20 years from now, anyone who is a Mariners fan will remember how they watched Felix Hernandez dispatch the final 3 Tampa Bay Rays to pitch the 1st perfect game in team history. This video from the Jackson General, the Mariners AA team, is tough to beat.
Author Archives: Andy
A Quick Recap of Startup Riot Seattle
I took an afternoon this week to check out Startup Riot at the Sodo Showbox. This was the second year the event was held in Seattle, and I’ll say both years I’ve had a great experience. The event has some unique touches; sprinkled between the 30 3-minute pitches, are 2 keynotes, several networking opportunities, and a long lunch in which you can walk around and meet new people.
Rather than just recap the whole event, I took some notes on what start-up marketers could learn from some of the 30 presenters, both when pitching to customers, or investors. Note, the majority of this post is also up at www.relaborate.com/blog.
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It’s gutsy to take the plunge into the entrepreneurial waters. It’s even scarier to get up in front of 250 people, explain your entire company in 4 slides and 3 minutes, and take 3 more minutes of grilling from some judges.
But that’s what 30 brave entrepreneurs did Wednesday at Startup Riot in Seattle. To reward their courage, Startup Riot judge and keynote speaker Andrew Hyde asked everyone in the audience to blog about at least one of the companies. Blogging – well that’s something we can do. So here are a few things we learned about marketing your company, from both the judges and the start-up CEO’s who took the stage.
1) Show your excitement in everything you do: More than once, the judges asked the entrepreneur, “Are you excited about this project? If yes, then show us. Prove to us with your passion that this project will work.” This means in every powerpoint, blog post and meeting you attend, make sure that your excitement for your idea is contagious.
2) What is your 5 second 1-liner? Can you explain what you do in 5 seconds? Cindy Wu described her company, Microryza, as “Kickstarter for Science.” That’s easier to remember than, “We built a platform where people can fund scientific research, in an online market and where scientists can go and present their projects to try to receive funding.” Can you describe what you do in 5 seconds?
3) Prove you are the team to do it: Parend Paresh may be tackling an unsexy problem with VendScreen. But, it is so obvious that they know what they’re talking about, I would invest in a heartbeat. VendScreen is a touchpad that will be attached to vending machines and enable customers to pay for sodas or snacks by phone or credit card. Neat idea maybe, but why will it work? Well Parend explains his domain expertise, illustrates his partners’ domain expertise, and then tells a fact that all vending machines are going to be required by Federal law to put nutritional information somewhere on the outside of the machine. The fact that he knows this obscure legislation demonstrates that he knows the market for vending technology, and knows how to capitalize on emerging trends.
4) Talk about your wins: iHearNetwork, led by Paul Simonds, is a startup with 3000 users. Not only that, they have a 125 Daily Active Users and 250 Weekly Active Users. Taskk, has 7000 users already in a totally different market, adding 2000 in the last month. When you are a startup, find a number that you can trumpet. I don’t know if 3000 or 7000 users is a lot for the spaces these companies are in, but I wrote the numbers down. They sure sound good. And as one judge said to Placeling’s CEO, “If you aren’t bragging, you sound small.”
5) Show your product: Personify makes it easy for people to find social good opportunities and volunteer events. They already have 500 users. And yet through their presentation, they never showed us the product – which is actually quite lovely. People want to see that the product is live and working. Don’t make them imagine what it will be like. It’s too much work. Show your product everywhere you can. Your product is your story.
6) Explain the problem: Tim Hermanson of Arch started his presentation with a shot of a traffic jam. He asked that since we all have these digital devices in our pockets, why couldn’t anyone, anytime, see something that was happening in a different location so that we could avoid these traffic jams. If I was stuck in that traffic jam, why couldn’t I anonymously upload a photo from my location so others could see my pain and take another route? With the problem framed in a simple scenario, I can now understand the solution. The product becomes real when there’s something I can identify with.
7) Understand your competitors: Shawn Burke of Crowd Picsell wasn’t just asked to name some competitors, judges wanted to understand what he did better then them. If you are a customer, you want to know exactly what the benefits are of one company over the other. Don’t make the customer guess. Be the best at something, and explain exactly what it is that makes you the best over all others. It’s hard to lose when you are the best.
8) Tell a good, humanizing story: Jon Poland created Crowdegy, joining an already crowded survey space. But, he explained why his product would succeed by telling a story about his 5 year old. In his story, he shows his 5 year old how to use his product, and then the next day his 5 year old asks, “Daddy, can I play the dot game again today?” Jon got the point across: His product brings visualization to surveys, is fun enough to do over and over, and is so easy a 5 year old can do it.
There were a number of other startups to keep an eye on. Check out the whole list at StartupRiot.com. And if you were there, did you see any companies that stood out?
Photos from Ichiro’s 1st Game as a Yankee
Later tonight or tomorrow, I’ll get around to editing some of the notes I wrote from the game. Here are some pics in the meantime. Very surreal.
My Report From the Seattle Arena Town Hall Meeting
I couldn’t resist. I needed to check out the Town Hall meeting to discuss the SODO Arena Proposal. I had no idea what to expect.
The Town Hall was hosted by King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson, and Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien. I don’t have any previous knowledge of these two gentlemen, so I was able to enter this with an open mind.
In a word, the event was fascinating. I now understand why so many dumb decisions get made in City Council. You see, there are a lot of very old, very opinionated, very uninformed people who attend these meetings as a hobby. They have the ear of the Councilmembers. They ask questions that are irrelevant, obtuse, confusing and just plain non-sensical. But they show up, and their voice gets heard over silent oppositon and common sense.
However, this Town Hall was filled with 150-200 Pro-Arena supporters (to go along with maybe 50-75 against). And thanks to Sports Radio KJR, 710Sports.com, and SportsPressNW.com informing their listeners and readers with intelligent facts and data over the last few months, the Pro-Arena members of the crowd came across way more informed, way more intelligent and way more reasonable than those against it. In some circumstances you expected the Anti-Arena person with the microphone to follow up with, “And how do we know they REALLY landed on the moon? Were you there to see it?”
That being said, it’s clear that while the arguments against the proposal aren’t 100% sound, they are loud enough to potentially kill the deal. And with the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Times, and Port of Seattle working as hard as they can to stop it, you can’t just assume the deal will get passed because it makes sense. There are clearly a lot of politics in the way. If you care at all, I urge you to attend the important meeting on July 19.
But I’m not an opinion writer and I’m not an expert on this subject. so I tried as best I could to transcribe the 26 questions that the crowd was able to ask Councilmembers Ferguson and O’Brien. And I will say I was quite impressed with the two of them. I thought they were reasonable, well informed and bright.
I captured the main points and tried to stay unbiased in my transcription. I couldn’t keep track of which questions Ferguson was answering and which ones O’Brien was handling, so their replies are just mashed together. Here are all the questions and answers they went thru in about 70 minutes, in order:
1. What is wrong with the Key Arena? Why would we build a new arena in an industrial area?
The Key Arena doesn’t work for NBA basketball. It also doesn’t work for concerts. The proposal is to build a new arena in the stadium district. We do have to look at what effect that will have on our industrial area.
2. So is this deal for a stadium in SoDo or nothing?
For this proposal, yes. Chris Hansen has made it clear he’s not interested in building anywhere else.
3. Have the football and baseball stadiums worked out?
Yes (applause). However, we will have to ask, “Does the stadium reach a tipping point?”
4. Is 18,000 people at night a real traffic issue?
We’re analyzing. Independent reviews are being done to make decision based on data.
5. I’m not a sports fan, but why can’t you use the same footprint of the KeyArena? We could bore straight down and dig out the ground and go as deep as you wanted to. (Crowd: murmurs and disbelief)
People at city have looked at this. Not viable according to experts. I’m not an expert so I will have to rely on what the experts say.
6. Initiative I-91 passed to make sure we have no new taxes on sports arenas. Also, how will you backfill the lack of events at Key Arena if a new arena is built?
The City operates Key Arena at break even. We already wonder how long we will be able to continue to do so without giant improvements. We don’t have a plan to support those kind of improvements. This arena plan is also to support Key Arena. If Seattle is awarded an NBA team, it would need to play for 3 years in an improved Key Arena while new arena is being built. Mr. Hansen has committed to making improvements to Key Arena in this case, and those improvements would remain after the team moved to the new arena.
7. How can you submit to this kind of blackmail from a private property owner when the Port of Seattle is so important to us? (Crowd venomously boos this older woman.)
I hear your point on port. This is not blackmail, its a choice. Reasonable minds can disagree. The Port’s point is important. Reviews will be done, traffic and economic impacts. This isn’t an either/ or situation. We are hoping to get data to figure out how to make it additive.
8. I am a Building trades member. I’ve heard that port will stay quiet if they get their overpass built. It’s them doing the blackmailing. (applause)
We are all working on the (Lander St.) overpass issue. It would cost $200m to build. Mr. Hansen understandably doesn’t want to pay for it. If the Lander St overpass is most important issue, we will look at it. Impact of construction jobs can’t be understated.
9. Can you walk us thru the legal process of the MOU because it suddenly appeared without the knowledge of the public.
2 execs worked with Mr. Hansen and the Council was aware of what was going on. This wasn’t a backroom deal. The Mayor and the County Exec have the authority to work on this without a committee. That’s why we elect Execs.
10. A) Can we stop talking about Key Arena? (applause). B) As someone who lost a job, I understand why the port complained. But traffic studies show there’s no traffic after 4pm. Why isn’t the port on board with this?
There can be collaboration. Disagreements now can be healthy and there may be chance to make changes. Collaboration is taking place.
11. Has anyone seen any data from anywhere that backs up the Port’s claim that jobs would be lost?
(Raucous applause from crowd) No answer. (Note: Every time this question was asked, the Councilmembers tippy-toed around the obvious answer they didn’t want to say out loud. That answer is – No, there is no data. The Port is currently scrambling to pull together a report. According to a source I trust, the port is not exactly nimble, so getting a study together at this kind of pace is causing them all kinds of hassle.)
12. In economic terms the Key Arena is sunk cost. Key arena can make $1, new arena can make $2 . Key arena is an asset now. That property can be made into anything now. But this issue should go away. (No question asked)
13. The Martin report says east side of port will be rendered useless. (No question asked)
14. How will you protect jobs of current Key Arena employees?
We have to look at how the deal will be set up. We will look into ways that this is not something that would hurt Key Arena employees. It makes sense to give Key Arena employees first shot at jobs at new arena.
15. A Sports palace should fund itself. When the UW wanted us to build them a Sports Palace we voted it down and they got it built with tax dollars anyway. (Note: That statement was incorrect. The UW raised the money themselves.) We shouldn’t raise taxes to build a new sports palace. When the Panama Canal is expanded, 1/2 the Port’s traffic will disappear.
There should be no absolutes on these issues. This isn’t a tax it’s a bonding issue. (Note: No one seemed to understand the Panama Canal reference.)
16. Where does the NHL fit in? What are the safeguards if we don’t get an NHL team?
It’s not accurate to say that the arena deal needs the NHL. Mr. Hansen is focused on NBA. Potential comes down road for NHL. Likely that in the 3 years of arena being built they would pursue a NHL team.
17. Please raise hands because our elderly friends are raising theirs better than us….. It seems clear that the port is blackmailing us. They say the arena will cost 100,000 jobs. Where are they getting these facts?
We shouldn’t speak negatively about port, by insinuating they are blackmailing anyone. The decision should be grounded in real data. We’re asking for this analysis and won’t consider a deal without seeing this data.
18. Note: Jason Rubenstein then brought the house down with a fantastic monologue filled with facts, figures and emotion that came so fast an furious I couldn’t keep up. Well done, Jason. Well done indeed.
19. I’m hoping the council will consider what jobs will look like in the future arena. I don’t want to lose my family wage job in Key Arena.
The MOU states that jobs in new arena will be family wage jobs. No one is looking to outsource low wage contractors to replace current Key Arena employees.
20. The seawall repair will go to vote in November. The Kingdome was a perfectly good building (Crowd laughs in hysterics). If the seawall needs to go to a public vote, why can the council make the decision on the arena? After all, a seawall is a necessity, and a stadium is not. (Note: this man was 85 years old, so I don’t want to bash him too hard on the Kingdome comment.)
The Council can issue bonds, which are funds we need to pay back in some way. There’s no revenue model to pay back seawall bonds, so we have to raise taxes to pay it back. Thus, it has to go to vote. Arena bonds are not reliant on taxes. Now, we do need to make sure we have the security to cover the bonds, but we don’t need tax dollars to pay them back.
21. Is the city evaluating the revenue the right way? The I-91 issue.
Onsite revenues and land value issues are hard to forecast. (I’ll admit I got a little confused at the response.)
22. Port of Seattle is responsible for 194k jobs. They are the widening Panama Canal. I’m concerned about traffic.
(Note: Both the Councilmembers were perplexed by the non-question / unclear point the person was trying to make here, so they ignored it and moved on. It appears people against the arena are really concerned about this Panama Canal issue.)
23. The Stadium district is in the most transit rich area in the Pacific NW, and the perfect place to move people in and out of a stadium WITHOUT THEIR CARS. What’s the hangup here? (applause)
Relatively few people take mass transit to sporting events. While there is good transit, there will be 6000 cars going to games. We need to examine the issue carefully.
24. The NBA didn’t treat us well. How much money does the NBA have and why can’t they put the money up for a new arena?
If you are asking why the NBA won’t build an arena for us, well, that issue really isn’t on the table. I opposed the last arena deal because all residents of King County would be paying taxes. This deal is different. We have plenty of private-public projects. I don’t take absolutes. I don’t believe there can’t be public involvement in an arena. There is a significant investment from private citizens in this deal. I am sympathetic to public investment, but there is city by city competition across the country and public investment in stadiums is part of that. There are things to work on.
25. I live in West Seattle. There is so much construction these days. I can’t get home when I want to. Is a stadium the only thing that can go into the stadium district? Why can’t the stadium go in the Rainier Valley?
This deal is for an arena in the stadium district. That’s the only place being considered in this proposal.
26. Why is deal different for one team (NBA only) than two teams (NBA and NHL)?
The ownership group is shooting for 2 teams. If they only get one team, then the city and council are only willing to put $125MM in bonds up, not $200MM. We’re hoping to get a win-win here.
Was anyone else there to check it out? Would love to get your slant.
The Time Has Come – I’ve Ended My Hatred of the NBA
I’m doing the unthinkable.
I’m watching Game 2 of the NBA Finals. It’s the 1st basketball game I’ve watched since the Sonics were taken.
Now, I don’t forgive the NBA for what they did. I still have no respect for anyone in the Thunder ownership group. But something happened today while I watched thousands of people tweet from the #SonicsRally. I remembered why I was Sonics fan.
You see, my friends liked the Sonics. Some of my friends LOVED the Sonics. Supporting the Sonics was just one more thing that brought us all together. Some of my friends were able to go down to the rally today. They were excited about it and sent me photos. It reminded me of how we used to go to games together. I remembered the good times we had.
So I’m now on the couch, and am actively rooting against one of the teams playing in the game. And I am amusing myself by thinking about things that could happen if Seattle gets the Sacramento Kings:
- The first thing we do is hire Sam Presti away from OKC. Double his salary. Steve Ballmer is epic-ly richer than Clay Bennett’s wife.
- OKC can’t afford all 4 of their studs after the other 3 rookie contracts come to an end. 2 or 3 of them will leave Durant by himself.
- The Lakers lure Durant away when it’s time for Kobe to retire. Durant gets to play one year with Kobe. How cool would that be, stepping in to Kobe’s shoes on the NBA’s biggest stage?
- The new Sonics rescue Nick Collison from Oklahoma – remember he never moved away.
So I’ve decided to bury the hatchet with the NBA. It’s a business, and smart business people do what’s best from a financial perspective. On one side they had a market frothing at the mouth begging to work with them, and on the other side they had a city government too inept to work with them at all. It was an easy decision, completely motivated by the “Just say no to progress” attitude of some of our local politicians. The NBA had a pretty easy “Business Decision” to make. Sure, as fans we were crushed emotionally, but the NBA isn’t here for us emotionally. It is here to make money off of our emotion.
And so with 7.1 seconds left, my emotion is that I hope LeBron James hits this free-throw and ices the game. OKC came back from 15 pts down and with 15 seconds left it looked like they would make an amazing comeback. And then suddenly it shifted. And 18,000 OKC fans are going to feel the emotion of a bone crushing loss.
And I smile.
EURO 2012 Predictions – A Political View
So I may change these in the coming week, but here are my early thoughts and predictions for Euro 2012, based on no actual knowledge of international soccer, but completely relying on what I believe about FIFA and global politics.
Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
FIFA has shown in the past that they’ll do whatever they can do put a home side in the semi-finals of the World Cup (See South Korea v Italy 2002). But that was FIFA’s way to open up the Asian market. Poland’s not Asia, and FIFA already got what they needed from them. Meanwhile, Greece has done enough to annoy everyone in Europe that no one needs to put a fix in – the European refs will take care of it on their own. Russia actually HAS money, and has shown they like to pour it into European teams and drive up the prices of the EPL stars. Russia wins the group, Czech Republic slips in because someone messed up and put them in Group A by accident.
Group B: Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal
The Dutch never lose in the first 3 games. I don’t know why, but they don’t. Denmark could play spoiler in most groups, but the Dutch don’t lose, and Germany doesn’t choke. If the Danes surprise anyone, they surprise Portugal and this becomes an anti-climatic group in which Germany and the Netherlands half-heartedly care who finish 1st / 2nd, until Germany realizes that winning the group sets up a sweet run to the final and turns it on in the last 10 minutes. If the Danes go down to Portugal, then Ronaldo has to lead his squad over Germany to advance in what becomes one of the best 3 games of the preliminary round. I’m trying to remember a game when Ronaldo has done that before. Germany wins, Netherlands second.
Group C: Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia
Poor Ireland. They get screwed out of World Cup 2010, and now see Spain in the First round of Euro. It’s obvious some drunk Irish guy did something to some FIFA muckety-muck and they are doomed forever. Ireland goes 0-3. Spain is undoubtedly the best team in the world, so as such, they’ll do something dumb, like lose to Croatia. The Italians always seem to have some crazy choke game. Plus, it’s coming out that the entire Serie A is basically fixed by the refs. The only organization stronger (and more corrupt) than the Italian Mafia is FIFA. FIFA flexes its muscles and suddenly Croatia finishes second, or even wins the group while Spain settles in the other slot.
Group D: France, England, Ukraine, Sweden
France was an embarrassment in World Cup 2010. Simply a farce. They will think that FIFA will let them waltz in to Euro with an attitude of, “Quoi? 2010? Ah, we will fuhget abooot that. Zat was sooooo long ago. We are all friends now. Viva La France!” They will be wrong. The worst call of the tournament will go against France. It will be such a bad call, we will begin referring to such calls officially as, “Getting Henry-ed.” That leaves England as the traditional powerhouse. And when I say powerhouse, I mean, “powerhouse in the minds of their fans.” They will stutter and stumble and make it to the next round, because that is what they always do. So the last spot comes down to Sweden vs the Ukraine. Winner take all. I can’t remember if Russia still hates the Ukraine. I think they do, which is a knock against them. Meanwhile, Sweden isn’t part if the Euro, and will be the only country in Europe with any money in the next decade. FIFA likes money. Sweden wins.
Quarter-finals:
(A1) Russia vs (B2) Netherlands: Logic dictates Netherlands win this game. But the good mafia money says Russia. Bayern Munich inexplicably lost to Russian owned Chelsea in the Champions League Final. Que the encore. Russia wins.
(A2) Czech Republic vs (B1) Germany: Czech Republic is not advancing past this round. Germany gets another easy win.
(C1) Spain vs (D2) Sweden: Spain brings it’s junior team, and their ball boy gets to play in the 85th minute. Spain advances.
(C2) Croatia vs (D1) England: All logic says this is England’s game to lose. Which they do, because they are England. Somehow John Terry is involved. After the game, Rooney gets asked about Terry and replies, “Seriously, the guy is the biggest wanker I’ve ever met.”
Semi-finals:
Spain vs Russia: You will know how badly FIFA is corrupt by who refs this game. If you have a game where Russian players are allowed to beat the hell out of the softer Spaniards, then Spain curls up into a ball and Russia guts out a 1-0 win. If it’s a fairly officiated game, Spain waltzes.
Germany vs Croatia: Croatia has no business making it this far. Clock strikes midnight.
Finals:
So if all lines up, we have Germany vs Spain. Can Spain repeat their World Cup run?
Soccer wise: Spain should win. Fan wise: Spain should win. Politically: Europe needs Germany. It’s a close call. In an upset, Germany avenges their club Champions League loss, and wins their first major cup in 16 years.
And that is probably the worst set of EURO 2012 predictions you will ever see.
“First, Ten”
Old Seth Godin quote that I recently was reminded of:
“First, ten. This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing. Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it, you win. If they love it, they’ll each find you ten more people (or a hundred or a thousand or, perhaps, just three). Repeat.”
Spacesuit Ballet
A nod for all you space nerds. Found this at Swiss Miss, a fun site for design related links.
Even the Spammers Have Stopped Trying
What happened to my Nigerian bankers, miracle curing pharmaceutical companies and SEO firms? This spammer deserves a Webby for their brevity I guess.
Webby Awards Remember Steve Jobs
Fantastic tribute from the Webby’s