Fast Pitch Competition Coming Up: Part of Entrepreneurship Week Chicago

October 31, 2008

The Chicagoland Fast Pitch Competition is coming up and there is prize money at stake. You know what that means? You need to dust off your pitch, get ready to have some fun and potentially win some money. You’ll also have the chance to meet some great people and receive useful feedback on your pitch and your business so there is a lot to be gained beyond just money and fame.

You can check out the Entrepreneurship Week Chicago site for more info on Fast Pitch, to register for Fast Pitch and to learn about other events happening during that week. Details on Fast Pitch are also listed below.

TECH cocktail is proud to be a supporting organization of Entrepreneurship Week Chicago and the Chicagoland Fast Pitch Competition.

(For those that care: Unfortunately I will not be able to make the fast pitch competition or anything else during entrepreneurship week since the week falls on the same week as DFJ’s annual gathering in the Valley.)

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The Chicagoland FAST PITCH Competition

Entrepreneurs – can you pitch your business idea in three minutes or less?

Chicagoland’s participation in Global Entrepreneurship Week includes the 2^nd Annual FAST PITCH Competition.

FAST PITCH is an opportunity to pitch business ideas to a panel of esteemed judges for scoring,

get feedback and earn cash prizes.

When: Tuesday, November 18 from 1:00-3:00pm

Where: Gleacher Center, 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive, Chicago

How: The event is free to attend and free to pitch but registration is required. Register here

Registration deadline: November 5 to submit the pitch; November 15 to attend the event

Competition Details

You must register and submit your three minute pitch in writing to una@chicagolandec.org no later than November 5 . You will be notified by November 12 if you are selected to present at FAST PITCH competition on November 18. At the competition, a panel of experienced entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts will provide feedback and select the winner of a $4,000 cash prize .

Preparing your FAST PITCH

Your pitch should tell a story, be concise, precise and limited to 3 minutes. Please include answers to the following six questions:

What is your technology, product or service? Briefly describe what you sell and the need it fulfills.
Who is your target market? Briefly state who buys this product or service and the size of the market.
How do you expect to make money? Describe the source(s) of revenue and how you will sell.
Who is your competition?
What is your competitive advantage? How can your company provide this product or service better than the competition?
Who is behind the company? Share your and your team’s background and accomplishments. Explain how your background gives your business credibility.

For additional information, please contact:

The Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center

Una Pipic
312.494.6728 / una@chicagolandec.org

Posted by Eric Olson | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

SocialDevCamp East in Baltimore Saturday 11/1

October 31, 2008

SocialDevCamp East is the Unconference for Thought Leaders of the Future Social Web

Following up on the successful premiere of SocialDevCampEastSpring2008, held in Baltimore in May, SocialDevCamp East Fall 2008 once again invites east coast developers and technology business leaders to come together for a thoughtful discussion of the ideas and technologies that will drive the future of the social web.

Because of the central location, the event draws from Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston — the emerging “Amtrak Corridor” technology scene.

Where is the social web going? It’s going mobile, to geocentric services, and to open platforms. Join a community of like minded developers, social media gurus and thought leaders for an unconference to discuss the future of the social web.

We’re looking for thought leaders from DC to Boston to meet, forge relationships, and envision the future.

SocialDevCamp East is convenient to the entire east coast corridor via Amtrak. Just travel to Baltimore’s Penn Station — University of Baltimore is two blocks south.

Event details

When
November 1, 2008
8:30AM - 6PM
6PM-10PM party

We recommend you get there as early as possible to maximize your input into the session selection process; similarly, stay as late as you like, there will be an afterparty gathering a short walk down the street. If you are going to have trouble getting there by 8:30 (because of train schedules or whatever), show up when you can.

Where
University of Baltimore
Thumel Business Center Building (site #4)
Mt. Royal and Charles Streets
Baltimore, MD

Posted by Frank Gruber | Filed Under DC, Event | Leave a Comment

Guide for Online Businesses Who Want to Accept Credit Cards (and not get ripped off)

October 29, 2008

Most software and ecommerce businesses need to accept credit cards. Over the past four years, as the owner of an ecommerce business TSS Raido, I have learned the hard way how expensive credit card processing can be. There aren’t a lot of resources on the net to help business owners negotiate on an even playing field, this is part of my attempt to fill the void.

Four Simple Rules to Getting Good Pricing

1. Don’t Accept Cancellation Charges

The fine print of many credit card processing contracts include a cancellation charge of at least $250 and as much as several thousand dollars. There is no reason for a cancel fee and most salespeople have the authority to waive this fee. Make certain that the fee is waived in writing, either in the contract or as an amendment. If you have a big cancel fee your service provider has no incentive to give you good service.

2. Use Interchange-Plus Pricing

Credit card processors’ largest expenses are the payments they make to Visa and Mastercard. Those payments are set by a complicated formula called Interchange and vary for each transaction (for example, the fee is higher when a rewards card is used). It is set by Visa and Mastercard and cannot be negotiated (Mastercard interchange rates, Visa Interchange Rates).

When you use interchange-plus pricing, you agree to pay the processor their costs (interchange) plus a constant markup. Since the markup never changes you ensure that you avoid any tricky fees.

Most smaller businesses do not have interchange-plus pricing, rather they have tiered pricing, where the processor groups the transactions into groups (with names like “Qualified” and “MidQualified”) and sets a fixed price for that group of transactions.

Large businesses such as Wal-Mart and American Airlines have always negotiated on an interchange plus basis because it results in a better deal. Every credit card processor can provide interchange plus pricing and smaller businesses can benefit from this kind of pricing as much as big ones.

In this article, called Interchange Plus Pricing, a Beneficial Package?, a VP at Global Payments, a big processor, explains how processors use tiered pricing to take advantage of their customers:

“Traditionally, smaller merchants had pricing blended into three or four categories… This simplified the entire process. In addition, common practice was for acquirers to mark up and charge significantly more for ‘downgraded’ transactions (those that did not qualify for the best rate applicable). These ‘downgrades’ often comprised the majority of the profit acquirers received on merchants, as business owners focused mainly on the ‘qualified’ or best rate. Interchange-Plus does not allow acquirers to increase profit on ‘downgraded’ transactions… I would argue that acquirers only take money out of their own hands by accelerating the practice of Interchange-Plus pricing.”

3. Comparison Shop

Best results are achieved by businesses that comparison-shop between at least 5 credit card processors.

Make sure that you compare the offers on an apples-to-apples basis (interchange-plus pricing makes this easier) and make sure to let each of the prospective service providers know that you are comparison shopping.

Gateway (negotiable)

If you use an independent gateway, such as Authorize.net, you can expect a per transaction fee of less than $0.10. If you use a gateway owned by your processing network, such as Orbital from Chase Paymentech or Linkpoint from First Data, then the per transaction fee should be less.

Interchange (NOT negotiable)

For a business that accepts credit cards over the net, does address verification and whose customers use a typical mix of cards, the average interchange rate should be about $0.12 per transaction plus 1.93% of volume. So, if your business has $500K in credit card receipts each year and your average transaction size is $50, you will pay $10,850 in interchange fees each year.

You can get a more accurate estimate of what your interchange fees will be using this free credit card processing calculator (disclaimer, it belongs to TransFS, a business that I own).

Processor Markup (negotiable)

The amount that your processor marks up the interchange rate (remember, if you are not on interchange-plus billing this markup will be hidden) varies dramatically. On average, businesses with $500K in credit card processing volume / year pay their processor about 0.90% on their volume, or $4,500 / year, on top of the $10,850 in interchange fees.
Unfortunately for us, the average pricing is lousy!

Without even trying very hard a business that size could negotiate the fees down to $0.10 per transaction and 0.15% (which would save you $2,750 / year in our hypothetical example). If you are an informed and tough negotiator you can get it even lower. Disclaimer- my other business TransFS makes money by automating this negotiation, allowing you to shop for credit card processing with an online interface similar to Orbitz or Priceline.

Total

In total, you should be paying no more than 0.10 (gateway) + 0.12 (interchange) + 1.93% (interchange) + 0.10 (processor) + 0.15% (processor) = 0.32 + 2.08%. If you are paying more than that, you should consider shopping around or renegotiating with your current provider.

Other useful links:
http://www.informed-merchant.com
http://di scerning.com/topics/services/paymentprocessing.html (very detailed but old)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3115.html
http://waytoohigh.wordpress.com/
http://transfs.com/blog (disclaimer - my blog)

TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge

Sean Harper is the co-founder of TSS-Radio, an online seller of satellite radios and accessories and
TransFS, an online comparison-shopping website for small business financial services, including credit card processing. Before starting those businesses he worked in venture capital at Longworth Venture Partners and William Blair Capital Partners. He is also a student at the University of Chicago GSB.

Posted by Guest Contributor | Filed Under Community Content, TECH cocktail | Leave a Comment

Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals

October 27, 2008

Source

Twitter is nothing short of a phenomenon. At the very least, it connects people to each other through a rich and active exchange of ideas, thoughts, observations, and vision in one, highly conducive ecosystem (known as the Twitterverse). The social fibers that weave together this unique micromedia network is strengthened by the expertise, respect, trust, admiration, and commonalities. These fabrics bind the people who breathe life and personality into the global community as well as fueling the disparate micro communities that ultimately extend across the Long Tail.

Of all of the social tools and services that are pervasive throughout our digital society, only a select few communities can boast the pseudo fanatical conviction that Twitter’s users unanimously possess.

Twitter is quickly gaining momentum, support and market inertia and is on direct path to mainstream awareness. Compete.com numbers show that roughly 2.5 million people visit Twitter.com each month, growing at about 250,000 - 500,000 users per month and up over 440% since this time last year. Just as a comparison Facebook receives about 41 million unique visitors per month.

Twitter is not only embraced and cherished by the people who rely on it for expression, insight, news, and communication, it is also the darling of the developer community. Almost every single day, a passionate developer, b2b or b2c application company, or tech enthusiast will develop a new tool, service, or solution to make Twitter a more personalized, professional, streamlined, effective, and/or fun experience.

If you live in the world of socialized marketing, communications, relationships, communities, research, service, digital anthropology, fundraising, publicity, product development, publishing, events, online reputation management (ORM) or simply seeking to increase your proficiency and efficiency on Twitter, there is surely no shortage of tools and applications that can help you.

I created this snapshot guide to help you extend the reach and the efficacy of Twitter for your personal brand as well as the brand you represent. This is the first part of a multi-part series. If you’d like me to review and include additional tools and services, please share them in the comments and I’ll integrate into the next rev.

Twubble can help expand your Twitter network. It searches your friend graph and introduces and recommends new people who you may want to follow.

GroupTweet is similar to Yammer, except it’s within Twitter. Workgroups, extended networks, communities, and anyone who wants to broadcast and share private tweets to a specific group can do so for free using this unique and helpful service.

Twitt(url)y is a service for tracking popular URLs people are sharing on Twitter as a way to identify trends, topics, and new and interesting tools and services. It’s basically Techmeme or Google News for Twitter, but for all popular links shared in a given day.

TwitLinks aggregates the latest links from the worlds top tech twitter users.

TweetDeck is a must for any community manager, marketer or researcher tracking important and relevant conversations on Twitter. It’s an Adobe Air desktop application that enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing the tracking of a broader overview of tweets based on keywords or groups of people.

Gridjit is a social portal that lets you view your web universe in a more visually rich way. It becomes your hub for tracking conversations, interesting people and those they @ frequently, and also provides a central location to post and share.

Tweet Later allows you to schedule tweets for a particular time and day. It also allows you to auto-follow those who follow your account and provides an auto-welcome feature to send a custom message to new followers via DM or in the public timeline.

Twist analyzes and presents trend comparisons and volume between keywords and tags.

Whoshouldifollow.com makes it easy to find relevant, like-minded friends as well as friends of friends based on keyword and validated networks.

Twitter Twerp Scan

Twerp Scan checks the number of followers of everyone on your contact list, the number of people they are following, and the ratio between those. If the person is following more than (n) people (can be customized), and has a Following-to-Followers ratio higher than 1:(m) (can be customized), you’ll be notified by a link. Even if you have no use for that, you might find Twerp Scan a helpfultool for keeping an eye on your growing list of friends and followers.

Before Summize, now the official Twitter Search engine, Twemes and #hashtags provided the ability to index conversations based on keywords, groups, topics or tags also known as #hashtags. These Twitter memes can now be followed outside of the public timeline through a focused and dedicated stream.

Tweet Scan, like Summize (Twitter Search), is a search engine for Twitter. Both services provide the ability to search keywords, company/product/competitors names, users, etc. The services also feature the hottest search trends at that particular moment. I have noticed that in some cases, one or the other, consistently provides results that the other missed. Note, by clicking “Replies” in Twitter, you’re only seeing tweets that start with @yourname. These search engines also track users as well as important and relevant keywords - as they appear.

twInfluence allows you to measure Twitter influencers, not just by followers, but also by reach, velocity, social capital and centralization. It also publicly ranks the top 50 influencers in each category. This is an important tool for identifying the tastemakers that you don’t already know in the Twitterverse.

TwitterGrader measures the relative power and authority of a Twitter user by calculating the number of followers, the power of the network of followers, the pace of updates and the completeness of a user’s profile. Here’s the result for @briansolis

Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers. As a social marketer, you may also enjoy the ability to schedule and measure your communications on Twitter. The platform provides URL tracking technology to measure the effectiveness of your traffic driving ability on the platform.

Twitterrific is an elegant and “lite” software application that lets you read and publish tweets from the desktop, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Recently acquired by Seesmic, Twhirl is a social desktop dashboard that centrally manages activity, messaging, and updating for Twitter, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, and Seesmic.

TwitterWhere provides the ability to update Twitter with your current location.

Tweetbeep is the Google Alerts for Twitter and is a “listener’s” dream service. It allows you to monitor conversations that mention you, your brand, related or competitive products, as well as links to your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL, such as tinyurl.com. You’re alerted as your keywords appear, reducing the need to manualy search for them.

TwitterFeed connects your blog to Twitter and automatically feeds posts into the timeline with each new update.

Even though Twitter features a directory search engine by name and email address, TwitDir always seem to find everyone, even when Twitter misses a contact. I use TwitDir when I’m looking to discover whether a particular contact or someone I’m trying to connect with is using twitter. Alternatively, you can use Google or Yahoo search and type “PERSON NAME” (in quotes) and the word twitter (outside of the quotes) in the search box to find the username. See example.

Ping.fm is a central distribution service for sending updates to multiple social networks, including Twitter, with one click. Supported services include Plurk, Identi.ca, Facebook, Pownce, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Brightkite, Jaiku, hi5, Kwippy, among other. Note of caution, broadcasting updates doesn’t replace the need to participate in each community that you wish to build and maintain valuable individual relationships.

BrightKite is a location-based social network that connects directly to Twitter. You can share your location and also locate friends geographically from the Web or your mobile phone. The service also offers an easy and direct channel for uploading pictures and notes to BrightKite and also Twitter - perfect for those with camera phones!

TwitterLocal is the ideal service for quickly finding active voices within a specific city, state, postal code as well as the vicinity, ranging from 1 mile to 20. Not only can you search those voices, you can instantly produce an RSS feed for each search criteria to monitor localized conversations through your feed reader. Here’s an example of the results for a search within 1 mile of San Francisco.

Twitpic provides a bridge from your camera phone to Twitter. Pictures can either post to the Twitter public timeline from phone via email or through the site.

Follow Cost estimates the potential attention (or annoyance) cost of following a particular individual or account. Here’s the result for @briansolis.

Twitter Mobile Applications

Twittelator is a Twitter client for the iPhone. You can manage multiple user accounts, update your accounts, share pictures, a map of your current location, connect with other Tweeps, read tweets from your contacts, and direct message (DM), and reply all from one app.

Twitterfon is a fast, simple Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is focused on 80% of your tasks in Twitter such as viewing friends/replies/messages in the timeline and also sending/replying tweets.

Twinkle is a location-aware network for the iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you discover, connect, and send messages to the public timeline and also to people nearby. You can share photos and update your Twitter account from the phone.

Twitterberry

Twitterberry is a full-featured Twitter client to read and post updates from BlackBerry phones.

TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes PR & tech insight to industry publications

Posted by Guest Contributor | Filed Under Community Content | 13 Comments

InvestMidwest Forum: Accepting Applications Now

October 21, 2008

I just thought I would write up a post to make sure all of the Midwest entrepreneurs out there in TECH cocktail land knew about a great event coming up in March/April 2009. The event is called InvestMidwest and the goal of the event is to showcase outstanding Midwest companies in the cleantech/alt energy, life sciences and technology/general business sectors for investors (angels, VCs, etc.). This event has helped Midwest companies raise about $300mm in the last 8 years, which is a huge accomplishment.

If you are a company based in the Midwest that is looking to raise money and that meets the following criteria I would suggest applying .

Application Criteria:

Revenue projections of $20M or more within five years
Located within the center corridor of the United States
Seeking $1M to $20M in funding

More details can be found below and you can click here for the online application . The early bird deadline for applications is November 14, 2008 (you get preferential consideration if you apply early) and the final deadline is January 9, 2009. All companies will be contacted by February 12, 2009 regarding their acceptance.

Details:

WHEN: March 31-April 1, 2009

WHERE: Kansas City, MO

WHO: The audience includes venture capitalists, angel investors,
investment bankers and financial and legal professionals.

GOAL: The main goal of InvestMidwest is to provide access to capital for
emerging, privately held companies and to promote greater
entrepreneurship, business growth and expansion in the region.

FORMAT: The 2009 InvestMidwest will include three separate industry tracks
presenting concurrently: a life sciences track, an IT/general
business track and an alternative energy/cleantech track. The
presentations from 35 to 40 emerging businesses will each be ten
minutes in length. An opportunity for individual meetings with the
presenting companies will be provided.

PROCESS: High growth companies from throughout the Midwest will be
encouraged to apply to present at the conference. The selection
committee includes venture capital professionals from throughout
the Midwest and select entrepreneurial legal and financial
professionals.

CONTACT: Christine Walsh
InvestMidwest Executive Director
314-444-1151
cwalsh [at] stlrcga [dot] org
www.investmidwestforum.com

Posted by Eric Olson | Filed Under Boulder, Chicago, TECH cocktail | Leave a Comment

CloudCamp Comes To Chicago

October 15, 2008

This just in from Ryan Koop of Cohesive FT

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On Tuesday October 21st early adopters, opinion leaders, and others interested in Cloud Computing technologies will be joining for Chicago’s extension of the highly successful Cloud Camp series. CloudCamp is an unconference where early adapters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

*Why CloudCamp?*
With the rapid change occurring in the industry, CloudCamp provides you a venue where you can meet to share your experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, it’s not just about listening, you are encouraged to participate, shape the event and share your thoughts in open discussions. The evening will be split largely into three parts Lightning Talks, Open Spaces style discussion and Networking. We would love you to participate in anyway you want to; come a long, listen, meet people, eat pizza and drink beer, give a 5 minute talk, lead a discussion, or let us know what topics you would like to hear about and discussed. And if you organization would like to help fund the event please contact ryan.koop -at- cohesiveft.com for more information about sponsorship.

*Tentative Agenda* Tuesday October 21st, 2008
6.00pm - Registration. Drinks - soft, beer, wine available
6.30pm - Prompt Start. Opening remarks and house-keeping
6.40pm - 8 x 5 minute ‘Lightning Talks’
7.25pm - 3 Groups for ‘Open Spaces’ style discussions
8.00pm - Networking and Pizza (and more beer…)
10.00pm - Close

*Talks and Discussion Topics - Please volunteer, make suggestions. It’s your event!*
This is a community event. Please propose talks you would like to give, talks you would like to hear, discussions you would like to lead, or would like to participate in. Email ryan.koop - at - cohesiveft.com . with your suggestions and synopsis. These will be added to http://cloudcamp.com/chicago . (we are trying to enable the site so you can submit direct to it….). Note the Lightning Talks will be strictly limited to 5 minutes utilizing the ‘Ignite’ format where 20 slides are used and these are automatically advanced every 15 seconds. If you are giving a Lightning Talk you will need to supply the slides to the organisers 48 hours prior to the event. We are still working on the Open Spaces style discussions, the goal is to enable and encourage audience participation.

* Venue*
Clarity Consulting
One North Franklin Street
Chicago, IL 60606

* Registration*
Registration is free but limited to 150. Visit http://cloudcamp-chicago-08.eventbrite.com/ and sign up today. Hope to see you there!

Posted by Mark Bebawy | Filed Under Chicago, Event | Leave a Comment

TECH cocktail Chicago 9 - RSVP

October 14, 2008

We are pleased to announce TECH cocktail Chicago 9 will be taking place in just a few short weeks. It has been a little longer than we would have liked due to the unknown schedules associated with both the Chicago Cubs and White Sox playoff bids. But with those out of the way we are happy to be hosting our final TECH cocktail of 2008 in Chicago.

Connect with other TECH cocktail’ers before and after the event at: iam.techcocktail.com.

Here are the details:

When: Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. CST

Where: John Barleycorn Wrigleyville

What: A “cocktail of TECH people”

Price: FREE You must be 21+ to attend and must be on the RSVP list for the event to get in. You can make a donation to support the TECH cocktail cause.

If you are interested in sponsoring TECH cocktail Chicago 9 purchase a sponsorship online . If you have sponsorship question please contact us. Also if you are interested in demoing your startup product or service please contact us.

See you there!

Posted by TECH cocktail co-founders | Filed Under Chicago, Event, TECH cocktail | 2 Comments

Redefining the Echo Chamber to Excel in an Economic Crisis

October 14, 2008

The point of this article is to redefine how startups (not solely tech companies) view and define early adopters and the “echo chamber” in order to gain momentum in order to “cross the chasm” to the next tier of evolution, adoption, and monetization. This is about uncovering the very people who can benefit from what they’re introducing and in turn, evolve the product/service based on real world feedback.

We can not assume that early adopters and innovators are relegated simply to tech, silicon valley, .0 startups, or fanboys and girls of shiny new objects and features.

There are early adopters (aka savvy consumers) in every market segment, and that’s an irrefutable point. They create highly influential echo chambers with their own associated bell curve’s around the globe that stimulate and inspire their dedicate ecosystems.

We ALL need to rethink how to dissect and define “the echo chamber” because in the process, we’ll uncover that consumers, not just geeks, are also early adopters in their own right and they need to be treated as the a-list in their own communities. Thus, we must expand the traditional view of the echo chamber to include the “new” influencers across multiple markets, where they reside, as well as discover, share, and compel those around them. This broader, yet focused approach removes our “tech” blinders and frees us from solely focusing on “one” audience or demographic in order to build a global and pivotal groundswell.

The echo chamber, by default, is perceived as it is defined, by the people, not by a dictionary. This doesn’t advocate living in the echo chamber, only leveraging it, across multiple markets, to excel in the mainstream, thus bridging the chasms between them.

Refining the Echo Chamber to Excel in an Economic Crisis

Source: Albireo2006

“I would tell (entrepreneurs) to keep their day job until they got one year of funding, and if they couldn’t get that, then they’re not meant to start that company right now…. My advice to (start ups that don’t have a year’s worth of money in the bank) would be to raise money by reducing your own spending. If you can’t raise more money, you have to cut costs. And that’s what I’m harping on to my companies.”
- Ron Conway

We are witnessing an epic financial meltdown or long overdue resetting of existing business practices and the hollow markets they create. Or, perhaps we’re experiencing both of these phenomena. Either way, it has the nation gripped with fear, uncertainty, and an unsettling eruption of questionable advice confusing everyone, everywhere.

While the floor is crumbling for many industries much in the same way it did for Silicon Valley during the dotbomb years, the sky isn’t necessarily falling on the startup industry – at least not for those with marketable technology or products, dedicated and capable teams, an executable business plan, and access to the resources necessary to help it reach users and customers. To put it another way, we will not witness a great startup depression. There is only opportunity to grow your business, mind share, and market share. And, that time is now.

The U.S. financial market will always mimic a yoyo on an escalator. It goes up and down, but it’s always going up.

For those startups that are building and marketing usable solutions for consumers or businesses, there is much work to do. If you’re seeking angel, Series A, or even Series B funding, seek partners who are insulated from affected markets so that they can support you and your growth organically, without unnecessary pressure from external forces that are outside of your control. The money is still out there for worthy entrepreneurs.

Usually, when the economy slides, the first natural reaction is to cut expenses, conserve cash, and hunker-down to weather the storm. Any savvy and seasoned marketing and business veteran will advise you to do the opposite. This is your time to shine, albeit, strategically and intelligently.

“Great entrepreneurs build value and market-share in down markets. They go to work seven days a week and the(y) breakout when other folks check out.”
- Jason Calacanis

Now’s the time to get your head in the game and focus on what it is you do, and go do it better than anyone else. You’re either on the field or you’re on the sidelines.

Any company that intentionally pulls itself from the radar screen of their customers will be absent from customer decisions and referrals. In the process, you create a frictionless opportunity for your competitors to swoop in and fill the void.

Marketing, PR, service, and product development are now more important than ever. They will not only help you stay alive, but also fuel growth – even in a down economy.

There are always customers making decisions, so make sure that you’re part of the equation and process, wherever they go for information and insight.

Your business can grow with the groundswell and doesn’t necessarily require the instant adoption by the masses in order to succeed in the short term.

While there is always a need to attract mainstream users, this isn’t the time to stretch or over-commit resources to hit everyone all at once. Branding is an expensive proposition, one that requires time, capital, diligence, passionate teams and customers, and patience. As counter intuitive as it may seem, this is exactly the right time to market in and to the echo chamber to earn the influential support that will create significant, concentrated brand visibility and momentum, gaining strength and girth as it travels.

Influence and adoption historically have migrated from the edge to the center. Or using a more common example, users and word of mouth referrals travel from left to right along a bell curve that starts with Innovators and Early Adopters, peaks with the Early Majority and the Late Majority, and finally permeates with reaction from Laggards.

If you dissect the art and science of technology marketing using a car as a simple metaphor, your product serves as the chassis, your cash as the fuel, Social Media, Interactive/Web, Sales, SEO, and PR as the accelerator, marketing strategy and execution as the gears, RPMs as a market indicator for listening and responding, the speedometer to convey inertia, and you, as founding executive, sitting in the driver’s seat, steering and controlling the entire operation.

Marketing to the echo chamber, believe it or not, is how you get that car rolling, starting everything in first gear. Appealing to those who can help spark word of mouth is how you can accelerate, gain enough speed to shift into second, and subsequent higher gears, and attract new users and evangelists along the way, growing in distance and reach at every turn. It is the echo chamber that can help you efficiently gain velocity in order to progressively reach greater audiences and command additional financing and also revenue in the process. With its support and assistance, it is almost like starting with a colossal push.

Some of you are building valuable, independent businesses, while many are also creating innovative features and capabilities that can seamlessly fold into existing entities and products. Either way, you have to start by engaging those who’ll get it, and in turn, share it with their peers. It’s an ongoing process that strengthens with each cycle.

“Hopefully you are building your business in a way that is independent of the stock market.”
- Kevin Ryan

The world doesn’t flock to new things en masse. It takes a focused and progressive strategy that evolves and matures over time. In a down economy, this is non-negotiable.

Digg and Twitter are among some of the best examples of how alpha users can help promote a company or service by embracing these new solutions and religiously demonstrating why they are pervasive and useful. And, emphatic users also contribute to the community building process, assisting in the translation of the value proposition for different markets as well as enticing and compelling their peers to join them, which offsets and relieves the company from carrying the bulk of the responsibility for promotion and guerrilla marketing.

But, where are Digg and Twitter in respect to the adoption cycle? They’re not as far along as you think judging by the buzz and permeation of your social graph. These companies still have oceans to swim until they become household brands. But, that’s OK. They’re building a business, cultivating legions of dedicated user communities, evolving and improving their product, and still conserving cash. Remember, it took brands such as ebay, Youtube, Google, and Amazon millions of dollars and armies of enthusiasts and partners to achieve saturation – and many would argue that there’s still much work to be done.

I would bet on any company that earned the support of innovators and early adopters and took the time to listen to feedback in order to iterate based on real world needs, preferences, pains, and new ideas.

Remember, your story and corresponding benefits, as well as the product itself is going to be different at each step of the way. Different groups of people have different needs and also unique ways of hearing about something and making the decision to try it, let alone refer it. Without influence, you’re going to spend precious resources, more than you can afford, convincing people that they should pay attention. Peer-to-peer marketing is priceless and still your best bet for having a shot, and more importantly, making a long-term impact.

But you first need a spark, something to start that avalanche that grows as it races downhill.

The echo chamber is bigger than we think or give it credit for. In fact, think of the echo chamber as its own bell curve. Most of the blogs and users that naturally come to mind, may reside on the left side, leaving a wide array of technology enthusiasts to uncover and pursue.

Innovators and early adopters are global citizens and do not solely reside in Silicon Valley. Your marketing and PR should identify the voices and their channels of connecting peers to create and develop active, thriving, and vocal communities. Figure out who your market is today, tomorrow, next month, and set goals for user acquisition so that you can tweak your product and tailor your messages to those very people, as they’ll uniquely connect to your story, and also share it differently among their peers, as it traverses across the bell curve.

Remember, reporters, bloggers and online tastemakers aka trendsetters who spotlight innovation can send tens of thousands of new and loyal users to you almost instantly. I’m not just referring to unique visits of those who sign up, test things out, and then leave to try the next shiny service. When done right, the echo chamber can generate real world interest and support. It is these very users who tell you everything about what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve. These same individuals and networks also augment and complement your marketing efforts by legitimizing you’re products, associating credibility and providing pseudo endorsements, and in turn, giving you unprecedented access to their invaluable and highly connected networks of early adopters.

This is the time to focus on user acquisition. In the realm of new technology, education and the demonstration of practical and meaningful integration into the daily workflow or personal routine sets the stage for effectively connecting people to your story and value. This is edgework and in conjunction with innovators and early adopters, you’re pioneering influence and adoption.

Everything starts with an intimate understanding of the markets you’re trying to reach and an even deeper connection to the peers, voices, and other channels that influence them. You’re not marketing iPhones, gaming consoles, premium spirits, or new music artists. At the very least, you are redefining how people communicate, collaborate, connect, and ultimately work.

There’s a prevailing necessity to educate your markets and introduce not just new products and services, but also real world solutions that change the daily routine of everyday people.

Therefore the goal to race from zero to 60 and hit mass penetration immediately is not the primary goal. If we look at business development and communications as a series of strategic stages, we realize that there are focused activities that we must pursue and smaller, reachable voices we must reach and convince to help us carry and adapt our story from stage to stage – each time, addressing the needs and pain points of the individual, respective groups.

Each step requires a dedicated, concerted approach in order to bolster the support of the individual ecosystems that contribute to user acquisition and the recruitment of passionate and energized believers, who will extend our efforts as a surrogate sales and marketing team.

Of course, as you learn, internalize feedback, change, adapt, and engage with your markets, the foundation for your business solidifies and begins to afford and beget expansion. It is at this point in time, when you can continue to expand your focus and reach to attract and inspire users residing outside of the echo chamber.

“It’s much better, in my opinion, to go with the freemium model, give a version of the service away for free to all comers, get a lot of users, get good market feedback, then develop a premium version of the product/service for sale to enterprise customers. If your free version is popular with a lot of users, your customer base is the target for the upsell and you might be able to live without an expensive sales force initially. And, of course, keep your costs really low until you start to get revenues.”
- Fred Wilson

Nothing beats a killer product idea and an impressive, objective, and focused team to carry it forward. Expectations count and will determine how you channel information and progress. Think too big and you’ll miss your target and burn through resources before you can ever earn any significant market traction. Aim too low and the market will pass you by.

In this volatile economic climate, the echo chamber can be your direct connection to success, or at the very least, notable and awardable momentum. It is a global incubator designed to help you grow, gain momentum, and ultimately propel your business across the bell curve to appeal to and attract a wider, active, and segmented user base – strategically, incrementally, and efficiently.

We live in interesting times and it’s up to us, and only us, to define our future.

TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge

Posted by Guest Contributor | Filed Under Community Content, TECH cocktail, TECH cocktail News | Leave a Comment

Photographs From TECH cocktail DC 3

October 3, 2008

Thank you to everyone that came out last night to TECH cocktail DC 3. Special thanks to our sponsors DBC PR, LinkTogether, and GeniusRocket. Also thank you to the fine startups that showed off at the event. Photos were taken by DC Metro resident photographer Raoul Pop - and they look super. Check out the TECH cocktail DC 3 photos.

Posted by TECH cocktail co-founders | Filed Under DC, Event, TECH cocktail, TECH cocktail News | Leave a Comment

Don’t Forget to Pay Your Uncle - Uncle Sam that is!

October 2, 2008

By Harriet Jacobs, CPA, MST

Here’s a sad story about an entrepreneur with cash flow problems. We’ll call her Ursula Undercap.

Ursula was a technological wiz. She was always coming up with ideas which were usable, useful, and on the cutting edge. She worked for a tech firm for a number of years, but decided that other people were making more money from her ideas than she was. So, Ursula decided to strike out on her own. She opened a corporation named Undercap Tech, Inc., and started out on a shoestring budget.

Prospects were good. There were several small successes in the first year, and Ursula was surprised to find that she was quite good at marketing her ideas. She knew that she ought to have more cash on hand as a cushion, but assumed that she could borrow funds if necessary and as long as cash flow from current operations covered all of her monthly expenses, it wasn’t a pressing issue.

While driving to the office one morning, Ursula thought of an amazing, new concept. The concept was huge, and so was the project. Ursula analyzed her needs, and set out to hire about twenty more employees, including people who could work with her to flesh out her ideas, the assistants they would need, two marketing people, and an in-house bookkeeper/office assistant to keep up with the day to day running of Undercap Tech, Inc. She hoped that her cash flow would sustain all of the new staff she needed to complete the project, but she also knew that this was her big chance to succeed. She had to make it work, no matter what!

The new bookkeeper began paying the bills, under Ursula’s supervision. Each week, they would look at how much money they had in the bank, and Ursula would tell the bookkeeper which bills to pay and which ones could wait. Obviously, the staff had to be paid, or they would leave. There was too much at stake to allow the new project to be understaffed.

Ursula saw that her resources were being stretched too thin, so she went to the bank to ask for a loan. Actually, she went to five banks. Unfortunately, each of them told her that they still considered Undercap Tech, Inc. to be a start up business, and therefore, they couldn’t lend her money at this time. Two banks, however, did promise to lend her money as soon as she had signed contracts with at least three businesses for her new project. She knew that she could hang on until then if she was very careful. So, she started paying her suppliers in 60 days, rather than 30. And she stopped making her payroll tax deposits. She figured that the contracts would come in and that she would at least have her bank loans by the time the IRS came around.

Well, you know the rest of the story. The project took much longer to perfect than anticipated. Businesses would not sign contracts until they saw the finished product. As a result, Ursula couldn’t get a bank loan.

Fast forward eight or ten months. Somehow, Undercap Tech, Inc. has stayed in business. The employees have all been paid, usually on time. The vendors grumble, but take their money in 60 or 90 days. Only the payroll taxes are owed. The corporation now owes all of the taxes for three calendar quarters, plus substantial penalties and interest.

Then one day Rudy Revenue Officer arrives from the IRS. He tells Ursula that Undercap Tech, Inc. owes a large sum of money, and that he is there to collect it. She is very apologetic, explaining that she had expected to have the money available by now, but the new project took longer to develop than expected, and the corporation won’t be able to pay the liability until the project is brought to market.

So Rudy starts asking Ursula about her personal finances.

“Why do you want to know?” she asks him. “This is a corporation, and I am not personally liable for the corporation’s debts.”

“That is generally true,” Rudy replies, “but you can be charged personally for any Trust Fund taxes which you were responsible to pay over to the government on behalf of the corporation. Every penny of the withholding taxes you took from your employees’ pay checks, as well as the employees’ withholding for Social Security and Medicare can be collected from you personally, regardless of whether the corporation stays in business or goes under. Now, I understand that you have substantial equity in your house and that you don’t owe any money on your late model luxury car. You also have a large balance in your 401(k) plan from your former employer. We’re going to have to analyze all of your personal financial information to determine if you can pay the liability through monthly installments or if you’re going to have to take out personal loans to pay the entire amount right now.”

This sounds pretty scary – and it is. Many owners of corporations believe that they are personally protected from all corporate creditors. The truth is that a “responsible person” who “willfully neglects or refuses to pay” Trust Fund taxes to the government can be held personally liable for those taxes. In addition to the types of federal payroll taxes mentioned above, Trust Fund taxes can also include such things as state withholding or sales taxes.

Ursula Undercap has learned her lesson, and she would like you to learn it, too. Make sure that your business is adequately capitalized, and never neglect to pay your payroll taxes. It’s just bad business.

TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge

Harriet Jacobs, CPA, CVA, ABV, MST is a tax manger at Frost, Ruttenberg & Rothblatt, P.C. of Chicago and a former IRS Collection Division Employee. She has published articles in technical journals on various tax topics, has presented numerous tax seminars to groups around the Chicago area, and has taught income tax courses at a community college. She has also been invited by the IRS to address a high level training course in California, and to be a panelist on an IRS sponsored web cast originating in Washington, DC. Harriet can be reached at hjacobs@frronline.com