Ariel Poler is the CEO and co-founder at TextMarks - Reactee. Indeed, an incredibly talented individual having been educated at both MIT and Stanford. Before starting TextMarks, he started two other companies , sits on the board of multiple startups, and is the chairman of StumbleUpon, a startup acquired by Ebay in May, 2007. Get your Reactee t-shirt now here!

Can you please share with us how Reactee all got started?

Actually, Reactee is a product of TextMarks, Inc. a leading provider of simple SMS services for publishing via text messages, coordinating group activities, and making web pages accessible via SMS.

We first had the thought of making t-shirts to help people promote their TextMarks, but after brainstorming and great feedback, we thought we should offer Reactee t-shirts as stand-alone products.

As a result, Reactee launched as a stand-alone entity.

What is Reactee’s marketing strategy?

So far, we’ve done mostly PR.

Reactee is seen as a fun and innovative product so we've been getting great coverage.
Currently, we are working on some partnerships with social networks, which we will be announcing over the next few weeks.

As a result of the PR success we’ve been able to achieve, we've been getting a few large orders. For example, current.tv, has ordered 500 t-shirts to promote their brand offline. In addition, we got orders from LionsGate Studios to promote their upcoming movie, “Good Luck Chuck” which their staff wore at the recent Comic-Con conference in San Diego.

In addition, we have been experimenting with a bit of advertising so our affiliate network has been growing.

All in all, our PR marketing strategy has been effective at gaining us some large media companies as customers.

What is Reactee’s long-term goal?

We feel that t-shirts are great for communicating and sharing the things people care about so we see them as a great promotional medium.

Until now, t-shirts have been static.

We believe that there are many situations in which making a t-shirt dynamic is very valuable. Imagine if t-shirts could be interactive by giving different responses in different circumstances and to different people depending on who reads the t-shirt.

Our goal is to become the leaders in this new industry of "interactive shirts" and other apparel.

We want to use t-shirts as a tool to engage people, meet people, and establish a dialogue with people.

We believe that as SMS becomes more mainstream so will the interactivity of t-shirts.

I understand one of the obstacles Reactee had to face was finding the best balance among quality, appeal, and usability? Can you please describe how Reactee tackled that problem?

We wanted to make t-shirts that looked great and that people would want to wear,
and at the same time communicate instructions for “texting” that were easily understood.

One of the elements that helped us was to establish a standard layout for the text and a set of color schemes.
This was able to provide a certain level of customization to customers, and yet maintain a certain look and feel which could help with both aesthetics and functionality.

We did a fair amount of user testing. We started with something that was very clear, but very ugly. Then, we came up with something that looked great, but the instructions were not prominent enough. Finally, we came up with our current design.

Needless to say there are still improvements that can be made, but through continual feedback and adjustments, I believe we can come up with the “perfect” design.

What is TextMarks long-term strategy to counter the inevitable development of mobile browsing? Does this not pose a threat to the SMS space?

I am confident SMS will remain an important technology for a long time.
It serves a different purpose than browsing. For one, it has a "PUSH" component. For example, we have users, such as sports teams and fraternities, that have created alert and discussion lists with TextMarks. Web browsing doesn't replace that.

While I agree that technology like the iPhone has incredible web browsing capabilities, I think that it will be years before the average person's phone can provide a great web browsing experience.

For certain things, short text messages just simply works better, such as appointment reminders.

On a follow-up note, where do you see the text messaging space in 3-5 years?

In many parts of the World, such as Singapore, SMS is highly intertwined with people’s daily lives. In fact, it is almost as common as speaking on the phone.
Although, we are not there yet in the U.S., I feel that it is only a matter of time before we will.

As I mentioned above, I think SMS will become better integrated with web browsing and other technologies.

Today, we are already starting to see very innovative uses of SMS by some of our customers.

Message to leave with:

Buy a Reactee! Folksonomy readers can use the Coupon Code "folksonomy" for a 10% discount.

Seriously, we are seeing some really great uses for the t-shirts.
Everyday, I see new design creations by professionals, whether it be photographers, web designers, accountants, real estate agents, personal trainers, or actors, you name it!

In addition, we have seen our t-shirts being used for promoting non-profits and political campaigns.

And, of course, there are people having a lot of fun with t-shirts like "SOMETHING TO TELL ME?" or “THINK I AM HOT?”

I would encourage all of you to get a t-shirt.

We are always looking for great people to work with so anybody who likes what we are doing, email us.