When planning an online or mobile business, founders and co-founders must begin discussing ‘location’ as soon as possible. By location, I particularly refer to the launch and base location(s) of your online or mobile business.
The following are four pointers I suggest you to consider in your startup location discussion:
Firstly, is where you live the best place to launch and base your internet or mobile startup?
If you live in countries with modest populations, like Sweden or Australia for example, and you’ve come up with a business that could have global appeal, you must seriously consider if launching in your home country will be beneficial to your aspirations.
The United States, with a population of 300 million that mostly use the internet and smartphones, might be a better option. For example, Foursquare, launched in New York, would not have had the same appeal if launched in Beirut.
The fact is that there are not as many examples of non-big population launched startups making it big as the other way around.
Secondly, you must consider if launching in a smaller market will leave you vulnerable to predators?
In this industry, we constantly hear that some multi-billionaire startup founder took his/her “inspiration” from another guy who lives in a small village in some unpronounceable country.
If you launch in a smaller market and register some success, others will hear about it and use their considerable resources to establish your idea in a bigger market before you have had a chance to get there yourself.
Thirdly, you must question whether your online or mobile business’ location is the best choice to attract the talent you will need.
If your startup succeeds, as we expect all will , you are going to need talent. Depending on the nature of your startup, you may require Engineers, Business Development personnel, Project Managers, Designers, etc.
It is fact that there are certain hubs where such talent is more fertile than others. For example, I believe Engineering talent is best in Silicon Valley (USA) or some Asian countries (Singapore, Philippines, India, etc.), while some of the best Business Development personnel I have met have been from more cut-throat cities like New York, Los Angeles (USA) and Sydney (Australia).
Finally, and probably most importantly, do investors have preferred locations?
There is a great chance you are going to need money to grow your business. And it is a definite that you are going to want money when you exit your web or mobile business.
Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and others with money will very likely judge your capacity to service the greatest-possible market for your business when deciding on whether they should or should not invest.
The above should not mean that everyone should launch their web or mobile business in the most populated, capitalist locations. First and foremost, the location has to be right for your business.
But once you have a list of what the right locations for your business could be, my advice is you make sure your capacity to service the largest locations is front-and-center in your planning.
With the launch of Radical.FM‘s public beta I have rediscovered a long-lost love, fostered in the ’80s saturated cartoons and buddy-pics of my youth: ridiculous adjectives. Despite the fact that the new social music service is probably more notable for its committment to innovative features and interesting software, for me at least, it creates a more notable distinction for itself on name alone.
So what is Radical.FM? Well, we might as well do this right.
TUBULAR FEATURES!
Radical.FM looks to set itself apart from the pack through the inclusion of a suite of essential features, all integrated into a single service. Inspired by user-made “radio station” sites (like Slacker and Pandora) and the kind of on-demand playlist creation made popular by Rhapsody, Radical.FM looks to position itself as a sort of “catch-all” social music solution.
The application is presented well, coming complete with robust player controls and an interesting new take on song recommendation that shrugs off tricky algorithms in favor of user-chosen genre groupings. Being able to select from given genres (defined by personal takes on the nebulous term) allows for more intelligent blending of smaller playlists into a greater whole. Operating as a browser-based application (with mobile iterations to follow), Radical.FM combines a number of the most popular social music features into a single service in a way that could very well attract a devout fan following.
STOKED FOR NEW SOFTWARE?
The current inclusion of — and I swear I’m not making this name up — RadCast, Radical.FM’s patent-pending music streaming software, and plans for the release of DeeJay (technology that allows users to speak to their RadCast subscribers) also serve to make the service a unique one. While these two features alone create a great opportunity for amateur DJs, Radical.FM is also working on the launch of a sister site, Radical Indie — something that would help to bolster support for fledging artists while simultaneously creating a community where discovering new bands is simple. The current (and future software) that act as Radical.FM’s foundation provide fantastic possibilities for users interested in the social side of web-based listening.
And that brings us to:
GNARLY NETWORKING!
Social networking has been given its dues with Radical.FM as well. Aside from the standard inclusion of Facebook invitations, the most community-centered aspect of the app comes from its ability to be used as a free personal radio station, as touched on above. Radical.FM provides every member with their own station and is working on offering Play On Demand services to premium subscribers. Regardless of whether a user chooses to pony up money or not, the social aspect made possible through radio functionality is a fantastic way to share and discover music with friends and strangers alike.
Personal music streams can be shared by both amateur enthusiasts and professional recording artists. In Radical.FM’s press information, the app’s creators even posit the (corporate daydream) of ” . . . Lady Gaga . . . [having] millions of fans tune-in to her station”. The fact that Radical.FM’s infrastructure is composed of legal files makes this actually possible — and a pretty excited prospect.
Interested in checking out the (actually not in any way 80′s-culture related) Radical.FM for yourself? Do a click on these words and sign up for the free public beta to take it for a spin. It’s fresh enough that, even in beta, I’m willing to give it a tenative four out of a possible five cowabungas.
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