Noticed these fuzzy things on walls, posters, namecards and even flyers? In recent months, I've noticed QR fever in Singapore. So I'm going to write her some fun facts about this technology in marketing and advertising. Contrary to popular belief, QR is actually more than a decade old.

1. Created in 1994 by Toyota Subsidary Denso Wave
2. It was first designed to track vehicles during the manufacturing process
3. The technology has seen frequent use in Japan (no surprise there...)
4. QR codes are now used over a much wider range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product marketing and in-store product labeling
5. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users (via mobile tagging). Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or compose an e-mail or text message after scanning QR codes. They can generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several pay or free QR code-generating sites or apps.
6. Google has a popular API to generate QR codes
   
   More importantly...
   
   
7. FREE TO USE! The use of QR codes is free of any license. The QR code is clearly defined and published as an ISO standard. Denso Wave owns the patent rights on QR codes, but has chosen not to exercise them.
8. POPULAR CROSS PLATFORM! Apps for scanning QR codes can be found on nearly all smartphone devices.

Why then is it not on TuxSeeDo?

Well... mostly because at the moment we want to encourage experience and photo sharing on TuxSeeDo. QR is not a sharing technology and for something as Fun and experience oriented as TuxSeeDo. We'll do better with image/photo recognition and augmented reality technologies than having a barcode on steroids. Find out how TuxSeeDo is better able to help engage your customers and audience.

Moving TuxSeeDo from this to =============>THIS

After it's much awaited IPO, Groupon's stocks has been trading below it's opening value of $20. In 2010 January, when I was first asked my opinion about Groupon and it's business model. I gave it a two thumbs down in value to merchants and sustainability as a whole. All while world was expecting the startup to be the fastest startup ever to break the $500million revenue. When every other .com company wanted to jump in the business of daily deals. When the world seemed headed in the trend of deals... I gave it two thumbs down. For reasons just simple professional opinion of how Groupon creates a win (deal finders) - lose (merchants) situation. And that it was no more than discount aggregator on steroids that was overcharging.

However, amdist all the negative views about the company and it's sustainability, value to merchants etc, and the recent 75,000 cupcakes fiasco. I'm going be be a little contrarian and give Groupon a two thumbs up. Not for the sake of it, but with good reason. Having launched TuxSeeDo into the market, here's where I see Groupon deliver value to the same retailers that we are trying to help.

1. First, no cash upfront marketing. Where in the world can you find an advertising platform that reaches hundreds of thousands (in you locality) for nothing upfront? A simple 1 page advertisement on any newspaper would easily cost you thousands of dollars a day if not more.
2. Cash upfront for sale. Yes what's better than cash upfront. Even before the customer has arrived at your shop, he/she has paid for the deal. So as a business you know for sure an X number of people are going to come, you have all the time to plan how you intend to make money out of them. If they don't come, then well... the money paid up front is your compensation for their "no-show".
3. It's not Groupon's job to make the deal profitable. It's your own marketing/sales department's responisbility. Yes it is true that, you almost certainly make a loss on the sale on Groupon, but the deal/gimmick is your tactic to draw customers to your shop. So it's really up to the retailer to make the most out the effort.

On this note... Here are some reasons why retailers SHOULD work with Groupon and HOW they can make it work.

1. Retailers offer discounts all the time and in all forms. Whether it's a discount because someone is buying in bulk, or for stock clearance. What better way to offer these discounts than to a platform that will do it for no upfront cost and takes cash upfront on your behalf. I vaguely remember in 2007/8, Dell had a group buying discount deal that was going for Dell computers. With every additional buyer, the price of the computer would be reduced. This goes up to a maximum of 30% for 20 or 30 buyers. But... the response wasn't very good and I think there were less than 10 buyers on each of the deals that I attempted to buy from. I'm pretty sure with the number of people at computer fairs (like the recent Sitex). A 30% off computers on Groupon would be snapped up in no time.
2. Groupon is not an end in itself. As much as it looks like a e commerce site, it's not a distribution channel. It's a media/promotion channel. Comments on how Groupon deals are a loss to retailers are as rhetorical as saying that putting an ad on the newspaper or TV is cost to the company. In fact if properly planned as part of a sales strategy, Groupon could be a very low cost way of acquiring clients.Groupon is failing for those who have poorly planned their own sales strategy.
3. Groupon while it may not have the right attributes to be promote customer loyalty, it has all the attributes to help re-activate dormant customers. Giving that little edge and attention to activate previous customer. The rest... is up to the retailer.

As a ending note. Groupon didn't pay me to write this. Neither am I invested in their IPO. And I'm not invested in any deals/group buying companies. In fact, TuxSeeDo competes with Groupon on some levels. But in all fairness, I'll like to balance some of my earlier less positive outlook of the company with similarly professional opinions of the benefits of such a service.

I was reading this article on The Perks of Working at Google, Facebook, Twitter and More and it came complete with an infographic so I thought what the hell... I'm going to make one for TuxSeeDo as well. Though technically TuxSeeDo is the product and not the company. But here it is...

Yeah... We actually get staff discount by using our namecards at Popeye's Chicken at the Singapore Flyer. This is the latest in the perk list though some of the stuff that I would really want are like subsidised/regular massage (which I'm totally getting for my staff), full ice-cream freezer cafe (I should work out a long term arrangement with an  ice cream partner for this), paintball (non of the companies listed have this but I'm getting this for "team building"), we have a partner who also happens to be my financial planner so I think we don't have to worry about retirement planning and medical benefits, and finally we will have a green program so that we can not only save the environment but also save time and money on transport.

Alright... here's the infographic by ResumeBear as found on mashable

Had a good look? Still wanna work for TuxSeeDo?

As most of you might know now, I'm an avid reader of Mashable and recently they've written a story on 3 Ways to Find Talent for Your Startup, of which, I've tried all 3 ways  and I'm going to share my personal experience here.

Firstly, attend Networking Events, which I do on a regular basis. I also have co-curate TedxSingapore here and have certainly met a number of people at events. However, meeting people at events do not necessarily find you the people you want or need for your startup. I find however, having worked with some of them to organise some of these events a larger reason some of us are working together and helping each other out. From these non-profit events, you can really see the work ethics of an individual even more clearly. Basically no one makes any money out of these events so who is really in it for the team and who is basically a egoistic, self interested parasite. I found some of the best team players and best friends while organising TedxSingapore. The same people I approach and offer a share of my startup.

Secondly working your personal network. Having been with several MNCs and Startups, I know who all my best colleagues are. Phone calls, Facebook messages and emails went straight out to all the best people I knew. It helped that throughout my professional career I've been helpful and friendly to most of my colleagues. So when I tell them of my dreams of grandeur and how I want them to come along on this trip, it's a natural YES!  A couple of you I want to make special mention of Bianca, my good friend from MyFatPocket. Eran, my good friend all the way from Israel. Ba, Joe and Nat, these are brothers from when I was a teenager. Special thanks to all of you who have and are supporting me in this journey. I won't disappoint you... :)

Thirdly, making my company a good target. We will attempt that very soon. I've tried posting really cool job postings on the internet but the response rate was very very low. I guess it's still the good old postings of a normal stable job that people respond to. This area is still a little cold for us in terms of good candidates.

As you can see, it's still the friends and ex-coworkers who have been of greatest help. In my experience at least. I'm still looking for talent so if you are interested in joining the team, please leave a message below.