Our Perspective

VCIR Winter 2010 - part 1

From the desk of Ben Johnson & Elaine Schoch…

Last week, we attended the Venture Capital in the Rockies Winter 2010 conference in Beaver Creek. With more than 20 early-growth companies presenting, the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek was full of innovation along many industries including standouts in clean technology and companies introducing technologies to improve our social and online experiences, something we all can appreciate.

We’ll be posting a few conversations we had with companies in the clean tech space this week but wanted to first share some interesting trends coming from the social space.

According to a study done by the University of California, San Diego, the average American consumes 34 GB of data daily. That is over 100,000 words of information daily. New platforms connect us with friends, family, new business opportunities, customers, journalists, and the list goes on. With the most prominent social connectors being Facebook and Twitter, the list of ways to connect with people is becoming as long as the list of people to connect with. We’re now finding ourselves less worried about how to receive information and instead how to make the most of the information that is being pushed at us. Companies like Grooger and BlipSnips are working to make that 34 GB of data a little more manageable.

Grogger

Grogger provides a Grog “group blog” publishing platform that grants publishers tools to better engage with their audience and crowdsource their content. Content published to the blog can be selected to appear at the top and bloggers are rewarded with recognition. Crowdsource + curation = best content, most content, and better audience interaction. Founder and CEO NAME sat down with and us and explained the technology and how it came about. You can also check out the post TechCrunch wrote about them, which hit during VCIR.

 

 

BlipSnips

Video is the next big thing, sometimes too big, which makes it hard to share specific moments. BlipSnips solves that problem by enabling users to tag, syndicate and inspire conversations about specific moments of videos. It is currently in beta but there are possibilities to use its measurable data-driven statistics as ways for brands to target customers. Founder and CEO John Bliss sat down with us and explained the technology and how it came about.

 

We have several additional clips we’ll be posting this week from other conversations we had with entrepreneurs at VCIR Winter 2010. Stay tuned.

104 West is in the Right Place in 2010 with Newest Client MapQuest

From the desk of Patrick Ward...

Everyone has heard the real estate mantra: location, location, location and now we are beginning to see how technology and social networking will address the concept with a lot of recent chatter about the concept of people-aware vs place-aware.

We believe 2010 is going to be the year when where you are becomes as important as what you are doing. 104 West Partners has a deep history in understanding the importance of places through work with place-aware innovators like Local Matters, Whrrl and Intermap with its AccuTerra brand. And we plan to stay in the thick of it with our newest client in the space, MapQuest, the division of AOL located here in Denver for which we were named the agency of record this month.

We see a collision course between social networking and a thirst for knowing where you are, what’s around you and what is between where you are and where you are going.  Think about this:  according to eMarketer, mobile location based users have increased from 61.3M in 2008 to 215.3M predicted in 2010 and 486M predicted in 2012. That sounds a lot like the increases on Facebook, whose users nearly quadrupled  from 82M in July 2008 to 350 million today.

Techrunch recently pointed out that, "location has the power to be the bridge between social networking and actual social integrations." Mashable followed with a prediction that in 2010 we'll see," location matter more than ever"- - we agree. We think we will now see a critical addition to ‘who’ is doing ‘what’ on social networks: ‘where you are doing it’ is the next seminal piece of information.  Location  -- or “place” -- will play an increasing role in how companies interact with consumers, and how consumers interact with one another.

We believe that the concept of location and being place-aware is evolving to be not only about directions and navigation, but an important part of our daily experiences and how we communicate and interact everyday.

A TweetUp to Set the Guinness Book of World Records

From the desk of Ben Johnson...

Today I, along with our Intern, Sarah attended our first TweetUp. Not only were we venturing into new territory by meeting people we engage with online in person, but we were also going to make history – the TweetUp was to be recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest TweetUps EVER. The premise of the TweetUp was to kick-off CSIA’s DEMOgala, and apparently we did set the world record – for now.  

What we learned about TweetUps is that you can’t treat them any differently than typical social gatherings (not a big surprise). Either it be a college party, graduation party, or a cocktail party, all the basics apply. Beginning with organizing the venue, timing and entertainment and ending with sending your guests out the door with a memorable night. TweetUps deserve nothing less than their traditional counterparts when it comes to the details.

 

While we set record, we did feel this TweetUp was a missed opportunity for the organizer (and us) since there wasn’t time before or after to engage with people – isn’t that the purpose? A quick photo and flash it was over!

 

Mashable posted a great article on organizing TweetUps. Beyond providing a venue with available technology (i.e. WIFI) their guide could have easily been pulled from Paris Hilton’s, “Confessions of an Heiress.” Remember, a TweetUp is still a social gathering and Paris Hilton sure knows how to throw a party.

VCIR Winter 2009

From the desk of Patrick Ward...

104 West spent this week at Venture Capital in the Rockies, orchestrating a panel with Spencer Ante from Business Week, Becky Buckman from Forbes, Dan Primack from PE Week and Mark Veverka from Barron’s. Despite the obvious headwinds in the financial and credit markets, it was a great few days, listening to smart entrepreneurs, seeing old friends, participating in the mandatory ski day and generally taking the temperature of the symbiosis between start-ups and VCs in the Rockies.

Just a few highlights for me were Iggli, a new way to engage with friends and attend events together, NetFactor, a fascinating way to convert B2B web traffic into hot sales leads, MarketForce, a really sophisticated updating to the mystery shopping world, Atrato, another impressive attempt to solve complex storage problems, and, one of my favorites, because it symbolized so much,  Justin’s Nut Butter, which is just simply smart.  

There was some scuttlebutt about who was investing what and where, but I think that misses the many positives about both the overall environment and about the group of companies at VCIR as a microcosm of that environment.

• This group was widely heralded as the strongest VCIR class in recent memory.
• The attending media were a first-class sampling of the industry’s premier reporters covering this market. 
• The emerging clean technology market was there in full force both as investors and entrepreneurs. 

In general, it was fascinating to see a much broader range of categories beyond the classic Web 2.0 or corporate IT.  If only the skiing had been better…

Congratulations to Seth Levine from Foundry Group and Mike Bearup from KPMG who co-chaired the event.  Now we can look forward to VCIR Fall!

I Want My Rocky!

From the desk of Elaine Schoch...

It you follow @themediaisdying on Twitter you may feel like the media/pr world we know is in fact dying - at least I find myself feeling depressed after seeing their ongoing tweets about layoffs and papers shutting down. With that said, it’s been one week to the day that the Rocky Mountain News ceased publication – but it hasn’t died. (Yeah!) Many of the staff members haven’t stopped writing/reporting for the Rocky – they’re now posting articles to IWantMyRocky.com. The site is “a gathering spot for Rocky alumni and readers, bringing you the news of your favorite reporters and columnists and even a scoop or two that you might have seen on the pages of the Rocky.”

Check it out and support your favorite local reporters - perhaps they will be one of the leaders in "reshaping" the media landscape. Who knows...

More from the Angel Capital Summit...

From the desk of Elaine Schoch...

When I read about VarVee before attending the Angel Capital Summit last week it took me back to my high school days when Friday nights revolved around Texas football (Go Dragons!). VarVee has developed a “content widget” that helps high school coaches get scores to media outlets faster. Ok, that alone doesn’t sound very cool – but there is more. While VarVee helps coaches get data to the local media outlets ASAP, local media outlets are getting new, fresh content – not just scores. VarVee  provides tools to local media outlets that enhance the high school sports experience of their readers by enabling them to view player profiles, post comments and interact with the team. Can I say creating a social network for high school sports teams and their local communities.

If you’re from the south (heck, anywhere people eat and breath high school football), you can understand when I say this – alumni will actually go back and see how their high school football team is doing, etc. Think about how a school could use this for alumni relations and fund raising efforts. Also, think about how this tool might help college recruiters get details about a certain player and be able to compare him/her to another player. There are a ton of possibilities in how people could use VarVees’ online content housed within a local newspaper.

Having worked with local media outlets for more than a decade (and having my father-in-law own a few in TX) I understand the need these publications have in regards to driving online traffic (i.e. increasing online traffic to help with online ad sales).  VarVee looks like it could help do this, and do it well. However, to be honest, I’m more excited to know if/when the Southlake Times is going to incorporate the “content widget” so I can check on the Dragons. 

Angel Capital Summit: Piano Wizard

From the desk of Elaine Schoch...

I spent last Friday at the Angel Capital Summit where I was on the official “Tweet Team”. In addition to live “tweeting” I was able to do a few live interviews with some of the companies presenting at the event. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to speak with all 40 companies but there were a few I wanted to blog about since they’re really interesting Colorado-based businesses and I had a chance to either sit in on their presentations or chat with them personally.  

Allegro Multimedia: Piano Wizard
Allegro Multimedia is a provider of music video game software – Piano Wizard and Guitar Wizard. This is one of companies I’m most excited about, mainly because they taught me how to play Billy Joel’s Up Town Girl on the piano! If you know me, I’m tone deaf and have no rhythm so this was no easy feat. Yet, Jan Altman accomplished what my piano teacher never could when I was 10 years old.

Piano Wizard teaches people how to play songs through a video game method. Its simple interface allows players to learn by doing, simply by hitting the right key at the right time. (Kids can shoot space ships while learning how to play Bach. I so would have rather played “space invaders” when I was 10 and trying to learn “Mary had a Little Lamb”.)

There are other similar products on the market but what makes Piano Wizard unique is its four-step teaching process that introduces kids to the keyboard, sheet music and popular piano songs – all while playing a video a game. I was able to sit down with Jan and have her do an online video interview/demo with me but unfortunately, the clip was lost. However, they have an online demo you can check on their site.

How Piano Wizard Works:
First, players follow vertically moving game objects as a guide for hitting the right notes. It then progresses by rotating the video screen, making game objects travel horizontally, thus mimicking the lines of the staff and providing insight into musical  theory. Next, game objects transform into colored notes on the grand staff, then finally into traditional black & white notation.  Using any digital piano as a “joystick,” Piano Wizard is fueled by MIDI song files, which are readily available for download at online sites like CYBERMIDI.com and the soon to be launched Wizardtunes.com.

(Um, I would appreciate it if someone could put in a good word with Santa for me because I would like to learn how to play “Piano Man”...

Interview with Scott Nelson, TruEffect

Chatted with Scott Nelson the co-founder of TruEffect at the Angel Capital Summit. Check out the clip. #acs08 http://www.utterli.com/all/f-trueffect

Mobile post sent by ElaineSchoch using Utterli.  Replies.

The future of entrepreneurism in Colorado

From the desk of Elaine Schoch...

The Colorado business community is the birth place to several well-known consumer products (Crocs) as well as a number of natural food companies (Wild Oats, Izze, Celestial Seasoning) but the area I find to be most fascinating is the tech industry – did you think I was going to say something else?

While you have your big guys like Qwest and Level 3 you have a large number of innovative tech start-ups that are redefining their industry or creating a new category. However, these groups need funding to get their bright ideas off the ground. In Q3, 21 Colorado companies raised a total $196 million in venture capital funding, roughly equal to the amount raised a year ago, according to the quarterly MoneyTree report. No doubt the economic downturn will affect VC funding and the entrepreneurial environment Colorado is known for; it is just a question of how much. And that’s what I’m hoping to find out on Friday (tomorrow) at the Angel Capital Summit in Denver.

The  Angel Capital Summit has been redesigned this year to specifically focus on the need to help entrepreneurs understand how the changing times can actually help them succeed. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and several other thought-leaders will be there to discuss the future of entrepreneurism in Colorado. Additionally, 40 entrepreneurs will present their businesses to hundreds of investors over the course of the day (including our client, TruEffect!). These entrepreneurs are nominated and judged by a collaboration of dozens of the leading professional organizations that serve entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. Here is a quick breakdown of who will be speaking but check out the full agenda for more details.

• The keynote address will be given by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, he will discuss “The Importance of Capital: Personal Experiences with Risk and Reward” and share his view for the future of entrepreneurism in Colorado.

• The lunch keynote address will be given by Anita Burke, one of the top thought-leaders in energy economics and markets, talking about "evolutionary risk management" - what changes are necessary in investing strategies and business models? Why does this favor early-stage entrepreneurs?

• A Town Hall Meeting, "Disrupting the Recession", with thought-leaders discussing Colorado's entrepreneurial response to the credit crisis, election, energy issues, and sustainability.

If you’re planning on being there let me know or follow me on Twitter as I’ll be there “tweeting it up”. (I'm an official Tweeter and Blogger along with a few other folks.) If you haven’t made plans you can still register it’s $159 (includes lunch) or you can hit the Town Hall Meeting, which is only $25 and sounds like a great discussion.

The companies that are presenting include:
18 Principles, Inc,  3D at Depth, Affinity Telecom, Inc, Alaskan Hardgear, Allegro Multimedia dba Music Wizard Group, ApopLogic Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AppVenture, Atrato, Inc., Aubice LLC, AWhere Inc., BOCS, Cadeka Microcircuits, Center For Innovation, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Chata Biosystems, Inc., CTM Software Corporation, Del Norte Brewing, DEMAND1, FacetoFace Health, flaik Inc, Fluonic, Inc., Frontline Aerospace, Inc., GroGreen Inc, iVation LLC, JuJu Central, LLC, Lingoport, Inc., Magic Portrait, Munch Away, LLC., NanoPrint Technologies, Progressive Health Center, PROJECT C.U.R.E., Shrewd Foods, Inc., Spatial Networking, Tissue Genetics Inc., Toghers Inc., TruEffect, Inc., Two Moms in the Raw, VanDyne SuperTurbo, Inc, VarVee, LLC, VitruMed Inc., Web2Storage, WhiteDove Herbals, Inc., Xpressplay, LLC, and Zerista.