TechLife Columbus: Local iPhone Innovation - Cornhole Allstars, JoeMetric, 14ninetytwo

Jon Myers, founder of JUFTI, got the attention of the entire room as he talked about the importance of having a unique marketing strategy for deploying i-phone applications.

“Being an i-phone application, you have to stand out from the 80,000 competitors trying to promote their applications and vying for the consumer’s dollars”, says Jon. “By focusing on two key areas you can increase your chances of success. First you must have a differentiating value proposition in your product and secondly, you must have a unique way to market the product at both the micro and macro level.”

JUFTI just released its first i-phone application called Cornhole AllStars or known in Canada as C******e, a great marketing opportunity for the application as Jon described it. They are 90% complete on a second application soon to be disclosed.

Jon, was one of three speakers talking i-phone development last Thursday, August 20^th. The event, held at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center (DEC) and entitled Local i-phone/mobile Innovation and Development, kicked off the first of a series of innovation events sponsored by the DEC and TechLife. About thirty five people were in attendance and some shuffled off to Matt the Miller’s to continue the networking. Curiosity drove one guest to travel all the way from Lexington, KY, to see first-hand the development and people of Columbus. Check out the interview with Luke Murray, as well as some of our speakers.

Willie Neumann, of 14ninetytwo, shared the exciting new web and mobile development group’s mission to help virtually incubate the top three application ideas in the Central Ohio area over a ninety day period. They also provide business in a box, mentoring and help incubated companies find their first client. 14ninteytwo kicked off this weekend after reviewing 40 applications and inviting 14 applicants to pitch their ideas. Three ideas were chosen this past weekend at the idea pitch event. Willie indicated that 14ninetytwo plans to continue incubating companies after the successful launch of the first three companies. Read more about the event here. http://www.danonit.com/blog1/2009/08/22/14ninetytwo-one-minute-pitches/

Adam Winter, a founder of JoeMetric, also spoke expressing his viewpoint that an iPhone development company is not all that different from any other company; it requires executives to be fiscally smart to avoid the effects of financial Darwinism.

“My philosophy for managing the company is around capital efficiency, says Adam. “We were funded by the Tech Genesis Grant, successfully found grants to fund all but half of 3 interns and consistently look for capital free work strategies like having our interns use their own laptops to work.”

JoeMetric is scheduled to release two iPhone products, JoeCoupon(TM) a geo-targeted coupon service based on your personal buying desires and habits, and JoeSurvey(TM) an online survey tool that pays you while supplying valuable market research to companies.

We are busy planning our next innovation event and encourage you to provide feedback on innovative ideas would like us to explore. Please contact Sandy Blanquera at sandy@socialboomerang.com with ideas.