This week a gentleman named Robert Coons stopped by our class to talk about his experience starting and sustaining a tech company. He is the CEO of a small (I believe seven employee) tech company called Scout; an app that aggregates military discounts. Robert's presentation was interesting to me because he had everything thought out so incredibly well. He actually reminded me a bit of myself; he had calm and quiet demeanor and a very analytical way of approaching things. He impressed me because he had answers to every possible question about the nature of his company: market territory, competition, exit strategy, future plans, contingencies, you name it. He explained that his company had an edge on their competitors in their class-of-one military discount database.
Their main funding came from advertisement; the nature of their app provides direct access to military personnel for advertisers. Andrew Fry interjected with a good point here: you can't just monetize a product with advertising. You need to know your demographic and why the nature of it will appeal to certain advertisers. This provides me with both a hurdle and an insight because I plan on creating a mobile app and a mobile game at some point. Both applications target the "gamer" demographic, a group which is plugged in to a hefty number of apps and websites. While this is just a personal assertion, I could imagine that advertising to that demographic is less of a commodity than advertising to the military. Gamers are easy people to reach. Keeping this in mind may be crucial for the success of my applications.
Other than that, Robert gave me some more unique insight into the world of startups. He was very knowledgeable, as well as a walking demonstration of the level of commitment and energy required to run a startup.
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