Startup Tour Profile: Choozle

by Nicole Relyea
April 9, 2013

At Choozle, we sat down with CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Fischer

 

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Choozle recently moved into a new office suite at Glavanize, and is preparing for a relaunch of their platform at the enterprise level. 

Choozle's platform makes it simple to create, distribute, and measure visual media experiences. The flagship visual voting apps are served in rich media ad units, embedded into any website/blog, and distributed via unique social media widgets. As consumers engage and share Choozles, the platform captures real-time consumer insights (consumer data can also be modeled to reach larger segments online, and utilized for purchase attribution ROI).  Choozle = Engagements + Insights.  
 
Tell us a little bit about Choozle Pro and the relaunch. 

Initially, we thought we were creating a consumer-driven platform, but as we've gotten into things we've realized the best way to get out there is by focusing on business first and consumers second. So, we're concentrating more on enterprise level right now.
 
In light of the different needs of businesses, we've beefed up the “nerdy” side of things - we can now triangulate real time consumer data on the backend – and added a lot of analytics.
 
We still have the consumer-level platform, but the relaunch is all about enterprise. 

What's your origin story – how did you get started?

Well I knew I wanted to partner with my Co-Founder,  Jeff Finch, our Chief Product Officer. We had known each other for about a year and a half before we started working together.

Our original idea was always a media competition engine – we were asking "how can we ride this wave of the visual internet?" It was originally more binary, like a “hot or not” for wider media groups.

Then about a year ago, Choozle came into focus. With the ascension of things like Pinterest, we wanted to create an evaluation platform so that people could quickly get feedback in a visual manner. As we grow, the product set and who we’re serving will always evolve.

Our prototype was done last May and the initial feedback was really good. We self-funded through last fall, and then raised a seed round. That ‘s when we got our core team together and started in full-time. We’ve been doing a lot of testing, optimization, and refocusing on ChoozlePro.

That all sounds really exciting. What would you say has been your greatest success so far?

We have a lot of partnerships. Our strategic partnership with iBehavior was a turning point that allowed us to provide real-time analytics to all of our enterprise partners. They’re a locally-based company.

Any failures?

Nothing catastrophic yet. We probably tried to court institutional investors too early. We spent a lot of time talking to VC firms last summer. What was better was doing a round with individual angels and entrepreneurs.

But, on the upside, we now have relationships with a lot of VC’s. We would’ve raised that first round more quickly if we’d focused on the angel community to start, but those relationships certainly won't hurt. 

People are always trying to figure out how to raise money. How did you get connected to the angel community?

Old-fashioned networking. StartupDenver provided a lot of connection opportunities that kind of got the ball rolling for us. 

I also used my personal network – I’ve had a lot of good mentors, so I leaned on them. We also brought on at least 3 investors I hadn’t met before this whole process.

How would you describe Choozle's culture?
Our mission is to bulid and distribute very cool, visual-based products. The business model is finding its way as we go. We’re very iterative and adaptive on all levels. As we approach product, business development, hiring, contractors – we like to "test drive" people before we look to bring them on full-time. We’re the opposite of an ego-driven organization that has a single ideal that they want to pursue at all costs. We continue to evlolve to provide the most value possible.

Why did you decide to locate in Denver?

Lifestyle. Both my partner and I and our other employees – most of us were born and raised here. Those of us who weren’t relocated. But we want to build a cool company on the front range and enjoy everything that Colorado has to offer while we do it. With the advent of all of these great startup organizations, it’s built a really great network for us to connect to and rely on. All of the resources here really help to cut down on the mistakes you'll potentially make as an entrepreneur. 

 

Learn more about Choozle in their company profile, on their website, or via Facebook, Twitter @choozle, or LinkedIn

This week we also visited BlogMutt and Inversoft. Read more about the 90-Day Startup Tour and find links to past weeks' profiles here

Jobs at Choozle

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