thing is, all of this happened within 3 seconds.

Welcome to startup life.
One minute you’re up and the very next second, you’ve crashed. As a startup founder and someone who’s app has been in private beta for a number of weeks now, I’d like to pass on one simple piece of advice and follow it up with reasons why my advice is true. My advice is..
It’s not the end of the world.

“If you’re going to put your product in beta, put your business model in beta with it.”
­ Joe Kraus, Partner at Google Ventures

1. Don’t Freak Out

In any high pressure situation, particularly a private beta, it’s really easy to get bent out of shape when the slightest thing goes wrong. Trust me, I know this mode of thinking all too well. When you’re working on an app and trying your hardest to stay focused, the last thing you need is worry lingering at the back of your mind. Freaking out about minor things can destroy morale and hurt the productivity of your team.

2. Set Your Pace and Stick With It

Decide on an early release schedule for beta members who haven’t been approved. Setting a solid pace will ensure you don’t get overwhelmed while you’re getting the situation under control. Stick to this pace and don’t deviate. This can be particularly helpful if you’ve received good press and have a large influx of new accounts.

3. Measure Everything

At Sqwiggle, we use Mixpanel religiously. We set an “event” for nearly every interaction possible and watch closely how our users respond to the app. This gives us solid insight into how they are psychologically perceiving the app and adapting to the use case. At an early stage startup, this kind of valuable insight is golden.

4. React Quickly

Following step 3, it’s important to take what you’ve learned and quickly act on it. In a past life, I’ve spent time at slow companies and fast companies. Fast always wins.

The amount of time it takes for you to iterate your product could mean life or death to the success of your app. Go as fast as you can, fix bugs and add the features that will help people most. If you can do that, everything else will snap together.

5. Don’t Let Support Tickets Overwhelm You

As I’ve mentioned in past posts around the web, it’s very easy to believe the sky is falling when bad news comes through your support channel. Take a deep breath and realize that this is one person who’s been influenced by several outside forces (bad weather, ran out of lucky charms, etc.) that you can’t control. Always take the blame but don’t take the ticket too seriously and most certainly, don’t get offended or snippy.

Treating your customer with respect and empathy while giving them a solid solution is the only way to see success as a company. Convert those who don’t believe and win well.

6. Don’t Monetize Too Early

It happens a lot. Companies have a short stint of success and believe they’re invincible. It’s important to realize that quality is king and people ultimately don’t want to pay for something that isn’t ready. If your beta app is riddled with bugs, then it’s likely too early to start charging the end user. Timing is everything so make sure the app is a high enough quality where bugs don’t diminish the value proposition.

7. Capitalize on Your Wins

When you win, win big. It’s important to capitalize on any success you’ve had and use it as a platform to find more success. For example, when my startup was written about in TechCrunch, we used the Twitter buzz to grow our following by 200%. We did this by replying and favoriting every tweet that came through, which let the person know that we exist and saw their post. A lot of them didn’t realize we had a Twitter account and followed us back. However you win, find a clever way to build upon that success.

A private beta can be an amazing tool to elevate your success and bring your company to the next level. Be resourceful and spend your time wisely. Each decision you make in this critical time can mean the success or failure of your project. Don’t over stress and keep a level head.Think through your actions carefully and win as big as you can.

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Contributed by  Matt Boyd | Co-Founder of Sqwiggle.com

Email is one of the most effective means by which you can communicate with your existing and potential customers. You need to keep them posted on the relevant developments in your organization, inform them about the deals and discounts that you may dish out, and also send out questionnaires to capture their wants. You have thus engaged the services of an email service provider (ESP), so that you can effortlessly manage your marketing campaigns, and it is only natural that you would want to wield control over your program even when you’re on the go

Your ESP may be stellar in all areas that count, but they need to arm you with an app, and soon! Here’s why:

Reason 1: You should be able to trigger email blasts on the go.

In an increasingly cloudy environment, why should your ability to communicate with your clients be restricted by geographical boundaries? Equipped with a handy email app supplied by your ESP, you can blast away and stay in touch with your audience no matter where you are, even while waiting for the traffic lights to change or sipping a hot cup of Joe at a coffee shop. There might be countless instances when you will find yourself away from the desk, but need to inform your customers about a time-sensitive deal they must jump on fast. An email marketing app will prove indispensable at such times.

Reason 2: You need to be able to send web drafts when away from your computer.

You have worked tirelessly with the team of designers and copywriters in the office to come up with a stunner of an email campaign, one you intend to send to your list at a later date. You need to have a tool at your disposal that will let you send your email draft saved on the web wherever you might be and at any ungodly hour provided you have your smartphone around. An app from your  ESP is that tool.

Reason 3: You need to access your messages and contacts at all times.

To have complete control over your email campaigns, you should have access to your mails and contacts wherever you may be, even when away from your office and computer. After all, in a dynamic 24×7 business environment, you never know when you might need to check a mail or get in touch with a contact. An app that packs the email marketing functionality that keeps you connected with that critical data will no doubt prove worthy in this regard.

Reason 4: You need to be able to update your contact lists while on the move.

You are a business man who is frequently on the move, meeting new people and forging new contacts. The business card from a new acquaintance or the piece of paper where you have jotted down his contact details might get misplaced by the time you reach office and switch on the computer to upload them on the web. If your ESP had an app, you could have entered the contact details into your device, and also have these updated simultaneously on the web and that too, is all without rushing to a computer.

Reason 5: You should be able to integrate videos within your email without a computer.

Videos have become an integral part of email marketing campaigns because they can convey complex thoughts and subtle emotions crisply and thus spare you the need to frame large chunks of text. That is why you take pains to keep your YouTube channel updated with the latest visual content related to your brand and industry. The ideal mobile app from your ESP should let you integrate your video content into your email campaigns, so you can wow your audience with  a highly engaging visual spectacle on the go.

Reason 6: You should be able to work on your email campaigns on multiple hand-held mobile devices.

The tablet revolution is upon us and it is most likely that apart from your smartphone, you also own a tablet. So it is only natural that you would want to have an email marketing app that is compatible on various hand-held devices. This would give you the flexibility to work on your email campaigns on a tablet, which generally has a significantly larger screen than what’s available on a smartphone. That extra real estate can enable you to be far more productive and effective in the long run.

Your need to keep in touch with your customers shouldn’t be confined to your office environs. Armed with this information, you can now fluidly cite the aforementioned reasons when demanding an app from your ESP.

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Author Bio:  Chris Stevens is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services.

Kloudless is a Startup Battlefield company launching onstage (April 29, 2013) at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. Today, Kloudless is unveiling a Chrome plugin that makes it easy to move attachments between your email and other cloud services (like Box, Yammer, Salesforce, Asana, etc.). The service currently supports Gmail, and will soon be available for Outlook as well.

“Think of Kloudless not as a simple utility to move attachments around the cloud,” says Kloudless’ CEO Eliot Sun. “Think of us as the beginnings of a platform to move data on demand from any cloud service into another one. We have tons and tons of data sitting around. It’s a huge waste, and slows us down. Kloudless makes data in static environments useful in our daily, active workflows.”

The company’s mission is to securely connect the enterprise cloud and provide control over the data workflow across applications. Kloudless is free for individual users. You only pay when you want to claim a group of users and govern their data workflows. Pricing plans start from $3/user per month.

Founded in August 2011 by four UC Berkeley graduates, Kloudless is currently located just 2 blocks from Cal campus and is funded by David Sacks (Yammer), Tim Draper (DFJ), and others.

P.S: TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 (http://techcrunch.com/events/disrupt-ny-2013) is TechCrunch’s fourth annual conference in New York City. The format combines top thought-leader discussions with new product and company launches. Morning executive discussions debate technology-driven disruptions in many industries, while the afternoons are reserved for the Startup Battlefield, where 30 new companies will launch for the first time on stage, selected to present from more than 1000 applications received from around the world. The winning company will receive a $50,000 grand prize and the Disrupt Cup at the conclusion of the conference. The conference is April 27 – May 1, 2013 at the Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th Street (at 8th Ave.) Manhattan, NY.

Listen closely, and you may hear the whispers of proclaimed marketing gurus mentioning the soon and inevitable fall of email. Not as frequent as you may have heard in past times, but the chatter is still out there. Whatever you do, just don’t share the contents of those whispers with small to medium sized businesses.

A study conducted by Edge Research shows that SMBs are currently spending a significant portion of their marketing budgets on email. According to the findings, more than 50% of respondents are spending as much as 20% of their total budget on email marketing. Overall, the study revealed that more money is being spent here than on any other tactic, which is quite impressive considering that it beat out methods that include social media, SEO, online display ads, and a host of traditional techniques.

Motivation to Market with Email

The Edge Research study looked beyond projected spending to focus on other ways email factors into SMB marketing. Among these areas was why businesses choose to use this tool. 92% of respondents cited to share information regarding new products and services with their audience as the number one reason. Other reasons cited included keeping subscribers up to date with company news, promoting special events, and advertising sales and promotions. This particular aspect of the study demonstrated email’s ability to accommodate various marketing objectives.

List Building Techniques

Email marketing is comprised of numerous components and in terms of importance, the mailing list is usually somewhere at the top of the pile for most. When it comes to building that oh so important list, there are several methods to employ, which Edge Research touched on its study. As the findings show, 95% of respondents utilize the company website as the tool for converting new subscriptions. What I found most interesting here is that 65% admitted to renting or buying lists to add to their existing lists. More often than not, leasing or even purchasing a list outright is

something you’ll hear email marketing experts preach against.

Email Frequency Strategies

One of the biggest challenges companies face with email is determining the right sending frequency. It may sound like a trivial matter on the surface, but is really a huge deal when factoring in that sending too often and too infrequently can both have negative consequences. On one hand, subscribers don’t want to be overwhelmed and on the other, they don’t want to be ignored.

The careful approach to frequency can be seen in Edge Research’s findings. According to the study, just 6% of SMBs contact their list on a daily basis, while 39% send mail to their list once a week. An encouraging sign on the frequency front was one that highlights the importance of list segmentation. 58% of respondents reported to sending email to only part of their list, with 24% of that group doing so a few times per week.

Meaningful Metrics

Email marketing is associated with a plethora of benefits, but one of its greatest strengths is undoubtedly its ability to deliver data that allows small and medium sized businesses to track and measure their success. A given tracking system will produce several metrics to look over, but as the study shows, some are held in higher regard than others.

The number of subscribers who click links in messages and increased subscriber traffic are tied as the most widely used metrics, according to 78% of survey respondents. Other notable mentions were number of new sales obtained via email, cost of acquiring new subscribers, and increased in-store traffic following email campaigns. This particular area of the study highlights the fact that metrics stem far beyond opens, bounce rates, and conversions.

Summary

In conclusion, the Edge Research study served as another reminder that email marketing isn’t on life support, in critical condition, or any other state that suggests it might be on the way out. The results not only point to its prevalence in the SMB arena, but sheds light on some of the key areas organizations in this vertical deem important to their efforts.

The findings of the research initiative were gathered through an independent study that included responses from key decision makers in small to medium sized businesses. These individuals were specifically involved in making decisions related to email marketing and had a great understanding of how their companies distribute the marketing budget. The businesses were required to have no more than 1,000 total employees, annual revenue between $1 and $50 million, a company-owned list, and a subscription to a professional email marketing service.

Sources: Small & Midsize Businesses Are Spending The Majority Of Their Marketing Budgets On Email

Image courtesy: Email marketing for restaurants

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Chiko Noguchi is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services.  She can be found @email_wiz.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about companies which have been through a major PR crisis sparked by an inappropriate Facebook post written by a mis-informed staff member, or a rogue YouTube video uploaded by misbehaving employees. Word of these crises spread around the world in a matter of minutes thanks to the quick-fire nature of the internet. The result of these misdemeanours? A damaged company brand and image.

That’s not the worst of it though. This kind of behaviour could also have a direct effect on their sales, not to mention their attempts at building trust in their community again.

Seeing the fall-out from such disasters, many people are left wondering exactly how these companies will regain their customers trust and atone for their sins. It’s interesting for those on the outside to observe, but from within the company we can guarantee that it’s a completely different story. However, it doesn’t have to end that badly. There is light at the end of the tunnel, you just need a guide to help you find it.

Why does my Company Need a Crisis Management Plan?

Your brand is your company’s most important asset. There are corporations such as Coca Cola and Starbucks, which are worth billions. These companies see a blow to their reputation as a blow to their bottom line. In crisis situations, your company should be able to act quickly to minimize the damage. All of those who hold a stake in your company will suffer if you don’t act swiftly and the faster you act, the less likely it is that the damage will go deep. Below, you’ll find some tips on helping your company head off a public relations meltdown.

Make Reputation Management a Priority

It’s not a good idea to let your rookie employees or unpaid interns manage your company’s social media presence, and that’s especially true in times of crisis. When there’s a customer backlash, the first place they’ll head is to your company’s Twitter or Facebook account to ask for additional information and updates, or just to let everyone know how frustrated they are with your company. Make sure you’re prepared and have your most social media savvy employees monitor your corporate profiles to bolster your company’s reputation.

You’ll also want to make either the CEO or another high-ranking executive available during public relations crises. When there’s an official statement from the chief executive, customers feel that your company is dealing with the crisis effectively; company executives are also recognized as credible sources by journalists and media outlets.

What Message are you Sending?

If you’re not paying attention to the message your company is sending out during a crisis, your brand can suffer serious damage. When there’s a problem, consumers want information; if your company stays quiet, it’s left up to others to deliver the message (either by spreading false information or through more creative, and harmful, means such as the creation of fake social media accounts). To keep tabs on the message that you’re sending out, use social media and other PR channels to keep your customers up-to-date.

Hire a Reputation Management Professional

Most companies, especially smaller ones, don’t have a crisis management plan. Many don’t have employees skilled in press interaction and brand management either. If this applies to your company, you should hire a company skilled in crisis and reputation management. Professionals use press releases, social media and SEO websites to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. A PR company will work quickly to mitigate damage to your corporate brand, and it will also work to repair damage that’s already been done. If your company is going through a crisis, every second you delay means more damage to your reputation.

Don’t put your company at risk by not being prepared. You might not see any potential crisis in the near future, but even the unsinkable Titanic thought to put a few lifeboats on board…

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This post was provided by Insignia who specialise in in table top exercises to help with social media and crisis communication issues.

Growwebvideo help startups and small businesses to express their stories. Yes this startup helps startups and small businesses tell their story to the world! Although great for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, pages and pages of boring text on websites don’t cut it anymore for consumers researching products and services.

Slap an entertaining, yet informative explainer video into the mix, and most companies will experience a lift in website conversions and leads. Growwebvideo has an awesome team of professionals that makes it simple, and affordable, to create a custom marketing video – from scriptwriting to voice recordings to animation.

Growwebvideo has an interesting workflow when you want to know how they help you tell better video stories. Most projects are finished within a time frame of 4-6 weeks.

Yes as the folks at Growwebvideo say that this is never like getting on top of your nerves. This is more like a nice date with them to understand what you need to convey and what goals are you trying to achieve. This date is followed up with a script writing that is short and is limited to a minute to get a clearer note out to your target audience. Then they will undergo two revisions and then get a final script. After this, Growwebvideo’s audio production folks appear to get an audio track. This also includes two revisions and you are also free to select your voice talent from a pool of voice over talent at Growwebvideo. Then comes in a stage when folks start working on the outline of the video, illustration, imagery and also work a lot on video styling. After this again there are two revisions. This is winded up with previews and feedback sessions before the video is finally approved. You also get your own kind of file type. At the end you will also receive a “Super-neato D-I-Y Guide” to throw light on launching your video premiere.

Julie Ball the Cofounder at Growwebvideo says,

“ We encourage our clients to be a part of every step…soliciting feedback and being fluid in the process. We want to make sure that the video speaks their language and truly represents their product, service or event.”

Growwebvideo is a great place to get your brand story out at an amazing price

Julie says, “As a long-time web marketer, I saw the increasing influence of web video in SEO. When I would discuss this concept with clients, they often asked me to help them with a video or refer them to someone who could help them. With this demand for video, my husband (an educator) and I decided to scour our networks for the best writers, voice talents and animators. After researching the industry further, it seemed that the pricing structure of most animation studios were way beyond the means of a small business or startup. It was important to us to be affordable, without skimping on quality.”

Big giants vs Growwebvideo

In some cases, the costs are justified based off of the services that they are providing. But just like any industry, you can choose from different levels depending on what your goals may be. For example, a Mercedes and a Ford will get you from point A to point B just the same. But your purchase decision is made on a variety of factors including budget, desired features, personal preference, etc. Julie says, “We pride ourselves in the quality, creativity and professionalism of our videos and feel that we can stand alongside the larger studios in terms of output… but we are able to keep our prices much lower due, in part, to lower overhead. We keep our overhead low. All small businesses and startups can appreciate this. At our current pricing, we make the first cut and have the opportunity to earn your business. Plus the simplicity of our standard pricing makes it easy for a prospective customer to make a decision. We were able to achieve a fine balance between pricing and demand, which keeps our video queue full! In addition, since we all know the power of ‘Word of Mouth’, we created a referral program that rewards a $250 credit or $250 Visa gift card with each referral that becomes a client. Find more details here. We hope that our video portfolio speaks for itself. You can see up-front how we’ve helped other business concepts come to life via explainer videos. “

Although they have a pre-defined scope, pricing, and deliverable, each video is unique and customized to the clients’ requests. Because Growwebvideo is a small studio, they also have the ability to be flexible on our projects based off of many factors including budget.