When.com Supports Local Events Like TECH cocktail
May 20, 2009
Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes
Special thank you to When.com, our premier sponsor for TECH cocktail DC 5. When.com is the hyper-local guide for your hyper-active lifestyle. When.com helps you to pinpoint restaurants, events and activities in your neighborhood. Its unique tools for Hot Tickets and Dining Deals can help to save you time and money. When.com also throws user-generated events into the mix for extended coverage of everything that’s going on in your city. For example, check out the listing for TECH cocktail DC 5 in Washington, DC today.
Watch the video (above) as I chat with When.com’s Abha Dasgupta. Also be sure to check out When.com next time you are looking for something to do and if you are in the DC are be sure to see them tonight at TECH cocktail DC 5.
TECH cocktail and Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup Team Up
March 18, 2009
Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes
We have an event coming up on March 27th. Yup, that’s right! This event is being held in partnership with the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup and a2geeks (thanks Dug!). Timed to coincide with Entreprelliance (hosted by UM’s M-Powered) and Detroit Startup Weekend, the inaugural TECH cocktail Ann Arbor event will be a full house, even in our expanded venue - please RSVP early !
Everyone will have their first round covered and after that the specials will be $2 drafts and $4 cocktails.
Check out the showcasing companies below when you have a chance and also check out our sponsors since nothing would be possible without them.
Sponsors:
GLEQ - Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest
Showcase companies:
CADcorporation: http://admissions.umich.edu/vmerse
Vmerse is a software application that allows users to virtually
experience 3D worlds by providing a photorealistic visual and social
experience. From a technical perspective, Vmerse, a patent-pending
product of CADcorporation, is a secure platform for creation of
customizable, and fully controllable, 3D virtual worlds that can be
incorporated and hosted within a parent organization’s web site.
GiftZip: http://giftzip.com
GiftZip is the fast, fun and free way to send or print INSTANT gift
cards from the web’s top retailers… all from the comfort of your
computer. Don’t just give, GiftZip!
Hab.la: http://www.hab.la/
Hab.la lets visitors to your website chat with you without any extra
chat software. Their messages show up in your favorite instant
messaging app. Hab.la is easy for webmasters to set up and friendly to
your visitors’ web browsers.
Hiperlogic: http://hiperlogic.com/
Tailored High Performance Computing solutions around a wide range of
engineering, CAE/CFD, and Life Science applications.
Complete range of virtualization solutions including
* Planning
* Design
* Software
* Hardware Server and SAN Storage
* Implementation
* Backups, Monitoring, Disaster Recovery, Desktop Virtualization
* Consulting and Support
Myine: http://www.myine.com/
High-quality electronic audio products that make music accessible to
consumers with limited time or technological sophistication.
Conceived specifically for ease of use and superior function, Myine
products are designed to enrich the lives of their users with minimal
effort and stress. Get less. Get yours. Get Myine.
Commercial-free FM Radio, WiFi Internet Radio
Peekok: http://www.peekok.com/
Peekok provides a suite of brand-transparent, turnkey,
digital services for retail sales, increased fan engagement,
and viral marketing for the music industry. All of which
correspond to (re)building brand and increasing revenues.
VeoProject: http://veoproject.com/
Web-Based Project Management
An advanced collaboration tool that integrates
project planning, issue tracking, time tracking,
and document sharing for your team.
2009 Kellogg Technology Conference
March 11, 2009
Reading time: 2 - 2 minutes
TECH cocktail is a media partner for the 15th Kellogg Technology Conference and we are happy to share the event information as well as covering the conference itself.
The 15th Kellogg Technology Conference will explore trends shaping the next wave of technology innovation. The best and brightest minds from industry and academia – including senior executives, visionaries, entrepreneurs, venture investors, world-class faculty, and students from the nation’s top business schools – will gather to discuss the following topics:
» The Future of Mobile: A look at the changing landscape, opportunities and challenges in the age of the smartphone.
» The Commercialization/Monetization of Technology: What are some of the best practices and pitfalls to commercializing or monetizing new technologies?
» Digital Marketing: How are non-tech companies leveraging the power of new Internet-enabled media and altering their plans and even organizations to capture these new opportunities?
» VC & Entrepreneurship: How have entrepreneurs and VC’s been impacted by current economic conditions and how are they adjusting?
Event Details
Date: April 15, 2009
Time: 8 am-5:30 pm (CST)
Location:
Northwestern University
Kellogg School of Management
2169 Campus Drive
Evanston, Illinois 60208
It should be a great event and hope to see you there.
TECH cocktail DC 4 Opens With A Town Hall
February 25, 2009
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
Eric and I just hosted our 10th Chicago TECH cocktail last week and it started out with something new, a Town Hall. We have have been thinking of new things we can do with TECH cocktail this year and we have come up with a nice list of 2009 initiatives. The Town Hall is one of those initiatives.
The basic idea of a TECH cocktail Town Hall is to give people a chance to ask Eric and I questions about the direction of TECH cocktail, about how to get the most out of a TECH cocktail event, about how people can work more closely with us, etc. You can ask anything you want (but we may not answer it)!
We always wanted TECH cocktail to be an open organization and this is one way we can continue to be more open. We also realized that a lot of people don’t know what to make of TECH cocktail and how to get the most out of an event so we thought a Town Hall would be a good way to teach people how to do all of that.
The first DC TECH cocktail Town Hall will be held at TECH cocktail DC 4 on February 26th. We will simply be available from 5pm - 5:30 pm EST at LeftBank’s back room area and we figure we can accommodate about 25 people. If you are interested in taking part in this experiment please RSVP to the Town Hall ASAP.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the Town Hall event and at the TECH cocktail to follow. Hopefully this Town Hall idea proves useful!
LaunchBox Digital Looking For 2009 Startup Class
February 2, 2009
Reading time: 1 - 2 minutes
LaunchBox Digital is now accepting applications for LaunchBox09, its 2nd annual business incubator program, which will begin on May 18, 2009 and wrap-up with Demo Days the first week of August 2009. Your startup company could be one of ten applicants that will each receive up to $20,000 in seed investment and guidance.
Stay tuned to all the LaunchBoxDigital 2009 activities as follows:
- LaunchBoxDigital Facebook group
- Free “Zero to Brand in 48 Hours” webinar on February 18 to get insights into the LaunchBox09 application process
- Follow the LaunchBoxDigital blog
- Signing up for LaunchBoxDigital email list
Applications are available at: LaunchBoxDigital.com.
Guide To Working Paperless
November 3, 2008
Reading time: 7 - 12 minutes
I think my simplest self-imposed challenge was to: go entirely paperless at the office this month. It was so simple it’s almost laughable. I’m so confident that I met my own goal I’ve posted this a week before the end of the month. So how did I do it and how did it spill over into my personal life?
I got the right (portable) tools in place
These days we all have laptops: they’re light, portable, and can go anywhere. I’m fortunate enough to have one for both work and play. My laptop (MacBook Air, my primary and only computer) goes with me everywhere (so all the tips will be for Mac users).
- Office to home office
- Conference room to conferences
- Couch to bed
- Bus and train
Not to mention the fact I carry a web-enabled device (iPhone) at all times (send tasks with an e-mail dropbox). In school, we took notes on paper because: it was portable. But now, the same can be said around the office with a laptop (and in school of course). I can plop down at someone else’s desk, I can get on a call, I can go in the hall, etc. I can conduct business anywhere. Sure, all you need is a computer, but a ’satellite’ is key.
The downside to technology
When you interact with humans, face-to-face, laptops and phones become a barrier. Its best to take notes on paper when sitting with co-workers or clients, but certainly not necessary. Being aware of the distraction and visible wall placed between you will help you navigate this problem.
Luckily I deal with most people online (phone or internet) and this makes it easy for me.
Technologies I work with
On day one I removed all paper and writing utensils from my work area to prevent any temptation. Sure, I still have a stack of business cards on my desk but I’ll tackle that later. These are the four simple technologies I require to go completely paperless:
- Plain text editor: Anything from TextMate to Coda will suffice. You simply need a tool to take notes. When you talk to someone, take notes. When you have a meeting, take notes. When you draft a proposal or write a report write everything in markdown so you can convert it (PDF, HTML), keep track of revisions (subversion, git), and edit it with any other text editor. That’s right Microsoft Word, I’m looking at you. Bonus: a tool like SubEthaEdit allows collaborative editing which means you can take notes with everyone else on the call in the same room.
- Web-based calendaring: I use Google Calendar so I can access my calendar anywhere. Plus, there are tools like BusySync and SpanningSync that allow me to go from Google Calendar to iCal to iPhone and back. Adding events from my phone or computer mean one less thing I need to scribble down.
- Web-based tasks: Again, having my tasks accessible from any computer, anywhere is key. Since we eat our own dogfood at Crowd Favorite I use our tasks suite for both a work and personal to-do list. E-mail dropboxes (I always have my iPhone) allow a quick thought to turn into an actionable item and I never need to jot anything down.
- Communication tools: My RescueTime dashboard says I spend nearly 70% of my time in applications and on websites I’ve tagged ‘communication’. It’s important to my job and so I’m glad I have reliable e-mail at GMail, cheap calls on Skype, instant messages with Adium (Google Talk, AIM) and a phone on my desk. When’s the last time you used paper to communicate in a day-to-day setting?
- Paperless faxes: Most people have a scanner/printer (it’s hard to find the two separated these days) so they don’t need to fax anything. Just e-mail me the high-quality image. But, some things never change. Go spend the $9.99 and buy an e-fax number for the rest of the John McCain’s out there.
- Digital Signatures: I say nay to faxes in the first place, you don’t need them to sign a document. Adobe has come out with perfectly acceptable digital signature technology. It’s really straight forward and allows for near-instant turn-around on contracts, NDAs, etc. Plus, hand-written signatures can be forged, right?
We’re all familiar with the 80/20 concept, right? These simple technologies catch far more than the majority (probably 90%) of paper that could possibly enter my work life.
But, some things cant be avoided
Little things come up every day and we pay little attention to them. Business cards are handed out at dinners, conferences and other events. Going to lunch or drinks after work mean you’ll be handed a receipt. So what do you do with the unavoidable?
- Receipts: If I can see that the credit card printer has already spit out a second customer receipt I’ll be sure to ask for it. Why? So I can make sure I take it back and recycle it. Odds are when you decline it’s tossed straight into the trash.
- Business Cards: I will gladly accept a card from someone if its seems appropriate (and offer them mine). Like receipts I will always put them in my phone and recycle the card. But, if the situation is right, I will then offer them to use my contxts account (simply SMS ‘devin’ to 50500). There are plenty of other services out there: TextMarks, MyDropCard.
- Shipping Labels: Welp, some things can’t be avoided. I had to ship a book to a friend the other day and realized it was one of my few ‘non-digital’ exchanges this month.
- Checks: Cash is king and if you want to do business you’ll accept checks. Online services are becoming more popular but there are things like fees involved. Free checking is far too easy right now.
- Account Statements: If you can, obviously have them sent to you online (banking, bills, etc.). I have a few accounts that still don’t offer it and that kills me. Again, I have to suck it up, shred, and recycle, that’s the best I can do.
- Periodicals: They’re mostly there, newspapers, magazines*, etc. They all syndicate online. The hardest part is when you’re faced with ‘offline’ time. NetNewsWire is my app of choice but that still leaves me high and dry with partial feeds and those that don’t push to RSS.
- Books: With services like Audible and Audio-Tech business book summaries I haven’t read from a tangible book in a while. I have plenty that I will read (on planes, on the bus, etc.) because, well, they’re books. But taking steps like re-selling them on Amazon (reduce, reuse, recycle?) and subscribing to podcasts will certainly help you become paperless.
As you can see, there are some things that are hard to avoid. But you’re certainly not helpless.
So how did I do?
I feel pretty good about my new habits and I’m sure I’m not alone in my quest to work and live paperless. Is there something I’ve missed? Or is there something you’ve found that works better? Share your thoughts in the comments.
* I’ve collected nearly ten years of WIRED magazines and use them as a night stand. I love that magazine.
TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge
Devin manages cool projects at Crowd Favorite, skis for Colorado Snow, and writes about business and technology at Mind Averse.
InvestMidwest Forum: Accepting Applications Now
October 21, 2008
Reading time: 2 - 3 minutes
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
How to Turn Website Visitors into Sales
September 24, 2008
Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes
These days, most of us are pretty good about monitoring our website activity. We know our “hits” from our “page views” from our “visitors” and many of us track those numbers religiously. Unfortunately, though, those numbers only show you who reaches the virtual door. What happens after a potential buyer steps inside your website? Too many companies, even those spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on online marketing, focus so much on driving website traffic that they fail to convert that traffic into sales.
Fortunately, it’s getting easier and easier to measure your online sales and track potential customers. Here are a few tips for finding the gaps potential customers fall through and patching them up.
Know Your Conversion Rate
In the industry, “conversion” is just a fancy term for turning visitors into customers. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that reach a specific business goal, whether that’s a sale, lead, or download. It sounds simple enough, but the first step to improving your conversion is to track it and establish your baseline. Industry experts suggest that average conversion rates run 2-3%, but real numbers can vary wildly – honestly assess where you’re at now and work to improve it. Fortunately, many analytics tools (including free tools such as Google Analytics) now make online conversion tracking easy.
Find Your Gaps
Once you’re tracking your conversions, map out your online sales process. A typical process (sometimes called a “conversion funnel”, since it’s wide at the top and narrow at the bottom) may look something like this:
- Home Page
- Search Results
- Product Page
- Shopping Cart
- Order Form
Of course, the path any given visitor follows could be very different, but once you have a sense of the ideal path, you can start to review your website analytics for gaps. For example, does traffic fall off a lot between your shopping cart and your order form? Once you isolate these gaps, filling them becomes much easier.
Make Actions Clear
In any online sales process there are multiple calls to action, decision points that you want customers to follow. One of the easiest ways to improve conversion is to make your calls to action clearer. For example:
- Make links look like links (i.e. blue and/or underlined)
- Make buttons look “clickable”
- Make buttons visually distinct (large, a bold color, etc.)
- Use action-oriented copy (“Buy it now!”)
Test, Test and Test Again
Don’t leave website changes to chance - test them, and let the data guide your decisions. This can be as simple as a basic “split” or “A/B” test, where you serve up two versions (A and B) of a page, copy, or image (split 50/50) and measure which one generates more conversions. These days, website testing is easier than ever, thanks to free tools like Google Website Optimizer. Testing is not only incredibly effective, but it can go a long way towards ending arguments over opinion, especially in larger organizations.
Make Improvement A Habit
Hopefully, this gives you a few ideas for how to get moving on the path to increasing conversion. Ultimately, understanding your website data and improving your online sales process should be a long-term habit. Honestly assess where you’re at today, listen to your data (and your customers), and start testing improvements methodically, and you’ll be off to a great start.
TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge
Dr. Peter J. Meyers is the President of User Effect, a former start-up executive, cognitive psychologist, and lifelong programmer. User Effect specializes in helping online businesses understand their customers and convert visitors into buyers. Pete can be reached directly at peter@usereffect.com
From Idea To Startup
September 18, 2008
Reading time: 4 - 7 minutes
Do you have a great idea? So what are you going to do about it?
Many of us that love technology always have those little ideas that pop into our head. You know the ones that say “Man I wish there was something that did insert idea here”. Did you ever stop and think that you could actually take that idea and make it a reality? In today’s technology landscape, the barriers to entry are so low, you should seriously look at taking the next step. Once you do, you never know what can happen.
About 18 months ago, Amazon had recently released their new cloud storage platform, S3 (Simple Storage Service). I thought it was way cool, but seemed to be lacking something, an easy interface to manage your data in their cloud. Around the same time I started using an app on the Mac called Yojimbo. It is a really cool app that lets you aggregate data, web pages, documents, etc into folders and tag them with metadata. This was great except for the fact that all that data resided on my laptop. I could not get to it while at work, on travel, or just away from my computer. Then one night I had THAT question pop into my head. “I wish there was a app like Yojimbo but on the web.” That was my spark.
I thought about it for a while, as many do. I wondered if I should do anything, but in the end I decided I was going to do something, anything and at least I could say I tried. I had read books like Founders at Work and gleaned a lot of great insight and saw a direction I wanted to go. I decided from the beginning I was going to do as much as I could on my own and control as much of it as I could. I began with small scribblings in a moleskin of design concepts and notes here and there on business plan stuff. Eventually a purpose, direction, and design came out of all of this.
The next step was to figure out how to take those ideas on paper and make them into a functioning app. I knew form the beginning that I was not the person to do this. I could have noodled my way through, but the time it took for me to do that would have been counterproductive. So I decided to place a posting on Elance and let developers bid on my project. Eventually I chose a provider and the work began. I think the most important advice I can give you about this part of the process is to maintain a strong communication channel to make sure your wants and being implemented how you want them to be. You are paying the bills, so make sure it is done properly.
It was a long process but in the end I got an application called MyDropBin, which is a user front end to your very own Amazon storage space that allows to save and share content, static and dynamic, and pay only for the amount of storage space you use. It has been a great feeling just taking the step. I did not spend a lot of money, and any that I did, I considered in investment in myself.
What has been so great about the process is the journey it has put me on. I have tried to use social media to leverage PR for the product with virtually no PR budget. It has afforded me the opportunity to meet great people and do a lot of really cool things. It seems doors open and other doors and opportunities present themselves, ones that never would have had I not taken the first step. The product has been running along. Sure it could use some tweaking here and there and I do what I can where I can. I have a full time job and kids, so time is sometimes hard to come by, but I do my best.
Recently I was listed in the Amazon Web Services Solution catalog and got a lot of registrations every day of people stopping by to check out my product. I try to interact with all of them and find out what they think about the application and what can be done to make it better. Eventually I will be able to start another development iteration and take the product to the next level.
What have I learned? You never know what can happen, so take a chance and see.
TECH cocktail Community Contributed Knowledge
Jimmy Gardner is the founder of MyDropBin and 2Plus11 Technology. He works in the technology field as a government contractor. He also blogs at East Cost Blogging. He can be reached at jimmy@eastcoastblogging.com. Or add Jimmy as a friend in the TECH cocktail COMMUNITY.
TECH cocktail Boulder 2 Showcases Local Startups
August 21, 2008
Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes
TECH cocktail Boulder 2 took place last night as the perfect ending to the 2008 TechStars Investor and Demo day. We thank Lijit, TechStars and Me.dium for sponsoring the event as we couldn’t do it without your support!
The following 2008 TechStars startups demoed:
App-X - Aimed squarely as VC’s and investors, App-X offers software as a service for venture capital and private equity fund managers and to pensions, endowments and other parties that invest in venture capital and private equity.
BuyPlayWin - BuyPlayWin looks to offer the first tournament marketplace where
users can win items that they plan on buying.
Devver -Devver looks to turn a developer’s desktop tools into cloud-based services. By putting developers tools in a cloud it enables them to execute more quickly, reduce setup and configuration time and enable easy scheduling, reports and make sharing easier.
Foodzie - Looking for new cheese from around the world might now be possible as Foodzie offers a marketplace for small artisan producers. Foodzie is like a decentralized food version of Etsy.
Gyminee - Gyminee offers a fitness social network for detailed tracking, online accountability and motivation. Users can find workout programs and track progress as well as find other workout buddies online to help them stay motivated.
Ignighter - Offering a group dating site where you and your friends and go out with others and their friends. This could take some of the awkwardness out of a blind date and might be a
fun little group adventure.
Peoples Software - Making plans with your friends might have just gotten a little easier as WhozAround?, a set of tools for planning and scheduling events with you friends. Founded by Susan Mernit, formerly of Yahoo, and Lisa Williams the tools plug into Facebook and your
mobile phone directory making possible to setup events with one click. This startup reminds me a little bit of Plany.pus who has demoed at TECH cocktail in the past.
Occipital - Occipital uses artificial intelligence to help organize your photo stream with a visual interface. This could be very interesting startup that reminds me of Photosynth, a Microsoft product, which presented at the TED Conference.
The Highway Girl - The Highway Girl, is a traveling music show hosted by the founder, singer
songwriter, Samantha Murray. The show aims to sync up with artists and give their behind the scenes story (sort of reminds me of VH1 Behind the Music). The Highway Girl also will distribute exclusive music content on its website.
Travelfli - Frequent Flyer numbers, car rental account rewards, hotel rewards programs all offer travelers ways to cash in for using its service while traveling. Unfortunately, with all these accounts it is sometimes unclear as to what you can do with all your points. Travelfli looks to become a central repository for all these travel related rewards programs as it looks to educate and help travels take advantage of all their travel rewards programs.
Check out the TECH cocktail Boulder 2 photos from the event that were taken by Denver Wedding Photographer Vivika.
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