Pluto Unlimited wants to lead the example for what startup companies need to do in this day and age to get the capital needed to actually have the ability to become a profitable company. The company started as an advertising based niched company, but quickly used the money raised to put back into the ideas.
“It is about having the ability to finance our ideas for ground-breaking new projects by having a revenue stream already coming in.” Kim Olson said via the TED Cell Conference via Berlin, Germany last week.
Pluto Unlimited is one of the leaders in development of cellphone advertisements, and the first project made available from the company besides ads was an automation bot for the social media outlet, Twitter. The automation bot was called, Catch, and was released earlier this year for at a starting rate of $1,400.00 and up.
An updated version of the bot in October, and the sales have been through the roof. Catch is a bot that ‘catches’ users other means of contact for businesses that are dealing with the fact that social media is a changing tool.
Capturing or ‘catching’ a user at his main gateway is the key. Think of it as a consumer following a product or company they like on Twitter, but not interacting much after the initial follow. Then that same consumer uses other social media that they didn’t follow the same company or product on such as Facebook. This bot gets their email or other avenue such as Facebook to stay in contact with them.
Is it spam? Acting President and co-founder of Pluto Unlimited, Michael Barber, was quick to point out that the bot, “simple takes information that is readily available but for a company with millions of followers going into each follower isn’t ideal.”
Catch was only the first success of Pluto Unlimited as in September they obtained funding for their second project Reign Hub. Reign Hub is an appliance added to a home or business that recycles rain water for all household use.
The product is set to sell for the low price of $1500.00. It would become a game changer in the way that water can be recycled with a product that is essentially the same size and price as a washer and dryer or large refrigerator. 5th Avenue Equity quickly put up a $10 million dollar buy in for the product, and Reign Hub will be released to buyers as early as next fall.
“We have at least 4 other major game changers coming in the next 6 months or a year, and 3 of them deal with automation. It is the future, and it is completely are focus with software and engineering right now.” Kim Olson added via a Skype conversation with reporter Joe Klein of Time Magazine.
Startups should take note that funding can come from anywhere even to the extent of bootstrapping by itself.
