It was not long ago when cookie tracking was easy and worked brilliantly. Everyone accessing the internet and website would login only through one or two browsers (i.e. Internet Explorer and NetScape). This allowed for very easy web analytics that utilized cookies on one device and one browser.
But the problem arose when smartphones got into the picture. People are accessing the web and apps from personal laptops, work computers, iPhones, Androids, iPads, Kindles, and a slew of other devices. There is no doubt that smartphones have made our lives way better in terms of accessibility, connectivity and technology. However, with this blessing it has also made it extremely hard for businesses to track consumer behavior as they are using different devices.
Well to counteract this side-effect, we introduce you to Augur. This application has created a new form of cookies (fondly called CAKE) that connects a user across their devices.
Meet The Masterminds!
Augur was conceptualized and co-founded by Nawar Alsafar and Paul Foley.
The duo started their careers at big name consulting firms. Nawar started his career at McKinsey while Paul started at Deloitte. They left after a brief 7 months, to join startups, which has been their passion for the last 4 years.
“We met in Boulder when I moved here for Techstars and developed a close friendship. We were mentors for each other startups until Paul joined Augur”, says the team.
The X-Factor!
Augur links devices to the consumers who own them. For instance, most American’s have a laptop, a mobile phone, and a tablet. With Augur the Ad Tech customers can now link those devices to the person who is using them, and serve highly personalized ads.
The way this works is Augur provides an advanced fingerprint of a device when it hits a site, and then also connects the device to a consumer who is using it.
The Inspiration!
Augur started as a personalization engine with the goal of allowing websites to change appearance based on the user visiting. This is similar to how Amazon personalizes the website layout when you visit the site. For instance, recommending products you’ve shown previous interest in.
Augur’s initial mission was to bring personalization to the masses, and allow small to medium size to match the visitor who is viewing the site.
“However along our journey, we found a better pivot, and now our target customers are Ad-Tech companies who will pay us for the backend functionality of Augur(which again is linking a device to the user)”, says the team.
On The Challenges Faced & Contenders!
This team jokes about this being a 4 page laundry list. But for them the biggest challenge was identifying who their customers were, and making sure that they’ll pay for the product or service.
In terms of competition, BlueCava and Gigya pose as potential contenders. These are the main competitors, as they live in a very similar space of identity management.
On Expansion Plans & Target Audience!
“We’re going to be big! We’ve landed our first big name customers and brands, and by the end of February we will be processing over 100 million devices per month. By the end of Q2 2015, we will expect that number to be upwards of 500 million devices per month given the clients we’re currently on-boarding”, says the team.
At the moment, Augur is mainly targeted at Ad Tech Applications. Any application that is built on the premise of serving advertisements on a web property or in a mobile app can use the application to better target the visitor or user and serve a higher converting advertisement.
Monetizing Model!
Right now the team is selling access to 3 API’s:
API 1: Generates a Device ID and links a device to a User ID for anyone visiting a web property or using a mobile app. This is in real-time.
API 2: This is called the graph. This allows a customer to pass a User ID to Augur to receive a Device ID for that user. Vice a Versa, a customer can pass a Device ID to Augur and receive the User ID for that device.
API 3: Consumer Insights Profile. For each User ID, the team builds out a consumer insight profile that includes things like “Demographics, Psychographics, and Geographics”.
In short, Augur is here to solve all your identity management crisis in terms of your web traffic!!
Psst…Special Offer For Startup Dopers!
The team of Augur was kind enough to offer our reader with some exciting offer. For the first 15 people that email Nawar on [email protected] with the secret code “StartupDope” will get a free 15 day trial of Augur.
Right now signups are currently invites only for major Ad Tech companies and Brands. So this is quite the offer for anyone interested in seeing how Augur works.
For more details on the tool, do visit: http://augur.io/
