We have mentioned our latest project a couple of times since February, but I thought it was time for another update on SocialTones (Gravatar for RingTones built for Google’s Android phone platform). We had an full team meeting on Friday to talk about the development of the application. We settled a few outstanding issues such as the ‘infinite contact quandary’ and our various ideas for monetization. Our current goal is to have the application ready for the first Android phone (mfgr’s, contact us if you want to work together).
Over the past three years we have delivered cool and innovative social applications to clients like Lego, FX and TechData. While our applications were cool and innovative, our business model was stuck in the past, well not anymore! I am pleased to announce that Big in Japan’s new development model is 100% free. Got an idea for a cool application for your business? Simply provide the plans to Big in Japan and we will build it, host it and manage it for free! What is the catch? None. We will do it all for free. This new pricing plan is effective today, April 1st, 2008. If you want to learn more, call 214.550.2003 and ask for Alex. Cheers!
Sixty days ago we began working on the current version of Whitebox™ and we are happy to announce that the majority of the system has been completed. We are currently resolving obvious bugs and should be ready for private beta early next week. What is Whitebox?
WhiteBox provides technology enabled finance and collection products for the automotive industry. Our customized solutions provide warranty providers the ability to offer car dealers products such as new and used warranties, gap protection and after market to consumers who do not qualify for traditional finance products.
Our ACH collection system, married to our state-of-the-art web interface and electronic signature collection technology create a seamless finance solution. Our software engineers work closely with our clients to customize our offerings to meet the specific needs of each product.
By combining our robust banking interface and our hosted web application, car dealers are able to generate significant profits without extensive training and related overhead.
One of our favorite clients, LEGO, keystone toy the ‘Brick’ turns 50 today! What a legacy. Two weeks ago several LEGO employees came to Dallas to check on our progress and to give us a sneak peek into LEGO. Their corporate overview had some fascinating information, including today’s anniversary of the Lego Brick. Of course, Gizmodo scooped me on this one ~ way to go guys! Here are some fun facts (via Gizmodo):
LEGO brick curiosities
Thanks LEGO!!!
We get asked all of the time, “who should I call to raise money for my latest idea?” We usually point them to the Texas Startup Blog’s Venture Capital Directory, but more recently we have been excited about the work Jeff Williams of Hunt Ventures has been doing. Read more about, ‘Jeff Williams, hottest VC in Dallas!‘.
I began the Texas Startup Blog back in June of 2005 writing more than 1,500 articles about entrepreneurship, startups and venture capital. Ironically, almost half of my ‘potential’ readers would visit once and notice that I was writing about politics or my personal life and click away. They had no idea what the site was about.
Late last year I decided to ‘merchandise’ the value of the site by creating a homepage that was organized based on subject matter topical to entrepreneurs. I would keep blogging as usual, but first time visitors would see a broad set of material relevant to them. My old readers could still see my chronological blog.
This weekend the experiment began as I launched the ‘beta’ version of the site. We are still working out the kinks, but it is pretty close to being finished. Let me know what you think. The site is based on WordPress and uses categories to organize the display of posts.
Actually Rails 2.0.1 was released. Just a sidenote to David and his team. Our company wouldn’t exist if it were not for his efforts –> Thanks David…
Over the last four months ServiceGuy went from and simple idea to a nationwide service with more than 1000 contractors in ten cities. The 1,000th contractor to sign up for the ServiceGuy referral system was Mike Fox from Norristown, PA who offers landscaping services.I arbitrarily set our Phase One goal at 1,000 ServiceGuys. Now that we have met our Phase One goals we are ready for Phase Two. Phase Two is where we start getting business for our ServcieGuys. Imaginuity is developing interactive advertising for placement on Comcast’s ad network that is slated to start just before Christmas. We are also testing physical placement of ‘tear sheets‘ in grocery stores (400 stores per market) delivered on a weekly basis. Finally, we are testing Google Adwords in several markets. Our goal for Phase Two is to generate 2 calls per day per call queue.
Since early August Mike has made 27 major upgrades (some might be better termed bug fixes) to the system. The final items include some goofy things like allowing users to reset/retrieve their password, providing a method for news/announcements to users and finally an upgrade to the user profile pages. Once these last seven to-dos are finished Mike will be turning over day-to-day management/tweaking to Francis. Mike will be starting another pretty cool project that involves ACH, USB signature pads and data warehousing.
The FX team called us (Big in Japan) late Friday afternoon with an idea. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could have a phone at the new McNamara / Troy location in Hollywood? The Nip/Tuck team is moving to LA this year and to promote the move they created a ’simulated’ office in the Hollywood and Highland outdoor mall. The office has some very cool holographic videos of the doctors (so you can see them at work) as well as real live models waiting for the doctors. The only problem? You can’t get in.
The phone would allow people passing by to interact with the promotion. When FX told us about the idea I said, “sound great, when do you need it up and running?” The answer was, “within a week!” I thought to myseld, “OMG, we will never get it done within a week!” Of course we agreed to do it. Within a week we shipped a pre-configured Cisco ATA to the team building the storefront. We then connected it to our FanPodCast system. When you pick up the phone it auto-dials our switch in Dallas and you get the ‘doctors’ IVR. You can leave a message for the doctors if you like: 310.747.3447
If you are in Hollywood, stop by the store and check out those holograms:
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York City or Philadelphia? ServiceGuy might be just what you need. (most of these don’t have many providers so if you are not connected to someone try again in a couple of weeks) Give it a try:
ServiceGuy is a new service the Big in Japan team has been rolling out over the past couple of months. What is ServiceGuy? I wrote about it back in May in a post titled, “Quick Project: ServiceGuy Referral Network” when I was having trouble finding a pool guy. The idea is simple: You need help now. You don’t want to wait to receive a call back. You don’t want to wait for an email response. You don’t want to create an account or provide demographic data. You want to talk to a service provider in your area right NOW! Just call the ServiceGuy number for your area and the service you need. Your call is then connected to a service provider. No voicemail. No email. No accounts. Just a direct connect to someone who can help you right NOW!
Phase one of our launch is focused on seeding each service with providers. We need to find a minimum of 25 providers in each category before phase two can begin. Phase two of our launch is focused on getting consumers to call our providers.
