Tuesday November 30, 2004
3. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag -- VC Fodder
4. People From Atlanta Speak
5. Legal Resources
6. Cool Company -- AdGooroo
7. Quick Bytes -- Shifting Gears
8. In conclusion
The little news: Barry Moltz “guilted” me into starting a blog. Blame him if you don’t like it. Since I wrote about “the Blogging life” in my last newsletter, he naturally asked, “where’s yours?” So I started one. Since I wanted a venture capital sounding name, one that would not be construed as obtuse or obscure in meaning, I naturally came up with Stone Age Martini.
And the bigger news: I set up a website with a partner, a former colleague, actually. That would make us colleagues yet again. Check out www.vcfodder.com for more info. Make sure you sign up for the newsletter there, as I will be migrating all my wonderful word stylings to a new, and much larger format. You can read more about VC Fodder in section 3 of this newsletter, too.
Rounding out this issue we have yet more chiming from our Atlanta friend. I was hoping to run something from a new friend Kenya, but now I am waiting for a bigger and better email from the wilds of eastern Africa. Chuck McDonald pointed out a law firm with some resources that may be of interest to entrepreneurs, and AdGooroo and Shifting Gears pop up to introduce themselves to the world.
And a belated happy turkey day to a special friend somewhere yonder in the wilds of Virginia. Do you always vacation in places named after cars you used to own?
OK, I did it. I set up a blog. Check out www.stoneagemartini.com. Read it at your own risk. Hopefully I’ll provide a few updates now and then, and you can get a glimpse of the machinations of my fertile, or is that futile, mind.
Stone Age Martini is a mix of business stuff and personal stuff, essentially a place to park different ideas that pop into my head, articles I find interesting (mostly dealing with venture capital and entrepreneurship), as well as musings on books, movies, and music. And friends. For example, after listening to my friend Joe explain how his wife discovered their 2 year old daughter giving herself a bath in the bathroom sink…using Comet… well, I figured that kind of stuff was just too good to forget.
While this will be yet another self-absorbed website, I believe I offer the reader the most interesting category types on the planet. Yes, I have the usual (music, books, life, start up ideas), but I also have etymology, shameless plug for someone else, and my favorite, Rube Goldberg would be proud. Once I figure out what that means, I’ll let you know.
And to think, all of this started simply because as I read a book about Magna Carta, I had the realization that blogs were not such a bad idea. Call me Mr. Non Sequitur. I’ve been called worse.
I’m using TypePad.com to handle the backend. I bought domain from GoDaddy, about $17 for 2 years. I bought one year of hosting from TypePad for about $80. That’s it. I was even able to reconfigure my DNS thingamabobs (don’t ask me how), so my domain name is the aforementioned www.stoneagemartini.com, instead of www.stoneagemartini.blogs.com.
I got me some mad Internet skills.
3. Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag -- VC Fodder
And the bigger news. With my partner Ben Rowland, I’ve set up a nifty little site that will deal with the crazy world of venture capital, start ups, entrepreneurship, and the like. And on the 8th day, we named it: VC Fodder. Here’s a link to the new baby, www.vcfodder.com
The site is still being developed, which means we’re still playing around with formatting, layout, structure, architecture, and so on, but we’re on our way. We’ve been adding affiliates like crazy, and since so many people told me I should charge for what I write, we’ve slapped price tags on a couple of VC Fodder original products. Please feel free to whip out the credit card and buy stuff.
Since we’re still developing the site, you might find a few dead links, and some sections that say, “insert copy here,” but you should get the idea. We’re going to be redoing the logo, as well as the look and feel of the site. The situation is still very fluid.
If you’re curious as to how we came up with the name, or what our mission statement is, check out the “All About VC Fodder” page.
Since VCs do not like LLCs, we naturally incorporated as an LLC. We do not plan to seek outside capital. But if someone wants to buys us out for some ridiculous multiple of revenue (which we have) or earnings (which we don’t), or EBITDA, we’ll listen. And if you’re not happy with our EBITDA, we’ll invent new accounting acronyms for you.
People! That’s a joke! We’re not selling, and the above paragraph should not be construed as an offer to sell.
As I previously mentioned, if you haven’t done so already, please take quick second and sign up for the VC Fodder newsletter. You won’t regret it, and if you do, you can always unsubscribe.
In addition to offering a wide assortment of affiliates and products, all aimed at helping entrepreneurs at every stage of development, we offer content, advice, tips, and insights, the usual stuff that you’ve grown to love at BillSnow.com. Since I have a partner now, perhaps I’ll have less typos, too.
It is our humble hope to build a Motley Fool type of website/portal for the private equity/venture capital/start up world. Actually, since my ego usually runs amok, it is my hope that Motley Fool reorganizes some day to be more like VC Fodder.
Since I’ve designated myself as “Chief Content Guru,” you can go to sleep each night secure in the knowledge that good old Bill Snow will keep things interesting, snappy, tasty, and fun.
And candidly accurate, too.
As you might have guessed, I’m handling much of the product design. Since I have such incredible creative talents, I’m naturally handling the accounting, too. Ben, on the other hand, has incredible programming talents, and his title (or at least what I call him) is Chief Tech Geek. Since he has such incredible programming and engineering talents, he’s naturally handling much of the marketing.
As you will see, neither one of us is a website designer.
If you have any comments, advice, feedback, criticism, suggestions, or ideas to make VC Fodder better, stronger, faster, let me know. We’re still “driving by feel,” so don’t think we’re married to anything on the site.
Thank you for your support.
4. People From Atlanta Speak
Our southern friend, Jim from Atlanta (and sometimes Florida), has chimed in yet again with some interesting thoughts about Income Businesses vs. Equity Businesses. Jim seems to be a pretty interesting fellow, although anyone who lauds my writing ability will certainly win points with me. I’m shallow, but at least I admit it. You have to be in touch with your weaknesses as well as your strengths. As most of you know, my best trait is my modesty.
Full disclosure: As the subject of Jim’s email indicates, his email was very much a rambling (but interesting) musing about business and entrepreneurship. With Jim’s permission, I edited the email for readability, not content.
Jim, if you’re reading this, send me your mailing address and I’ll send you this thing called the “enter” key. You see, when you use this key, you create these things called “paragraphs.”
-----Original Message-----
From: james simons [mailto:jckc1983@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 12:23 PM
To: bill@billsnow.com
Subject: Musings of Jim in Atlanta
Dear Bill,
Thanks again for a great newsletter. I wish I had had this one as I trudged through college history courses 20 years ago.
I found the "Salaryman" segment interesting. Just this morning I had a wannabee entrepreneur send me an email demanding that I find him money so that he could quit his job and pursue his "unique" business idea (he's not interested in the selling and marketing part of business though.) I sort of understand why people need a sense of security (sort of).
I started my first business when my first child was on the way; neither my wife nor I had a job. I lost $50,000 (all I had) of investment because I was in a car wreck just as the marketing that part of that paid for started. It all went down the tubes. I started the next business on a credit card, and went deep into debt, almost starved until we turned that into a serious income and ok equity play.
Starting businesses is much like a roller coaster ride--just make sure you like roller coasters. Also, I encourage future entrepreneurs to be focused but also be empire builders, gather an army of people and ideas around you...learn about real estate. It goes had and glove with a true wealth building model...and interestingly, people will give you money for real estate even when you don’t know what you are doing.
Lots of business out there that are good businesses to own that will never be a Microsoft. Just understand which kind you're in. Is it an income business or a serious equity business? Both have their place.
I happen to just love business, no matter what the industry, and I love the adrenalin of the deal. Without the chance of losing, there would be no thrill and, of course, everyone would do it. I get asked to be part of some venture 2 or 3 times a month and I've come to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with my financial acumen or good looks. People like to be with people that have been there. If they only knew that half of the time I'm winging it and am in new territory. I just have confidence that there in a remarkable organizing effect at the edge of chaos. I'm also confident that the other guy is winging it too.
Now, the secret is out. My last musings: Security is for sissies. Vision without execution is hallucination. All of us have days that our balls are the size of watermelons and other days that they are the size of raisins. Oh! And we all hallucinate on some business idea.
Jim in Atlanta
5. Legal Resources
I just got off the phone with Chuck McDonald who mentioned the law firm of Dykema Gossett has a service aimed at emerging business. For $7,500, you can start up and contain your costs. Take a peek: http://www.dykema.com/emer/default.asp
6. Cool Company - AdGooroo
Richard Stokes originally contacted me over a year ago and we met for a sushi lunch and talked about some of his business ventures. He recently released a press release talking about AdGooroo. Here’s the release:
New Era in AdWords Advertising Begins
Chicago Entrepreneur Showcases AdGooroo, Most Advanced AdWords Advertising Campaign Tool to Date
CHICAGO, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- It's official. The next generation of AdWords advertising has begun. With CPC costs inching higher each day, advertisers are scrambling to discover new and innovative ways to edge out the competition. With the recent launch of AdGooroo (http://www.AdGooroo.com), they may have found their most potent weapon yet.
"I compare the launching of AdGooroo to the advent of radar," touted Richard Stokes, entrepreneur and founder of AdGooroo LLC. "Before radar, fighter pilots could only see what was directly in front of them. They relied on instinct and the quality of their jets to get them by. Until now, AdWords advertisers have been in a similar predicament."
The elegant AdGooroo system accomplishes two basic functions previously unavailable to AdWords advertisers. Within 24 hours of signing up with AdGooroo, an advertiser has a detailed map of every competitor in their industry and every keyword that they advertise with.
AdGooroo subscribers leverage that intelligence for increased coverage, more traffic and, ultimately, greater profits. Additionally, AdGooroo offers trademark infringement searches, a historical database of competitor ads, industry leader indicators and a way to spot when new competitors enter an industry.
"We took our time with this project," said Stokes. "I knew that we had something worthwhile and I didn't want to rush it until everything was exactly as I envisioned it." The result of Stokes' patience, together with a seasoned team of Top Gun developers and designers, has been nothing short of phenomenal.
AdGooroo is the next logical step in the evolution of AdWords advertising. "We developed AdGooroo because it does things that were desperately lacking in every AdWords campaign," added Stokes. "One of our early clients in the affiliate marketing industry was bringing in close to $200,000 in revenue before they started using AdGooroo. Today, their company is generating over $1.1 million."
As CPC costs skyrocket from a maturing AdWords playing field, advertisers look to innovative ways to even out the increased competition. As with all new technologies, those that discover it before the competition will profit immensely.
Contact:
Richard Stokes
President
AdGooroo, LLC
312-282-0162
http://www.AdGooroo.com
rich@adgooroo.com
Richard also sent me a little more info about AdGooroo. Here it is:
Advertising on search engines such as Google and Yahoo has proven highly effective for advertisers and as a result, the paid search industry has grown from $300 million in 2000 to over $3.3 billion today. Yet increased competition is eroding the effectiveness of the medium and forcing advertisers and agencies to make use of more sophisticated campaign strategies in order to remain profitable. Marketers in other mediums often turn to competitive intelligence to formulate these strategies, but no comprehensive competitive intelligence service is currently offered for paid search.
AdGooroo is addressing this problem with its unique, patent pending competitive intelligence offering for Google AdWords advertisers. Our subscription-based service maps the search advertising landscape and gives AdWords customers insight into their competitors’ campaigns and strategies. It provides them with actionable and timely intelligence which allows them to make informed decisions, generate more traffic, and beat the competition. For agencies, our service provides answers where previously there were only guesses, and we offer them a number of ways to drive top-line growth.
AdGooroo, LLC has already received a first round of funding and has paying customers. We are now seeking a sales executive with a proven track record in the search marketing/advertising industry, as well as advisors and potential second-round investors. Investors will be chosen primarily on their experience and industry contacts.
For more information, please contact Richard Stokes, President at rich@adgooroo.com, or phone 312-282-0162.
7. Quick Bytes -- Shifting Gears
Doug Seville recently sent me an email. We traded a few more. He has a newsletter for people looking for jobs. Check out the website:
You can email Doug at shiftinggears@cpaths.com or dseville@cpaths.com
8. In conclusion
That’s it folks! Go back to the daily grind. I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to do writing, what with all of this web design and product design stuff. More writing will be coming.
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