Grammy-nominated Ryan Leslie is a name from the world of music hoping to make similar noise in technology.
The hip-hop entrepreneur has raised US$2.2 million since 2013 for his SuperPhone texting service, which started out as a way of keeping in contact with fans.
SuperPhone is a “communication insight platform”, says the Harvard-educated musician and entrepreneur.
In other words, it is a simple text based service that allows artists such as himself to communicate directly with fans, consumers or investors.
Leslie coded the platform himself so he could connect to his fan base.
“I had over 200,000 followers on MySpace, but when the public migrated I lost contact,” he said.
It helped him generate some $2m in gross revenues in its first year of life selling parties, albums and products.
“When I started it in 2013 I just wanted my fans to be able to connect with me in a personal manner and I would be able to point them towards my new single or my products and the platform allows me to carry on a conversation picking up from the last time we connected. It also shows whether someone bought from my sales site.”
His company, Disruptive Multimedia, has signed up about 3,000 celebrities including Lil Wayne and Mike Posner, who now have a direct link to their fans, he says.
The first time you text a SuperPhone user a personalised text will come back asking you to fill in some of your details.
From there the SuperPhone platform remembers you and logs how often you interact, whether you are an investor or if you have bought any products before.
The service generates revenue by charging for each text sent.
“I think in about three months you will be hearing something very big from us.” said Leslie. “We have two big companies looking at us now. For the business to be scaleable I need telecoms companies to build the technology into their offering at source so it becomes ubiquitous.
“I am 100 per cent certain that will happen. We are starting with ‘A’ list celebrities, then the next level down and then moving into the corporate world where real estate companies and others who value personal relationships with clients can leverage that relationship.”
ascott@thenational.ae
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