Hi Rob,
That's great to hear - one of the opportunities I've noticed is in finding testers who are highly targeted - a flaw of usertesting.com for sure. Also their technology is not as robust as yours (just simple screen capture+audio). The demo-targeting Business B shouldn't be as difficult as the software solution you already developed.... Who knows you might even use Facebook Connect to get highly targeted users... So I think you're in a good position competitively and I wish you the best of luck in the future.
Rob,
Congrats on the service - it looks like a useful tool for usability efforts. How do you see this differing from the existing competition (a list of potential competitors can be found here: http://labs.depthskins.net/index.php?/article/guerrilla_styl... )
We use usertesting.com and have had good insights from that, mostly because they link us up with testers so we don't have to find them ourselves.
I wonder if in the future you will develop a network of testers so that companies can pull from that network? I think that could be useful as it's sometimes hard for startups to find unbiased people (e.g., not friends/family) to test the site. With your tool plus that service, it could be really powerful for us.
thanks Kevin. I was specifically answering the question about monetization... The ratings system on here is tough but I must say it's fun reading the stories and comments. You guys have a lot of interesting things to say.
Have you tried sites like 99designs.com? They have contests where you can submit designs and earn money if your design is chosen. If it's not chosen, at least you'll have some more design samples for your portfolio. Also if your design is chosen you might be able to get some recurring work from the client. Good luck and I wish you the best.
(I am not affiliated with 99designs.com and this is not an ad.)
I think this represents a wave shift in the social identity landscape - certain types of users want to share everything, and make that public. Sites like Facebook with their 'walled garden' photos are missing out on a great opportunity. I'm glad to hear about DailyBooth as it's a YCombinator participant. We're applying to participate in their next session.
One way they can start monetizing now is by partnering with our company, PicWash.com. They can add a link on their toolbar for users to get their photo retouched by our professional graphic designers. It's a revenue share model that can help get a new stream of revenue on their books. There are lots of other more traditional revenue models that can be done as well (advertising, freemium, etc).