Category Archives: What’s Your M.O.?
“It is simply what you would have if you were to dream up your best possible get together with your best friends.”
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
dk whose full name is Dr. David Klein, is one of the most well connected individuals in the Internet industry. In addition to being an Internet entrepreneur and founder of Purpose Inc. dk is also chiropractor in La Jolla, California. Purpose Inc. has always had as its motto, to help others achieve their purpose. dk’s bio includes having been a professional skim boarder, a lifeguard in Laguna Beach, as well as far as he can tell, the second chiropractor to ever be on staff at a medical school which was UCSD. He is responsible for some of the Internet industry’s most successful events including the annual poker tournament at Pubcon and the Purpose Inc. thinktank along with an impressive list of business contacts. He has done things as diverse as helping facebook with marketing their advertising product, helping Azoogle with public relations, set up national facebook campaigns, and monetize an e-mail list of close to a million people.
thinktank is an invite only event for the top people in the Internet industry. This includes domainers, entrepreneurs, site owners, SEO experts, marketers, programmers, and more. Many of the top players attend this event. This year’s Think Tank event sold out before it even officially was promoted for sale. The event kicks off on September 17, in Del Mar, California.
MO:
With your background as a chiropractor, successful practice and experience in treating patients, how did you get so heavily involved in the Internet?
dk:
It started with a simple message to help humanity. I had written what I consider to be the easiest to understand materials ever written about what chiropractic is and how it works. Chiropractic is one of the greatest secrets that only about 5% of the population have any idea about. If someone understands the simplicity of chiropractic, their life can be made immeasurably better, but most people did not, and many still do not understand it. This started a long journey about literally having to learn the Internet from html and css, right up to the most sophisticated SEO, and mass networking skills to create massive links to the site.
MO:
What are some of the things you and Purposeinc do to help businesses acquire new customers?
dk:
We are really, really good at reputation management. Very simply if someone googles your product, or name, and you don’t like the way the results look, contact us and we can help. Amazingly, we can do it without violating any of google’s T.O.S. with absolute confidentiality. We can also help with Facebook Advertising, and have done this for many companies. One of my favorite games that I have been playing lately, is helping companies with large lists of e-mails, figure out how to maximize the monetization of those lists.
MO:
thinktank appears to be a massively successful collection of the top names in the Internet industry. The “Who is coming to thinktank” list on Purposeinc.com touts some impressive names. When did Think Tank start, and how did the idea originate?
dk:
This is the third year. It started from the fact that me an the other hot shots would stand around networking in crappy places like halls of convention centers, and uncomfortable lobbies of mediocre hotels. Often I would be standing for hours with a bunch of millionaires with no food, and nowhere to sit. None of us ever go to the sessions unless we are speaking. I basically got rid of all the parts of conferences that the experts don’t like, which is the conference! What was left was what they enjoy most, beautiful setting, other experts, lots of seating, sports, open bar, great food, and fun with no one around who would judge them. It is simply what you would have if you were to dream up your best possible get together with your best friends.
Internet Entrepreneur Elliot Silver of ElliotsBlog.com and Silver Internet Ventures
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
Elliot Silver is very well known and highly respected in the domain industry. Involved in domaining since 2003, Elliot stepped out of a successful corporate career at AIG in 2007 to focus on his own business of domain investment and development.
Elliot is the founder of Top Notch Domains, LLC, which he started as a grad student at NYU. Later, in 2008, he founded Silver Internet Ventures, LLC, an Internet media company that currently has several developed web properties. Elliot also leads the award winning ElliotsBlog.com, one of the most popular blogs in the domain name industry.
MO:
Stepping away from a successful corporate career is a bold move and one that every entrepreneurial mind dreams of. What was it like to do that and what steps did you take to make it happen? Did you have a backup plan? Any regrets?
Elliot:
I had been with AIG for 2.5 years, and it was just my second job after graduate school. Although I felt that I was doing well at the company, I wasn’t loving what I was doing (direct marketing management of insurance products). This was probably one of the key reasons I continued to pursue my domain business on the side. Just before I resigned in October, I had a couple of large deals lined up for the following January, and I knew just those deals could carry me for a year even if business fell off of a cliff for some reason.
I had been making significantly more money with my business than I was earning at AIG, although the domain business (as with any new venture) has much greater risk. I figured if things didn’t work out with my company for whatever reason, I could find another marketing position elsewhere after a year. I was ready to move on from AIG, and I knew the domain business would either be a stepping-stone to something else or it would be a new career for me. Luckily, things have been working out well, and I have never regretted my decision.
I come from an entrepreneurial family, and I’ve always imagined that I would work for myself. I was really lucky to have discovered this business when I did, and I am very appreciative of all the advice that has been given to me over the years.
MO:
You have quite a number of moving parts in your business such as domain buying, domain sales, domain investing, developing, blogging, and more. When you’re out at a party with the wife and someone asks “What do you do?”, how do you answer that question? What type of reaction do you receive?
Elliot:
Your question is very funny because Karen and I were just discussing this the other day.
It really depends on the crowd and the knowledge of Internet business. If I am with a tech/Internet savvy group or person, I will generally say
“… transforming the building industry by reinventing the supply chain”
Quality Building Materials for Less
Jeff is the founder and CEO of BuildDirect. Jeff’s previous experience was in the real estate and construction business, and has been President and CEO of BuildDirect since 1999. Jeff is a frequent speaker in North America to industry groups as well as a lecturer at The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
BuildDirect is transforming the building industry by reinventing the supply chain. The company accomplishes this by partnering with manufacturers who benefit from outsourcing their sales infrastructure. BuildDirect has been able to reduce prices to buyers by up to 50% when compared to big box stores. BuildDirect has cut out all of the middle-men in the building materials business and passes the savings on to customers of all sizes.
MO:
First off, I want to say that I admire what you have done with BuildDirect. In a sense, you’ve built what embodies the first generation of internet business – transforming the way industries do business and leveling the playing field for customers of all sizes. You started in 1999 and have been working on this for over a decade now. In internet terms, you’re ancient (I mean that in the nicest sense!). Where did you find the inspiration, come up with the business model and how do you continue to stay relevant?
Jeff Booth:
Well first off, thanks for your admiration.
The inspiration came when I began to look at the complexity of the building materials supply chain, and began to call into question what I eventually came to see as unnecessary mark-ups within it. When I say unnecessary, I mean unnecessary to our customer at the end of the phone, or a visitor to our site.
The motivation to innovate is about seeing a better way. It’s been a long journey because any time an industry changes, there will be winners and losers. Fortunately, our customers and growth keep telling us that we’re on the right track. Re-fashioning our approach to the supply chain, simplifying it, and turning it on its head by using Internet technology to make it more cost efficient is really just a means to that end. We’ll stay relevant as long as we keep adding value like that, in whatever form that may take in the future.
MO:
I read an interesting post on your blog about using Twitter. You argue that using it symbolizes openness and trust (I am assuming trusting your employees). You don’t however mention the financial benefits. Do you think the value of such systems can/should be measured directly? What other benefits do you see in social media?
Bored? Maybe this will help… our interview with the man that sold his website, Bored.com, for more than $4 million, Eric Borgos
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
Eric Borgos is well known for the sale of Bored.com for over $4 million. Born an entrepreneur, he spent his childhood days turning hobbies into profits by collecting and selling coins and baseball cards. As a teenager, he had an interest in trading stocks and it was not unusual to find him reading the Wall Street Journal. In college, Eric ran a “976″ phone line teaching people how to make money. After college, Eric stared a computer consulting business and soon moved into designing websites for others and then for himself.
Impulse Communications, Inc. was founded in 1990 by Eric Borgos and was incorporated in 2000. The company runs over 300 developed websites and owns over 9,000 domains. The company’s revenue comes from ecommerce sales, domain sales, advertising, and parking undeveloped names. Impulse Communication has been featured in several blogs and in the traditional news media as well.
MO:
Eric, the evolution of Impulse Communications, Inc. is impressive, growing from your post college computer consulting operation to the domain and website force we see now. Tell me about Impulse Communications today. Is it a one man operation, or do you have a staff? How are you able to manage 300 active sites and a portfolio of over 9,000 domain names?
Eric:
My company is somewhat unique, in that I plan never to work from an office no matter how big my business gets. I have everything setup to be as virtual as possible so I can work from home. At one point I had 15 people working for me from their homes in many different countries, yet I had never met any of them or spoken to them by phone, we just communicated by email.
My mailing address is a virtual PO Box where a service scans all my mail online so I can read it, and I have a phone number where all my voicemails are translated to mp3 files (and also translated to text) and emailed to me. All of my company’s bills are setup to be autopayed from my checking account/credit card and all my income is deposited automatically into my bank account. For the few companies that still pay me by check, my mail box service scans the checks and deposits them into my bank account for me. I even signed up for a new e-signature service today that allows me to sign documents (like domain name sales contracts) online so I don’t need to manually fax or mail them back to people.
All that being said, my business still requires a lot of work. Although I use several programmers, I handle everything else myself. I spend my first few hours each day just dealing with emails. There is always something that needs my attention, like a server that is down, domain name offers that need a response, paying money to workers, questions from programmers, changes that need to be made to a site, billing issues, etc. I also need to deal with all the general hassles of running a business, such as accounting, taxes, computer software and upgrades, calls from sales people, contracts and paperwork, legal issues, and more.
Aside from when problems arise, most of my sites/domains run themselves. Much of my time is spent on new projects, like creating new websites or adding to my existing ones. In the past few years I have done a lot of work adding content to my sites Dumb.com and Adoptme.com, since I think those have a lot of potential.
MO:
You have had success with developing sites as well as selling domains. Which criteria do you use when deciding which domains to develop and which to sell?
“People started asking how we got the site so fast, and soon we realized we’d have more success with our speed-up-website software than our original website. That’s how we started.”
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
Ed Robinson specializes in designing and bringing to market software that builds business value for developers and IT professionals. He has developed specific expertise in making big sales to Fortune 500 companies. He has worked for major technology companies including Microsoft where he designed and helped market Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Content Management Server and Microsoft SharePoint; and also for smaller companies through the start up phase.
Ed is the CEO of Aptimize, a New Zealand-based company that develops and sells the Aptimize Website Accelerator (WAX). WAX is a software product that helps companies dramatically increase the performance of their websites and intranets.
MO.com:
Aptimize is a young company. Out of the box, you have a laundry list of huge and well-respected clients such as Google, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Fidelity, and on and on. How did you manage to land these giants? What is the secret of your sales technique?
Ed Robinson:
From the beginning we didn’t worry too much about building up automatic systems and things like that. We just connected with people. We e-mailed everyone we knew utilizing our networks. Anyone approaching our website, we offered to just talk to them to help them with any web performance questions that they had. People buy from people and from the beginning we’ve tried to build relationships rather than just sell and I think people sensed that we genuinely wanted to help them do better business online.
Also, we developed a product that people needed, one that quickly developed a reputation for being the best at what it does – speeding up websites. The internet giants and Fortune 500’s tend to be well informed about the benefits of fast page load, for example when Shopzilla increased the speed of their website by 5 seconds it resulted in a 25% increase in page views, a 10% increase in revenue, a 50% reduction in hardware, and a 120% increase traffic from Google. The ‘big’ companies are constantly looking for ways to improve visitor experience, be more competitive, and increase their bottom-line – as we can see with the Shopzilla example, increasing the page load speed of a website is an effective way to do this
So here’s how I pitch our product: We’re a software product. You download it, put it on your web server. It will immediately double the speed of your website with no code changes and no extra hardware, and that’s all it does. And so that’s very simple for people to understand, and some people will say, “I’m in the Marketing department for a company,” or the IT Engineer, and can instantly see how this can help their business – so you can see how simple it is.
Here are three important rules – especially for a start-up company:
1. Have a very focused value proposition: Aptimize’s products instantly accelerate websites and intranets.
2. Be good at it: Our software works really well – a lot of our customers instantly see a reduction in load times of 50%. This is powerful
3. Love your customers. We work across the internet, but pride ourselves on providing better support than most companies you’d deal with locally.
With these three rules you’re equipped to sell to small and big companies.
MO.com:
You were a program manager at Microsoft and then Intergen before being involved in Action This, a catalyst to Aptimize. How would you describe the difference in working for a large corporation to leading your own company?
Get In Business!
Interview by Kevin Ohashi of Ohashi Media
Dana Robinson is an entrepreneur, investor and a lawyer. He received his JD from The University of San Diego School of Law School where he graduated cum laude. Before starting his own businesses, he worked in Nevada focusing on intellectual property and managed some of the most well-known trademarks around such as Mirage and Bellagio.
Today, Dana is a founding partner at Tech Law LLP, an IP law boutique in California. He also runs FreeLegalAid.com, a service and directory to help people assist themselves in legal matters. His latest venture is Get In Business! which is a resource center for budding entrepreneurs.
Kevin Ohashi:
You have worked as a lawyer involved with startups for quite some time. What sort of unique insights do you gain with your background that someone from say a technical or business background misses?
Dana Robinson:
I tend to bring that experience to the table, in a way that doesn’t just help a new business owner accomplish some task, like forming a corporation or drafting a stock offering or filing a trademark. What my background gives me is the ability to empathize with the people I work with. I’ve been in their seat. I try to think of what I didn’t know when I was in that position and to bring some cost/benefit thinking. A typical IP lawyer will get a client who wants a patent and they will do a very good job filing for a patent. I’m going to ask if you need a patent. Don’t spend the money if you don’t need it or if in the end it won’t do you any good. That’s a fundamentally businessy approach. Businesspeople tend to think that their lawyers and accountants and consultants think this way, but in reality they don’t. Service providers tend to think of their tasks individually, not as part of the whole. As a result, novice business owners overspend on services and don’t end up with what’s the best for their business.
Kevin Ohashi:
Your own startups seem to mirror your personal expertise in the legal field. Has the internet changed the way legal services are provided in a major way?
Dana Robinson:
Absolutely. The Internet has meant two things for me:
Checkfront is e-commerce for companies with schedule and service based inventories
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
Jason Morehouse has been engulfed in the world of e-commerce for over 10 years. With a strong technical background as an asset, he has played an important role in the development of several successful e-commerce companies which include Netconcepts, Vendorama, and Revenuewire. While Jason has lived and worked in Toronto Canada, Auckland New Zealand, he now resides in Victoria, BC, where he has co-founded Checkfront, Inc.
Founded in 2008, Checkfront, Inc. provides a leading online booking management system, based on a secure Saas (Software as a service) platform. Checkfront allows businesses to integrate the system into their existing websites within minutes, with no programming knowledge required and integrates with most popular payment gateways. Plugins for many of the popular content management systems, such as Wordpress and Joomla make adding Checkfront services simple and effective.
MO:
You have been self described as a “Technical Architect” and “Linux evangelist”. Tell me a little bit more about what that actually means and why it’s an important part of your success.
Jason Morehouse:
The title of Technical Architect was given to me at a previous company. I suspect it was a clever way to make sure I had nothing to compare myself to on the monster.com salary review, but it has stuck with me. I’m at my best when taking a concept and building it into a product from the ground up. I’m a geek at heart, but I also have a good grasp on what it takes to make a successful company.
I’m more of a Linux enthusiast these days than I am an evangelist. I use to care a lot more that other people use Linux, but now I’m just happy I do. If you want to run your infrastructure on Windows NT, I say go for it — just don’t ask for my help when it goes to pot. And don’t get me started on Windows Azure.
MO:
Linux is playing a huge roll in cloud computing and that is very exciting as a long time user. For Checkfront, Linux has allowed us to build a secure, scalable and distributed network at a low cost.
You have an extensive technical background with some of the e-commerce businesses you contributed to. Checkfront seems unlike any of those, where did the concept originate?
Jason Morehouse:
In some ways Checkfront is very different than my previous companies, in other ways it’s a natural progression. Checkfront is e-commerce for companies with schedule and service based inventories — albeit significantly more complex to develop.
Back in 2008 I was approached by a friend and former colleague Grant Jurgeneit. He was looking for some advice on implementing an online booking system for a friend of his with a travel / tourism based operation in Whistler BC. By that time I had been developing e-commerce applications for almost a decade and it was a fairly mature market. I was horrified at the backwards and cumbersome solutions that were available to companies looking to take and manage online bookings. Like good entrepreneurs, we said (somewhat naively) “we can do better than that”. Of course we did, but it took us over a year and a lot more work than we had anticipated.
MO:
A quick Google search revealed several online booking systems. What is it that differentiates Checkfront and places you as an emerging leader in the industry? What are some sample industries that are leveraging Checkfront and in what ways?
… upwards of a half million pageviews per day
Interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog
Peter Frank is a college student at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He founded Sumdae, LLC, while still in high school. The business started on the premise of buying Internet domain names and reselling to end users at a profit. Peter now owns and operates CollegeACB.com.
CollegeACB.com or “Anonymous Confession Board” is a controversial hot spot for college students, boasting upwards of a half million pageviews per day. Although originally created by two other students, Peter is behind the enormous growth of the site. CollegeACB.com is described as a web-based community for college students to voice their opinions on college life while remaining anonymous.
MO.com:
You obviously have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, forming a business while still in high school. What drivers, experiences or influences did you have at such an early age that positioned you where you are today? Did you come from an entrepreneurial family?
Peter Frank:
No one else in my immediate family line has been particularly entrepreneurial, but my parents have always supported me in every way they could. They had trust and allowed me to sign up for a Paypal account at thirteen. That freedom allowed me to start my first business with a friend (we sold Counter Strike admin privileges). From that point forward, I was always trying something new to make money. Eventually (around fifteen), I stumbled into domain names and websites and now here I am.
I have a drive from within to be successful, and generating profits allows me to see my success concretely. Equally important to making money is the sense of satisfaction from beating competitors and/or the market.
MO.com:
You have been featured in countless blogs, newspapers and most impressively, TIME. Have you had any difficulty handling this rush of attention? What impact has it had on your day-to-day life?
Peter Frank:
I had my fifteen minutes years ago, so I know how ridiculous the media can be. It hasn’t really impacted me too much in my daily life, though the attention at times can be both exciting and aggravating. It is also quite frustrating when my quotes are taken out of context to make me look bad, but I guess that comes with the territory. I’ve certainly learned to become much more careful when talking with the media over the last year.
MO.com:
CollegeACB.com is clearly controversial. While some describe it as “practical and helpful”, others describe it as “hateful and hurtful.” How do you react to those that claim to be victims of online bullying or others who claim their reputation has been destroyed?
Super Web O Matic – Chris Merrill
Interview by Kevin Ohashi of Ohashi Media
Chris Merrill is the CEO of Super Web O Matic. He started his entrepreneurial career in 1999 when he started Thrive Networks, a company dedicated to bringing high quality technical support to small businesses. He eventually sold off Thrive Networks to Staples. When Chris sold Thrive Networks it had around 100 employees at the time. Chris found his passion for working with small business owners early through Thrive Networks and continued to start more companies before Super Web O Matic in the space. One such company was Designer Advantage where he worked to create a service to help interior designers manage their businesses by focusing on helping them with bookkeeping and project management.
Currently, Chris is focused on Super Web O Matic. Super Web O Matic provides online marketing services for small businesses. It was born out of the idea that what makes a business successful online is the ability to cost effectively generates leads. With this goal in mind, Chris and team have streamlined the process that normally would cost $10-15,000 down to $3000 by automating as much as possible. Super Web O Matic focuses on creating good looking websites with clear calls to action and apply online marketing best practices.
MO:
Tell me about Thrive Networks: was it your first company? Did you manage the company until it was sold to Staples? What was the most important thing you learned while working there?
Chris Merrill:
My first company was actually a pager (no laughing) company I ran when I was 17. Most of my friends couldn’t sign up for there own accounts because of our age and parents didn’t like the idea. I saw a great opportunity (for beer money) so I convinced a distributor to give me a wholesale account and I rented pagers to everyone at school. Collections were a bitch, as I literally had to track down kids for 8 bucks. It must have looked so sketchy.
Thrive however was my first real company. College and I didn’t get along so instead I started doing computer support (my mother worked for an IT training company so I “borrowed” training materials.) I ended up getting a job at a computer reseller and that is where I really fell in love with small business owners. These small businesses would either use a friend or family member (Joe Six-pack) to maintain the computers or cycle through IT companies who force-fed huge contracts or blocks of hours. In addition all services were reactive, not only were the paying hundreds of dollars to fix the problems, they were down so everyone was pissed off…not fun.
This was the problem we solved with Thrive. Provide SIMPLE and effective computers networks to small business and then pro-actively monitor and manage them. It took us the first couple of years to get it right, but once we had the right people, processes, and technology we really gained traction.
Most important thing I learned, and I still have to be reminded of this weekly, is that I don’t need to control and be involved with everything, in every instance, there is someone who can do it better. Hire good-hearted people with high aptitude, train them, and get the hell out of their way.
MO:
You have been keeping an ideas list for many years. As a culture we love and embrace new ideas. If you’re up to sharing could you tell us about the craziest idea (in your mind) on your list? How about the one you most wish you had executed on when you came up with it and why you didn’t?
Bring Your Startup to Life
Alex Farcet is the founder of Startupbootcamp. Alex is a well-known figure around the Copenhagen startup scene. He hosts monthly meetings called First Friday where entrepreneurs are ‘networking with purpose.’ It’s a place to ask fellow entrepreneurs for help with any problems their companies are facing followed by traditional networking. Alex also runs StartupDenmark.dk a site dedicated to the Danish and Nordic startup scene. Alex also organized Startup Weekend across the Nordic and Baltic region this year which saw Copenhagen, Stockholm, Lund, Oslo, Vilnius, Kaunas and Aarhus all getting their first experience from the US created concept. Alex is also an investor in the region, he’s a member of the Danish Venture Capital Association and Startupbootcamp is his latest project.
Startupbootcamp’s goal is to bring Tech Stars to Europe. They are the first Tech Stars Global Affiliate and provide seed funding and a mentorship program that aims to help companies launch within 3 months. The background behind the project is it comes from Rainmaking, a team of dedicated entrepreneurs who have been commercializing their own and others’ ideas for three years and have seen two multi-million dollar exists and revenue of around 165 million DKK (~27 million dollars) and 65 employees from 10 companies.
Kevin Ohashi:
You spent 10 years working at DHL. Were you also trying to start your own projects during this time? If you weren’t, what caused the transition into becoming an entrepreneur?
Alex Farcet:
Corporate life kept me plenty busy! Having grown up in Spain, France, Africa and England my ambition was to continue to travel and discover the world. DHL offered that and more: I never had a position more than 2 years, I worked all over Eastern Europe (right after the wall fell which was hugely exciting) and was posted in Brussels, Hong Kong and Denmark. I was kind of shoved off the corporate ladder when my 3 year old son fell ill (he’s fine now). I took a year off to take care of him and never went back. I started working as an independent consultant and on the side began helping startups. It turns out I’m pretty good working with geeks, I’m good at translating what they do into language business people can understand and I’m a really good networker – all of which is useful for a young tech company. Going back in time, when I finished business school I took a couple of months off in France and immediately went back to the US. I did the immigrant thing and went through Ellis Island in New York and headed straight for a friend’s couch in San Francisco.
I ended up working with a startup bringing the ‘minitel’ (a neanderthal version of the internet through a phone box) to the Bay Area. The company was not a success but I loved the experience. So as soon as I had the the time and opportunity to pick what I should do I went back to my first love: working with startups. I did a business angel investment and put up www.startupdenmark.dk which instead of a blog was a compilation of resources and interviews with entrepreneurs. In November last year I interviewed Martin Bjergegaard, co-founder of Rainmaking (http://rainmaking.dk/forside.aspx?lang=en) and we hit it off. I was dreaming of doing a Northern European TechStars and it turns out they were working on something similar so we joined forces. 6 months later, Startupbootcamp is ready to go with close to 60 amazing mentors, a facility in the heart of Copenhagen and investors lined up to see our ten startups at the end of the 3 month program in November.
Kevin Ohashi:
How is the culture of entrepreneurship different in Europe compared to the US? Is the Nordic startup culture different from the rest of Europe or can you see regional differences within parts of Europe?
