Panel presentation:

David Travers (Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners), Michael Amar (CEO, Ifeelgoods), Jitendra Gupta (CEO, Punchh), Tom Cornelius (CEO, Adility), Sanjay Mittal (CTO, Spotzot)  

Consumers want savings and online sellers are eager to compete for their business. Brands have found that while consumers are happy to spread word of mouth and re-tweet messages, when it comes to converting users to buyers, even the loyal customers want deals as a trigger to make a purchase.  Coupons are a useful tool for Brands and Retailers to raise the customer conversion rate.

Coupons can be used to both incentivize purchases from new customers and reward existing customers for their loyalty. Coupons provide a tried and tested virtual currency that is conveniently flexible and fungible for both brands and customers. They can be exchanged between merchants and customers across a multitude channels, media, geographies, formats, time durations, and promotions

• Market channels from paper coupons on week-end newspapers to free business class upgrade
• Media: internet - mobile – paper
• Geographies: from local offers from SMB (2 miles) to nationwide offers
• Formats: no support! (Virtual), paper, e-coupon, plastic debit card
• Durations: short term campaign for acquisition, long term loyalty strategy
• Promotions: $$ off, percentage off, free shipping, gift with purchase, gift cards, free products, Facebook credits, skype

Companies are putting together new applications and offerings utilizing both open loop and closed loop technologies, software APIs, and innovations creating offering coupons as an evolving virtual currency and customer loyalty tool. The panel will discuss and explain the innovations, technologies and opportunities of this increasingly ubiquitous tool.

Speakers:

David Travers, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners

David is a Partner at Rustic Canyon Partners He grew up working every odd job in his family’s business. His admiration for business creators began with his Dad and has grown into a passion for providing entrepreneurs with the capital and support to help them succeed. David’s technology and media experience are instrumental to his investment and advisory work at Rustic Canyon. Prior to joining Rustic Canyon in 2005, David worked at eBay, where he focused on the growth of the sports, toys, collectibles and media marketplaces. Previously, David worked on corporate strategy at The Walt Disney Company and helped launch Disney’s credit card business. Prior to that, David served as assistant to the National Security Advisor in the White House and was awarded the Secretary of Defense’s Award for Outstanding Public Service. David loves sports and his favorite activities include going to yoga class with his wife, playing at the park with his daughter and working to support his favorite after school program, LA’s BEST. David earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Stanford University.

Michael Amar, CEO, Ifeelgoods.com

Michael Amar is the co-founder and CEO of Ifeelgoods. Michael has spent the last decade at the intersection of online media, retail and innovative technologies.  Prior to founding Ifeelgoods, Michael founded and successfully sold DAOODA, a successful ad network in the EU, and AGORAD, which was the number one independent French media company at the time he sold it in 2007. As CEO of Ifeelgoods, Michael is leveraging his leadership, experience and insights in e-commerce and online advertising to grow the virtual goods industry, which he believes is the most significant innovation in online marketing since search. Michael is a graduate of Institut Superieur de Gestion business school. When Michael isn’t leading Ifeelgoods, he is an avid soccer fan.  However, he is considering a new hobby following the performance of the French National Team in the 2010 World Cup. Michael is based in Palo Alto and can be reached at michael at ifeelgoods dot com.

Jitendra Gupta, CEO, Punchh

Jitendra Gupta is the CEO and co-founder of Punchh. Previously Jitendra founded and sold SezWho, a widely distributed and used consumer/social media ratings and reputation product. Before starting SezWho, Jitendra held several key product / marketing / engineering positions at Siebel Systems, Synopsys and Inquira. Jitendra has an engineering degree from IIT Kanpur (that he still puts to good use in building product) and a MBA from the University of Chicago. Jitendra enjoys Tennis (and secretly thinks he can beat Nadal), running and is a diehard Patriots fan.

Tom Cornelius, CEO, Adility

Tom Cornelius is the co-founder and CEO of Adility. Adility is a technology company headquartered in San Francisco enabling online to offline commerce transactions. Adility’s products Adility Gateway and Adility Cloud provide a framework of web applications and development tools for brands, retailers, merchants and any online publisher to transact with each other, from campaign creation to POS redemption and settlement. Adility is bridging the online to offline divide.

Sanjay Mittal, CTO, Spotzot

Sanjay Mittal is Co-founder, CTO, and Chairman of the Board at Spotzot, a startup developing a mobile platform for location-based promotions and offers. He has over 25 years experience as a successful software entrepreneur, technologist, private investor, and advisor to startups.  He was a founder and CEO of Selectica, the leader in internet-based pricing and sales configuration software that was deployed at Fortune 100 customers such as Cisco, Dell, IBM, BMW, and GE. He lead Selectica's successful IPO in 2000 and was the architect of its core technology, holds multiple patents, and was the founding CTO and VP of Engg. His early work specialized in artificial intelligence at Xerox Palo Alto Center. Sanjay holds a BTech from IIT Kanpur and earned a PhD in computer science at Ohio State University, where he also worked as Assistant Professor of Computer Science. He is a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and also serves on the Board of Directors of TiE Silicon Valley.

Moderator: Ritu Malhotra / Benjamin Hautefeuille

Agenda:
6:30 – 7:15 pm Registration / Food & Drink / Networking
7:15 – 8:15 pm Presentations
8:15 – 8:45 pm Panel Discussion
8:45 – 9:00 pm Q&A and Adjourn

Location:
2000 University Avenue
Palo Alto, CA

Price:
$20 at the door for non-SVForum members
No charge for SVForum members
No registration required 

Web Links:

SVForum: http://www.svforum.org/webSIG

Blog: http://wecommercesig.wordpress.com

Email / Contact:

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