NJ Startups Outline New Year’s Resolutions for 2014
Each year NJTechWeekly.com turns to the startup community in our state to ask founders a question. Last year we wanted to know about their biggest hurdles during the previous year and how they overcame them. This year we asked: What is your New Year’s resolution for your company for 2014? Here are some of the responses:
Don Nelson, founder and CEO, inControl Ads (Morristown):
Our resolution is to take our ideas and progress from 2013 and turn them into more actions in 2014. InControl Ads started 2013 as a one-person team, with a vision and a mission, and ended with a beta product, a small team of New Jerseyans and a path to generate revenue. In 2014 we resolve to drive greater adoption with consumers, generate revenue and continue to work with New Jersey publishers and the growing entrepreneurial tech environment, especially in the Morristown area. This includes working more closely with the colleges and universities here, as well as the “mom” affinity groups.
Joseph Scola, cofounder of Invidio (Clifton):
This year Invidio is launching its proprietary mobile application, Inspired. It’s the only app that allows fashionistas and music fanatics to directly shop the styles seen in music videos. The app is a newly polished entry-to-market strategy for us, and we’ve decided to take this B2C approach to further prove the concept and connect with our audience. Pre-registration for the beta release of the Inspired app is open now at www.inspiredapp.tv.
With this fresh direction our resolutions for 2014 are focused on building a solid community of users and listening to their feedback to ensure the best product possible. We’re aiming to make the “spirit of giving” not just a holiday tradition, but a constant company mentality by giving as much free content as possible: interesting blogs, captivating images, fashion inspiration, exclusive promotions and fan contests.
Monica C. Smith, CEO of I.Predictus (Parsippany):
Founded in 2011, I.Predictus was originally created to address the need for data transformation in order to optimize media placement and drive media accountability. Our clients are our main focus and we believe, through collaboration and insights, we can address their unmet needs to understand what media works and what doesn’t, so that they can buy more efficiently.
Our 2014 goal is to evolve our platform beyond traditional Web and TV, to be able to support marketers and agencies in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the performance across their entire marketing portfolio — including mobile, social media, retail, print, direct mail and digital.
We hope to achieve this goal through collaboration and capturing best practices via benchmarking, analytics and continuous improvement, with the vision to transform the marketing industry. And as we come to better understand the impact of second-screen marketing, we aim to become a leading organization officially one step ahead of the curve in converging every form of marketing into one single platform.
Finally, with the addition of our patent-pending Web attribution and retail impact modules, we plan to begin a game-changing effort that creates media accountability and collaboration between media buyers and marketers.
Jason Webley of LivinSport (Clifton):
LivinSport makes it easy for athletes and their athletic teams to maintain an online presence, communicate more effectively and find athletic services. Our New Year’s resolution is to execute our business development plan seamlessly. We believe 2014 will be the most defining year in the history of our company thus far.
We are expecting a large customer adoption and growth rate. We are also refining older features and rolling out some of our most important ones. Excellent execution for 2014 will put us in a position to grow exponentially within our target areas, which will lead to our next round of funding.
Daryl H. Bryant, founder and CEO, StartupValley (Saddle Brook):
The equity crowdfunding portal StartupValley’s New Year’s resolution is to see the final rules of Title III of the JOBS Act through successfully. It has been a long time coming, much hard work, and many trips to D.C. to meet with the SEC. With the comment period ending early February, we look forward to seeing the SEC come out with final rules a few months thereafter.
StartupValley looks forward to helping startup businesses raise money to get on their feet and become a successful presence in their community. Equity crowdfunding will be a powerful vertical for strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in 2014. We look forward to helping many startups get financing through equity crowdfunding and be disruptive in their industries.
Michael Liguori, founder, What Are Minds For (Newark):
As a founder, my New Year’s resolution is to always take the time to validate potential team members by assessing how interested they are, what advice they give, what they “do” produce and how well you work together, as justification to make them real team members. You want to find fellow entrepreneurs that will take the time to let you evaluate them, not job shoppers. During this “dating” period they should be providing ideas or advice for free. Don’t use age, skill set or experience as a reason to hire, but simply meeting the constraints for being a part of the team.
