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Six lessons from six years of product development (featuring six York Butter Factory cameos)

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It’s often said in show business that there’s no such thing as an ‘overnight’ success. The same can be said in Startup Land.

Even Groupon, often cited as the fastest business in the world to attract a billion dollar valuation, was the result of years of entrepreneurial adventures (and misadventures) by its founder, Andrew Mason. It’s original incarnation was The Point, a social media platform designed to get groups of people together to solve problems. Who’da thunk it?

This week, I caught up with a familiar name to the Anthill network, Ben Flavel. Other than penning inspiring and thought provoking articles on innovation for you, dear readers, he is also an innovation consultant and the founder of eQueue.

If that’s another familiar name, it’s because eQueue was the ticketing platform we used to manage “the world’s most elevated elevator pitch“, when we put eight entrepreneurs and two angel investors in a hot air balloon over Victoria’s picturesque Yarra Valley. (It was the first pitching event ever where the investors actually appreciated the entrepreneurs’ hot air.)

I caught up with Flavel so that he could share some good news. His ticketing platform, now called CheckinLine, had secured its first big customer… after a six year development cycle, from idea conception to its first client.

Knowing that Flavel is a super-smart guy (and also an excellent accidental salesman), and also knowing how unrealistic startup expectations often can be, I couldn’t  resist sitting him in front of a camera.

Quick quiz: How many YBFers make an .cameo in this video and what were the six lessons?

Six lessons from six years of product development

So, what is CheckinLine?

Put simply, CheckinLine is a research and data platform that provides a positive buying experience to things in high demand (like tickets, new products to market, or free giveaways) while also collecting extremely valuable consumer data.

Fans virtually ‘camp out’ for tickets. The more actively they participate during the ‘camping out’ period (the more questions they answer), the more likely they will be to get their preferred tickets.

The most dedicated fans, therefore, get special treatment while brands learn valuable information about their target market.

CheckinLine Social is its evolution on Facebook. CheckinLine Custom enables brand engagement across multiple platforms. Here’s the video.