Polygraph Media Blog

Austin Technology Incubator Graduation

It's official -- we've graduated from the Austin Technology Incubator.  Check out the announcement here:  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/04/prweb3915854.htm

The last year has been an amazing and wild ride.  We've released two versions of our product and rebuilt it as a platform for local media and technology partners.  We've rebranded.  In another case, we reverted to a brand we weren't using.  We launched product with a major media company.  We built our partner pipeline.  We've attracted investment capital and we have gotten some good coverage in major online publications with much more to come.  And our prospects are great.

But I didn't really know we built a company until recently, when the team ran with some important work in my absence.  Our baby has grown into an adolescent with a ton of promise.

As for the Incubator, it was a great place to start a company.  Special thanks to Isaac Barchas, Bart Bohn, and the rest of the team for helping prod us along.  Although the Incubator doesn't work with a lot of companies like ours, I think their approach to working with startups makes a lot of sense and is a fit for a variety of startups.

Onward!

Entrepreneur Networking & the Scarcity of Time, Part II

A few days ago, I shared some thoughts on the scarcity of time for early-stage entrepreneurs.  Today, I'm going to share some brief thoughts on how this affects me specifically as an entrepreneur in Austin.  Now let me preface my comments by saying two things.  One, I love living here.  I wouldn't have moved back from Seattle if I didn't really love Austin.  Two, by no means is this blog post intended to insult anyone or any group.  Everything written in this blog post is my interpretation/reaction to the community after 18 months of operating a startup here.  It's one person's opinion, and if you want I'm happy to discuss at the next social gathering.  OK... caveat aside... here goes.

Austin has an amazing startup community that I first discovered in 1997 as part of Stratfor, an early-stage startup in 1997 that we moved from Louisiana to Austin.  When talking to people about Stratfor for the first time, I usually describe it as the Huffington Post of 1999 but with three key differences:

• it was subject matter specific -- international news and intelligence is Stratfor's game,
• there was no social media -- although we were doing live blogging/tweeting of major events back then, and
• as it was ten years earlier there was absolutely NO business model at the time.

Fortunately, George Friedman (my first mentor of sorts) and the rest of the team have built an interesting business over time.

The thing about Austin then (and now) is that the startup community is distinct and for the most part supportive.  You don't have to talk to too many people before you meet folks willing and able to offer help and advice.  Further, there is a lot of startup activity here -- a little less than 1999 but certainly the most I've seen here over the last decade.  The cycle is refreshing, and it's great to be in Austin for it.

All of that said, I'd almost say that the community can be too supportive at times.  Positive thoughts are great, but everything in moderation, right?  Austin reminds me of that kid we all know whose parents shower him/her with so much positive affirmation, he/she won't be able to process failure or criticism later in life.  Are you really doing people a service if you are light on constructive feedback and heavy on celebrating relatively minor achievements?

This dynamic in Austin is one reason why we don't do a lot of socializing -- at least in this stage of our business.  But perhaps more importantly, it's also about where we are as an early-stage startup seeking its way.  We get a lot of value out of "surgical" networking, where we find people or put feelers out for folks who should be interested in the things we do.  More often than not, those people are on the East Coast or the West Coast -- not so much in Austin -- although there are certainly a lot of really interesting people who are doing or have done big things here in town.

All told, one good, meaningful, action-oriented 1:1 conversation over 90 minutes is typically our strike zone for networking.  It's just the way it is for us in our specific situation today.  Do I miss out on some serendipity by not doing the cocktail party scene?  Probably.  But I also get back 10 hours a week that can be put to use elsewhere -- and it is all about the scarcity of time after all.  :-)

That said, there are some events that I hit with regularity if the schedule permits, primarily because there is a higher concentration of these folks.  Texchange is an excellent organization with some outstanding events.  SXSW obviously is a "must attend" event -- it's the one time every year when Austin becomes the center of the tech world.  The Capital Factory Demo Day was off the charts.  Events thrown by the Austin Technology Incubator tend to be high-quality as well.

I am extremely careful with time I spend on networking in Austin.  Generally, I lurk, go to an occasional party, and go about my business.  I value deeper, more meaningful interactions that might start at a cocktail party but are generally developed over time and not at the normal networking events.  That's just how I go about it.  How do you view networking in Austin?  Agree/disagree?  Looking forward to your thoughts.

Entrepreneur Networking & the Scarcity of Time, Part I

OK - this post has been a long time coming and is likely to offend folks.  But the Seattle Tech Startups e-mail list (to which I still subscribe/lurk) has a great discussion ongoing right now about the topic of how entrepreneurs should use their time/help each other.  At issue is Dave Schappel's blog post. where he proposes an interesting framework for thinking of his own time economically.  I met Dave briefly at a Medina, WA, Christmas Party as I was exiting Microsoft & investigating opportunities that ultimately led to Notice Technologies.  So for those of you who have never met Dave, he's a sharp, sharp guy and a leader in the Seattle community. 

As an early-stage startup guy who is immersed in the hunt, I can 100% empathize with Dave's perspective.  When a startup gets to a certain point, time becomes incredibly valuable and scarce.  Your "idea" comes to fruition on some level, and you all of a sudden find yourself a lot more demanding about the use of your time.  It's a natural evolution -- deployed products, customers, business development activities, hiring, etc. all take up your time and it all hits at the same time.  If you're there, you know what I'm talking about.  If you're not there, well then you are not quite there yet in the life of your startup.

So as such, the things you used to do (i.e. meeting folks speculatively for coffee, "helping" a fellow entrepreneur, attending a networking event, etc.) have to be scrutinized a lot more.  Our business hit the next level about 90 days ago, and trust me -- I've made far more tough choices about my time than I did just 3 months ago.  And the book that I'm finishing inch by inch right now would've never happened had I started the book just a few weeks later.  There used to be time for other things, but my available time for extracurricular activities is shrinking rapidly right now.  I can see it being reduced to UT MBA alumni events, blogging, and maybe advising a startup 5 hours a month.  That's it.

But back to Dave's blog post, here's my interpretation of his point:

    The entrepreneurs you *want* giving you advice/help paradoxically don't have a lot of time for you.  Young entrepreneurs, first-time entrepreneurs, and those who are just starting out *generally* don't understand this dynamic.

Same goes for most service providers and other folks who demand entrepreneurs' time like it's freely available & overflowing, but that's a separate conversation.

But anyway... as venture capital has tumbled and investments have gotten a lot more risk-averse, successful entrepreneurs have become a lot more valuable as mentors and advisors to other startups.  Two of our three advisors at Notice Technologies are successful entrepreneurs whose experiences and ideas are incredibly helpful.  But as we got to the point where we needed help from advisors, we wanted to respect their time by formalizing the relationship.  It has worked very, very well IMO for everyone involved so far.

I liked Dave's points about being available at events (as long as they're events worth attending) and offering time in a way that aligns everyone's interests.  As a serious entrepreneur (at least that's what I'd like to consider myself), that really resonates with me.  But ask me or another entrepreneur for a 10am meeting, and you'd better be comfortable with annihilating his/her morning. ;-)  This is why I like to set up meetings at 7am or 8am -- it's about economizing time & respecting everyone involved more than it is about imposing early mornings on someone else.

In Part 2 of this blog post, I'll share thoughts on how this affects (in a very tangible way) how I use my time & network in Austin.

Groundhog Day Update

Howdy everyone.  Sorry for the time it's taken me to update this blog.  A lot of things are moving fast with our business and in the markets where we compete, and I haven't had time to maintain the blog. It has fallen way down in priorities all of a sudden.  Here's a quick rundown of the things that are keeping me happily driving to work at 7am, engaged throughout the day, and starting another half workday or more around 8pm.

Company - Last week, we launched our first deployment of MinutesNotice at QuickDFW.  Quick is a Dallas Fort-Worth Metro Area nightlife portal that supplements a print publication that is given away for free in the metroplex.  We have enabled the QuickDFW ad sales team to offer our "offers platform" to local bars, restaurants, and nightlife destinations.  It's going great so far, and we're very optimistic about how this vertical site will perform.  Expect to see bigger, broader, and more vertical deployments from us in coming months.

Market - Local has certainly heated up significantly in the last 90 days.  Even as late as the end of October, a lot of people asked me "why are you guys going after the local business/local advertising market?"  Well, it's really the wild west out there right now, but there are billions of dollars at stake as local online advertising evolves.  A number of companies have announced big plans, funding, and other initiatives that will help advance the market.  As such, we're hearing from a wide range of folks who have taken a much bigger interest in local opportunities.  It's an exciting time.

Book - Some of you may know that I've been steadily plugging away on Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day -- a book that will be published by Sybex.  Later, I will share with you the long & strange story of how an entrepreneur like me got caught up writing a book while starting a company -- suffice it to say that it is tough but doable, but perhaps only when your business is still figuring out what it wants to be when it grows up.  Fortunately, book writing tasks just about concluded at the same time our business picked up significantly.  The book is now slated for release in April, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com right now.

We did make a change to the book mid-stream.  My original co-author had some time conflicts and could not finish the book.  So I'm really happy to share with you that Mari Smith (Twitter @marismith) is co-authoring the book.  Mari's late addition to the book has been a godsend.  She is a true professional in every sense of the word.  Even more importantly, she really knows social media at a deep, deep level.  Her involvement has turned a great book into a phenomenal book.  So in a sense, the book is a practitioner's guide to Facebook Marketing, but from the dual perspectives of an industry pundit (Mari) and a capital efficient entrepreneur (Me).  I can't wait for you all to read the book & share your thoughts about it.

Welcome Damon Cali to Notice Technologies

I'm thrilled to announce that Damon Cali has joined Notice Technologies as VP of Operations.

I first met Damon in business school in 2003 -- over the years I've learned that Damon is in many ways the ideal startup executive.  He is one of the brightest and most analytical startup people I've ever met.  But perhaps more importantly, he's an action-oriented executive whose workstyle fits the rapidly changing environment of the Web and Internet advertising.

He's taking on an operations role here at Notice Technologies, which means that he'll be focused on helping us make our customers happy as we scale our business and grow over the next few months.

We're thrilled to have Damon aboard!  We talked to him recently about joining us -- check out the interview we posted on YouTube:  Damon Cali Joins Notice Technologies

Living Cheap

I thought I'd share some details on how we save money as an early stage company.  I tend to agree that we have indeed entered "The Age of Frugality".  Multiply that (or would it be divide that?) by 100 for startup folks.  My wife and I do a number of things to reduce our personal burn rate -- but this post is really more about what we do as a business to save money where we can.  So here are some things that we do - I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

• Obsessive focus on expenses -- We watch every dime that we spend and rarely, if ever, buy things out of convenience.  The thought process is that we have more manpower than money, so we sometimes have to get our hands dirty doing things that people in larger companies would just pay for.  One caveat here - if we can save days on something that is critically important to make a sale, we'll pay for it.
• Tie burn rate to progress -- It's way too easy to get ahead of yourself to build in expenses in advance of expected progress.  It's probably less of a consideration for bootstrappers like us than people who are adequately funded.  I am really careful about adding to the burn rate until I know that we can cover it.
• Shared office space -- generally our policy is 3-4 people per office.  It's too close for comfort sometimes, but sometimes it is better to be cozy.  I don't think this will change anytime soon, especially given the shared space and meeting room space we get at the Austin Technology Incubator.
• Bizspark -- we aren't ashamed to enjoy Microsoft's largesse, especially since we're a .NET shop. 
• Virtual bizdev -- We conduct most initial bizdev outreach via Twitter, the blogosphere, and the phone.  When I need to travel, I try to get a few meetings in per trip.  I minimize air travel and especially hotel stays.  Finally, we try not to attend trade shows unless we know that we can meet a number of customers there.
• Get the essentials for doing business -- paper, business cards (which I'm ironically out of at the moment), web hosting, equipment, etc.  We try to anticipate our needs, because everyone knows that you really pay for urgency in just about anything you buy or sell.
• Scan the credit card -- The final thing we do is a bit counterintuitive.  We follow the rules above, but after that we really don't obsess too much.  You can waste a lot of time and money wondering if you should make a $100 purchase.  Our strength is agility, so we have to make decisions quickly and intelligently.

We try to make sure we don't get too "penny wise, pound foolish" territory.  We're oriented to watch our dollars closely, which is now (I'm proud to say) part of our culture.  By doing that, we can sure stretch a buck... not to mention a runway!

Blog silence in this case = good problems

Howdy everyone -- I've been a little negligent posting on my regular schedule to this blog because work has heated up a bit in the last 7-10 days.  Lots going on at Notice Technologies between our work building a local real-time advertising platform and a few consulting gigs.

June is shaping up to be a very big month for us with a lot of announcements and progress.  We continue to be encouraged by the response we get from customers and partners about our products... it's a pretty exciting time.

For now, back to work -- I have a few interesting things to say but it will take me a few days given how much things have picked up around here.

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!

The Case for Targeting Facebook

We are diving deep into Facebook and the Facebook Connect technologies right now to better understand what is there, what isn't there yet, and how we might be able to take advantage of the technology in a number of areas.  I thought I'd address the subject of "why" today... but in more detail than perhaps the obvious reasons.

Certainly, the idea of targeting Facebook has become a bit of a no-brainer for Consumer Web plays.  Facebook has over 175m users right now.  Fastest growing demographics are 35-54 and 55+.  Facebook added over 5m people in the 35-54 demographic in just the last six months, with no sign of slowing down.  So the argument that Facebook is a kid's toy is pretty much over.  It's going mainstream and it's happening fast.

Perhaps more important than anything else is the fact that Facebook is quickly becoming the first destination that people visit on the Web... a title once held by Microsoft (pre-Web), AOL, Excite, Yahoo, and now Google.  Google Adwords took off in part because millions of people started booting their computer and bringing up their browser to Google... almost as instinct.  The same thing is happening now but people are starting with Facebook, then going about their day.

History tells us that the owner of "the first destination" upon login creates 1) tremendous shareholder value & 2) opportunity for developers of applications that target that platform.  We would not do ourselves justice if we didn't look into Facebook closely.  Consequently, we are less interested in Google than perhaps ever before.  I didn't think I'd ever say that.  That's not to say that Google is irrelevant -- they'll always be relevant IMO.  But I do think they should be worried about what is happening because search is slowly becoming the 2nd most important thing a user does when logging into their computer every day.

We are skating to where the puck is going.