Smartmoney.com

Smart Start winner David Levine of MB Media Brokers.

David's vending machines feature wireless advertising opportunities.

SmartMoney: How has technology impacted your business?

David Levine: The entire vending industry is at a crossroads. The older vendors do not want to upgrade to wireless inventory management systems. The newer vendors do, but it is a scary and costly proposition. For one, most inventory management firms are in their infancy - and no one system has prevailed, leading to compatibility issues and the risk of obsolesence of a given system. That being said, the benefits of wireless inventory management are significant and necessary for the industry going forward.

SmartMoney: Going forward, what do you see as your greatest challenges to growing your business?

David Levine: The biggest challenge to growing my business is simply capital and scale. While I should easily reach profitability at my current size, it would be a lost opportunity for my company not to reach 100% penetration throughout the industry. However, to accomplish this would require more capital than I currently have available.

SmartMoney: What do you see as your biggest opportunities?

David Levine: Our advertising medium has such broad applications, not only at the point of sale, but also with businesses not related to vending - regardless of business size. Our media is one of the only ways to expose the advertiser to a captive, working consumer on a daily basis. Additionally, we can provide widespread distribution of the Amber Alert and other vital information.

I believe that our wireless vending machine advertising product will subsidize the cost of wireless inventory management, while providing additional income for the vendor. This should lead to widespread adoption of wireless inventory management throughout the industry, followed by consolidation and then improved profitability for the industry.

SmartMoney: What are your plans for the business over the next 12 months?

David Levine: We have recently begun selling our product. Qwest/DEX and The Phoenix Business Journal are among the first companies use our service. Our current goal is to acquire good statistics, tracking methods and data to demonstrate the power, effectiveness and profitability of vending machine advertising using our 100 machine test bed in Phoenix.