The project team has developed a way to seamlessly collect information from mobile device owners. By presenting simple questions on the mobile device at the right time (e.g., "Have you eaten breakfast?") and allowing a simple way for the owner to provide an answer, this technology opens up a number of interesting market opportunities. There are many applications of this simple interaction: gathering real-time market research information, performing a unique form of mobile crowdsourcing and a new form of peer-to-peer messaging that extends the capabilities of mobile text messaging. The mobility of the device and the frequency with which owners can perform this interaction provide an interesting ecosystem for asking and answering simple questions.
This technology may have applications in areas as broad as personal health monitoring, micro-learning, enhanced peer-peer communication, and surveying techniques. With wide-scale adoption, many different stakeholders will find value in the platform solution we will develop. These customers range from mobile applications developers wanting alternative ways to get input from users of their apps to large companies wanting to gather information from a large segment of their consumer population, or, most interestingly, a way for smaller entities to be able to effectively collect and benefit from their own market research efforts.
As a result of this I-CORPS award, the project team completed a 6-week intensive training on business model development. This traning period was bookended by two workshops in New York City with the I-CORPS training team. In between, weekly online lectures and discussions were held with the I-CORPS training team. We entered the program with a clear idea of the advantages of our technology invention, and a large set of possible commercial opportunities. In fact, the set of opportunities was too large, and we needed to find a focus for a successful start-up effort. Our project team conducted approximately 100 interviews with potential stakeholders in order to develop a workable business model to carry forward the technology ideas we brought into the program towards a viable revenue-generating idea. At the end of the 6-week period, we determined that our technology had opportunities to explore in the area of market reesarch on mobile devices. The remainder of the 6-month funding period consisted of continued stakeholder interviews and business development. We traveled to market research events around the United States and engaged in detailed discussions with potential key customers and partners in this endeavor. We recruited a team of co-founders to create a Georgia-based LLC that will eventually develop mobile market research solutions with a clear value proposition and revenue plan.
