The Peoples Choice Award

Over the past few days Matt and I have been attending the DEMO Spring 2011 conference in Palm Desert, CA. This is a bi-annual event that showcases up and coming start-up companies and provides a stage to make product presentations that solve given industry problems. We were absolutely shocked and happily surprised to win the DEMO Spring 2011 People’s Choice Award!!

52 companies from a variety of industries and categories were selected and invited to make their presentations. Judges award 5 DEMOgod awards for great presentations and the companies ability to offer a unique opportunity and product and 1 company winning The People’s Choice Award of $1M in advertising spend with IDG media. The People’s Choice is determined by a vote from attendees, sponsors and press that attend the event.

Thank You
We are truly honored to be recognized by those in attendance that voted our product as worthy of having our message spread to an even larger audience. In our time at the show we networked with many great entrepreneurs and company representatives that have unique products that aim to solve current problems within their industries. In speaking with them about their experience about what kind of research they did, we were amazed at what they have gone through. From taking out Craigslist ads to recruit folks for usability testing, to sending online surveys to a list of friends and even the old classic of using family and colleagues, again and again, to review prototypes and messaging; we clearly heard a pain point. This is something we’ve heard repeatedly- a need for a simple solution that allows any business to get feedback from a target audience that provides guidance and direction to a campaign or strategy.

Our Own “GutCheck”
The GutCheck product makes sense, clearly there’s a fit. GutCheck clearly could have offered the companies at this show a better way to get feedback from their target market. In learning about GutCheck so many folks told us that we were on to something. We ourselves were the recipients of our own “gutcheck” during a live onstage interview between Owen Thomas, Executive Editor of VentureBeat and Doug Mack, CEO One Kings Lane, the hot e-commerce retailer for designer decor and home accessories.

Owen Thomas: You’ve seen a lot of cool technology in your day, including this morning, you and I were watching backstage. Did anything strike your fancy from this first batch of social companies we just saw?

Doug Mack: Yeah. I thought they were all amazing. As an entrepreneur I fall in love with every idea. So i think they all look great. I have to say, I was pulling 40 bucks of my wallet for GutCheck.

Owen Thomas: Right on

Doug Mack: I thought that was, so spot on, because the cycles on the internet are so fast. The notion of commissioning a $50k customer research focus group- pull it together- all your employee time, when you run a company like One Kings Lane inevitably, everybody is going to want to go to those. So like 25% of your employees base is at the focus group. They kind of say, source it, really target. We know who our audience is, women, 30s-40s-50s, own a home, mid-upper income- and to be able to go online and say i want to source this audience…we launch a new sale every day..and to say cost effectively i can go in and test that audience, i think that’s awesome. I think it’s going to be a big deal.

To see the full video interview click the ‘View Full Program’ within the embed below; jump to 13:21 for the live discussion of what is transcribed above.

“Did he just say that?”
After Matt and I looked at each other and exclaimed hush reactions of “Did he just say that?”, “Is this really happening?” we realized, that’s exactly the point. Companies need a cost effective solution to test an audience and get feedback and insights to make their business better. More of them just need to be made aware that now there is an option for them to try.

We are truly humbled that the attending audience voted us as The People’s Choice. Clearly, the people have spoken and we intend to use our $1 million advertising to get our message out to more people. Have you seen the GutCheck presentation at DEMO yet? View it here. For more information on our launch, please visit our launch page.

DEMO Spring 2011 Presentation

Over the past couple of days GutCheck was attending and presenting at DEMO Spring 2011.
DEMO selects and invites companies to deliver product presentations that address or solve problems in their respective industry.

For those that could not attend in person nor able to watch the live stream of our DEMO presentation. We are able to provide you the video of it below.
Matt Warta, CEO and Marshall England present GutCheck at DEMO Spring 2011, Palm Desert, CA on 3/1/2011
Read more about winning thePeople’s Choice Award. For more information on our launch, please visit our launch page.