The Continuing Business Challenges of IST’s iPointer
Intelligent Spatial Technologies (IST) is the company behind iPointer, the paltform that allows you to someday point your phone at a building and get information about it. Founded in 2003, the company has received a lot of press, but not so much funding. The company can boast “more than $1 million in state and federal research grants, as well as some private equity investment” and the CEO, Chris Frank was named Maine’s 2006 Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Still getting more funding is tough. Challenges say experts include:
- “[the] team didn’t have a clear plan of how to package the digital compass and PDA to make the product user-friendly.”
- the product didn’t releive “a pain in the market.”
So, what’s the future?
A year from now, Frank said, he hopes iST will have the financial resources to get into the market. Short of that, the company will look to be acquired, probably by an out-of-state interest.
