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Q&A: Alex Blum, KickApps
On the heals of KickApps' recent news about their white label social networking platform's new ability to translate Web sites powered by KickApps into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese, we caught up with CEO Alex Blum and had him tell us more about his 80 person venture, which launched in 2005.
Q: What are the challenges of doing business in New York?
Talent is always a challenge no matter what market you’re in. Finding the right people who have the right experience but who thrive in a technology start up environment is no easy task in New York or anywhere else.
Q:Why are you here instead of, say, Silicon Valley?
We chose to be headquartered in New York because it’s the media and entertainment center of the world. That market currently represents the largest market opportunity in our industry. Being in the City allows us to be close to our customers and also enables us to meet their needs effectively.
For our employees, we believe that New York offers a unique mix of professional and personal experiences, which give them a broader view of the market and business in general as opposed to being yet another technology company in the Silicon Valley. They draw from this to be more creative in both day-to-day execution and when it comes to defining our business strategy.
We also have an office in San Francisco, which enables us to tap into the innovation that comes out of the Silicon Valley.
Q: What are your financing details?
KickApps has raised two rounds of venture funding totaling $18M. Our investors are Softbank Capital, Spark Capital, Prism Venture Partners and Jarl Mohn.
Q: Describe what you do.
KickApps is an on demand, social and rich media software platform which provides web publishers, brands and marketers with a complete suite of social and rich media applications for their website. Our customers use KickApps to create their own branded social networks and other social media experiences on their websites, such as photo & video sharing, blogging, message boards, online video and widgets. This enables them to create online communities, which in turn grows their website’s audience, generates new revenue opportunities and drives deeper brand affinity with their customers. We currently power over 35,000 social media Web sites for large brands and small businesses, including HBO, CW Television, Budget Travel, National Geographic, the New York Knicks and Rangers, and the San Francisco 49ers. We’re also adding about 1,000 new Web sites a week.
Q: You’re pitched to industry as a white label. Are you just B2B?
We are used by global businesses and small businesses to power their social media websites and experiences on their websites (i.e. video, photos, widgets, etc. that are integrated into their existing websites). Our entire platform is available on a self-service basis, that is, anyone can sign up and create a social media website at KickApps.com. Because of the way our platform is designed, even people with little to no technical expertise can create a Web site very easily using our ‘PowerPoint’ like editing tools. For those that want deeper levels of integration into their existing sites, they can style their sites with complete flexibility using CSS, HTML and JavaScript or use our APIs.
Q: Next steps? Plans? Expansions?
We will continue to expand our products to help our customers grow their web audiences, create new revenue opportunities and build their brands. We’ve recently established our presence in the UK and Europe and expect our international growth to continue in similar ways as it has in the US.
Q: Has the financial market or economic slowdown affected you?
In many instances, we’re seeing budgets shift from offline advertising to online. Because of the context of our ‘niche’ social media Web sites and the data that can be used for more intelligent advertising, brands and web publishers are generally looking at social media as new ways for improving their web businesses.
While instability in the market can be challenging, we’re happy to be in a fast growing space that is looked at as a strategic must for brands, marketers and web publishers.
Q: Describe a recent challenge, mistake or learning experience.
Building a software-as-a-service platform that is flexible enough to meet the needs of a large and small business and is easy to use, while being powerful enough for very high-end deployments is no easy task.
Q: What are you most proud of recently?
Our ability to execute and innovate. From producing an amazing and innovative product, including our new drag-and-drop Widget and Video Player Studio that enables anyone to create widgets and custom video players, to the way we’ve marketed and sold the product, I’m delighted in how our team has delivered. The biggest measure of this is our customer list, which is literally a who’s who of major brands.
Q: What did you have for breakfast today?
Our receptionist Veronique bakes fresh biscuits every morning. We’re very spoiled!
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