TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring US-based Tracks, an iPhone application for collecting, mapping, grouping and sharing travel images.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
Vic Singh is a founding general partner with ENIAC Ventures and CEO of Tracks, a stealth mode mobile software startup. He has over 12 years of experience as an entrepreneur, operator and investor in software startups.
Daniel Klaus is an entrepreneur and investor in new media and technology companies. From April 2006 to the December 2009, Klaus has served as Chief Executive Officer of the online media company Music Nation, Inc. and Original Signal Recordings, a company he co-founded and led through three rounds of equity and institutional debt financings including Greylock Partners, Point Judith Capital, and LightHouse Capital Partners.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
We received funding from VCs and angels.
What problem are you trying to solve?
There is no easy way to create group albums right from your phone and share them. We are creating a simple way to group and share your experiences with whom you choose in a visually beautiful way.
Tracks lets users effortlessly create and publish their own experiences - called tracks - from camera phone to publication with just a few clicks. Capture a pub crawl, a cruise with the family, or a child's soccer game.
Tracks are ongoing stories that contain photos and text created over time and across locations.
They are auto-published and updated in real time as more media is added in a simple and beautifully visual way. Users can relive and share their tracks as a living personal publication.
Personal publishing is a booming business ($3BB) and ripe for disruption. Over 20 million photobooks were produced last year and one in every four households in the US takes part in scrapbooking to preserve and share their life memories.
But the process of creating a personal publication is cumbersome - take photos, upload photos, import photos, editphotos, arrange photos, then finally order, print, and share your creation.
And today’s tools don’t leverage the confluence of mobile, social and local to create and publishmemories. At the same time, the ubiquitous camera phone has enabled anyone to create high qualitymedia.
In 2011, the number of camera phones will surpass one billion and exceed the number of all cameras ever produced.
Describe the business, core products and services?
Tracks creates visual stories told through photos. Create an album (track) right from your phone and choose to invite and collaborate on that track with whomever you want in real time.
We worked with event organizers to create tracks for their events and have the track streamed on a big screen at the venue.
We also are in talks with brand partners to use tracks to enhance their customer engagements.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Our customers at launch and continue to be the average consumer with an iPhone who want to share the pictures they take in a private way.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
Yes, we tested our idea with focus groups during the development process.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
We are looking at various opportunities that include promoted/sponsored tracks at events and printing photo books of tracks.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Tracks is a lifestyle app that captures entire experiences in a private way to those closest to you.
There are a lot of photo apps out there but almost all of them only capture snapshots or moments in time but not the whole experience.
Hundreds of millions of people use their phones to take pictures and people want an easy way to create and share group photo albums right from their phone.
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?
During the initial fundraising round, an investor said we were in a competitive space and encouraged us to try something else.
We felt our app is unique and does something different then the other photo apps out there.
Our goal has always been to create a simple way to let people share and capture their experiences. Because life is about one’s journeys not just snapshots in time.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Our metrics are based on user base and the number of tracks created.
Here is a clip:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNvXVBVt3Do
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.