Every month, entrepreneurs looking for collaborators and investors throng "Rocking Out" events, organized by Entrepreneur Week, Startup One Stop and ER Accelerator. Angel investors and venture capitalists mingle with the enthusiastic people talking about the fabulous ideas that will change the world as we know it.
On Oct 18, Tim Cleves and I hit the event. We had a sponsorship ticket to the event, and Tim had prepared an OnSIP pitch with a list of who's who clients. We started on a rich note - Dalmore scotch and different types of cheeses.
Zaid Amireh founded dakwak, a web translation company that has huge plans to tie up with major hosting services and translate clients' websites into any of >60 international languages. Zaid talked passionately about semantic translation of language. He cited the advantages of using dedicated services over automatic translation tools like Google's because literal translation of certain words we freely use would land many of us in trouble. It was great to learn about dakwak as it may come in handy when we become a global business phone service provider. Importantly, he was interested in how many of our customers joined us when they were very small and have since grown to be big, influential organizations. We do have a very colorful and strong portfolio!
Amy Schroeder from New York-based DIY Business Association was a very enthusiastic attendant at the event. Amy is the passionate type that picks your brain and leaves you thinking profoundly. When we talked to her, she had already made a very interesting public pitch for her business. She was looking for support for her nationwide tour and event series, during which she hopes to energize communities. This was a very timely talk, given today's recession and unemployment. Amy has also been blogging about "Occupy Wall Street" on her website, which is happening every day outside our office's doorstep.
One of the most fruitful conversations we had was with Marat Bexultanov, who runs bookabillboard.com. Marat has a network of billboard associates across the country; he can place your ad anywhere. Talking about measuring campaigns, Marat told us that he tracked the audience for his billboards very precisely because he employed QR codes and promo codes that people used to interact with advertisers' websites. Does he use telephone numbers? No. So what happens to the population of people who don't own smartphones that translate QR codes? We suggested that he consider unique telephone numbers that would make it easy to track callers who've viewed his billboards. He agreed that is a very good idea.
As we wound our way through the small groups, there were those who did not seem to think business phone service is necessary. One woman who is creating an iPhone app said her clients don't even interact with her. But, we have seen entrepreneurs who began a business using their cellphones and later switched to our service as they grew; businesses of 5+ people typically need a unique business number, extensions for their new employees, or simply a professional and hassle-free connection with their clients (not unreliable cellular services).
The point of socializing with such a dramatically diverse crowd is to gain new businesses' perspectives and help them grow with OnSIP. The event supplied us with plenty of contacts (people still love collecting business cards!) and great (phone) pictures of the Manhattan skyline from the 60th floor of the Empire State Building.
