Shark Tank Takeover #183

Tuesday

Aug232011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 07:42PM

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Not 1, not 2 but 5 startup founders waded into the waters of Jason's Shark Take today on this special takeover episode. See how Spoonfire, NameLayer, MobilePay, Did U? and Publicbeat fared, then decide if you would have what it takes to pitch Jason and Tyler live!

1:00-3:00 Welcome to a Shark Tank Takeover episode!
3:00-5:30 Thank you to GoToMeeting for sponsoring the show! Sign up for GoToMeeting and you’ll be entered to win a 13” Macbook Air and HD webcam! Send your sign up receipt to contest@thisweekin.com to enter.
5:30-6:00 First up is Addison Hardy of Spoonfire, calling from Willmigton, NC.
6:00-6:45 Addison pitches Spoonfire, an interface that allows restaurants to receive and manage orders online.
6:45-9:00 Jason reviews the Spoonfire site.
9:00-9:45 Sometimes young entrepreneurs won’t bring up competition because they don’t want to draw attention to it, but it’s better to put that right out there.
9:45-12:00 Jason says the pitch could have used more enthusiasm and some hard numbers about restaurants and why they need this. He gives it a 7.
12:00-12:15 Tyler gives the pitch 6.5.
12:15-15:00 Addison expounds upon his pitch and explains their Facebook and Twilio integrations.
15:00-16:00 Addison demos the Spoonfire order-over-the-phone capability.
16:00-16:45 So did you decide to repeat it because it's easier to engineer?
16:45-17:45 How do you charge? Do you handle the billing?
17:45-21:30 Do you currently have a job?
21:30-22:45 Jason: You should tell the people you meet with if you want to be part of an incubator program, if you want an angel investment or if you want to be hired on to a larger organization. I give the business model an 8.
22:45-23:15 Tyler gives the business a 7.
25:00-26:30 Thank you to Hiscox for sponsoring the show. Everyone thank @HiscoxSmallBiz on Twitter and visit HiscoxUSA.com/SmallBiz for a free quote online!
26:30-27:45 Next up is Julian Shapiro of NameLayer.com.
27:45-30:00 Jason recaps the business model.
30:00-31:00 I would have liked to hear an example of someone paying for a bad domain name, then finding out that they could have gotten something better through your service. I give the pitch a 7.
31:00-33:30 Tyler: You need to make the listener feel the pain of trying to get a good domain name.
33:30-34:15 Tyler gives the pitch an 8 or 8.5. I also like the design.
34:15-35:00 Are you a solo founder? How old are you?
35:00-35:15 Thanks Julian, great job.
36:00-36:45 Next up is Armand Konan pitching the Did U? app.
36:45-38:00 Armand pitches Did U?
38:00-40:00 Tyler, what do you think he was pitching?
40:00-41:15 Jason gives an example of the show rundown at TWiST.
41:15-42:30 Did you build this on your own? Where are you based?
42:30-44:00 We need to do another This Week in Docs about the AirFrance flight that went down.
44:00-45:15 I could see a restaurant manager wanting something like this for your employees.
45:15-46:30 Jason gives the pitch a 7 and idea a 6. Tyler gives the pitch a 6.
46:30-48:00 You could verticalize this: Did U? for parents, auto mechanics, restaurant owners, etc.
48:00-49:00 Randy Smith of MobilePay is up next.
49:00-50:00 Randy pitches and demos MobilePay.
50:00-52:00 I felt like I was walking through a PowerPoint and I’m a little concerned about the space because it’s so crowded.
52:00-53:30 Jason gives the pitch a 5 and the business a 6.
53:30-54:30 Randy explains his research into the business model and what businesses want.
54:30-56:00 How does everything connect on the back end?
56:00-57:30 So the person shows their phone to the merchant to finalize the payment?
57:30-58:45 Tyler: There’s an arguable benefit to the customer but the real benefit is to the retailer?
58:45-59:45 Installing an app is too big of a hurtle for the consumer.
59:45-01:01:30 How do you respond to investors when they point out all of the big guys that you’re taking on?
01:01:30-01:02:30 Jason gives the pitch a 5, and Tyler gives them a 7 on pitch and an 8 on the product.
01:02:30-01:03:45 What’s been your favorite so far, Tyler?
01:03:45-01:04:45 Take it away, Ethan Jones of Publicbeat. (Ethan pitches.)
01:04:45-01:06:00 Tyler, what did you think of this pitch?
01:06:00-01:06:30 Tyler gives the pitch a 6.5 and the business a 6.
01:06:30-01:07:30 Jason also gives the pitch a 5/6, but agrees that the execution was good.
01:07:30-01:08:15 You need to think about what problems there are with existing event sites and then do it better.
01:08:15-01:08:45 Tyler: In terms of all the business ideas there are to tackle, this space is particularly crowded with a very low payoff.
01:08:45-01:11:15 Ethan, why did you choose to enter this space?
01:11:15-01:12:45 There’s a lot going on in this space, but I don’t think you’ve solved a problem for the consumer with the current iteration.
01:12:45-01:14:30 Insight from Tyler: It’s like an all-hands meeting at an amputee clinic.
01:14:30-01:06:30 Meetup.com has 100 people working on this issue, so I don’t know if you can go up against that. I’d recommend you go for something more niche and tighten this up a bit.
01:16:30-01:17:45 How do you stack up against sites like Eventful?
01:17:45-01:19:30 This is not a pitch that’s going to be successful with investors.
01:19:30-01:20:00 Jason goes through the Publicbeat.com site.
01:20:00-01:21:45 Where are you getting the data from, Ethan?
01:21:45-01:22:45 Pick an emerging trend that’s resonating with people, like crowd funding.
01:22:45-01:24:00 Spoonfire, NameLayer, MobilePay, Did U? and Publicbeat--which was your favorite, Tyler?
01:24:00-01:25:00 Jason and Tyler’s #1 was NameLayer, who will receive a table at the LAUNCH Conference in March 2012.
01:25:00-01:26:00 Thank you to GoToMeeting and Hiscox for sponsoring the show.

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FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
NameLayer: @namelayer
Spoonfire: @getspoonfire
Did U?: @diduapp
Publicbeat: @pb_sanantonio/_austin/_losangeles/_seattle/_houston
MobilePay: @mobilepayusa

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