An Irvine company has partnered with several auto dealerships in a bid to boost their ability to generate sales leads. Mobilize Solutions is providing its “virtual photo booth” to Irvine-based Norm Reeves Honda, Irvine BMW and Auto Farm in Utah. The dealers pay a $500 monthly subscription for unlimited branded “ads” generated by customers and shared on social media. The salesmen take photos of customers who just bought a car and brand the images with their dealership logos. The customers typically post them to their social media sites in the excited aftermath of buying a new car. The posts are linked to the dealer’s website, generating a lead every time a friend of the car buyer clicks on the post.
“Friend-to-friend marketing is much more effective than traditional paid ads,” Chief Executive Aaron Horvath said.
Mobilize is based in a co-working space at The Vine building in University Research Park in Irvine.
Honors in France
Newport Beach-based NuEyes received an innovation award in Paris at the 2016 SILMO d’Or Awards.
Silmo is an annual optics trade show that awards prizes to the most innovative products in various categories. NuEyes won in the “low-vision” category.
The company has developed “smart” glasses that incorporate augmented and virtual reality to help the visually impaired.
The award is given by a jury that includes optometrists, opticians and people with low vision.
“The person with low vision was instrumental in NuEyes getting the prize,” said Gilles Candotti, who accepted the award on NuEyes’ behalf.
Candotti is managing director of the startup’s French distribution partner, CECIAA, which works with more than 1,000 opticians throughout France.Â
“That is because people with low vision can use the NuEyes in a much more diversified setting than the assistive technology they currently have,” he said.
The assistive technology includes products such as electronic magnifiers, which are helpful with reading and writing, Candotti said. People with low vision get more help from NuEyes, he said, because it’s a wearable product that aids in distance viewing, such as watching TV and “seeing the face, smile and eyes of the person you are talking to.”
The award confers recognition on winners rather than prize money, said NuEyes co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Justin Moore.
“Receiving a Silmo d’Or award is a significant accomplishment in our industry, and winning this award as a new startup means that much more,” he said. “This award is recognition of the need in the international market for NuEyes and the Silmo d’Or further strengthens our relationship with our (only) French distribution partner.”
NuEyes launched in January.
Another Winner
Another recent award winner is Modulated Imaging, which received the 2016 OC Tech Alliance innovation award in the medical technology category at the 23rd Annual OC Tech Alliance Award Gala at Westin South Coast Plaza. The company’s technology originally was developed at University of California-Irvine, and it’s now in the process of securing Food and Drug Administration clearance for its device, which is designed for preventive screening of diabetic foot ulcers. The device’s near-infrared light pierces a few millimeters below the surface of the skin to measure how much oxygen is being delivered to the tissue.
The company recently closed its first round of financing, obtaining $500,000.
Angels Up Firms’ Performance
Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels was the focus of a recent study that found angel investors have a positive impact on the growth of the firms they fund in terms of performance and survival.
The study, by Professor Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and Professor Antoinette Schoar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, focused on two large angel networks: Tech Coast Angels and CommonAngels in the Boston area. It found that startups funded by angel investors are 14% to 23% more likely to survive for the next 1 ½ to 3 years and grow their employment by 40% as compared to non-angel-funded startups. Angel funding also raises the likelihood of a successful exit by 10% to 17%. Obtaining angel funding also seems to be a significant indicator of a startup’s ability to obtain subsequent financing.
Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor group in the U.S. It’s comprised of five regional networks, including Orange County.
“Tech Coast Angels-OC has led more new deals than any of the other TCA chapters, and we remain true to our objective of working closely with the entrepreneurs in OC to help them build better companies,” Chairman John Harbison said.
Tech Coast Angels’ portfolio has gotten a return of 3.3 times capital invested and a 26% internal rate of return, Harbison said. Since its 1997 founding, it has invested over $176 million in more than 300 companies and helped attract more than $1.5 billion in additional capital, mostly from venture capital firms.
