Interview with Ashley Paula, tXt_blaster – Group SMS

It’s rare when I see a startup that has a business model that could be a huge winner. This morning I met with the team at tXt_blaster in San Francisco. tXt_blaster provides a group SMS product which frankly sounds boring on the surface. But as you start to think about the possibilities for service usage, it’s easy to realize that tXt_blaster could easily be a huge service. A school could send a tXt_blaster text message to all students in the event of a weather event. Consumer products brands can use tXt_blaster to reach their customers when they are in the buying process. The service would also be an effective method to run a sweepstakes. News organizations and the entertainment/celebrity sector could also utilize the two-way group text message interaction. A white label version could be offered to corporations for internal usage.

Their current business model takes 60 characters of the message and inserts an advertisement. They are working on a premium offering which would not include ads. Frankly if they market this product correctly, the revenue from corporate groups would suffice to allow individual groups to use the service for free.

Check out my interview with tXt_blaster marketing director Ashley Paula: