Geosync Global LLC

Geosync Global LLC is trying to use augmented reality to merge the written and physical world with the benefits of the virtual world.

The Des Moines-based business, which was started in May by former CDS Global Inc. employees Shayne Huston and Nabeel Meghji, is trying to garner interest from businesses in a smartphone application called Kooaba.

The app, which the two licensed for use in North America, essentially works like this: Users download the free app to their telephone. Then, when the users see an image in the physical world that has been activated – explanation of activation below – they select the app, which launches the camera function on the phone. They take a picture of the activated image, and the Kooaba app takes them to a predefined landing page set up by Geosync.

So for example, a company like Starbucks Corp. can do this: It could work with Geosync, which would upload the Starbucks logo to Kooaba. The company would then work with Geosync and tell Huston and Meghji what kinds of options – a link to starbucks.com, a video montage of its newest product, a coupon for a free coffee – that it would like on the landing page.

So what other ways could this be used? Well, Huston and Meghji are targeting advertising agencies, newspaper and magazine companies, and exploring activating company brands as in the Starbucks example.

Huston envisions a day when newspapers use the technology to, for example, activate the main photograph on the sports page, and coax users to use Kooaba to watch a video highlight of a game-winning touchdown. Or, he sees advertisers being able to turn their advertisements in magazines into coupons users can take with them anywhere.

Once a user takes an image, that information is stored in the phone as long as the user wants, to be accessed at any time. This, he said, makes it ideal for aiding users who want to share that highlight or coupon with friends, without having to have the physical copy of the product.

“You have to get out of those traditional normal types of things,” Huston said. “You can still use traditional mediums that you are talking about, but enhance it.”

The idea is similar to QR codes and Microsoft tags – two-dimensional bar codes being used right now that can be read with a smartphone application – but Huston sees advantages to his product. For one, a bar code next to a logo might not work well from a design standpoint. Plus, he said, once the image is activated, it remains activated, and the bar codes don’t keep the information stored on the phone.

Geosync, he said, is in the sales and marketing stage. Though the company hasn’t had any clients, the idea has been proved to work in Europe, where the Kooaba app originated. In fact, many CD covers and movie posters are already loaded into the system by Kooaba, which is based in Switzerland.

“It is only going to grow,” Huston said. “The more people that get smart phones, the more that are going to use it.”

Shift

This team of Web developers is trying to give Des Moines-area businesses direct access to their development capabilities.

Shift, which was started last week by a trio of developers who had been working with Performance Marketing Inc., is a new business separate from Performance Marketing that specializes in Web application and mobile development.

“We quickly found that a lot of the clients that are out there are sometimes turned off by the overhead of a marketing company,” said Ben Sinclair, one of the three founders. “They just want the direct access to (the developers).”

Sinclair, Chris Burns and Nate Becker are touting their experiences working on large projects for Fortune 100 clients, and are banking that there are many potential clients seeking direct access to their services.

For example, Shift’s first client was an author who wanted a website developed for his book. Shift has already turned the project around.

“Imagine trying to turn a cruise ship. It takes a long time. Well, we are a speedboat,” Chris Burns said. “And speed doesn’t necessarily mean things are done sloppily either. It just means we can react when we need to.”

Having the support of Performance Marketing, which provides office space for the start-up, doesn’t hurt either, as the arrangement allows Shift to draw on the agency’s resources.

“You get the backing of an agency like Performance Marketing, but when you call on the phone, you are going to get me, Chris or Nate,” Sinclair said.

Shift is hoping to add another developer at some point, but the company would like to remain small as it makes an effort to expand its client base in the coming months.

“One of the key points is to stay small,” Sinclair said. “Once you move beyond three to four people, it is a whole different game, and that kind of impacts what we are trying to deliver on a relationship level.”

1501 42nd St., West Des Moines, (515) 978-8236, info@interactiveshift.com

Vision-1 LLC

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

That’s the concept driving start-up Vision-1 LLC to bring its patented software, which gathers market research data from consumers at the point of sale, to the retail industry.

Lois Pannkuk, president and CEO of the Huxley-based company, started Vision-1 in 2007, eight years after filing for the patent.

Pannkuk realized that businesses were growing and were no longer mom-and-pop shops where the owners interacted with the customers. This, she said, makes it hard for business owners to monitor the “heartbeat” of their customers, which in turn makes it tough for a corporation to manage its image at multiple branches.

Essentially Vision-1’s software works like this. When a consumer at a store goes to check out, the first item scanned prompts the PIN pad – where you swipe your credit or debit card – to display a single question, such as “How would you rate your shopping experience.”

Customers respond and the data is then stored in a transaction log, compiled and sent to the corporate office.

That data can than be sliced and broken down by each location, and even further to display in some cases who the cashier was.

“That is what all of the stores are seeking; they are seeking store-level data,” Pannkuk said. “And the managers are hard-pressed to know how to manage customer service, because they have no scoring system to know how they are doing.”

Though market research exists, this tool, she said, can provide customer feedback during the heat of the transaction and experience, giving an accurate image of the interaction.

Pannkuk envisions the software being used in multiple industries, such as the financial services and restaurant and hospitality industries. The possibilities are endless, she said, but Vision-1 will first focus on the nation’s 500,000 or so retailers because they already have the hardware – the PIN pad – in place.

Vision-1 is positioned to take the software to market in the near future.

Not only does the business have a partnership in place with the second-largest U.S. PIN pad integrator, but it was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Pannkuk said a pilot project with a national retailer is planned for this fall, and she hopes to take the software to the National Retail Federation Conference next January.

The key, Pannkuk said, was working with the PIN pad integrator, because that allows retailers to have trust in the software.

“(The partnership) is going to take us where we need to be,” she said. “That was our biggest hurdle, and we have already overcome it.”

200 Centennial Drive, Huxley, www.vision-1.net, info@vision-1.net