Entrepreneur Profile: Sherry Lebed Davis & Healthy-Steps

Entrepreneur

I met with an amazing woman and entrepreneur, Sherry Lebed Davis, Co-Founder of Healthy-Steps. Sherry, a lifelong professional dancer and dance instructor, founded the company with the help of her brothers, both physicians after the realization that there was no good health programs for people struggling or recovering from breast cancer. They watched their mother, a once a vibrant professional ballroom dancer, struggle both physically, emotionally and spiritually after having survived her own fight with breast cancer. They decided they needed to do something about it and began work on what eventually became Healthy-Steps.

Company Overview

Healthy-Steps is a therapeutic movement program incorporating uplifting, fun music.  Originally starting as a recovery program for women to improve their quality of life and healing during and after their fight with breast cancer, it has expanded its offerings to include wellness programs for everyone, from young adults to seniors, regardless of health, age or ability level, the Healthy-Steps program improves overall wellness, range-of-motion, balance, strength and endurance, as well as emotional well-being and self-image.

The Market

Healthy-Steps reaches their target market through certified instructors who teach the program internationally in hospitals, wellness centers and senior living communities. While the fitness, health & wellness industry is full of competition for the broader market, Healthy-Steps’ unique advantage is it is one of the only programs approved and recommended by the US Administration on Aging and the National Cancer Institute which makes it specifically positioned for the growing senior population as well as current and surviving cancer patients. Aside from those actually participating as students in Healthy-Steps classes, Healthy-Steps also markets to fitness instructors.

The Business Model

Maintaining and growing the certified instructor base is at the core of the revenue model. The primary 3 day instructor certification class costs $450 per person. Once an instructor, the cost to maintain instructor status is a $150 licensing fee per year. In addition to the yearly licensing fee instructors must complete a certain number of learning credits which can be accomplished various ways including additional trainings offered by Healthy-Steps.

Healthy-Steps nurtures the continued growth and development of its instructors by offering quarterly newsletters, marketing materials and advice, community conference calls and the ability to network with the entire Healthy-Steps network.

Entrepreneur Profile: Eli Allison and Repair Revolution

I had the opportunity to interview the founder of Repair Revolution, an automotive repair shop in SODO.  Eli Allison started the shop in 2012 with a mission to “empower clients by teaching them about their vehicles and build a community for people that want to learn how to work on their own cars”.  This mission seeks to create an environment that is in stark contrast to both personal and observed experiences.  During work both in and outside of the automotive industry, Eli found that many women and members of the LGTBQ community felt vulnerable to being taken advantage of and were inadequately informed in many of the auto repair shops.  Repair Revolution takes several steps, such as provide detailed explanations and assisting with prioritization of needs, to ensure that their clientele do not experience these feelings.  In addition to providing maintenance and repair services, the shop offers workshops and supported do-it yourself space.   

The automotive repair market, which has demonstrated a steady growth of about 3%, reached $60 billion in revenue in 2013.[1]  There are over 85,000 businesses in the industry, and as many as 400 of these are located in Seattle area.  Repair Revolution is a disruptor in this established market.  The company has established itself as a niche player by providing underserved customers with robust services not offered by other shops.  Only one other competitor in the area offers do-it yourself space, but does not provide any support or supervision.  The queer owned shop is also disrupting the industry on the personnel side.  Eli has created a safe space and an opportunity for women and queer employees, who often face a great deal of discrimination in the male dominated industry, to thrive.  The success of the team at Repair Revolution is inspiring more people in the LGBTQ community to pursue careers in the automotive industry. 

Repair Revolution must be making a good on its promise to provide high quality, convenient and comprehensive vehicle repairs because the customer base has been steadily growing.  In fact, the vast majority of the new customers are from referrals.  Most of the shop’s marketing and customer outreach is done through social media and the company’s website.  Repair Revolution’s Facebook page houses on outpouring of customer support.  The shop also offers three unique programs that help with customer retention including a financing program, nationwide roadside assistance, and a two-year warranty on all repairs.     

Eli is very passionate entrepreneur committed to creating an unparalleled customer experience and people are taking note. The Greater Seattle Business Association recognized Repair Revolution as the New Business of the Year in 2013.  I suspect this is only the beginning, and there are many great things to come from Eli and Repair Revolution. 

Check out Repair Revolution at:

http://www.autorepairrevolution.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RepairRevolution

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[1] http://www.ibisworld.com/industry

Interview Profile: Issaquah Coffee Company

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ryan Heidy, co-owner of Issaquah Coffee Company (ICC).  A local himself, Ryan felt that Issaquah needed a coffee shop that the community could call their own while enjoying coffee made from top quality beans and baked goods from well known local roasters and bakers.  In addition, he and his partner, Mike Swingle, wanted everyone to feel that ICC was there home away from home, where people could visit with friends and family, kids could play in their play area and workers could work remotely.  With Ryan’s “front of the house” skills and Mike’s “back of the house” skills, it made sense to move forward with their venture.  With their own money, Ryan and Mike moved forward in what some would consider a crowded market.

Although there are three different Starbucks, a Tully’s and Panera Bread within a half mile, Issaquah Coffee Company is consistently busy due to its appeal to the local community.  Through word of mouth and handing out coupons, ICC was able to create brand awareness and thus entice new customers to visit and at the same time, rewarded existing customers so that they would continue to spread the news.  In addition, they ran a couple of ads in the local paper and took to Twitter and Facebook in order to inform their followers about the new coffee in stock and sponsored events taking place at the shop.  They work with a local marketing company to keep their website fresh and up-to-date so that ICC has continued success in reaching its customers.

Moving forward, Ryan would like to focus on retention of existing customers.  He firmly believes that you have to deliver on what you advertise.  The Issaquah Coffee Company advertises a Seattle-like coffee shop with a homey feel that delivers top quality coffee and baked goods with excellent customer service.  This is why retention, rather than growth is his main priority.  They currently offer a loyalty rewards card that starts earning 10% of purchases immediately.  In addition, they have sponsored a local bike team, Issaquah Food Bank, local auctions and most recently, the Issaquah High School Poetry Slam.  All of this is done in hopes that the local community is aware of their commitment to the community and to express their gratitude in helping them become as successful as they are.

Profile – Rob Roy

Formerly Vice Roy, Rob Roy was reintroduced to the Seattle night scene in 2009 and quickly became known as one of Seattle’s premier martini bars.   Rob Roy specializes in providing classic high quality cocktails ranging from vesper martini’s to old fashions to aquavit fizz’s.  They pride themselves on knowing their customers and mastering the art of making exquisite cocktails.  

This is not a restaurant (Yes, they do serve some food). There are no espresso machines. There’s no beer on tap.  There are no televisions.  No jukebox.  And if you order Jaeger Bombs, not only do you risk offending the establishment, but the customer base as well. 

Just who are these customers, anyway?  A typical customer of Rob Roy will be his early 30’s.  He just got off of work from Amazon, went home to walk his dog, and then walked the mere 3 blocks to meet up with his buddies (from Boeing, Microsoft, and some other tech startup I can’t recall) for their weekly Thursday night happy hour.  Young (although not the 21 and up crowd – typically 30’s/40’s) and professional (not rich, but with disposable income and discernable taste).   

On a broader sense, Rob Roy would fit in the craft cocktail market.  The craft cocktail market (or movement, I should say) started about 10 years ago.  Call it a renaissance.  Call it a resurgence of classic cocktails.  Either way, people have been appreciating finer spirits and cocktails in the past decade.  Rob Roy’s Anu attributes the origins of this movement to a couple of cocktails bars in New York – PDT (Please Don’t Tell) and Dutch Kills, for whom she also used as inspiration for Rob Roy.

Customer outreach is mostly done via word of mouth and the occasional blog or twitter post.  Although, in the beginning, Anu attributes a large part of Rob Roy’s success to having the right mix of connections – writers and bloggers for various food and beverage magazines and papers throughout Seattle, eager to write a piece on Seattle’s latest and greatest.

Case study PortfoliGen

 

What is a Case Study?

The key to a successful case study is a clear and concise problem that needs to be solved. The case should have enough information in it that students understand the problem, and enough relevant data that a solution can be formed.  Providing too little information may lead the student to look too far out of the box.  But providing too much data points the student into a single direction.  A good case is arranged in such a way that the reader is put in the same position as the writer was at when they first faced the problem.  You want the students to be challenged, and “experience” the same things you did when you started your process of finding a solution.

 

What should the students be focusing on? How should they be graded?

Because this is an MBA level elective class, we want the students to practice a mix of strategy and hands-on tactics.  An Excellent response will not just suggest a solution, but also include primary data collected by the student.  An Above Average response to the case will present a strategy that can be implemented, but not include any primary data that verifies the approach.  A Good response will include a strategy that would be technically sound, but may not be applicable to the current project.  A Fair response will use an appropriate framework, but not be strategically sound or possible to implement.  Anything below this should receive a grade of “Incomplete.”

 

1. Situation Overview In order to set some context, please briefly describe your company, the product you are discussing, the product’s position in the marketplace, and the team in charge of the product marketing.

Company Background PortfolioGen is a startup founded in 2005 and it focus on the electric portfolio, which is a platform to present the best work of a teacher. The company have about ten employees and the business entity type is partnership. Product Overview PortfolioGen.com is the product we are discussing which stands for the company. It’s a free online portfolio platform that allows teachers, students and educators to create customized URL for their portfolio so that they can share, upload certifications, photos, documents, resume, demo lessons etc. Many users perceive our product as a cross between VisualCV and LinkedIn. It was developed by teachers and is user-friendly Our product offers the following features for educators: Ÿ   Free for all the functions you need to create a great looking portfolio website Ÿ   Premium account is $3.99 for a month and $24.99 for a year Ÿ   Easy and simple to use Ÿ   Customized URL for each portfolio created Ÿ   Streamline and reorganize users’ resume, academic reports, certification, example class, photos, videos and work-related links, etc. Ÿ   Customized design and layout of users’ webpage Market Positioning We have positioned ourselves in the market as a free and user-friendly brand. In this case, we have planned our positioning in such a way that we distinguish our products from competing brands. Our positioning strategy is customer base so that it can give the best service more than what the customers expect. Team PortfolioGen is founded and developed by teachers. The company size is about 1-10 employees.

 

2. Specific Problem to be Solved Please describe in detail the issue you either faced in the past, or are currently facing.  Please try to slot the problem into one of the following topic areas: Market Analysis, Positioning, Pricing, Distribution, Marketing Campaign Strategy, Public Relations, Community Management, Retention or Referral. Please include the budget or manpower restrictions you faced/are facing.

Problem Diagnosis Since 2005, our service have attracted more than ten thousand users from 79 countries. This number is still relatively small compared to the huge market. In terms of our customer base, we found that there are only 111 likes on Facebook, 1786 followers on Twitter, 3 subscription on Youtube and 3 followers on Linkedin. Both quantity and quality of our customers stayed at a relatively low level compared to other major brands in the category. Concerning the limited number of partners and subscription for our product, we need to strengthen our marketing strategy to raise people’s awareness and attract partnership and purchase. We specifically need to enhance our social media campaign to promote product branding and marketing. Challenge and Restriction Resources and funds constraints can be the major challenge we encounter to launch a new marketing campaign. As a startup, budget limit is one of the toughest decisions we will face. Even for present days, we don’t have any dollar for advertising. At the same time, PortfolioGen will have to recruit more developers and marketing staff as well to deal with the expansion of business. At startup like us, we need stable and long-term employees who can fit our culture. So it may take longer time for us to find the right people.

 

3. Goals and Objectives Please describe what primary goal you would like to achieve, i.e. Awareness, Evaluation, Trial, Purchase / Revenue, Retention, Referral (or other). Also, can you explain what how you would evaluate whether the solution was successful.

Goals: Raise Awareness, Increase Revenue and Introduce Referral Ÿ   Raise Brand Awareness Increase PortfolioGen’s presence in the market. Ensure our product gets the best visibility possible and ensures the quality of our product as well because positive reviews and word-of-mouth recommendation will promote our brand with no cost. Our target is to reach 30 thousand users, 100 new partners, 5000 Facebook likes, 10 thousand twitter followers, 1000 Youtube subscriptions at the end the fiscal year. Ÿ   Increase Revenue Focus on product improvement to make the service different from our competitors. Enrich the premium functions and provides customers the best offer in the market. Our target is to reach a 25 percentage increase in annual premium users. Ÿ   Introduce Referral Create a referral marketing strategy. 1) Incentivize users and customers to tell their excellent experiences and stories on blogs, app stores and review websites. 2) Create a program/platform/tool that makes it easy for users to pass around the good word for PortfolioGen. Measurement of Success Ÿ   Awareness and Referral 1) Number of subscriptions, posts, reviews, stories on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Tumblr, LinkedIn Yahoo Answers, blogs and forum 2) Number of new and returning web site visitors and web site responders 3) Number of new referral customers and partners obtained and number of referrals made from existing customers and partners Ÿ   Revenue: 1) Number of monthly and annual premium subscription per month 2) A ratio of the associated potential revenue compared Objectives should be reevaluated and adjusted to ensure our goals are achieved on an ongoing basis. Increasing the level of activity or increasing number targets does not always result increasing in membership, partnership and revenue , so measurements and other data should be used as well.

 

4. Key Information and Data Points Please provide any information here that is vital to developing a reasonable strategy.  This could include, but not be limited to, Pricing, Pricing Model, Adoption Rates, Margin, Market Size, Market Share, Cost per Acquisition, Cost per Lead, etc…

Ÿ   Our market share focuses on helping educators build up their careers and creating their personal branding. We are targeting the niche market to provide professional educators and employers a directly illustrated and easier channel to make a choice. Ÿ   The cost will be generated mainly from marketing activities and human labor. Costs from marketing activities will include non-price promotion, price promotion, awards for customers and partners’ recommendation, etc. Costs from labor will include existing and newly-recruited labor salaries, employee benefits, employee-related insurance and outsourcing labors. Ÿ   The margin will be generated mainly from our users and customers. For costomers, the increasing number of premium numbers will account for one part of our revenue. For partners, the revenue will come from subscription partners, advertising companies and data consultants. Ÿ   Offer different discounted price to meet different need of our customers. We suggest provide different types of subscription. For example we have a selection of daily trial, weekly, monthly, three month and annual use. We also suggest give teachers and institutes who wrote positive posts, blogs and give us useful suggestions a discounted rate for a year.

 

5. Other Information Is there anything else you want the students to understand about your product, market, audience, company, team, history, campaign, budget, and have them include in their analysis?

Here are our major social media pages: Facebook： https://www.facebook.com/portfoliogen Twitter： https://twitter.com/Portfoliogen Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOUbNWDh6rfzaJOd2hUeP0g LinkedIn： http://www.linkedin.com/company/portfoliogen Pinterest： http://www.pinterest.com/portfoliogen/ Here are some blogger writing about our product: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2014/01/portfoliogen-classroom.html http://misscrouch.edublogs.org/2013/07/04/portfoliogen-create-a-free-customized-teacher-portfolio-webpage-in-minutes/ http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/01/portfoliogen-classroom-digital.html#.Ux41AD9dWN8 http://iranianforaryans.blogspot.com/2012/06/portfoliogen-free-online-portfolio.html http://cffmv.blogspot.com/2012/11/featured-11212012-portfoliogen.html http://learni.st/learnings/391846-portfoliogen-create-a-free-customized-teacher-portfolio

 

Questions?

Please contact Andy Boyer at 206.852.8567 or arboyer@uw.edu

Profile – Black Bottle Gastrotavern

Black Bottle is an established gastrotavern in Seattle and Bellevue. In 2004, the Seattle location opened as the first gastrotavern in Seattle. Chris Linker, one of the partners of the gastrotavern, shared about the restaurant group and his experience as an entrepreneur.

The original concept and inspiration for Black Bottle Seattle was to build a restaurant bar that would offer high quality dishes, shared plate style, and value in a convivial environment. At the time of opening, this concept was untested and new to the Seattle market. The team looked to disrupt the existing market of restaurant goers. They saw their market as being one that all identified with, and I would detail the target market demographics as Seattle residents who are 20- 50 years old, urbanites, have no children or able to schedule child care (since Black Bottle is a 21+ establishment), and have a moderate disposable income.

In the first year, the partnership tested different pricing while sticking to their original concept. Regarding the concept though, in the first months of opening, Linker realized that the way customers interacted in the restaurant and their perception of the style was different from the initial vision the partnership had. Further, he recognized that rather than push the vision they had on customers, the team needed to step back and let the restaurant evolve as the customers desired.

Fast forward ten years with the growth of the restaurant scene in Seattle, Black Bottle is still in a unique position for their offerings. The emphasis has remained on quality, value, and comfort. I think their market remains the same for the most part but now includes large groups and an extension to Eastside residents. For a couple or large party in the main space or private party room, Black Bottle is for relaxation at the end of a work day or for celebration of a special event. The mood is intended to be unpretentious and communal while customers enjoy good food and spirits at a high value. Even with the increase in competition, their position is different from most new restaurants.

To reach customers, Black Bottle aims to attract and connect with customers via their website (www.blackbottleseattle.com & www.blackbottlebellevue.com), Facebook, and Yelp. The website is regularly updated with new menus and fresh graphics. They use Facebook as a casual place to inform customers about new items, events, and other announcements as well as a tool to reinforce the brand. Yelp has been utilized to connect with customers.

Team Synaptic interviews Robyn Sue Fisher (Smitten Ice Cream)

Team Synaptic (aka Team Virtual Whiteboard) got the opportunity to have a conversation with Robyn Sue Fisher, the founder of an exciting new ice cream company Smitten Ice Cream. In this interview we learn about how Robyn grew Smitten from an idea to a thriving business, as well as some general advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

 

Team Synaptic (TS): We’re excited to be joined by Robyn Sue Fisher who is the founder Smitten Ice Cream, an exciting new venture in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hi Robyn and thank you for joining us.

Robyn Sue Fisher (RSF): My pleasure!

TS: Before we talk about Smitten, we’re interested in hearing about your background. Can you tell us about your experience leading up to Smitten?

RSF: I worked in the corporate world for over 4 years as a management consultant, specializing in marketing strategy — working in Boston, New York, and Paris. I then went to Stanford Graduate School of Business and focused on entrepreneurship.

TS: So you’re at Stanford and you decide you want to start making ice cream for a living! In business school there is a lot of emphasis being placed on being differentiated and having a unique value proposition, how was the idea for Smitten different from all of the other ice cream businesses out there?

RSF: I wanted to take a product I loved — ice cream — and make it even better. Smitten’s unique value proposition was to make the freshest, purest, creamiest ice cream in the world – from scratch, to order!

TS: Ok, now you have an idea. How did you go about validating the concept with potential customers? Was it a challenge to explain to them what you were trying to do?

RSF: Initially, I rigged up a janky system with duct tape, funnels and mixer parts and started making ice cream in my backyard. I made ice cream as often as I could for anyone who would eat it to learn as much as I could. With that learning, I spent the next 2 years after business school in a basement shop testing and prototyping different ideas and then building a full-fledged prototype. I then sold ice cream on the streets of San Francisco for a year to get real feedback from real people, and that is how I learned the most! I built a batter pack that could power my Brrr(TM) machine for 4 hours, and bungee corded Brrr(TM) to a milkcrate on top of the Radio Flyer, plopped in a 10 liter tank of liquid nitrogen, and used Twitter to tell people the flavor of the day and where I would be, and then I would leave when I sold out or when cops came (because I didn’t have a permit… but cops like ice cream :). I didn’t want to be operating illegally but permitting wasn’t possible for me, as the regulations required a setup that would have cost me at least $50,000, and I was broke at the time. It was a bit of a challenge to try to explain what I was doing, but my philosophy was to just let the product speak for itself. Once people tasted the ice cream, they would realize that Smitten was something darn special.

TS: How did you pay for everything up to this point? Did you have any external funding?

RSF: I spent my life’s savings developing the prototype machine. In the years thereafter, I raised a small amount of convertible debt from friends and family for patents and then raised a seed round of funding for our first shop from angel investors, many of whom were customers.

TS: The idea of going around town with ice cream on wheels sounds amazing! At this point you have a product, how do you get the word out to your first set of customers?

RSF: Initially, I just used social media: Facebook and Twitter! I would post my location and flavor of the day, and then post again when I was sold out. I also did fun contest on social media for various rewards.

TS: Then how did you scale this out to the next set of customers?

RSF: I started being a little bit more strategic about where I would go with the wagon. For instance, I would sell ice cream outside of angel investor forum meetings and things like that. I tried to get in front of people who could help me to propel the business further. I also started doing more catering events for companies, which evolved into a decent little business!

TS: What are the plans to grow the business? You have mentioned you are not interested in franchising, is there a particular reason for that?

RSF: Our goal with Smitten is to make the best ice cream in the world and to never, ever lose sight of quality. We have so much blood, sweat and tears in this company; it is not a “get rich fast” mentality, but rather a “make people smitten” mentality. As such, we are going to grow, but we are going to do it carefully and thoughtfully, doing a sanity check every step of the way to make sure that we aren’t making any compromises on quality through growth. Franchising is much more of the “get rich quick” approach — it is easy to lose quality quickly when you are not running your own shops!

TS: Now that the business is growing larger, have you changed the way you reach out to customers? Do you contract with anyone to provide PR or any other marketing material?

RSF: We still utilize a breadth of social media, but we have also added an interactive website and a newsletter. Additionally, we recently brought on a very small PR agency to help us get the word out about new shops and to help us be more targeted in our approach to media.

TS: How do you think business school helped with getting your business started?

RSF: I think b-school really helped to give me the credibility I needed to raise money from sophisticated investors in the later-beginning stages of the company. At first, honestly, it was all perseverance and learning from all of the food entrepreneurs around me, not my b-school education. BUT, the b-school education certainly gave me an advantage when I had to present a business plan to potential investors AND it helped me connect with an AMAZING network of advisers.

TS: Where can people go to learn more about Smitten and when can we expect a Seattle location?

RSF: Please, please check out our website: www.smittenicecream.com. We have tons of fun stuff on there — check out the video links on the “LOVE” page – here’s one of my fave’s: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/smitten-ice-cream_n_3157062.html?utm_hp_ref=small-business

TS: Thank you for your time, any parting advice for the aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

RSF: Hmmm. Few short thoughts:

1. Go after something you love because it will almost definitely take twice as long (if not more) to get where you want to go.
2. Be okay with failure. You have to fail to ultimately succeed. There were SO MANY small failures along the way for me!
3. Build a network of advisors who you can go to for different things. Try not to always go to the same person, but rather seek out different people for different parts of the business. Build this network before you think you need it because it takes a while to develop the relationship and the people who you will most likely want to talk to are probably super busy.

To learn more about Smitten and Robyn:

Smitten: http://smittenicecream.com/ (includes links to social channels)

Foundation Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_-dV9C78k

Stanford Business School Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3D6tYerfNA

LineScoop Interview with Troy J Morris

Our group interviewed the Mobile Marketing Manager from DoubleDown Interactive, Troy J Morris. DoubleDown Interactive is an online and mobile gaming company. It is a no currency online gambling system. The mobile app was only introduced a year and half ago. The mobile app is only a small part of their options. Some of the games they include:  Blackjack, Bingo, Slots, Poker, Video Poker, and Roulette. The online gaming market is incredibly large spanning over 16 billion. The average lifetime for their mobile games varies, for example ⅓ of the users stop using the app after two weeks.

We started off our conversation with discussing mobile technology in general and which mobile technology is best to use i.e. Android or iOS. In general, Android system provides more freedom for the mobile app designers than iOS. We learned about why it is important to choose a certain system and he gave us different aspects to consider when deciding an app.

We then went into the pricing strategy and how to best set our price structure. Troy suggested testing the market by setting two to three different price structures, including free use and a fee of $3.00 and test the market to decide what is the best way to set our price structure. Another strategy to increase downloads; you can offer more access to games if you charge a small fee.

To get their initial customers for the mobile part of DoubleDown, they used their already existing online presence. For a new app, he recommended using a service that introduces users to the app. This service allows you to be introduced to new users in exchange for providing your own users. In other words, you exchange your user base information to this service and they send you their user base.

Initially, DoubleDown was a Facebook App and started back in 2010.  However, the initial app was failing. The creators began thinking about how they could make the app better after looking at Zynga. They began building out their own gaming structure. They started with their poker games and from there built a bingo game. They realized those who like playing slots also enjoy playing bingo and decided to incorporate bingo as one of the games they offer. They just recently released their Blackjack and Roulette. They made sure to understand their demographic and initially focused on people who enjoy playing slots and are willing to sit and play over and over again. They focus only on gambling or classic gaming.

This interview helped our group consider a variety of different aspects of implementation for LineScoop.  First, we realized a detailed analysis with our developers is critical to understand which operating system we should design first. Based on the feedback from Troy, he seemed to favor Android over iOS. Second, we concluded different ways to test monetization for our app. Since we do not have pre-existing users from an initial platform, we plan to review these strategies regularly as we proceed with the launch.  Lastly, he discussed the addition of features to your application to maintain high usage.  We plan to release a minimum viable product of LineScoop, following up with additional releases with new features to ensure users are engaging continuously with the application.

Evergreens Salad Interview

Evergreens Salad Interview

Interview with Evergreens Salad Co-Founder, Hunter Brooks.

Hear how two Northwest childhood friends are implementing their healthy business plan and living the Evergreens State of Mind.

 

Marketing to Investors and Crowdfunding Panel Discussion Summary

The March 3 Entrepreneurial Marketing panel discussion on marketing to investing and crowdfunding featured Seattle Angel Conference’s Josh Maher, Robot Turtle’s Dan Shapiro, and Curious Offices’ Kelly Smith. Read on for a summary of the conversation.

For Dan Shapiro:  Robot Turtles was the best-selling board game in Kickstarter history. What do you believe was the secret to your success in your crowdfunding efforts?

Dan: The premise for the Robot Turtles board game is to teach programming concepts to kids as young as three, in a format that engages parents as well. The success of the Kickstarter campaign was a convergence of factors.  Dan had friends running Kickstarter campaigns who provided tactical advice (e.g., it is imperative that the campaign raise 25-50% of goal in the first day or two), a high level of media interest, and a talented artist who assisted with high-quality video production.   His goal was to raise $25K – the board game went on to raise $630K.

What do you need to have to launch a successful Kickstarter?

Kickstarter provides preorders on an investment.  Successful campaigns involve either a thing people want or a cause they believe in.  It’s a conversion funnel and nothing else – it creates an urgency.  In the case of Robot Turtles, 20% of people who watched the video converted.  A company cannot do Kickstarter without a thoughtful, robust marketing campaign. A conceptual hook that can be described in one sentence is needed. The video should be no longer than 90 seconds. The page should include lots of information about suppliers, researchers, prototypes, etc. Then be prepared to dedicate a huge part of your life to it.

What factors should an entrepreneur consider when determining which type of investment support is right for their idea?

The size of the deal needs to be big enough (what constitutes big enough depends to a degree on the investor).  What the capital is being used for is also important – is it for growth, team, or marketing? If ready to scale, angel may not be right at this point. The horizons are long, but there is interest in near-term gains.

For Kelly Smith: What do you look for from companies you’re investing in?

I look for entrepreneurs who are hands-on, highly attentive to the product, tenacious, and willing to take it as far as it can go.  I look for someone with certain “X factor”, a compelling vision and the ability to recruit as well as sell –  sell the product, the company – to investors, to employees, and to the customer. Getting the cultural fit right is very important: What do they value?  What are they looking for from me?

A strong lead investor is needed to make a funding round come together. It’s vital to have someone with strong connection to you who can pull in a broad network – someone who can say, “I believe in this person and you should too.”  People investing at the $25K level fill in the empty space.

Where do you find these “X factor” people?

The typical angel investor is making a trade-off between an investment in a startup and an investment somewhere else.  Successfully getting investment comes through two categories – a relationship with the investor prior to and outside of the context of this company OR that the investor saw the deal less than a month before closing. Either have the infrastructure in place based on the relationship OR have metrics in place for a successful close.

Learn how to fine-tune your personal brand is the first step forward.  Start to learn the middle ground between being too charismatic and too data-driven.  Don’t underestimate the importance of social proof.

How do you reach out to investors early on – in ideation?

First of all, bad timing can torpedo your opportunity.  Go as far as you can toward a viable product before meeting with investors. Take your ideas and make them happen.  It’s easy to raise money for something that’s already successful.  Think about how you can leverage whatever assets you have.

What’s your take on valuation?

Either raise enough money to get to profitability or get to a scalable milestone where VCs will give you money. Tech startup valuations are rising while established company valuations are declining – there’s some discrepancy there. Non-tech valuations not rising at same pace.

Tips for approaching investors and influencers at events:

• Do your research ahead of time. Don’t take up time at event, give them the hook, but leave it at that.
• Find something to make yourself to stand out.
• Focus your skills and excel at one thing.
• Kelly: I look for people who I know can ship what they tell me they’re going to ship. Throw yourself in knee-deep and figure it out.  I respect people who can actually do what they’re pitching. I taught myself how to design and code in order to have control over my destiny. How are you going to cultivate yourself in order to get what you want?

Crowdfunding Bandsintown

If I were a VC investor I would put my money in Bandsintown, the live music tracking app which not only solves the pain in the ass but also builds connections with users.
Product
Bandsintown is now the NO.1 concert discovery app on Facebook and it is Facebook based and connected. The concerts and shows history will be tracked on a map so that you can look back to your life several years ago. It keeps music fans informed about local concerts and has 3.4 million unique visitors and 700,000 registered members. Once you adopted the platform on Facebook, it will help you track artists you followed on Facebook. It’s also possible to change your location and track in a different city too. Bandsintown started as a Facebook app and expanded quickly to iOS, Android.
Market
Bandsintown targets at various genre of music lovers in the U.S.. As the U.S. has the best music scene across the globe, the market for Bandsintown is very huge. It attracts both who frequently go to live concerts and who occasionally do. With 10% live music industry growth, Bandsintown still have much space to expand and develop.
Team
As No.1 live music discovery app for iOS and Top Developer badge for Android. Bandsintown have the best app developers and management team in the category. It is sold to mobile development firm Cellfish in September 2011 and partnered with Zippo in September 2013. With acquisition and collaboration the team has been strengthened and scaled up to a new level.

DNA Marketing & Events

DNA is a boutique marketing and staffing agency located Seattle.  It was founded in 2013 by Alexis Thomas, a veteran of marketing and sales in the alcohol beverage industry, with her partner Ozzie Lucca, combining for more than 25 years of industry experience.  They offer event staffing services in the form of brand ambassadors, event managers, and street teams.  DNA also provides event consulting for execution and development, as well as brand development.  Their past events have included automotive launching, software promotion, and alcohol beverage related events and branding.  Their promotional models interact with consumers and encourage participation during the events, as well as evangelize the product or service.

They are targeting clients that want a local solution to their staffing needs.  Currently, two large national companies partner with the largest liquor supplier, Diageo, in Washington:  MKTG Inc. and 360 Events & Promotions.  DNA offers clients an extensive local network and knowledge of the market.  The large companies tend to be removed from local trends and are less involved in the market on an ongoing basis.  Event marketing and staffing is an existing market, with the party and event planning portion of it being a $6 billion industry with no companies with a dominant market share, according to IBIS World’s September 2013 Market Research Report.  Companies rely on local talent to staff events, so large scale geographic market expansion requires feet on the ground in various markets to seek opportunity.  This primes DNA to seize upon the opportunities available in the Seattle market.  However, with low barriers to entry in regards to initial capital investment, success requires leveraging online acquisition and personal networks better than the competition.  With an extensive local network, as well as market insight into Seattle’s unique events culture, DNA is positioned to offer companies, both local and national, quality staffing and event solutions tailored to Seattle market.

DNA’s approach to staffing events is unique because of the emphasis they place on quality and not quantity. Traditional staffing agencies place emphasis about the large number of staff they can deliver regardless of the size of the event.  However, when it comes to event execution, often those numbers decrease dramatically due to staff not showing up.  DNA does not focus on selling clients on how many staff they can provide, but rather on the quality of staff.  Their team is held to industry highest standards.  They also focus prominently on program and brand education for all events, including supplemental training throughout the duration of a programs.  They currently reach clients through personal networking and referrals.  Marketing efforts are targeted at new client acquisition, with particular emphasis currently placed on improving search engine optimization.  Pricing is competitive with other agencies, and DNA has already taken business from national agencies by offering superior solutions at comparable prices.  Once the relationship has been established, DNA’s tailored event offerings improve their client retention.  An example is Microsoft, where an initial contract was signed for marketing and promotional efforts towards the Windows 8 campaign utilizing Surface Tablets.  Initial staffing started at 25 brand ambassadors, which, through DNA’s ongoing program training, was doubled over the course of 4 events.

Please check them out for your promotion and event staffing needs.

http://www.dnamarketingevents.com

Offer Up Startup Profile

OfferUp (www.offerupnow.com) is a start-up that focuses on buying and selling items locally in a safe, easy, and very fast way. It’s the modern-age equivalent of craigslist on mobile phones that is also lightning fast and very easy to use. Users can literally post an item for sale within 30 seconds! I spoke with Ian Fliflet, their VP of Marketing, to learn more about their marketing strategy and how they acquire customers. Ian joined the team 5 months ago, and has helped me understand what OfferUp is doing to market their cool new product. The most surprising part to me was how much reliance they have on word of mouth, which must speak volumes of how great the user experience must be, if they’re depending on that for customer referrals without the need for paid referrals. Right now the offering is entirely free, but sooner or later OfferUp will need to start thinking about how to monetize this solution. 

Ian stated that their target market is everybody with a smart phone that wants to buy and sell items locally in a secure environment.  While Ian did not mention any demographics or behavioral segment that they are targeting, I would guess that they might be targeting younger tech-savvy individuals/professionals that either don’t have the time to invest in lengthy/complicated processes such as posting items on eBay then having to deal with shipping and such, or are weary of using sites such as craigslist and eBay to buy/sell things from/to strangers. OfferUp gives these users a way to do that quickly from their mobile phone, and know who they’re buying from, so they can feel safer about the transaction.  While there is no ‘buyer protection’ program like in other major sites such as Amazon or eBay, it’s something that they’re thinking about, but for now de-anonymizing the buyers and sellers seems to be sufficient. To help with de-anonymizing they have a feature called TruYou that verifies a user’s identity and awards them a badge on their profile as an indication of trustworthiness.

Offer up is providing an improved way of doing things, so they’re not creating a new market but are aiming to improve on an already existing market with some innovative disruption in the way people sell and interact with others during that process.  To accomplish this, they’re positioning themselves as the ‘simple, safe, smart’ way to sell things.  To reach their customers, OfferUp are focused on creating and nurturing a relationship with users on their phones. To do this, they are using all the usual social media channels but with a heavy focus on mobile specifically. For example, they pay mainly for mobile ad placement. They also have a twitter account that they use to communicate with users, and more importantly a Facebook page where their fans can learn about the latest and greatest.  To acquire new users, they continue to use paid acquisition channels, but they rely heavily on word of mouth. The idea there is that they make the experience so pleasant and so much better than the competition that users will tell all of their friends, and this seems to be working quite well for them so far.

KERBspace, Inc

Have you ever wandered down the streets in a new place, wondering what you haven’t discovered yet? What is it that the locals know that you don’t? Who has the best donuts? And what is the easiest way to find out?

Let me introduce KERB!, an interactive network of information within an area that allows neighbors and visitors to “discover, connect and engage” in the community around them. The simplest way to describe KERB! is a series of interactive screens spaced throughout a geographical area which are curated to provide users on the street with a variety of information – how to get from point A to B, the weather, quick polls to get opinions, access to emergency services, and most importantly what is available around them. The options are limitless and the KERB! team can “create and develop richer physical experiences using real-time location, monitoring, cloud connectivity and communications to and from the point where it actually happens”.

Bill Clem is the man behind the idea and the Chief Engagement Officer of KERBspace. I first met Bill during a demonstration of a product he had developed to address parking management in urban areas. Although an intriguing idea, the complications of implementation and other challenges prevented us from moving forward with discussions. About three weeks ago he was back in town – with a different idea he had developed after taking feedback and input from those he had presented his previous idea to. I chose Bill for this interview as he is one of the few people I have interacted with who took our feedback to heart and came back with something that addressed the problems we were facing.

KERBspace disrupts an existing market (wayfinding) but adds features that make it entirely new. As the Director of Marketing and Communication at the Alliance for Pioneer Square (a neighborhood business development organization), I am the target market for KERB!. Other target customers include municipalities, departments of transportation, community groups, merchant associations, chambers of commerce, and business development areas. The marketing channel is not something they have developed yet as they are still focusing on validating their hypothesis with their potential customers. They are aware of some of the challenges that they will face at that point – one of the issues we discussed was automation and how to make the product as turnkey as possible.

At the closing of the interview, Bill and I discussed keeping people involved in the area, the advantages of walkability, and the importance of both social and cultural engagement. This focus on individuals and human interaction, coupled with his ability to separate what customers and users say they want versus what they actually want give me high hopes for the success of this project.

http://kerbspace.com

http://www.twitter.com/KERBspace

Gesto

Gesto is focused on building fantastic guest and customer experiences in the entertainment, hospitality, and retail industries.  Gesto has developed a unique technology platform that enables businesses to effectively manage their guests’ preferences in order to deliver personalized experiences resulting in long-term, customer loyalty.  According to the Gesto website, “we believe customers should be greeted by name, should be served according to their preferences and importance and should be able to share their experiences with their friends and colleagues in tangible and meaningful ways”.

Gesto offers B2B solutions for businesses in the hospitality, retail, and entertainment industries.   Gesto’s customers utilize their platform to manage customer information and preferences.  Gesto’s customers would integrate Gesto’s technology into their own mobile or web-based applications, meaning consumers never actually see Gesto’s technology.

Gesto believes they’re operating in a new and unique market space that is “a crossover between point of sale systems, loyalty programs, and SaaS platforms” according to Steve Johnson, CEO of Gesto.  Johnson adds that the concept of “a guest and fan experience industry” is a new market that is disrupting the fan loyalty and points rewards systems markets.

Interestingly enough, Gesto wasn’t always focused on B2B .  They initially launched with a widely popular product called BarTab.  However, Johnson said they came to a pivotal point where they had to make a tradeoff between focusing on consumers or enterprises.  They ultimately felt like enterprises would offer the best long term, scalable solution that would provide the best ROI for their investors.  Johnson considers BarTab their “proof of concept” for Gesto.   They’ve since shut down BarTab, but you can find more information on BarTab’s CrunchBase profile.

As a startup, Gesto has found that the most critical factor has been working with customers that are also willing to make an investment in them.   It comes down to understanding what they’re trying to achieve and not working with customers that try to take them off course from their strategic direction.  Gesto has a great set of investors and a very strong leader.  I’m very excited to watch this company evolve and grow!

Interview Profile: Lively

 

Lively is a one year old music/tech start-up based out of the SoDo neighborhood in Seattle. Lively is building an app and a platform for the purpose of bringing artists and fans closer together through live performances. They do this by allowing bands/artists to record their concerts and then make them available to fans in high quality merely moments after the show is over. The technology behind Lively is disrupting the way live performances are made available to fans by offering superior quality compared to the popular alternatives like fan made bootlegs and by offering a fast (yet high quality) turnaround on the recording. The process is so unique and novel that they have a patent pending on this idea. The value proposition is very clear to both the artists and the users. The artists now have a new avenue to not only connect with their fans but to also be able to monetize these live performance recordings. The users can now enjoy the show instead of being focused on their mobile devices to try and capture the moment.

The app is currently available for all major mobile platforms including iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Phone and already features a lot of content from artists. Distribution for the apps is handled through the various App Stores for the respective platforms. Recordings in the app are available as audio only or video and prices range from free to $9.99 determined by the artist. There is also another mechanism utilizing “promo codes” that allows users to download shows through the app. These codes can be sold at venues (for all the shows recorded at the venue) and other locations to expand the distribution of the product.

Although Lively does not seem to be currently focused on building their own brand, they are positioned as the fast and high quality platform to record and distribute live performances. They are currently engaged in many different activities to reach their customers (the users who purchase the performances available through the app) and by far the most successful channel has been to have the artists use and subsequently promote the product. As with any content based business there is an inherent supply/demand problem and Lively has done a great job of focusing on the content supply first. They have on-boarded several artists directly and are also in talks with record labels to have more artists start using Lively. All of the artists that have content available through Lively then promote the app to their fans which leads to increased awareness. Other activities which Lively relies on is blogging (to establish credibility in the industry), social networks (Twitter, Facebook etc.) and word of mouth.

To date, Lively has raised over $2 million in funding and is using the money to expand their platform. If anyone is going to be at SXSW, checkout any of the many shows Lively will be recording!

[1] http://www.getlive.ly/

February 24th – Pricing, Retention and Referrals Entrepreneurial Panel

On February 24th we had a great panel discussion centered on pricing, customer retention, and referrals. The panel featured 3 professionals representing a pretty diverse range of industries, expertise and professional backgrounds which made for a great discussion on a rich topic. The panel featured Ralph Derrickson, President & CEO of Carena Inc. Ralph has a background in venture capital at Vulcan. Jen Kellum Nausin is VP of Marketing at Trover and was formerly Director of Marketing at Cheezeburger.com. Michelle Saro is currently VP of Marketing and Business Development at iJet Onboard. Her experience includes involvement in 7 start-ups. To recap, we’ll share some of the questions that were posed (in italics below) followed by a summary of anecdotes and takeaways from the panel’s responses.

What are your biggest hurdles in retaining customers?

There was some great discussion here with a couple of commonalities echoed by the panelists. For one, all stressed the importance of figuring out and qualifying 1) who the target customer actually is and 2) which customers are most likely to be retained (since retention is typically much cheaper than acquisition). A lot of time and money can be spent just trying to figure out who the target customer profile should be, and marketing needs to figure out who this is, especially in a startup with limited means. Ralph and Jen also noted that their industries’ pace of change often requires them to pivot to figure out how to continually address their customers’ needs.

Discuss your customer base from the standpoint of new versus repeat and existing users. How do you think about them and how do they differ in terms of value?

Panelists really stressed the value of existing and repeat customers given the major investment (in both time and dollars) necessary to acquire new customers. This is especially true in industries such as Michelle’s (airline) where the target customer base is very finite and those clients are especially valuable and time consuming to obtain. Ralph stressed that rejection by customers is as important as success. Learning who isn’t going to buy your product and why is at least as important as learning who is buying. This traces back to the point above and the importance of defining your target customer.

What systems or strategies have worked in the way of obtaining referrals?

All panelists underscored the importance of referrals in growing their customer base. Jen took special focus on highlighting the importance of early stage partnerships as a means to obtaining referrals. When your company can work with another company to serve your customers both of you benefit and it can be a great way to grow your business. For instance for Trover (a travel startup) they have created some early stage partnerships with MSN and Bing. Ralph mentioned that the damage of one bad referral from Business to Business could be higher compared to Customer to Customer. Thus, it’s important to find the dynamic of the market to obtain referral by focusing on the 2 M, Marketing and Model to Make Money.

What steps have your companies taken in building their public images?  Did the image evolve organically or was its evolution deliberate and strategic?

Every panelist echoed that their firms had very intentional and deliberate focus on constructing their public image. All had varying reasons for caring but noted the importance of how their firms were perceived within their industries, the press, and with customers. This can’t be left to chance. In Michelle’s case her customer base is so finite (and accordingly, each player so important) that iJet must exert a lot of control over its image. For Ralph, controlling the public image is especially important because his firm straddles two industries, technology and healthcare (which is very sensitive to image), which have very different cultures and values so he needs to manage his image accordingly. He very purposefully created an environment that would inspire others by combining cultures from health-care, technology and marketing.

How did you develop your pricing strategies and have they evolved over time?

The group had a really rich discussion on this topic. In Michelle’s case her pricing must be cost based because so much of the airline industry’s pricing is already rooted in a cost-plus model, so iJet needs to conform to this industry norm. Ralph noted that his company tried to employ cost based pricing but it was hard given industry dynamics (for one, costs are obscured in the healthcare industry). Carena’s pricing has become more value based over time as they’ve become better known in the industry and they’ve better understood the value of their product to the customer.

Ralph also stresses that you’re never going to get pricing right. You’re going to scrutinize and debate it, but it won’t be perfect. Pricing is fickle and developing it is a trial-and-error process to some extent that is shaped by your company’s culture, product or industry. It’s never perfect and it’s often hard to construct (especially in the case of a startup) because you often have no data or value system. Strategy plays into pricing significantly at all stages of the growth curve, but as your industry or product matures it tends to become clearer.

–AllergenAware: Bijal Ghedia, Chris Daily, Max Sun, Pei Yu, Rob Penney and Jenn Brock

Uber PR

I have become a Uber customer since last summer and I quite enjoyed my experience so far. This personal driving service allows me to use my mobile phone to request a private driver. Uber is winning and all I hear about Uber are positive things not only because they provide exclusive service but also because of their massive media exposure.

Uber almost reached 10 thousand followers on Twitter and 25 thousand likes on Facebook. Both channels serve as major media outlets which can build virality quickly around Uber news. Promotions like helicopter rides to East Hampton for $3,000,cooperation with The Calgary Foundation, and deliver kittens to customers’ doorsteps all proved that Uber is highly engaged in the PR campaign and community development.

Uber’s PR and community management activities are more geared to raise people’s awareness and get people’s interests but as the customer group has grown rapidly I suggest Uber pay more attention to its existing customers.

In terms of the improvements I would recommend Uber start to grow its presence in Instagram as it’s the most engaged social media nowadays.

BIOGLOW

http://bioglowtech.com/about.html

Bioglow is one of those companies that draw my attention immediately. Basically they make the plant glowing! Yes, just like those glowing plant in Avatar.

Bio-luminescence is not news in science, but, successfully transplant the luciferase gene (from firefly) to living plants is definitely a big achievement. Even this genetic modified glowing plant is still on its early developing stage, the potential market of its related application is enormous. It is risky to invest a technology company like the Bioglow, since you would never know when or where they might find out there are some obstacles that they would probably never be able to overcome. But high risk usually lead to high reward, and bottom line, it’s one of a kind bio-technology. 

HOMR Sports – College Fantasy Football Done Right

Fantasy sports have witnessed a boom over the past two decades. Amid growth in players (at least 33 million Americans played fantasy sports in 2013) and revenues (estimated at more than $2 billion in 2013 alone), one only need look at the influence of football as the primary instigator. Forbes estimated that nearly 75% of the pie is a result of the NFL and the introductions of more websites, publications, and TV channels are just a few of the reasons to point to football as America’s sport.

But right behind the NFL in the American consciousness is NCAA football. Growing in popularity right alongside the NFL, the NCAA sees some 100 million fans attend games each year. Yet the percentage of college football fans that play fantasy college football pales in comparison. That’s why Daniel Hour’s project is so fascinating.

Hour, formerly of the athletic departments at the University of Washington and UCLA, has created a fantasy college football game to disrupt the current model. He recognized that the loyalty of a fan’s alma mater or favorite college team is much stronger than most professional team loyalties. So the professional leagues’ player selection model needed to be different, with as much opportunity to avoid rostering rival schools’ players. In response to that understanding, Hour created a game that would allow fans to select players from their favorite school only, a new and innovative approach to fantasy sports that capitalized on the passion of college football.

Knowing that fantasy sports have grown in digital presence, Hour’s company, called HOMR Sports, went live last week through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr). HOMR Sports is currently in private beta but fans and future players can sign-up at www.HOMRsports.com for free.

HOMR Sports is positioned to fill a huge void in the current fantasy sports market space. Hour’s research has indicated that strong influencers within personal networks are especially powerful in fantasy sports, as these influencers are often the commissioners that recruit their friends to join their leagues. With the combination of their social network presence and word-of-mouth referrals, Hour knows there’s still a long way to go, but is excited by the early feedback.

Torch Illumination

I had the opportunity of interviewing the founder of Torch Illumination, Lisa Ravenel. She started Torch back in 2010 whilst she was still in college. Initially, her goal was to make enough money from the business to cover school expenses however, Torch has evolved into an artisanal candle making company that seeks to create a lasting social impact in the area of reforestation.

According to Lisa, Torch is a result of a google query for “businesses with zero startup costs”. She was determined to start and run a business she could enjoy without any huge upfront capital investments. From its early beginnings, Lisa has validated and improved her line of candles through feedback from her friends, relatives and coworkers who also became customers and ambassadors of Torch.

Candles produced by torch are handcrafted from natural soy and recycled glass containers. With the purchase of each candle, a tree is planted. This is made possible through partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. A big differentiating factor between Torch and other artisanal candle makers is its social mission which has become a source of competitive advantage in this market. The company also emphasizes its all natural and recycled product components which is also another differentiator.

It relies on social media channels mainly Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to interact with its customers. It primarily retails through sustainability and local themed stores in Washington State. Torch’s line of candles are also available on Amazon and its website. Torch uses social media to inspire its customer base and to inform them about new product lines and scent profiles. The company targets key decision makers for home purchases who are mainly women between the ages of 20 and 50. It also caters to weddings and other custom orders.

A successful fundraising campaign on Indiegogo was useful in broadening the customer base and encouraging trial of the candles. This campaign proved useful for Torch as it generated some buzz on its social media platforms and collected data on its customer preferences for the scents it has developed.

All in all, my interview with Lisa proved to be a great learning experience. I learnt how valuable it is to run a business you genuinely enjoy or are passionate about, oftentimes it can be the key factor to success.

Entrepreneur Interview – CervoCheck

CervoCheck™ is a medical device that accurately detects the onset of preterm labor to allow the timely prevention of preterm birth. It does this by measuring the electrical signals characteristic of contractions after it is inserted into the vaginal canal/cervical opening. The hope is for physicians to spot oncoming preterm labor in pregnant women earlier than by using an external tocodynamometer (the most commonly used device), which is less effective in women who are obese or earlier in gestation. In general, current methods lack the ability to detect early signs of preterm labor to prevent preterm births, which account for 70% of neonatal morbidity and mortality.

The device was born from a biomedical engineering project between four graduate students at Johns Hopkins University. In 2010, the team came together to form the company CervoCheck, LLC and began the path to patent, test, fund, and develop the device. Karin Hwang, one of the co-founders and CEO of the startup, was nice enough to explain that the group saw a problem and a need for such a device in the medical market, given the shortcomings of the current options. There are over 500,000 preterm births in the US of the nearly 4m babies born, costing the US healthcare system approximately $26.2b (figures that are much higher when viewed from a global context). As the medical field is sensitive to change given the inherent risk of new technology, the team decided to initially target perinatologists (physicians that see high risk-patients on a daily basis, $59m market), as they would benefit the most using the device, before widening the product for general obstetric physician use ($980m market). The conservative nature of physicians meant for the product to be adopted, the team had to prove the device was safe and easy to use and for that reputation to spread through word of mouth around physician circles. The product is still in R&D, after just completing animal trials, with hopes to have results published in major journals soon.

The company plans to target CervoCheck™ towards physicians, hospitals, and obstetric practices (the primary users) rather than the patients. This device would potentially disrupt the existing tocodynamometer market, as well as other devices that are used to measure and monitor other indicators of labor (such as the transvaginal ultrasound and the CerviLenz device). Again, due to the conservative nature of the field, the team plans to market the device by building a comprehensive set of clinical value test data supporting its effectiveness, including an in-depth multi-center clinical study and publishing results in respected medical journals to gain credibility. Once the device has proven its superiority over other devices at a comparable price point and ease of use, the company plans to engage potential customers through a direct sales force, eventually partnering with a well-known national distributor to branch into new markets and provider networks. As there are no equivalent products on the market, the company would displace existing, less precise technologies and position itself as the best solution for women at risk for preterm labor.

Entrepreneur Interview – Hoc Phan

I interviewed a serial entrepreneur named Hoc Phan. Hoc started multiple startups including Tivify an app that allows you to live tweet a TV show along with its cast.

I interviewed him recently about his latest venture. This company is still in the product development phase and hence it currently does not have a website. However he was willing to share his thoughts about the company, market space, target customers and channels to reach customers.

This is a mobile app/ website which acts as a Q&A place for customers to ask questions around home improvement and experts to give answers. This app is for home improvement; what stackoverflow is for writing computer programs. He says this model is transferrable once created, because it can be used in a variety of industries.

In today’s world, users typically go to YouTube or randomly search on Google for answers to many DIY questions. But there is a gap in this model: Even if you find answers, there are not very many relevant answers to customers’ individual situation. This app is aimed at solving that problem. Lets say for example, you want to fix a faucet; you simply take pictures of the faucet write a short description of the problem and ask for suggestions. After this, it becomes an interactive forum where experts are answering your questions.

The market that Hoc is going after is the Do it yourself (DIY) market, which is a $700B market globally. His idea will essentially disrupt an existing market. His product is intended to be a pain killer in many ways. Stores like Loews and Home Depot typically provide the DIY tools and not offer consultation on how you can solve the problem. In fact; if you want to buy these tools from Loews, you need to do some research before-hand to understand if you can solve the problem without calling a plumber, what tools to buy from Loews and finally how to fix the faucet. The App that Hoc is developing will fix this gap.

Talking about Customers, he said there are two groups of customers – The Users who ask questions and the Experts who answer them. The experts are incentivized by assigning activity points to them, adding tabs like “Was this review helpful” and also offering reward points later on. He says he is going to add more incentives in this space in the future to grow this community. The User community and the Experts community feed into each other and become a virtuous circle.

In terms of the channels to reach customers, Hoc is planning a two-pronged approach: one is a free approach, another is a paid approach.

In the free approach, he is planning on promoting this App in Social media communities like Facebook and Twitter. He is planning on soliciting feedback through these channels to constantly improve his product. Also, he plans on using these channels to monitor user comments and resolve problems that his customers are facing.

In terms of capturing the first set of customers, he plans on starting in these communities. Also he plans on reaching out to friends and family to try the app and promote the app in many communities on Social media.

In the paid approach, there are different methods to use: Paid SEO search, where you pay for certain keywords and appear on top of the search results; also you can advertise on relevant web pages for people to click on it and visit his web site. His thinks that it is too soon for him to be thinking about marketing his product mainly because marketing for start-ups could turn out to be very expensive. 

In conclusion, I think this app would definitely address problems not only in the home improvement market, but will disrupt all industries including medical & education sectors. Please feel free to check out Hoc’s previous companies here.

Entrepreneur Profile: Northwest Group Real Estate

I had the opportunity to interview the founder of Northwest Group Real Estate (NWG) based right here in Seattle at University Village (http://nwgrealestate.com/).  Nick and co-founder Pat Suarez founded NWG in 2007 and have seriously disrupted the local residential real estate market.  NWG is a boutique firm with 10 brokers and focuses on the core markets of NE Seattle and the Eastside.  Nick started NWG with the vision that many people were ready to turn away from the traditional model of the broker as a transaction provider, and wanted to form a deeper relationship with their broker, one that would span first home purchase, through move-up to downsize and everything in between.  His hypothesis was correct; by word of mouth and through hundreds of referrals, NWG has sold $250M in residential real estate since 2010.  The firm rarely loses a client and over 97% of their listings lead to a successful sale. 

Nick and his team take the long view when it comes to client acquisition and satisfaction and truly put the interests of their clients first, emphasizing customer education and advising against a purchase or sale if it isn’t in their clients’ best financial interests.  Nick created the ClientCare Program for his clients, consisting of quarterly reports outlining home maintenance recommendations, a comprehensive network of home-related resource referrals, and personal assistance from NWG’s administrative staff contacting and coordinating home repairs and improvements.  There are no other residential real-estate firms in the NW that provide this level of value to the homeowner.  While most brokers’ primary concern is the transaction, NWG focuses on a cradle-to-grave homeowner experience.  Additionally, NWG offers a true “team approach” to handling clients.  It’s common for the administrative staff and each of the ten brokers to know or be familiar with all of the firm’s clients by name.

NWG has been extremely successful in creating new business through client referrals.  They received over 150 in 2013, including 35 first time homebuyers.  Marketing efforts include direct high-quality mailings to specific areas as part of a geographic marketing plan, and placement of educational articles and ads in specific magazines (WAC Quarterly and Luxury Homes Magazine).  These targeted efforts have been successful – last year NWG held a 15% market share in West Bellevue for sales above $1.5M. 

Nick routinely turns down opportunities to grow the company, instead preferring to keep NWG’s boutique positioning.  Where most real estate companies pursue a volume driven business model, NWG has been very successful so far because of its quality driven business model.  And with over 400 transactions in Seattle and the Eastside over the last three years, including an average 2013 selling price of $822,000, it’s clear NWG’s strategy is paying off. 

Entrepreneur Profile: White River Distillers

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a new startup that is passionate about making American Whiskey.  Co-founded by Brian Fulker, White River Distillers has a mission to make the world’s best Bourbon Whiskey and Apple Pie Moonshine. White River Distillers operates in the Whiskey & Bourbon Distillers industry with well-financed competitors and strong laws and regulations. In fact, to be considered Bourbon Whisky, it must contain a minimum of 51% corn, be produced in the United States, be distilled at less than 80% ABV (160 proof) and be aged for a minimum of two years in new charred barrels. (http://www.tastings.com/spirits/american_whisky.html)

Bourbon is a booming market with $1 billion in bourbon and Tennessee whiskey exported in 2013. “Exports of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey were up 5 percent, to $1.005 billion in 2013 from $956.8 million in 2012, a $50 million increase.” According to research, Whiskey exports are explored mainly to Japan (up 68 percent since 2012 to $120.8 million), Germany (up 114 percent to $140 million), France (up 268 percent to $130 million), the United Kingdom (up 89 percent to $159.6 million), and Spain (up 171 percent to $69.8 million). (http://www.kentucky.com/2014/02/04/3068368/bourbon-tennessee-whiskey-exports.html#storylink=cpy)

Bourbon Whiskey is an established and defined market but the craft distiller sector is becoming an emerging market. This is the space that White River Distillers will compete in and to be competitive, Brian’s focus will be on his marketing plan, price and distribution strategies. Brian is currently finalizing a 3-year contract with a local Prosser company to process his products and is in the process of signing with Columbia distributors to distribute his products to local bars, restaurants, friends and families.  Brian is still developing his plans and has not firmed up his strategy for how to reach his customers.  But one thing is clear and unpromising and that is he will not compromise the quality of his products. He has decided to use only locally grown grains and botanicals in their products and will tap into his network of friends in Eastern Washington for organic apples.

In the last few years, Brian and his partner have been brewing and testing their products. The production takes 120 days from grains to a finished product. His first set of “customers” has been his closest friends and families. In fact, I had a sample of his Apple Pie Moonshine and it was the best I ever tasted. To bring this delicious product to the general market, he has started the registration process which has been his biggest pain points, besides the strict rules and regulations, time to develop, market, and distribute, and the research and development.

Brian is very passionate about his Whiskey and his passion is clear with the taste of his Apple Moonshine.  He has a great and ambitious plan and I am excited for his production to roll out to the market.

Company’s website: http://whiteriverdistillers.com/ does not work

https://www.facebook.com/whiteriverdistillers

https://twitter.com/WRDistillers

Moving Worlds

I had a chance to sit down with Mark Horozowski CEO/co-founder of Moving Worlds (UW MS Accounting ’07) to discuss his inspiration and experience starting the company. Moving Worlds (MWs) is building a global network that matches skilled professional with volunteering opportunities around the world. It’s a bit like Peace Crops mixed with Match.com. The mission is to accelerate the impact of social impact organizations around the world while connecting people with life-enriching experiences. Inspiration sprang out of a yearlong sabbatical where he volunteered in multiple countries helping local organizations with marketing. After the experience people in his network began pinging him, asking about referrals for professionals that could help them with different business expertise, i.e., “Do you know someone in Nepal that can help us with a marketing problem?”. The business idea for Moving Worlds emerged from this expressed need.

According to Mark there are 1.6 million people who volunteer overseas every year (his sources included UN reports and academic papers). The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 62 million people volunteered in 2013 in the US alone[1]. Over 50% of overseas volunteers have graduate degrees. Only 30-40% associate with Faith Based organizations. That leaves a large market of professionals looking for access to overseas volunteer opportunities. For the overseas market must people are already paying to volunteer. MWs ran a survey to understand barriers. Most people don’t volunteer for three main reasons: (1) family responsibilities don’t allow, (2) job responsibilities don’t allow, (3) cost is prohibitive.

The MW product is positioned as a marketplace for matching skilled professionals seeking meaningful volunteer opportunities with organizations around the world needing access to talent. The value add services provided for the individual include filtering and vetting opportunities and aggregating the search in one place, automated online forms that streamline the process, and 1 on 1 coaching to help place professionals with the best match for the best experience. The value added service for the organizations is access to a ready vetted network of skilled professionals allowing them to find the right match for the need with minimal effort and cost.

For the B2C market, MWs is targeting skilled professionals by resegmenting the existing volunteering market. Sub segments within the skilled professionals include graduate students, sabbatical ready professionals, and early retirees. MWs is reaching these customer primarily through web (website, LinkedIn, online testimonials), email, and word-of-mouth.

For the B2B market, MWs is targeting corporate managers wanting skill based volunteer programs for their employees. Mark arrived at this approach after his initial hypothesis, which was to build a white label B2B solution for organizations. He quickly learned that he was targeting the wrong decision makers in the B2B segment. CSR and HR managers did not want to pay to expand their programs to include volunteer services. He learned later that innovative team managers valued the service as a career development option for their teams so MWs pivoted to target team managers directly. To acquire their first set of customers they connected directly with consultants (via trade shows) already working with employ retention programs at major corporations. This gave them a direct sales channel to reach corporations by working through consultants looking to differentiate their services to corporate clients. These consultant organizations include: Realized Worth, SustainAbility, and Good.is.

People have been volunteering for a while using a variety of tools to identify opportunities, most often paying to do it overseas. MWs makes the process easier by bringing organizations and volunteers together in one place and reducing the cost through a new pricing structure. Typically, organizations that host people will charge $2000-3000/wk to volunteer. That doesn’t include airfare, vaccinations, etc. MWs is changing the pricing structure by using a membership model that charges $99/year for the Do-it-yourself search, and $249 per year for the supported plan. The supported plan offers a personalized search process for those volunteers wanting to find the right fit. Volunteers’ typically still cover airfare but lodging is taken care of.

MWs PR and promotion program is geared more towards the top of the funnel. Since they are an early startup their main goal is to reach new customers by generating awareness and communicating the value of their service to the user. They do this through word of mouth, volunteer testimonials and “opportunity of the week” announcements on their website. For people that sign up to their service they have an email “nurturing” campaign that helps educate people on opportunities and considerations with volunteering. They haven’t gotten to this yet but they plan to start blogging and developing whitepapers to help educate customers on volunteering: the risks of doing it wrong by not doing your homework and picking the wrong organization and what it means to have a volunteer program set up for long term success of the organization that needs help. This will help people better understand the valuable services MW provides. They also use social media, with Facebook and Twitter accounts. For host organizations they are developing a partnering strategy to give volunteer candidates the ability to target a specific organization by giving host organizations a web interface to post opportunities and other information.

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[1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm

Handwritten Productions

Like most small theatre companies, Handwritten Productions depends on the passion of it’s creators to function.  The company, now four years old, survives in a niche of the young, not yet established artists of Seattle.  The founders found themselves in a state post-undergraduate degree, trying to make connections and work around the city, yet not working on projects that excited them.  Working with minimal resources, they decided to produce a play, and create the work they wanted.  

Drawing from the existing theatre market of Seattle, the company looks for actors and artists for each show trying to make their mark.  Julia, one of the founders, described to me that tickets for the performances mainly come from word of mouth, depending on company members to spread the word about the show.  They incorporate the use of printed materials like postcards, digital media like email and Facebook.  The mailing list allows the company to release reviews, show announcements and audition notices.  Looking at the website, each show has been reviewed a few times by bloggers, yet the company has not had yet been established enough to interest the print media of Seattle.  Julia did comment that Facebook was more effective four years ago when they started than it is now.  She felt that users of the social media site are more constantly inundated with invites and shares that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.  

Julia also mentioned that the goal of the company is to provide the ideal mix of good process for the makers, and still create a product that appeals to the theatre community at large.  Her ideal audience outcome is that two people can exit the show with two very different opinions and have a good debate about the issues raised by the play.  

Planetary Resources

Planetary Resources, formerly Arkyd Astronautics, is an asteroid mining company on a mission to mine asteroids for their natural resources for the benefit of future space exploration and for the benefit of the Earth’s GDP.  This will be accomplished through low-cost robotic spacecraft that will allow them to monitor and determine the asteroids composition that have similar orbit patterns and that are within close proximity to the Earth.

Over the years of space exploration, scientists have found that asteroids are rich in natural resources such as rare metals and water.  The water will be used to fuel and sustain future space exploration and the metals will be used to fuel Global GDP.

Planetary Resources meets all of the criteria for a good investment.  There is a market and the size is in the billions.  Planetary Resources will be the market driver in that they are the only company in this market at this time.  Government agencies such as NASA, the scientific community and universities, non-profit institutions and the commercial spaceflight sector will all be interested in the technology.  They have a good model.  Planetary Resources has the knowledge and expertise to develop the low-cost robotic spacecraft it plans to incorporate in its mission.  They have a world-class management team and a solid group of advisors, such as James Cameron, Sara Seager, Ph.D. and General T. Michael Moseley (Ret.) and first class investors in Ross Perot, Jr., Larry Page, Richard Branson and most recently, the largest construction and engineering firm in Bechtel.

Planetary Resources would be a good company to invest in.  Their team of managers, advisors and investors are all passionate about sustaining life on earth by developing technologies to extract resources from space.  The idea is intriguing and I will be very interested to see what happens next.

Bluemela

My entrepreneur is Anwar Hossain and his company is called Bluemela^** (http://www.bluemela.com/).

(**Note:  This business was started in the early 2000’s and, though the domain still is owned by Anwar, he’s no longer selling artisanal goods through the site today.**)

The business idea centers on Anwar’s recognition of the lack of creative, artisanal products (e.g. handbags, candles, leather goods) from Bangladesh on the global market.  Similar-styled goods are available in stores like Pier 1 or Cost Plus World Market, but never had they originated from Bangladesh.  Anwar sought to change that – though not in contracting with and distributing Bangladeshi goods to these retail chains.  Anwar’s goal was to market the Bangladeshi goods directly to consumers through a number of channels, namely:  website, hosted parties, direct mailers, and through trade shows.  In addition, given that he himself is from Bangladesh, this served an altruistic purpose for Anwar – providing more global exposure to artisanal Bangladeshi goods.

The market for goods such as these already existed but it didn’t include Bangladeshi products.  In this way, Anwar proposed to introduce them and serve as an existing market disrupter.  Anwar was seeking environmentally conscious shoppers in that the majority of his products were made from a Bangladeshi fiber called jute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute_trade).  Jute is a high tensile, eco-friendly plant fiber that can be used to make various products; but, as stated earlier, there was little exposure for these products globally, especially in the United States (where Anwar was located at the time).  The key differentiators in Anwar’s product were its location of origin (Bangladesh), its predominant construction material (jute fiber), and style in which they were made (unique design).

In my conversation with Anwar, the channels used to reach his customers are below:

• Website – being a web developer himself, this was a low cost entry into the direct to consumer market.  Anwar was able to advertise his products through the site and take physical orders from customers willing to put down credit card as their payment instrument.  Search engine optimization may have helped Anwar drive more traffic to the site, though realize these were still the early days of search advertising and search optimization.
• Trade shows – Anwar stated he went to trade shows in Georgia and Florida to get word out on his product.  These trade fairs were used to develop relationships with store owners and for Anwar to take orders directly from others seeking his goods.  During these trade shows, ‘representatives’ would help broker these conversations amongst the businesses.  A pivot point occurred during these conversations in that Anwar realized store owners often wanted customizable product – i.e. adding names, locations, etc. to his goods.  This is something he originally wasn’t prepared to include at the time, though could have offered another point of differentiation, if pursued.
• Direct mailers – low cost method employed to reach constituents within certain demographic markets.
• Hosted parties – Anwar mentioned that he would use friends/colleagues in certain neighborhoods to host events where his goods would be displayed.  These were successful and often resulted in orders.  One potential drawback to hosted parties were that the orders produced were often not made in sizable quantities allowing Anwar to capitalize on production economies of scale.  It was more advantageous for him to batch production in sizes of 100+ items.

Overall, my thoughts are this was an impressive effort by Anwar to develop a business that he felt passionate about and had the skills necessary to get it off the ground, all while working at a primary job (this was his side project!).  The MBA he’s currently getting at Foster today provides an interesting point of reflection because he acknowledged he likely would have approached the business differently given some of the tools he’s picked up since then.  But hindsight is 20/20…..

Trellis

Trellis is a company focused on sourcing interior finishes for large-scale residential or hospitality construction projects, such as hotels and condos.  The “interior finishes” category includes cabinets, doors, shelving, slab countertops and shower enclosures, among many other possible items.  The items are made at a factory in China then shipped to America for installation.

The company is targeting the construction and design market.  Specifically, they are going after general contractors, developers, architects, and interior designers.  In some cases architects or interior designers will specifically call for their products to be used in the projects.  In other cases a general product description will be provided and Trellis will provide bids and information to the builder or general contractor.  They will engineer products to fit their needs if they don’t currently offer what is being requested.  They are carving out space in an existing market, trying to have more efficient operations and better product selection than other competitors.

Trellis is currently in the middle of a rebranding project.  The company was originally positioned as providing local and sustainable products, but quality and pricing issues necessitated the need to move sourcing operations back to China.  They will be changing their name to Intero and position themselves as sourcing quality items from China and good prices.  They are using a variety of online and offline methods to reach their customers.  A primary channel is Builder’s Exchange, an online platform for sharing construction plans and taking bids.  Trellis finds projects here, sends the plans to the factory for estimating, then submit a bid to the developer.  They also use Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels, but these efforts are minimal.  The construction industry is decidedly low-tech so the primary channel for reaching customers is word of mouth and personal relationship building.