Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Mass High Tech Staff
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Pitch
EZmobilemarketing eyes growth of promotional apps firm
By Mass High Tech staff
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Biotechs lag in social media use
MHT's Jackie Noblett: Lessons from the 2007 IPOs
MHT's Galen Moore: MBTA expands bus tracking feeds
EZmobilemarketing
Headquarters: Bridgewater
URL: www.ezmobilemarketing.com
Email: matt@ezmobilemarketing.com
Phone: 508-857-7789
Employees: 4
Year founded: 2006 (as Future Enterprise Corp.)
The Pitch: $250,000
In the company’s own words: “EZmobilemarketing offers digital advertising solutions to small and midsize businesses. Our open architecture platform is designed to deliver integrated text message, voice broadcast, and social network marketing programs in a cost-effective and easy-to-understand manner. Additionally, we offer digital signage and touchscreen kiosk implementations. The company is seeking partnerships with hardware providers to make digital advertising affordable and flexible. We offer a variety of ready-to-implement programs with flexible payment plans.”
Background: EZmobilemarketing was founded in 2006 as Future Enterprise Corp., offering order-processing systems. It added e-mail, voice and social-media-based marketing solutions and is preparing for the release of display kiosk marketing offerings. The company has been funded by friends and family.
About the technology: EZmobilemarketing’s applications are based on Microsoft Corp. SQLServer 2008 and run primarily on Microsoft platforms, integrated with mobile technologies. The company’s application programming interface (API) enables customers to interact with the back-end system, using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to upload data such as products and prices.
The people behind the company: Founded by CTO Matthew Walton, who recently brought on Tanuj Raja as CEO. President Elliot Shear leads the sales efforts. Walton reports more than 15 years of application design and implementation experience. Raja cites more than 16 years of mobile industry experience in roles such as business and sales development, client management, account management, and product development.
The plan: “We want to be a multisolution provider, not a single-shot provider. So by combining the voice messaging and text messaging, along with the kiosks, we have a strong offering to go to customers .” (Walton)
How it works: Businesses will use the mobile marketing technology to reach customers via voice, e-mail or social networks, highlighting special promotions. Consumers can opt in to receive offers such as coupons on their mobile devices and then redeem those coupons and provide instant feedback. When the display kiosks are added, a business such as a restaurant will be able to promote run promotions such as a discount for customers who connect the restaurant with 10 friends.
Status: Order-processing is available. Mobile marketing beta tests ended in February. The company is looking for its first customer and expects to have 10 to 15 pilot programs in place in the coming months. The kiosk application will be available in three to four weeks.
Intellectual property: The key process is the integration of the database with the mobile technologies, enabling mass messaging. There are no patents yet, but the company may seek patents on its coupon processing.
The market opportunity: The company sees a $3 billion to $6 billion market for mobile marketing by 2014.
Its pitch: $250,000. “We prefer that it be non-dilutive, but I don’t think that’s possible.” (Raja). “This money would be used primarily for marketing purposes and to get usage and pilots going in a wide area of the Northeast. A lesser amount would be used for infrastructure.” (Walton).
"The Pitch" takes a look at a company, its executives and its technology-related business plan. To nominate your company for The Pitch section of Mass High Tech, please fill out the submission form.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
