Company: Sentigo
Website: www.sentigo.com
Founders: Gadi Shvadron and Omri Braun
Headquarters: Ramat Gan, Israel
Year Founded: 2009
Brief Company Description: Sentigo’s Wall St. Scanner enables users to make wise investment decisions by providing a one-stop source for information affecting the stock market.
By Gadi Shvadron, co-founder and CEO
Product Overview
Wall St. Scanner is a free smartphone app which uses sophisticated text analysis and proprietary algorithms to aggregate and capture the online sentiment of publicly traded companies and market data. Its unique method combines information gleaned from both traditional news media and corporate websites and opinions expressed on social networking sites, chat rooms and blogs. The application enables users to make wise investment decisions by providing a one-stop source for all of the information affecting the stock market.
Founders’ Story
Sentigo was founded in 2009 by partner Omri Braun and myself. Prior to establishing Sentigo, I was the founder of AllJobs.co.il, the leading job recruitment website in Israel. With experience in working with mobile phones and marketing, along with former members of the Israeli military intelligence, I was able to develop unique software that can gain information from market data, online news and social networking sources to give users an easy-to-use financial dashboard for the top 2,500 U.S. stocks.
Marketing/Promotion Strategy
When releasing a new product, multiple approaches to marketing and promotion should be taken. As a startup company we focus on building awareness of the product in consumer driven outlets and in-the-know technology blogs. We also focus on building name recognition as an innovative tech company. Our four-part approach consists of the following:
-In-App advertising
PPC campaign using mobile ad networks and ad reference sites to build brand awareness.
-Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization
Every business understands the power of search engines, building up your presence on them is vital. We set out on a keyword campaign that would drive traffic to www.wallstscanner.com and www.sentigo.com.
-Public Relations
Word of mouth is always a great way to drum up downloads, but given the sophistication of the app we want to ensure that the right messaging was received. We are utilizing a PR firm to reach out to consumer, financial and technology media.
-Affiliate Marketing
License real time content (text links, banners and widgets) as a platform for “trade now” referrals.
How We Differentiate From the Competition
Unlike our competitors, Wall St. Scanner leverages market place sentiment from multiple sources—social networking sites, traditional news media, analyst reports, etc., in total over 16,000 online sources and provides users with a forecast for the following day’s stock performance. This feature is based on a sophisticated historical statistical correlation model proven to top industry analysts’ estimates. The app provides users with all the pertinent data to manage their portfolio in one place.
Business Model
-Subscription Fees: Premium content and functionality for individual consumers on mobile apps and web site.
-Advertising: Ad sales on web sites and mobile apps.
-Data syndication/license fees: Content access and distribution to online financial publishers and professional platforms.
Current Needs
We are currently looking to achieve over one million downloads by the end of the year. Today, after seven weeks from launching the first product, we have over 70,000 downloads and buzz about the app is spreading. As our business is picking up rapidly, we will be looking to open a U.S. office and hire additional business development and marketing talents. Right now, the app is available for the iPod/iPad but will be released on a website and the Android and Blackberry platforms later this summer. By the end of the year we plan to expand the coverage to the Canadian stock market, the Forex market and the ETFs.
To summarize all the major objectives mentioned, expanding to new platforms ,new investment categories and acquiring new customers till the company reaches cash flow positive, the company, has just started its round A of capital raising.
Sentigo – www.sentigo.com
