Tonight I had the pleasure to be a guest speaker along with Bill Nussey of Silverpop at the Shotput Ventures weekly dinner meeting. I gave an updated version of my "Startups in 12 Quotes" presentation. It was actually titled "Startups in 12 Quotes". The reason for the change is at the end I pulled out my recently finished copy of Ignore Everybody and read three choice quotes from the book. And then I announced the Ignore Everybody Social Project.
You see I took Hugh MacLeod up on his secret evil plan to get a signed copy of the book. True to his word he sent it and thus I have two copies. I am quite sure the intent of this promotion was to create a pass along effect. I just decided to formalize the pass along of my copy.
Here's the deal. I gave my unsigned copy to Nelson. It is well marked with the passages that I found of interest. It has my name and the date I completed reading it on the inside cover. I instructed Nelson to:
Mark his favorite quotes in the book.
Put his name and the date he completed it on the inside cover.
Pass the book along to someone else who agrees to participate in the project.
Come to this post and leave a comment with his fav quote from the book and the name of the person he passed it along to.
Rinse and repeat.
We will do this until Shotput's demo day where the book will be passed along to the next participant. It would be really cool if we could get one person from each Shotput company to participant before then.
We will then go through steps one through four again among the broader Atlanta startup community. At that point we will have a unique community created social object.
It started with a little run down the Chattooga (where Deliverance was filmed) and then a nice hike up 4,700' Rabun Bald. You can clickie to see the Bull Sluice sequence. Jack tried to stand up and yelled "Cowabunga" and we about lost our guide Nate.
I really did create Secret Sig. And it pretty much unfolded the way that I described in my How I Created Secret Sig post (less all the snarkiness). And after I made Secret Sig I pretty much put it on the shelf. But like the ring of power Secret Sig did indeed have a will of its own. And like the ring of power it was forgotten for a long time. Until it awoke and ensnared me. This is the story about how Sig Mosley found out that I created Secret Sig.
Once again, it all started innocently enough. It was June of 2008. I had a meeting with Melanie Leeth of Imlay Investments. I wanted to get her view on one of the companies that I advise. And as is often the case when seeking Melanie's advice we were having a great conversation. Right in the middle of it she changed the subject. Melanie asked me "Lance, what are your going to do?" Well since she asked me, I told her. I told her my master plan. She wanted to know if I had discussed this with Sig. I told her no and she encouraged me to do so. So shortly thereafter I sent Sig a note and we scheduled lunch at the now defunct The Globe in Technology Square.
Sig Mosley and I went to lunch. We had a good meeting. As we were winding things down and settling our tab Sig asked me one last short question.
"Have you ever heard of Twitter?"
"Yes" I replied as calmly as possible while a B9 voice started screaming in my head.
"Well somebody has gone and created a Twitter account called Secret Sig and attached a Web page to it. Would you have any idea about how someone could do such a thing?" Sig asked. I am not sure of the exact words. I was in a state of shock. And panic.
Yes, Secret Sig did indeed have a will of its own. And lots of power. The power of Web crawlers. The power of search engines. All you have to do is bing Sig Mosley to understand the extent of the power. Someone close to Sig had searched on the term Sig Mosely and told him about Secret Sig.
Here I was sitting across from the most powerful technology investor in Atlanta, if not the Southeast, and he was asking me a direct question about something that I had created to semi-impersonate him. I never dreamed that things would unfold this way. People talking about it at an event and online with me just listening, sure. Getting asked a direct question from Sig himself, no. My mind was racing. Really, really racing. I had not done anything with the Secret Sig persona for several months. Was this an innocent question? Was there some artifact out on the Web that connected me to Secret Sig from the botched first attempt? Does he know? What do I say? Is my master plan going to completely blow up before it gets out of the gate? My career flashed before my eyes. I tried to stay as visibly calm as possible.
You know they say under stress people revert to their true self. I believe in being honest. It's what my parents taught me. So I came clean. I told Sig the truth. It was really the only option. "Yes Sig, I know how someone could do such a thing. I created Secret Sig."
And waited for a response. Waited for what seemed an eternity. How was the unwitting father of Atlanta angel investing going to respond to this gem of a confession? I really did not know him very well. We had worked together on the GRA/TAG business launch competition but that was about it. I had no idea how he was going to react. I was dying.
And what did Sig do? Sig smiled. To me at the moment a smile that was more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. With that smile I knew things were going to be all right.
Sig asked me how I did it. I told him the story. He asked me about Twitter. I told him all about that as well. Sig asked me if he could have control of @secretsig. I said yes. I even game him a tutorial on how to use it. With the exception of an entry or two at the beginning it has been Sig himself tweeting since last June.
Eventually Sig asked me if he could have control of Secret Sig he wanted to change some of the content. Correct some errors in fact. I said yes. Came to find that there is really no way to transfer a blogger account. So I am now the webmaster of the only Web presence of Sig Mosley and Imlay Investments. Sig wants changes, I get cracking.
Like the Secret Sig blog itself this article is written in a manner that attempts to imitate the skewering parody voice Dan Lyons created for Fake Steve Jobs. I have the utmost respect for all the individuals and organizations mentioned below. It is my hope that they all view their inclusion as a sign of great respect in the same manner that Sig views Secret Sig. With the exception of the dudes from Despair. They really are weenies.
It all started innocently enough. In January or February of 2008. Maybe March. I was a little bored. Had a little time on my hands. And I was inspired.
Inspired by the then anonymous Fake Steve Jobs. Before he become Real Dan. Fake Steve was brilliant. Literally. Perhaps the best non-marketing marketing campaign in the history of man. Or at least for a book about a technology icon.
And Fake Steve was big. Maybe even bigger then real Steve. I wanted one of my own.
The target was easy to pick if you were sitting at the epicenter of the Atlanta technology community. Sig. Sig Mosley. Sig Mosley the unwitting godfather of Atlanta angel investing. Sig Mosley without the "e" of Noro-Moseley (lots of people make that mistake). Sig had no Web site. His company, Imlay Investments, had no Web site. So I decided to make one.
I started by privately registering a few domain names. Sigmosley.com was available. I grabbed it. Thought about it a bit. Started to feel a little creepy. Almost stalker like. Ditched that. Registered secretsig.com. Felt more like fun. Fun was the goal.
I don't really code. It's not that it's hard. It's just typing. I don't have time to code. I needed some help. And help I found with my trusty confidant Blake Perdue. Blake has some mad web design skills (among others), and he put up with my insistence on using all things Typepad when creating PeachSeedz. Like he had a choice. He works for me. He does what I say. Like he had a choice in my evil plan. So he did it.
Blake designed and coded up the first version of the SecretSig Web site. I wrote the content. It was a thing of beauty. Custom templates. It even had SigWear, inspired by Andrew Hyde's VCWear. Shirts that had cool writings like "I've Been Sigged", "What Would Sig Say?", and "If You Need The Internet To Find Me You Don't Deserve Funding." This was before those weenies at StartupLounge came up with their lame Sig Said No shirt and then ceased production because the even bigger weenies at Despair (no link love for them) sent a cease and desist for the use of the :-( emoticon that some idiot at the USPTO granted a trademark (Exhibit A the trademark and patent processes are broken).
So we had the site. SecretSig was up and running. I needed a launch strategy. And if there is one thing I know how to do in the world it is launch Internet stuff. Unless it really is crappy product from some entrepreneur that has no clue. No clue that you actually need to think of your marketing strategy before you start building. That marketing is not some tag on that makes people buy bad things that they don't want or need. They are losers. I know how to tell them to get lost. Or get them to pay me a bunch of money. But I digress. I created a launch strategy. It was brilliant. Really. More brilliant then Dan Lyons. Perhaps the most brilliant simple plan in history. Even better then the Grinch.
I decided to launch via Twitter.
Twitter before everybody was getting on and being all spammy. Twitter before that jerk Tony LaRussa, whom I used to respect, decided to sue Twitter because someone was using his name and they came out with the stupid idea of non-anonymous accounts only for important people (what are they going to do, use Wikipedia to decide who is important?). Twitter before anyone in the Atlanta technology investment community was on it. But they are all on there now. And it is because of me. I was the first person to semi impersonate a member of the Atlanta technology investment community on Twitter (and as far as I know the last, nobody else has the kahonas). I set up a twitter account using the handle secretsig. Set the more info URL to www.secretsig.com. And then I had secretsig follow Sanjay Parekh.
You may have heard of Sanjay. He founded Digital Envoy, created Startup Riot, and is a founder of Shotput Ventures. Has this big hangup like Tony Dorsett about how people should pronounce his name. Gets into arguments with important people about things that don't matter. And he has doesn't have enough to do so he sits around all day long, stares at Tweetdeck and spews meaningless drivel at the rate of about a zillion messages a day. I figured follow Sanjay and it would generate about 50 tweets and somebody that was actually important like the weenies at StartupLounge would find out and spread the word. Sanjay is going to get all pissy with me for saying all this but it is true.
But Blake screwed it up. Dolt. He failed to mask the domain of www.secretsig.com about page. It looked something like forceofgood.typepad.com/secretsig_about.html. Sanjay called me on it. Sent me a DM (that's direct message for all you twittertards). I denied it. Sanjay sent me the domain evidence. Mea culpa. But Sanjay was cool. He volunteered to keep SecretSig secret.
So I took down www.secretsig.com. Then recreated it on Blogger (the application that Google paid millions of dollars to Evan Williams for and then just let it languish like every other thing they buy with the possible exception of Urchin). I did it myself and just let it sit there. Waiting for the opportune moment to tell the world. Cooking up an alternative launch strategy. But like the ring of power, Secret Sig had a will of its own...
The story about how Sig found out that I created Secret Sig is a story for another day.
One of the mainstay features on FoG over the past two years has been the "quote of the week". It is a post that appears every Friday at noon (I tried 3:14 for a period, but noon works better). It started as a throwaway, something to get a quick and easy article up at the end of the week. Quotes are easy to find if you are looking for them.
It has evolved into a pretty popular series. One of the quote of the week posts generated more comments than any other article in the history of FoG. Heck I even used the quotes to create a presentation called "Startups in 12 Quotes" that generated over 2,700 views, 18 favs, and 9 embeds on slideshare.
But with the break from FoG I have also been thinking if I wanted to continue with the quote of the week feature. But instead of deciding by myself in some misguided self-absorbed vacuum, I thought I would ask the audience via a poll.
Please take a moment to take the poll. And comments beyond the poll are of course welcome.
LMRC is right more often then other ranking methods and effective at sorting out the top teams in the later rounds. Here is Sokol's and Nemhauser's presentation that highlights the power of the methodology.
I used LMRC to pick my Final Four this year. Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina were the result. Below is a pure play LMRC bracket up to the Final Four. LMRC puts Memphis and North Carolina in the final with the Tar Heels prevailing... shudder the thought. So I went had to go with my heart and my hope once LMRC delivered the Final Four.
Having been weaned on Louisville basketball at Freedom Hall, I took the Cards over Memphis in the semis and again over North Carolina in the final. 76 - 68. Terrance Williams gets the most outstanding player.
On March 2 I announced the Build My Timbuk2 Bag contest and promised to announce the winner by midnight. Twenty four people joined in the fun and one person was even inspired to go get a Bag In A Box Gift Card for their wife's birthday. Thanks to everyone that participated and special thanks to Erika Brookes and SJ for helping me judge the entries. There were some tough calls.
Andy Macdonald, a 23 year old Graphic Communications student at Clemson University, earned honorable mention with his subtle semi-monochromatic design. It matches my car nicely, and if this was going to be my use all the time bag it would have won. But I have a standard issue Tumi that I use when things get serious, so while a valiant effort Andy did not take home the grand prize.
Ajai Karthikeyan, a second year College of Computing student at Georgia Tech, went bold with a design that mixed the FoG color palette with a tribute to my MindSpring heritage. Very nicely done. Another worthy mention.
Ultimately the judges landed on Clark Griffiths' design as the winner. Clark is an urban designer/planner and aspiring professional photographer out of Tampa Bay. The bag's blue/white/spinach scheme is both bold and fresh. It builds upon the equity that I have built in my FoG color palette. It is just smoking hot. A great bag for when I am hanging with the up and coming Atlanta startup crowd.
Congratulations to Clark for the winning design! And thanks again for everyone that played and helped out.
Yesterday I spent one of the most exciting 30 minutes of my week talking with Lila King and Karyn Lu of Echo. Echo is an art and civic journalism project that will produce and collect stories tied to physical locations throughout Atlanta.
Karyn and Lila believe everyone has a fascinating story to tell. The interview below gives a little peek into the Echo story.
Karyn and Lila won $10,000 in seed money from the New Media Women Entrepreneurs. During the day Lila leads the online team behind CNN's iReport.com where Karyn is the user experience lead. It's great to see this kind of big thinking emerge from the people behind the scenes at the established media companies in Atlanta.
Team Skribit gave me a Timbuk2 Bag In A Box gift card for the work I have been doing with them. And what I am going to do with it is build my own bag. I have selected the medium laptop messenger as my bag of choice. Now I need to design it.
Issue is I am not much of a designer. I can provide design direction. I can even tweak design. But I am not much good at design itself. So I am going to have a little contest and have you design my bag for me. Winner gets the choice of a $20 iTunes or Amazon gift certificate. Spend 15 minutes. About $80 an hour. Seems fair.
Go to the next step and select the color of the logo.
Make a comment on this post indicating your design by midnight on Sunday March 8.
Use the following form in your comment: left panel color/center panel color/right panel color/logo color. For example Navy/Rocky Road/Army/Olive. (Timbuk2 really needs a save/share function).
Winning bag design will be selected and announced on FoG by midnight on March 11.
The winner of the contest will be decided by Erika Brookes who has been described as an expert on being both technically smart and chic, SJ who has a bit of a bag fetish, and me.
I don't have to actually use the winning design.
If I don't use the winning design the winner still gets the $20.
It all started innocently enough when I read this tweet.
What's that all about I wondered? Well it turns out that a pack of Web celebs created charity auctions on eBay to benefit charity: water (a worthy cause). Julia Roy was offering a 6 hour dinner and drinks outing. Being a semi experienced Ebayer, I decided to have a little fun.
It seemed to work.
Emboldened, I went too far.
Too far, as in putting in a bid for $1,200. It was a too much for d***e. He dropped out at $1,101. I was currently the winning bidder at $1,126. I sent Julia a direct message.
I am indeed happily married with a great wife and two great kids. And I was mortified, absolutely mortified, that no one was going to outbid me. Julia sent me back this nice message.
Which sounded all well and good. I have a personal slush fund that I can do whatever I want with. Abby, my wife, is an understanding lady that let's me do lots of things. But I was having a real hard time figuring out how I was going to explain spending $1,200 on a charity in conjunction with dinner and drinks with a twenty something blonde in NYC that had been referred to as "the world’s hottest geek". It would be a cold spring in Atlanta if that came to pass.
Eight days went by. No other bids. Deepening distress.
Julia and my $1,126 bid made its way to the front page of eBay.
I started scheming up some ways that I might be able to get a little value out of my donation. Julia seems smart. Understands social media. Perhaps I could use some of those six hours included in the auction as social media consulting time. If the bid stood that was my plan. See if Julia would agree to do some consulting work when I went off to do my next big thing.
I was explaining all this to Calvin Yu and Paul Stamatiou during our bi-weekly Skribit meeting . Paul got pretty excited. He knows Josh Spear who founded Undercurrent. Julia works there as a Senior Agent. He offered to go in half. I told him he did not need to do that. But I was more than a bit relieved when I saw this.
Paul went on to win the auction at the price of $1,549. He published his thoughts on winning.
My thoughts. All's well that ends well. In a roundabout way I helped raise money and awareness for charity: water. Paul is going to NYC to hang with his friend and meet a new one. Increased exposure for Skribit and him are sure to result. And I learned a lesson.
Natasha Wescoat also has an auction on eBay to benefit charity: water. I am currently winning.
The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone (with the exception of comments by others of course). They do not represent the opinion or position of any other person on entity. All postings adhere to my personal values.
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