Polygraph Media Blog

Notice Technologies is joining the Austin Technology Incubator!

Another milestone that I thought I'd share... we have been accepted into the Austin Technology Incubator!  This is very exciting for us on a few levels.

First, ATI is a cornerstone of Austin's entrepreneurial heritage, having helped companies get off the ground for over 20 years now.  A lot of companies and a lot of people have moved to Austin or stayed in Austin as a result of ATI.  In fact, when we researched places to relocate Stratfor in 1996, ATI was one of the factors that helped us select Austin over other cities.  So we're proud to be part of that history.

Second, ATI has some very talented people on staff and in its extended network who we are excited to interact with.  We've had nothing but great experiences with ATI Director Isaac Barchas, Wireless/IT Director Bart Bohn, and Director of Operations Aruni Gunasegaram.  All three of them have given us great feedback on our business as early as June of last year.  We expect that we'll continue to have a great relationship as we grow.

Third, this represents a new phase for us.  Phase I was when my CTO and I worked 2500 miles apart for the first six months.  Then in Phase II after my wife and I moved to Austin last October, we worked from the dining room table for a few months then moved to a cramped 10x12 office here in MCC.  Now we're grappling with issues of growth and scale, so ATI is in many ways a perfect partner for us.

So we're excited about the development.

Finally a few notes about our experience in Austin to date.  It's unreal how many entrepreneur resources there are in Austin now.  Think about it:

1. ATI -- collaboration between City of Austin, University of Texas, and local entrepreneurs,
2. Techranch -- early-stage incubator & collaboration hub designed to help people get new ventures started,
3. Capital Factory -- seed-stage mentoring program that offers assistance from many of Austin's best/most successful entrepreneurs,
4. Triggerbox -- advisory services focused on market alignment, business model optimization, strategic partnering and capital fundraising.  Also recently began angel investing in Austin startups.
5. Conjunctured -- co-working facility, ideally suited for skilled contractors and one/two person companies,
6. EDCO Ventures -- facilitates the creation of new business activity in economically distressed areas, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border,
7. TechBA -- helps Mexican technology companies accelerate their business in the United States and other markets.

Of these, only ATI was around just 5 years ago.  Austin sure has come a long way!

Government + Marketing = We Win!

Great news for Notice Technologies.  We were recently awarded our first Government 2.0 contract with Austin's SBDP (Small Business Development Program).  For those of you who don't know much about the Austin SBDP, it's a government organization sponsored by the City of Austin that helps promote ~250 unique Austin businesses in 8 popular "Small Biz districts".  Our task with this project is to conduct better internet marketing for the ExploreLocalAustin.com web site, which is a portal designed to give consumers more information about these businesses and their offerings.  It fits our core strengths in internet marketing, internet advertising, social marketing, and local online advertising.

This project is very similar in some ways to New York City's attempt to help promote local businesses.  NYCGo has actually already launched and its Twitter account has over 500 followers already.

We're really excited about this project because we're going to get a chance to learn more about local online advertising, albeit from a different angle... the Government angle.  We have spoken with a number of different companies who do a great job with local advertising -- directory services, telecommunications companies, newspapers large & small, and perhaps most importantly small business owners themselves.  Government similarly has a role and we're starting to see experiments here in Austin, NYC, and a handful of other cities.  Lots of stakeholders are involved, yet nobody has yet solved the business issues surrounding modernized local advertising.

This project will be great for us.  We'll help the City of Austin solve its immediate needs to better market its ExploreLocalAustin.com web site.  We'll also be a lot smarter about how government fits into the local advertising game.

Onward!

Framework for Broad Web 2.0 Thinking

Having trouble thinking through how Web 2.0 could work for you, your business, or your government agency?  Consider this quick read from Wired.  I really enjoyed the framework -- specifically treating data in terms of how you want information to be shared.

In our consulting business, all of our projects have broken down into one or two of those categories, where we assign metrics to each.  For example

Inward sharing -- how information sharing inside the firewall improves through the use/promotion/adoption of a new wiki, collaborative blog, etc.  Measured in unique users, page views, time spent on site, anecdotes.

Outward sharing -- how siloed internal organizations can better share information with each other to improve decision making.  This one is best suited for the largest companies.  Measured in cross-team collaboration, quicker introduction of new features, and ultimately customer satisfaction.

Inbound sharing -- how Web 2.0 technologies can help make the collection of customer/partner/external stakeholder feedback easier and more cost-effective.  Measured in reduced overall cost, customer/partner satisfaction, improved speed to enhance product/process.

Outbound sharing -- how organizations can get the word out to customers, partners, etc. through the use/promotion/adoption of Web 2.0.  Measured in increased revenues, customer/partner satisfaction, unique users, page views, etc.

Kudos to the authors Mark Drapeau and Lin Wells for applying some structured thinking to Web 2.0... I assume many people, not just those inside government, will benefit from this framework when considering projects for their companies.

Anniversaries

It's been a busy, busy few weeks with the soft launch of the MinutesNotice local advertising network, the Youpons.net local deals/coupons portal, and SXSW Interactive... all of which I'll talk about in more detail in coming days.  Lost amidst all of this are two one-year anniversaries for me: 1) my departure from Microsoft on March 14, 2008, and 2) the start of this blog on March 16, 2008.  Some thoughts on both:

Microsoft -- Leaving Microsoft was professionally one of the easiest things I have ever done.  Why?  I need to take one more shot at an early stage startup.  The demands of life in your 30s are far more significant than the carefree living of your 20s... so I saw my clock ticking to some extent.  It helped that I saw a few business opportunities.  Every fiber of my being told me that I had to make a move away from a stable, and extremely promising future in Redmond.

I do miss some things about Microsoft though... I miss a lot of the people who worked in/around the Web Platform.  It would have been nice to see things through in a few areas.  I helped build a foundation to prioritize the Web from a marketing perspective that simply didn't exist when I started at Microsoft in early 2005.  I take some pride in seeing parts of the vision realized with products, roadmaps, and improved communications with customers.  I also see some things we could have improved while I was there.  I see blind spots that people at Microsoft still have regarding startups and how things get done in a resource constrained environment.  Suffice it to say that it is very interesting to live on both sides of the fence...

Blogging -- In one year's time, I've posted 129 times (or once every ~3 days).  I didn't think I'd have so much to say... but between news/events, developments in our industry, progress we make with our business, events I attend, and most importantly customer interactions across our business I find I still have a lot to say.  I don't think there will ever be a shortage of things to comment on.  Lucky you.

Blogging has proven to be more than an academic exercise for me and for Notice Technologies.  It has proved to be an invaluable way to communicate.  We've told customers about our products and our approach to local advertising.  We've told people about the collaborative blogs and Facebook applications and social presence we've created for consulting clients.  We have had numerous people contact us about a wide range of business proposals, ideas, and other interactions.  Perhaps most importantly though, comments to this blog have furthered the conversation and have often made me think about the issues in different, deeper, and perhaps better ways.

So thanks to all of you for your participation and your continued support of this blog and our company.  The next year should be very interesting as we navigate a rough economy, product rollouts, more consulting work for clients eager to improve business results through social media, and the next year of developments in our industry.

Onward to year 2!

My Reaction & Perspective on Bailout Money for Startups

Thomas Friedman really kicked a beehive with his recent thoughts about diverting bailout money in the direction of startups, via venture capital.  Venture capitalists didn't like it.  Pundits didn't like it.  Others thought the specifics were wrong.  We all sortof believe intuitively that there are a lot of problems propping up failed or failing businesses, but people in our industry can't seem to agree on what should be done.

I reacted very negatively to a point or two in Fred Wilson's post.  Specifically, that bailout money would almost exclusively go to the inefficient and to weaker entrepreneurs.  The implication is that venture capitalists are 100% efficient at picking out great ideas and great management teams.  I don't buy it.  It's a generalization to assume that the best deals get adequate amounts of funding to make their ideas work.  Many great business ideas fail or never get a chance to get off the ground because they lack access to capital, and/or lack access to talent who can turn a dream, a prototype, or an early version into reality.  Sure, the valley of death is a necessary phase in the growth of a company, but capital can help early-stage companies accelerate their growth at a time when we really, really need it.  Fred also points out that the top entrepreneurs wouldn't take government money.  I don't buy that either.  I don't know many entrepreneurs at all who would refuse a cash infusion from just about anywhere in the present environment.

Fred is right to point out that VC doesn't need bailout funds.  Many of them do just fine without government intervention.  But early stage entrepreneurs seem to be wholeheartedly in favor of it, especially as evidenced by a number of Facebook groups that have popped up in support of diverting bailout funds to startups.  Of the current 312 members on the list, I know of at least a half dozen people who have exited their startups for millions of dollars in their careers.  These aren't weaker entrepreneurs... they are successful folks who join the Facebook group to publicly show their support of early stage entrepreneurship and the use of bailout money to kickstart promising ventures.

Don't get me wrong... this post isn't intended to bash Fred... I generally love his insights into early stage ventures and the venture capital business.  But I think in this case, he's a little too close to the VC side and a little too far from the day-to-day hell of trying to finance a startup in the current environment.  If a lot of startups fail over the next 2-3 years, it won't be because the ideas are bad.  It will be because access to capital is severely limited relative to what it has been for the last 15 years.

I thought Don Dodge's response was considerably more measured and startup-friendly.  First of all, let me say that I didn't meet him while I was at Microsoft... but he did have a great reputation.  Like other folks on Dan'l Lewin's startup engagement team at Microsoft, he has a great sense of what startups need and I really enjoy reading his occasional insights from my RSS feed.  In his blog post re: bailout money for startups, he espouses a combination of funding for incubators, job creation programs for service businesses, and tax credits for investment.  It's a great post and I hope those of you in decision-making roles in government internalize what Don has to say.

Our new President spent a lot of time on the campaign trail talking about change.  He also talked about helping create new engines for job growth.  Well, we're here.  In many cases, we're operating on shoestring budgets and we're making money stretch as efficiently as we can.  While bankers give huge bonuses to themselves and while inefficient businesses throw more good money after bad, we're out pursuing efficiencies and new product ideas that will create the next wave of jobs and economic growth.  Give us a boost.  It makes a lot more sense than propping up inefficiencies that can't last.

Beginner's Guide to Government 2.0

I have talked before on a few occasions about how I think Government 2.0 will be a defining theme in our business over the next few years.  It's an inevitable change because the 2nd wave of the Web (notably social media, true collaboration, societal acceptance of user generated content, etc.) has taken hold.  The Web is no longer new... it's discoveries no longer novel... and now it is time to take advantage of the technologies to earn greater efficiency for the public at large.

If you are a government official with the authority and budget to get going on the Web, where do you get started?  Everyone and their grandmother are social media/Web 2.0 experts, yet you need to make a good decision.

I'll leave it up to the reader to determine if we're expert or not, but I thought I'd nonetheless share a few random thoughts and tips about finding the right person or company to help with your needs.  In no particular order:

• Today, in February 2009, there are few if any Government 2.0 experts.  There simply haven't been enough contracts available for anyone to legitimately think of themselves as expert.  And no, running one tactic of Barack Obama's viral marketing campaign doesn't make someone an expert either.  Sorry.  Which leads me to my second point...
• Most successes with Web 2.0 and social media have been done in the private sector.  This is what you want.  Find someone who has solved a problem for a major company or three.  Government, complicated as it is, can be learned.  You will have a hard time (especially in 2009) finding companies or people with Government 2.0 experience.  If you make that a requirement, you are not likely to find the most talented person or company you can.
• Folks who didn't do anything with the social Web before 2000 aren't forward thinking enough for you.  Same goes for LinkedIn users after 2003 and Facebook users after 2005.  Government agencies who shell out good taxpayer money should have the benefit of people who can see long term trends and dive right in.
• Don't get a strategist.  Get someone who can both think through your problems efficiently and implement strategy.
• Training is important.  Once setup, a lot of Web 2.0 projects can run on autopilot if someone on staff wants to monitor success and failure.  Hold consultants to a high standard that includes training and an exit plan.  You don't want to pay a consultant ad infinitum, and you shouldn't if you've hired the right person or company.
• Accept the possibility of a few failures along the way.  Flexibility is key to ultimately getting the efficiencies, cost savings, and customer satisfaction improvements you seek.  Don't freak out if the going is rough early.
• You will probably get what you pay for.  So beware of the overeager who you aren't paying very well.

Our consulting practice can help with your Government 2.0 project.  Feel free to contact us at any time at no obligation.