Mobile Groove

I’m back with Part 2 of my favorite podcast, an interview with Tom Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures, that also marks the start of MSG’s new series of interviews with VCs and early-stage and emerging startups. In fact, I’m in touch with the great line-up of 20 early-stage and emerging startups presenting at the Mobile Peer Awards (which I also judge) for similar podcasts and hope to circle back with the best and brightest of the pack after the event.

In the meantime, I encourage you to listen in to Tom, who offers entrepreneurs valuable advice and the inside track on the mobile companies and concepts highest on his radar. Some good news in these challenging economic times: There is plenty of money and opportunity, but it’s up to entrepreneurs to structure their good ideas so VCs get it. What pitches are getting the most traction? The Apple App Store and similar schemes from Google (Android), RIM at one end of the spectrum and Qualcomm and Amdocs at the other (check next week for an MSG exclusive on Amdocs app store strategy) have – as Tom put it – “changed the entrepreneurial landscape.” Open systems, open storefronts and open operators. Now all we need is the apps.

I’ve done dozens of podcasts to date, but this one stands out as the one I can listen to again and again. In fact, rather than edit it down, I turned it into a two-part series. Why? Because Tom Huseby, Managing Partner who formed SeaPoint Ventures back in 1997, is an industry veteran who calls them as he see them.

A browse through Tom’s bio and it’s clear he’s not one to follow the crowd of lemming investors who rush to the next new thing, only to drop if when the cool factor has gone cold. To the contrary, Tom is convinced early-stage startups can pay-off big if investors stick with them for the long-term. To identify the do’s and don’ts for startups in a downturn we started off talking through the business basics, such as the best exit strategies and the opportunities for “kitchen-table startups” – as he calls them – and app developers. Tom’s answers are insightful and entertaining – all the more reason to listen in.

But the main attraction is Tom’s take on what mobile advertising really needs: Engagement. In his view, it’s all about providing and managing a one-to-one conversation between brands and people, and he’s looking for companies that “get” it. As he puts it: “There are a few agencies that appear to get it, but they und up getting slotted as a mobile agency…What you want to be is a creative advertiser [agency] that uses mobile.” Since there are so few on the horizon, the time may be right to start one yourself.

A complaint filed earlier this month by the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group with the Federal Trade Commission continues to make waves. The groups claim deceptive practices throughout the mobile advertising industry and ask the commission to launch an investigation into the privacy implications of marketing practices targeted at mobile phone users.

While the 52-page document highlights some valid concerns, it also exaggerates the intent and ability of the some 50 vendors listed in the complaint to threaten privacy and consumer welfare. This hyperbole is unfortunate as it seriously compromises the credibility of the complaint and clouds the core issues that the mobile industry must address, such as improved citizen education about the costs and benefits of providing personal data.

In my response (posted today on Mobile Marketer) I look at ChaCha, Xtract, Bango and AdMob, and outline how a citizen-focused organization – Every Single One Of Us – could provide a solution that protects – and doesn’t patronize – empowered individual to take change of their mobile advertising experiences.

A preview of my mobile advertising findings, a summary of BuzzCity’s ambitious strategy to be number one and the excitement builds before the first meeting of Every Single One Of Us.

Mobile changes all the rules, allowing us to live, work and play in a new collective state of hyper-connectedness. Add the ability of the mobile to blur the boundaries of the virtual and physical worlds – and we witness a shift that will affect every industry that relies on the Web for communications, business growth and interactive marketing.