Balaya

Balaya is a messaging platform. Organizations and businesses license our social media software and use it to improve communication with their members, employees, and customers. We improve their bottom line by changing how they deliver content, engage their audience, and create value for their sponsors and partners.

 

Our first tool, Tick-it®, is a personalized communications hub that organizes web content and group communication into private, secure information channels that users select, manage and organize.  Available as both a desktop application and a web portal service, Tick-it allows users to connect their online lives in an innovative manner by providing a single, unobtrusive access point for all relevant online communications. The information is displayed in an intuitive ticker format that scrolls headlines directly to the user's desktop or mobile device, and provides more detailed information including text, links and images when the headline is clicked. With Tick-it, group communications are spam-free and all web content is easily user managed.

 

What makes Tick-it unique and essential is the versatility of the tool.  Combining the best elements of email, instant messaging, RSS feeds and social networking, Tick-it provides a single tool for users to connect their online lives.

Bob Nunnally, CEO brings 26+ years of international and domestic operational experience to his position as CEO. Prior to helping co-found Balaya, Bob served in a number of senior leader positions in the US Air Force and as a Senior Consultant at Toffler Associates, the Executive Advisory firm founded by Futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler. Bob has deep experience building award-winning organizations and in developing successful tech solutions for communication and content management. Bob's primary claim to fame is he grew up with comedian Jeff Foxworthy and lived to talk about it.

 

Tom McLain, Advisor is a co-founder of Balaya and a member of the Board of Advisors. He has successfully led business units in the digital, publishing and marketing arenas and rounded out his career as a venture capitalist committed to building high-potential digital startups and taking them public. Tom has served on the boards of five privately held companies. Balaya is Tom's 16th start-up. Currently, Tom is the Chairman of JETERA, an industry leader in the delivery of dynamic, targeted content to airline passengers.

 

Prior to JETERA, Tom was CEO of e-Commerce & IT at Spencer Trask & Company, a venture capital investment bank headquartered in Manhattan, NY. He was also founding partner of Spencer Trask Intellectual Capital Company, formed to purchase companies or divisions spun-out of Fortune 500 parents. Tom's deep experience comes from 30 years of successful leadership roles at Spencer Trask & Company, Dun and Bradstreet, and IBM.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Advertising and Marketing. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business and Columbia's Executive Management Program at Arden House. When not connecting the dots for a great business opportunity, Tom can be found looking for the dots needed to create the next endeavor.

 

Jeff McChesney, Advisor is a co-founder of Balaya and a member of the Board of Advisors. He has managed thousands of people in large, far-flung organizations, but he is an entrepreneur at heart; Balaya being his fifth startup.  Jeff brings leading-edge technology know-how and strategic focus to the Balaya venture.

He is currently the CEO of JETERA, an industry leader in the delivery of dynamic, targeted content to airline passengers. At JETERA, Jeff has raised millions in seed capital and received a Breakthrough Technology Award from Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine in 2006.

 

Prior to founding JETERA, Jeff founded e-JITI, Inc., an enterprise content-management services company.  His other key leadership roles include VP, Operations/Process Excellence at Atlas Air, Inc., the third largest air-cargo carrier in the world, and completing a 20-year career in the US Air Force as a Colonel and combat trained fighter pilot.

 

Jeff is a Distinguished Graduate of the Air Force Academy and  alumnus from  Columbia University and Harvard University. When not fine-tuning the flux capacitor, Jeff can be found streaking down the ice, hockey stick in hand and puck under control.

 

Ian Bramson, Advisor brings 15 years of experience in strategic planning,  organizational development, marketing and communications. He honed his strategic vision as a Senior Consultant at Toffler Associates; Futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler's Executive Advisory firm. Ian also brings deep experience to the team from his days with Coca-Cola and consulting fortune 50 technology companies on their marketing, sales and organizational development efforts. During football season, Ian can be found manning his grill and offering "advice" to the television. 

We white-label our unique messaging platform to companies seeking social media connectivity to increase employee productivity and promote customer loyalty-80% of US companies & growing according to Forrester Research. The market for these tools is $34B; we are addressing the $2.7B segment for light tools and widgets. We also tap a separate $10B social media advertising market by incorporating ad-serving and local-search options on Tick-it. We have secured launch partners in media, government services, and packaged goods and have $600K+ in sales revenue in the pipeline today. We have signed contracts in the US and Canada and are generating revenue.

Tick-it is a patent pending technology built on a robust and original communications backbone we created. During a year-long pilot program with a number of businesses, our company found an emerging market for a social media tool designed specifically for organizations and businesses. To seize a first-mover advantage, we have signed strategic partnerships with a number of established Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the US and Canada. This has allowed us to leverage their channels to secure sales in a number of verticals, specifically media, telecom, manufacturing, government services and packaged goods and services.

 

Direct competitors are all fairly new to this emerging market and are seeing VC and angel investment even in this tight capital market. Our ability to deliver a patent-pending business solution in a different way-to a new venue, the desktop-differentiates us from companies currently offering a social media business product.