Media & Mobile Shine at LAUNCH Silicon Valley Event June 7, 2012

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to help judge a session on Media & Mobility at the LAUNCH Silicon Valley Conference in Mountain View. Five companies presented:

• AppSmyth which provides a mobile loyalty platform for retailers and brands
• KlickEx, a currency exchange service that helps consumers in markets around the world avoid paying banking fees
• Moodstocks provides an API and SDKs that brands can use to build image recognition into your apps
• Notous develops application software for NFC (near field communication and RFID software and hardware integration services.
• Wiz Communications which describes itself as a “disruptive cloud-based over the top push mobile messaging exchange”

It was an impressive group and while each company had a unique offering, there was one a common theme that many shared:  enabling brands to reach their customers on mobile.

Where we are today in mobile reminds me a lot of the early days of social media when many big brands were struggling to figure it out.   A number of interesting start-ups emerged that helped companies not only understand how to better engage with customers, but also how to mine the information they were getting from them to build better products and experiences.

Fast forward to today and brands are now challenged with how to reach and engage with their customers now that they are spending more and more time on their mobile devices.  It’s an exciting time and space and I look forward to see which players emerge as the leaders.

Until then, congratulations to KlickEx for being named one of the day’s companies “Most Likely to Succeed” and to all of the companies for a job well done.