DEMO Event Startups Take Aim at Mobile, Social Marketing

Earlier this week, dozens of hopeful startups looking for attention and funding pitched their technologies at DEMO in Silicon Valley. The annual conference highlights innovations in cloud, consumer, enterprise, and mobile technologies, as well as online social media.

While small business was not the focus of most of the companies, some offered technologies that could appeal to the small-business market.

Most companies at DEMO are self-funded or operating on seed money from angel investors and organizations that provide a jumpstart to new technology. So here's a caveat: Don't get hooked on services that could disappear if the startups' business model fails – a real possibility for many of the twenty-something chief executives with smooth pitches that may mask a lack of business experience.

Nevertheless, it's worth looking at what these startups offer, if only to get insights into the thinking of these young innovators.

Looping. Many startups offered different ways for businesses to market product and services through social networks and mobile applications. One such company is Looping, which lets retailers provide and manage promotions and loyalty programs through customers' mobile phones. Customers registered with the service dial a toll-free number to emit a unique authentication sound that's recorded by a retailer's Apple iPad. (The tablet has to have the Looping app installed.)

Once customers are authenticated, they get the bargain -- and retailers get valuable customer info. Looping.com, which is still building out the service, charges retailers a monthly subscription fee.

The startup's sales pitch is its simplicity, since the sound-based authentication works with most mobile phones, not just smartphones. The biggest challenge will be getting enough people to sign up for the service to convince retailers it's worth the cost. The company is self-funded and has lots of competitors, including TheLevelUP, GetPunchd, Spot App, Lotaltree, and Paycloud.

The service is free while in beta.  OfferedLocal.com is funded by its founders, and its competitors include Geotoko, Promoboxx, and Buckaroo.com.

Needlum. Needium is focused on the lead-generation part of the sales process. The startup scours Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare, looking for potential customers for its business customers. If Facebook user asks about a good Thai restaurant or hardware store in Boston, for example, then Needium will answer on behalf of its clients in the area. Needium also notifies a company if its name is mentioned on social networking sites.

Needium is not cheap: With a starting subscription fee of $150 a month, the service is out of reach for some small businesses. The Canadian company is funded by Capital St-Laurent and competitors include Local Response, Viral Heat, and Sprout Social.

DailyDigital. For businesses looking for a more visible presence on Facebook, DailyDigital provides online tools for building storefronts to sell digital content, such as music, photographs, books, or video, on the social network. Storefronts also can be embedded on blogs or websites.

DailyDigital targets artists and other content creators. The company does not charge for setting up a storefront but instead takes 15 percent of all sales. DailyDigital uses PayPal for collecting payments. The company is funded by its founders and competitors include Payloadz.com, Volusion.com, and Kitdigital.

LiveLoop and VisualBee. Less flashy, but potentially more useful for small businesses, were a couple of companies providing Microsoft PowerPoint plugins that enable multiple people to work on the same presentation online, while keeping track of all changes, so nothing is lost. LiveLoop is in private beta, which means you have to sign up and wait to be invited, while VisualBee is available today. The latter provides a free application and a premium version for $9 a month or $75 a year.