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Archive for March, 2013

The $25B App Market–and the Odds You’ll Get a Piece of It – by Erik Sherman TECHTOWN

Posted in Apple, Apps, Mobile Applications, Technology, TECHTOWN, Uncategorized on March 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The $25B App Market–and the Odds You’ll Get a Piece of It

The so-called app economy is said to be worth billions. Sounds promising, right? Here’s a reality check.

Phone apps

The promise of the app economy can seem especially alluring to the tech entrepreneur set. Mobile is a hot market. The major smartphone and tablet platform owners have established marketplaces to let you get to customers and in exchange you give up only 30 percent in per-unit sales. That’s still better than retail stores. Plus, people are making bazillions. Well, an estimated $25 billion this year, according to Gartner, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Now everyone will want to become a programmer and take a chunk of that big number. The problem is, it’s a little too early to get excited. That big number is misleading, and most apps will be lucky to make enough to pay for their cost of development, never mind profits.

For years, the media, set off by Apple’s trying to tout the advantages of developing iPhone and iPad apps, have concentrated on the total money in the market. Only, there are some caveats.

One is that the $25 billion isn’t just money being spent on apps at the Apple or Google marketplaces. It also includes advertising and in-app purchases. That’s because Gartner also says that 90 percent of apps are free downloads. Why? Because if you don’t charge, you remove a barrier for people to at least try your app.

So, the $25 billion is being spread out over more than 1.4 million apps between both Apple and Google, according to Gartner. Time for some arithmetic: That translates into $17,847 dollars per app. That works out to $214,285 a year, or probably less than two salaries for full-time experienced developers, not counting benefits. In other words, two developers have to build that flashy and attractive app in one month. That’s a tight schedule.

Then you have to realize that the average amount listed is just that: an average. App downloads are not a level terrain. According to a report from analytics firm Distimo, in November 2012, the number of apps responsible for 10 percent of iPhone free app downloads was 31. The number of apps responsible for 10 percent of paid revenue was seven. The Journal refers to another Distimo stat that states only 2 percent to 3 percent of the top 250 publishers are newcomers.

According to iPhone app metrics firm 148Apps.biz, in November 2012 there were more than 721,000 active apps in the iPhone app store. Currently, there are 803,137 active apps.

Chances are slim that you’re going to make big money on paid apps. So say that you go the free route. That means you need people to keep using your application to see ads and place in-app purchases. Unfortunately, 63 percent of apps that people use daily are different from a year ago, and people focus on about eight apps at a time. Getting and keeping attention is far worse than a crap shoot.

It may be that you could have a hit with a new app. But keep those rose-colored glasses off the bridge of your nose. Not matter how attractive the total number is, making a significant amount of money on apps is a lot tougher than the media makes it sound.

Erik Sherman‘s work has appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and Fortune. He also blogs for CBS MoneyWatch. @ErikSherman

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Fenwick & West updates free online funding docs – Silicon Valley Business Journal

Posted in Fenwick & West, GitHub, Online Funding Docs, Sillicon Valley Business Jouranal, Uncategorized on March 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Fenwick & West updates free online funding docs by Cromwell Schubarth Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal


Ted Wang of Fenwick & West is curator of the free open source legal documents it offers to startup entrepreneurs.

Fenwick & West this week updated the free online early stage funding documents it has posted to GitHub.

The Series Seed documents have been used many times since they were first posted in 2010, Fenwick lawyer Ted Wang said.

“The most valuable assets for early stage companies are time and money,” Wang said in a prepared statement. “Series Seed endeavors to save both for young companies.”

The new version uses GitHub to manage discussions and updates to the Series Seed documents.

GitHub is a popular site where engineers post software projects and highlight their work. Fenwick chose this as a natural location to offer documents for members of that community who are raising money for startups.

“One of our core beliefs at GitHub is to open source (almost) everything: the community benefits from having more resources available and the projects benefit from having the input of the greater community,” said Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder and CEO of GitHub, in a prepared statement.

The Series Seed documents can be found on GitHub by clicking here.

Read the blog describing the changes that have been made by clicking here.

Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823.

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THE JIM HENSON COMPANY LICENSES CUPCAKE DIGITAL TO CAPTURE THE MAGIC OF CLASSIC FRAGGLE ROCK ANIMATED EPISODES REIMAGINED AS ENHANCED STORY APPS

Posted in Apps, Brad Powers, Cupcake Digital, Digital Marketing, Education Aps for Children, Entertainment Aps for Children, Fraggie Rock, Game Apps for Kids, Inetellectual Property, Jim Henson Company, Uncategorized on March 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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THE JIM HENSON COMPANY LICENSES CUPCAKE DIGITAL TO CAPTURE THE MAGIC OF CLASSIC FRAGGLE ROCK ANIMATED EPISODES REIMAGINED AS ENHANCED STORY APPS

 

Cupcake Digital Joins the 30th Anniversary Celebration of The Jim Henson Company’s Fan Favorite Children’s Television Series Fraggle Rock

NEW YORK, NY/Hollywood, ca (March 6, 2013) This spring, Cupcake Digital celebrates the 30th anniversary of Fraggle Rock, the classic series created by Jim Henson, by bringing interactive mobile appisodes based on the animated series to new and existing fans everywhere.  Beloved episodes, including “No Fraggle is an Island,” “Mokey’s Flood of Creativity,” “The Best of the Best,” and “The Great Radish Roundup,” will be developed into enhanced story experiences featuring the wonderful adventures of the Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs. The series of apps is slated for development and release in 2013 and will be available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes & Noble for the iOS, Android, NOOK and Kindle Fire platforms.

“Fraggle Rock has an enduring quality that has stood the test of time among parents who are eager to share the stories with their young children.  We are excited to be able to introduce the characters, their complex ecosystem and, most of all, the great music, in this new medium,” said Susan Miller, President of Cupcake Digital. “The stories of Fraggle Rock, the animated series, have a contemporary relevance that is perfect for engaging today’s kids in an interactive story experience infused with learning moments.”

Cupcake Digital’s mission is to deliver enhanced story app experiences that surprise and delight. Each app includes features such as three modes of reading, professional narration designed to help kids recognize words and sounds, opportunities for shared screen time for parents and kids, and educator-vetted learning elements within the apps and online that follow Common Core State Standards. Every Fraggle Rock app will be designed to take full advantage of the nostalgic graphics, timeless stories and fun interactions that are inherent to the original episodes of the television series.

“The team at Cupcake Digital has demonstrated a great affinity for Fraggle Rock and its original vision. It seems fitting that, as we celebrate 30 years of this great property, we have the opportunity to give it new life in a relevant and engaging way via these enhanced story app experiences,” said Melissa Segal, Executive Vice President, Global Consumer Products for The Jim Henson Company. “Loyal fans around the world have never stopped rocking along with Fraggle, and they will love that the spirit of the show and the music that is so much a part of the experience are fully captured within these apps.”

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FRAGGLE ROCK Synopsis

Created by Jim Henson, the series features a quirky and fun-loving group of cave-dwelling creatures in a world where three diverse, yet surprisingly similar, communities learn to live and work in harmony. The Fraggles love to sing and dance, work just thirty minutes a week and spend most of their days dancing their cares away. They are joined by their industrious neighbors, the Doozers, tiny green workers that build elaborate structures the Fraggles find irresistibly tasty; and the Gorgs, giant creatures who live in the garden above Fraggle Rock guarding their cherished radish patch. Through the fun of the Fraggle five: the level-headed, practical Gobo; spiritual, artistic Mokey; exuberant, athletic Red; nervous, indecisive Wembley; and worrisome Boober and the unique mix of music, from folk, blues and gospel to country and rock, the series entertains and encourages an understanding and embracing of diversity.

Premiering in 1983, Fraggle Rock was seen in 80 countries in over ten different languages. Fraggle Rock continues to enjoy a loyal international fan following.  In its 96 episodes, the show encouraged an understanding and embracing of friendship and diversity and featured a unique mix of music from all genres from folk, blues, gospel, country and rock.

About Cupcake Digital

Cupcake Digital, Inc. was established in June 2012 with the intent of transforming children’s entertainment properties into deluxe story experiences infused with educational elements. Its first venture into digital applications was based on the Emmy Award-winning television series “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” These apps immediately rose to #1 and #3 among children’s book apps on Amazon and iTunes respectively. Since then, every subsequent children’s app created by Cupcake Digital has achieved a top 10 rating on Amazon. Headquartered in NYC, Cupcake Digital was founded by proven professionals in the fields of technology, family entertainment, publishing and brand marketing. In October of 2012, Cupcake Digital received its first round of private funding and has since gone on to partner with additional major children’s entertainment properties. For more information about Cupcake Digital Inc., please visit www.cupcakedigital.com.

About the Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy®-nominated “Sid the Science Kid,” “Dinosaur Train,” “Wilson & Ditch: Digging America” and “Pajanimals.” Features include “The Dark Crystal,” “Labyrinth,” “MirrorMask,” and “Unstable Fables” and television productions include “Fraggle Rock” and the sci-fi cult series “Farscape.”


With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and postproduction facilities. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the Company is also home to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company’s Henson Alternative brand has recently launched the national tour of “Stuffed and Unstrung,” a live puppet improvisational show named one of the top 10 “Best Stage Shows of 2010” by Entertainment Weekly. Visit henson.com, join us on facebook.com/hensoncompany, and follow us at twitter.com/hensonparents.

 

Media Contacts:

Carmen Hernandez/Cupcake Digital/ 310-383-4875/ carmen.hernandez@cupcakedigital.com

Ann Schwarz/The Jim Henson Company/323-802-1667/aschwarz@henson.com

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Spotflux showcased at RSA Conference

Posted in Internet Privacy, Internet Security, Mobile, Net Neutrality, SpotFlux, Uncategorized on March 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Spotflux showcased at RSA Conference

February 25, 2013 – San Francisco – Spotflux, the leading global cloud based security and privacy service provider for PC’s and smart mobile devices, was selected as one of 10 finalists in the RSA Conference, Innovation Sandbox.

The need for proactive defense against a wide range of threats that can assault a computer or wireless device (PC, tablet or smartphone) is coming into acute focus. The rising sophistication of the criminal element, access to inexpensive signal interception hardware (~$25) and unwary public, create an environment for significant, widespread fraud. Spotflux’s simple and elegant security solution has gained the recognition of the RSA judges and has the honor of being a finalist in the 2013 Innovation Sandbox.

Spotflux was founded with the mission to address the imminent threat to anyone using a device that connects to a public network or an unsecure connection to any network. Integrating Spotflux into your PC and mobile devices provides two powerful benefits: 1) preempting the hijacking of your connection which exposes you to a wide range of threats from merely annoying to truly catastrophic and 2) protecting you with real time privacy filters and analytics.

Through a simple download of an application to a PC or Mac (and soon to smart mobile devices) consumers will have a direct, protected channel through the internet directly to the destination they wish to go.

Importantly, Spotflux was designed to compliment / augment the antivirus software most computer owners have already installed on their PC’s. Unlike this kind of software, which is “reactive” (i.e. it reacts to a threat once it has entered the PC and then neutralizes or quarantines it), Spotflux “proactively” defends against threats before they reach the PC – think of it like a “deflector shield” for your PC. Together, Spotflux and antivirus software provide a formidable, multi-layer defense. As if that were not enough, in the unlikely event that a virus or other malicious code does evade the Spotflux “deflector shield” and the antivirus software and starts exporting your sensitive personal information, the Spotflux “shield” has a second chance to review the data being sent and put a stop to unauthorized exfiltration of your data.

Altogether, these features of the service combine to provide our users the freedom and confidence to use the internet to the fullest extent, born from the knowledge that a world class security firm is protecting them and that they now have control over who and what they will allow to find and reach them.

However, as innovative as this service is, it is the underlying business model that completes the total innovative package: it’s Free. Spotflux believes that by offering the initial PC-based level of service on a complimentary basis to consumers will be able to sample the product and experience the benefits first hand. “Our fastest path to growth rests on the advocacy of our users and we will do everything right by them to earn that support” said Chris Naegelin Spotflux, CEO. Upon earning customer confidence, additional features and services (i.e. coverage extension to smart mobile devices) will be available for a reasonable fee. “Our initial PC based product is our first deposit into the ‘relationship bank’ with our customers. It is an investment we are willing to make because we plan on having our customers for life”, said Naegelin.

The company’s confidence in this approach is validated by adoption of the service by over a million users worldwide in less than 12 months of its launch and vociferous demand for the mobile and other features.

About Spotflux

Spotflux, was conceived and launched by a team of passionate software visionaries who anticipated the evolution of increasingly sophisticated scams that would emerge in the wake of exploding wireless internet availability on powerful mobile devices compounded by the adoption and usage by an unwary mass market consumer. Spotflux is the only proactive security solution that averts scams and threats by disguising and insulating your internet traffic and personal information from interception, capture and misuse by others. Since its launch in March 2012 the service has acquired over a million users around the world, mostly by word of mouth. Go to www.spotflux.com and download the app for free and see for yourself what we are doing right.

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The Mistakes Investors Make Before They Write the Check by Matt Dusig from peHUB

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Investments, peHUB, Strategy, Venture Capital on March 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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The Mistakes Investors Make Before They Write the Check

Posted on: February 22, 2013
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The start-up market is flooded with entrepreneurs claiming to be the next Facebook or Instagram. However, in reality, three out of four start-ups will fail. Investors need to know whether or not they are wisely hedging their bets—and how to do so.

“As investors, we are forced to make decisions on incomplete sets of information,” says Bo Peabody, co-founder and Managing General Partner of Village Ventures. “Macros trends, internal hunches, market forecasts and individual consumer opinions are some of the pieces that make up the partial picture.”

Investors should have a complete understanding of their markets before pulling out their checkbooks to invest in start-ups or back entrepreneurs. Here are five mistakes investors too often make before making the deal:

Out of Touch with Consumer Demand: As an investor, you should always ask yourself: does the product or service actually solve a key pain point for the target customers? If they build it, will anyone come? A quick survey of target consumers can help to verify if there is actually a need for the product or service offered by the company. This also identifies other unforeseen pain points that could be detrimental to a start-up.

Limited Understanding of the Competitive Landscape: Who do consumers think of when asked about a given industry or type of service? What companies or products do they rely on? If the product or service looks to ‘solve a problem’ for consumers, how are they solving that problem today? Often times, gathering deeper insights of target customers can help identify the real competitors to a given business – not just who the start-up perceives.

Failing to Validate the Marketing/Sales Plan: In today’s market, products and services are consumed through different vehicles such as online, mobile, and in-store. Start-ups often fail to accurately predict how consumers want to shop for or purchase a product or service. For example, many consumers are only willing to purchase certain types of items AFTER they have actually seen it in person, such as big screen TVs and shoes. Knowing how consumers prefer to shop for or purchase certain products is a good indication if the business owners have properly thought through their marketing and sales strategy.

Not Measuring Brand Loyalty: Some business plans rely on the idea of ‘stealing’ customers away from existing brands or products. Customer loyalty can be a stronger force than many entrepreneurs realize, but it’s a force that can be readily measured with proper consumer research. Look for proof that there is a strong understanding and plan of action by start-ups of how they can actually win over loyal customers.

Failing to Validate Their Own Research: If business owners or entrepreneurs are presenting research (their own or someone else’s) as a part of their prospectus, investors should take the time to validate or invalidate that research. In particular, extreme claims should always be double-checked. For example, if a start-up claims that 95% of new mothers want their new bio-degradable diapers, it’s worth double-checking this data to support the claim.

“Real-time consumer data delivers a more complete picture on which to base investment decisions,” says Peabody. “We are able to instantly validate some of our hypotheses.”

Matt Dusig is co-founder and CEO of uSamp, a driver of online market research and survey respondents used to obtain important consumer and business insights. Opinions expressed here are entirely his own.

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