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We've worked with
Danny Scalisi is Showing You His Executive Summary
At the Mixergy Funding Forum, a few people asked to see a sample executive summary.
Danny Scalisi of MyLifeBrand.com offered to help. He’s letting you peak at his executive summary.
What makes this especially helpful is that it’s not the fake “Company XYZ” example that we see in business plan books. It’s a real example from a member of our startup community.
If you can’t see the doc below, read it on docstoc.
[Thank you Bob Bellano of cFour Partners for coming to the Forum and making this connection.]
Why & How to Build Social Capital Online - Tara Hunt Interview
Have you noticed this:
- Guy Kawasaki launches a site and on its first day his site gets 261,214 hits.
- Jason Calacanis asks for feedback on a design idea for his site and hundreds of people contribute thoughtful ideas.
I can think of a dozens of examples like that where an internet entrepreneur who has social capital uses it to build a better business than an internet nobody.
Tara Hunt noticed this. She wrote a book about it called The Whuffie Factor. Whuffie is the word she uses to describe the amount of social capital you have.
I called her up and recorded a 42-minute interview that you can use as a seminar on how to build your social capital. We went through a set of clear steps that you can follow and I made sure we clarified each one with a real-world example.
If you’re building an online business listen to this podcast. Then get the people you’re working with to come here and listen to it. Your competitors already know this stuff. You have some catching up to do.
Oh, and get the book, because my conversation with Tara is like a seminar, but it’s only an introductory seminar. The details are in the book.
“Right click” here to download this podcast (42-minutes)
San Diego Happy Hour 2.0 @ gWave
Melani Gordon of gWave Consulting opened up her rooftop sky box for a Web 2.0 Mixergy event. If you weren’t there, here’s what and who you missed.
To see more pictures, join the Mixergy page on Facebook.
Here’s a video of Melani Gordon talking about her company and why she did this Mixergy event:
Basil Maloni talks about his company and why he comes to Mixergy events:
Meet one of our guests, Ron Marcus talks about his company and why he comes to Mixergy events:
Search Engine Optimization Strategies - Tyler Suchman Interview
If I did a good job organizing the Mixergy Traffic Forum, it’s because Tyler Suchman helped me prepare for it by teaching me Search Engine Optimization. He gave me permission to record our conversation, so anyone who’s building a web presence can optimize their sites for search engines.
What I think you’ll find helpful about Tyler is that he takes some pretty complex ideas and makes them easy to understand, by using concrete examples.
Tyler is the CEO of Emergencity, Inc. He understands SEO so well because he’s been running an internet strategy consulting company called Tribal Core since 2002.
Right click to save the podcast of our conversation (40 minutes)
[Thank you Neelu Jain for introducing me to Tyler]
Startup Funding Interview with Bill Reichert of Garage
Bill Reichert, Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures, didn’t speak at the Funding Forum that I organized, but I think he’s an investor that startups need to hear, so we scheduled a phone call–which you can listen to below.
Here are two of my notes.
The Trouble With Your Roommate
So you have an idea for a business and you partner up with your roommate (or cousin or best friend or whatever) and because he’s around and you like him, you make him your CTO. Your business grows and it’s time for you to get funding. The trouble is your roommate/partner isn’t capable of being CTO of a big company. He’s good, but not that good.
Now you have a problem.
And it’s a mistake that Bill says a lot of entrepreneurs make.
The Trouble With Your Uncle
You launch your business and need money, so you go to your uncle because you know he believes in you and has some money. To make it official, you have your family’s lawyer put together the paperwork.
The trouble is your family’s lawyer doesn’t know the venture business. So when it’s time for you to get venture funding, the agreement you have in place with your uncle might keep you from putting together an agreement with a serious VC. (I think Napster had a situation like that, according to a book I read.)
Use a lawyer that knows how to do business with the venture community.
Right click to download a podcast of this interview. (41 minutes)
[Thank you Guy Kawasaki for introducing me to Bill.]
SEO and Keywords - William Fernandez Interview
William Fernandez, an interactive marketing professional, was at the Mixergy Forum on Growing Your Site’s Traffic. He said he could add to that discussion on Search Engine Optimization by explaining how to target in organic search.
You can hear our recorded interview below, but here are some of my notes:
Speed Up Your Tests
Before you commit to ranking high for set of keywords on Google’s search results, test them by buying keyword ads on Google. It’s a quick way to see if people who search for your keywords will buy what you’re selling.
Give Them The Text
Check out the way I linked to William. Notice that the anchor text is “William Fernandez, an interactive marketing professional.” That’s because when I asked William how I can link to him from my blog, he didn’t just give me his web address. He also gave me the anchor text. Apparently William wants Google to know that he’s an interactive marketing professional. When you give your users links to your site, he suggests that you do the same. Give them anchor text that includes your keywords.
(By the way, having that text helped me blog about him too.)
Use The Tools
These are the three keyword tools that we talked about: Google Keyword Tool, SEO Book, and Wordtracker.
Right click here to download the podcast (42 minutes)
[Thank you CitrusByte, LA’s development ninjas, for introducing me to William]
What Should the Next Mixergy Forum be About?
Help me come up with the topic for the next Mixergy Forum. If I use your suggestion, you’ll get a free ticket.
What should we cover?
Others have suggested: viral marketing, building Facebook/MySpace/etc apps, building your reputation online, becoming Internet famous.
What’s your suggestion?
Mixergy Funding Forum Wrap-up
The speakers:
William Quigley - Managing Director, Clearstone Venture Partners
(Clearstone backed companies include PayPal, CarsDirect, and United Online)
Daniel Gould - Co-Founder Newroo. Launched Newroo in 2004 sold it to Fox Interactive/MySpace in 2006. Currently VP, Technology at Fox Interactive.
Mark Suster - Partner, GRP Partners
(GRP backed companies include Starbucks, CitySearch, and Bill Me Later)
The Big Message:
One of the points that each speaker made is that, if you can’t build connections, you don’t deserve to be an entrepreneur, let alone get funded.
Most investors won’t even look at your plan if they don’t know you. But if you reach them through one of their trusted relationships, they’ll not only hear you out, but help you out.
Here are three ways to connect with an investor:
Portfolio CEOs - William Quigley said that a good way to reach him is by getting to know one of his portfolio companies’ CEOs first.
Service providers - Mark Suster told us that lawyers, accountants and recruiters can introduce us to venture capital firms. (They can also tell us which parter at the VC firm is a jerk and which one is easier to get along with.)
Networking events - Dan Gould talked about how he builds relationships at networking events.
The Video:
TechZulu.com, our media sponsor, will post better video soon. Until then, here’s a more self-promotional video:
The Pictures:
Wm. Marc Salsberry, the Los Angeles Tech Scene’s “official photographer” took great pictures.
How to Pitch an Investor - William Quigley Interview
To prepare for the Mixergy Funding Forum, I did a pre-interview with William Quigley, Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He allowed me to record the conversation for anyone who can’t make it to the Forum.
Here are some of my notes:
How to Pitch
William says too many entrepreneurs talk about the market as it is at the time they pitch.
He prefers a presentation that starts by talking about where the market is right now and who the current players are. And then the pitch needs to explain where the market and each competitor is likely to be in the coming years. Finally, he wants to know how your company fits in this universe.
The idea is to look at the market like a moving chess board. You need to go beyond where your opponent’s pieces are now, and consider where those pieces are likely to be later in the game.
The PayPal Example
That pitch format allows him to help entrepreneurs find hidden opportunities. He talks about how PayPal’s pitch was focused on a payment system that worked on portable devices. Because of the way they presented their business plan, Clearstone was able to help them realize that the market for portable devices wasn’t going to be big enough and email was a better medium.
The podcast
We discuss several ideas that are helpful to anyone working on a startup business. You’re better off listening to the conversation that reading my notes on it.
“Right click” here to get the podcast (33 minutes)
Investor Interview: David Cremin of DFJ Frontier
To prepare for the Mixergy Forum on Funding for Startups, I called David Cremin, a founder and Managing Director of DFJ Frontier.
We talked about how he went from being a musician to a startup founder to an investor. One of the interesting stories he shared in my interview is how a DFJ Frontier partner helped turnaround one of its struggling startups by making sales calls on the startup’s behalf.
This podcast is about 20 minutes.
“Right click” here to save the MP3 file.
[Thank you Ian Kilpatrick for he introduction to David Cremin]