BARCELONA-Like most bloggers out there, it may come as no surprise to you readers that I also have a day job -and an exciting one at that! I run an emergent startup in the mobile space called GeoMe...so, what do we do?
We are planning to launch a Location Based Service this year that will offer best-in-breed services aimed at a specific target group. As much as I would love to tell you readers more about our concept, unfortunately at this stage everything is still hush-hush, but I did want to share my experiences in setting up the business in a kind of startup diary that some of you budding entrepreneurs may find useful...
BIRTH OF A MOBILE STARTUP
Our startup saw its first light in 2007, born out of a discussion in a bar between 2 of the founders and their desire to do something new using location on mobile. Subsequent discussions followed, then workshops were held with experienced mobile professionals and developers until the core concept took a definitive shape.
My role upon joining was to take this exciting opportunity and turn it into a business proposition for a whole range of stakeholders, be they mobile operators, potential investors, collaborators and other techy companies.
I would say that one of my challenges at this stage was to keep our focus, as inevitably every time we explained our concept to someone new, different ideas on how to develop things would emerge.
Our strengths right from the word 'Go' were the team we built up around our new concept and the clarity we had around our brand and market positioning.
THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF LIFE
The first few months have been enormous fun but also an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved-a lot of excitement would build up when we got great feedback for our concept and even verbal comittment to x, y or z. Then, stakeholders would take a long time to make a decision or miss agreed deadlines and somehow we'd be back to square one.
Then suddenly, we'd get a break and have big corporations open doors to us and our concept and we'd all be back on an emotional high again...maybe a familiar story not just for mobile entrepreneurs but all those setting up new ventures out there...nerves of steel definitely help in coping with the inevitable dose of uncertainty surrounding a startup.
We are planning to launch a Location Based Service this year that will offer best-in-breed services aimed at a specific target group. As much as I would love to tell you readers more about our concept, unfortunately at this stage everything is still hush-hush, but I did want to share my experiences in setting up the business in a kind of startup diary that some of you budding entrepreneurs may find useful...
BIRTH OF A MOBILE STARTUP
Our startup saw its first light in 2007, born out of a discussion in a bar between 2 of the founders and their desire to do something new using location on mobile. Subsequent discussions followed, then workshops were held with experienced mobile professionals and developers until the core concept took a definitive shape.
My role upon joining was to take this exciting opportunity and turn it into a business proposition for a whole range of stakeholders, be they mobile operators, potential investors, collaborators and other techy companies.
I would say that one of my challenges at this stage was to keep our focus, as inevitably every time we explained our concept to someone new, different ideas on how to develop things would emerge.
Our strengths right from the word 'Go' were the team we built up around our new concept and the clarity we had around our brand and market positioning.
THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF LIFE
The first few months have been enormous fun but also an emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved-a lot of excitement would build up when we got great feedback for our concept and even verbal comittment to x, y or z. Then, stakeholders would take a long time to make a decision or miss agreed deadlines and somehow we'd be back to square one.
Then suddenly, we'd get a break and have big corporations open doors to us and our concept and we'd all be back on an emotional high again...maybe a familiar story not just for mobile entrepreneurs but all those setting up new ventures out there...nerves of steel definitely help in coping with the inevitable dose of uncertainty surrounding a startup.
TODAY
The future for GeoMe is bright, as time and time again we receive encouraging feedback to our concept and our demo from different corners of the world.
We are currently working on our website, so that we can share our vision with the wider world and get people to sign up for our beta version as soon as it is released -exciting stuff!
Other things are happening too, which I will share with you shortly -so keep your RSS feeds open!
