How to compete with Google & Facebook

I’ve recently been working in the ‘places’ sector, where firms are trying to find ways to help people browse and select physical places to visit. This is certainly challenging, as Google Local and Facebook Places are obviously serious competitors. So how do you steal a march on the big boys? Actually, it’s a lot simpler […]

Spherical Images

I invested in Spherical Images as a minority shareholder.  My priority was to work to improve the product offering and range, and also to win new business.  The firm did panoramic online tours, with a custom-developed player.  Clients including Madame Tussauds, the Royal Albert Hall, and also a variety of other work, such as displaying […]

Investing in online ventures

One of the first investments I made was perhaps the most typical of my investment style.  I initially met the team from ‘Alive and Giving’ when I was judging a competition at UCL.  The potential of both the team and the idea impressed me, and I agreed to come on board.  During my time with […]

Better monetisation through usability improvements

Some time ago I worked for a casual games firm on a fairly extensive consultancy project.  One of the particular lessons which stuck with me from this engagement was the way that firms can use existing data to improve usability (UX) and then turn that into cash. The work I initiated involved data mining to […]

What do customers actually want?