August 2009 Entrepreneur's Forum:

Local Business Models

Target audience:

• Startups whose business model requires engagement with geographically specific businesses (online or offline) and/or consumers interacting with these businesses

Topics:

• What are examples of successful startups with local business models?
• Common challenges faced by local startups and strategies for addressing them, including:
  • Identifying businesses and consumers in regions relevant to your startup
  • Targeted marketing to local businesses and consumers. Can this be done through strictly online marketing or does it require a physical (sales/marketing) presence in the target region? How can this physical presence be outsourced for 'ultra light' entrepreneurs?
  • Dealing with varying levels of technology capability in local businesses and consumers. What are there 'lowest common denominator' problems that are unique to local business models? What level of technical capability can be assumed of local businesses and consumers?
  • Developing a 'critical mass' of users in a target region. Making a locally targeted service useful even with a small number of users. Leveraging a critical mass of users in one region to generate usage in another.
• What features of mobile devices and applications facilitate engaging local businesses and consumers?
• Capabilities of mobile advertising networks and niches where startups have been successful working with them.
• What challenges are unique to business models targeting local businesses vs local consumers?

Moderator:

• Murat Aktihanoglu, Founder and CEO of Centrl Inc and organizer of the Entrepreneurs Roundtable

Panelists (alphabetic order):

• Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle.com
• Mark Josephson, CEO of Outside.In
• Mark Potts, Co-Founder and CEO of GrowthSpur
• Landy Ung, Co-Founder and CEO of 8coupons.com and founder of the hyperlocal roundtable