The Week in Review
This week has been very interesting. After deciding to really focus on London as a market for Loopthing, I was left contemplating different avenues to achieve this. After a quick meeting in the west end I had one of my answers.
We will now be undertaking a video podcast series based on the business community in London. This will then feature as a regular series on the Loopthing Youtube channel.
The objective is to create a buzz in the English capital about business providing content to their customers through the web. Although the script for the series will not directly advertise the Loopthing network itself, the content will communicate what we are trying to achieve through the network. More info to follow.
Got a readership card for the British library as well. Such a creative and inspirational place to work. This week was global entrepreneurship week 2009 in the Business & IP centre. This place is a must if you're in London and want to get some research done.
OpenScore Progress
So just over a week after releasing the OpenScore application, how are things going?
Well, we've been studying the output data intensively in order to ensure our premium analysis tools are as accurate and beneficial as possible. We've started to see some nice variation in the static and dynamic score for those businesses that have verified their third party account details. We posted a blog providing an overview of the static and dynamic score for those interested.
We have identified what we believe is a suitable format for the basic advice centre, that will allow users starting out, to initiate their third party accounts and begin the process of analysing and improving their overall web presence.
Next step is the detailed support centre that will provide the deepest analysis we can provide on all the feeds contributing to the OpenScore. This is where we will put everything out on the table. There will be no secrecy around our analysis, so whatever we see you see. Our focus is to collect and display the data as reliable as possible with all the cards on the table.
Milestone Reached
The official launch of Loopthing and the release of the OpenScore application went well. The live webcast was an interesting format to do and myself and Vlad found it worked a treat, so much so that it will probably become a monthly briefing tool for Loopthing's members and our wider audience. We used a platform provided by SharedVisions soon to be operating from meeting.ie, thanks Roland it worked really well.
For those of you that missed our launch webcast, you can check it out on the Loopthing Youtube channel.
We are now producing a shorter more concise video demo of the OpenScore application which should be live soon.
Development Progress
After a huge push last week, we are getting to the final stages of development before our official launch on the 27th of October. Most of the work we are doing at the moment revolves around the creation of our first business support module. It's pretty intensive stuff, but the result will provide an excellent tool for businesses that are serious about their web presence.
I can now state that the name of Loopthing's first business module is "Open Score"
As for the specifics to the exact functionality of this business tool, everyone will have to wait until the 27th and check it out for themselves. At which point we will be happy to address any questions people may have.
In other developments, we are bouncing ideas around for the redesign of the Loopthing landing page. We’ve got some great ideas for the new layout and we look forward to implementing the design in the coming weeks.
Loopthing Launch Update
Bit by bit everything is coming together for the Loopthing official launch on the 27th of October.
Earlier this week we enabled Loopthing support for Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler and Flickr. We are also working on implementing other popular third party online media platforms that are utilised for business use.
Together this all forms part of the overall Loopthing development plan and provides the key elements behind our first business support module.
A further release will be made on this towards the end of week
Countdown -25 days
Been a crazy week getting ourselves finalised for the official launch of Loopthing. It's now looking like we will complete our launch webcast on Monday the 26th of October. This should give us plenty of time to pull the last bits and bobs together.
This week saw us achieve a nomination for the Irish web awards under the best practice category. Sincere thanks to all involved, especially Damien & Co for the hard work in making this the true Irish acknowledgement of achievement on the web...is that a spider I hear in the background.
Also submitted an application form for the endeavour program and will be participating in the further rounds of selection.
Loopthing Seed Funding Round
This week saw the launch of the Loopthing seedcapital funding round. We thought this would be a good time to begin sourcing some inward investment given the network's stable base and suitable platform for growth.
It can be a difficult decision to make, as to when to time the injection of third party capital into an early stage company. Given revenue streams are more often than not planned rather than proven, the project must have a convincing revenue growth and development strategy to warrant suitable equity interest from prospective early stage investors.
We think we are timing it right, as we prepare for our official launch next month and the release of the first Loopthing business application. More details to come on that at a later date. If fact I may actually reveal some elements of the new business application at Business Camp in Limerick, Ireland on the 11th October. As for the official launch of Loopthing we are planning a live web broadcast for the end of October, so we'll be run off our feet to get everything ready, but isn't that what makes life worth living.
Getting off the ground
Since soft launching Loopthing in April 2009, we've been through 5 months of intensive development, testing and improvements. Although the task list is never ending, we are now getting to the stage where our true business model can start to emerge.
We are planning our official launch for October 20th, at which point Loopthing will reveal its first business support application. We are very excited about this app and the benefits it will provide to the wider business community, and as such we will be remaining very tight lipped until then. The launch will include a live web broadcast and presentation of the latest network features, and we will remain online to field any questions. More info to come in the coming weeks.
Running an Internet start up in a recession
When we first started developing the loopthing business networking project back in early 2008, we felt what we could produce would significantly change the way businesses interact with web based media platforms, and this concept has not changed.
What has changed dramatically in that time is the local economy in which we are based, and the global economy in which the network is poised. As many industrialised countries entered into recession over the past 18 months we from our small office in Cork, Ireland have continued to follow our business development plan in an attempt to put our project at the forefront of our country's economic re-focusing.
Although we do recognise that our forecast revenue earnings have taken quite a hit, it is still imperative that the desire and will to create exciting new products and services is not lost amongst the contraction in investment and consumer spending.
Cost-cutting is a must and hard work an absolute certainty in safeguarding our ongoing development. As we build up to the Loopthing official launch in October and the release of our key business networking feature our desire to innovate will not falter.
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