Category: Drew’s Articles

4 Questions 4 Every Entrepreneur

Posted on by Drew Neisser

After three years of refining BookDirectTM, a hotel reservation search engine used by DMO’s (Destination Marketing Organizations), Andrew Van Luchene knew his little company, JackRabbit Systems, had reached the moment of truth. In early 2010, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the largest and most visible DMOs in the country, was suddenly interested in BookDirect.  If JackRabbit could land this business, success was virtually assured. In this case, what happens in Vegas would be heard not just around the country, but also around the world.

Van Luchene did win the Las Vegas DMO and went on to double sales in 2010.  He also expects to triple to quadruple sales in 2011 given the company’s current momentum.  Born during one of the worst travel slumps in decades and self-funded, JackRabbit is by no means an overnight success story.  Its success is the story of perseverance and experience, yielding in the process five questions every entrepreneur should ask themselves before they land their make or break account.

Have you worked out the product kinks?

While every small company dreams of winning the marquee client early on, the truth is that winning it too early can overwhelm a product or service that has not been sufficiently tested from multiple aspects.  In the case of Book Direct, Van Luchene and his team had first created the reservation service as a project for the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau, where his company is based.  Noted Van Luchene, “We were just solving it for Santa Fe with the hopes that if we could do it in one tourist-based market that it would work in others.”

But the initial solution according to Van Luchene was not quite right, “I initially put up a Travelocity white label service. We had 30,000 people use it in a month and we only sold $12,000 worth of rooms so I knew something was wrong.”  Eighteen months later, “we figured out consumers were going to the city site because they didn’t want to book with a middle man but rather directly with the hotel,” an insight that led to critical changes to the service itself.  Noted a delighted Van Luchene, “the problem that we solved for Santa Fe just happened to be a problem that resonates pretty much everywhere in the world.”

Is your revenue model right?

When starting a new company in an existing industry, the temptation is to seek revenue in the conventional fashion.  This was certainly the case with JackRabbit’s BookDirect system.  Aggregating availability and pricing data from local hotels, BookDirect initially charged on a cost-per-click basis for leads passed to participating hotels.  This approach initially seemed acceptable to the DMO’s since it limited it their upfront investment and distributed the costs to the hotels that received the most benefit.  But when tourism dropped off with the economic downturn, that approach left JackRabbit quite vulnerable.

Noted Van Luchene, “it was very painful and we had a year of reinventing our business.”  Rather than charge each hotel by reservation lead, Book Direct began leasing its reservation search engine directly to the DMO’s.  Explained Van Luchene, “now we had a great business because government tourism departments pay for the software and we list all of the hotels, who now get a huge benefit at no cost,” this in turn justifies the existence of the DMO and the membership fees they typically charge each hotel.  This new model also gave BookDirect a competitive advantage since the DMO was far more inclined to promote the service.

Are you focused more on the sizzle than the steak?

After tasting a little success, many entrepreneurs turn on the marketing hype, sometimes at the expense of their core product.  This is definitely not the case for JackRabbit Systems, whose website is a modest effort at best and marketing is a blank on the org chart.  “We’re like the shoemaker’s son who doesn’t get to wear shoes; we put all our time into making our client sites work well and look beautiful,” noted a somewhat chagrined Van Luchene.

Van Luchene went on to explain that his particular service is dependent on sales people who use their client sites, not his site to showcase the company.  “What they need from me is to put my reputation on the line by delivering a product that works,” offered Van Luchene.  He also noted that given the small size of his industry where “[the DMOs] all know and listen to each other, making my current customers happy is the best selling I can do.”

Is your organization scalable?

One of the biggest tests for entrepreneurs facing rapid growth is scalability across the organization.  After several years of preparation, Van Luchene’s team at JackRabbit was indeed ready to scale.  First, having tested the product with several DMO’s, they had already gone through the process of integrating 114 unique hotel reservation systems.  This meant that the Book Direct could be up and running for Las Vegas in under two months and add other markets with equal rapidity.

From a staffing perspective, JackRabbit relies on a virtual organizational structure with only half of the full-time employees actually working at the Santa Fe headquarters. “Everybody else is distributed all over the country since I can’t necessarily find all the programming talent in Santa Fe to do this,” explained Van Luchene.  Having learned to manage far-flung staff including a sales force that is essentially outsourced to local market media reps, JackRabbit expects to scale without the usual management and technology hiccups, growing from 6 percent to 25-30 percent share of market in the next 12-24 months.

Final Note: Not one to rest on his laurels, Van Luchene knows exactly what’s next for his company, readying a mobile solution that will allow visitors to survey their options and then complete the booking on a call directly with the hotel, a surprisingly simple solution that consumers are likely to embrace and one leaving little question about the future success of JackRabbit. This article first appeared on FastCompany.com

How To Build an Effective Social Media Program

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Given the rapidly changing nature of social media, it is not surprising that most marketers treated their 2010 activities like straw houses, unsophisticated structures with little hope of surviving much less gaining traction with consumers. Aghast at the resources consumed with limited impact, marketers are now seeking a more sophisticated if not durable approach. To address this challenge, here is Renegade’s Social Media Success Pyramid (see detailed illustration here), with guidance on how to build an effective and enduring program brick by brick. (Note 1: This article appeared on MediaPost early this week so you can stop here if you read that. Note 2: This is a topline overview with details on each section to be added soon enough.)

Establish your Foundation
Having a solid foundation that includes these five essential planning elements doesn’t guarantee success but it sure as heck increases the odds:

  • Audit: A comprehensive review of competitive activity, best practices, internal risk tolerance and input from all possible stakeholders. In addition to gathering critical data, the audit serves to engage management and foster cross-departmental consensus, both of which are essential to long-term success.
  • Brand voice: In all likelihood, your interns should not be the voice of your brand. Defining your brand voice takes the same strategic discipline as any other marketing effort and should result in not just identifying who can represent the brand but also establishing a clear and differentiated point-of-view.
  • Resources: Despite rumors to the contrary, social media is not free. It consumes mass quantities of time for listening, responding, creating, monitoring and reporting. Resources, whether internal and or external, need to be dedicated. Ideally these resources have experience getting things done across all the departments social can and does touch.
  • Product News: The old adage, “nothing kills a bad product faster than a great ad campaign” applies doubly to social media. If your product or service is not as good as it could be, either fix this first or make this the goal of your social activities. If your product is already highly competitive, then it will be still worth bringing something new to the party since social thrives around news.
  • Road Map: With all these other building blocks in place, you can now prepare a clear road map, defining overall social media goals, setting priorities by channel and establishing key performance indices. A good road map should also include test elements as well as potential risks along with a roll-out schedule for selected tactics.

Create the Blueprint
With the foundation in place, we move closer to execution by creating a strong blueprint including these four critical steps:

  • Design: Whether you are a billion dollar brand or an ambitious start-up, design never stops mattering. Even if it’s “just a Facebook page,” look for an aesthetic that is consistent, engaging and clearly your own.
  • Keyword Research: With the search engines now tracking Facebook and Twitter, the link between SEO performance and social activity is growing stronger by the day. Make sure you know the keywords that matter.
  • Editorial Calendar: Based on your keyword research, map out an “editorial calendar” that defines what content needs to be created, who will create it, where it will run first and how it will be amplified via social channels.
  • Disaster Plan: Since the fit just might hit the shan when you least expect it, do yourself a favor and outline a few what if scenarios and potential responses. Even if nothing bad ever happens, you’ll sleep a lot better.

Gather your Materials

Moving up the pyramid, its time to gather all your materials and execute with earnest.  In the process, you’ll want to focus on these three areas:

  • Analytics: With so many free and paid measurement tools available, measuring what matters is easier said than done.  You’ll need to work with pros to figure out what’s right for your situation.
  • Content: The center building block of a strong social program, content is indeed king.  Make sure your content is engaging, enlightening and or entertaining, representing your brand in all its glory.
  • Channels & Hub: Since context goes hand in hand with content, choose your channels carefully based on your target and the quality of your content.  Also, to optimize the SEO potential, archive your social content, especially Facebook and Twitter feeds on a “hub” within your website.

Measure your Progress

Since the goal of any business is to acquire and retain customers, to be taken seriously, social media must play a role in both of these areas.  Thus the penultimate building blocks of a successful social program are the following:

  • SEO Improvements: With the right content in the right places being shared by the right people, a comprehensive social program will yield improved SEO results over time as long as you remember to set benchmarks at the start.
  • Leads & Referrals:  While listening can yield leads and referrals can occur naturally, integrating social content into your CRM program will significantly enhance overall impact.  

Reap the Rewards

Ascending the social media pyramid is not an easy affair but it is certainly worth the trip.  Hard-earned consumer trust will be rewarded with increased loyalty, stronger word-of-mouth, higher value per customer, lower cost per acquisition and even lower churn rates.  You may even start measuring CPE or cost per engagement, given the relatively low cost of engaging fans once acquired on Facebook and Twitter.   Knowing that the original pyramids weren’t built in a day but have lasted 4,000 years, think about your social program as a permanent part of your go to market strategy and enjoy the view from the top.

Social Media Success Pyramid

View more presentations from Renegade.

Are You Sure You Want to be an Entrepreneur?

Posted on by Drew Neisser

On the orders of Spain’s Queen Isabella to bring back riches, Christopher Columbus set out for uncharted waters in 1492. While discovering vast new lands assured his place in posterity, Columbus’s real triumph was uncovering vast beds of oyster pearls off the coast of Venezuela, a rare natural gem that the queen coveted beyond all else. The “pearl rush” that Columbus started way back when is not unlike the rush to entrepreneurship underway today, a surprising outcome in a challenging time.

And more to the point, the beloved pearl provides a lustrous metaphor for the joys and pressures of entrepreneurship, something I’ve discovered personally and as a result of recent interviews with the founders of four start-ups. Though each of the entrepreneurs I interviewed offered pearls of wisdom worthy of an entire article, this provides a deeper dive into the collective mindset of entrepreneurs, especially the type of founder that is prepared to bootstrap their company from inception to market introduction.

It takes an irritant to get started

OpenInvoWhile the proverbial “grain of sand” is a myth according to Wikipedia, it does take “an irritating microscopic object [to become] trapped within the mollusk’s mantle folds” for a pearl to get started. For entrepreneurs, the irritant can be as simple as personality type. According to Emily Lutzker, the founder of OpenInvo, an innovative resource for idea generators, “I only had one ‘real job’ once and was told I was disruptive in the workplace,” thus necessitating her entrepreneurial journey.

BennuSometimes the irritant hits the founder personally. Ashok Kamal, founder of Bennu, explained that, “like any good business, the idea behind Bennu was born out of a problem–the obscene amount of garbage being dumped into landfills.” Jeff Stier, got the idea for the voice tagging utility called Blurts after a voice message from his daughter was annoyingly and irretrievably deleted. And Jesse Middleton, founder of GetMinders, a service that reminds people when to take their medicines, got the idea when thinking about his grandfather who has Parkinson’s and the toll it was taking on him and his family.

Growth usually requires outside help

It was the rarity of natural pearls that made Columbus’s discovery so important in the 15th Century. Today, more than 99% of the pearls sold are the result of human intervention through a 20th Century process known as cultivation. Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs are almost always dependent on the help of outside resources, both in terms of capital and expertise. What is surprising is how many boot-strappers find those resources close to home from friends and family. Noted a grateful Lutzker, “I didn’t ask for money, [friends and family] volunteered.”

GetMindersOutside help also comes in the form of advisers who can add layers of experience. Offered Bennu’s Kamal “You can avoid a lot of unnecessary mistakes by establishing an advisory board from the outset.” “It’s easy to neglect this task in favor of immediate concerns but once we recruited seasoned and candid advisers, Bennu become much more efficient and productive,” added Kamal. In Jesse Middleton’s case the critical advice was more home grown, as his “wife gave [him] a kick in the ass to really get the ball rolling!”

Success has its own measurement scale

As long-time leaders in the pearl trade and the first to patent a cultivation process, the Japanese also established the unique weight measurement scale for pearls known as momme. For modern day entrepreneurs, measures of success tend toward the benevolent, hoping that their products and services make the world a better place. Explained Lutzker, “I’m a bit of an idealist and I want to live in a world that fosters and rewards things that make us human and celebrates our differences.” Added Middleton, “getting our product in the hands of millions that need to remember to take their medicines would be pretty amazing for us.”

BlurtsMany entrepreneurs share the ability to see beyond the making of their first “pearl,” measuring success in terms of helping others grow their own. Offered Kamal, “I hope the business will outgrow its founders so at that point, personal success would mean being in a position to help aspiring entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams.” Similarly, Middleton noted, “I’d like make it to a point where I can invest in other’s ideas that can make the world a better place.” Added Lutzker, laced with the irony that bedevils boot-strappers, “I’d like to think that success is still a starting point, not only a result.”

You still have to beat the odds

Naturally occurring pearls of a decent size are literally one in million. Columbus and Co had to harvest hundreds upon hundreds of oysters in the West Indies just to find a single pearl worthy of their faire queen. So it is with start-ups, hundreds are conceived while few achieve notable success. Beating these odds takes an indomitable spirit. Explained Stier, “if you’re not passionate and pigheaded about what you believe in even when everyone is a naysayer, you’ll never get it done.”

Kamal took this a step further, suggesting that entrepreneurs needed to be more than thick-shelled, “I’d subject the [would be entrepreneur] to a psychological exam to ensure that they are just crazy enough to start business.” Acknowledging the ups and downs, comes with the territory. Noted a cash-challenged Stier, “the depressing moments have to be outweighed by the moments of joy, like knowing we’ve birthed something from our mind that other people are talking about.” Concluded an undaunted Lutzker, “Yeah, sure I knew it would be hard–when are worthwhile things not hard?”

Final Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I became a bit of a pearl diver myself when I agreed to help Jeff Stier with the launch of Blurts.com. For you angel investors out there, I’ve recorded this Blurts for you Click on the following links for the complete interviews with Lutzker, Kamal, Middleton, and Stier.

The Ups and Downs of Being an Entrepreneur

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Why did you want to be an entrepreneur in the first place?
My career started in a creative corporate environment, the advertising world.  But  the idea of someone monitoring and curating my ideas didn’t sit well with me. I wanted to run with my ideas and figure out for myself if they were good or bad; not have someone else tell me.

Where did the idea for Blurts first come from?
I was working hard at a major ad agency and not seeing my kids a lot.  They kept leaving voice mail messages for me, and I kept saving the ones I thought were really special like: “Daddy, I know you couldn’t be here but I scored my first goal today.” One day I went to play one of my favorite saved messages for my wife but it was gone, eaten by the voicemail devils.   Losing that voicemail stabbed my heart emotionally much like losing the only picture I owned of my beloved dog growing up. At the moment of that loss I realized that under the right circumstances and as told by the right person—- a voice mail or a voice memory, or a blurt— was as important a media for saving and sharing memories  as text, photo or video.

What does it really take to be an entrepreneur?
The three P’s:  passion, persistence and patience.

Did you have any major pivots?
I’ve evolved the business model at least three times in response to market direction and consumer behavioral shirts.  Because I was at JWT I was as the forefront of the convergence of brand story telling and user generated content. I thought to myself what better way for brands to encourage consumers to be part of the online conversation then by suing their voices.  By letting them literally be heard.  This was a major moment for us.  Also the concurrent rise of mobile and social media which has created an online environment in which millions of people want to share everything including their voice and opinions.

Talk to me about the challenges of raising that first round of money
The first round was the easiest in many ways. It was an emotional appeal to friends and family. They were mostly older and I said you’re at an age when you’re starting to look back and understand what your life story and history was. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could easily tell that story in your own voice and have it preserved for generations to listen to?  That struck a cord.

Give me a sense of the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur
Not everyone has the immediate emotional connection with Blurts that I want them to because Blurts is my baby.  I hate when they give me a blank stare which means they just don’t get it.   This happens all the time in money raising to. Every high net worth individual, VC or angel has their own point of view.  Sometime I’ll have a meeting one day and the potential investor rails on the model for X reason.  The next day in a different meeting a different potential investor LOVES X.  This drives me crazy.  Can everyone please just make up their minds and get on the same page?!

Is there a moment as an entrepreneur, where you say “What am I doing?”
I have a moment like that almost every day. To keep going forward those moments have to be balanced by moments of exultation which we are lucky to have our share of.  For example, a couple of weeks ago the  #1 video news site in France ran a two minute story on Blurts.  They get 19mm unique monthly viewers in the US and over 50 mm globally. When we saw that we were like “wow!, we’ve birthed something, from scratch that people are talking about. Without those moments I think many entrepreneurs would be jumping off cliffs.

There’s a lot of angst. A lot of time, effort and thinking invested into the business.  There are people you inevitably disappoint along the way and you try to limit those. But no matter what happens you have to stubbornly stick to the vision because if you didn’t have stubborn visionaries you would never get past the naysayers and the bumps along the way.  I have to say that life during a company’s early growth is not the most pleasant or healthiest  way to live.

Did you have any epiphanies along the way?

I remember the CEO [Note to reader: that would be me] of our agency  walking into the room one day after we had been through meeting after meeting and  he said, “it’s not easy making something simple.” If you’re going to build a utility like blurts make it stupid simple.  In the end we did that.  We spent a lot of time and effort that I wouldn’t take that back for anything in the world. Because everyone talks about how easy it is to use  blurts to infuse passion and nuance into flat unemotional tweets. photos, texts, emails and more.

What’s next?
We’re at a tipping point:  great reviews, fantastic and expanding partner base, and  growing usage.  We’re looking for the next level of financial partners. Strategics who not only bring money but also experience, relationships and a passion for disruption and change.  Partners who share our vision for building a global open mike and soapbox that makes it easy for everyone to be heard in the social sphere…with the texture, tone and authenticity of their own voice.

Start-Up Service Connecting People With Their Medical Reminders

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This is the transcript from my interview with Jesse Middleton, founder of GetMinders, a start-up service that hopes to make missing your meds a thing of the past.

What is GetMinders?
GetMinders connects people with their medical reminders, their medical professionals and their families/support networks all via a quick phone call or text message. Our system calls patients to remind them to take their meds, get to their appointments or do their therapy and then offers to connect them with all of the above people to help keep them compliant, happy and healthy.

We’ve been running a super early pilot and the feedback has been amazing so far. We now have a private beta launched that is making over 350 calls per week and we’re really excited to continue to grow the company, build the product and gain more advice and feedback throughout the industry and from people like you.

Where did the idea for your business come from?
While I was traveling recently I began a discussion with a distant cousin who is a dentist. As we got talking about the needs of his patients I thought of my grandfather, in Florida, who is in a very late stage of Parkinson’s. It’s easy for someone in his position to forget to take their meds, mess up which ones they take when most importantly become disconnected with his family, friends and medical professionals.

Why are you doing this?  I mean why not just get a job at a fast growing company and stop killing yourself?
I’ve been on both sides. I started my first company at 16 and I’ve worked for numerous large corporations and start-ups over the past 8 years. I felt like it was just the right time to take the leap and try to build a business that could help people on my own. NOTE: My wife gave me a kick in the ass to really get the ball rolling. She told me that right now we have some cheap rent and two annoying cats to take care of. One day we’ll have kids and other responsibilities and it’ll be a lot harder to do.

What does success look like for you personally and for your company?
As a company, getting our product in the hands of millions of people that need to remember to take their medications, keep track of their compliance or take care of their loved ones would be pretty amazing for us. For me personally I’d like to make it to a point where I can invest in others’ ideas that can make the world a better place.

How long have you been at it and where do things stand right now?
We’ve been working on GetMinders for only a couple of months. The real coding and build out came only about a month ago. We’re now in a very early stage where we’re making over 350 calls per week and looking at next steps including funding and market testing.

Other than money, what are the biggest barriers to your success right now?
The biggest barrier for us is the need for a real voice. Speaking to the right people in the industry can be hard. Insurance companies are huge, pharmaceutical companies are even larger and medical networks and hospital systems have so much red tape it can take years to get things from idea to production. Making sure that we’re getting the right introductions and talking to the right people are very important to our success now.

Describe some of the highs you’ve experienced thus far
Right after the first weekend I built a very simple prototype we were making over 100 calls per week with our platform. When I put out simple request for testers on Twitter/Facebook the emails were overwhelming. The fact that people jump at the opportunity to help their friends (and others in the same industry) gives me a strong feeling that we will be successful.

Just a day ago I presented at a technology Meetup in Stamford, CT run by Roger Wu. After presenting our product to over 40 people along with 4 other start-ups we won the user-choice award. It wasn’t so much the winning that mattered but the fact that people sat and listened and offered fantastic input as to the future of GetMinders and the health industry as a whole.

And what are the low points?
I’m not sure that there have been any real low points so far. The hardest thing has been cutting back on spending. Having spent a few years in larger corporations (I last worked for LivePerson, a publicly traded tech company in NY) with a real paycheck it was easy to forget about the budget that my wife and I had set out. Now that my partner and I are working really hard on the start-up, I need to really focus on the spending. No one is signing expense reports or bi-monthly checks anymore.

Where has the money come from to get you this far?
It’s come right out of our pockets. My co-founder, Mike, and I have put smalls amounts in where we need it. We’ve had little overhead as we don’t have an office space yet and the minutes and message costs are all pay-as-you-go through Twilio. For now we’ve kept costs low but eventually we’ll be ramping up and that’ll be a whole new ballgame.

How hard has it been to raise money?
Well we’re still in the process so I don’t know that I can speak to the final outcome. What I can say is that the most important thing I learned through the process is that you have to ASK if you want to get money. Too many times I’d end a conversation with thanks for the input instead of, “So, do you believe in us and would you be willing to invest?” Learning to say this sentence has done wonders for us while raising funding.

Looking back, what would you do differently?
I would have done this two years ago instead of now. I was afraid before to go out on my own. Now that I’ve taken the leap I’ve found that the support network that I have spreads much further than I thought. We could be so much further along had we started long ago.

Did you think it was going to be this hard?
Yes. I’ve heard the stories of how hard it is to start a company, build a product, raise money and then sell the product to people from friends who have been through it. I was lucky enough to enter this whole thing pretty grounded.

Has you business taken any major pivots from concept to where you are today?
Not any major pivots. The idea began with medication only. We’ve branched out to looking at all sorts of healthcare and wellness but we’ve stuck to the same industry.

How much money do you need to raise now to get you to the next stage?
We’re currently looking at a small friends and family round (below $200k). This will let us really figure out the right market, build out an even more stable product and to get even further along with discussions all over the healthcare world (pharmacies, insurance companies, etc).

If your friend was about to start a business, what advice would you give them?
Just fucking do it. A good friend of mine has JFDI tattooed on his arm. He’s been telling me those same four words for a long time and finally did it. If you don’t give it a shot I can guarantee you will not succeed.

Do you see yourself as a serial entrepreneur or is this your one big idea?
I am pretty sure I’ll wind up being a serial entrepreneur. If I do my job right this start-up will grow into a real company. My hope is that my next steps involve helping others do the same thing.

What lessons do you wish you’d learned from others?
As I mentioned in the advice I’d give to a friend, JFDI. So many friends have went off, raised money and built successful companies. They all struggled until they finally dove it and did it. I think I learned that lesson now but it took me a heck of a long time to get here.

An Unexpected Entrepreneur’s Success Story

Posted on by Drew Neisser

The following is an interview I had with “unexpected entrepreneur” Emily Lutzker, founder of OpenInvo, a start-up with an innovative approach to innovation.

 

What prepared you for being an entrepreneur?
Before launching OpenInvo I was an artist and academic, and felt more comfortable at an art gallery doing a performance work in the nude, or moderating a panel of cultural theorists than in a boardroom. But not only now have I discovered that being an entrepreneur is one of the most exciting and creative things I have ever done, but my former life was the best preparation for bootstrapping a business that anyone could ask for.

As an artist, I created sculpture, video and performance works and showed my work internationally. Like many early career artists, I did not make much money from my work, nor did I have big budgets for any productions. When I needed to recruit 5 other performers, costume them, organize rehearsals and film, I normally did it on a shoestring. I can’t remember spending more than $500 on a project. Out of necessity and drive, I managed to wrangle people who were enthusiastic to help and resources that got the job done without spending much money. It does take time, attention, and people skills to get such projects done — the same skills needed for managing a startup. I can go on about this at length, but I think you get the idea.

Since I began OpenInvo, I’ve approached it with the same budgetary constraints and understanding as I did as with an artistic production. I know that the people involved are my greatest assets. That, even though 3 people give you high estimates for a job that there are always alternatives, but most importantly that people like to help. (I like to help people too).  They especially like to help when they see enthusiasm and drive for a project — those things are contagious.

Now, OpenInvo has been in live beta since the end of September, and growing at a steady pace. I do hope that in the near future we won’t we bootstrapping it quite to the extent that we have been in the past, but I do know that just about anything is possible with a little creative problem solving.

 

Where did the idea for your business come from?
My friends were tired of hearing me come up with ideas for new products and services. They all said, “why don’t you do this business or that one — that’s a great idea!” But I had an art career and didn’t want to be a business owner, although I would have loved to prosper from my ideas. Then my (now) co-founder said to me, “Why don’t we have a business selling ideas?” I said, “That can’t be done!” With a mountain of research I happily discovered I was wrong. It’s the only business I ever wanted to be the owner of — so far.

Why are you doing this?  I mean why not just get a job at a fast growing company and stop killing yourself?
I only had a “real” job once. At some point, I was told I was disruptive to the workplace. I’ll admit it,   I was bored. I’m sure I was disruptive. Actually, It never occurred to me to work at a “fast growing company” or hardly a company at all.  Besides, I’m sort-of un-hirable… my resume says PhD, artist, media producer. My web presence says a combination of crazy naked person and esoteric cultural studies scholar. Companies see “troublemaker.” Sure, I’m good for a university Art or New Media department, and I did love teaching, but I’m not a true academic in my heart.

What does success look like for you personally and for your company?
This is a trick question! Success means changing the world, no?  Seriously… to have a thriving marketplace where people with great ideas get valued for their ingenuity, where companies get true fuel for innovation. Success for the OpenInvo is to be a center for innovation, a support system for the innovation process, and to constantly keep growing and evolving from within. I’d like to think that success is still a starting point, not only a result.

On a large scale, I think that the wonderful things that people dream up should be seen as a commodity. Over the last 50 years, any art form that can be reproduced has become increasingly cheap or free — music, films, books, etc. The people who suffer from that phenomenon are the independent thinkers, not the pop-culture successes. But independent thinking and creation are the assets of humanity, and not to foster that aspect of culture is a shame. I don’t believe we should return to a pre-mechanical reproduction culture, but instead move forward and reinvent. On a philosophical level OpenInvo can inch us towards valuing people’s creativity, rather than valuing “stuff.” Seeing that kind of shift occur will be success for OpenInvo as well as for me personally. I’m a bit of an idealist, and I want to live in a world that fosters and rewards the things that make us human and celebrates our differences.

How long have you been at it and where do things stand right now?
The original conversation that inspired the company occurred more than 2 years ago. I was living in Tel Aviv. A year and a half ago I moved back to New York to start OpenInvo, mostly because my network is here and the innovation business, in terms of content, should be here. I then had a bit of a learning process in the business and startup arenas — it’s still not over, but I’d like to think that I gained some skills and had some that I repurposed from the art and media world. In a way, I could say that I’ve been at it all my life, I just didn’t know what “it” was. It took me until March 2010 to officially form the company, and the first public release of the platform went up in late September.

 

Other than money, what are the biggest barriers to your success right now?
Gaining trust from the would-be Idea Provider community. To have those users understand that not only does OpenInvo NOT want to “steal their idea,” but we actually don’t want ideas to be “stolen” at all.

Describe some of the highs you’ve experienced thus far
I didn’t ask anyone for money, they volunteered. I raised a small amount from friends and family who felt my enthusiasm and believed in me, saying they wanted in. That was an amazing high — to be heard and supported like that.

And what are the low points?
The low points are only the few days when it’s more of a struggle than an adventure — realizing what I don’t know and how much there is ahead. I have an impatient streak, which makes me frustrated when things don’t go as fast as I would like. Also, it would be a relief to not spend time worrying over the lack of budget. It is a bit of a roller-coaster ride… Ohmmm…

 

Where has the money come from to get you this far?
Friends and family.

 

How hard has it been to raise money?
The small amount I raised I got without asking. Now I’m just starting to look for the right investors to grow with. I’ll let you know how hard it’s been when it’s done.

 

Looking back, what would you do differently?
Who has time to look back?

 

Did you think it was going to be this hard?
Struggle isn’t something I was ever afraid of. Yeah, sure I knew it would be hard. When are worthwhile things not hard?

Has you business taken any major pivots from concept to where you are today?
Major, no. Minor for sure. And I’m sure there are some to come. I thought i would raise money earlier, but instead just blasted ahead. I wouldn’t have been able to without the amazing support of the people around me, and perhaps a touch of insanity.

How much money do you need to raise now to get you to the next stage?
Need? I’ll make it work with whatever I have. But with 500,000-600,000 OpenInvo would be able to grow at an optimal rate.

If your friend was about to start a business, what advice would you give them?
I’d just make sure she/he  knew the level of commitment and drive it takes. I would load a bunch of resources into her/his hands, spin her around three times and, say, “go get em! Call me when you need me — for advice, a shoulder to lean on, or a drink.”

 

Do you see yourself as a serial entrepreneur or is this your one big idea?
I can’t imagine not having another big project ahead of me. Whether that will be a for-profit business or not, who knows. Do we have a name for someone who embarks on one big project after another that are not necessarily business ventures? I’m a serial one of those.

Someone said that “any idiot can learn from his/her own mistakes, it takes a genius to learn from the mistakes of others” — what lessons do you wish you’d learned from others?

That business isn’t boring at all. That the language may be different for different industries, but often the skill set is easily translatable. And that when someone offers you a breath mint, take it.