Alec Andronikov, CEO of Just Sing It! shares the secrets of breaking into the Top 10 of iTunes App Store through Viral Downloads
Today we chat with Alec about the startup hustle. He tells us about his background coming from investment banking. He saw the opportunity of the 411 space, and got started in mobile right away.
In 2004 there wan't much capital in New York, so Alec found himself flying to San Francisco on the weekends hustling to venture capital meetings.
By 2005, he was building an ad supported 411 product, free to the user. In 2007, they sold to AT&T and learned all about liquidation preferences.
Alec shares with us his insight to the mobile SMS market at the time, was there was content being consumed but not being monetized. For instance stock, sports and weathers alerts. Plus it turns out that SMS has a 98% open rate! Compared to email, you're nearly guaranteed an SMS message will be read.
Taking his mobile knowledge forward, Alec started Movoxx. In August of 2008 he closed fundraising with 1.2 billion impressions a month from Greycoft, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and e.ventures.
We learn that he moved the headquarters from SF to LA for the technical talent found in Southern California area including UCLA, USC, and San Diego's UCSD & SDSU. Alec also suggests using meetups and hackathons to connect with local hubs.
Movoxx was sold to MOTR in 2010. Then Alec bootstrapped AnyoneGame.
Their primary product is a social game in the app store, Just Sing It!
Moving from a B2B model to a B2C model has it's obstacles. We get Alec to share some of his consumer product development tricks.
They spent a couple of months designing and developing the first beta product. From there they would quietly test the product and iterate as quickly as possible. Craigslist was a source of cheap usability study participants at $10 each. In batches of 10, they would get real people to try their game and just watch over-the-shoulder and learn. You'd be amazed at what people do in an app when they're confused!
We find out why Australia is a great place to beta test your product. They speak the same language, have similar purchasing habits and mobile penetration as the United States.
To continue refining user engagement, Alec tells us how they were able to use Flurry analytics to track retention and user drop-offs. They learned that many people would record a song, but then never share it - feeling bashful or shy of their vocal talent. The team was able to react, including audio filters, making users far more likely to share the clip.
Amul asks how to fend off clone's and knock-off's in the competitive app store's. Having a barrier to entry seems to make sense, like a music license. It also helps to target any of the 7 original sins. People are attracted to being famous.
We asked what might be good markets for entrepreneurs watching, and are reminded of the growth in mobile and wearable devices in consumer and medical spaces. In many places around the world, the mobile has leaped over desktop web.
Thank Alec for sharing his startup story with us by downloading Just Sing It! in the app store today!
Just Sing It! http://www.justsingit.com/
In 2004 there wan't much capital in New York, so Alec found himself flying to San Francisco on the weekends hustling to venture capital meetings.
By 2005, he was building an ad supported 411 product, free to the user. In 2007, they sold to AT&T and learned all about liquidation preferences.
Alec shares with us his insight to the mobile SMS market at the time, was there was content being consumed but not being monetized. For instance stock, sports and weathers alerts. Plus it turns out that SMS has a 98% open rate! Compared to email, you're nearly guaranteed an SMS message will be read.
Taking his mobile knowledge forward, Alec started Movoxx. In August of 2008 he closed fundraising with 1.2 billion impressions a month from Greycoft, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and e.ventures.
We learn that he moved the headquarters from SF to LA for the technical talent found in Southern California area including UCLA, USC, and San Diego's UCSD & SDSU. Alec also suggests using meetups and hackathons to connect with local hubs.
Movoxx was sold to MOTR in 2010. Then Alec bootstrapped AnyoneGame.
Their primary product is a social game in the app store, Just Sing It!
Moving from a B2B model to a B2C model has it's obstacles. We get Alec to share some of his consumer product development tricks.
They spent a couple of months designing and developing the first beta product. From there they would quietly test the product and iterate as quickly as possible. Craigslist was a source of cheap usability study participants at $10 each. In batches of 10, they would get real people to try their game and just watch over-the-shoulder and learn. You'd be amazed at what people do in an app when they're confused!
We find out why Australia is a great place to beta test your product. They speak the same language, have similar purchasing habits and mobile penetration as the United States.
To continue refining user engagement, Alec tells us how they were able to use Flurry analytics to track retention and user drop-offs. They learned that many people would record a song, but then never share it - feeling bashful or shy of their vocal talent. The team was able to react, including audio filters, making users far more likely to share the clip.
Amul asks how to fend off clone's and knock-off's in the competitive app store's. Having a barrier to entry seems to make sense, like a music license. It also helps to target any of the 7 original sins. People are attracted to being famous.
We asked what might be good markets for entrepreneurs watching, and are reminded of the growth in mobile and wearable devices in consumer and medical spaces. In many places around the world, the mobile has leaped over desktop web.
Thank Alec for sharing his startup story with us by downloading Just Sing It! in the app store today!
Just Sing It! http://www.justsingit.com/