Skate to where the puck will be

There are moments in the life of a principal at a start-up when you say to yourself “okay, maybe this was not the right thing to do.” It’s easy to doubt your instincts because the odds are against you. Even Mr. Brin at Google will tell you that it takes luck. I’ve never been a person to solely rely on luck but I can tell you that you can only enjoy luck if you are in the right spot at the right time.

Thus it is with me and Ruxter.  I have my moments of doubt but I also look at the facts: billions of mobile phones; Nielsen saying it’s 1994 all over again; less than 1% of PC sites can be seen on a mobile phone; Mary Meeker at Morgan Stanley saying the mobile web will be bigger than anyone realizes. She’s not alone in this feeling. I have it too.

We created Ruxter to help anyone get a presence on the mobile web and share it with anyone they wish. Pretty simple. Creating a site is free on Ruxter and you only pay for the messages you need to send alerts to those people who have opted-in to hear what you have to say via your Ruxter site. Of particular interest to me was the plight of SMBs (small and medium businesses) and the mobile internet. I remember thinking a couple years ago that I want to help them.

So when I have moments of doubt I tend to repeat these things in my head and last night was no different. I was watching the Saints demolish the Pats and then this commercial came on ESPN from shoemaker Timberland. At the end you will see only their brand and a call-to-action to text boot to 88188.

No PC URL and no phone number are in the commercial. Who calls anyone anymore? Do you think I will wait on the phone to listen to your call option menu? And guess what? My mobile was right beside me and I could have easily texted in the keyword to the short code and interacted with their brand on my own time and on-the-go.

I relaxed a bit and said to myself-“it’s coming.” What’s coming? When text interaction with businesses, brands, organizations and people I want information from becomes commonplace. When listing your keyword and your short code on anything with your brand or logo on it will be like listing your address, phone number and PC website URL.

“You have to skate to where the puck will be”, I once read, and your customers want text interaction with you. They text way more than they call. If you don’t skate to where they are with a mobile internet presence they will forget about you and worse yet, they will favor your competition that has a mobile internet and text presence.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.