Throw away the rabbits.

Techstars In The Flesh

After much internal debate, the Techstars 2008 group has decided that transparency is the best policy. So without further adieu, I present to you David’s birthday video as well as the new company video.

P.S. We are looking to raise a series A (5 million common stock at 5 pre and 10 post)….and all of the frontal flesh you can handle. Seeking serious inquiries from professional investors. Please email: showmetheflesh@techstars.org.

David’s 40th Bday Bash

David Cohen turns 40 on Saturday (remember to wish him a happy bday) and the Techstars teams couldn’t think of a better gift for him other than another Startup…naturally.

Unfortunately, in order to protect the intellectual property of this mind blowing new collaborative effort, I cannot release the full business plan. But I can confirm that it integrates Flux Capacity’s photo manipulation algorithms with Ignighter’s shady sexy fixation with groups of hotties having sex fun on the beach. It also contains bits and pieces of the most effective aspects of every other ‘08 Techstars company. The end result is impressive to say the least - which is why we’ve all made the executive decision to concentrate all our efforts into making this company succeed. I hope David agrees that this is the right focus. The full name is a mouthful, so you can just call it Buyverfoodmurfligym-x Software Company for short. The company will launch on Investor Day in August, so stay tuned for details. Sending a special shout out to Ignighter & Flux for a sweeet preso.

Secondly, we all created a quick video spot with a personalized happy birthday message to David. Andrew Hyde edited the video and added all of the hilarious references to old people (a.k.a. David), and all the other teams added their unique pieces. Foodzie ate David’s bday cake, Ignighter gifted their own team with Techstars equity, Samantha from Highway Girl sang a beautiful happy bday acapella, and Travelfli got their asses kicked by Brad and David in the inaugural 40th Bday Travelfli Tennis Match. It was an exciting night, to say the least. Second shout out to Foodzie for organizing the bday surprise….

Happy Birthday David and cheers to all of the teams for being creative and HILARIOUS.

Brad got cold…

David got tired…

The Product Guy

TravelFli had our second meeting with Niel Robertson today. He’s been a great mentor since we first met him and has provided us with tons of industry information as well as some pretty awesome introductions into major loyalty programs. Today we focused predominately on Product Management. Although Niel is a tech guy at heart, he also has this innate ability to help people solve real problems with their processes and this is evidently where his true passion lays.

Niel thinks that product management is “The most important thing most startups forget to do.” I agree. It often gets pushed aside as ‘something we’ll do when we have more time” or “part of the plan after our Series A.”

Niel not only emphasized the importance of including a product management process from the very beginning of development, but he also illustrated how easy it can be. Basically it’s all about developing a process for delivering the right features at the right time. Here’s the major points to remember:

1. The job of a product manager is to clarify the situation and learn when (and how) to say NO.
2. You should choose ONE product manager and they should be the most empowered person in your company.
3. Everybody needs to participate in the process and everybody (even the developers) need to write things out.
4. Write the requirement > clarify it verbally > have everybody write it out. This will cut down on the chances of misinterpretation before the team risks wasting time building the wrong thing.

So when you set out to write out a product requirement and spec, here’s how you think about it:

The user should be able to X (fill in requirement)
The user can do X by (fill in spec).

It’s pretty damn simple. Niel is a badass (I mean, look at his picture). We’re really excited to get this all inked and implemented. Thanks for all the help, Niel!

Warning: Segway in Bunker

We had an entertaining afternoon visit from Paul Berbarian. While Paul is an extremely interesting guy on any day of the week, he added a new layer today by bringing The Segway. Yes, that’s right. The Segway.

After a brief demo from Paul (who has become a professional Segway-rider in a matter of a day), he let us all have a quick turn on it to zoom around the Founders Room.

I’ve never been on a Segway and I assumed the handles conducted the steering.. I was wrong. The steering is negotiated by the weight you put on the foot pads - so to go forward you put your weight into your toes, and to stop you just lean back on your feet.

Paul turned up the heat when he turned up the speed and soon we were zipping rapidly about the room; which by the way, houses all of the important hardware that in turn houses all of the important IP and technology for every company in Techstars (I’m not sure if he got Cohen’s permission). It was risky but we escaped any major disasters (although I got close to careening directly into Flux’s hard core computer station.)

This picture was taken as I was coming up on a turn at a serious pace. I think I’m a natural.

Paul purchased two Segways with the very clear and confirmed understanding that they have a 90-day return policy. So catch him before October and maybe he’ll take you on a spin.

No 3G in Boulder?

The countdown to the 3G iPhone continues as people wait in line (already) in eager anticipation for the release on Friday, July 11th at 8:00 AM. I hate to (partially) burst your bubble if you are a fellow Boulderite like me, but it appears that the 3G network only works in two cities in Colorado: Denver and Colorado Springs. This obviously doesn’t dissuade me too much, because I am sure AT&T will eventually expand to the Republic of Boulder. That being said, I am buying an iPhone for the first time so I’m getting it either way. But for those of you who are thinking about swapping out your 2G iPhone on Friday, you may want to check out the AT&T 3G coverage in your city or places you travel a lot. Suprisingly there are still quite a few cities (including Boulder…crap!) that are still on the slow Edge data.

Here is a list of the cities that have 3G data. AT&T, get your 3G a** into Boulder!!!!

Twitter Trouble

I just read Andrew Hyde’s post about Twitter spammers and felt compelled to post as well in hopes that somebody from the twitterdome will read this (ATTN: Biz Stone & Evan Williams) and do something about it.

Here are the spammers who have started following me in the LAST 24 HOURS:

Angelina 1986: post deleted (this is a good sign)

Maggie1986: following 4,000, 3 updates

Angelina 1987: following 15 people, post says “I want to meet people” with a link to a spammy site that probably just put spyware on my computer. Ugh.

FuckGasPrices: Following 4,191, 2 updates. This could be a political statement but it looks spammy to me. Not testing the link - sorry folks.

I guess it’s not the end of the world because I don’t reciprocate with a follow and the relationship quickly fizzles, but it’s still annoying and something could/should be done about it.

Colorado Biz Techstars Video

Check out the Colorado Biz Interview with David and Brad about Techstars.

Dreading the Domain Name

One of the most frustrating aspects of starting any new business is going through the hassle of figuring out what to name it, based entirely on the availability of domain names. I have experienced this firsthand with the advent of myplacemat > the tripdoor > travelfli and probably own about 100 domains just because we thought they might be a good idea. Domains are a dime a dozen so every decent one has been claimed and millions of them are just being squatted on with no real value to their owners or anybody else. It’s an inefficient marketplace and a huge hassle to businesses fighting to go online.

According to ICANN (the organization in charge of overseeing the domain registration process), this is all about to change. The group has approved a law that will allow anybody with enough money to become a registrar and offer their own top-level domain extensions. However, the cost of getting into the business will reportedly be quite expensive at first (in the six figures).

At the end of the day one could argue that this will be a good thing because it will result in millions of new addresses; which will in turn, reduce the high asking prices for the finite number of domains in the marketplace today. On the other hand, it could also end up costing some companies a ton of money just to protect their brands because they’ll have to register every single top level domain related to new trademarks before somebody else does. Furthermore, the premium top level domains will likely get snatched up by major domain registrars or speculators and then just be sold off at a premium to the highest bidder.

My advice to startups - even if you clearly can’t budget 100K+ to register your top level domain before the next guy does, make sure you at least trademark your name and anything else related to your business. Although trademarks won’t be automatically reserved, there will be some mechanism for trademark owners to object to the registration of their trademarked TLD’s by another entity.

FYI -  if there is a wealthy Krista out there who is planning on buying my top level domain, .krista —- back off…you’re infringing on my brand and I will fight you for it.

New Tech Meetup…and Horse Porn

Another first Tuesday, another New Tech Meetup. Each month I am inspired by the talent that seems to take root in the Boulder community, and I love how we have a common place to share it with each other. Thanks to Robert and Julie for all of their hard work on this event.

Five awesome companies presented their ideas to the community this month, amidst a bit of good-natured heckling from the crowd. In this order:

Gnip - doing really cool stuff aggregating datastreams for web services - none of which I understood entirely. Lots of <cmd3?> fdne <###**7>fdlsd

mobileXware - demo’d ‘xfit’ which is a set of exercises you can download to your phone. Interesting idea…way too pricey.

Dizgo, Inc - second time I’ve seen this company. Integrates local advertising with your mobile phone - like adwords for iPhone. Cool idea but needs a critical mass before it will gain enough traction to be relevant to people. Love the logo.

DandyId - badass new company that aggregates personal identifiers in one place for use by third party sites. AWESOME t-shirts Sara, Arron and Anthony!

mShopper - missed this one (on a wine run), but I gather they have something to do with mobile shopping.

Lijit - one of my favorite sites ever. Introduced their new ad platform for publishers. Ads will display in search results just like they do in Google.

blitzlocal - very interesting overview on Facebook’s ad platform. Seems like a good option for advertisers wanting to reach that specific demographic - especially now since it’s early in the game and it’s not being widely used. Loved Dennis’ use of acronyms…..CPM + PCR =… huh?

The night was entertaining as usual, but the grand prize undeniably goes to Micah for his absolutely priceless retort when somebody challenged the usefulness of their sponsored ads….

“Well, all the advertising is contextually relevant. So you’re not going to see an ad about Horse Porn in the results.”

Um, yeah. Just what I was afraid of seeing…..

Yummy Yosemite

I made my way out west for the first time in over a year a couple of weeks ago for several business meetings, including a very productive meeting with the chief architect of Sidestep (which was recently acquired by Kayak for $200M).

Despite the business focus, I was able to dedicate a little bit of time to hanging out with all of my old buddies from San Francisco. Having lived there for over six years, I still retain some of my closest friendships ever in that lovely city. Somehow I managed to escape to Yosemite for a day and a half for a little bit of camping, hiking, sightseeing, and eating. Enjoy the pics…..and in case you’re wondering…yes, Austin dented the rental car’s roof.