Napkin Labs allows brands to better understand their customers (and turn them into collaborators)

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Social networks like Facebook and Twitter as a truly effective channels in which companies can communicate with their customers and receive-instant feedback on their products and brands. Course information within social networks may be more of a fire hose.

Although social networks provide more than random reviews for brands to take advantage, they often do not have the kind of deep understanding of product design, design concept, or that the company can do to better serve its customer base. Companies want to be more effective in communicating with the active user base and valued Clients together so that actually leads to better products and better user experience, rather than the alternative.

Today the napkin Labs launches new version of its platform, which aims to solve this problem, creating a space online laboratory this function as a collaborative community where customers can exercise their creative muscles and work together to make their favorite brands even more attractive.

In fact, napkin Labs works to incorporate valuable customers in creative army into the platform, which gives them a number of activities (read: apps), integrate the game dynamics and intuitive design that makes it easy (and fun) to develop new ideas and let their views be heard. Not unlike the IDEO, these apps to work towards the promotion of an effective forum in which the spitball ideas about the design process, crowdsourcing process so users are encouraged to become designers, marketers and product developers all at once — giving clients the opportunity to become more directly involved in the development of their favorite brands and products.

Each company or brand, you can create your own laboratory in which the application of leading clients through napkin a series of simple questions designed to get the main product of the alleged experience, as well as allowing brands to seek more nuanced and targeted feedback — or go even further by encouraging fans to create video renderings of their suggestions and using video to create a fact-finding missions. These custom applications experience allow brands to understand their clients from a variety of different perspectives and to drive home the idea of real cooperation between the brand and the customer.

And because every project is a game-ified, contributors are rewarded with "influence points" for each proposal, they do rating in public leaders who can view each user involved. At the end of the design process, each user is prompted to pay chosen by the company, whether in cash, goods or merit badge.

The company can continue to configure the user experience design lab their product with welcome messages, logos, colors, and different characteristics, as well as the types of users may engage in both processing advertising campaign, for example — all in an attempt to make the design process more enjoyable and more comfortable driving constructive feedback and iteration.

Another aspect that differentiates from competitors napkin Labs platform really is a turnkey solution that can be used by any one designer for large corporations. Napkin Labs offers pricing scheme in which businesses pay $ 99 per month for basic functions — up to $ 499 per month for the United States the full user experience for individual companies.

When you run the easy-to-use and clean UI encourage companies such as Sony Design Center and Google to become the first clients of the private beta of serviette laboratories. Google, for one, for a platform to test ideas for GoogleTV, particularly in connection with young customers use Web TV in the changing landscape of digital media, according to the napkin Labs ' co-founder and CEO of Riley Gibson.

For small companies who cannot afford to hire professional designers and creatives register at an early stage products, napkin Labs creates easily (and cheaper) solution by bringing customers into the game, to participate in iterations and ideas — an approach that very well could be a great approach to building brand loyalty.

It is an interesting platform. Chimes to let us know what you think. For more check the video below:

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(Founder of watches) Napkin Labs: Should startups pitch close to venture capital?

Josh Zelman works for TechCrunch, as producer, writer, editor and correspondent. ? Read More

Riley Gibson — CEO and co-founder of the Boulder-based napkin Labs, a startup that helps companies manage and involve their Facebook fans and twitter followers. Napkin Labs launched an updated version of the service today (read, napkin Labs allows brands to better understand their customers (and turn them into colleagues) to launch Gibson flew to New York to get advice on building your business during working hours with a hunch co-founder Chris founder Dixon and first round capital managing partner Josh Kopelman.

Based in Colorado, Gibson alleged that his company may be at a disadvantage, because it is not near large sources of venture capital. He wondered if the move will help. Kopelman don't think and react, saying, "I'm not sure it makes sense to go to be near VC ... I think you tend to move if you find that you're starved for talent, if you can't hire to fill positions at the right level. We financed companies throughout the country. "

Dixon chime in with a tongue-in-cheek response that is often better to abandon sources of venture capital.

After an exchange of Gibson asked Dixon and Kopelman on raising money. The question is the napkin Labs to try to reach the defined indicators to make money, or he doesn't worry about benchmarks and just go for it? Dixon and Kopelman take a similar position, with Kopelman, stating "probably makes sense to have just a handful of conversations, testing the appetite and the reaction of investors." he pointed out that you don't turn, fund-raising and shuts down, but rather is an ongoing process to attract sponsors.

Make sure to watch all the videos for additional ideas, along with previous episodes, the founder of the clock with a picture of Dispatch.io, Schedit and profitably.

Napkin Labs allows you to easily locate information from your fans, followers and customers. Our online platform provides tools for market research, brainstorming and rapid, simple, product evaluation ...

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Josh Kopelman is a venture capitalist and managing partner of first round capital. Previously, Kopelman founded Half.com which was acquired by eBay in 2000 year. He remained with eBay for ... Read More

Chris Dickson currently works as Director and co-founder of hunch. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He was previously CEO and co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which ...

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