I'm starting up Twisplays, Inc., so I might as well blog about it.
The idea for Twisplays came to me as a convergence of multiple circumstances.
I recently wrote a business plan for a startup that wants to deploy a a high-end in-bar entertainment and advertising network. A friend has been letting me use his office to make phone calls and send emails while I looked for a job, and his employer owns one of the largest national in-store advertising networks. I produced an i-Phone application, SellThisPig, for business valuations, and one of my customers contacted me saying, "That's just what I've been looking for!" It turned out that he was in the LED singage business and focused on retail networks. I have experience in business development for a satellite network communications company and understand the costs and parameters of wireless network communications. Twitter is booming and is quickly becoming the source of choice for getting news, information, business deals/discounts/coupons and entertainment first, and is ideal for displaying on simple, inexpensive one-line LED signs. Furthermore, even though I am an MIT graduate with impressive international experience in technology and finance, I have been unemployed for most of the past two years - so, it's about time I became an entrepreneur and started my own company!
Inspired by the idea of displaying Twitter on LED signs, I did some research and saw that a couple of successful marketing efforts had been made in Times Square and Las Vegas to display Twitter streams on very expensive, high-end LED billboards, but no one was offering the technology and service on inexpensive one-line LEDs for corporate retail customers and consumers. I wondered if I could do that, and after much research, discussion and hacking, I developed my first prototype.
I then wrote a brief business plan and saw that I could make a lot of money!
I thought about calling my products Twerminals and registered the URL but then settled on Twisplays.
Once I had a prototype, was extremely excited by what I saw and the business prospects and had registered the Twisplays URL, I contacted an accountant and started the company.
My branded corporate retail and consumer products are in development and should be ready in a month or two.
I put up a preliminary web site on my own (this one) but am developing a more professional, commercial site.
I am using Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Meetup.com and other social networking venues, along with my personal, alumni and professional networks, to create some buzz and get some pre-orders.
So far the response to the concept has been overwhelmingly positive, and an angel just wrote me a check for a few thousand dollars to give me a kickstart and some encouragement.
Go Twisplays!
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