In 2015, to win in mobile is to win, period

Business is about winning. Of course, most startups lose, but the goal of each is to win — to build something new and innovative and worthwhile that will grow, acquire users, find customers, and increase in value.

In short, to win.

Increasingly, for businesses of all kinds — startup, tech, edtech, fintech, medtech — winning in business means winning in mobile, period. We’re seeing that clearly in VB’s research data. It’s obvious in the super-successful, billion-dollar-plus startup cohort: 53 percent of the ‘Unicorn 100‘ are mobile-only, mobile-first, or largely mobile, and most of the rest have significant, if not massive, mobile stories to tell. And it’s obviously the story behind the resurgence of the world’s most valuable company, Apple.

The tremendously successful startups that are winning in mobile — the Ubers and Snapchats, Squares, Jawbones, and Airbnbs — are simply following people. They’re following you and me. As we’ve seen in our Brands and mobile advertising report, billions of us have downloaded 350 billion apps. We started watching our phones more than our TVs just this year. Increasingly, we’re centering our attention just two feet from our faces.

There’s a key question for businesses who are not on that list, however. How do you follow these leaders? How do startups, traditional businesses, and brands learn their lessons?

Join us at MobileBeat 2015:
Mobile Nirvana: Mastering growth through mobile

Partly, answering that question is a piece of our mission at VB: helping business leaders get insights into how to win through new technology. Partly, that’s what we do in research at VB, currently focusing on marketing tech. But specifically, and perhaps most intensely, that’s the single purpose of our biggest event to date: MobileBeat 2015.

Who’s going to be speaking?

First, there’s a who’s who of startups and large companies that have made it in mobile:

• Facebook – David Chiang of Facebook Audience Network
• Airbnb – head of design Alex Schleifer
• Google – Niantic Labs’ Mike Quigley
• Flipboard – CEO Mike McCue
• Evernote – VP Jaime Hull
• OpenTable – SVP Scott Jampol
• Pandora – VP Lisa Sullivan-Cross
• Samsung – VP Matt Apfel
• Chegg – CEO Daniel Rosensweig
• SwiftKey – CMO Joe Braidwood
• Deezer – CEO of North America Tyler Goldman
• Mint – head of design Mike Tschudy
• Zillow – VP Jeremy Wacksman
• Machine Zone – CRO Deepak Gupta
• Flipkart – CPO Punit Soni

Above: NinthDecimal’s report shows an increasing use of mobile for shopping

Image Credit: NinthDecimal

Second, there’s a who’s who of companies that have been around the block once or twice and are now either killing it in mobile or kicking it into high gear:

• Visa – SVP Shiv Singh
• eBay – CMO Mark Kirschner
• Sephora – SVP Mary Beth Laughton
• Yelp – VP Eric Singley
• Home Depot – VP Mike Amend
• Fedex – VP John Jackson
• Groupon – SVP Jay Sullivan
• Playboy – SVP Robin Zucker
• Expedia – CMO David Doctorow
• Starwood Hotels – SVP Julie Atkinson
• Forbes – CRO Mark Howard
• CBS – SVP & GM Rob Gelick
• Intuit – head of design MIke Tschudy

That’s just a partial list, of course; there are many more. But separately and together, these mobile leaders will be crafting a story around key themes in mobile — key themes you need to understand to drive change in your organization.

They include:

• Mobile-centricity
  Driving a mobile-centric mentality through your organization
• Halo moments
  Finding the right “halo” moments to engage with customers on mobile
• Seamlessness
  M-commerce, e-commerce, and commerce: becoming seamless across all channels
• Growth hacking
  Growing users on mobile the new-fashioned way(s)
• Storytelling
  Your brand is a story. How do you write a new book on mobile?
• Attribution & conversion
  Do you know which ad dollars track to which sales results?
• Messaging
  Messaging platforms are the fastest-growing communities on mobile. What does that mean for you?
• Video
  Mobile video is skyrocketing. Here are the opportunities for you

We’re meeting July 13-14 at the Hilton Union Square in downtown San Francisco to figure out the future of mobile. And the future of business success.

Join us.