Apps and mobile devices have seen a clear rise as the preferred means of accessing content and data for a big number of the Internet-using population. According to research by Flurry published earlier this year, apps now dominate mobile web in terms of time spent by a consumer. As per comScore, mobile Internet access has surpassed desktop access beginning this year.

These trends have also been cited by technology firms as a reason for focusing on expanding access for emerging markets through the use of last-mile Internet service and cheap mobile devices. On the higher end, device makers are now focusing on building and developing platforms for wearable technology, connected home devices, connected automobiles and basically connected-everything. But while it’s certainly an interesting proposition to have everything networked, some technologies being developed may not necessarily be useful, argues Oren Dror, co-founder and CEO at imonomy, a Tel Aviv-based visual semantics startup. In a candid interview with Bright Side of News*, the Israeli entrepreneur says that hardware makers are sometimes “developing things we can live without.”

It’s an interesting perspective, especially given the achievements of the hardware industry in making devices that are increasingly powerful but also increasingly smaller. Dror’s business, imonomy, focuses more on the content aspect of technology, particularly visual semantics. imonomy lets publishers improve their content with relevant copyright-free images by analyzing context, which is at the same time a means of monetization. The company raised a $400,000 seed round in 2013, and the team counts major networks like AOL and CBS as its customers.

Still, imonomy is gearing for the future, with new products in the pipeline. Dror says that the company is ready to adopt to future developments in the market, and mobile is certainly part of this.

Here is an excerpt from the interview.

Bright Side of News*: imonomy’s visual semantic engine is the core technology of the business. What makes it different from other types of platforms that use image and content advertising?

Oren Dror: imonomy’s technology is based on our proprietary visual semantic engine, a smart system which is able to read and recognize text from web pages in order to understand them. The engine is certainly a key to our success, but as much as in-image relevancy is important, it can’t stand alone without a supporting platform that can provide higher payouts for our online publishers. imonomy has developed multiple supporting mechanisms such as an in-house real-time-bidding (RTB) system, which allows us to have a much wider core business. We are now a demand side platform, a media buyer, a data provider, an ad exchange and optimizer.

BSN*: You characterize Imonomy as an “in-image ads platform.” How different is it from using other in-image advertisers (GumGum comes to mind here)?

OD: I think imonomy is very different, and our focus when building our product was to develop something completely fresh. We are the only in-image advertising service that also provides copyright-free, content-relevant images to our publishers. Our real competitive advantage, however, is our in-image advertising platform, which is open to publishers, ad networks and direct brands. Our content-recognition engine together with our RTB system allows us to optimize campaigns and provide a premier in-image monetization service to our clients. We are constantly monitoring the market and watching out for new online trends in order to ensure that our in-image ad units are the most effective monetization strategy on a web page. In addition, we have three new products in development, which are all set to be released at the start of 2015.

BSN*: Your company received seed funding of $400,000 last year. How have you grown since that funding round, in terms of technology, traction and scale?

OD: The seed funding we raised last year helped us develop our product, but imonomy has been successful and profitable for quite a long time now. We are constantly developing new in-image ad units and we have been expanding our exchange platform to allow real-time access and bidding. Some of our top performing publishers include household names such as AOL, CBS, and many other popular sites. Last week we added a new employee to our team and celebrated hitting the 20 employee mark! Our aim is to be at 25 employees by the end of 2014, and we expect that number to continue to grow as we enter into the new year.

BSN*: What is your take on the rise of mobile as a platform for consuming and creating content? Does it have a big impact on your business, now that most people access the Internet from their mobile devices and from apps?

OD: It might surprise you but we don’t vision the future of the internet on apps. Mobile is strong — it is surly a force to be reckoned with. While mobile traffic figures have shown some impressive numbers, we have discovered from our own research that the average user completely ignores the majority of apps he has. The majority sticks to a set of 8-15 they use weekly, and that’s it. We believe that mobile phones and tablets will stay big for the next four to five years, and on these devices, HTML5 sites will be a big access point to the Internet. That said, our products are ready to adapt to any future developments in the market — we see mobile as a huge opportunity.

BSN*: As an extension, how about the emergence of wearable devices, connected devices, and the Internet-of-Things in general? Will this mean that the more traditional means of using the Internet, like desktop web or even mobile web, will soon take a back seat to apps and connected devices?

OD: Wearable tech isn’t really my cup of tea, to be honest. I think the hardware industry is developing many things we can live without. I respect the people who develop things that are trying to improve our lives, but I have seen some products that look useless in the long run.

BSN*: Do you run your platform on the cloud, or on your own infrastructure? Is there any rationale for this choice?

OD: Yes some of our platform is supported by cloud technology. I think that services like AWS have helped startups around the world scale on a moment’s notice, and that is a very important and crucial thing when you want to move from zero to hero in the shortest amount of time.

BSN*: Do you think there is an advantage in running a startup in Israel, where you are based? How would you characterize Israel as a startup hub, in terms of access to developer talent, venture capital and customers?

OD: Israel, and especially Tel Aviv, is without a doubt only second to Silicon Valley when it comes to the startup ecosystem. I think the main advantage here is the people, the creative mindset and approach people have here is unique. Like many Israeli startups, imonomy is indirectly affected by the fast-paced changes that happen in our country, which requires from us to step up our game and grow fast in order to build sustainable businesses in a short period of time.

BSN*: In recent news, a photo-app startup Cooliris was acquired by Yahoo. Do you believe this may have something to do with Yahoo’s interest in building on rich media-based technologies or even visual semantics that may be similar to what imonomy is doing right now?

OD: Yes, we think it’s directly related to Yahoo’s effort to build something similar to what we have. We love hearing that big names such as Yahoo are acquiring companies in our industry — this gives a huge boost in confidence. When larger companies are buying smaller startups like ours, it can only mean one thing: the amount of potential in the in-image advertising space is still huge and in the billions of dollars. I am strong believer that as long as there is innovation in an industry, there is room for everyone, and I believe that many new competitors will reveal themselves in the next couple of months.

BSN*: What is your longer-term goal for imonomy? Do you have any upcoming features and functionalities that you may want to highlight?

OD: Our long term goal is to connect all between publishers, advertisers and users through a multi-functional platform that serves great-looking, relevant and enriching in-image advertisements that provide the best performance for advertises and publishers at the same time.

Feature image credit: Responsive design / Shutterstock

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Social media has transcended social networking, and is now an important part of business. Going beyond reaching out to consumers in a B2B communications model, however, companies are finding the need to reach out to other enterprises as well, especially those whose business models involve dealing with vendors, suppliers and fellow businesses or entrepreneurs.

B2B social media has also gone beyond the purview of the traditional PR company. Cloud- and desktop-based tools are already available, and any CMO or marketing manager would have such tools at their disposal, or perhaps even access to boutique PR firms that focus on running effective social media campaigns meant for the enterprise. Still, it’s not that easy to find the optimal means of reaching out to fellow businesses and entrepreneurs. In some cases, “likes” or connections don’t necessarily convert to actual business.

According to a study by Business2Community, this particular genre is dominated by LinkedIn, given the professional focus of the social network. About 91% of marketing professionals dealing in B2B are active on LinkedIn, compared with about 85% on Twitter and 81% on Facebook. However, the same study says only 36% of the same professionals consider themselves well-versed in doing B2B social media. Here is where enterprises will need help, says Daniel Kushner, co-founder and CEO at Oktopost, a startup that provides B2B social media consulting and services. An alumnus of companies like Zend Technologies, application service automation startup Nolio, and medical technology firm Syneron Medical (NASDAQ:ELOS), Kushner now focuses on enabling effective B2B social media management for enterprises through his Tel Aviv-based startup.

In an interview with Bright Side of News*, Kushner says his motto is “Screw likes, get leads,” which means generating business is inevitably more important than simple connections. While a basic “like”, retweet, +1 or share might be a plus in terms of relevance and authority in social media, what really matters is the bottomline, and how to properly attribute or account for such success.

Here is an excerpt of our Q&A:

Bright Side of News*: Can you shed some light on your decision to focus on B2B social media management?

Daniel Kushner: Social media has evolved from a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to a place where businesses both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) users can reach their customers, prospects, and fans. There has been a huge rise in social media management tools that all revolve around the B2C way of marketing. B2B is different, however, and we learnt this from first-hand experience when running global marketing teams for hi-tech companies. Being frustrated that there’s no social media management platform that is in line with the objectives of B2B marketers, we decided to create one.

There are a few big differences between marketing with consumers and businesses in mind. B2B marketers need to manage huge social editorial calendars due to the amount of content they are producing. They also need to measure and understand their RoI on social media. These two factors are the core of Oktopost, making it the only platform that is truly B2B focused.

BSN*: Is there any particular advantage with targeting social media campaigns this way? If I’m running a business, can’t I just hire someone to manage my Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages?

DK: Social media, like most marketing activities, can be managed either in house or with external vendors. In fact, I strongly believe that if you don’t know “how” to do social media marketing then it is in fact better to hire an external agency. Social media management platforms help you manage the social media marketing — they don’t do it for you. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, a platform won’t really help. Just like using a CRM won’t make you into a better sales person, but will help you manage your sales, taking into consideration that you have your sales methodologies, and the like. Even when using an agency, they will most probably be using a platform like Oktopost to manage their clients’ social media.

BSN*: Can you share some trends with regard to business’ uptake of social media? What do businesses want to accomplish with their social media campaigns?

DK: Social media is a new bi-directional channel for businesses that is at most controlled by the customer (consumer in B2C case), so there are a few angles that social media play within the business. There’s a “marketing maturity level” that business go through not only in regards to social media, but also in overall marketing management as a whole. There are those at the very beginning of the scale and are more activity-driven that business-driven. This is old-school marketing where a marketer will be measure by how many trade shows they did and press releases that were put on the wire. Then there is a trend to measure how marketing is helping the business and becoming a profit center instead of a cost center. This is normally done by measure how many leads are generated by the marketing team, quality of leads, sale ready leads, etc.

On the higher end of the maturity level, I see marketing scientifically measuring and A/B testing everything from lead source to touch points to opportunity contributions. Measuring becomes a centric part of the marketing DNA, and social should also be measured. Not only how many likes, followers, retweets, but how many leads, and what social content is driving those leads.

BSN*: What are the common misconceptions do businesses have with working with social media? Any common gaps that businesses need to address?

DK: Social media for marketing is multifaceted — there’s no one method, tactic, or way of doing things. There’s also not a single objective, KPI or outcome. Social media can be used for content distribution, brand awareness, content curation, customer support, and much more. Each discipline needs to be understood and management separately. You can’t just simply send 10 tweets a day and call that social media marketing. What are those tweets for? Promoting a webinar, a whitepaper, or talking about an event? Driving traffic to you blog? The major gap is having the business understand what is important for them and what they want to measure. From there a social media plan can be created.

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Earlier this week, Bright Side of News* featured a talk on Bitcoin 102, where folks with interest in cryptocurrency exchanged ideas and concepts relating to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. While the vast potential of the underlying technology behind Bitcoin was explored, one thing has been clear: the value of Bitcoin as a “currency” may be problematic due to its volatile nature.

Here is another argument against the use of Bitcoin as tender. 99Bitcoins co-founder and general manager Ofir Beigel tells BSN* that the value of Bitcoin as currency does have some arbitrary aspect to it. He compared Bitcoin with fiat currency (which is controlled by the central bank), and even diamonds, who doesn’t have an intrinsic value apart from its use in certain industries. But because people say cash and diamonds are valuable, they are.

This is perhaps why startups prefer to deal with using Bitcoin as a means of transferring value from one point to another, but without necessarily holding on to the cryptocurrency as money in itself. The value is in the ease and speed of transactions, not to mention the negligible cost, at least compared with traditional bank-based transfer mechanisms. As with startups that focus on servicing the so-called un-banked and under-banked sectors, Beigel believes that emerging economies will eventually play a big part in Bitcoin adoption.

Here is an excerpt of BSN*‘s interview with Beigel.

Bright Side of News*: What is the idea behind 99bitcoins?

Ofir Beigel: The idea behind 99Bitcons is being the “go to” guide when you’re just starting out. The website provides you all the information you need to get started – you can watch videos about what is Bitcoin, mining and wallets. You can also read tutorials about how to set up your Bitcoin wallet or start mining. Finally you can even experience your first Bitcoin transaction for free — we send out a small amount of Bitcoins to each of our subscribers so they can experience it first hand. The website is purely informational. We don’t plan on providing direct Bitcoin-oriented services in the future.

BSN*: What do you think is the biggest benefit of Bitcoin?

OB: The biggest benefit for me is not having to deal with banks or third parties to transfer money. Everything is transparent, and all of the cards are on the table. This makes it so much easier and faster to pay or get paid. Some of our advertisers pay us in Bitcoin and some in dollars — you can actually see the difference when it comes to receiving the payments – it’s so much easier this way.

BSN*: What is your opinion on the volatility of BTC as a virtual currency? Can this lead to a loss in trust over the use of BTC in transactions?

OB: I’m actually very worried about this. Until the price stabilizes people will just keep holding on to their coins and won’t be willing to spend them. This can cause a slowdown in the adoption of the currency. Ironically, the biggest advocates of Bitcoin are sometimes people who just want its value to rise to they can sell it and make a profit. In order to truly make a change we have to USE the currency and just buy and sell it.

BSN*: Blockstream recently explored the concept of “side-chains”, which are essentially expansions of the blockchain for use in other data. Do you think this is a good extension of Bitcoin as an encryption/transfer protocol?OB:

OB: I only heard about the recent “Side-Chains” project myself and haven’t gotten totally familiar with it. From what I saw I think this is an excellent improvement to the Blockchain allowing the general concept of decentralization to expand to other things other then money. Having said that it seems it’s going to take some time to reach an agreement in the community about this project and actually implement it.

The post 99Bitcoins Interview: What do Bitcoin, Cash and Diamonds Have in Common? appeared first on VR World.

Startup companies often live on “borrowed time,” says Israeli entrepreneur Nadav Dakner. As founder and CEO at InboundJunction, a team that consults on PR and content strategy for reputable brands, Dakner has experienced having to deal with major externalities that have affected his business, including the on-and-off Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as the ever-changing policies and algorithms of search companies. He recalls almost being drafted for two- to three-week military service right in the middle of doing important work.

One takeaway from our interview is that entrepreneurs and startup founders will need to adjust to any eventuality, so that one can act accordingly and make informed decisions. “In Israel, we tend to feel that the whole country is always on borrowed time so we try to be very productive and really ‘get out there,'” he tells VR World.  “This situation results in businesses innovating ourselves every day all over again. We have to be very creative and professional to survive as a successful business.” As a result, Dakner says his business has evolved, with focus on quality.

Among his more interesting revelations is how he has experienced religious extremism firsthand, and how this could adversely affect any business. That had been a “wake up call” and Dakner says he has learned to strike a balance between being selective with trust and freely delegating tasks to focus on the bigger strategy at hand.

In the end he says competition is actually good, because it means your product or service is relevant. And the best way to scale? Find good talent and know whom to trust.

Read the complete interview on Bright Side of News*’ sister site, VR World.

Featured image credit: Social connections / Shutterstock

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The freemium business model — offering the basic product or service for free while charging for premium usage — has worked well for the consumer market. Take a look at the mobile apps, online games and web services that are popular today. Many of these are free to use. Users only have to pay when they want additional in-app or in-game features, or items they will either have to exert effort to acquire.

Such is the business model of Facebook, for example — because users don’t have to pay to sign up, users are essentially the product. Businesses, meanwhile, can pay to target their marketing efforts based on context, geography and interest. The same goes for popular mobile games like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans. These are free-to-play. The critique, of course, is that free-to-play becomes pay-to-win for many gamers who will eventually need to purchase content to get ahead in the game.

According to a report (PDF) from mobile analytics firm App Annie, 98% of revenues from Android apps are now attributed to freemium apps, as of May 2014. Almost half of Google Play downloads in that period used the freemium model. A similar trend is applicable for iOS apps. Clash of Clans’ developer Supercell earned $829 million in revenue in 2013. Candy Crush maker King earns about $600 million in revenue per quarter from in-game purchases.

Jumpstarting Business

Will the freemium model work for an business-oriented audience, too? At least for small and medium enterprises, it could, says John Rampton, founder and CEO at Hostt and contributor at Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post. In an interview with Bright Side of News*, Rampton says that requirements of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are often small enough to fit into the limitations of free service offerings. These can include productivity apps, communication and collaboration platforms, and even web hosting.

The latter is the business that Hostt is building upon, says Rampton. Currently, the team offers free web hosting to any business or individual for as long as the domain is acquired from the company. “Ninety percent of the world’s websites can fit into the limits of virtual hosting,” he says. For the rest of its customers, the company is happy to charge for add-on services or increased allocation, and it actually makes money. “We bank on the fact that 10% of customers upgrade and that’s where we make all our money,” he adds.

Being in the market with a freemium offering enables a business like Hostt to compete both in the low-tier to a mid-tier market, with the lower tier being the gateway to charging for premium services. “Our competition focuses on higher dedicated-type services,” Rampton says. “We also compete in that realm but don’t focus on getting those customers.”

Connecting Everything

With the increasing “app-ification” of online content, BSN* sought for insights on whether companies that provide platforms for web hosting should be worried. Rampton says that while “people love apps,” hosting providers will not lose business, given the need for customers to maintain a web presence, both meant for desktop and mobile consumption. With a growing proportion of content access coming from mobile devices (60% as of mid 2014), Rampton recommends “that every business has an adaptive website that works with any size screen.”

Similar to how mobile access to content has increasingly turned to apps rather than mobile web, there is likewise no need to be concerned about the Internet of Things, at least from the perspective of platforms like Hostt. “I don’t see the web and connected devices as one dominating over the other, but rather these should work together,” Rampton says. “Everything will still be connected to the web. Just like an app pulls from an online database, websites pull from the same database.  So it really doesn’t impact us at all.”

In the end, it’s in Hostt’s interest to ensure individuals and small businesses can afford to get a headstart with cheap (or free) services. As Rampton writes on Forbes: “Give people a cheap way to start a business and innovation will ignite in every nation.”

Featured image credit: Free / Shutterstock

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Electronic commerce in its many forms has improved how businesses deal with customers. Online businesses earn even more during the holiday seasons. According to BI Intelligence, retailers will generate about $100 billion in online sales in Q4 2014 alone — a 16% increase compared to the same period in 2013. Even as mobile commerce has given rise to an all new business model for users in both developed and emerging economies, though, businesses will need to optimize the way sellers price their goods.

According to Arie Shpanya, CEO of pricing analytics firm Wiser, the key to effective e- and m-commerce is finding the right mix of product, timing and price. Shpanya’s team founded the big data startup with the basic ideal of enabling businesses to offer “the right product, at the right time, at the right price.”

A second-time e-commerce entrepreneur, Shpanya successfully bootstrapped his first startup in 2009, with similar focus on online retail analytics. The Israel-based entrepreneur actually came from a legal background. He has an LLB degree and worked for Israel’s attorney general prior to his involvement in tech startups. However, his expertise is not entirely unrelated, as he has specialized in intellectual property law, internet law and contracts law. In terms of running a small business with partners and investors on board, knowledge of the law can be helpful in ensuring you don’t get the losing end of a business deal.

Wiser actually counts several high-ranking executives from e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay, and advisors include luminaries from both brick-and-mortar businesses and online enterprises like Wal-Mart, Staples and Toys R Us. Even with these connections, however, Shpanya says that Wiser’s end goal is to disrupt major online retailers’ hold on dynamic pricing by enabling retailers at large to dynamically-price their own goods.

Having big data is not enough, however. What matters is finding meaning and getting actionable insights from this data. Here is an excerpt of Bright Side of News*’ interview with Shpanya.

Bright Side of News*: What was your inspiration for the idea behind Wiser? What’s the importance of pricing strategy for businesses?

Arie Shpanya: For retailers, it’s all about offering the right product, at the right time, at the right price. It seemed like there was one eCommerce behemoth (Amazon) that was doing it right by utilizing the power of data to optimize their strategy. We created Wiser because we wanted to disrupt Amazon’s hold on dynamic pricing by providing the necessary technology to retailers. We bring Amazon’s wisdom to the world’s top merchants by monitoring over 25 million products daily and analyzing data in real-time.

Pricing strategy affects your top and bottom line. But staying both competitive AND profitable in a rapidly changing marketplace can be incredibly difficult. You don’t want to get caught in a price war, but you don’t want to lose sales to a lower priced competitor. An effective pricing strategy is finding the balance and choosing a flexible pricing strategy that identifies and capitalized on opportunities to raise prices at times, and optimize for revenue or profit, according to your overall business goal.

BSN*: What is the advantage of using big data analysis instead of doing market research through other means?

AS: The key is automation, and analysis.

Wiser not only arms retailers with pricing intelligence and repricing, but is also innovating on the cutting edge of e-commerce pricing. Wiser empowers retailers with advanced tools such as assortment optimization, demand elasticity engines (multi-factor estimation and cross-product elasticity to name a few) and machine learning algorithms that maximize sales while maintaining margins. Wiser partners with merchandisers, marketers, and buyers alike by empowering them with the necessary tools to build and sustain real business value.

Pricing is elusive, painful, constantly changing and based on hundreds of different factors. Wiser breaks that down — specifies it for your business and provides you with the strategies that will make you more profitable or fit within the strategy your organization has adopted. It’s nimble, flexible and performs on-demand.

BSN*: Can you share some trends in data science? Is there anything significant that has happened in this industry that entrepreneurs, developers and even users should be interested in?

AS: Big data isn’t just a buzzword. We all have piles and piles of data – now it’s really about providing meaning and getting actionable insights from that data.

One major trend is emphasis on real-time analysis. This is only possible with automation.

Another is the democratization of it. There is a need for (and rise of) easy-to-use tools that aggregate and perform advanced analysis that was previously limited to behemoths with the resources/budget that most companies do not have.

BSN*: Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs or startups in search of viable ideas? What industry or specialization should one focus on?

AS: Rather than limit your thinking to a particular industry or specialization, think about it this way. Identify a need — are you solving a real problem/pain point/unmet need? — and go from there.

Featured image credit: e-Commerce / Shutterstock

The post Getting Wiser About Pricing Strategy, Data Science and e-Commerce appeared first on VR World.

Business thrives in stable environments with steady flows of capital and availability of talent. But with conflict being the backdrop in several regions around the world today, one might wonder how enterprises can still survive. We constantly hear about political tensions leading to armed conflict and wonder how these countries’ economies can soldier on.

For someone who is used to such tensions, however, life does go on, as Jonathan Saragossi tells us in an interview. Saragossi — formerly of Any.do, PlayScape and WIX — is CEO at IM Creator, a WYSIWYG web-building platform. In an earlier interview this year with Saragossi on e27, this writer focused on the entrepreneur’s insights on the mobile apps vs. mobile web debate.

In this interview with Bright Side of News*, however, we focus on starting up and doing business amid potentially unstable political situations, especially given that IM Creator is based in Israel. Even as the Israel-Gaza conflict is officially under truce, in practice the armistice is fragile, and armed combatants are still exchanging fire in what seems to be a thousands year-old conflict that might see no end anytime soon.

Apart from investment amid political tensions, we also touch on the Internet of Things, wearable devices, and screen sizes that are either becoming bigger or smaller, depending on your reference point. Here are a few excerpts from our interview.

Bright Side of News*: With Apple launching a plus-sized iPhone, do you think that flagship Android device makers were right all along in creating phones with bigger screens? What does this mean for content developers, app makers and designers?

Jonathan Saragossi: I personally think there’s the need and the audience for mobile devices in a wide range of size and price. I think this is relevant to web designers much more than it is for app makers and content developers since we are approaching a time period in which the responsiveness of a design is so crucial that it’s an absolute must. Soon all websites/apps would have to be able to adjust to a range of screens, from the tiny smart-watch to a 70 inch TV.

BSN*: Consider wearable devices, like the Samsung Gear, Apple iWatch, Moto 360 and the like? How do such devices appeal to you, as a developer and designer? How can content developers take advantage of a platform that is as small as a wristwatch? By extension, do you plan on launching site-builders that specifically design content for smartwatches?

JS: Wearable devices open the door to countless new opportunities, with a new and exciting context that is close and immediate, but limited with the amount of information and navigation options. Apps and information would have to be displayed in the most concentrated way, but still deliver the essence of the app. Here at IM Creator we have been working for a while on a website builder that will also answer wearable devices. It’s not enough to decrease the size of the content we delver, we also have to understand how to summarize the information and let go of the redundancies.

It’s a matter of a couple of years until the compatibility for wearable devices is a standard in every website builder. The challenge is not to create a new website for smaller screens, but to understand how to allow the users to build one website that adjust itself to a wide range of devices and will know to display the right information, in the right way, based on the screen, location and time it is showing on.

Android: Coming soon to a car near you

BSN*: What are your thoughts on the rising trend concerning the Internet of Things and other connected devices like cars and car interfaces? While the interface of Android Auto is decidedly basic and simple, do you think content developers, marketers and businesses can also take advantage of Android running on cars soon?

JS: Similar to wearable devices, this is not just another device to support. It’s a new context. A user who is now driving the car has different needs from users on foot, or in front of a laptop. Obviously this is very interesting for designers, developers and marketers – there’s a huge, “captive” audience inside millions of cars around the world. If I go into a business’ website using Android Auto, I probably want one of two things: calling the business, or get navigation instructions to it. The sites will have to auto-adjust, and display the relevant information in real time.

BSN*: How is the state of the startup community in Israel in view of the recent political and military conflicts, as well as the ongoing tension with the IS in the region?

JS: It might seem horrible from the outside, like the war is running in our streets. However, except sadness and disappointment from the lack of peaceful solutions, there is not really an effect on our work. My concern is for the next generation, of both Israelis and Palestinians: from both sides education budgets are diverted to weapons and war. Technological, cultural, creative education for our children and theirs is the best solution I can think of. People don’t go to blow themselves us when they have the opportunity to make their creative dreams come true.

BSN*: You mentioned that “there is no effect” in your work. How about in terms of the investments, capital inflow and availability of talent? Given that there is still some conflict (or tension?), do you think venture capitalists shy away from investing money in enterprises and startups in the country?

JS: There’s a general problem with seed-money. Established companies, showing growth and revenues, are hardly affected by the conflict. Overall, Israel is perceived as an investment that comes along with a security risk, but it’s the industry’s strength and resilience during these violent events that best demonstrates how thick the bubble we live in here in Tel Aviv.

BSN*: How about talent? Is mandatory military service an advantage or disadvantage in finding good talent? How does this impact the startup and entrepreneurship scene? Can it be an advantage, in terms of experience, contacts and building creativity?

JS: Mandatory military service in Israel usually comes when you are 18, before you find a profession. There’s also on-going “reserves” program, but most of the man power in the high tech industry didn’t serve in combat units, so the reserves training periods are shorter are rarer. People who served in combat units may disappear for a month, and it is a problem, but you deal with it. I think that a company should anyway be built in a way that employees can take a few weeks off in case of an emergency, whether it’s reserves training or birth of a child. I would rather hire employees who contributed something to society in their youth, wether it’s military service or any voluntary work.

BSN*: How do you address the need for agility? We have read about big companies losing their market share because of the fast-changing trends (say, Nokia, BlackBerry, etc.). As an entrepreneur, do you find the need to be many steps ahead of the current trends, in order to thrive? How do you make a difference, in the face of other competitors doing similar things?

JS: Agility and flexibility are a must in a startup. Everything changes all the time, and the swimming is always against the stream. A startup usually has two opportunities: Initial launch, and a pivot in case the launch is not successful. In both situations you have to show something new and totally unique. The method we run with and works for us is trying to come up with the most extreme thing (product/feature) we can think of, and just go for it. The reality is that developing a product takes around a year, and if you choose to develop something that is not extreme enough, the competition would keep up the pace and close the gap before you can launch. Going for extreme, for us, is somewhat of an insurance. At IM Creator we are working on two new and unique products that we hope will redefine the way websites are built, and furthermore, redefine the essence of websites.

BSN*: Can you share some trends with IM Creator?

JS: Of course we see an increased usage of tablets. Netbooks also still get a substantial portion among devices and we need to deal with their tiny resolutions. Our clients usually prefer simple, minimalistic designs (similar to the trend around the web) that they can customize and make their own with almost no efforts. And I get it – for an unexperienced person, building a website could be quite an adventure.

BSN*: If I were a talented team or entrepreneur keen on launching a new startup company or product, in what particular area (tech or non-tech) should I focus on? Why?

JS: Education. I’d recommend building a social network for kids that is based on creativity and learning. I think it’s a great way to get rich while doing something good for this world.

Featured image credit: ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com

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