How to Decide Which Idea to Pursue with David Brussin

Presenting in a normal approachable way, David Brussin spoke to the group today about his experiences as a CTO at TurnTide and ePrivacy Group. David is a serial entrepreneur, author and recognized leader in information technology and security who often blogs and speaks on the subject. He is currently the Founder and CEO of Monetate, Inc.

David recounted his story, sharing his insights on how he and the ePrivacy Group CEO (our next speaker) spent time brainstorming ideas, patenting many of them, and then deciding on which one to pursue. He spoke about their first product and the chicken and the egg dilemma they faced with the adoption of new technologies.

The evening continued by sharing how they changed course and focused on their anti-spam router. Ultimately, they were able to spin that off into a new company-- TurnTide. The TurnTide launch highlighted a creative approach to testing a new market; in this case an early press release proved the answer and gave them the confidence to delve further into the product release schedule.

David also discussed how well the product sold itself during Demo Day when they unplugged the TurnTide router from a live server and was able to show the audience how rapidly email spam increased on the server until they plugged it back in to show it drop back to earlier levels. Live demonstrations also blew away their first customer who saw a similar drop early one morning as the system came online. He also offered his own insights as an investor and added to a list of risks which an entrepreneur should try to eliminate for potential investors.

Thank you, David.

Mark Hughes Creates a Buzz

Our speaker for week 4 was Mark Hughes, author of BuzzMarketing. Mark is known to the group from his work with Half.com where he helped launch that company to a high level of success. Mark was an entertaining and vibrant speaker and did his best to squeeze a lot of material into a two hour session.

First, Mark spent some time sharing with us his success stories and how it translated into this methodology for creating buzz. He then spent some time talking about the Six Buttons of Buzz and how to use them to generate buzz. From there, Mark covered material on how to capture media and focused on the five themes that typically generate media coverage. Mark then moved onto talking about advertising and the best ways and uses of advertising. The evening ended with a story about climbing "Buzz Everest" and using creativity to stretch your marketing budget.

It was an incredibly fun evening and we thank Mark for taking so much time with us!

Start Up Basics with Nat Turner

Our speaker for the evening was Nat Turner, co-founder of Invite Media, a stealth company funded by First Round Capital. Despite being the youngest speaker in our series, Nat has quite a bit of experience having run a VC funded start up. Nat briefly discussed his start up history as well as his current projects and then segued into his topic for the night, "Start Up Basics."

Nat started with a few Do’s & Don’ts for our start up teams. These included (but were not limited to) focusing on the product, getting the first version out "into the wild" for feedback, talking and listening to potential customers, and crafting the perfect pitch.

Nat presented his view of the funding landscape in order to put things into a clearer perspective for our companies. Particular attention was spent identifying the differences between angels and VC’s within our relative geographic area, and how to maximize your interactions with the two groups of potential investors.

The presentation then progressed naturally into commentary and insight regarding terms and term sheets. Nat then highlighted two types of funding structures for seed stage agreements, the first being convertible debt and the second being a priced equity round. The descriptions and explanations for the two structures were accompanied by clear examples to support them. Nat also discussed the importance of board composition and surrounding yourself with strong adjunct team members including the concurrent role of lawyers in the process.

In closing, Nat stressed the overarching importance of building a product that investors simply cannot ignore. The teams enjoyed Nat's perspective-- a perspective with which many of the early stage companies could readily identify. Many chose to stay afterword to speak with Nat individually and Nat graciously obliged.

We are fortunate to have had Nat speak to us and our thanks go out to him for his time and insight.

John Loftus Returns

Each of our teams has a no-cost mentor / guru to work with chosen from entrepreneurs and technologists in the Philadelphia area. Many of the teams have already heavily engaged their help.

After his presentation, John Loftus volunteered to set aside a few hours to meet with a few of the teams based on a "first come first serve basis." Well, in about 3 minutes, the slots were completely taken! So, without even being asked, John ended up expanding his time and ultimately ended up spending a few days at DreamIt coaching each EACH TEAM.

Thanks, John!

Gretchen Roede Shares Marketing Tips

Our speaker last night was Gretchen Roede, president of the Garfield Group Public Relations. The Garfield Group specializes in media relations, and Gretchen gave an umbrella description of their services as well as her personal history in order to introduce us to the content for the evening.

Gretchen offered the companies a few techniques for conducting "poor man's market research," and went on to introduce a marketing framework that the Innovators could apply to their own companies. These include the strategy document, the message model, and a comprehensive strategy plan. She highlighted the cyclical nature of the marketing campaign with the recommendation to pay attention to the measurements and adjustments manifested in the evaluation phase. Because the message model plays such a prominent role in the basis for communication, Gretchen addressed the three sided nature of the model itself, with each side buttressing the centrally located core promise. The 2000 Clinton political campaign and "4anything" served as clear illustrations of how a concise message model can function as a vehicle for successful marketing.

Another technique Gretchen touched on was the use of "Moniker & the Market." She explained how a Y2K IT company was able to identify and rename one of their strong technologies thereby defining a new and unique space within a preexisting sector. Gretchen also offered some quick tips to aid companies in the brainstorming methodology and to identity a process that sounded both fun and useful to a younger stage company. At this point the discussion was opened up to questions. The session offered an insightful look into marketing mechanisms, both simple and complex, used to promote products and services.

We thank Gretchen and the Garfield Group for her time. This information will surely prove invaluable in an ever-changing, early-stage landscape.