The Unfortunate Demise of Profounder

Profounder (@teamprofounder) closed its doors this week

If you’re not familiar with the crowdsourcing solution, you’re likely familiar with similar services like Kickstarter or Indie Go Go.

Profounder Founders

Profounder was different, however, in that it’s original premise allowed for startups to actually get money in return for a percentage of profits. A company might raise $50,000 and give one percentage point of profit each year for 4 years for every $10,000.

Other services let you give away perks or product in return for cash, but equity is a no-no thanks to some pretty outdated laws from the ’20s and ’30s.

Fortunately, that’s likely to change, but for Profounder it was apparently too late.

Shame. It was a really cool business, even managing payouts and analytics for both entrepreneur and investor alike. It also enabled start-ups to access capital without a lot of the complicated equity breakdowns that commonly occur with such deals.

As access to bank loans and investment dollars remain a common hurdle for many businesses, it’s imperative that government cut the strings that bind a great idea like Profounder from benefiting entrepreneurial endeavors.

A free T-shirt or a copy of a new album in return for funding don’t go very far.

In the US over the next two years, eMarketer expects more than 26 million mobile phone users to turn to smartphones, helping put the devices in the hands of more than half of all US mobile users by 2014.

@fitiseverything explained … from @bullhornlive cc: @glassdoordotcom

fab mobile visits are now 40% of all visits over the last 2 weeks, up from 33% in January.
Tough times for #ASU hoops.

Tough times for #ASU hoops.

The Importance of Mobile Marketing Infographic (or Holy Crap! There’s a Whole Lotta Texting Going On)

The Importance of Mobile Marketing Infographic (or Holy Crap! There’s a Whole Lotta Texting Going On)

SMS is the only mobile app that is compatible with 99.9 percent of your audience’s mobile phones, smart or otherwise. It’s also the most widely accessible marketing tool, eclipsing email in the 18 to 24 category. If you want to reach young people, it’s through their phone.

All You Need is Love

All You Need is Love

Bad management gets you bad results.
Mark Cuban

Groupon is F’ing Up the Whole System

“So what’s a typical discount you’d give a customer that wouldn’t cause you any stress,” I asked a local restaurant owner.

“Oh, 10-15 percent,” he said. Then continued, “The problem is, no one cares about 15 percent discounts. They won’t even take advantage of it. If it’s not ‘half off’ then it’s not appealing enough.”

Of course, unless you’ve been living under a rock, the flood of daily deal sites that offer half-off discounts is what he’s referring to.

For better or worse, most notably, Groupon is creating a new reality for local merchants that forces them to race toward the bottom of their already-razor-thin-margins in order to compete with other area businesses.

“I’d have to lose my ass with a Groupon,” says my restaurant-owning friend. “Unfortunately, though, it may come to that.”

If Groupon, and the even more formidable Groupon Now, which allows customers to target local deals based on smartphone navigation, is creating a very scary reality for merchants: Offering deep discounts on a regular basis in order to generate business.

Groupon Now luckily takes less of a percentage, and merchants have more control, but the deal-hogging reality remains. If people eventually get in the habit of picking lunch spots exclusively by discounts and flash sales, the landscape drastically changes for local businesses.

Of course, all this is great for the consumer, at least in the short term. Further out, I’m not so sure. If restaurants have to increase regular pricing in order to make their discounts look bigger, or the restaurant landscape mainly includes cash-rich, established players, then that’s probably not a good thing.

Call it the Walmartification of all local business.

Professional networking platform LinkedIn will integrate advertisements into its mobile applications. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner announced the move Thursday during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call; Weiner said LinkedIn has been working to implement an advertising infrastructure but offered few additional details on the effort, stating only that the firm will “start to introduce advertising in our mobile solutions.”

Weiner said mobile is now LinkedIn’s fastest-growing category, generating 15 percent of all unique member visits. “We’re seeing a sharp rise in activations across both iOS platform and Android,” he added. “We’re seeing more activations in iOS but both are growing very healthy rates.” Weiner also said LinkedIn plans to invest in improving and expanding its mobile services over the year ahead.

Facebook may be the last great company of the desktop age. It’s beaten back Friendster, MySpace and a half-dozen other pretenders, and — at least so far — is successfully holding off both Twitter and Google+. Its desktop display advertisements make the company billions of dollars in revenue. But that’s not nearly enough. Now, Zuckerberg has to further capitalize on the growth of mobile to extend its reach. And he knows it.

Congratulations to Indy on having one meaningful football game with a Manning this season.

Congratulations to Indy on having one meaningful football game with a Manning this season.

Almost 60% of mobile-phone users will be gazing at their phones while they watch the Super Bowl.
Harris Interactive
There will be no wardrobe malfunctions.
Madonna