Combining word of mouth and P2P
29th November 2011 · 0 Comments
Fancorps launched in 2008 with a simple concept: That word of mouth marketing and peer to peer social recommendations are more valuable than ever for business after the explosion of social media in average households and the addition omnipresent mobile computing.
Fancorps brings structure to the concept of brand ambassadors, offering performance tracking and actionable guidance to today’s stream of social media.
The idea spawned when Dallas-based Fancorps’ three co-founders first envisioned the idea for the music industry in 2006, and let it ferment into a broad-industry platform.
The founders tapped friends and family to raise $100,000 in 2007 and, since launching, all kept full-time separate jobs while developing Fancorps.
Coordinating co-founders early on, while still maintaining full-time jobs outside of Fancorps, was challenging, said co-founding CEO G.I. Sanders.
“But, as the product took shape and true potential became clearer that wasn’t near as hard,” he said.
While starting up, the co-founders learned that honing in on a niche rather than becoming distracted with other, short-term revenue drivers pays off.
The hard work payed off and within 12 months of closing their beta testing, they were generating revenue from customers.
To bridge the gap between concept and successful business, the company utilized a variety of Dallas area support networks, including the Social Media Club of Dallas, North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization, American Marketing Association and tech incubator Tech Wildcatters.
“Generally speaking,” Sanders said, “the networking and relationships we’ve developed from these types of organizations have certainly propelled us in all facets of the company.”
