All posts in Interviews

Continuing in my effort to get more exposure to companies throughout South Florida, I stumbled upon a neat company out of Palm Beach County called HiConversion. I’d met several of the guys behind this clever company at Refresh, and thought they would make for a great example of a focused and determined startup trying to make a go of it down here. In the photo we have (from L-R) Zee Aganovic, Bruce Goldstein, and CJ Boguszewski.

1. What prompted you to start your company?
The company was started to address a market need that other products and services couldn’t fill — in other words, there are no SaaS products that can deliver the benefits of multi-variate testing (MVT) to low-traffic pages through an easy-to-use, point-and-click interface (no coding) at a price “the rest of us” can afford.

2. What problem/pain point/issue does your company solve?
We solve the digital marketing ROI problem – directly tying the money clients spend with us to revenues (or leads/subscriptions if that’s their business).

3. How does being in your city affect your business?
Being in south Florida ties the company to a marketing and technology talent pool of vibrant, multicultural ideas. As a borderless product, it is important to have that openness of company outlook to us.

4. Who are your main competitors?
We address a market space that competitors such as Google Website Optimizer, Omniture, SiteSpect, and others can’t easily reach.

5. How would you describe your Business/Product/Service, in l0 words or less?
SaaS-enabled patent-pending adaptive multi-variate testing product. Is that 10 or less?

6. What is your business model?
Our business model is simple — deliver Hiconversion’s SaaS to websites of any size at a reasonable price, and make our customers more revenue/leads/subscriptions in weeks, not months or years.

7. Who are your target customers?
Our target customers are websites whose annual revenues fall between $2M and $20M, though we work just as well with sites whose revenue is larger. In lead generation or subscription management terms, customers who are spending more than $5,000 per month on search engine optimization or search engine marketing fall into our sweet spot as well.

8. What makes you different from your competitors?
We’re different by design — we are a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) specialist, not a web analytics company who provides the data that underpin CRO, nor are we in any way trying to increase traffic to websites.

So this is part 3 in the series, this time the respondent is Alex deCarvalho from Scrapblog.1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

Miami has always been a hub for South American business and ties are being made to the Old Continent through a growing community of Europeans. Miami’s attractions include the outstanding weather, good facilities and infrastructure, the many options for entertainment, the great boating and watersports and the dynamic, multicultural, latin population. Miami’s financial center, ports, airport, free-trade zone and top hotels and conference facilities make it easy to conduct business here and attract, tourists, businessmen and real-estate developers and investors.

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

Miami has always been a hub for South American business and ties are being made to the Old Continent through a growing community of Europeans. Miami’s attractions include the outstanding weather, good facilities and infrastructure, the many options for entertainment, the great boating and watersports and the dynamic, multicultural, latin population. Miami’s financial center, ports, airport, free-trade zone and top hotels and conference facilities make it easy to conduct business here and attract, tourists, businessmen and real-estate developers and investors.

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

More so than ever, Miami seems to be going through growing pains as the city booms. The resulting inconveniences include frustratingly slow traffic during rush hours or downpours and many eyesore constructions sites. Friends of mine have counted up to 30 tower cranes just North and South of the downtown area. The real estate market also seems to be saturated and overpriced as supply has outstripped demand for the first time in a decade. Of course, these things will correct themselves with time and traffic is not a real problem for locals who know the ins and outs, backstreets and shortcuts of Miami

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and long term strategies?

Apart for a few notable companies in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, South Florida is not considered a technology center. This means that for those of us working in the internet or telecoms, it is harder to find talent, interest, or investment. This has started to change over the past year or so and we are seeing new initiatives and conferences that will help organize and hopefully galvanize the web/tech scene.More so than ever, Miami seems to be going through growing pains as the city booms. The resulting inconveniences include frustratingly slow traffic during rush hours or downpours and many eyesore constructions sites. Friends of mine have counted up to 30 tower cranes just North and South of the downtown area. The real estate market also seems to be saturated and overpriced as supply has outstripped demand for the first time in a decade. Of course, these things will correct themselves with time and traffic is not a real problem for locals who know the ins and outs, backstreets and shortcuts of Miami.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Because of the attractiveness of Miami mentioned above, construction and real estate values will continue to grow. As the city grows, there will be more interest in art and culture and we will see more top notch performances at the Carnival and Knight Centers for the Performing Arts and other, new cultural venues. The other top industries in South Florida will hold steady, including import-export (which is heavily dependent on South American politics and trade restrictions), healthcare, and finance. Finally, I hope web/tech/telecoms related industries will make significant headway in Miami in the next 5 to 10 years and it would be nice to see some early success stories

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

A wish list would include better cellphone coverage, more choices in smartphones, greater broadband speeds and municipal wi-fi or WiMax deployment. This would presuppose easier access to high-tech venture capital.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Because of the attractiveness of Miami mentioned above, construction and real estate values will continue to grow. As the city grows, there will be more interest in art and culture and we will see more top notch performances at the Carnival and Knight Centers for the Performing Arts and other, new cultural venues. The other top industries in South Florida will hold steady, including import-export (which is heavily dependent on South American politics and trade restrictions), healthcare, and finance. Finally, I hope web/tech/telecoms related industries will make significant headway in Miami in the next 5 to 10 years and it would be nice to see some early success stories.

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

A wish list would include better cellphone coverage, more choices in smartphones, greater broadband speeds and municipal wi-fi or WiMax deployment. This would presuppose easier access to high-tech venture capital.

So with all those responses posted. How would you respond? email me brian[at]webpl.us and we’ll post yours up too. Or even better, post them on your own blog, and link back here!

This is part 2 in the series of posts on Miami from an entrepreneur’s point of view.The following are the responses submitted by Carlos Garcia, CEO of Scrapblog.

1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

Miami is booming. You can see it in the skyline. According to Wired Magazine, Miami is going from a few skyscrapers to over 50 by 2012. How many of those buildings will host Web startups? It¹s great to be part of acommunity that is growing at that rate.If you are a parent, Miami has great schools and lots of outdoor activities to enjoy with the family. If you are single, Miami is supposed to be a party town (just don¹t ask me to where to go).

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businessman in Miami?

Nothing major. Recruiting is still more difficult than in cities like San Francisco or even Austin. However, as the community continues to grow and connect it has become more viable to find great people. There are great Web professionals in Miami, it is just a matter of doing lots networking to find them.

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and long term strategies?

Well, I end up traveling a lot to the West Coast and up north. The main reason I travel is for conferences. Also, there are very few local VCs focusing on consumer Internet. However, East Coast VCs from Boston and New York are starting to spend more time in Miami.

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

Hopefully, Web and Tech startups, but I am sure that real estate will continue to dominate for a while.

5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

There¹s lots of momentum in the Miami Web community. I would like to see that continue. I would also like to see more local starups leveraging from the diversity that we have here in Miami, not only in relation to Latin America but with Europe as well.

So for those of you awaiting the responses from my survey, here are the first ones I received from Leonard Boord the CEO of theGorb.com1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?

An attractive lifestyle that allures people to live here. A gateway city that connects the US to Latin America. An airport that allows you to easily travel to many destination with non-stop flights. A mix of people that allows one to obtain unique perspectives. No state income tax. 

2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?

None. I have been able to build successful companies that have been acquired with out any issue. 

3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and longterm strategies?

In my web endeavours, the biggest issue is the smaller list of VC’s that consider Miami home. 

4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?

With the changes in the political climates in LATAM Miami will continue to grow. Miami is now an attractive destination for people from Latin America as well as Europe 

I was sitting here at my desk last night wondering 2 things, one, why was I still at the office at 7pm?? and two: what draws does Miami have for the budding entrepreneur? So I decided I’d ask some of my friends from Refresh what they thought about Miami. So here is what I asked them

1. What do you see as the primary benefits to doing business in Miami?
2. What downsides/obstacles have you encountered as a businesman in Miami?
3. How has being in Miami affected your company’s short term and longterm strategies?
4. Where do you see the most growth in Miami over the next 5 years? 10?
5. What would you like to see in Miami in relations to the web and business?

I’ve tagged Carlos Garcia of Scrapblog, Alex DeCarvalho now also of Scrapblog, and Leonard Boord of theGorb. I’ll post their responses today.