This sponsored post is produced by The Mobileys.
Earlier this year, Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker declared smartphones and tablets “so 2013.” The future of computing, she proclaimed, is all about “wearables, drivables, flyables and scannables.”
As we head into Q3 of 2014, we asked the judges of wireless innovation contest The Mobileys about what’s next—and what it takes for entrepreneurs to make the leap from great idea to great product that attracts investment capital and customers alike.
Here’s what they had to say.
Looking ahead, what’s next in the mobile space?
“Healthables, learnables, sellables, livables. In other words, we will integrate the Internet of Things via mobile even further into our healthcare, education, commerce, and lifestyle choices.”
—Diane Smith, angel investor and founder of American Rural
“Leveraging cloud computing for intelligent personalization services on mobile, such as services like Tempo (smart calendar) and Live Notes (actionable notepad).”
—Nihal Mehta, General Partner, Eniac Ventures
“The exciting prospect of merging real-life applications with medical devices/apps is top of mind for those trying to improve their health and well-being.”
—Francine Kaufman, Chief Medical Officer, Medtronic Diabetes
“The big thing in mobile is the continued movement of traditional companies into the space. You have major companies like American Express entering the mobile payment space with their Isis app and a number of traditional retailers like Gap are using Google Wallet.”
—Kathryn Finney, Founder, digitalundivided
“The future will not be about any one ‘…able’ product. It will be about whether we, as a society, will be able to make smart choices about providing consumers and innovators sufficient spectrum and broadband resources to ensure many cycles of innovation yet to come. This is NOT a foregone conclusion.”
—Jonathan Spalter, Chairman, Mobile Future
What does it take to connect with capital and consumers?
“Every entrepreneur needs a customer. When you’re still in the idea phase, talk to potential customers and see how much and how likely they would be to pay for your product or service. Also, don’t hesitate to use crowdfunding sites to figure out if your idea has commercial potential.” —Smith
“Ship, analyze data, iterate, ship. Repeat the cycle until it’s working.”—Mehta
“The customer is your customer, not your investors. Focus on growing and nurturing your customer base and your investors will be happy.”—Finney
“Imagine a world in which the words “no,” “not yet” and “not interested” do not exist. Any time you hear one of them (and you will hear them constantly) consider it an invitation to meet, negotiate, convince, evangelize, close and never give in or give up.” —Spalter
Think you know what’s next?
It’s time to share. The Mobileys are accepting applications and nominations through August 18th for early stage wireless products, services and applications that use mobile to deliver breakthrough innovations that have a positive impact on our lives. Top prize? $10,000.
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