Tuesday, June 28, 2011

DrillSpot.com - very cool company in Boulder

I had the opportunity to meet with Paul Lin at DrillSpot in Boulder CO last week.  What a cool company with a great culture and a disruptive business model.  DrillSpot takes the historic field salesman carrying a huge catalog saying "what do you buy, I can get it cheaper for you" model and spins it on its head. Not only does DrillSpot aggregate thousands and thousands of industrial products online-many others have tried this- they have a depth of product and service levels that are astounding.  


DrillSpot uses state of the art online tools, web tracking, product details, etc etc etc to know their market amazingly well.  What I am so impressed with-having been in a sr. sales and marketing role in this market for 20yrs-is that DrillSpot is running circles around the big boys they compete with and also in some instances use as suppliers.  They have found a way to do what big brother, whose revenues start with a B vs. M (billions/millions) better and more efficiently. DrillSpots RESELLER Rating is 9.3 out of 10 with over 2200 ratings in the last 6 months- amazingly impressive! Same results at many other online rating sites.


The DrillSpot culture and HQ + Paul reminds of of the Zappos model and Tony Hseih.  Check out www.drillspot.com and see what they do for yourself!  DrillSpot is also on the Inc Mag radar. as # 323 of top 500 fastest growing companies last year. 

http://www.inc.com/inc5000/profile/DrillSpot.com
www.drillspot.com

Check them out! I look forward to my next meeting with Paul and his team in August!

KB

Friday, June 24, 2011

River Surfing at its BEST!

I spent most of this week in Colorado meeting with FR clothing distributors and companies in the Oil/Gas drilling and exploration business in Denver and Grand Junction Colorado. Great trip, met some fantastic folks and made some significant progress on multiple initiatives.  On drive back to Denver from Grand Junction I ran across some guys on the side of I-70E in Glenwood Springs who REALLY made me jealous.  Check it out and enjoy!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

My Angel Investor Checklist- By James Altucher

Editor’s noteJames Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book he’s giving away free. He built and sold Reset, Inc in 1998 and Stockpickr.com in 2007, among others. You can follow him @jaltucher.
I know through hard experience that I’m one of the dumbest investors I know. Here are two examples: the time I cost Yasser Arafat $2 million (and lost investors another $100 million in the process) and the worst VC decision ever made (of course, it was made by me). Both happened around the same time period (2000-2001) and solidified my reputation in history as possibly the worst investor ever.
However, I learn from my experiences. After a few successful startups following that period (Stockpickr.com notably, which sold to thestreet.com in 2007) I’ve started to do more angel investing and, in doing so, have figured out a check list to help me avoid my prior mistakes. If you follow this checklist I think you can do well as an angel investor.
Everyone trashes angel investors but angels have one critical edge over VC investors: we don’t have to do anything. I don’t have to put any money to work ever if I don’t want to. I can pass on deals all day long. VCs, because its their job, often have a strong financial incentive to eventually (say, over a 5-year period) put money to work since they take fees on the money that’s out there. VCs also have a psychological reason to put money to work. It’s their job. So if they are doing a good job they often feel the need (for better or worse) to put money to work.
The Angel Checklist
  1. Invest with co-investors smarter than you. I don’t invest now unless there is a co-investor going in at the same terms as me who has significantly more experience in the field as well as experience with the entrepreneurs we are investing in. I can’t give examples in each case here but with Buddy Media, for example, I went in with many successful co-investors.
  2. Invest in CEOs who have done it before. Buddy Media is another great example. I knew Michael Lazerow because after I started Stockpickr he met with me with the possible idea to become CEO. His lock-up after selling Golf.com to Time Warner was coming to an end and he wanted something new to do. Rather than let him be CEO, I blatantly stole all his ideas and then was lucky enough to back him in the venture he shortly thereafter started, Buddy Media. He had already done at least two successful startups so I was confident he knew what he was doing. Another example is Ticketfly where Andrew Dreskin had basically built and sold the same idea before, improved on it, and started again, and had great co-investors. BAM! I couldn’t ask for anything better.
  3. Invest in strong demographic trends. 76 million baby boomers are retiring in the next few years. Other than the Internet (and subsidiary to that, Facebook alone) there’s no bigger demographic tidal wave happening in the United States. Personalized medicine is quickly becoming a standard technique for diagnosing and treating the elderly on illnesses ranging from cancer to depression. I look for companies tapping into this demographic trend and co-invest with several biotech investors who have done it successfully dozens of times over. The only thing I make sure is that I get in at their terms. Else, I get back to my mantra: “I’m too stupid to determine if this is a good value for me to get into.”
  4. Get in at a low valuation. 1-3 are often good enough. But I like the added flourish of getting a good deal. I pass on about 19 out of every 20 deals I see. Maybe I pass on more. I should keep track of the statistics, but I don’t. There’s no one way to determine if a valuation was low. Clearly Twitter was low at its first round valuation of $20 million. That didn’t seem low to me and would probably have passed if I had the opportunity. Everything depends on the size of the market, what revenues one gets, etc. Again, though, this is related to (1) above. If I can get in where the best investors are getting in, along with other favorable terms (warrant coverage, full ratchet, favorable comps compared with other valuations in the space) then I feel like I have an edge. These deals are out there. The critical thing is sitting on your hands. Again, being an angel, I don’t have to do anything.
If you have 1-4 you almost don’t have to do anything else. If I’m co-investing with Kleiner Perkins I can usually assume their team of MBAs is hard at work doing all the due diligence for me. But often, to provide an extra layer of safety, I do my own work. And here’s the due-diligence checklist. To be honest, this checklist is often more about giving me comfort that I did something intelligent since I don’t really expect to uncover anything new, but every now and then something pops up.
Due diligence checklist
  • Talk to CEO
  • Talk to heads of sales in each region
  • Talk to customers
  • Talk to end users (since sometimes the customers are resellers)
  • Do background checks on CEO, CFO, heads of sales
  • Talk to all of the other investors
Although my general rule of thumb is, I don’t want to have any meetings. You know the secret to a quick meeting? No chairs and no donuts. Even quicker? Just use the phone and stay at home. That’s my meeting of preference.
With the above checklist I actually think angel investors have a strong edge over “professional” venture capital investors. They have a strong network but good angels have a strong network too (particularly with the rise of companies like AngelList). And if you follow rule No. 1 and piggyback with the best venture capitalists, then it’s the best of every world.
And look, the more VCs who make money, the more I will. On top of that, I hope to God we have a pretty strong bubble. Go Groupon!

Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

How to successfully reach your target audience via Facebook- a users guide!


How to successfully reach your target audience via Facebook – a guideline.

Author: Mart Prööm | June 3rd, 2011 |
With nearly half of the marketers (source: Social Media Report 2011) having less than a year’s worth of social media marketing experience it becomes important to share some valuable information that will help businesses develop their social media strategies. What’s likely the most important nuance when you’re marketing through Facebook is to make sure that you are reaching your target audience.
There is nothing worse than having a large Facebook fan base who are all but your target audience. A situation like that usually happens when a business thoughtlessly gives out appealing goods that are not related to their business niche. For example, it gives little benefit to a flower boutique, who’s target audience is a 25-40 year old woman, to have most of their fan base consist of men.  Following these guidelines should help your business reach their target market effectively:
  • When your business is giving out prizes or gifts through Facebook campaigns they should be related to your products or better yet – give out your own products. This makes sure that all of the participants have sincere interest in the type of business you’re in and they are most likely to engage with your business after the campaign is over. For example a travel agency should stay away from giving out iPads and should rather focus on gifting exotic travel packages which are desired within its target audience.
  • Facebook ads – they should be segmented to reach your buyer personas. The flower boutique should only target 25-40 year old women living in the nearby area.  Facebook also provides a segmentation option which approximates the segmentation, in this case meaning it will also pick some 41 year olds who might be interested in your business.
  • Engage your audience in discussions and polls. Start the dialogues but always be ready to jump into any interactions that the fans start on their own.
  • It is important to prompt your audience to give feedback. This can help you to fine-tune your marketing and helps to get to know your clients better which will help sales in the long perspective.
  • A lot of brands try to directly sell their product. Don’t! It is more effective to create value and build trust with your target audience. If your business can establish that, the sales will follow. Value is often something that will help your buyer personas solve a problem such as a construction material company giving tips about do-it yourself house building. However, selling directly can be effective when the product is actually value itself. A wine store sharing their weekly wine offers works well. Just be sure that you don’t overload the would-be customers with your offers.
Kevin L. Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com

Monday, June 6, 2011

5 LinkedIn Tips You Didn't Know

5 LinkedIn Tips You Didn't Know

BY AMBER MACToday
It may not be as dramatic as Twitter or as ubiquitous as Facebook, but LinkedIn attracts dedicated users who are serious about business. Here's how to connect with them using the fast-growing service's most powerful new tools.
Adam Foster Poverty of the Mind pic
Whether it's Mark Zuckerberg talking about killing pigs or a Hollywood blockbuster under its belt, Facebook has plenty of attention in our lives. Twitter falls into the same camp. From Justin Bieber's noisy 10 million followers to hordes of social media gurus tweeting the benefits of 140 characters or less, it's easy to discover how and what makes Twitter work. However, there is one social network that lacks drama but makes up for it with a devoted business community and plenty of compelling features.
Here are five LinkedIn tips you should try today.
1. Use "Signal" to discover relevant news and information
When you're logged in to LinkedIn, take a tour of a new-ish feature called Signal. This tool lets you easily monitor updates within your network, but more importantly you can filter information so you can also see what people in your extended circle (2nd and 3rd connections) are posting. You can also do the same filtering by industry or location, so you can weed through the noise.
2. Export your connections
Go to "My Connections" to view a list of all your LinkedIn contacts. This address book is a really handy way to get email addresses and updated information, but most importantly you can export this list. At the bottom of the page click "Export Connections," which will put all this contact info in a format suitable for your address book (Micorsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, etc.).
3. Create a resume
If you've already filled out your LinkedIn profile information, it's easy to use it to create a foundation for a resume. The Resume Builder will suck in your professional past and you can use any of the pre-built templates to make it look good. From an Executive style presentation to a more casual layout, this tool will take some of the pain out of the resume building process. You can export the resume, share it easily, and edit as you wish.
4. Start and use groups
While, unlike Twitter, you might not find celebrities hanging out, you will find a wealth of relevant conversations within LinkedIn groups. Creating a group in a cinch and a great opportunity to jump-start a good business chat. If you don't know what group to join, click on "Groups You May Like" to get you started. To learn more about the benefits of Groups and what LinkedIn has planned for this feature in the future, visit their online tutorial.
5. Customize your URL
Custom domain names have been all the rage for a while on Facebook, but you can do the same on LinkedIn. Visit the "Edit Profile" tab and click "Public Profile" at bottom left. Once you're on this page, on the far right you will see "Your current URL." This is where you can customize your LinkedIn domain name so you can better brand your account.
Kevin Brown www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com