Below is a Guest Post written by Scott Middleton. Scott is passionate about creating easy to use web and mobile software.

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Last Thursday I made a pitch to the guys at Geeksville on a real-time local mobile search service (similar to buzzd). We’ve got a provisional patent on a particular method and believe there is an exciting opportunity to use our technology in the local Australian market.

Whilst I’ve made pitches for various things, internal projects/change initiatives, sales pitches and pitches to get people interested in my idea I had never pitched with the intention of getting financial commitment.

I went into the meeting with the view that no matter what happens today I win. I either a) walk out with the backing that I wanted or b) walk out having learnt a huge amount about making a pitch for investment.

Interestingly I think I walked out somewhere in the middle.

Here are the lessons I learnt:

1. MAKE SURE YOUR NUMBERS ARE OFFERING THE SIZE OF OPPORTUNITY YOUR POTENTIAL INVESTORS ARE LOOKING FOR. My feeling was that these guys are looking for something that goes profitable in the first 12 months and breaks even that year or the year after. I went in aiming a bit low and my numbers reflected that. I should have aimed higher. Which brings me to my next point:
2. Aim high, have a big vision but be realistic. I should have looked at the larger opportunity, I focused primarily on Sydney and then later in the first 12 months on Melbourne. I should have said “Hey let’s tackle Australia, then NZ and then parts of Asia.”
3. Get your cost of customer acquisition as low as possible. Understand how much each customer is worth to you over a year, I only looked at over 5 years (way to long). Then look at how you are going to acquire each customer, how much is that going to cost? My costs were probably too high.
4. Don’t be on the bleeding edge, be on the leading edge. This is somewhat related to number 3. My marketing strategy involved an expensive campaign that was partly focused on educating customers. This drove up my cost of customer acquisition and made it hard for me to be profitable. I need to cut these costs and find an innovative way to raise awareness and service use.
5. Understand who you are pitching too. I should have spent much more time than I did in understanding who these guys were and what each company in the Photon Group does. In particular which ones, when combined with our offering could find substantial leverage.
6. Explain your assumptions and your financials. I didn’t spend enough time explaining why my financial projections looked the way they did.
7. Present alternative paths. With a service that doesn’t yet have signed on customers it just makes sense to present alternative paths. E.g. if we tackle all of Australia at once it will cost X and we can expect revenue of Y and a profit of Z. If we tackle take a staged approached going city by city it will cost X2, we can expect revenue of Y2 and a profit of Z2. These alternative paths should also be used to answer the question “how much do you need?”.
8. Just when you think you understand as much as you can about the market - learn more. I backed up most of my arguments and discussions with relevant reports, studies and statistics however I still think I said “I’m not sure” too many times. Just when you think you understand your market, start learning more about it!
9. What is unique about you? Make sure you can clearly articulate why you are unique and why you are the man/woman/team to do the job. At the end I stumbled (at least thats how I view it) into our strong background in technology/telecommunications and the provisional patent we have.

So now I’m going to incorporate everything I learnt last night into my next pitch, the service and future pitches.

I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.

Last week I introduced the first few steps in initiating contact with AusIndustry and starting the application process for a Climate Ready R&D grant. To make it for the first round I needed a detailed draft application by this week but as the deadline approached I was overtaken by the flu which means I’ll miss the first round and will now aim for the second round which opens at the end of October. I suppose these setbacks are part of the real-life experience of people working towards making their venture a success.

A disadvantage of a delay in submitting a grant application is that any money spent on R&D before an application is accepted by AusIndustry can not be counted as eligible expenditure. As the pool of resources is whittled away it means the amount of money sought in the grant becomes less and less due to the necessity for the grant being matched dollar-for-dollar by the applicant. Another disadvantage is simply an extended amount of time before knowing if a grant is successful or not. It takes up to three months from the time the application is accepted to when AusIndustry informs the applicant of their success or otherwise. Any money spent on the project in that time will be matched by the grant only if the grant is successful. It’s a bit like gambling which is lucky as it adds some excitement to the whole process.

An advantage for me in the delay in submitting an application is that I have extra time to address the weaker parts of the application. In particular I need to spend more effort quantifying the level of interest in the market place for the product I am developing. Another advantage is that the reader gets to see my posts on this riveting topic for months to come. You lucky things!

Social recruiting site 2Vouch will be coming out of private beta and launching their public beta site on September 1st (i.e. next Monday)

We did a story on 2Vouch last month going through how the site works, but as a quick recap, 2Vouch aims to help employers find “hidden” candidates for vacant positions by leveraging the site members’ networks of friends/associates to drive referrals.

For recruiters and employers, 2Vouch makes it as easy as possible to participate by charging no fee to advertise. Companies only pay when they hire or place someone and there is a 110% money-back guarantee if the candidate doesn’t work out within the guarantee period.

For members, the incentive to refer (besides getting your mates a good job) comes from a reward of between $1400 and $2800 which they receive once their referral is hired. As a nice touch, members can put the cash in their pocket or assign it elsewhere, e.g. to charities, through the site.

The business model that allows rewards of that size to be paid is quite simple. Advertisers pay a fee to 2Vouch of approximately 3-4% of the salary offered upon placement of a referred candidate. 2Vouch takes a service fee and the rest is passed on to the referrer. With typical recruitment agency fees being in the range of 8-15% and anywhere up to 25% for executive recruitment, 2Vouch’s model makes them both a price and value play.

Riges Younan, CEO at 2Vouch, has over 12 years experience in recruiting in Australia, North America and the UK, so he knows the game. He explained the value side a little more for us: -

The best candidates come through referrals. So, we make it easy and efficient for companies to use the social networks of our members to get to people who are hard to reach

Many large corporations already know this and have offered referral fees for some time to employees who find friends to fill positions. 2Vouch makes the process more efficient for those organisations and will open up the world of referrals to smaller organisation as well.

Having signed up to the private beta, I’ve had a play with the site and I can say the interface is easy to use and intuitive. If you’ve ever used a job as either a job-seeker or advertiser then you’ll know what you’re doing stright away.

What’s great though, especially as I’m more interested in referring than advertising, is that the referral process is very easy. I don’t want anything to get in the way of me racking up $1.4-$2.8K payments and there is nothing I can see that will (short of a few employers who refuse to hire the randoms I refer )

All in all, I’m glad the site is finally out of private beta. It’s time to test the concept out on the market.

Having been on both sides of the recruitment fence over the past few years I know that there is a real need for this service and my prediction is that it will be a hit with other leading job sites creating me-too sites or building referral functionality into their offerings. The real test for 2Vouch (and we’ll be revisiting them from time to time) will be how they go then.

The team at leading Aussie news aggregator Plugger have updated their site with even more goodies to keep you coming back.

Plugger now monitors even more news including Politics, Technology, Sport, Entertainment, World and Travel news with dedicated channels also available to chose from. By default, all members are monitoring Business, Politics and Technology news but you can turn those, and other, channels on and off in your profile.

In addition, they’ve added a couple of share market tools.

The first is searchable ASX Announcements as they come off the wire.

The second is various charts including ‘Price’, ‘Price vs Index’, ‘Volume’ and an Australian 1st ‘Volume vs News’ chart.

Finally, they have taken this and other market information and presented it all on listed companies’ company pages. Check out BHP Billiton’s page to see what I mean.

If you haven’t had a look at the site yet, head over and check it out.

It only took one visit to make it one of my favourites and every now and then I still find some cool tool or function that makes me appreciate the site even more.

For many of us, filling in government forms is a necessary, yet loathsome, part of doing business. In some cases, like the ATO’s e-tax, technology has been used to make the process simpler. In many other cases, getting business done still requires a pen and paper or, in my case, papers, as even the simplest mistake means having to start all over again.

Chris Carpenter (you may remember him from a previous stoy we did on Widgely) thinks he has a solution to this issue and I tend to agree.

“The power of the Internet is being embraced for things as diverse as social networking, dating and playing games, so why not use it to make a boring task like filling in forms, that little bit better?” he said, “I was getting frustrated with having to handwrite onto printed forms before faxing them off - not only is it inconvenient but when your handwriting looks like mine, you really wish for another solution.”

That solution? Recreate the most common ASIC forms on a website where members can save their progress, fix mistakes in seconds and download the completed form whenever they are ready.

The website, Australian Business Forms provides subscriptions if you need to complete multiple forms a month, but also individual purchases for just a few dollars each.

Chris explained a little more about his plans - “I wanted to offer something for just a couple of dollars - something that could save people an hour or more of their time. There’s a large and growing number of entrepeneurs and small companies in Australia, but the majority of ASIC forms still need to be handwritten, some of which are in excess of 11 pages. We are offering something that’s easy and cheap … but much, much better.” he said.

Membership at the site is free and allows people to fill in forms, save their progress and see how the system works. Members don’t need to pay anything until they want to download the form for submission. Chris explains that “… we wanted it to be easy for people to try out our system.”

Compared to similar sites, like Incorporator, which focus solely on automating forms for forming a company and charge $150 in the process, Australian Business Forms is a bargain.

What makes the technology even more interesting is that are a whole bunch of other applications for it outside of ASIC. Already I can think of all the Insurance and Banking forms I’ve had to fill in lately. I asked Chris about whether or not he’d be moving into those markets and he said that solutions to those and other use cases “will actually be released in a different application - based on the same tech, but not just limited to business forms. Again, this will be a commercial application though this time with a “freemium”/subscription payment model.”

Devlopment for this ”different application” is underway and on schedule to launch in the middle of October.

Could this finally be the end of annoying forms?

Here’s hoping.

Just in time for the end of the olympics, the team at sports focused social networking platform, 3eep, have launched their own sports community social networking site, SportsPassion.

Powered by 3eep, SportsPassion will provide sporting teams with access to a free social network designed specifically to offer them a range of online team management and collaboration tools.

3eep’s traditional distribution model has been to partner with organisations such as media companies, advertisers and sporting codes. This has already seen them strike deals with distribution partners in Europe, North America and Australia.

SportsPassion complements 3eep’s existing distribution partnerships, and will enhance future partnerships, by acting as an innovation lab for new technologies and learnings, the most successful of which will be built back into the 3eep platform’s offerings.

In announcing the launch, 3eep’s COO, Nick Gonios said that SportsPassion will remain in beta for the foreseeable future and demonstrates 3eep’s support of local sporting communities around the world

Rob Antulov, CEO of 3eep, believes SportsPassion extends the company’s global distribution model and will assist 3eep to build on its capabilities in servicing grass roots sports communities via social media technology.

3eep’s business model centres on the distribution partnerships we put in place with a range of organisations who engage directly with their local sports communities.  Launching this new site on 3eep’s technology platform will enhance the services, insights and expertise we offer to all of our distribution partners, and to local sports participants

3eep already has distribution partners in Europe, North America and Australia and the SportsPassion brand will complement these and accelerate the acquisition of members and distribution partners in other geographies.”

I like this move a lot. First of all it shows that 3eep are willing to put their money where their mouth is. Secondly, by testing the waters for new initiatives they remove a lot of the adoption risk for their more traditional B2B partners. Thirdly, by doing what their partners will be doing they’re getting a first hand look at the issues their customers face on a daily basis.

As long as they’re able to ensure they don’t cannibalise their existing partners’ markets it’s a move that will only result in more growth for this already fast growing startup. Smart move from a really smart bunch of guys. Probably explains why they were named in the top 5 Aussie web 2.0 apps recently.

You can check out the site yourself at www.sportspassion.com

As you may or may not be aware, TechNation Australia is part of Open Web Asia (OWA) a network of leading tech blogs from all over Asia (and Australia )

Well, just over a week ago, OWA head honcho (and netvibes business development director) Gang Lu sent me an email with the great news that the Open Web Asia conference, which has been in planning for some time now, has finally be formally announced.

The event positions itself as “The first pan-Asia web technology event bringing together executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from throughout Asia” and will be on October 14 2008, Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, Seoul, Korea in association with the 9th World Knowledge Forum.

Below are details from the official press release:

Open Web Asia ‘08 marks the birth of a new conference that will be the first truly pan-Asia web technology event. Top technology executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists from throughout Asia will gather for this premier event to be hosted in Seoul, Korea in its inaugural year.

The event is organized by members of the Open Web Asia Workgroup and other prominent entrepreneurs, thinkers, and bloggers from within the Asian web industry. It was spurred by a desire to create a high quality, informative and practical technology conference focused on the Asian internet industry. To date this has been lacking.

Open Web Asia will be held in association with the World Knowledge Forum (WKF). The WKF has established itself as one of the most prestigious conferences in Asia with speakers and attendees such as Bill Gates, Colin Powell, Jack Welch, Alan Greenspan, Michael Dell, and Paul Wolfowitz.

The theme of the 2008 conference is ‘The Social Web’. Socialization has been a game changing development in the internet industry and the social web is an area where Asia has its own strength and vibrancy. Asian countries have a distinct internet cultures and market players, so informative and educational cross-country comparisons can be made.

The one day conference will be divided into four sessions focusing on the following key areas: Insights and Best Practices, Innovations in Asia; Collaboration - An Introduction to Asia’s Social Web; and East Meets West - The challenges of Internationalization To and From Asia. The topics were chosen as a platform for information, education and debate.

Confirmed speakers include some of the most experienced and knowledgeable people from the Asian internet industry and a selection of business leaders and thinkers from outside the region.

• Kevin Day (CEO, Comsenz) (China)
• Arthur Chang (VP of Global Sales, Alibaba) (China)
• Yongjoon Hyoung (CEO of StoryBlender & Founder of Cyworld) (Korea)
• Yongseok Jang (Senior Director, eBay Asia Pacific) (Korea)
• Yozo Kaneko (Director and COO of ngi group, inc.) (Japan)
• James W. Kim (CEO of Yahoo!’s Korea Region) (Korea)
• Jimmy Kim (Executive Vice President, Nexon Corp.) (Korea)
• Loic Le Meur (CEO, Seesmic) (USA)
• Ram Lee (Head of Communities, NHN Corporation (Naver)) (Korea)
• Kent Lindström (Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Friendster) (USA)
• Shusaku Maruko (General Manager, Corporate Strategy Department, Felica) (Japan)
• Jean K. Min (Communications Director, Ohmynews) (Korea)
• Akio Tanaka (Partner, Infinity Ventures) (Japan)
• Bill Wang (VP of Overseas Business, Perfect World) (China)
• Andreas Weigend (Consultant & Lecturer; Former Chief Scientist of Amazon) (USA)
• Kwan Yoon (Partner, Bluerun Ventures) (USA)

This premier conference will offer web professionals from inside Asia and those from outside with an eye on the Asian web market an opportunity to learn, network and create business connections that will benefit both the regional and global internet industry.

If you’re going to be around Seoul on the 14th, you should definitley check this out. Well done to Gang and the team for putting together such a phenomenal line up on their first attempt.

For more information and registration please visit www.openwebasia.com

I just spoke with Bart Jellema and have updated details on the recently announced StartupCamp Australia.

1. The first StartupCamp Australia will be in Sydney only and will be a small event (numbers are limited so make sure you sign up early)
2. The date has been changed to the 5th-7th September because…
3. Geekdom has kindly made their boardroom available on those days.

The actual address is:

The Geekdom boardroom
Level 8
155 George Street
The Rocks, Sydney 2000

As usual, you can get all the details and register at the StartupCamp Australia page on the Startup Australia wiki.

See you there!

I’ve recently been having some interesting chats with Maxim Shklyar about his latest project XIML (ksimel). Melbourne-based Shklyar has come to Australia via Minsk (Belarus) and Israel and has built up a really good portfolio of work along the way.

XIML, however, takes things to a whole new level.

XIML is a technology for creating rich, interactive web/mobile sites and applications with seamless video and audio integration. 

XIML lets you create rich Flash-based content without the need for programming in, knowing, or even owning Flash. It is a simple XML-based markup language that aims to provide functionality previously available only with complex programmed applications. The bet bit, XIML is fast to learn and easy to use yet very powerful.

Since it was first presented in public at CeBIT Australia XIML has been busy racking up award nominations. Included in the list are:

• ZDNet Australia and CeBIT 2008 Emerging Innovation Award.
• CeBIT.AU Excellence in New Media Award 2008.
• CeBIT.AU Early Innovators Award 2008.

During our conversations, Shklyar talked me through why he developed XIML

The growing need for multimedia and interactive development has resulted in more complex and sophisticated requirements. However, existing technologies either do not support rich media or are complex and require a lot of knowledge to use. No solution today provides full control over interactive new media without programming. XIML addresses the need by creating a simple to use technology that provides seamless integration and full control over interactivity, video, audio, flash movie clips, and more.”

He also explained why XIML is better than existing technologies

There are very few technologies available today for client-side interface development.

• HTML was developed 20 years ago for text layout and it is very limited when it comes to interactive and rich media integration. XIMLis a modern language that was created purposefully for interactive and multimedia.
• Adobe Flash is powerful, however requires specialist knowledge and programming skills. XIML enables to achieve same results without the need in knowing or even owning Flash software.
• Adobe Flex uses markup language, but it also requires programming and is limited in the final look and feel. XIML is much easier to use markup language, doesn’t require programming and much more flexible in terms of achievable design.
• Slide (slide.com), Sprout (sproutbuilder.com), Wix (wix.com) and similar services are template-based widget builders and are very limited in the results that can be achieved. XIML doesn’t have limitations of a template-based system and allows implementing any complex design.

As I mentioned earlier, Shklyar has worked in web development for years with a nice portfolio of work. He even has nice sized proof of concepts for XIML including the Culture Victoria for Arts Victoria (Australia) website and touchscreens

Shklyar plans to use a “freemium” model, as well as custom site builds, to monetise the tech, but his primary goal at the moment is to get 1 Million implementations of XIML in the next 12 months. That’s a big number, but when you consider that millions of websites are created every month and that most of them could benefit from a simple to use, yet powerful interactive webdev tool, it just might be achievable.

Should be interesting to hear first feedback from web developers on how easy it is to use and also to see how he goes with achieving that goal.

Stay tuned for an update…

StartupCamp/Weekend, another great initiative to come out of FITSBAD Official Friday, has been announced for next weekend.

Bart has put all the details up on the Startup Australia Wiki, but here’s a brief summary:

What is StartupCamp?

It’s a get together of people from different disciplines that have an interest in startups and do a complete startup in one weekend. From coming up with the idea and making a business plan to pitching, design and development and marketing. The main goal is to learn from each others experience and to get a chance to work with a new group of people and of course to have a lot of fun.

I’ve said before that I think it’s critical for people to work on projects together, sharing experiences and expertise etc. so well done Bart and whoever else you were chatting with at Official Friday for 1. suggesting the camp and 2. actually doing it and doing it now.

That having been said I think the plan to create a “throw away” startup is not necessarily a good one. I agree with the idea that the process is what’s important, but I still think there should be an underlying goal to create something valuable otherwise the process itself becomes somewhat unrealistic.

In any case, I’ve already signed up and you can join me, and the rest of the team, by registering HERE.

NB: numbers are limited for this event, so if you’re interested you’ll have to let Bart know by Tuesday.