Yes You Can

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According to the Atlanta Journal Brand Atlanta is looking for the City Council to release $7 million to support its marketing effort. The article quotes branding expert Tim Calkins:

You can’t market a product and get it out in front of people without money.

I disagree with the professor from Northwestern.

So do the good marketers at Google, SoaP, Tesla, and YouTube to name a few that pop into my head.

The problem with the Brand Atlanta campaign is that it is not based on the culture of the city and has no viral marketing effects built into it.

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” was part of the common vernacular in some form to the point were the pharse started by one could be finished by another. It also built upon the sin city culture.

Atlanta is indeed the capital of the New South where opportunity and openness reign. But “Everyday is an opening day?” Harldy rolls off the tongue. No one outside the campaign uses the phrase except in jest. And it has no basis in the culture of the city.

It needs to be changed or the city should just keep that $7 million in the bank.

November 9, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Marketing

Evoca is Easy

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Evoca is a company that has created a Web applicaion that makes it very easy to to create, organize, share, search voice recordings. They are also my first “client” as an ATDC Venture Catalyst.

They recently released a TypePad widget for their Browser Mic. It installed in three easy steps in a few minutes and can be found to the left. The widget also works for Blogger and WordPress.

I don’t normally request comments but give the Evoca widget a whirl and let me know what you think. Just click on the record button.

November 3, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Customer Focus, Entrepreneurship

Resistance is Futile

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If markets are conversations.

And they are.

You have to engage in the conversation.

Why?

To guide the direction of the market.
To put a face on your company.
To be real.
To get better noticed by search engines (both evil and non-evil).
To know what customers and competitors are saying about you.
To correct them when they are wrong and solve their problems when they are not.
To get the attention of someone you want to get the attention of.
To gain respect.

Yesterday at the ATDC Scott Burkett of HiddenMarket gave a presentation on Strategic Bloging for Startups. It was a good show. One of the examples that Scott used was how he got the attention of Union Square Ventures via strategic blogging.

Somewhat ironic that Fred had a post yesterday about the need for one of his portfolio companies to particiapte in the blogosphere.

If you are a CEO of a startup/emerging technology company your number one marketing communications priority should be blogging. No doubt about it.

November 2, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Uncategorized

CRV QuickStart

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Charles River Ventures announced the launch of their QuickStart program today.

From the site:

CRV has created an innovative program to eliminate these issues and help entrepreneurs get up and running quickly – the CRV QuickStart Seed Funding Program. CRV QuickStart provides select entrepreneurs with a loan to fund the work needed to build out your idea, enabling you to explore its potential in its earliest stage ­ before you raise a round of formal equity financing. By offering up to $250,000 in the form of a loan (also referred to as a “convertible note”), we’re providing you with the capital to fuel your ideas without equity dilution. As a non-equity financing, no public filing is required. As a result, entrepreneurs can stay in stealth mode during their seed phase, which is often an important competitive advantage.

You can get on thier radar by emailing quickstart@crv.com.

Josh Kopelman has some interesting thoughts on this with links to even more.

My thought is that it may not be a bad place to go look for a little money if you have the type of business where $250,000 will get you to a Series A.

November 1, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

The Changing Face of Venture Capital

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Union Square Ventures has been doing in interesting string of posts on its blog about early stage investing. A must read series for any entrepreneur on the hunt for money.

The most post recent concerns deal size. In a nutshell, deal sizes are getting smaller due to capital efficiency.

Kudos to Fred for opening the kimono on some of the inner workings at Union Square.

October 25, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Firehosed

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My first few days at the ATDC have been action packed.

Day one was the normal filling out paperwork, figure out how to get email, print, and two last minute meetings to finalize plans for the The Georgia Tech Innovation Experience. This was an event to introduce out of town venture capitalists to the ATDC and part of the ION Venture Forum which was put on by The Atlanta CEO Council.

We wanted the investors to leave the ATL with three thoughts.

1. ATDC has provided great deal flow to investors.
2. ATDC has the infrastructure needed to launch and build venture backed companies.
3. ATDC can connect investors to exciting investment opportunities.

The Innovation Experience was put together by Charles Ross and did he do a bang up job.

The highlight of the day was the accelerated matching where twenty some odd investors intereacted with seventeen different ATDC and VentureLab companies in five minute meetings. Both the investors and entrepreneurs were engaged the entire time.

Never seen anything like it. The room was literally buzzing with excitement! Wore me out just watching.

I would venture to guess that it is a program that would be very hard to duplicate elsewhere and one that we will be doing again next year.

October 18, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Accelerators, Venture Capital

I Am A Catalyst

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Literally.

Today I joined the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech as a Venture Catalyst.

For those of you who have never heard of the ATDC, it is a nationally recognized science and technology incubator that helps entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. My ties at the ATDC go back to my days at MindSpring, where the company was located. A few years ago I was an Entrepreneur in Residence there.

As a Venture Catalyst I will be providing support to the high potential startups that are member companies at the ATDC. I will also have some specific program responsibilities on improving the process applicant companies go through and putting together some programs for the CTOs of the member companies. The ATDC was specifically looking for someone with expertise in Internet applications to expand their presence in this area. They also wanted someone who grew up on the business development and marketing side to help their companies grow.

Should be a pretty good seat that will allow me to see a lot of new company concepts, and meet a bunch of geeks/investors while rounding out my overall knowledge of the world of startups.

It’s going to be a fun ride where I will be able to contribute and learn.

I daresay it is most likely going to tighten the focus of this blog quite a bit as well.

October 16, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Accelerators, atdc, Personal

Technorati Sucks

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It really really does.

I have been blogging for over six months. I have about 100 posts. I manually ping the big T every time I post.

The big T says I have not updated my blog in 190 days. Ugg… wrong. I have tried to follow the rather vague instructions to claim my blog to no avail:

Posting Instructions

1. Step 1: Open another browser window (while keeping this one open too); in the other window log into your Blog Platform account.
2. Step 2: Create a new post in your blogging software.
3. Step 3: Select the “edit HTML” button to switch to HTML mode if applicable.
4. Step 4: Copy the code below, then paste it into the body of your new post (use any title you like).
Technorati Profile
5. Step 4: Publish the post on your blog.
6. Step 5: Check to make sure your new post is live, then click the button below.

Check to make sure your new post is live, then you’re ready to proceed.

I am a fairly advanced user, if this is confusing me the only thing I can say with certainty is that this is never going to mainstream.

October 12, 2006  |  Comments  |  Tweet  |  Posted in Uncategorized

This I Believe

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When I started this blog I declared that I was going to be sharing some of my personal values and goals. With a tip of the hat to NPR these are my personal core values.

Bullet point style, I may elaborate later.

Regardless, these are the things that I stand for and strive to be recognized for in others.

1. Bring passion and a strong work ethic in all I do focusing on results. Give my best effort and strive for personal betterment, self-satisfaction, and success.
2. Urgently and enthusiastically approach new challenges, and all else I do.
3. Make commitments with care, do what I say I am going to do.
4. Live by the golden rule. Be friendly and courteous as well as fair and compassionate. Treat other individuals with dignity and respect. Be cooperative, direct, honest and open. Be graceful with measured words and actions.
5. Seek the advice and counsel of others frequently and thoughtfully. When requested, concentrate on taking the time and focusing attention to offer mindful insights to others.
6. Never be satisfied with the status quo, setting high professional expectations of myself and others, while endeavoring to maintain an overall sense of personal contentment.
7. Enjoy the pleasures of life, achievement, and the fruits of labor for my family and myself in a self-effacing, modest, unassuming and fiscally responsible manner.
8. In all things be disciplined and balanced.
9. Have fun!

Pretty straightforward.

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