This entrepreneur interview is with James Sugrue, founder of Australian startup Mobeseek. Mobeseek was one of the winners of the 2010 iPitch i10 Awards.
Mobeseek focuses on creating long-term ROI-driven marketing outcomes for top-500 companies and government agencies by building, maintaining, and advertising permanent mobile websites for their brands. With the explosive uptake of 3G mobiles and therefore consumers searching the internet on mobile platforms, many top brands have been left relying on their traditional websites, providing their mobile users with an unoptimised and often poor experience. Mobeseek solves their problem by working with the top brands to develop and implement mobile strategies, ones that provide clear marketing ROI to the brands and allow users a greater, optimized experience in relation to their mobile technology.
In the interview we discuss how how James got started with Mobeseek, gaining early big name clients and selling strategy, growing the business, the difficulties of being a sole-founder and more.
The full interview on video is here:
James’ Background
Prior to Mobeseek, James worked in the mobile-technology industry as the first employee of a mobile company located in Australia, which was originally based in the U.K. This company focused on the messaging aspect of mobile technology, pioneering the marketing facet of texting advertising. Here, he states, is where he learnt the foundation of growing a business, which played a key role in his current entrepreneurial affairs.
Behind Mobeseek
Mobeseek is an innovative mobile agency tackling the disparity between consumer media consumption on mobiles, versus other media for brands. Its main source of revenue comes from the implementation of mobile websites for major companies wishing to spread to the technology field. Mobeseek also provides businesses with the; manufacturing, maintaining, and advertising aspect of current business operations.
Start-up
As the sole founder of Mobeseek, James describes the start-up process as, rewarding, informational, and an all around genuine experience. He describes one of the most imperative aspects of starting a company as the hiring of a competent, intelligent salesman, one that can deliver results.
During the first six months of the business, the main operational aspect was getting clients on board, along with big-name brands. He describes it as an emotional “roller coaster” ride, one that makes you wonder whether starting a business is smarter than a normal, salary job. His mentality during this time was, “just selling, selling, selling, and knocking on doors.”
The first sale happened six months after the incorporation of the business.
Productivity and Growth within a Business
The individual productivity growth that follows hiring employees, co-workers etc., changes, with the outcome being surprising. According to James’ previous beliefs, having an employee would only reduce productivity within the workplace, but with a mutual desire for personal accomplishments, he finds productivity exponentially increases with add-ons of employees, to a certain point.
Ways Mobeseek earns revenue
- Consultancy fees
- Building/maintenance of mobile sites
- Advertising revenues
There are many ways websites can produce revenue, and since most online communities are free of charge, companies rely on advertising for profits. Mobeseek not only uses advertising to produce revenue, they also build and maintain the websites, in which they construct.
The company receives monetary funds through three different aspects of a single operational entity, something that allows James a fall-back, if one fails at anytime.
Future of the Company
The future of Mobeseek is to globalize the networks into New Zealand, Singapore and Asia. Seeing movement into those places would be a great 2012 goal for Mobeseek, but for now, just increasing awareness and vertically taking-off the business would prove an unyielding goal.
The growth of a business is much simpler these days, as compared to ten, or even twenty years ago. This is due to the increasing awareness of computer-savvy individuals, and mobile technology as well. With over two billion people logging onto the internet daily, growth, and a widespread of knowledge has never seen such rapid augmentation through businesses and startup individuals. The internet allows people to connect with others much easier, something that is a necessity for building a business from scratch.
