Giftbit is Giving You Your own Online Currency and Gift Cards
When Leif Baradoy was helping his brother move he found a drawer full of unused gift cards. This was the inspiration for Giftbit, the company Baradoy would go on to found with Peter Locke. Giftbit offers companies a service where they can send customers digital gift cards with set expiration dates through email, then follow up via email to remind the customers to use the cards before they expire. Because of their business model, the company loses no money if the customer doesn’t respond. “Giftbit customers are able to track, audit, and manage their gift card offers and campaigns down to the recipient level,” Baradoy told GeekWire last fall. The company received venture funding early in 2016 from Founder’s Co-op and Freestyle, and in the time between then and now have identified a need that they have just announced during TechCrunch Disrupt SF that they will fill, the need for a business to be able to create their own digital currency on the fly and in whatever form they want — promo codes, refund credits, or digital gift cards for sale. This new offering can help businesses in a number of ways, but the one that jumps out to me is retaining profits when a customer decides they want…
Visionect Can Turn Traffic into an Advertising Opportunity
“What did that sign say?” If you say you’ve never asked a passenger that while driving down a highway, you’re lying. Static billboards and traffic signs are easy to miss, especially when you have to concentrate on the road in traffic. So what’s the answer for advertisers and traffic agencies? One is the digital billboards that change their message every few seconds, but they’re still stationary and only allow for multiple ads in a single sign. Another is using the sides and backs of large trucks as moving billboards. Now we’re getting somewhere, but there are still downsides. Like the fact that painted or printed ads don’t change, so local or regional advertising isn’t very feasible on a truck that travels cross-country or even cross-continent. Digital signage on truck can fix that problem, but they’re hard to see in daylight and can be blinding to drivers at night. Electronic signage company Visionect is solving all of these problems in partnership with Mercedes and Germany’s RoadAds, creating e‑ink RoadAd displays for the backs of trucks that are easy to read (because they use four connected e‑ink boards to create one 3x5 ad space), mobile (because they’re on the back of over…
Houzz — Transforming Homes into Augmented Reality Shopping Malls
In writing about Houzz I find myself referencing the Holodeck from Star Trek way too often, but with good reason — it’s simply the coolest sci-fi idea ever (and it’s coming — you know it is). With that disclaimer out of the way, here I go again. Imagine if you could look around your living room or bedroom and see a blank canvas in place of some things. Get rid of your couch, your chair, your dresser, or whatever you think is need of an upgrade or replacement without having to actually move it. Imagine that you could virtually scroll through image after endless image of other living rooms or bedrooms, spot something in them that strikes your fancy, and then see that particular item in your Holodeck-enabled home. Old couch gone, the new one you saw in a picture sitting in its place. The idea makes the interior decorator in you get really excited. And that is pretty much what the home remodeling platform Houzz is allowing anyone and everyone to do now. Houzz is becoming increasingly popular, with the Android version of their app being voted best app of the year in 2016. 400% sales growth year-over-year from 2015, and…
Waygo Translation App takes you out for Chinese
Ryan Rogowski, CEO and Cofounder of San Francisco based Waygo Translation App believes that within our lifetime, we’ll be able to translate and speak multiple languages fluently with the help of technology. “I think language as a barrier is being solved and it’s an exciting time to be part of the industry. With globalization happening so fast, there’s this giant problem. But the base technology and hardware is pretty much already there. It’s just now improving the research and software to get things done efficiently for you.” Waygo is an augmented reality startup that focuses on visual, real-time translation for Asian countries (currently Chinese, Japan and Korea). All you need to do is point your smartphone’s camera at the words in question and the app will translate into English in seconds, translating your desired foreign dish is made easier. It gives users an in-depth knowledge of foreign cuisine by providing detailed images of how food dishes are prepared while browsing restaurant menus. “Waygo has evolved as a premier menu translation app that encourages travelers to live and dine like the locals, without the worry of ordering the wrong menu item.” The Waygo team had researched Chinese restaurant menus, covering the…
Is the Operator App a Media Game Changer?
Have you heard of the Operator App? In the old days, we consumers would go through the arduous and time consuming process of getting dressed, getting in our vehicles, and actually physically driving to a store — or several stores — to buy something. Then we had to park, walk in, find the right department, and then find the right product. And if the store we were in didn’t have the option we wanted, it was back out to he car and on to the next store to find it. Sounds exhausting, right? Then came the consumer’s savior — the internet, along with Amazon and other online retailers. Now we can stay in our PJs, save our gas money, and browse through multiple online stores in less time than it used to take us to get to the first store. But there’s a sacrifice involved, namely getting help. Sure, there are chat boxes, artificial intelligence chatbots, and reviews, but the first is little more than a call center employee with little product knowledge, chatbots are just as limited with even less personality, and the latter probably involves many people paid to post positive reviews and other hired to denigrate a company…
