This is a "Project in a Box". It was put together by Ali Hamidi and Ash Bashir for Startup Weekend Dubai 2012. Find out more at http://stringcast.com

1. Ali Hamidi (@ahamidi)
Ash Bashir (@ashbashir)
SWdxb 2012
Sign up for beta access: stringcast.com

3. Existing Pain Points
 Twitter
 All or nothing controls
 Either totally public
 Or completely private
 Difficult to follow conversations
 Limited support for media
 Limited to 140 characters
 Path
 Closed network
 Unable to post publicly

4. Stringcast is:
+ Strings + Media
Categories for Text
different Photos
streams Video
Voice Notes
 Feature rich mobile blogging platform
 Multi-media posts
 Strings to categorise posts providing better privacy control
 Stringcast: The reach of Twitter plus the richness of Path

5. Social Media Expert View
 Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer)
 Scoble Says…

6. Scoble Says…
 “Google+ has beautiful photos and videos. Twitter?
Just page after page of mind-numbing 140 character
items.”
 “What could Twitter do? … Let us add photos and
videos into each tweet and, even, let us do that
outside of the 140 character limit…”
 “Google+ lets me publish a post to JUST A SINGLE
PERSON +or+ to a small group of people, or, even,
to a circle that has 5,000 members in it. Twitter has
no such way to do this.”
 “What can Twitter do? Revamp lists… This is Twitter’s
weakest point…”

7. Comparison
Feature
Privacy
Control
   
Analytics  -  
Threads/
Strings
   
Discussion    
Multi-Media    
APIs  -  
Reach  -  
Simplicity    

8. Revenue Streams
 In-app purchase for Pro users ($1.99)
 Pro app has built-in analytics visible to user
 Transparent affiliate link injection
 Replace product links with shortened affiliate links
 Promoted posts
 Similar to you know what
 Paid suggestions for strings & search
 Relevant suggested strings to follow based on search
term & list of strings user is following
 Premium API giving automated access to analytics
 Automated access for analytics for brands leading to
Business Intelligence

9. Costs vs Revenue Estimates (Monthly)
Time Daily Active Users Costs Revenue
Month 1 (June) 1,000 $6,500 $150
Month 2 10,000 $2,200 $650
Month 3 100,000 $1,200 $7,000
Month 6 500,000 $2,200 $32,000
Month 12 1,000,000 $15,000 $50,000
 Costs
 Legal/Admin
 Hosting & Bandwidth
 Creative/Design
 For n>100,000 ARP(DA)U: $2.88 (Annual per user)
 Funding requirement: $10,000
ARP(DA)U: Average Revenue Per (Daily Active) User (Annu

10. Prototype (Current Status)

11. End

12. Q&A (part 1)
 Go to market Strategy?
 Create Minimal Viable Product
 Get Beta users (Betalist/Twitter) testing via Testflight
 Update app
 Submit to App Store
 Use Twitter to target Twitter users
 Target geeks and early adopters
 Use other social media
 Iterate product based on user feedback
 How will you cover costs?
 By minimising costs
 Bandwidth & Storage is cheap – Amazon Cloud Services
 All marketing through social media
 Use fancy compression algorithms to reduce file sizes (once
storage/bandwidth becomes an issue)

13. Q&A (part 2)
 UI Info:
 Three screens
 Profile – user profile and settings
 Feed/Posts – Consolidated feed posts posted on strings I’m following.
Segment controller {consolidated, strings, posts}
 Post button – select from list and post
 Pull to refresh
 Start upload process immediately after taking photo or video (while
typing caption)
 Process:
 Users download app
 Create profile
 Create strings
 Specify privacy setting for strings {private: must approve follow
requests, public: anyone can follow string}
 Create for example, Family, Friends, Close buddies, Professional,
Football

14. Q&A (part 2)
 Invite friends to follow
 Friends sign up to Stringcast and automatically have
strings followed populated (based on invite)
 String Examples
 Lady Gaga
 Close Friends
 Music Fans
 Fashion Fans
 How is your app different to Whatsapp? *
 Please leave the room.