Ideas|Products|Startups|VCs

Travelomy is a next-generation travel guide that packs features based on rich content, geo-location and social media in a way that provides practical, useful information to a traveller.

Travelomy is product developed by Ciafo, which is a technology startup based out of Bangalore,  Co-founded by Gurjit Sidhu and Amarpreet Kalkat in April 2010. Both Sidhu and Kalkat have spent the last 10 years building internet products at some of the most admired companies, earlier having graduated from IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode

Travelomy has rich content (currently delivered through 6000+ photos and videos) virtually brings places alive for the traveller even before getting there, geo-location coordinates for all places (currently ~5000) and the user himself ensure that he always knows what exactly is around him, and what is the best way to reach there.

The social media integration enables the traveller to seek and share latest information over the social streams, thereby making sure that he is never out of touch with his social graph.  For the more outdoorsy or adventurous traveller, Travelomy provides activities, where rich information like dynamic route maps, itinerary, gear, tools, expertise level is put together for things like trekking, biking, rock climbing, river rafting etc.

South Asia is the first step for Travelomy and an opportunity to validate its unique concept; it would gradually be expanding globally over the next few quarters.

How Travelomy is different:

While online travel guides have existed for long, Travelomy aims to challenge the status-quo by virtue of the way it leverages web 2.0 technologies to provide simlified travel information. It focuses on four key aspects – rich content, geo-location, social media and activities; and uses them effectively to build a truly valuable information source for the user.

Travelomy also differentiates itself in the way it collects and presents information. Almost all of the content on Travelomy is crowdsourced in a wiki format and can be updated by any user who is signed-in.

Travelomy competes with prominent players like MustseeIndia, TripAdvisor, WikiTravel, LonelyPlanet.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Startups success really depends on the initial user base, how quickly they can earn them. User acquisition is perhaps the toughest part of building a successful startup. It could be frustrating and could drag on for ages but it could also be a pleasant experience if you are lucky. It can actually make or break a startup. Building an initial user stream takes a lot of work, resources and persistent determination.

I was involved with a number of startups over the past one year and majority of what I have done is Customer acquisition, product management & marketing. Over that time I have been exposed to a lot of campaigns built to generate traffic, then revenue for early stage startups, and while a lot seem promising on paper, it rarely turns out to be the case when implemented.

1. Kick-Ass UI : Most websites I see struggling to keep users struggle either because of poor UI or strategy. You must have an appealing appearance. When you convey your message to people, make it catchy and enough to spark interest and curiosity. This is where user-testing comes into place.  I like handpicking 20 random people (15 in my target market and 5 outside of it), and asking them to try out the product and give me feedback. I ask them to tell me if they found the experience easy, fulfilling, if they would refer their friends, if they would come back.

2. Implement SEO and leverage Social Media: The importance of these 3 things can’t be taken for granted. First of all, you want to have content and you want to have as many backlinks as possible. Whether you like it or not, search engines are still responsible for most of the traffic big startups get and SEO can improve your ranking and visibility. With Blogging and Social media, it is about sharing relevant information about not only your brand, but also the industry your startup is in.  Expose the public to what your brand is about, what you are trying to achieve with your startup even before you start aggressively looking to gain traffic.

3. Bring in an initial stream of traffic: There are varying views about how you can do this, but in my career so far, I have tried to stick to the cheapest methods available. For the funded startups, it’s easier to simply purchase adwords and make a very targeted campaign to bring in relevant traffic.  I particularly like the idea of launching at a big tech event conducted by NASSCOM etc. You can also invite tech bloggers to use your product and write about it.

The good thing is that at this point, you have optimized your product/website enough to the point where it doesn’t just see traffic go in and out, but it actually holds and converts a good fraction of it.

4. Ask for feedback and engage traffic: This is pretty straightforward. Users want to feel like they are part of a big thing and no better way of making them feel among like interacting daily on social networks, seeking feedback and doing the best you can to make the startup user-friendly.

5. Import contacts : Allow them import contacts from their e-mails, send them newsletters, even put a button on a strategic part of the site that lets them send a recommendation letter to a friend right from your website.

The goal is to market and go viral while using your users as evangelists. Do you have any more tips? feel free to share below in the comments section.

-Guest Post by Bhushan Patil, ex Chief Product Officer of Zapak, held senior product management role at Yahoo, Andale, Talisma.

Wipro Technologies, has launched a strategic retail solution, ENCORE (Enhanced Commerce Retail Ecosystem). ENCORE is scalable platform that helps retailers engage customers and manage online retail operations seamlessly.

ENCORE is scalable platform that helps retailers engage customers and manage online retail operations seamlessly.It is an end to end solution that allows retailers unparalleled visibility into their e-commerce enterprise without substantial investments in time and infrastructure.

ENCORE provides unique customer experience with engaging features that include Social Media integration, e-mobility, personalization, seamless cross channel experience, recommendations, referral tracking and much more. ENCORE provides retailers the ability to ship to over 200 countries globally, thereby providing access to new markets.

Wipro’s ‘ENCORE’ solution apart from enabling e-commerce and retail business services with multi-channel and next-generation capabilities also provides ‘on-demand’ business intelligence to our retail customers.”

The ENCORE platform consists of four aspects, each of which addresses a specific challenge faced by e-commerce enterprises. Wipro will offer these four aspects together as a complete solution, or individually, as needed by a retail customer:

•  ENCORE TRANSACT enables retailers to transact better with their customers and allows shoppers to customize their own experience.
•  ENCORE MARKET enables retailers to understand their market and provides insights into customers’ opinion about the retailer.
•  ENCORE ANALYZE has deeply insightful analysis tools that can provide intelligence to retailers on areas of operations where they are successfully engaging their customers, and areas that need improvement.
•  ENCORE MANAGE has powerful offerings for aspects such as business process, people and technology that allow retailers to optimize and improve the functional elements of their business.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

TangoFX™ the flagship product of ABOVE Solutions Inc. is the industry’s first open standards-based real-time multi-active media platform. TangoFX™ allows users to interact with media, and with each other, without being dependent on the mode of delivery or the device through which the media is consumed.

ABOVE has development centers and sales teams in Bangalore, India and Singapore.

TangoFX is a context aware Interactive HD service that provides live and on-demand cinematic experiences for viewers to watch shows/movies/videos anywhere, anytime and on any screen (mobile, PC, Kiosks, and HDTV).
Using smart on-screen widgets, the interactive service enhances the cinematic experience by allowing viewers to connect with friends and family, and pick, share and discuss scenes of mutual interest while watching live or on-demand content.

Also, the interactive service leverages several patent-pending technologies to provide individual and shared interactive program guides that allow viewers to completely personalize their viewing experience to match their media & entertainment lifestyle.

TangoFX is built on a next generation iTV Platform that is fully customizable for telecom carriers, consumer product/service companies, hospitality service providers and others. Creating value-added services to increase ARPU, improve retention rate and enable new customer acquisition has never been so compelling.
The iTV platform enables services in the following channels:

· Web & Internet Media

· Email, Social Media & Viral Marketing

· Mobile Platforms & Marketing

· User/Consumer Generated Content

· Digital Out of Home (DOOH)

· IPTV

· Kiosks

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

RockMelt is way different from other normal web browsers, its a social browser. User you can browse with your friends on the left, your favorite sites on the right, and search up top.

It is a realtime browser, which means all the Facebook updates and online status of your friends are notified and also gets notification when your favorite sites, blogs are updated with new information.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com