Zuberance has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Emergence Capital Partners, with general partner Gordon Ritter joining its board of directors in the process.
Zuberance offers a suite of SaaS applications that enable companies to identify and track customer advocates, and mobilize them to automatically publish authentic content like reviews and testimonials to specific locations within shopping and review sites like Amazon.com, YouTube, TripAdvisor and Facebook. This effectively turns customers into a volunteer promotion workforce that shares offers with their friends and colleagues.
Zuberance customers pay a flat subscription fee for access to its On-Demand software services, based on expected levels of system usage and “other related factors”. There is, however, a one-time system configuration fee, which the company claims is typically less than 10 percent of the total amount of the annual subscription.
The Palo Alto-based startup was founded in 2006 by Rob Fuggetta, a marketer who used to advise companies like Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Verizon in the past on marketing strategy, so we assume he knows what he’s doing.
This is great – utilizing the power of your network to help spread your message. Web-assisted word of mouth marketing (with rewards) at it’s best.
Eh
I get banned but this guy doesn’t?
Hey, those guys still haven’t paid us for the work we did. Maybe they can afford to pay their bill now. I am still skeptical that they know what they are doing. Where are the screen shots?
Rob Fuggetta knows what he’s doing let’s have a little faith.
I’m glad Rob Fuggetta knows what he’s doing. I question whether Warrick Taylor does. He is unable to articulate the business plan or model and seems to be at sea.
Interesting Idea. Rob Fugetta definitely knows whats hes doing and there’s always a revenue model when its about something with ROI. Trust me, networking has high ROI, a lot more than Bitorrent ads per say.
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I know of this startup through my network of friends. It’s hard to believe that this idea got funded. The idea is lame. Their system is lame. Their CEO is completely clueless. And Kevin, I know from good sources that you’re not the only one who got screwed along the way. Real word of mouth.
Fuggetta is a talker, but he has no idea what he’s doing. He’s only out for himself, which is why anyone with half a brain can’t work for him for long. This guy created a whole slew of detractors by screwing people. For a guy who preaches word of mouth, you think he’s understand how that works. What goes around comes around.
Is this yet another commercial application of social network analysis? Where would this service be sponsored and run inside a Global 2000 company? The marketing department (I assume) or the sales department (which I assume would be more interested in a lead gen tool). Letsgo: what’s your intel on Fugetta? What supports (evidential data) your summary judgment on this guy? He has ten years with Regis McKenna which presumably establishes bona fides in the area of marketing strategy. But what about technology chops? This Saas model is dependent on technology identifying and distributing “brand advocates” for a Global 2000 brand.
I know this guy because he was going to have me do some work for him but I backed out. I wasn’t sure I would get paid. He was technically clueless and is not qualified to be a CEO. I saw no leadership.
Letsgo: I don’t know what your skill-set is, but I assume you are a programmer? Maybe a UI designer? I’m a marketer who has also led several technical product development builds and when I go to Zuberance’s site, I, like Kevin, don’t see any screen shots. In the absence of technical information on Zuberance’s site, it’s really hard to tell why clients would pay for what is, at this point, a sales story. What do you think?
Just stirring the pot ‘G’. I actually don’t know this guy. Never even met him before. I figure the story fits a lot of the CEOs out there.
Ya got that right… I don’t know these guys either, but spammin is a way of life… gotta love it…
DOOOOOOOO WOPPPPPPPPP POPPPPPPPITY POPPPPPPPPP
Love the idea!
I’ve looked into Zuberance for my company, a prominent San-Fran corporation, and was unimpressed. They basically create a loyalty program that they’ll host for you and charge you to communicate to your own customers. Minimum cost is near $100k. We could do this already on our own with our existing assets at a fraction of this price.
They’re alot like a SaaS version of smarmy, stealth/buzz marketing agency, Bzzagent: the main reason for users to enlist & buzz is to get rewards.
Here are some facts about Zuberance that may provide additional insights:
1. Zuberance is not a loyalty program. Zuberance provides a systematic Word of Mouth solution, delivered as a hosted service. Our customers use our hosted platform and apps to identify and mobilize their highly-satisfied customers (aka “Advocates”). Our apps are integrated with a management portal and real-time analytics.
2. Zuberance’s minimum monthly subscription fee is actually a flat $5K, depending on the number of registered Advocates. Our customers are getting a 10X ROI as measured by increased referral leads, sales, conversions, and qualified traffic.
3. If a company wanted to simply put a “Refer a Friend” form on their website, it would be cheaper for them to do this themselves. However, our customers — which include software companies with hundreds/thousands of in-house software engineers — have found it’s more cost-effective and efficient to subscribe to the Zuberance Word of Mouth marketing system with management and real-time tracking capabilities, rather than to try to build this on their own. The DIY approach is proven to be costly and efficient.
4. According to numerous research studies by Comscore, Yahoo!, Forrester and others, the #1 reason customers advocate brands, products, and services is that they’ve had a positive experience and want to share this with others. Our customers do not provide cash to Advocates for recommending. Instead, they give Advocates points that can be redeemed for discounts, special perks, or donated to worthy non-profits like the Polly Klaas Foundation, the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the American Red Cross, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. We believe it is appropriate and fair to show your appreciation to your best customers via special perks and discounts. After all, Advocates are your true VIP customers.
I would be glad to share more data and insights about Zuberance with you. Would you be willing to be transparent and share your real name and email address, as I have?
If you really want to beter understand what they do (rather than guessing), you can check out a Webinar the Sales team does every Wednesday at 11AM PST … also, they have an administrator they brought on in Jan. 09 that would gladly get your bills paid. As long as she knows you have them!
Unimpressed Client: If you were comunicating with your customers in the first place, paying someone to do it for you isn’t a bad thing.
Take time to fully review … you may like it!
Cheers.
sent from: fav.or.it [FID5213563]
Something’s fishy with Zuberance. The pricing that Fuggetta indicates above (”minimum monthly subscription fee is actually a flat $5K”) cleverly avoids the fact that their pricing is based on the number of users, so you’re likely to pay more. But they don’t share publicly what this pricing model is. Their webinars indicate that for a typical engagement as referenced in their “WOM ROI Calculator” they charge $200K!
Their website doesn’t indicate their pricing model, even the $5K that Fuggetta claims here (see for yourself: http://www.zube...om/pricing.html).
Also, final “FAIL” point. Fuggetta teased the webinar audience by pointing them to a “special offer” at http://www.zuberance.com/offer. This “offer” is for a sales person to call you and try to get you to use Zuberance! Nice “offer”, Rob.
This company is chaotic! People are getting fired left and right and if they aren’t getting fired…they are QUITTING! People are hired as “contractors” only to see if the CEO likes them and is a “good fit.” He’s fired tons of people without notice and acts as if they didn’t exist the next day. They are doomed for failure and employees are treated very bad. One day you’re great…the next day you’re replaced. There are no annoucements of who’s fired or let go and why…you just come in and there is someone new! And then in a month or so the revolving door continues…to top it off…CEO claims this is typical of a start up so no need to be alarmed…not to mention THEY DON’T HAVE THE PRODUCT THEY CLAIM THEY HAVE!
not sure when the chips will fall on this co, but believe me, they will. fuggetta is completely full of $hit, and they have no product. we asked for a demo after their webinar a few weeks ago, and we got a powerpoint presentation. i asked to see the product and they offer to have me see other implementations of custom work for norton and tomtom. there is no product.
why isnt techcrunch doing a followup on these snake oil salesmen? and what about this bit of bs i saw on the wire a short while back –
Zuberance Launches Twitter Solution that Turns Word of Mouth into Sales Now — http://zuberanc...ws-20090929.php
give me a break. i called and my sales rep “is no longer with the company”. and when I asked about a demo of the twitter solution, she didn’t know what i was talking about.
avoid this company. for real word of mouth, try bazzarvoice.
The last comment left by Hmmmm couldn’t be more accurate, but forgot to mention WHY people are quitting…because of very bad leadership and management. The CEO does not know how to run a company or manage people. He may have good ideas, but he’s not a good CEO…ask the multitude that have left one way or another.
The VCs funding this start-up need to ask the EXzuberants what’s really going on there.
Wow! So the Zuberance “fans” are growing! I’ll top it off for you guys! A couple of the salesman came into my company and tried to sell our team. I heard about it later. Our guys asked to see their software since they had a laptop running and internet access only to be told “we’ll send you screen shots when we get back!” Who the F says that? Running internet, laptop in front of you…what’s the deal? LOL Greasy salesmen what do you expect? Definitely NOT a legit company!
I was a contractor but should have been an employee. Contractors were mass emailed to be in between the hours of 9-6 and were to fill out time cards…talk about big breach of what the legal definition of a contractor is! Also, don’t expect to get paid on time…our checks were always late! We have bills to pay!!! This place is an HR Manager’s worst nightmare, if HR even existed in this place. This was a true nightmare and I feel for anyone there. I am sure all employees are looking to leave as soon as they can. I have worked for a lot of companies and even more “bad” manager’s/leadership, this by far is the WORST! And I am not a “disgruntled” employee as I or the other posts may be referred to as…these “leaders” just live in a fantasy and far from reality!
“October 27, 2009 Zuberance wins Groundswell Award”. I’ve been working with Zuberance for close to a year on a contract basis, often directly with the CEO. He is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the business, extremely well respected in the industry and very appreciative of talent and abilities of his staff. I for one, would not want to work with a fellow employee/contractor who wasn’t very good at his or her job. In a startup, you can’t afford the dead weight and when the CEO realizes someone isn’t working out, he does something about it. Unfortunately there has been the odd employee/contractor who couldn’t fit in to the startup environment, and they weren’t very good at their job. Instead of realizing the reasons why they didn’t work out, one or two of them are hostile and angry. Once those people find their nitch (and that will be in a big company), they will hopefully learn from their mistakes, and realize they are not cut out for a startup.
Response to Carol’s comment: GET REAL! Just because you have found a “nitch,” doesn’t mean that the CEO is great. The real proof is in the vendors who have complained about not being paid, the contractors who have commented on how badly they were treated, the prospective customers who asked for a demo and were offered ppt slides by “greasy salesmen,” and the ex-employees who were not managed and were set up to fail by the CEO.
If it were just one – maybe even two – then I’d say it might be a disruntled person…but it’s not. It’s vendors, contractors, employees and prospective customers!
Sure, if someone isn’t working out, something should be done. That’s not the complaint. The complaint is how the CEO handled it…or didn’t handle it. The CEO doesn’t give his staff direction, encouragement or empowerment to do their jobs. He just judges and then, one day without any indication, you’re gone! Bad CEO, bad CEO.
Glad you like your job. But get real.
Carol is a recruiter and NOT an employee. Carol has NEVER worked directly with the CEO or any other Executive at that company. She has NEVER stepped a foot in that office. Carol is an advocate of Zuberance because she has made a boat load of money because of the turn over rate of this company. Employees are terminated and she replaces them! In these tough challenging economic times…I can assure you Carol is living well.
anyone see the newz that cam out today bout zuberance?
http://sanfranc...42800%5E2388811