Pure Play

iGAP - the first two days. My thoughts

Monday and Tuesday last week (2nd and 3rd November) saw myself and Gerry McQuaid sitting in Trim, Co Meath representing dbTwang alongside 14 other businesses, a number of EI'ers, some of the Internet Growth Alliance founders, the coaches who will be working with us, a couple of panelists on Tuesday and the leads from the US and UK for the actual workshop delivery.

A lot of people, a lot of time and a lot of planning.

Which delivered a superb start to this much talked about program. In evolution since early summer it came out of the experience of Colm Lyon on the Leadership for Growth program and drew on the entrepreneurial experiences of Ray Nolan and Dylan Collins (there were others as well - see their site for full list). Enterprise Ireland in the guise of Jennifer Condon joined in, a budget was carved out and Brian Caufield drafted in as progam lead.

Day One was Jonathan Dillon. An Irishman in San Francisco and with such gems from his past as "Would you just take the billion Mark" (he ran acquisitions for Yahoo for a couple of years and they made an offer for Facebook at one stage) he could have been irrelevant to early stage startups. But wasn't. He took his experience and made it relevant to us - specifically in the area of Mission, Vision and Strategy. In the middle of it all Colm Lyon did a great talk on his experience with Realex Payments and showed us the actual presentation he used when raising money very early on.

Day Two saw Ed Bussey on the floor. Whose most recent sale I knew about as it was Zyb and is now Vodafone 360. He joined the management team there but was a founder of figleaves.com in the good old days of DotComOne. He worked through business models and shared a lot of his practical experience with both his businesses.

The panel also happened on Day Two. Colm Lyon substituted for Dylan Collins (who was in negotiations, the results of which were in the Business Post today - having sold Jolt Gaming to Gamestop - congrats), and he was there with the founders of Daft (Eamon Fallon), Hostel World (Ray Nolan) and Gifts Direct (Lulu O'Sullivan).

Each of the two days finished with a 1.5 session with our coaches - 4 of them having 3 or 4 businesses in each group. They will also be spending one to one time with each participant business.

Outcomes for dbTwang? I got something special from it - being the only founder there with an investor and non-exec director (Fintan my co-founder stays mainly on the guitar industry side as that is his core area). 2 days immersion was a great environment. Tangibly by Friday of last week we had strongly refined the value proposition we will be using for the next 6 months or so and using that same refinement to focus our operational execution.

Well worth it - and all participants agreed. From a group who would not be tolerant of having 2 days wasted that is saying something :-)

Thanks to all who put it together.

keith

Barcamp Cork One Week Away - 23 great topics so far

I wanted to go to this barcamp. I booked to go to it - as an attendee and speaker. But now have to pull as have been invited to the Irish Software Association awards this day week in Dublin.

I know there are many of you who would dance till dawn in Dublin and then trek to Cork. My grumpy arsed body is not able for that - not without destroying my ability to do actual work for a day or two.

So I have pulled out and would implore you to go in my place. Book here.

keith

The speaker lineup for your information:

Name	Talk/Session/Tutorial
Bernie Goldbach	Notes from a Failed Entrepreneur
Simon Whelband	Subject TBC (but likely something to do with Outsourcing and the challenges it presents)
Randy Jordan	Talk about anything Database, Present Home DIY Web server, Demo @fleetthoughts, @querynet Twitter Bots, Suggest @ideaforecasting at ideaforecasting.com
AJ Mckee	May do a talk on the trials of raising a mil then loosing it.
Niall Harbison	Happy to give a talk on anything that is needed on the day. Video possibly?
David Behan	I’ll probably do a talk about our experience in the IQ Prize – from the idea, to the business plan, to the presentation – what we learned, what we’d do different, what we have gotten out of the experience, and how you could do it next year and win!
Donagh Kiernan	Technology Partnerships
Una Coleman	Marketing Strategies for Start-ups and Entrepreneurs
Martha Rotter	Robotics or Multi-Touch
Paul Sweeney	Connection 2.0: Communicating with Customers After the Web
Barry Walsh	I could present a quick one on importing from the East and getting it to market, clean technology basics, realities and future opportunites
Fegus O’Rourke	Defamation and being careful about what you say online
Paul Lee	Will be happy to facilitate a talk/ demo about Google SketchUp, Google Earth, Google Apps.
Sabrina Dent	Talk: Stalinist Web Design: Throwing Client Collaboration Out the Window
Donncha O’ Caoimh	How WP Super Cache Works
Elaine Rogers	Would love to give a talk/lead a discussion on subjects such as time management, stress management for the small business owner, and create a discussion around what works in terms of support systems, getting paid, networking, social media etc
John Handelaar	How (and why) KildareStreet is porting a million-row-DB app to Django without changing the existing DB *at all*
Joe Lennon	I would like to give a talk/presentation introducing CouchDB – an upcoming open-source database management system. I am the author of “Beginning CouchDB”. I intend the talk to include a brief overview of what CouchDB is, how it’s different from traditional databases, what cool features it has and who’s using it to do what.
Conor O’Neill	Hope to talk about OpenStreetMaps
Keith Bohanna	dbTwang – the more we do, the more we learn. Sharing our mistakes and our constant battle to focus on the key stuff that will make us successful
Mike Butler	Seeing an iPhone application idea through to the Apple app store.
Phoebe Bright	A talk on ‘Jumpstart’, the grouping together of experienced professionals to help businesses begin or reinvigorate their online presence
John Hardiman	I could give a small presesntation on top 10 technology mistakes for small businesses and how to avoid them??
Paul O’Mahony	Mental Health – the value of madness in development of the entrepreneurial spirit
Tamas Nagy	Erlang for Five Nines. It would cover Erlang’s history, what it can do, how it does it and where it is used.

Winning International Business - 18th Nov

We are in the thick of seminar and conference season and this one is right on topic having just come away from 2 days on the very first iGAP programme.

Event Date : 18 Nov 2009

Time : 9am to1pm

Location : Radisson BLU Royal Dublin Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8

This half day conference will show you how to grow your business internationally, increase your revenues and use the internet to expand into new markets cost effectively.

Overview

Right now international trade is more important than ever for Irish businesses to generate revenue steams. Your website can help you target, acquire and grow international business not only cost effectively but profitably. One overseas customer can steadily develop an international revenue stream.

This conference will help you maximise the potential of your website to trade internationally. Learn from some of Ireland's most successful business leaders and network with others who have profitably expanded internationally or who face the same challenges you do.

More information and booking here.

keith

Upcoming conferences, one with 25% discount code

In Ireland - Content is King, from their site:

This is a conference for anybody who wants to learn exciting new things about how to create winning websites, viral movies, compelling blogs, and outstanding podcasts.

It is sponsored by the Guinness Storehouse, where the conference will be held, and chaired by leading Irish journalist John Murray, presenter of ‘The Business’ show on RTE Radio One.

We have an inspiring mix of international and domestic speakers who will be giving excellent presentations and engaging in lively panel discussions.

We'll be looking at several successful viral videos, and exploring what it is that gives them that viral ‘je ne sais quoi’. We will be getting an insight into the story of the T-Mobile Liverpool Street Dance, from Ben Robinson of Freud Communications, who led the creative team which made it.

Full information and booking here.

In the US - The Audience Conference, from their site:

Audience is a conference aimed at those who recognise the need to reach engage and influence audiences of all kinds, an investigation into how this is changing, and a look at how technology has in the past and is now, through new media tools and the social web, changing audience participation and interaction.

The speakers range from large traditional media organisations with Dan Farber of CBS, though the recording industry with Warner Bros. Music CTO Ethan Kaplan, advertising with Crayon's Joe Jaffe, HR and internal audiences with Frank Roche of iFractal and new media players like Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, not to mention Musicians like Adam & Mia and Writers like the inimitable Andrew Keen of "Cult of the Amateur" fame with more being added all the time.

Full information and booking here. Use Anton when booking and get a 25% discount :-)

keith

Email Marketing veteran tells us how tomorrow

Denise Cox has been working with email newsletters for as long as I have been using the internet.

She is featured prominently in the IIA's Email Newsletter training course tomorrow. Details and booking here.

9.30: 7 Critical Steps to Maximising Your ROI from Email - denise cox, Newsletter Specialist, Newsweaver

Email offers one of the highest ROI channels available to marketers. They can help customer retention rates, as well as convert prospective customers. Learn the key strategies to increasing readership and engagement; including the use of compelling content, testing, design and smart segmentation to stand out in the inbox - and get opened.

10.15: Case Study - The Challenges of a Successful Email Marketing Campaign - Irene Gahan, European Head of Marketing & Operations, RehabBingo.com

Irene considers email to be the "life blood of our organisation". Irene will take attendees through the challenges she faced in implementing and running a hugely successful email marketing programme at RehabBingo.com - Ireland's favorite online bingo site. She'll take attendees through the challenges and decision making process, including: design, copy writing and crafting calls to action that achieve results, as well as how she uses metrics to benchmark and improve on campaign successes.

11.00-11.30: BREAK

11.30: Data Protection Guidelines: Email Do's and Don'ts - Gary Davis, Deputy Data Protection Commissioner

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner outlines some easy guidelines for consumer and business email campaigns to ensure that you get the best return on your campaign. Gary will touch on opt-out and opt-in requirements, storage of email addresses as well as unsubscribe best practice.

12.00: Anatomy of an email newsletter - denise cox, Newsletter Specialist, Newsweaver

A timely, targeted and relevant email newsletter is one of the most powerful and effective communication channels available to you to stay in touch with customers and prospects. This session will provide tips and examples of the must-have elements in email newsletters that generate readers and revenue. The session covers what gets you delivered, opened, read, clicked and forwarded. Plus how to generate new subscribers ... and encourage sales.

12.30: Panel Q&A - your chance to ask all your questions

13.00: CLOSE

Keith

(disclosure: I am on the board of the IIA)

Toyota IQ mid Term Review

Been living with the Toyota IQ for a couple of months now so time for a review of the inside of the car.

(for irregular readers I am one of 4 bloggers who won the use of the baby auto for 5 months in return for blogging about it).

Lets start with the boot because this is probably the biggest space saving in the car.

 

That is not an optical illusion. The car handbook shows you the size of the rear storage space. It will hold a briefcase, a largish handbag or a couple of books. But not at the same time. We have travelled as a family (2 adults, 2 kids under 12) for a weekend and it involved the passenger in the front with knee loads of stuff.

The 1.5 rear seats (as Toyota refer to them). Look kinda ok don't they?

Until you see the one behind the drivers seat with the seat back.

 

You can also see in this photo the rear wheel arch pushing up into the rear seat space - and the tiny window which adds to the prison cell feeling! I presume that (small window) is for making the car stronger?

Some shots of details:

 

The only controls for the radio are these two round objects on the steering wheel. And they are impossible to get at when it is anything other than straight (ie if you wanted to turn radio off/down on a slight bend). Directly behind is the digital display which gives time, petrol, KM done and Radio/CD information. Compact.

In the more expensive model this display is more useful apparently - in the IQ I have it is a monumental waste of space relative to the work gone into the rest of the design housing just a couple of warning lights.

Finally a shot of the front with both seats back - as most intended the car would just be used by one or two people.

In this guise it works really well - as referred to previously there is no compromise in the driving position and that continues to amaze people who sit into it.

keith

South East Event Manager Required - Part Time

From a friend last night, could be interesting for someone with an events background:

Event Manager

The Green Party wishes to employ a part-time Event Manager from November 2009 to March 2010. This role carries responsibility for the organisation of the party’s Annual Convention in Waterford from 26th to 28th March 2010.

It will average 2 days or 14 hours per week over the period.

Requirements

• Experience in the organisation of major events.
• Strong organisation skills and an ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Must be a team player, committed to Green Party values.

Applications

Further information on the position and an application form are available on our website www.greenparty.ie

Completed application forms must be returned by 5pm on Friday 30th October

Keith

Our first dbTwang screen cast

Fintan uploaded this to youtube earlier this afternoon - our first general intro to dbTwang and the initial functionality it offers to people who love guitars - everyone from enthusiasts to collectors.

The beta continues to be delayed by one last bug which needs to be sorted before we launch - it could cause the misplacing of data in guitar fields.

keith

Busy & Behind

I am extremely busy right now - consequently rejigging how I organise myself and my workflows.

If you need to get to me and I am not answering - resend the email, text me, whatever you need to do. Nothing personal just backed up.

keith

Startup Metrics for Pirates - AARRR

Dave mcClure is good, this is his talk from FOWA London

Startup Metrics for Pirates (FOWA London, Oct 2009)

View more presentations from Dave McClure.

keith

David Prager, Revision 3 #fowa

David was a TV producer, now online tv

They make money by creating custom content and having it sponsored.

Focus on a absolute core of a subset of a demographic
Key to a niche is a community
Facebook, started based on a niche as was digg

Referred to Skimble - a community for rock climbers
Opportunity - to subset to Runners, Gym Enthusiasts....

Quality and depth of content is vitally important

Gary Vaynerchuk - his business inspired by the community around collection of baseball cards
Technology enables the creation of something for existing communities which could not be done before

He then spoke about community sites which are advertising supported. This means lifestyle mostly and fmcg i guess.

keith

Mike McDerment, Freshbooks #fowa

Mike is the co-founder and CEO of Freshbooks and he explained that he was doing a marketing/business talk rather than tech.

Background:

• Built Freshbooks in his parents basement
• No institutional investment
• 1M users since May 2004
• 30plus employees
• They use Freemium business model

He says build as little as possible and launch. But do include a tracking system. He explained a bit more.

Standard conversion Funnel

100 visitors to your site
10 sign up to use your service
1 pays for it


To track this you need to design and implement a marketing system

• Tracking system
• Storage system
• Reporting system

What to track in a cookie
- ref url
- keyword phrase
- landing url
- referring domain

Store your marketing info with your user profile

Report - query and dump in sortable column.

Key point again - build this tracking into V1. It gives you vital information upon which to base decisions  - and communicate externally what is working and not working for you.

Q - most important thing ever done to increase conversion rate
A - easy to increase trials but conversion plummets. He could not name one specifically for converting trials to paying customers which stood out. 

Q - average customer value, average retention value
A - He would not say :-)

Kevin Rose #fowa

Kevin Rose/Dig

• Twitter - one way and really simple
• Digg - leader board - worked really well, top people got uber icons
• • [in dbTwang we could use this for comments, guitars, group activity]
• Focus on 2 or 3 things - stop overbuilding features
• Build & Release, stop thinking you understand your users
• Hack the press - invite only. Give beta invites to key bloggers
• • Hit up junior bloggers, not the top names (they are too busy)
• Attend parties for events/conferences you cannot afford
• Connect with your community, recommended a podcast
• Build a group of advisors around you
• Look at Farmville - they are really, really good at what they do
• wefollow - autotweets worked well
• Look at what you can offer 3rd party sites
• Take a step back and look at the overall picture

- users

- create content

- this creates traffic

- 3rd party sites

Q - do you punish people who are gaming the top rank table

A - no, a lot of time they do not know they are doing it, or they are over enthuastic.

Q - has Digg ever paid for "traditional marketing"

A - no

Q - digg user demographics

A - started 95% male, 18-34. Broadened to 65% male

Just in (via Web2Ireland) - welcome changes to CEB grants approach

Thanks to Conor O'Neill for this - lifted straight from the Web2 Ireland blog:

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms. Mary Coughlan, T.D., has today announced new initiatives aimed at supporting the development of new businesses and fostering an entrepreneurial culture in Ireland. New financial supports, consisting of a Priming Grant, a Business Expansion Grant and a Feasibility/Innovation Grant will replace the existing Capital, Employment and Feasibility Grants being operated by the County & City Enterprise Boards (CEBs).

The Tánaiste announced that she has approved a significant broadening of the financial supports that the CEBs can offer their client businesses. The effect of the move is to broaden the scope of the start up and development costs that can be assisted. As a result of these changes, supports will now be available for all legitimate business costs directly attributable to starting a new business, or growing and developing a business, rather than being restricted to asset acquisition.

Look forward to details - but hopefully it will make the grant structures and process more relevant to how a lot of businesses operate now.

keith

Internet Growth Acceleration Programme Launches

From their blog:

Tuesday 29th September 2009.

The IGA and Enterprise Ireland are delighted to announce the launch of the Internet Growth Acceleration Programme. This is a new multi-module programme for Irish Internet businesses that wish to grow internationally. It runs over six months allowing participants to complete a deep and intensive review of their internet businesses, resulting in a finale at which each participant will make a pitch to some of the IGA advisors who have pledged to refund the fees for at least four of the participants! Download the pdf here.

The programme has been developed and is being run by Enterprise Ireland - see http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/igap for the application process. Press Release is here.

International and local instructors will be involved as will the business advisors from the IGA giving participants the chance to network with both experienced and emerging internet entrepreneurs. Competition for places on this programme is likely to be intensive and interested candidates are advised to apply as soon as possible. Download the full details here.

dbTwang will be going for a place - will you?

keith

Old Fashioned Sweet Shops

One of the businesses attending my Social Media workshop this morning is the Slip Sweet Shop.

They are modelled on the sweet shops of your memory with jars of sweets lining the shelves and some old fashioned brand names on the counter.

Personally I would prefer to see it jammed to the ceiling with no space left for anything other than candy - but you cannot have everything.

Active on Facebook to - you can see their business page here.

keith

Social media talk - new slide inspired by (THE) John Keyes

Today I am fortunate to be working. Hacking my way through 21 legal docs relating to various aspects of the previous and soon to be current dbTwang funding rounds, collaborating on a 38 page training tender document and writing a 3 hour social media presentation.

In the middle of it all had a quick chat with John Keyes and from that comes a large text slide for the workshop tomorrow.

Context - business and social networks

If you do not make an effort to help people you will get back SFA

Thanks John :-)

keith

Help required - can you leave a Sidewiki entry for me?

For any users of Google Sidewiki can you assist by going to http://www.kceb.ie/financial-assistance and leaving an entry.

Want to use it as an example in a workshop I am doing tomorrow.

thanks, keith

Vodafone 360, could be stickier than an unlocked iPhone. Beware!

This is one number which is getting worked heavily this year - U2's tour is the 360 and now Vodafone using it to name their upcoming new service (shame they are not Blackberry 'cause then there would have been synergy).

I was invited (along with a bunch of other bloggers and journo's) to the launch on Thursday. To be honest this was a kinda day off for me - the previous weekend was shrunk by bizcamp and I have one day off over the 2 weekends coming up. So I happily went to Dublin, met up with John Keyes for coffee and then we strolled along Stephens Green to the poshiness that is Bentleys.

Vodafone 360 is a combined service with 3D view which will be deployed across most/all phones. Have a look at the video from Channelship which they shot at the event.

3D, sync contacts with social networks, status updates, location services and apps. My initial impression (and each of us will be getting a phone with the service to use in depth so more then) is that this is a very sticky service which could work as well as an unlocked iPhone does to bind you into a service provider. Yummy for Vodafone :-)

Not available yet - a month or two away.

keith

Helping us to feel good about ourselves - from IT article on bizcamp

Cross post from www.bizcamp.ie

Written by Ian Campell who spent a couple of hours at the event last Saturday it captures the mood really nicely.

Full article linked here.

Extracts:

PUTTING ANY talk of recession to one side, about 300 budding entrepreneurs gathered at BizCamp in Dublin last Saturday to soak up free advice that ranged from no-nonsense business planning to more esoteric ideas on what it takes to succeed.

From number-crunching to brain-training, Adrian Avendano hosted a session on using the two sides of your brain, but it was not always motivational. “If you’re going to do a start-up, you’re going to fail,” he said. “Fact. The thing is to get over it.”

Next door, it was less about sides of the brain and more about using your brain at all. “We seldom see a clear description of a product,” said Enterprise Ireland’s David Lucy, in an instructive talk on the common pitfalls in business plans.

Not just about presentations, BizCamp is a day when delegates have the opportunity to network among themselves. It is hard to imagine anywhere outside of singles club where introductions and personal details are exchanged with such speed and enthusiasm.

The mood was defiantly upbeat. It was the second event the BizCamp organisers have run this year and with the help of its sponsors, two more are planned for 2010, something that will be enthusiastically welcomed judging by the comments of one delegate.

“This is the kind of event the country needs,” he said. “It helps us to feel good about ourselves again.”

Thanks Ian!

Keith

Bizcamp - as many presentation as we could find

Alan O'Rourke did a great job gathering as many of the talks, blog posts etc as he could find for the day.

See them in this post here.

keith

Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin for business. Free workshop in Kilkenny

I would never, ever consider myself an expert on social media. But I do enjoy it, watch it and learn from others regularly.

The benefit of that (together with 3 real casestudies who will be there to share their experience) is FOC in Kilkenny on Tuesday 29th Sept in Days Hotel Kilkenny thanks to Kilkenny CEB.

Their online booking form is linked here. 45 already booked in - dead fashionable this stuff.

Formal blurb: In this workshop we will cover blogging, twitter, facebook, linkedin and youtube showing you the relationship between them, where they might fit in your sales and marketing strategy and how you can make decisions on which one to give time to.

Let me know if you are going to be there :-)

keith

Well done on TC50 Joe and Eamon of Cloudsplit.com

Quick one to say well done to Joe Drumgoole and Eamon Leonard who spent a very productive week in San Francisco at Techcrunch 50 with cloudsplit.com - it will monitor your Cost of Cloud use. Here is a quick video interview with the lads.

CloudSplit from Mike Butcher on Vimeo.

Looking forward to watching them develop this service.

keith

Bad news - IQ wheels not too small for a clamp

Thomas St yesterday morning just after 8am.

Group of us having breakfast in advance of bizcamp.

David Scanlon looks out window and says "har, har - someone is getting clamped"

I look out the window (behind me) and say "Dave you *&%$**, that is me"

Out I go, quick chat (I was in the wrong) pay the fine, clamper hangs around for 2 mins and unclamps, and I finish breakfast. Keith Shirley has captured the moment for me.

Feck :-(

keith

dbTwang welcomes Colm Lyon on board as we close a follow-on round

Thanks to Gordon Smith (and John Collins in the background) for the nicely written article in the Irish Times today. It was triggered by our closing a follow on Angel Round in the last couple of weeks bringing our total to date to just under 200k.

The great news which accompanies that is the participation of Colm Lyon (of Realex Payments) in the round. He is also going to act as an adviser to us as we move to take advantage of the ongoing interest in dbTwang to accelerate a couple of the business strategies which are important to us. He will compliment Gerry McQuaid really nicely.

• Thanks to each of the existing and new investors - this is a leap of faith and we as co-founders are really aware of that.
• Thanks to Kilkenny CEB and Enterprise Ireland for their ongoing support (and no - we did not ask EI to participate in this round. Holding that for the big one early next year :-) )
• Final thanks from me personally to all of the other startup founders and CEO's who are there to support me. Bizcamp tomorrow is one of the ways in which I am trying to repay that support.

keith

Extracts from the article:

A NEW Irish-based social network hopes to help guitar collectors find out whether their battered Strat was once gripped by Rory Gallagher, or whether Jimmy Page’s fingers ever danced across the frets of an old Gibson Les Paul.

Called dbTwang, the site aims to become a trusted place on the web where players and collectors can keep information about their guitars securely, over time building a history for their instruments, be they electric, acoustic or bass.

The site will use a “freemium” business model, where many services will cost nothing, and other exclusive features will be available only to paying subscribers. Data from the US suggest the conversion rate to paying users is between 3-8 per cent of a site’s total audience, Mr Bohanna said.