In Conversation with Saumil Nanavati, Co-Founder of Chlkboard

My fellow founder of SGE, Bernard, has just launched a new startup together with entrepreneur Saumil Nanavati who had previously successfully led a startup to acquisition. The amazing thing is, the whole thing (beta vesion) was built from scratch in 21 days! But do not underestimate the product. This new venture of theirs, Chlkboard, allows users to find nearby promotions via mobile phones and allows retail shops to reach potential customers in the vicinity by pushing out promotions to them. We speak to Saumil on this new startup.

Tell us in three words what Chlkboard is.

Chlkboard is: Nearby promotions on mobile [3.5 words count?].

[Gwen: Yes, of course, for you, Saumil. And here's the stickman story of Chlkboard!]

What were you doing before setting up Chlkboard?

Prior to Chlkboard, I set up and ran a truly rare & successful pan regional digital media company @ Sydus. As President of Sydus, I have managed & owned the P&L’s in advertiser funded digital solutions for mobile & web. Also managed music & entertainment business within these segments, including the biggest Pan Asia advertiser funded mobile music service.

Sydus was successfully acquired 2nd half of 2008 and subsequently went for a well deserved sabbatical till Chlkboard. Our efforts at Sydus were also recognized within entrepreneurship communities as well as media: Spirit of Enterprise Award 2006: recognizing top entrepreneurs of Singapore & CNBC e-Generation: Profiling technopreneurship and its leaders in Asia are the two that mean the most to me personally.

I was headhunted in 2000 by Epicentric Inc as Engagement Manager with deep involvement in formulating the launch & strategic planning of its newly envisioned professional services division. Led as the business leader for Epicentric in Organizational & Business Development, Engagement Management, Informational Technology Readiness Analysis, & Performance Analysis to clients across the States. My team and our services were integral to the rapid growth & acclaimed success of the company as an Online Media Technology product firm.

Previously as part of Scient Corporation’s business practice, I was advising Fortune 50 and $900 million start-up clients on their online strategies and business practices for success. This role spanned across US Western seaboard.

At Motorola Inc, I was responsible for Technology Sales in Telematics & was instrumental in bridging wireless technologies such as Bluetooth to automotive industries.

What value does Chlkboard deliver to advertisers and users?

In my previous successful start-up, Sydus, we focused on large brands (advertisers) willing to pay top dollar for marketing across platforms. This made it a highly competitive landscape to gain access to the coveted marketing budgets. It also meant the SMEs are left out and could not compete due to non-existent marketing budgets.

Chlkboard’s easy 3-step process to finding a promotion near you.

We soon recognized we can do even more–reshape marketing dollars from solely a large corporate to combined scale of SME’s! Chlkboard is a product of helping scale up SME’s foot traffic! To work with Chlkboard, SME”s do not need expensive marketing agencies, elaborate marketing plan or be a tech wizard: as long as the retailer knows how to SMS, any one can utilize our solution.

Consumers are expecting real time relevant ads–specifically around them–we are catering to this newly created demand.

There have been many, many attempts at trying to make Location-Based Services (LBS) work (ie. sustainable from a business point of view). What is your business model, and why do you think Chlkboard is different from the crowd?

It is a delicate task of balancing consumer acceptance vs edgy innovation.

We believe, Chlkboard has found this incredible sweet spot: First, there is an hyperbolic increase in consumer awareness about GPS capabilities in a phone–in other words–discovering nearby environment such as GPS guided directions or promotions in our case. Secondly, we are tapping into an absolutely underserved market– the Small & Medium Enterprises. Internet has made the world flatter but consumers still continue to shop within the local vicinity. In many capital economies, over 70% of businesses are in the SME category.

Let’s talk about our model: we are capitalizing on 2 developments: real-time media and nearby (GPS).

Real time media: Success of Twitter is no accident. Consumers are demanding real-time content/media. Same goes for businesses who are constantly seeking real time information on their business performance. We are giving ability to retailers to send their latest promotion in real time, as many times as they wish via SMS to our number or via their Twitter account. Consumers can see promotions instantly by going to m.chlkboard.com from their iPhones.

GPS: adding more relevance to this is location for both retailers and consumers. Retailer’s promotion is accessible within a range from their outlets, whilst consumers can view promotions within a range around them. There is no reason for consumers to be pointed to an outlet half way around the world.

These two combined make Chlkboard an extremely powerful and relevant tool!

With the different mobile platforms around, why the Apple one first?

We are extremely fortunate to have a depth of understanding in mobility with 2-3 start-up companies launched globally. Needless to say, we have enough battles wounds to prove our worth. Our choices of technology, platform and approach are a culmination of experience of scaling globally along with ability to move technologically. I have a technical team that is priceless to replicate!

Why Apple? Well, we have learnt from before of future proofing, Apple gives us the best way forward with huge numbers–cannot ignore 500k devices in Singapore. But we are not resting there, we are working on Blackberry and Anroid platforms for immediate releases–believe those platforms and demographics compliment our initiatives extremely well without the technological complications faced during previous start-ups. After all, its about targeting the right audience with the right approach!

Adding a new location for advertisers in Chlkboard.

Chlkboard was just released as a web app and not a native iPhone app. Enlighten us on your decision making process and why you eventually chose to develop a web app versus a native app.

Primarily, we do not have to go through the occasional political rigors of formal approvals as experienced for native apps. It also allows us to rapidly iterate our offering without the cumbersome app-version-updates.

Consumers ultimately want the best options without technical frustrations.

So far the numbers have driven home the message: over 11,500 impressions and more importantly over 35 retailers joining us as our champions–all of this within the first 10 working days! We are just getting started.

How did you decide which potential advertisers to approach first and what was your sales pitch to them?

Chlkboard is ultimately assisting consumers to making more informed decision on purchases. Our experiences and research pointed to various areas where we could create the most impact for consumers as well as retailers. Ideal locations are typified by: hyper competitive retailer area where single increase in footfall counts; mid-20’s savvy adults whose purchasing decisions are typically guided by sales without compromising style and fashion.

I’m sure Chlkboard is not just thinking local. What are your regional and global expansion plans?

So we certainly do not think Singapore is our final destination. Given our experience, investment follows success. Chlkboard was born during the first week of December 2009. Within 21 days, we have built, debugged and beta launched our solution—this is beyond hyper hyperbolic scaling up of a start-up. In cricket sporting terms, it is important to have an attractive run rate coupled with longevity–meaning ability to sustain scale–this is our focus and so far we have been keeping to our word!

Any wishlist for potential partners at this point?

Our next immediate step is to scale up consumer usage of promotion–this will be achieved by involving native iPhone app developers in Singapore to leverage our solution whereby their users could see more relevant and real time ads supplied by Chlkboard.

Thanks so much for your time, Saumil. We wish Chlkboard all the best!

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