Day 1 of Voycit, well not really but it is the first day that I am recording my activities. What is Voycit you ask? Voycit is a project that I am working on to create a tool which will make it possible to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions. I am going to use this blog to chronicle my activites as I create the service and start the business. Please follow me on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and comment as often as you wish.

Les auteurs du livre « Start-Up Nation », Dan Senor et Saul Singer citent un dirigeant de British Telecom mais ils pourraient aussi bien citer un dirigeant d’Intel, qui a ouvert l’année dernière une usine de 3.5 milliards de dollars à Kyriat Gat ou Warren Buffett qui a payé 4 milliards de dollars en 2006 pour acquérir une entreprise israélienne de machinerie métallique, ou bien John Chambers directeur général de Cisco qui a acquis 9 start-up israéliennes, ou encore Steve Ballmer qui dit de Microsoft qu’elle est « autant une entreprise israélienne qu’une entreprise américaine » du fait de l’importance de ses ingénieurs israéliens.
« Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay…,» déclare un dirigeant d’eBay, « le secret le mieux gardé est que nous vivons et mourrons tous par le travail de nos équipes israéliennes. »

Israël est la nation des technologies. Les dépenses civiles de recherche et développement atteignent 4.5% du Produit Intérieur Brut soit une fois et demie plus que le niveau des Etats-Unis, de l’Allemagne ou de la Corée du sud . Même en termes absolus Israël n’a que les Etats-Unis comme concurrent avec une population quarante fois inférieure. 

vivement du not made in China !

Au début de l’année 2009, quelques 63 sociétés israéliennes sont cotées au NASDAQ, c’est-à-dire plus que pour n’importe quel autre pays. Parmi les entreprises israéliennes : Teva pharmaceutiques, le plus grand fabriquant mondial de médicaments génériques et « Check Point Software technologies ».

Un tel dynamisme économique s’est produit en dépit de la guerre, des tensions intérieures et de l’animosité grandissante d’autres nations. Durant les six années suivant l’explosion de la bulle internet en 2000, alors qu’Israël a subi l’une de ses pires périodes d’attaques terroristes et combattu dans la deuxième guerre du Liban, les auteurs font remarquer que sa part dans le marché global des capitaux-risque n’a pas baissé mais au contraire a doublé de 15 à 31 %.
Une question importante posée par « Start-Up Nation » est : Pourquoi Israël et pas ailleurs ?

La plus grande force de « Start-Up Nation » n’est pas l’analyse mais l’anecdote. Les auteurs racontent des histoires de succès entrepreneuriaux comme celui de Shai Agassi, fils d’un immigrant iraquien en Israël, avec ses voitures électriques ou Gavriel Iddan, dont les caméras explorent le corps humain.

Au final, il n’est pas simple de découvrir pourquoi Israël, une petite nation d’immigrants, déchirée par la guerre, est parvenue à devenir la première nation technologique. Il est peut-être suffisant comme ce livre le fait de mettre la lumière sur ses succès.

PS: le livre n’a pas encore été traduit en français.
 

L’agence pour le developpement de l’entreprise et de l’entreprenariat – Entreprise UK – offre une année de location de bureaux pour jusqu’à trois personnes.

Ces bureaux se trouvent à

Birmingham, Bristol, Londres et Manchester.

Pour participer il suffit de répondre aux question sur le site de Enterprise UK

Just this week I visited ATEC (Aachen Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference) with distinguished members of Momentum Maastricht. The event took place at Schloss Rahe, which was a great choice for this event. The Maastricht delegation was especially invited by the organizing team of AC.E as part of a cooperation of the ATEC and the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship.

The conference offered many workshops, lectures, presentations, and opportunities to network. A participant could chose between three tracks, namely Mobile Technologies, Automotive, and Energy. I chose the mobile track and had the opportunity to hear and get to know a very interesting speaker and personality, Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers. His presentation about usability and how the topic should be approached by companies, especially engineers, was funny and very well structured. He gave great examples of Dos and Don’ts when designing a new product. His presentation is available at his departments website.

The Mobile Track

Other speakers of this mobile track included a representative from Metro AG, who showed a new concept that Metro wants to implement in their stores which makes the consumer’s cellphone center of the focus. With an everyday mobile phone customers will be able to scan their merchandise and use a quick check out. In essence a system that Albert Heijn uses in its stores but instead of the “Albert gun” the cellphone will do the job.

Another presentation was given by a representative of business consulting firm McKinsey & Co. about mobile trends – yes great consultant charts that left no doubt that the proper resources like Gartner, Datamonitor, etc. were harvested in countless hours of all-nighters… To give some credit, it was very informative though if you spoke consulting.

The fourth speaker was an entrepreneur (the first and only one in this track) who presented the history of his chip manufacturing business and had the great ability to convey some entrepreneurial spirit to the group. He shared his experience and gave some great advice on how to get started and how to fight the fear of going on “alone” if you are a non-business student. His presentation had among all the highest perceived value since it was as real-life as it could get and very personal.

The interesting thing about the conference was the schedule. The morning kicked off with the workshops without one real word of welcome (we were greeted very nicely though) and only after lunch the opening ceremony began. This had an up and down side. The good thing was that you started off immediately after you arrived but the downside was that without the opening ceremony in the morning the feeling of a united conference start kind of got lost. The location and the students organizing the event did everything they could to be very hospitable but to me a conference should start with everybody and should end at some point with everybody. Maybe this is just a matter of habit, nevertheless, quite noteworthy.

StartUp MeetUp

In the morning I participated in the StartUp MeetUp session which brought together four founders and their start-up story. Here is my twitter feed from that session to give you an impression of what was said:

Just heard a presentation of Felix from #conangel cool iphone app for conventions and fairs – def. bright future, great job #atec09

Just checked out the iphone app from @conangel after hearing a pres from founder Felix. Awesome tool that every event should use!#atec2009

Joerg Meyer of EUtech biz advice: have fun at work, watch for quality, watch your liquidity, choose your own project, think longterm #atec09

Claus Overbeck from RedTeam Pentesting talking about his biz: playing the bad guys (hacking) and getting payed for it – awesome!#atec2009

Sven Wilhelm from #collectiveiq: you dont have to be an IT guy to run an IT company, find great support, think about your biz model#atec2009

The AC.E Invitation

The organization of the whole event was remarkably well done. The subscription online was easy and quick and the day itself was perfectly executed. At this point I want to thanks all the people over at AC.E – who invited us – to make this such a special, meaningful, and informative day.

The Highlight

The highlight of the day was probably the speech done by Microsoft Germany CEO Achim Berg, who presented some of the latest Microsoft brew, which will hit the markets very soon. The focus of their R&D seems to go further into the direction of artificial intelligence and cognitive learning. He showed some videos and figures which paint an interesting future.

Wow, so as my first post I should probably set the tone a bit.  I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and have been working in the retail floral field for 10 years and have finally decided to buy my own shop. SCARY!!!

It is so hard to decide what to do and what shop to buy, do you start out on your own and it is all fresh and new and yours or do you buy an existing shop and slowly develop and change to you style. What to do? – what to do?

At first I was super excited about a shop that was in the same neighbourhood as the one I have been working at for the past 10 years. It had some major advantages – I totally know the nearest competition, know their pricing structure, style and clients that are loyal to me would not have far to travel to find me.  Disadvatage – the space was really designed for personal flower purchases not really setup for large corporate/wedding functions, which is the direction I am headed.  So I had to find something else.

Now I am looking at a space that used to be a florist but they closed down, so it already has a huge built in cooler and just needs a bit of paint and some freshening up.  So I hope to finalise the lease this coming week and then it is mine all mine.  So keep your fingers crossed for me and we shall soon see if I can become an independent business owner. Yikes!

La start-up de la Silicon Valley s’appuie sur un algorithme pour déterminer quels articles produire pour un maximum d’audience et de publicité.

Des milliers d’articles et de vidéos produits et diffusés sur Internet chaque jour, grâce à un algorithme qui révèle les envies des internautes. Cauchemar de journaliste ? Rêve de patron de presse ? Non, c’est la réalité d’une des start-up les plus en vue du moment dans la Silicon Valley : Demand Media. Celle-ci produit du contenu pour Internet, vidéos et articles destinés à être placés sur ses propres sites et sur des réseaux sociaux comme MySpace ou sur YouTube. Ses recettes sont générées par la publicité, grâce aux liens placés en regard de ses produits. Jusque-là, rien de bien novateur.

La particularité de Demand Media, c’est que tous les sujets sur lesquels elle produit des contenus sont déterminés par un savant calcul, plutôt que par les réflexions et brainstormings d’êtres humains. Et visiblement, ça marche, du moins financièrement. Si Demand Media refuse de communiquer sur ce point, son chiffre d’affaires 2009 est, selon le magazine “Business Insider”, estimé entre 200 et 300 millions de dollars et la société est valorisée “cinq à six fois plus”. L’entreprise de Santa Monica revendiquait déjà en octobre dernier plus d’un million d’articles et de vidéos publiés sur le Web et il y a un an, elle était déjà le contributeur numéro un à YouTube.

Fournisseur de pages vues

Créée en 2006 par Shawn Colo et Richard Rosenblatt – l’ancien directeur de MySpace qui avait revendu un an plus tôt le réseau social à News Corp pour 580 millions de dollars -, Demand Media était au départ destiné à acheter des millions de noms de domaines pour les monétiser ensuite grâce à des liens publicitaires. Avec l’invention de l’algorithme, la société a recentré son activité sur la production de contenus.

Demand Media est, pour résumer, un énorme fournisseur de pages vues. Idéal pour les publicitaires. Son ambition ? Prédire les questions que quiconque pourrait se poser un jour, et générer, sous forme de vidéo ou d’article web, la réponse qui apparaîtra en premier dans Google. Surtout, qui dit bon classement dans Google, dit centaines de milliers de pages vues, et donc revenus publicitaires potentiels… Demand Media gagnerait 15 à 60 cents par clic sur un lien publicitaire, estime le site du magazine américain “Wired”.

Pour déterminer quels sujets doivent être traités, l’algorithme de Demand Media prend en compte les termes les plus recherchés sur Internet, les mots clés les plus demandés par les publicitaires, et l’existence ou non d’articles relatifs à ce sujet sur le Web. Il met en balance ce que veulent savoir les internautes et combien les annonceurs sont prêts à payer pour apparaître à côté de ces sujets.

Une fois la demande identifiée par l’algorithme, les sujets à traiter sont mis en ligne sur Demand Studio, la plate-forme par laquelle passent les 10.000 rédacteurs et vidéastes freelance qui fournissent à la société articles et vidéos. Il suffit à ces derniers de s’inscrire sur le site internet du Studio et d’attendre les commandes de sujets qui s’y affichent – parfois 62.000 suggestions en un seul jour. Payés à l’article (10 dollars) ou à la vidéo (20 dollars), ils peuvent réserver 10 articles ou 40 vidéos à la fois. Au vu du tarif, bien sûr, c’est la quantité et pas la qualité qui prime.

“Les Ford de la vidéo en ligne”

Le but de Demand Media n’est en effet pas de décrocher des scoops. Parmi les vidéos les plus regardées et les articles les plus lus figurent principalement des recettes pratiques ou des modes d’emploi : quelle est la meilleure vodka, comment faire certaines figures de skate, que mettre dans sa valise pour un voyage à Rome… L’objectif est de faire du chiffre. “Ce sont les Henry Ford de la vidéo en ligne”, a déclaré Jordan Hoffner, directeur des partenariats de contenus pour YouTube.

Récemment, des journaux “traditionnels” comme l’”Atlanta Journal-Constitution” ont commandé à Demand des articles pour les publier en ligne et dans les pages de leur journal. Pour Dave Panos, vice-président exécutif ( lire son interview), le modèle de contenus à la demande financé par la pub fait partie de l’avenir des médias. Un point de vue pas totalement partagé par les journalistes américains, qui ne peuvent que constater le phénomène. “Ce nouveau modèle va sans aucun doute affecter le métier, affirme la directrice de l’école de journalisme de l’université de Sud Californie, mais nous ne pouvons pas protéger le journalisme de telles innovations.”
CAROLINE BOUDET, Les Echos.

Da qualche settimana io e Matteo ci rincorrevamo per parlare di quanto il geek pensiero dovrebbe essere l’interfaccia con cui tutta una serie di professionalità differenti si confrontano, arricchendosi proprio grazie alle reciproche diversità. La domanda era: come spostare ’sta cosa del geek a livello di social network? E siccome, oltre a rincorrerci su skype, io e Matteo ci rincorriamo (o meglio, io lo rincorro…) su nike+, ecco nascere il primo spin-off di geekadvertising. Di corsa, coerentemente: dal pranzo all’indiano sono bastati 10 giorni per avere il dominio, il logo, il manifesto, il blog, l’account Twitter e la fan page su Facebook online.

Wycena pomysłu na początkowym etapie startup’a w formie udziału czyli jak pozostać przyjaciółmi do grobowej deski.

Często bywa tak, że w trakcie początkowej realizacji, z różnych powodów, ktoś “odpada” lub nie może dalej uczestniczyć w przedsięwzięciu. Założenie, że skoro taki ktoś nie realizuje projektu to jego dola przepada, pachnie “kapitalizmem z wilczym kłem” i zwykle kończy bliższe relacje. Jeżeli ktoś nie ma problemu ze sprzedaniem swojej siostry do mafii to może nie czytać dalej. Pozostałych może zaś niniejszy wpis zainteresować.

Po primo, pomysł stanowi aktywa przedsięwzięcia i jego wartość po uruchomieniu systemu to 5-15% wartości przedsięwzięcia. O finansowej wartości pomysłu pisałem wcześniej. Wartość wynikająca z popełnianej pracy do czasu uruchomienia projektu buduje poszczególne udziały. Jeżeli pomysłodawca uczestniczy w projekcie, a tak zakładamy, jego praca jest wyceniana na równi z pozostałymi wspólnikami.

To może na przykładzie.
Siada sobie dwóch kumpli ze szkolnej ławy. Marek, który ma wizję i zdolności graficzne oraz Paweł, który jest top-koderem i serwery dla niego tajemnic nie mają żadnych. Szacują, bo coś trzeba założyć, że projekt będą robić wieczorami przez 3 miesiące. Marek robi grafikę, projekt interfejsu, plan marketingowy. Paweł programuje cały system. Poświęcają średnio 3h dziennie każdy. Czyli aby zakończyć projekt  z nich każdy musi przepracować 270h. We dwóch 540h. Różne umiejętności się rożnie wycenia, ale my dla uproszczenia przyjmiemy jedną stawkę 70 PLN/h daje to 37.800 PLN. Dorzucamy Markowi do równego rachunku 5200 za pomysł (ok. 12%) daje to w sumie 43.000 PLN

Pierwszego dnia, kiedy jeszcze palcem nikt nie kiwnął, Marek ma 100% udziałów bo wartością jest tylko jego pomysł. Popatrzmy jednak, jak wygląda sytuacja po miesiącu, zakładając że obaj uczciwie go przepracowali.

Marek: (pomysł) 5.200 PLN + (praca 90 h * 70 PLN) 6.300 PLN = 11.500 PLN
Paweł: (praca 90 h * 70 PLN) 6.300 PLN
RAZEM = 17.800 PLN

Co z tego wynika? Ano, gdyby duet Marek & Paweł chciał to (byle)komu po miesiącu sprzedać to:

• znane są minimalne koszty po jakich warto to zrobić, żeby nie pracować za darmo i dostać gratyfikację za kreatywne myślenie (koncepcję).
• Marek ma (11.500 PLN / 17.800 PLN * 100) = 65% udziałów, a Paweł (6.300 PLN / 17.800 PLN * 100) = 35% udziałów. Udział wartość pomysłu na tym etapie to prawie 30%.

Pod dwóch miesiącach:

Marek: (pomysł) 5.200 PLN + (praca 180 h * 70 PLN) 12.600 = 17.800 PLN (59%)
Paweł: (praca 180 h * 70 PLN) = 12.600 PLN (41%)
RAZEM = 30.400 PLN
Udział wartości pomysłu to to 17%.

Na koniec projektu:

Marek: (pomysł) 5.200 PLN + (praca 270 h * 70 PLN) 18.900 PLN = 24.100 PLN (56%)
Paweł: (praca 180 h * 70 PLN) 18.900 PLN (44%)
RAZEM = 43.000 PLN
Marek ma: 44% praca + 12% za pomysł
Paweł ma:  (44% praca).

No, ale nie jest po równo. Nie jest. System, w którym było po równo odchodzi do lamusa wraz z generacjami osób, które zmuszone były w nim funkcjonować. Tym razem może warto spróbować metody uwzględniającej rzeczywisty wkład. Koncepcję oczywiście można rozszerzyć na więcej osób.

Jest jeszcze sytuacja, kiedy Marek wycofuje się z projektu, np. po miesiącu. Ewidentnie trzeba ją rozpatrywać inaczej. Nie skończony na takim etapie projekt ma dużą szansę się wywrócić. W tej sytuacji 65% udziałów, przy dalszym braku zaangażowania wygląda zbyt rozrzutnie. Jakie będzie uzgodnienie, zależy już tylko od uczestników projektu. Minimalną wartością moim zdaniem jest 12% wynikające z końcowego udziału pomysłu w całości przedsięwzięcia. Gratyfikacja osób zaangażowanych w początkowym stadium zawsze ma sens, bo daje mentalną siłę w postaci  przekonania o uczciwym postępowaniu. Patrzenie sobie prosto w oczy przy porannej toalecie ma dużą wartość. Ale to odkrywamy z wiekiem.

Swego czasu, opisaną koncepcję, ładnie zebrał w postaci praktycznego arkusza Jeff Krupman nazywając go (a jakże by inaczej) Friend Keeper.

Z życzeniami pozostania w przyjaźni.

PS.
Mam w pamięci, co napisał Paul raham o wyniszczających walkach jeśli udziały są nierówne. Jeżeli Marek i Paweł mają po 16 lat i jest to ich pierwszy startup to lepiej przyjąć starą dobrą zasadę 50/50 zwaną fifTY-fifJA.

by Jeanne Dasaro

Over the past few months many friends have come to me with business ideas, asking how, like me, they might start their own business. What I find is that instead of wanting to discuss steps they could take toward self-employment, they are more interested in delving into an endless list of reasons why it can’t be done. The list reasons ranges from cats to car issues, but mainly seem to come from genuine concerns about their own capabilities.

On my own path to self-employment—something I’m still in the process of figuring out—I quickly realized there were three things I’d have to accept. First, starting a business is not about being an expert. No one expects you to know the ins and outs of every aspect of your company from the very beginning. However, you’ll inevitably learn bits and pieces of web development, marketing, fundraising, project planning, and many other things you never dreamed you’d know about along the way. Still, that lack of initial understanding shouldn’t keep you from pursuing your idea. It’s your curiosity, hard-work, and willingness to take risks that is most important.

 Second, it’s better to focus on maximizing the skills you already have and improving upon those skills rather than worrying about what you don’t know. I am lucky to have a business partner with complementary skills. We’ve been able to divide up tasks according to skill sets and then ask each other (and sometimes other people outside the organization) for help with all the rest. Don’t have a business partner? Well, who amongst your friends, family, and professional contacts have the skills you need? Give them a call, send them an email, ask them to a cup of coffee sometime. You’d be surprised at the amount and quality of information that comes from that cup of joe.

Finally—something that is a bit of an overlap between the first two—you must not feel intimidated by what you don’t know. Or rather, let that intimidation get the best of you. If I were to let the fact that I didn’t know how to create videos or podcasts stop me from starting a media organization, we may have never gotten off the ground at all. If you have a clear vision for what you want to see built and are willing to work for it and learn as you go, the rest will eventually fall into place. There are countless people and resources out there to fill in the gaps and help you with what you don’t know. Stop merely thinking about your idea, and instead go do it!

Image courtesy of centrifuga*teatrante, Flickr Creative Commons

Lately, I find myself intrigued with scams.  And the scam of the internet lately has center around Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.  It involves a numerous amount of websites, whereas upon checkout, you are asked to add your email, for a coupon subscription.  That’s it.  Then the host website gives the mentioned companies above your credit card information, and you receive a recurring charge on you credit card.  A charge that you agreed to by submitting you email.  Companies involved include,  Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz. Also Barnes & Noble, Hotwire, Yahoo, Pizza Hut, Travelocity, Fandango, and Victoria’s Secret.

More info and news here and here.

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The Dirt Daubers are a band I recently found.  Thanks Emily.  Again.  As a long time fan of most anything that came out of Moses Asch’s Folkway Records, and of course Harry Smith’s ‘Anthology of America Folk Music’, I was thrilled when I first heard a few songs.  Thank you to bands like the Dirt Daubers for continuing to care about such music.

The Dirt Daubers Facebook

The Dirt Daubers Myspace

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New to my blogroll this week is Both Sides of the Table, from entrepreneur Mark Suster.  Good info for anyone with a start-up, or looking to possiblly venture into any business.  I really just enjoy reading this type of stuff for 5-12 minutes a day, maximum.  I have a problem.   See what you think.

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And finally, Springpad has a contest going on, centered around food bloggers and Thanksgiving meals.  A great resource with a tons of recipes.  If’n you are in a last day recipe pickle.  Some are old, some are new, and some, Ordinarily Strange.

So, slightly a tech geek Round Up.  I figured the first bit about the scam would interest all, and the food/music.

We at Ordinary Strangeness are thankful for all of you who come to this space, be it to laugh at, or with us.   Your time here is appreciated.

Happy Dry Turkey Meat All!!

-hollis

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And how about a cool short  story to sink your brain into.

The Owl, not The Turkey.

-forrest

I’ve always stood behind the small guy, the underdog, the independent. In fact, the smaller you are the better. Being small means you have the unique ability to provide an essential ingredient to your method of doing business; a vital component that is facing extinction through survival-of-the-fittest, big business mentalities. I am talking about commitment to the customer.

I’ve recently noticed the demise of commitment to the customer in business today…a pandemic that seems to be spiraling towards the ground, completely out of control, mirroring the turbulence of our economy. What I am talking about has been happening more & more lately as companies are forced to shrink overhead in order to maintain healthy profit levels in this weakened economy. I don’t know about you, but I am getting fed up with it. And no, I am not that arrogant demand-it-all customer; I am simply someone that asks for a commitment to assuring value in exchange for my hard earned buck.

Just last week, in fact, I was trying to contact a distributor that has been servicing another business of mine for quite some time now (The specifics are irrelevant to my point, so I will spare you the fine details). Now this particular supplier once had an account rep that was assigned to my business. I knew this rep by name & periodically they would check in to see how things were going, what was new, talk shop, whatever. Just clean, simple business ethics that kept my business in their hands. But last week, I make a call to their offices & after being filtered through a string of phone options I come to find that I no longer have a rep assigned to my account. I am then asked to visit their website, login to my account, locate the contact section & email the help dept. I do & I get an instant reply stating that my message has been forwarded to “the team” for review in order to better assist my inquiries. There is no longer a rep for me to speak to, but rather, a team that will diligently fulfill the needs of my requests. Awesome. So I do as I am told, I wait. A couple of days I wait, nothing. I wait some more, nothing. I wait a full week to be exact & still, nothing back on my end. No call. No email. No help. So I ask myself “If my distributor claims to be independent, how can they eliminate their customer commitment fulfillment?” Simple, they have acquired “other” interests.

I have noticed that more & more companies are starting to eliminate the one true asset of their business (customer service) in order to maintain profit rake yields. It is ironic because the only motivating factor I would have to leave such a company would be they don’t take care of my needs. They do distribute my goods correctly, commit to updating my online dashboard with sales activity reporting & cut checks regularly. But if they can’t connect me with a knowledgeable, empathetic human being to handle my claims or assist with on-the-fly modifications to my account, than they are dead to me. Simply dead. And I can’t be the only one that feels this way as I am sure I my business is not the only victim here.

Let me get one thing straight. Not everything is about money with me. I launched & ran an independent record label out of my garage, for years, while working a full-time job, just to stay afloat & scrape by. Commitment of that caliber is simply a testament of devotion to delivering what you believe in. And as big business gets bigger & revenues rake more profits, something ugly happens. They lose sight of why they started in the first place, the customer.

I don’t care what service or product you offer. If your commitment to customer service is anything short of outstanding or revolutionary, your days are numbered. It is simple. As the world shrinks & companies get larger, the human elements get removed in order to supplement cash flow & maintain high-yielding margins. Instead of providing more cost-effective solutions & solving problems to heighten the customer experience, they are actually promoting chaos by design & digging their own grave. It is a total joke. I have witnessed this as a consumer. I have witnessed this as an employee. And I have witnessed this as a business owner. Don’t believe me? Book a vacation with Travelocity & call back an hour later to change the itinerary. Or pay a visit FedEx Office to have them assist with assembling your next business presentation. Or maybe stop by your own boss’ office & throw ideas at him/her on how the company’s customer service commitment model should reflect Zappos.

I have always been a huge advocate for customer service. To me it is the life-blood of any business entity. Your product can totally suck wind. Your provided service can be faulty, riddled with holes. Your business could be broken, constantly in need of service, diminishing at the seams. But as long as you have a hands-on relationship with your customers, and you match them with a name & a voice or a face, chances are they will stick it out with you. They will help you to help them. People need people, period. And people need to feel good; they need to be made happy. And now more than ever, in this economy, business needs people.

The company are a natural spin out of an established business in Birmingham known for it’s innovative design, manufacture and supply of highly specialised products in the personal safety, emergency services and defence markets.

Background and introduction

Their most recent innovation, a personal cooling system, was developed in response to an enquiry from one of their key clients, who tried and tested it’s functionality, also identified an alternative application and significant benefits, for users of chemical suits, particularly in hostile heat environments. It was quickly established that the opportunity presented by this spin off product, was considerable and a new company has been formed to commercialise this first, of a range of anticipated products. All associated IP has been transferred to the new company and a sector experienced management team is being recruited to exploit a pipeline of opportunities that can be evidenced.

Market, performance and funding

The key markets & routes are well known and access/contact already well established in the sectors that are associated with the use of CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) protection suits and for staff working in high temperature areas. The product has shown not only durability but enables the user to maintain high performance levels for far longer periods in exacting environments.

The company has established strong relationships with a number of identified users and the largest supplier of CBRN suits are at advanced stages of negotiation to supply units within 3 months of manufacturing, leading to a sales profile of c2k units in year one rising to 12k in year 2, with sales into other sectors ramping up revenues to from £300k year one to £5m by year 3 and profits approaching £1.5m

A comprehensive business plan has been prepared indicating a funding requirement of £450k, of which £250k will be raised as equity immediately against a valuation of £1m. A regional VC is considering a match investment. The balance of £200k over the following 15 months may be debt or trade finance based.

The operation is scalable with controllable overheads in line with sales. The market for the product is sustainable and has all the attributes associated with long term potential that makes an exit via a trade sale to an existing supplier of industrial and military personal protective equipment a realistic probability.

For young biotechnology companies, attracting seed and early stage funding has become increasingly difficult this year although anecdotal signs of recovery are beginning to emerge.

The main reason: venture capital funds have been focusing on their existing portfolio companies who were holding off on exits while waiting out the markets.  Last year the biotech industry saw only one IPO — Florida-based Bioheart Inc.’s contentious USD 5.8 million float of Sunrise in February. Only six VC-funded companies went public across all industries, making 2008 the worst year for public entrance since 1977.  The outcome has been a marked slowdown of new investments.

Against this backdrop, the achievement by Critical Pharmaceuticals, a UK-based biotechnology company, seems all the more remarkable.  Yet rather than banging on a closed door, they opted for going after non-VC funding routes.  The amount of effort required to secure non-VC funding amounts to the same as VC routes but the outcome can be far preferable: less “management” of investors, no dilution of shareholding, fewer “strings attached”.

However, non-VC funds are relatively few and far between, making it more important than ever for potential new investment opportunities to tell a clear and compelling story.

Critical Pharmaceutical’s investor pitch was exactly that.  It was concise (12 slides from start to finish), yet contained all the components that attract and win investment from VC and non-VC sources alike, namely:

• A management team with a good track record
• Substantial growth potential
• A sustainable unique selling point and strong intellectual property position
• A scalable business plan
• Capable of achieving a profitable exit within 3-5 years

In Critical’s case, their unique proprietary drug delivery technology had demonstrated preclinical proof of concept for the effective delivery of biologicals.  The market potential for their product is substantial, since 30% of new drug applications are for biological drugs, amounting to a $40bn market.  Since 98% of biological drugs are given by frequent injection, any technology that reduces or removes the number of injections that a patient requires will be highly attractive for potential pharmaceutical partners.

The £1.5M that they secured came from the Welcome Trust to fund the next the clinical development of their nasal spray technology for use in the growth hormone market.  Up to 50% of patients do not adhere to the existing daily injection regimen and leading endocrinologists believe that non-invasive delivery would be very attractive.  The work would also demonstrate human proof of concept for Critical’s technology and open up the opportunities for novel products.

Having already secured revenue-generating collaborations and license partners, the investor pitch by Critical was successful and it gives a valuable model for surviving the current economic climate.

Everyone, have a groovy Turkey Day!

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Cheers,
Mark
oneculture
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1827 Union St
San Francisco, CA‎
(415) 346-4280

‎377 Santana Row
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 899-4012

1409 Montana Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 656-7898

2210 N. Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 248-5326

Our official website is officially under construction! With less than 4 weeks to go until its completion, we are thrilled with what we have so far and the direction in which we are heading.

We will be announcing our new url and some great new promotions for our clients in the coming weeks.

Check back often!

-Brian

Progress

The wheels are in motion.   I have been very busy getting all of the pieces in place, and it seems like we are right on track.  Website development is underway, and everything looks great.  I have been setting up meetings with people of influence in markets that I plan to approach first, and I have been getting an excellent response from the first people I have explained the business to.

My hope is that I can replicate what I do in my first market in other places, so I have been laying the foundation elsewhere too.  I feel comfortable right now, but I almost feel as if I am experiencing the calm before the storm because things are going to get a lot more exciting in a short period of time.

I am glad, however, that I did a great deal of planning.  I have been trying to plan into the future and see past the uncertainties that lie ahead.  While my plan will undoubtedly change due to unforeseen events, I believe it is best to be prepared so that I will not be working from scratch to make sure things go well.

Reading

As I mentioned, I have been reading Twitter Power, by Joel Comm.  My hopes were that I would learn all of the secrets, tips, and tricks that the most successful Twitterers use to gain publicity and media attention.  Although I will undoubtedly reach individuals via Twitter to let them know about my website, the best case scenario would be getting discovered by major influencers or media to get the word out.

Overall, I’ve been a bit disappointed.  I am about 160 pages in, and the first 100 pages were meant for people who have literally never used Twitter before, so I found them kind of boring.  I picked up useful tips here and there, but I was able to skim through most of what I had read.

The book is written at a third grade reading level, which makes it kind of tedious.  However, it also makes it a pretty quick read- I should be done in a day or so.  Pages 100-160 have been more helpful, providing mini-case studies about how to successfully brand using Twitter.

In my opinion, the book would be much more helpful if it went through more in-depth case studies of how businesses and individuals have succeeded and failed using Twitter.  This would be even more beneficial if I knew how these Twitter campaigns affected companies’ bottom lines, which is not even touched upon in the book.

It seems as though there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter.  It is so general in the way it is set up, that it can be applied in so many different ways.  What I would like to see are successful and failed applications and why they were so effective or ineffective.  This would be helpful to me in establishing a marketing plan for my company.

Today’s Question (Leave your responses below):

What was the last advertisement that you noticed worked on you? Or, what was your favorite advertisement that you have seen recently?