Landmarks ID – Qantas AVRO Accelerator 2017
By James Fogelberg, Founder of LANDMARKS ID
landmarksid.com
LANDMARKS ID helps brands and marketers learn more about their customers behaviours, brand affinities and purchase intents by using privacy complaint mobile location data powered by the smartphones consumers carry with them at all times.
Why did you apply to the program?
I had heard time and time again from brands and marketers that they were seeking a more robust offline consumer insights solution, my intention in applying for the AVRO program was to see if a market leading brand such as Qantas, with millions of mobile app downloads and a robust understanding of their customers online activities already, would value these LANDMARKS ID’s value proposition. Receiving the endorsement and support of Qantas’ senior management and the team from Red Planet, Qantas’ data business, validated my belief in the problem LANDMARKS is helping to solve. Few people probably realise this but I left corporate life the day before I started the Qantas AVRO program, to say this program was an accelerator program for LANDMARKS ID and myself would be an understatement!
What’s it been like working with Qantas?
I have really appreciated the constant feedback loop the team at Qantas invest back into LANDMARKS ID’s product development and solution offerings, not only during the AVRO program but ongoing. Whilst the program itself runs for 12 weeks by taking the time and effort to develop relationships across different divisions of Qantas has provided myself and LANDMARKS ID the opportunity to grow our solutions offerings across various business units, each one acting as an endorser for the next
What’s the biggest learning you’ll take away from the Slingshot program?
What you get out of an accelerator program is directly matched to the level of investment (time, sweat, sales meetings, product sprints etc) you put back in. Myself and several other startups in the AVRO program worked our butts off every day for 12 weeks and Qantas saw this; Qantas knew which businesses delivered on what they said they would and the commercial deal and investment that LANDMARKS ID received from Qantas is a direct result of those long days and late nights!
What was your favourite aspect of the program?
From a program training perspective without a doubt the pitch coaching, being trained by some of the worlds best pitch and public speaking coaches from RogenSi provided LANDMARKS ID the opportunity to land new clients and investors, both critical aspects to any business ongoing success. From a corporate partner perspective landing both a commercial deal and an investment from Qantas was the dream outcome for the business and myself personally.
What’s next for your Startup?
LANDMARKS ID recently completed our Seed Capital Raise, securing investment from Qantas, Artesian Capital and 10 angel investors spanning the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. We have spent the last several months hiring new talent and developing our location technology stack to meet the increasing demand from clients across Australia and New Zealand. We will spend the next several months delivering for clients in these markets before exploring market expansion and strategic partnership opportunities further afield.
