My New Emoticon

I think I’ve created a new emoticon.  It expresses what it feels like to be an entrepreneur:

;@

If seeing that makes you feel queasy, unsure of yourself and more than a bit in debt… then it’s accurate.

(If it’s already used for something else, let me know.)

The Biggest Loser

“There are no losers in Hollywood… only those who gave up too soon.”  ~ David Carradine

Look, it’s not that I’m lazy…

I just don’t have much to say, but our new site is posted…

Y.A.G.U.F.T.Y.P

(Yet Another Good Use For The Yellow Pages)

Seb sent this to me yesterday. At least the trees that were used to make these directories didn’t die in vain. That’s Seb… saving the environment one line of code at a time.

Just Win, Baby.

Those of you who know me, know that I’ve been a Giants fan since I was a kid – so you know what yesterday’s Super Bowl win meant to me. Some of you also know that two weeks ago I survived sub-zero temperatures to watch the Giants/Packers playoff game in Green Bay. But I’m not a sports nut, I’m a Giants fan. Nothing else can keep me on the couch for four hours at a time… except maybe The Godfather marathon on A&E.

Perceived or not, the Giants have long since had a blue-collar work ethic. You do the work. You do the work because that’s all you *can* do. You do the work so that tomorrow, win or lose, you’ll know in your heart that you did everything you could to win – a victory in itself.

We are all underdogs sometimes… and sometimes the underdog wins.

TechStars: Saving Friendships One Idea At A Time

I’ve been meaning to write a post about TechStars for a while now. I was reminded that now would be a good time as the new TechStars applications are being accepted (go here to apply: www.TechStars.org).

First off, you should apply. I look at it this way… most people don’t ever have a good, realistic business idea. Of those who do, a vast majority won’t do anything about it except complain their idea was “stolen” once that idea is implemented by someone else. A yet smaller percentage will actually do something about it but will quit at the first sign of adversity.

This is why we celebrate those people who actually make it… they are a minuscule minority.

So here’s the rub… apply to TechStars and get some feedback on your idea… it just might keep you from bothering your friends a year from now when someone ELSE is on the cover of Inc. magazine.

TechStars I-Day… (it all comes down to one good pitch)

I’d like to try and express what a difference that this summer has made in the way I see start-ups and my place in the world of entrepreneurs.

If you know anything about the struggles that Seb and I have been through, then you know how grateful we are to have had the opportunity to participate in TechStars. I think we took advantage of the opportunity as much as possible.

One quick side note… we were originally rejected from TechStars. The program’s director, David Cohen, sent me one of the nicest rejection letters I have ever received… and I’ve received many. Basically, he said, we ranked 11th out of about 300 teams – but the program could only take 10. We were an alternate. Luckily, exactly two days later, one of the original teams was rejected and we got our chance. I don’t know what happened but I plan on plying Cohen with alcohol until he gives me more details.

Yesterday was I-Day, as it has come to be known. Investors from around the country came to see our pitch as well as the pitches of the nine other TS teams. It was also the end of TechStars 2007.

I know the product so well that I wasn’t nervous. I have given important pitches to some of the most important and influential people at the largest corporations in the country. I wasn’t nervous… just anxious. Sitting here writing this, what I realize was that I didn’t want to do well for just me and Seb… I wanted to do well for the directors, Brad Feld, Jared Polis and the two Davids – Cohen and Brown. They gambled on us, gave us the shot that no one else, in three years of effort, was willing to give. And there, standing before their peers, I wanted to make sure that we reflected their good judgment… that we were worthy of being there.

Then… in walked Elvis.

We needed a pop. We needed to make sure we could not only make the product understandable to the investors in attendance, but to make the presentation memorable. We used Search-To-Phone to find an Elvis impersonator and, right on cue, in he walked.

It was one of the best pitches we’ve ever done.

Afterwards we were treated to lunch by Dave Drach from Microsoft and both Dave and David Gold of Access Venture Partners spent almost the entire meal brainstorming with us, giving us ideas and hearing about some of our future plans and past failures. Thanks guys.

Last night, all ten TechStars teams, our mentors, advisors and a bunch of other people went to The Kitchen in downtown Boulder to eat, drink and finally… relax. I think it was the first time I relaxed since I got here.

Google Maps Drops Click-To-Call

Here’s some news that doesn’t surprise me.

It appears that Google Maps has discontinued its experiment in click-to-call, which allowed users searching a particular area to dial a business located in that area by simply clicking a button marked ‘call’. The user and the business would receive a phone call simultaneously.

This doesn’t surprise me because, though click-to-call was the first technology to bridge the gap between Internet and telephone modalities, it only truly benefited the implementer of the technology, not the user or the business. The implementer (in this case Google) had opportunities to play audio ads or sell subscriptions to participate in this service. But other than auto-dialing, it created no value for the user or the business - so no wonder it’s been removed from Google Maps.

I believe that you’ll see click-to-call diminish from search, but it may remain a helpful tool to direct visitors of a particular website to contact, say, customer service or technical support (even there it’s a bit shaky).

You’d think that as someone working in the Internet-telephony space I’d be happy to see a competing technology being discontinued. You’d be wrong for two reasons.

First, any advances in this nascent industry are good for our company – the more people utilize these types of technologies, the faster our product will mature. That one’s easy. The second reason, hold on to your hat angel investors, click-to-call is NOT a competitor of Search-To-Phone but rather a potential partner with a complimentary technology. (Investors hate when you say that you DON’T have competitors.)

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this guy is anti-competition but you’d be wrong again. The simple fact is we’re not competing for the same user. To put it bluntly, users of click-to-call are essentially saying, ‘get that BUSINESS’ while Search-To-Phone users are saying, ‘get that PRODUCT’. We don’t do business search, per se, we find products and services… fast.

No matter what becomes of the click-to-call technology, it blazed a trail and planted a flag and that’s something to be admired.

A Revolution? Really?

Let me just say right off the bat that I don’t use the word ‘revolution’ lightly. Indeed, Seb and I have debated the question and, early on, even refrained from using the word ‘revolution’ on the web site and in our presentations to potential investors and partners. It’s one of those words that seems to hype more than define.

But now that we’ve been at this for over three years I think we can say with some authority that Search-To-Phone is revolutionary. Try it for yourself and let us know what you think. If you agree… then welcome to the revolution.

What makes it revolutionary? Two things:

First, Search-To-Phone inverts the usual way we search. Right now, you go to a web site, you type in a search query and the data is pulled from various sources and shows up on your screen in a nice, neat format. You then interact with the data you receive by reading the information and clicking on links or picking up your phone and dialing a number.

Rather than ‘pull’ data, Search-To-Phone ‘pushes’ your search query out the world, live. This invites the world (and by world I mean the businesses, merchants and local service providers who hear your query) to hear, qualify and scrutinize your search request. Instead of having advertising messages broadcast to you, you can broadcast an ‘advertisement’ of your specific needs and quickly find a live human being to help you. Therein lies revolutionary idea numero uno: personal broadcast.

Secondly, we believe that the small businesses that make up our customer base should have a choice as to when and how much of their advertising budget is spent. Yellow Pages ads, search engine marketing and even click-to-call technologies don’t offer this type of ‘rifle’ approach.

These search technologies (and in the case of Yellow Pages ads I use that term lightly) make a calculation… it looks like this:

CATEGORY + GENERAL LOCATION = A GOOD RESULT.

We believe that to match your specific search criteria faster and more accurately requires a better calculation. Something like:

CATEGORY (MINUS WRONG NUMBERS, BUSY SIGNALS, NO ANSWER) + YOUR EXACT LOCATION + YOUR SPECIFIC NEEDS + A MERCHANT’S INTELLIGENT SCRUTINY = A MUCH BETTER, FASTER RESULT.

Broadcasting your search requests to these small businesses gives them choice – more than just good business sense, choice makes for a better result.

So here ends self-serving blog post number one. Our hope is that this blog will become a public place for our customers to make suggestions and for us to gather much-needed feedback. So feel free to comment and all things Search-To-Phone.