So Alex made a post recently on the Texas Startup Blog about “being the Michael Arrington of your city.” I thought to myself, I guess technically that’s already me since I’m blogging about Fort Worth (and DFW area) startups and entrepreneurship.
So, I thought I would take it a step further and become the Robert Scoble of DFW as well. Armed with my recently aquired Flip video camera, I conducted my very first, albeit extremely short, interview on video for the Fort Worth Startup Blog. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Okay, so clearly I have a long way to go in my journey as a videographer/interviewer. But we all have to start somewhere right?
I am about to drop a bombshell on you. The kind of secret that you only hear about on the radio associated with some weird 800 number and really bad domain name.
The real good stuff… you ready?
The answer to how to make money in 2009 with your web startup is…..
CHARGE PEOPLE MONEY!
Are you completely taken off guard and shocked at such advice? I wouldn’t be surprised. We’ve been slowly conditioned over the past couple years (as consumers and as web entrepreneurs) that the products/services we use or create should be free (Twitter, Facebook, gmail, etc, etc) or at least start out that way.
Let’s be clear, this is a sure-fire way NOT to make money. Got it?
My mantra for 2009 is “Charge Early and Charge Often.”
Sure you might have less users, sure the users you do have will be more demanding. But that is OK! I am completely floored everytime someone brings up the issue of monetizing Twitter (or another such ‘free’ service’). Ummm, charge your 1 million+ users $1/month to use the service. Even if you lost 50% of your users (highly unlikely) that is still a pretty nice chunk of change. Right?
The measuring stick is no longer how many users you have and how fast your userbase is growing. It will be how quickly you’re generating revenue (remember what revenue is?), and how fast your revenue is growing.
This has been a lesson in common sense. Thanks for reading ;-)
It’s 2009 and this year is already shaping up to be an action packed year for SpringStage! True to the roots of the organization, the first official SpringStage event of 2009 will be the Dallas Startup Happy Hour.
From the Upcoming page:
The Dallas Startup Happy Hour is the talk of the startup community in Dallas. Check out the coverage in the Dallas Morning News: http://tinyurl.com/sshhdfw As a result of the events, several startups have found a) employees, b) co-founders, c) angel investors and d) had a few free drinks.
Are you interested in connecting with the local startup community? We are working to build a vibrant startup community here in Dallas every bit as interesting and dynamic as San Francisco, Boulder, Boston or Austin. The first step is engagement.
Sponsored by SpringStage - you are invited to attend. Please RSVP.
I will be there with my recently acquired Flip Video camera, and putting YOUR face on this blog :-) Hope to see you there!
The Fort Worth Business Assistance Center, in partnership with Lockheed Martin and Chase, is putting on EntrepreneurEXPO 2009 on April 22 at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Expo is for those who:
Want to start or buy a business
Expand a business
Want to do business with prime contractors, government entities, corporations and small businesses
The Expo offers:
Educational opportunities for small business owners
Access to more than 300 exhibitors and vendors
Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE’s)
Procurement opportunities with prime contractors and construction companies
Register before January 31st and get an early bird discount.
We’re going to be meeting at Snuffers in Southlake Town Square at 11:30a. Leave a comment if you’re coming!
I’m going to be doing a little co-working tomorrow with THE Startup Lawyer, Ryan Roberts, in Southlake. If any of you west side folks want to me up with us for lunch, let me know!
If my past history of having lunch with Ryan is any indication, I assume we’ll be hitting up the Pei Wei right there near the Southlake Town Square.
Ever since we launched Tweet Congress a couple weeks ago, we’ve been on a non-stop rocket releasing new features and enhancements to the site. Here is a quick summary:
You can now sign a petition to get your Congressperson on twitter
View 7 and 30 day follow stats for the top 10 Congressional tweeters
Subscribe to Congressional tweet RSS feeds by party or simply get all of the tweets
View a tweet stream of the latest tweets from members of Congress
See a list of all members of Congress that are tweeting and login via twitter to follow all of them at once
There is nothing like an “economy in recession” to get really smart people to start putting their heads together and start coming up with some great ideas. As we’ve seen in the past, some of the most amazing companies have risen out of the ashes of previous bubble bursts and downturns.
As venture capitalists around the country tighten their purse-strings, I get the feeling that entrepreneurs will start to realize that for many endeavors, they don’t really need outside money. Why would you?
Okay, sure… maybe you have all the details worked out for a super efficient solar cell, or a new way to create bio-diesel more efficiently and in such cases you probably won’t have any trouble getting vc money. The VentureBeat rss feed provides ample evidence of this.
However, as money becomes more difficult for many startups to come by, savvy entrepreneurs will realize that for a lot their businesses, they don’t need any outside capital.
It’s OK to create your killer web app while moonlighting from your day job. It’s OK to do consulting or contract gigs to keep the lights on while you work on your project. It’s OK to get a release out quickly and charge for it, and then work to release updates often as you improve your service.
The tough times we’re facing will simply force all of to get more creative in order to accomplish our goals and live out our dreams of founding, building or working for a startup. It will also weed out the bad apples (companies and people) a lot faster. The people you hire now will probably have higher ambition, more dedication and a greater stomach for “the game.” You can probably place more confidence in your co-founders willing to start a new venture is this current climate.
As the new year progresses, I’m certain we will begin to hear more about some really cool things some really cool companies are doing and I bet a good portion of them will be bootstrapping their way to success.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget… when you boostrap and you succeed, you OWN a lot more of your success!
First of all, what the heck are The Crunchies?! If you don’t know,
The 2008 Crunchies is the second annual competition and award ceremony to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.
And now on to the top 5 reasons you should vote for ShopSavvy as the Best Mobile App of 2008
It was created and is being developed by Dallas-based Big in Japan. Support local entrepreneurs Rylan Barnes, Jason Hudgins and Alex Muse
It’s freaking innovative! How cool is it to be able to scan just about ANY product barcode and instantly know if you’re getting the best deal?!?
It saves people money. In this economy, every dollar counts. Granted, user plopped down a chunk of change for the phone, but ShopSavvy can make it up for them!
ShopSavvy creator and idea man, Rylan, won the Google Android Developer Challenge and a $275k prize. Respect!
Alex, who is also co-founder of SpringStage, regularly gets a bunch of DFW area entrepreneurs together and buy them drinks. This probably means you, so throw a little love back his way.
My fellow cohorts from Squeejee just launched a cool twitter mashup-today called TweetCongress. Here’s what Squeejee Mastermind/Pixel Pusher Wynn Netherland had to say:
What is TweetCongress?
TweetCongress is a grassroots movement to connect voters with their
representatives in Washington via Twitter. Users can find and follow
their congress men and women on Twitter or send them a note asking
them to start tweeting.
How did you come up with the idea?
Out of curiosity, I searched and found my representative, Congressman
Michael C Burgess on Twitter. Since there are only thirty-eight
members of the 110th Congress are online I had the idea to tweet ‘Hey
my congressman tweets!’ The idea just evolved from there.
What do you hope TweetCongress accomplishes?
The first goal is to get all five hundred thirty-five members of
Congress on Twitter. From there hopefully we can foster some
meaningful conversation between voters and their reps, shorten the
feedback loop and improve the process.
My generation is the facebook generation. When it launched it was for us, the college students. It was full of pictures of people doing crazy things and a bunch of party photos. There wasn’t anything professional about it.
As I meet new people while at events like Pitch Camp, or Startup Happy Hour it seems that more and more I’m getting Facebook friend requests from people who are really just professional acquaintances.
I’ve recently made it my policy that I’m keeping Facebook limited to my personal friends and family, and many people seem to be confused by this decision. To me, Facebook is not (and should not) be LinkedIn. I don’t really want everyone I ever meet “friending” me on Facebook and then checking out photos or messages that are really just meant for close personal friends or family.
So if you’re a professional contact, please do connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter, but I probably won’t accept your Facebook friend request.
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I am about to drop a bombshell on you. The kind of secret that you only hear about on the radio associated with some weird 800 number and really bad domain name.
