It is week five of eight. Things are starting to come together for the startups in The Irish Times Digital Challenge.
This week Paul Hayes of Beachhut PR meets the startups and coaches them on getting "sticking power" for startups on a shoestring. Sean Blanchfield, founder of Demonware and CEO at Scale Front, coaches the startups on sales & development.
It is just after the half way mark in an eight week experiment in which five chosen startups enter the Irish Times, the 153 year old broadsheet.
Week 5: progress comes dropping slow
Paul and Christian from photo community startup PicTurk think they finally have a deal. As part of that deal the Irish Times will launch its first ever ebook.
Rob from KnockOn.ie is getting closer to a brand sponsor for his roadshow, and has developed a smart revenue model that puts his small but devoted online community at the heart of a wider audience of local radio stations spanning the country. This means that a sponsor can engage online, but will be assured of a wide off line impact at the same time.
Oliver from GetBulb considers a declaration of war on Adobe. His product for data visualization blurs the boundaries between print and online publishing. This, he thinks, is the key selling point for The Irish Times. Adobe, which he believes is imposing artificial boundaries between the two media to maximize profit from both, is the Goliath against which he can take aim.
Following advice from Sean Blanchfield, Freda from MyiFli considers a different business approach, one focused on a smaller size of customer.
Martin from Storyflow has a new prototype of his widget! (We have to wait and see if it works).
You can see previous weeks updates below.
Week 4
Week 3
Week 2
Week 1
Note: these videos are posted several weeks after real events.