Having a listed media company as an investor has been a positive experience says Jonathan Barouch, founder and CEO of Roamz, an app which pulls in content through your Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, to show you what’s going on nearby.
Roamz launched almost two years ago, following the sale of Barouch’s previous company Fastflowers.com.au, to Jack Singleton of 1300flowers. While Barouch kicked in the seed funds, he also raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by ASX-listed Salmat.
It sounds like the serious funding was necessary; “There were 11 or 12 guys working on it for 10 months,” said Barouch.
“The space is pretty hot so you need to you need to build (the product) and win the market.”
Barouch says the app has now been downloaded more than 150,000 times. Although, he says, the initial downloads are one piece of the puzzle.
“The challenge is working out how to re-engage. People can use an app once and forget.”
“You’re up against the 20 other apps someone has on their phone, so it’s not just getting someone to download.”
Barouch said the company had spent time refining its product over the past few months, adding a search feature and developing the location features, adding the ability to “flick a star” for a particular coffee shop or restaurant, so that you are reminded of it next time you’re in that particular area.
Adding search, and the ability to filter content by topic, has been a success with 11,000 searches since Roamz added the search feature.
What’s the plan for Roamz in the next few months? Barouch is focussed on hitting a million downloads as “quick as possible”. It’s likely this will occur sometime early next year.
“It’s mainly iPhone downloads but we’re also on Android. Our current version launched four weeks ago.”
He’s also been talking with merchants about the planned roll-out of the merchant tools. Trials have already taken place with Dymocks, Thredbo, and Shine Australia, the production company behind The Voice.
“The merchant tools are being trialled. There’s a beta version now and there’ll be a public version, hopefully by the end of the year.”
This addition to the platform will allow merchants to manage their online presence across other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, create demand for location-based services or products, and get detailed analytics.
Barouch explains the benefits of having a large company as an investor:
- Getting in front of people. When you need to go into a meeting, it can be much easier if there are existing connections. The parent company can open doors;
- Mentoring and advice. The board of Roamz is made up of both the CEO of Salmat, Grant Harrod; and COO, Peter Anson, as well as independent chairman Kim Jacobs, of corporate advisory firm Inteq. Each board members has played a strong mentoring and advisory role;
- Provides credibility. Barouch says having the backing of a listed company can be useful for demonstrating credibility when you’re meeting potential merchants, investors or strategic partners.