PART 1/3 -- Showt scores 17.5 out of 18 on startup success list
Andy Jacobs
Co-Founder & COO, Showt | Inventor | Interactive Platform Creator | Social Entrepreneur
18 Characteristics of Startup Success -- Showt Scores 17.5 out of 18
A favorite topic for industry thought leaders to expound on -- and for hundreds of millions of Shark Tank swimmer wannabes to hyperventilate about -- is what makes for successful startups and whether their startup has “it” or not.
When we started Showt it wasn’t our first startup, and we were familiar with the works of the best thought leaders in the field, including Jack Trout, Al Ries, Steve Jobs, Paul Graham, Salim Ismail, Peter Diamandis, Steve Jurvetson, John Doerr, Reid Hoffman, Mark Cuban, Peter Thiel, and Seth Godin.
Different experts will emphasize different things, of course, but certain items make most of the lists. We hereby submit our summary of the best of these lists.
We at Showt are optimistic about Showt’s imminent success because we believe Showt ticks 18 of the 18 boxes (still working on item 2, but feel confident we can tick that box soon).
In addition, we’re optimistic that two important conditions for Showt’s global success are going our way: (a) rapid growth in digital advertising and (b) mobile phone use continuing to grow (in the developing world), reaching near ubiquity soon.
Therefore, we predict that 2023 will be the Year of Showt, as
-- 1995 was the Year of Netscape
-- 1996 was the Year of Yahoo!
-- 2000 was the Year of Google?
-- 2005 was the Year of Facebook
-- 2006 was the Year of YouTube
-- 2010 was the Year of Twitter
-- 2011 was the Year of Instagram
-- 2013 was the Year of WhatsApp
-- 2015 was the Year of Snapchat
-- 2019 was the Year of TikTok
-- 2022 was the Year of ChatGPT
Startup success characteristics (in random order)
1. Can it generate revenue?
Let’s start with the climax: Showt will be the most productive, direct, efficient, engaging, responsive, and inclusive advertising platform in history. Who needs cookies, when you have ShowtAds, ShowtCounts, and ShowtBacks?
Every time someone Showts, they are shouting to the world (anonymously or with their identity attached, as per their choice), revealing something emotionally rooted in their psyche. No one Showts out of apathy. They Showt because they care, and for every Showt there’s an advertiser and Showtee that will cherish that Showt (if they know what’s good for them) and try to take advantage of it to strengthen their brand, or to reduce damage.
Here’s the thrilling part: this emotion/preference might be something that the Showter has never revealed before; it will be Showt that draws the curtain to the world so the world of advertisers can discover this emotion/preference and act either through Showt or via a third party ad network that licenses Showt data.
When Showt is in full operation worldwide, billions of people will Showt about tens of thousands of Showtees (public figures, products, places, issues, companies, organizations, sports teams) 24/7, with those Showtees responding immediately via their ShowtBack.
Social media pales in comparison to Showt. Social media is for fans of a personality or brand. A leading personality or brand will have millions or tens of millions of followers on social media, but three or four billion potential Showters know who they are, and can instantly Showt about them. Therefore, the scale of Showting is one and, two, and even three orders of magnitude greater than social media.
Showt Yes/No for ABCD car brand. ABCD will send that Showter a ShowtBack to show them they are listening and care what the consumer thinks, and ABCD (and all its competitors) will bid to reach out to that Showter and show them an advertisement. (“We at {ABCD competitor} are proud that our Customer Care has been rated #1 six years running. Click here to find out more.”)
Every advertiser will be clamoring to get a prime seat on board the Showt train.
The great thing about the 2023 timing of Showt’s Launch: nearly every Showtee (entertainer, politician, athlete, sports team, brand, political party) already has an experienced social media management team working on their FB, Twitter, Snap, Insta, TikTok, and email newsletters.
Getting those teams to spend an extra few minutes every 12 hours or 24 hours to devise a daily compelling No and Yes ShowtBack completely appropriate for that 12- or 24-hour period will be easy.?
Imagine how hard it would have been to start Showt in 2010 when social media was undeveloped and there was no such thing as a Social Media Manager; to convince a Showtee to hire someone especially to spend a few minutes a day to ghost-write and manage their ShowtBacks and ShowtAds would have been expensive.
“The advertising potential for Showting is far greater than a company bidding to display an ad when someone Showts No for their competitor. The full potential is with billions of consumer revealing their previously hidden preferences.”?
---T.S. RAMAKRISHNAN
VP of Product Engineering at Facebook, and then AdMob, the pioneering mobile advertising platform (acquired by Google)
2. Do you have enough resources to bring it to the world?
In our Plan A (ended 2022) we devoted our funds to our design, research, coding, testing, and biz dev, and nothing for marketing (buying media to get Showt widgets in front of the world).
We planned to fund our big (Critical Mass) media launch by convincing XYZ sponsors/advertisers to pay for wide media placement of XYZ Showt widgets to give XYZ unparalleled information about how consumers felt about them, and -- oh, yeah, coincidentally -- teach the country/world to Showt.?
The impact we got with Plan A -- getting advertisers to fund the campaigns -- was too small to reach the required critical mass of Showting and awareness.
Ping me to hear about Plan B. The future is bright!
3. Do you have a devoted, passionate, talented team with broad, diverse, and complementary skills to take on the world?
Showt has a devoted, passionate talented, world-class team with global experience at the highest levels of technology, business, and advertising. We are also incredibly persistent, knowing that we will succeed in 2023.
PETER JACKSON
Showt’s Chairman is the founding CEO of AsiaSat, Asia’s pioneering satellite platform, and former Chairman of Daum (South Korea’s pioneering web portal). Peter is one of Asia’s most experienced and influential media and telecom executives.
Billions of people in Asia have grown up watching television transmitted on satellites that Peter has launched and managed.
T.S. RAMAKRISHNAN
Showt’s Chief Technology Adviser and coach, T.S. is one of the world’s top software and network engineers and team builders. TS has a long track record of building world-beating startups – including Oracle, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Admob (Google).?
TS spent 10 years building out Oracle in its infancy.
He spent seven years at Yahoo creating and running Yahoo Messenger to become the world’s leading IM platform (while also running Yahoo Mail, one of the world’s leading webmail platforms).
TS was hired by Mark Zuckerberg to be the first VP of product engineering at Facebook, where TS oversaw site architecture, led the product engineering team, and built Facebook’s first mobile site.?
TS was recruited to be a founding VP of Engineering at AdMob, which grew to become the world’s leading mobile phone advertising marketplace (acquired by Google.)
CORREY VOO
Correy, Showt’s CTO for our R&D phase, is one of the world’s top technologists, engineers, and strategists.
He was Group CTO of UBS (the world’s top private bank) and before that, Bank of America, one of the world’s largest and most diverse financial services multinationals. Before that, he held several pioneering roles including Chief Architect and then CTO for British Telecom’s Global Services division, with a roster of corporate clients from all over the world. Correy led BTGS’s development of internet and mobile services in Europe, North America, and Asia.
MICHAEL MARCH
Michael, Showt’s CEO and Co-Founder has been a pioneer and innovator in South Asian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian media for over 30 years. Fluent in Chinese and Japanese, he started his career as an attorney in the Tokyo and Hong Kong offices of Paul Weiss, one of the world’s pre-eminent international law firms.
As NYNEX (later “Verizon”) Asia General Counsel, he spearheaded more than $1 billion of investment in telecommunication joint ventures in India, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
As Managing Director of National Geographic Asia, he launched the Nat Geo channel in India and across Southeast Asia.
As Vice President of NBC Asia, he coordinated the creation and launch of CNBC-TV18 in India and other NBC channels throughout Asia.
As SVP of Sony Pictures Entertainment, he led business development for all cable and satellite broadcasting in Asia, including Sony’s channels in India. Michael led the creation and served as Director of The One Alliance, the pioneering Sony-Discovery Indian channel distribution joint venture.
MANAW MODI
Showt’s CIO (Chief Information Officer), Manaw is a leading IT strategist and platform builder, having led teams in the United States and India for over two decades for some of the largest companies in the world. His core expertise is in realizing value related to IT in M&A cases. He has been part of M&A leadership for mega-mergers like BP-Amoco, and CapitalOne-North Fork.
Manaw was Enterprise Architect & Business Strategist for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Strategic Technologies Manager for CapitalOne, and Chief Data Architect for BP’s (British Petroleum) American operations. For his passion, he teaches Operations and Systems MBA-level courses.
DAVID R. HOFFMAN
David is Showt’s Senior Adviser for Greater China. For the past four decades, he’s been one of the world’s pre-eminent China business strategists/analysts.
Since 2008, David has been Managing Director of The China Center for Economics and Business, a division of the Conference Board, the world’s largest business think-tank, with over 1,000 public and private corporations in 60 countries as members.
For 21 years, David led PricewaterhouseCooper’s China Technology-InfoComms-Entertainment Group with global clients including AT&T, NBC Universal, Symantec, Time Warner, and Telstra.?
CHRISTOPHER STEWARD
Chris is Showt’s head of sales for Europe and Southeast Asia. He is one of the leading media sales executives in Europe and Asia for over 30 years. He was CNBC’s Vice President, Advertising Sales, in Europe & Asia Pacific, based in London and Hong Kong. He managed sales for CNBC, NBC Cable International, MSNBC, and National Geographic TV.
After that, for 10 years he was based in Singapore as Executive Vice President & Managing Director for Viacom’s MTV Networks Asia & Viacom Brand Solutions, Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.
DAGMAR TRINDADE
Dagmar is Showt’s head of Latin America. She is a 25-year veteran executive in entertainment and news, working for Brazil’s media giant Globo in their US and Brazil offices.?
She was Managing Editor, and Head of Production for Bloomberg News Brazil, and then Bloomberg’s head of Strategic Business Development for Latin America.
LEO AUSTIN
Leo is Showt’s Senior Advisor for China and the UK. He has native fluency in reading, writing, and speaking Mandarin, and spent 22 years managing businesses at the highest levels in China. He is one of the few foreigners to have managed a leading Chinese-owned corporation.
He has completed 12 major China investment and restructuring transactions.?
Twice named as one of China's 100 most innovative marketers, his work has taken him to over half the 1,355 counties in China. He has over one million followers on social media in China.
He has a master's degree in history from Oxford.?
ELINA OLLILA, Ph.D.?
Elina is Showt’s Chief of User Experience. Elina is a native of Finland, where she got her Ph.D. in User Experience from the prestigious Tampere University of Technology.?
She spent nine years as Principal UX Designer and researcher for Nokia, at the time the world’s leading mobile phone platform. Elina has been Chief Experience Officer at Kast (the leading online watch party platform) and Iconic Engine (a leading metaverse platform company, spin-off from Digital Domain) and led UX at Daybreak Games, Nokia, and OneVigor.
MARK OLLILA, Ph.D., MBA
Mark was Chairman of Showt’s Advisory Board until 2021. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Curtin University and an MBA from London Business School.
Mark has a 20-year legacy of accomplishments as a senior executive and board member throughout the computer gaming, nanotechnology, internet, software, and media technology industries. He played an integral role in the development and rollout of Nokia’s global services and also its long-term technology roadmap and innovation portfolio for smart devices.
Mark led Nokia’s first-party publishing business (games), video & photo sharing business, achieving a global reach in the hundreds of millions. He was also a core member of the deal team for Nokia’s and Microsoft’s strategic agreement in 2011. Mark has held leadership positions with Evasyst, Verve, Imagine Intelligent Materials, Blind Squirrel Games, EvoNexus, Adverty, Pyze, Kadho, and Kin Wellness.?
领英推荐
STEVEN GOLUS
Steven was Showt’s Chief Revenue Officer during our R&D phase. He has over 20 years of experience at the highest levels of digital advertising. He was VP of Sales and Strategy at DoubleClick and then at Google after Google acquired DoubleClick.
ANDY JACOBS
Andy, Showt’s COO, and Co-Founder has been a social entrepreneur, TV channel creator, and television production executive across Asia (India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Jordan, and Vietnam) for 25 years.?
JEAN KEELING
Jean, Showt’s CFO, has over 30 years of experience heading the finance teams at leading corporations in Europe, including Ocuco, Blinck, the Bromley Group, Organon Teknika, and Phelan Energy Group.
ANDREW BAGGULEY
Andy was Showt’s Chief Product Officer during our development phase. He has over 30 years of experience as a pioneering senior executive in digital media. He was Managing Director of Digital for Ladbrokes, Mobile Business & Product Lead for Guardian News and Media, and Head of Mobile Strategy for News International.?
Andy was the Senior Product Manager for Deutsche Telkom, and head of Data and Content for Lebara Mobile.?
JASON ROTHSTEIN, MBA
Jason is Showt’s has been Senior Advisor on corporate strategy and fundraising. At Microsoft he has been Director of M&A Integration, and at Netflix, Director of M&A Integration and Operations.
Fluent in Mandarin he was VP of Macquarie Group in their Shanghai and Singapore office, where he evaluated, structured, negotiated, and completed direct investments across the infrastructure and renewable energy sectors.?
He has an MBA from London Business School.?
CHAITANYA NADIGER
Chaitanya is Showt’s Web Architect, and Full stack web developer responsible for product design, development, testing, and developer operations in web team of Showt.
He is responsible for the architecture and implementation of technology solutions for the Web infrastructure of Showt DWEB, MWEB and Widgets.?
DHARSHANAH NAGENDRAN
Dharshanah is Showt’s Technical Lead for Core Systems responsible for the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of Showt backend systems, microservices, and REST API. She has been a Software Engineer and Lead for Nokia, Mercedes Benz, and Innso. She has a Masters from IIIT, Bengaluru.
PHANEENDRA KADDI
Phani is Showt’s Software Engineer responsible for the architecture and development of the core APIs used by the Showt platform, the data collection and management system responsible for Showtee data, and the event management system used for tracking Showt Events. He has worked on multiple early-stage startups.
PRAVEEN POTHANA
Praveen was a Lead Developer at Showt. He has been a Computer Scientist at Adobe, and Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft. He is a graduate of IIIT Hyderabad.
NEHA TEKRIWAL
Neha was Showt’s Lead Developer for Showt’s backend systems. She has been a software engineer for Meta, Amazon, Bank of America, and Psi Phi Labs.
RAMACHANDRA KOTA, Ph.D.?
Rama was Showt’s Principal Scientist, in charge of Showt AI and the data science behind’s Showt platform. He led the development of Showt’s Search and Data Acquisition Systems and architected the design and functionality of the real-time analytics features such as Trend analysis and Summarisation.
He has been Research Scientist at IBM, and Principal Applied Science manager at Microsoft.
He got his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southhampton. He is a graduate of IIIT Hyderabad.?
Publications: Rama Publications
TREVOR LYALL
Trevor was Showt’s VP of Mobile Product Development. He has been a lead developer for many important global media and communications companies, including Skype, Discovery, Sony, Ericsson, and Saab.?
RAHUL SARIKA
Rahul was Showt’s Lead Software Engineer. He has been the tech lead and head of engineering in several important startups, including Urban Ladder, Reflektive, and Devathon.
He is a graduate of IIIT Hyderabad.?
TUSHAR KAPOOR
Tushar is Showt's Business Development National Head for India. He has a Degree (Hons) in Finance and Management from DIT, Ireland.
SWAPNA DAVID
Swapna is Showt’s Senior Advisor. She is one of India’s top film and TV producers.?
JULIAN BUCKERIDGE
Julian is Showt’s Senior Advisor on executive search, hiring, and retention.
He is Managing Partner, Greater China & Singapore at NGS Global, one of the world’s leading retained executive search firms. A fluent Mandarin speaker, Julian has successfully completed hundreds of senior-level search assignments across the Asia Pacific region, covering key functions for Asia-based publicly listed companies, as well as the Asian business units of western multinationals.?
Julian spent the first 12 years of his commercial career working in the Consumer Products and Media industries.?
Julian graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the 6th Gurkha Rifles, carrying out many deployments worldwide and completing his service as a Captain.
?
“Democracy is not merely a form of Government.
It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow humans”
---BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR (father of the Indian constitution)
4. Is it different? Have you thoroughly researched and scanned the world to find similar enterprises?
Yes and yes.
All the millions of polls since modern polling began 199 years ago have been controlled by the elites in media, business, and politics.
No criticism here of polls; polls are a wonderful tool. If you want to find out what the public thinks about XYZ, you ask 500 to 1,000 people at random, even in a massive country like India with 1.4 billion citizens. If you are paying for a statistically accurate survey, and 1,000 is enough to survey, and asking 2,000 gives you no more accuracy, then why ask 2,000 or 200,000?
We started Showt to do something as powerful as a standard poll, but much much more. We aim to give everyone in the world a chance to quickly, easily, and anonymously have their say about nearly anyone or anything at any time and be heard, counted, replied to, and remembered for posterity, regardless of their gender, age, religion, nationality, language, literacy, or income level. Our goal is revolutionary but simple in execution.
Imagine what we can deliver; the 99.9999% -- a 16-year-old in rural India who only speaks Hindi, or a 70-year-old retired school teacher in Rio de Janeiro who only speaks Portuguese -- to have the same power to be heard and counted as the elite, the .00001% -- the Elon Musks and the Beyonces.
We reverse-engineered the entire platform to achieve our revolutionary goal, and what we came up with was opposed to standard polls.?
There is nothing like Showt, Showting, and ShowtCounts.
There is nothing like ShowtBacks.
There is nothing like ShowtAds.
When we do it right, there will be no room for copycat, ersatz Showts, Showting, ShowtCounts, ShowtBacks, and ShowtAds in the newly created Showt Instant Global Voting world.
“All people deserve to have a voice and be treated with respect no matter who they are.”
---JAMES BLINKEN
5. If it’s a category that doesn’t exist yet, will people -- post-launch -- affirm the viability of the business model by saying “That’s obvious” and “Why didn’t someone think of this before?”
Yes, we are confident that when three-four billion people see the 250x300 Showt widget in their news stories and their OTT platforms and read about the enormous global ShowtCounts for important global events, they will say “Why didn’t anyone think of this before?” and “I’m happy to have a chance to express myself instead of just yelling at my computer screen!”?
Everyone has an opinion -- but ALSO EVERYBODY IS BUSY -- and if it takes two seconds to express that opinion, and it costs nothing, and the Showter knows they will be heard, counted, remembered, replied to, and reported on, THEY WILL TAKE THOSE TWO SECONDS, and feel a kind of pride and joy in being heard globally.
When they start to see ShowtBacks coming from the Showtees, they will be delighted that a Showtee is taking the time to reply to them, even when they have Showted No.
A new age of active engagement for the people of the world -- the 99.999% -- with the elite -- the 0.0001% -- will quickly emerge. Brands (and that includes politicians, sports teams, athletes, and entertainers) know the restrictions and limitations of current social media platforms, where the average person has to:
-- follow a brand on the social media platform
-- wait until the brand posts on that social media platform
-- rates that post with a like or some other emoticon (no dislike is possible) or can write a comment (all with no anonymity possible)
“How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be great.”
---SETH GODIN
6. Does it solve an important problem for a lot of consumers?
Homo sapiens are social beings. We all want to express ourselves and interact with our peers, our compatriots, and the world. We want to be heard. BUT WE --AS A SPECIES -- HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT QUICKLY AND EASILY. UNTIL SHOWT.
The stats are stark: 99.99% of the world’s population have never heard about anything in their lifetimes, except if they live in a democracy and they vote every four or five years.
In May 2019, the largest election in world history, the Indian national election was held. 611 million citizens voted, 67% of the 912 million eligible. The ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party, won handily with 229 million votes, or 37% of the total voters. So in a country of 1.4 billion people, the ruling party won overwhelmingly with 17% of the total population voting for them.
With Showt, the entire adult population of India with an internet device (900+ million and growing) can vote/Showt for anyone or anything at any time, minute by minute. They don’t have to wait. Their Showt will be heard immediately throughout all of India and the world.
Modern internet technology allows people all over the world to express themselves, but current technology -- social media -- is deficient in many ways that constrain free expression for the masses.
Most importantly, there is a lack of anonymity across the main social media platforms, so free expression can be dangerous, particularly in countries with authoritarian governments or social tensions where free speech can lead to violence.
Despite the enormous success of current social media giants, they mirror the existing power structure. The 0.01% who could easily harness traditional old-school media (the top entertainers, politicians, athletes, business people, brands, and political parties) 30 years ago before the internet age retained and monopolize all the power they had before.?
Showt has been reverse-engineered to counter all the deficiencies of the current dominant social media platforms.?
“The media has a lot of power that they can use to keep democracy alive but unfortunately,?
I see a lot of media working just the other way. We must start using the power of media in the positive direction.”
—FOUNDER AND CEO OF A LEADING NEWSGROUP IN ASIA
SEE PART 2/3 AND PART 3/3