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| | 06/18/2007
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| | Scoop
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| | [Actually 06/08/07]: The May Report: 06/08/2007: SurePayroll: A sure winner with 18k customers and 95 employees? But VCs have not cashed out on $17MM after 6.5 years; BARcamp, Humanized, the Raskins, Rexilius, Hoyler...
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| | June 8, 2007
The May Report: 06/08/2007: SurePayroll: A sure winner with 18k customers and 95 employees? But VCs have not cashed out on $17MM after 6.5 years; BARcamp, Humanized, the Raskins, Rexilius, Hoyler...
Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com
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Are you interested in joining a sales team at a young, thriving, fast-paced entrepreneurial business with significant opportunity for growth? Are you passionate about technology and do you see something that needs to get done and just do it? If so, ifbyphone is the place for you. We reward results and are committed to our employees.
At ifbyphone we bring sophisticated voice applications to small and medium businesses. These applications are accessible via a click on a web site, an inbound call to a toll free number, an outbound call or a programmable API. Reporting to the VP of Sales and Services this position will be responsible for impacting sales through effective communications with potential and existing customers and channel sales partners. For both pre- and post-sales, the individual will interact with prospects over the phone, via email and web presentations selling and supporting customers and partners at a level appropriate for the target audience. The ideal candidate for this position must possess enthusiasm, a strong work ethic and a commitment to results. Compensation is commensurate with experience. It will include a significant base plus unlimited commission.
If you are interested please forward your resume to cpogrund@ifbyphone.com.
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TEXAS HOLD EM
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Texas Hold ‘Em party to benefit the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation
PRIZES!
~ Round Trip for 2 to Las Vegas
~ Private Box for 6 at Arlington
~ Race Track – 4 days/3 nights in charming cottage on the shore of Door County
~ Single Malt Scotch tasting with expert for up to 25 guests - and much more..
ACTIVITIES!
~ Tarot Card Reader ~ Magician ~ Caricaturist ~ Silent Auction ~ Food ~ Drinks ~
~ “Cash Dash” from the State Treasurer’s Office ~
LOCATION/INFORMATION:
3546 Vantage Lane, Glenview, IL 60025
Registration 6 p.m. $100 ~ Re-buys $50 ~ Spectator tickets $25
Cash or Checks only
PLAY BEGINS AT 7 P.M. SHARP
Enjoy a fun night of entertainment, poker, food and drinks, and support a great cause!
Limited seating – Make your reservations NOW!
RSVP / QUESTIONS: Dawn Geras, hidawnie@aol.com or 312-440-0229
Reserve your seat by mailing check payable to SAB, to:
Dawn Geras, SAB, 55 E. Erie, #2905, Chicago, IL 60611.
The Save Abandoned Babies Foundation (http://www.saveabandonedbabies.org) is a non-profit, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) organization whose sole mission is to save the lives of newborn infants that might otherwise be abandoned unsafely in Illinois.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- Tom Johnson: Last weekend to put a business plan in competition
-- Chicago Innovators Networking Meeting
-- TechCrunch covers U Sphere
-- Richard Longworth (now with Chicago Council on Global Affairs)
-- Al Wasserberger answers Ron's questions about Ask.com's search program and Watson
-- Lanny Feder: Has an IP newsletter
-- Erica Hugunin: Thank You from AMCORE Bank
-- Briefly noted: SurePayroll, the ITA, Humanized, Jef and Aza Raskin, Bob Hoyler, BARcamp, Rexilius and more, by Ron May
-- ACLU v. Boeing, actually a Boeing subsidiary: The Alien Tort Claims Act: An Activist Tool for Change
-- William Archey To Retire As CEO of DC-Based AeA
-- Deals:
____________________________________
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Don't miss our Mid Year Networking event Monday June 11th !
We are asking you to please preregister so we can better plan on the
food and other services we must order ahead of time in order to have a
successful event. Please register by sending an email to:
mailto: MEF@jerryrmitchellandassoc.com You will need to provide your name, company name and your title and if you are a member. Thank you for your cooperation.
Payment will only be at the door this year and we will only accept
checks or cash.
NO CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED.
For further information call the MEF Headquarters at (630-305-0005)
The Midwest Entrepreneurs' Forum
will be hosting our Monday June 11th Networking Event
5:30 - 9:00 PM
At the Union League Club - 2nd Floor Lounge
65 West Jackson in Chicago
A semi-annual get-together of many of the Chicago area's most
successful entrepreneurs, MEFs Board members, international
representatives, a host of budding entrepreneurs, and many of the
Chicago area's most influential business people.
* Enjoy a cash bar and a wonderful hors d' oeuvres buffet.
* Anyone interested in meeting entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurial
supporters such as lawyers, accountants, consultants, academics,
and others.
* Anyone interested in working with early stage or entrepreneurial
companies
* Entrepreneurs looking for highly skilled management and ways to
enhance their company performance
* Anyone interested in expanding a personal network
* Admission will be $30 for MEF Members and $40 for Non-
Members
* Door Prize Drawings will occur throughout the evening
* Door prize to display and donate? Call Bill Miller at (847) 864-8384
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The Scoop section:
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Tom Johnson: Last weekend to put a business plan in competition
From: tjohnson@cityofchicago.org
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: last weekend to put a business plan in competition
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 9:12 AM
ron
the days getting funding from business plans on cocktail napkins is long gone---but real business plans are still the foundatin to launching a great business.
this is the final weekend to finish up your plan and get it in the City of Chicago Treasurer's Office competiion for thousands or dollars in prizes. free mentoring from top chicago business leaders, and even a chance to be featured in Fortune Small Business. TECHNOLOGY
Competition allowing local entrepreneurs to compete nationally! Deadline to compete for thousands of dollars in prizes and mentoring Monday June 11th. The Business Plan Competition deadline has been extended to June 11th. All plans submitted by June 8th also qualify for Fortune Small Business Magazine’s national competition. Contestants in the City Treasurer’s Office “Business Plan Competition” competing for over $10,000 in cash, mentoring sessions with Chicago business leaders, and gift cards…NOW HAVE A NATIONAL INCENTIVE!
Fortune Small Business Magazine is holding a national business plan competition and will publish feature stories on the top 3 plans in the country. All plans accepted prior to June 8th in the 2007 City Treasurer’s competition will automatically be forwarded to the national contest. Treasurer Neely says, “Helping small businesses thrive in Chicago is a top priority of my office. About 92% of businesses in Chicago are small businesses, and we are proud to give Chicago entrepreneurs an opportunity to compete for over $10,000 locally, and possible national exposure.”
All plans received by June 11th will be judged locally. Those wanting their plans forwarded to the national competition should submit by June 8th. There will be two categories: One for those wishing to start a business, and a second category for existing businesses trying to improve. The competition is managed by Chicago Community Ventures and is sponsored by Harris Bank. The two top winners in each category will split the prize money. Complete details and rules are available at www.chicagocitytreasurer.com or by calling 312-744-EXPO.
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Chicago Innovators Networking Meeting
From: nancy@knowledgeshift.net
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: Chicago Innovators Meet
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 11:02 AM
Ron:
Can you post this upcoming event in your newsletter.
Chicago Innovators Networking Meeting
When: June 21st Wyndham Hotel-Resort Lisle, IL
Time: 6-9
Fee: Free – cash bar
Who: Innovators, entrepreneurs, business leaders and anyone wanting to attend a networking session that is free but stimulates creativity and thinking skills.
For questions contact Nancy Munro 630-221-8759 or nancy@knowledgeshift.net
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TechCrunch covers U Sphere
From: Dave Van de Walle [dave@usphere.com]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: TechCrunch covers U Sphere
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 2:51 PM
Ron,
I've linked here
to the coverage we received from influential tech page TechCrunch. Fun
to watch the traffic spikes!
(Full link:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/05/usphere-turning-the-college-application-process-upside-down/#comments
)
Hope you're well.
Dave
Dave Van de Walle
U Sphere, Inc.
1.224.766.0003
dave@usphere.com
www.usphere.com
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Richard Longworth (now with Chicago Council on Global Affairs)
From: Longworth, Richard [rlongworth@thechicagocouncil.org]
To: ronaldmay@aol.com; ron@themayreport.com; ronald.may@aol.com
Subject: aatish salvi
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 10:08 AM
Ron......Greatly appreciate any links to Aatish Salvi. I don't have his phone. He isn't responding to emails. I've left email & fone messages for Sean, too, asking for his help -- think he's out of town. FMI, does NanoBusiness Alliance have a real live office in Chicago or the region? Available numbers don't answer.
Many thanks and bests..........dick longworth
For more than 80 years, we have helped bring the world to Chicago. Now we are bringing Chicago's ideas to the world. Our new name, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, reflects our expanded mission.
Please update your address book with my new e-mail address: rlongworth@thechicagocouncil.org
Richard C. Longworth
Senior Fellow
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
332 S. Michigan Ave, Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60604-4416
www.thechicagocouncil.org
312.821.7508 Direct
312.821.7555 Fax
rlongworth@thechicagocouncil.org
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May here. I included this for those of you who want Dick's contact info. Otherwise it is a pro forma correspondence, but Sean and Aatish do not have a number listed under Nano Business Alliance from what I can tell.
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Al Wasserberger answers Ron's questions about Ask.com's search program and Watson
From: Al Wasserberger [email address withheld on standing request]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: RE: Page D2 in WSJ from 6/5/07: ASK.com introduces new search product. Also in NYT. You know where this is going.
Sent: Fri 6/8/2007 2:28 PM
Ron,
I may not have been clear in our conversations, but Watson is no longer available. We will have a new desktop product sometime in the future, that will be in support of our media company customers.
Al
Al Wasserberger
Chief Executive Officer
MediaRiver, Inc.
444 North Wabash Avenue, Suite 300
Chicago IL 60611
[email address withheld]
+1 312 896 2760 (o)
+1 312 896 2761 (f)
www.MediaRiver.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron May [mailto:ron@themayreport.com]
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 2:33 AM
To: Al Wasserberger
Subject: RE: Page D2 in WSJ from 6/5/07: ASK.com introduces new search product. Also in NYT. You know where this is going.
OK, Al, are you saying that Watson is no longer a part of the MediaRiver product portfolio? Even though you have launched ClickSurge, Watson is still around, right? And if Watson is still around, then doesn't the ASK.com product compete with it?
The WSJ says that ASK.com offers "a new way of presenting search results that combines text, video, image, maps, news entries and other types of results on one screen.... Ask has developed a technology it calls morph to determine what types of content to show for a given query. It ties queries to the types of results that others who have searched for the term generally have clicked on....'The new Ask does the digging for you.'"
The point is that it enhances the search capability and it reminds me of what Watson does at some level. I know that Ask.com is competing with Google, but where does Watson fit into all of this enhancement technology for search, if anywhere??
Is Watson dead?
Ron
Ronald May
ron@themayreport.com
773-525-3944
-----Original Message-----
From: Al Wasserberger [mailto:al@mediariver.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 11:41 PM
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: RE: Page D2 in WSJ from 6/5/07: ASK.com introduces new search product. Also in NYT. You know where this is going.
Hey Ron - thanks for asking.
I think this is a very positive move for Ask. It could help them in their fight for market share vs. Google, Yahoo!, MSN/Live and AOL.
If you were wondering if their offering is competitive to ClickSurge, the answer is no. Ask.com is strictly a Google competitor - with a pretty powerful search box experience. ClickSurge, as you'll remember, is for use by media companies to drive new site visitors and to maximize a website's number of page views per visit.
I hope this helps!
Al
Al Wasserberger
Chief Executive Officer
MediaRiver, Inc.
444 North Wabash Avenue, Suite 300
Chicago IL 60611
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron May [mailto:ron@themayreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 10:00 PM
To: Al Wasserberger
Subject: Page D2 in WSJ from 6/5/07: ASK.com introduces new search product. Also in NYT. You know where this is going.
Ronald May
ron@themayreport.com
773-525-3944
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Lanny Feder: Has an IP newsletter
From: Lanny@protectiveIPservices.com
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: Newsletter we discussed
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 11:18 AM
Ron,
It was good to see you looking much healthier at the ITA networking bash. At that time, we discussed the Protective Intellectual Property Services’ (PIPS) newsletter that I send to friends and clients to help keep them keep abreast of the latest intellectual property news. Included below is the text version of the e-mail that I send from which the newsletter can be accessed. I am not including the newsletter itself as you send The May Report in text format, and the newsletter is in HTML.
For those of your readers that are interested in receiving the newsletter, they should send an e-mail to info@protectiveIPservices.com with the word “ADD” in the subject line.
Clients and Friends,
This newsletter contains current news about US patents and the US Patent and Trademark Office, current intellectual property (IP) court cases, domestic and international IP news and IP information of general interest to management of idea-based companies, inventors, entrepreneurs and attorneys.
Because of the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Microsoft vs. AT&T, I have also included a number of articles about it. I hope that they are of interest.
PIPS provides strategic intellectual property services; pre-legal intellectual property protection assistance and negotiation services; and in-licensing of needed technologies and out-licensing of excess technologies. Please visit PIPS' web site (www.protectiveIPservices.com) for more information about PIPS, its services and capabilities.
Please click here to access PIPS' June newsletter.*
Please forward this to friends or associates in idea-based companies who may be interested in our services. (See link below)
Please contact PIPS to discuss your situation in a free 45 minute consultation.
We appreciate your feedback at suggestions@protectiveIPservices.com.
Enjoy this newsletter.
Lanny Feder
President
*If the link to the newsletter doesn't work, please cut and paste the following into the address line of your Internet browser:
http://s158012656.onlinehome.us/PIPS_Newsletter_June2007.pdf.
Ron, keep watching your meds and diet. They’ve been good for you.
Lanny
Creating Your Sustained Competitive Advantage
By Strategic Intellectual Property Management
Lanny Feder
Protective Intellectual Property Services, LLC
Phone: 224-406-4268
E-Mail: Lanny@protectiveIPservices.com
URL: www.protectiveIPservices.com
_______________________________________
Erica Hugunin: Thank You from AMCORE Bank
From: Erica Hugunin [Erica.Hugunin@amcore.com]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: Thank You from AMCORE Bank
Sent: Fri 6/8/2007 1:04 PM
Dear Mr. May,
Thank you for joining us at the recent ITA Monthly Mixer. It was a pleasure to have such an interesting and talented group share our new Van Buren location.
We are especially excited about the debut of our new AMCORE Internet Café at Van Buren and hope you will find an opportunity to visit us soon, share a cup of coffee and enjoy the internet convenience. While there, you may be interested in learning more about our electronic services including enhanced online and bill pay features that allow you to bank at your leisure.
What’s more, AMCORE Bank is currently offering a $50.00 cash gift for opening a new FREE checking account.* This offer is available exclusively at our Van Buren and Orland Park locations – another great reason to visit us again, soon!
Again, thank you for attending the ITA (event name). I look forward to visiting with you in the future and encourage you to contact me regarding your financial needs. I also invite you to visit our website at www.AMCORE.com to find out just how easy banking with AMCORE can be.
Thank you,
Erica Hugunin
Bank Service Representative
AMCORE Bank
1033 W. Van Buren Suite 1000
Chicago IL 60607
Erica.Hugunin@amcore.com
(312) 738-7655 phone #
(312) 738-7699 fax #
Making It Easy For You
______________________________________
Briefly noted: SurePayroll, the ITA, Humanized, Jef and Aza Raskin, Bob Hoyler, BARcamp, Rexilius and more, by Ron May
* I really don't know where to begin since I have been so sidetracked by FeedBurner/Google and my foray into the blog world. Jason Rexilius drove me home from the ITA meeting Wednesday evening on success stories which featured Troy Henikoff and Michael Alter. Jason told me that he does not read blogs but that Keith Schacht of www.jobcoin.com reads blogs for an hour a day.
I am going to survey a range of TMR readers and other members of the tech community to find out what blogs they read regularly.
Here is something for you.
http://www.burak-arikan.com/blog/will-you-opt-out-of-allowing-google-to-service-your-feedburner-account/
Here is something else. Dr. Michael F. Roizen made TMR on May 15, 2002 I reported this: "The University of Chicago MD, Michael Roizen, who came up with the book "RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?" and the site "RealAge.com" left UC about a year ago to become the dean of the medical school at SUNY Upstate Medical University."
He spent 16 years at the University of Chicago and now, he is a director now at The Cleveland Clinic which is world reknown. He also has a health program on Channel 11 and it is very interesting. He talks about the new research into fat that has been done in the last two to five years.
Will you opt-out of allowing Google to service your FeedBurner account?
One person who commented on TechCrunch and yes, I read all 177 comments with my own comment being #129 as of last night, said that he was banned by Google AdSense and he is wondering when the other shoe will drop with the FeedBurner deal.
The ITA meeting on Wednesday night, June 6th, was attended by about 51 people (that is the number I counted in the room but there were two or three people also hanging around out in the lobby). All in all, it was a good meeting. Michael Alter, the current CEO of SurePayroll and Troy Henikoff, the founder of SurePayroll were interviewed by David Smith who appears to be taking on a more active role in the ITA these days. That fact surprises me somewhat because David Smith pulled himself out of the running to be president at the MIT-EF late last year because he said he did not have the time to do it and the MIT-EF still has no president to replace Peter Balbus. It just dawned on me that David Smith is doing consulting work for Jellyvision and Troy Henikoff comes out of Jellyvision from years ago. Small world story there. Hoch and Howerton were in the audience.
Michael Alter came out of McKinsey and he took over at SurePayroll in 2002 when Troy Henikoff left. Troy is a start-up kind of guy, as he said, and he now runs Amacai (www.amacai.com). Troy said that he likes starting things from scratch and he recounted how he took SurePayroll from zero to operational with checks written and all in less than 100 days.
Some of the people at the meeting included: Neal Kane (he was there, he says, because it is a good entrepreneurial story); David Naylor, Jason Rexilius of HostedLabs, Keith Schacht of www.jobcoin.com, Harry Gottlieb of Jellyvision which is where Troy came out of; Chris Rollyson, Penny Edecker, Tom Lee from U.S. Cellular, Andy Penoff of CIT Vendor Finance; Andy Taylor of Freerain Systems; Dick Mulvihill of Hexistor; Eric Jones of www.streetsmartauto.com (this guy looks like he is in his 60s and he is the founder and president of this start-up); Steve Sarowitz of Paylocity which I believe is a competitor of sorts to SurePayroll; Tracy Johnson, marketing manager at SurePayroll and a real cutie; and another major cutie is Melissa Anderson of Amacai (I thought she was Troy's girlfriend because this is the second or third time I have seen them together, but alas, no, she is married and Troy is married, but not to each other); there was another cutie there, a sales woman from Oracle named Amelia Medrum Taylor; Bruce Montgomery, Chris Herzog of Software Technologies Group; Gary Klein from Track Software; Gary Swartwood from SurePayroll; Alkesh Shah from Compact Solutions, LLC (www.compactsolutionsllc.com); Edgar Hernandez from American Family Insurance; Christopher Hill from Perkspot (www.perkspot.com); Fred Hoch, Terry Howerton, Brad Spirrison, Ron May, Joe Saari; David McClellan from ProofSpace which is being run by Paul Doyle who lives in Michigan (Doyle, who is Mike Doyle of Eolas' brother, bought the firm's assets after it had gone bankrupt and he ran it before the bankruptcy as well); Jed Abernathy who came in in the top five finalists at the FastPitch competition on February 26th; Mansur Bash works for EA, although he was reluctant to tell me that (I believe that he works for Kudo Tsunoda, the former lion tamer and game developer); Bret Schneider (I believe from Oracle); and there were about twenty people there that I am not listing here because I don't have names. Patty from FastRoot and David Glick and Sarah Habansky from the ITA were also there.
By the way, the guy in the Hawaiian type short sleeve shirt who has a crew cut and is a bit overweight --- who is he? He was going to throw beer on me at the mixer last week and at the Wednesday, June 6th event he told me that he would call the cops if I hit him with my cane. I never did anything to this guy that I know of. But who knows. People can be strange. Last week at the ITA mixer, David Namberg (I think that was his name) was there and I immediately recognized him. I had run into him last summer in the lobby of the Century Mall. He was coming out of a movie, Little Miss Sunshine, which was sold out so I was not able to get in, and I knew I knew him from somewhere. So, I went up to him and asked him a couple of times if we had ever met and he denied it repeatedly. I thought that's strange because I may not remember a name, but I don't forget faces. When I saw him at the ITA mixer, I called him on it and the best I got from him was that he did recognize me but he was with people at the time. What is that all about? Why are people so weird and why do they try to make me think I am crazy to think I know someone -- when I really do?
But you know what, it is 4:01pm and the market was up today and Paris Hilton has just been taken back to jail after being let out for one day. I was up late last night reading some blogs and I happened to see an old movie which I saw years ago, "My Dinner with Andre," and I thought about it and what it is saying. The thesis was that we do a lot of things that are basically robotic. We are all actors, performers really, taking on various roles and we don't actually take time to know and feel what it is to be a human being. We are increasingly disconnected from our true selves. The argument is that we are blind in our daily lives to reality, and we are so busy performing tasks that we do not pay attention to the sacraments of life, or as they say, take time to smell the roses.
We are not machines, but much of what we do is mechanized. And becoming a blogophile will make me more mechanized in some ways. This mechanization argument is so 20th century. But that dark view has been gaining strength a bit in the last few years.
The counter to it is that we are moving forward with technological progress that will supposedly save us from ourselves. Not for today, but I had an interesting conversation about Helium3 recently. We need energy, I think 40 Trillion watts (is that right?) and nuclear fusion is a key. Helium3 is a great source of nuclear fusion and it is located where? Guess what? On the moon. And the moon may be loaded with it and that is why the U.S., the Russians and the Chinese are targeting the moon's Helium3 reserves and the polar caps on the moon which may contain lots of water which would be needed to process the Helium3. I said not today, so let me leave it there, but the whole idea that technology is a solution to our problems has taken over our lives and I am a living testament to that. I have jettisoned all that nihilistic thinking of my youth, the existential philosophy and all. I live off of the technological advances of the last forty years -- literally. No time or luxury for dark theories anymore. I used to have the time for self-indulgent periods of depression -- but no more. Too much to do. If nothing else, the technology advances have made us more chained to our work, not less. We are less free, and more like slaves with the tech advances.
Anyway, if you have two hours with nothing to do, rent the movie. If nothing else, it is a good discussion.
Apple is making a big splash with the pending launch of the iPhone at the end of the month. The analysts are saying that th stock will hit $160 or more and Apple expects sales of 12 million iPhones in 2008 and 45 million in 2009 for quite a tidy profit margin, but as TechCrunch pointed out yesterday, there may be problems making the launch deadlines and also the glass case may break. Also, the Apple TV may have trouble if Motorola provides the communications devices that they are hoping to offer for cable providers. So, Motorola's name pops up again and in this context as a block to Apple, not as a competitor per se, but as a slow down to Apple.
Chris Rollyson told me at the BIGFrontier breakfast with Bob Herbold on May 4th where I asked him why he did not go to the ITA awards dinner. He said that he went to TechCocktail instead. The reason (all I can suppose is that it was not only the $225 price tag for the dinner), he said, was that the folks at TechCocktail are further ahead in the what Rollyson calls P2P or Peer to Peer which just means collaborative software.
Fred Hoch tells me that there are now eight paying tenants in the TechNexus space and they also have seven or eight people who pay $75 a month for a virtual address.
I will leave alone the subject of how this is going today, but Fred did say that this is a joint venture between FastRoot and the ITA and that the ITA is a 501(c)(6) which is a not-for-profit organization as distinct from a 501(c))3) which is a non-profit.
Oh, what the heck, this is The May Report and I will tell you what I am looking into. I have heard through the grape vine and have not confirmed it yet, that there has been some arm twisting going on to get tenants in the space. I mentioned it to Fred and he said that he is not involved in the details of tenant negotiations. Fred said that he knows the aggregate information but does not call prospective tenants. I heard from another source that the ITA is trying to get hip and hot firms into the space so that they can attract other firms that will pay full boat. The bottom line is that this thing was never supposed to be a rental deal and never supposed to be a business deal, according to both Hoch and Howerton who vehemently told me that, but it is looking more and more like that. I will tell you this. My best info. is that Howerton got an abatement on the space, maybe two years' worth and during that time he has to rent out that 22,600 square feet or the fraction of it that he and the core ITA office is not using or FastRoot will be stuck with the bill. I will let you know what I find out.
By the way, they have a very nice video when you walk in on a very nice screen. It is a flash screen, I think Fred said, and it changes every few seconds. Very nifty. The place is looking good. And the accoutrements were nice Wednesday with the whole spread paid for by Oracle and at the end they gave away some very nice notebooks. I took two.
On the ride home with Jason Rexilius, he said that there are some firms locally that have not been recognized as much as they should be. One is Navteq, he said. We talked about YouTube and how they are getting good clips back from firms like Viacom and NBC which had pulled their clips. The YouTube viewership is greater than competitors and the technology appears to be better, I heard the other day on CNBC.
Jason said that he heard the FeedBurner rumor when it was reported on the initial blog. He is pretty well wired in when it comes to this arena, so he relies on people he knows, but those people are tied into what is going on very well.
Jason said that he hopes that Fred Hoch comes to BARcamp to give a talk, but there are no guarantees on that. And if he does go, it may just be to talk about the ITA and not to learn for himself what they have to teach him. This is a story where I know too much and the less said (at the moment), the better. There is something a tug of war between some in the ITA and some in the Web 2.0 or TechCocktail or BARcamp crowd and some of it is a matter of philosophy and some of it comes down to individual personalities and conflicts. That is the part that I will dodge for the moment. The bottom line is still that the ITA has a somewhat different outlook on things than the BARcamp crowd and while some people cross over both groups, their core members are not all that interactive across organizations. I don't know if you want to call it an old world view or a more traditional business revenue view or what, but some of the technology firms in Chicago that are widely recognized outside of Chicago (as well as here) like FeedBurner and 37Signals are not members of the ITA (and it is not clear that any effort has been made to try to get them as members or that they would even consider it.)
I asked David Smith who moderated the "Success stories" panel with Michael and Troy if, on the basis of the criteria that he laid out at the beginning of the meeting, FeedBurner would be asked to speak at this symposium. David did not flinch, he did not hesitate, he did not equivocate. The answer was flat-out "No." The reason is that to speak at this event, David Smith reiterated, a company must have a significant revenue history, he told me. And one other criterion, David said, is that the company has transformed its industry. Well, FeedBurner certainly did that since there was no industry in RSS feeds before they came along.
Here is verbatim what David Smith said: "This program was set up for companies that have achieved significant revenue milestones and have preferably transformed their markets."
I really don't understand why there appears to be this antagonism. I know that Terry Howerton and Jason Rexilius are not huge fans of each other due to previous business dealings, and I won't go into that now, but this is much bigger than that. We are all in the tech community and if a firm with relatively negligible revenues and 30 employees can be sold for $100MM, why shouldn't the ITA embrace that and all it stands for? In other words, why shouldn't the ITA broaden its scope to include the firms that they have referred to in the past as "dreamers."? Fred Hoch seemed quite unconcerned that FeedBurner was not a member of the ITA when I asked him about it at the ITA mixer on May 30th. His point was that he had not gotten to them yet and that he has increased membership by 275% in 18 months. He cannot get all 3,000 firms to join at once, he told me. Fred and Terry have both said that he (Fred) has just been here for two years and that the nominees for awards at the ITA CityLIGHTS dinner come from those who nominate. They do not control it centrally, they argue. I don't know if I buy that since Dick Reck said he was surprised to be nominated and I can't see Dick nominating himself. (That comment was somewhat tongue in cheek.) I asked Fred if he had tried to get FeedBurner or if they had said no, and the answer was a bit vague. They may have had some interaction, I gathered. The bottom line is that FeedBurner really did not need the ITA and the same goes for other cutting edge firms. But some are in the ITA and one of them is Cleversafe.
I don't want to misrepresent the reality here. There is interaction between the two groups and the idea that there are two groups may be somewhat off base to begin with. But my argument is that the center of gravity of each group -- however you define it, ITA vs. TechCocktail or ITA vs. BARcamp -- is slightly different, although there are certainly people who cross over between the two. Many of the TechCocktail attendees also go to ITA events and vice versa. That is true for lots of organizations locally. I would estimate that the overlap on 500 people at TechCocktail is about 15% or 75 people who also go to the ITA. People circulate between all tech related groups. But the core constituencies of these two groups are notably different. There is overlap at the margins to be sure but the belly of each organization does not overlap. Jason Rexilius pointed out to me today that the guys from Kirix who will speak at BARcamp met him at an ITA rooftop party last year. By the way, Terry Howerton, I hate to bug you in your time of mourning, but those rooftop parties were a different animal from what you guys are doing now and what you are doing now is much more traditional. "Look and feel" or atmosphere does matter and the whole gestalt of the rooftop party was quite different from Rock Bottom or AMCORE Bank. I wish you could find another rooftop to hold about 150 people just from the ITA. Jason said that he met Nate Williams at the ITA rooftop. Those parties were just great.
So, there is a two-way street here. Some fairly prominent firms have straddled both groups. Among those that have crossed over between the two groups are: TimeXhange, Liquid Talk, GrubHub, SwapSimple, BOB, to name a few.
I asked Jason for four or five firms other than FeedBurner and 37Signals that are in the space he is talking about. He mentioned SwapSimple (and those guys have gone to ITA events and may even be members and they go to TechCocktail); GrubHub (and on the night of the ITA awards dinner they split up -- one to ITA and one to TechCocktail); and lastly, he mentioned Humanized, which writes software to enhance the usability of desktops (and I have never heard of them, but Jason says they were in the WSJ); and this is where Jason dropped me off and the conversation ended because some girl was calling him. And Jason has no problem in that department. I should just hang around him and try to get his excess.
I just looked up www.Humanized.com. I love it. Walt Mossberg in the WSJ wrote about their product, ENSO.
From the Humanized website (www.humanized.com)
"Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal explains:
Enso is dead simple to use. You just hold down the Caps Lock key and type an Enso command, which is displayed in a translucent overlay. Once the command is typed, you simply release the Caps Lock key to activate it, and the overlay disappears. If you type fast, it all happens in a flash. For instance, to launch the Firefox Web browser, you just hold down the Caps Lock key and type "open firefox." To look up the meaning of the word "proclivity," you just hold down the Caps Lock key and type "define proclivity."
Take the Enso Tour to learn how it works, or jump right into Enso Words and Enso Launcher."
They sound very much like Jason Fried of 37Signals in terms of philosophy. Read their overview of how people should think about their relationship to their computer.
I emailed Jason Fried to ask him if he knows of these guys and here is his response:
+++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Jason, have you heard of humanized.com and Aza Raskin? They must read your bible
Date: 6/8/2007 10:32:40 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jason@37signals.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Hey Ron-
Yup, good guys. We do share a lot of the same ideas, yeah.
BTW: You may get a kick out of this:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/450-top-10-vendors-winning-the-smb-
online-experience-race
-Jason
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Read their blog. http://www.humanized.com/weblog/
It sounds great and it is right out of the Jason Fried bible. "Software stinks," "Iterative design: Towards the perfect paper plane"; "Death of the desktop: The movie" and this blog took me to this site on Computer and Human Interaction: http://www.chi2007.org/
I have spent some time reading their blog entries this morning and found that "It all started with one man's dream for a computer that worked the way people did; a dream for a computer that he could compose music on. That man was Jef Raskin. And the dream became the Macintosh." Jef (spelled with one "f") was the father of Humanized co-founder Aza Raskin and Aza's father Jef was author of the book "The Human Interface" http://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-Interactive/dp/0201379376 which is available on Amazon in paperback for $15.71.
Aza's father Jef Raskin developed the Canon Cat which was a precursor to the Mac. http://www.jagshouse.com/swyft.html
He left Apple after working on the Mac project when he had a dispute with Steve Jobs over how it should be developed.
I like the quote from Richard Schacklock in 1565:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If many faultes in this paper you fynde,
Yet think not the correctors blynde;
If Argos heere hymselfe had beene,
He should perchance not all have seene.
Richard Shacklock (1565)
I am now quoting from this site:
"In 1987 Canon USA Inc. released a new computer named the Canon Cat. This computer was targeted at low-level clerical worked such as secretaries. After six months on the market and with 20,000 units sold, Canon discontinued the Cat. The Cat featured an innovative text based user interface that did not rely upon a mouse, icons, or graphics. The key person behind the Cat was Mr. Jef Raskin, an eclectic gadgeteer, who began the design of the Cat during his work on the first Macintosh project at Apple Computer in 1979.
The design and history of the Canon Cat is a fascinating story which this paper attempts to tell. I am not a Cat owner nor have I been fortunate enough to have used a Cat. All facts within this paper are based on various documents relating to Jef Raskin and his work at Apple Computer and Information Appliance, Raskin's company that created the Cat."
It continues:
JEF RASKIN AND THE FIRST MACINTOSH
One can say that Jef Raskin began designing the Cat during his tenure at Apple Computer. He started at Apple in January 1978 as head of its publications department. From 1979 to 1982 Raskin was responsible at Apple for a research project called Macintosh. He resigned from Apple in February 1982 when he was Manager of Advanced Systems over a disagreement with Steve Jobs, one of Apple's founders, concerning the Macintosh's direction. Steve Jobs took over Macintosh development and the Macintosh became a mini-Lisa computer which was totally opposite of Raskin's ideas for the Macintosh.
In Raskin's paper The Genesis and History of the Macintosh Project (February 1981) he provided his thoughts on the main software design criteria for the Macintosh:
My concepts in designing the software were extreme ease of learning, rapid (and thus non frustrating) response to user desires, and compact and quickly developable software. Key elements in designing such a system are freedom from modes, the elimination of "levels" (e.g. system level, editor level, programming level), and repeated use of a few consistent and easily learned concepts. Such software also leads to simple and brief manuals without having to sacrifice completeness and accuracy. The editor is similar to the LISA editor but does not require the expensive mouse. A careful study showed that is is probably faster to use than a mouse driven editor -- although it is probably not as flashy to see when demonstrated in a dealer's showroom.
In 1994 Raskin had the following to say about the original Macintosh's software design (The Mac and Me: 15 Years of Life with the Macintosh):
My unifying software originally was to be a graphics-and-text editor within which applications could run as additional commands (via menus), all input and output being through the interface designed for the editor. Later, the PARC desktop metaphor was adopted from the Lisa group (and that from the Xerox Alto and the Star computers). Due to the incredible work of the Mac software team, the necessary code was designed and squeezed into a Toolbox that fit into a relatively small ROM (Read Only Memory) that we could afford to put into the product.
Raskin also had some interesting comments to say in one of his many Macintosh design memos concerning the intended users of the Macintosh (Design Considerations for an Anthropophilic Computer, 28-29 May 1979):
This is an outline for a computer designed for the Person In The Street (or, to abbreviate: the PITS); one that will be truly pleasant to use, that will require the user to do nothing that will threaten his or her perverse delight in being able to say: "I don't know the first thing about computers".
The Macintosh's early hardware design was very similar to the Cat's design. One early Macintosh design from January 1980 provided a small screen, a keyboard, and two vertical built-in disk drives. Also present in this early Macintosh design was a built-in printer."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
May again. I would love to know more. So, you can see that one of the co-founders of Humanized, Aza Raskin, comes from a rarified, befitting and felicitous background.
Thanks Jason. I had never heard of these guys until you mentioned them.
There are four founders of Humanized and you can read about them here: http://www.humanized.com/about/
OK, I have got to meet these guys. I may just mosey over to their office which is at Humanized, Inc.
4611 N Ravenswood Ave, Suite 203
Chicago IL 60640
If you do nothing else today, read this bio on Aza Raskin:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Aza Raskin
President
Aza brings over six years of interface design and consulting experience to Humanized. He gave his first talk on interface design at his local San Francisco chapter of SIGCHI at the age of 13, got hooked, and has been speaking ever since. By the age of 17, he was talking and consulting internationally; by age 19, he was coauthoring a physics textbook because he was too young to buy alcohol; and at age 21, he started drinking alcohol and co-founded Humanized. Aza has also done Dark Matter research at both Tokyo University and the University of Chicago, from where he graduated with honors in math and physics. For recreation, he does Judo, speaks Japanese, and invents in his lab. He also enjoys playing the French Horn, which has taken him all over the world as a soloist. Be warned: Aza is an incorrigible punster, so please do not incorrige.
++++++++++++++++
May again. Well, that was a very enjoyable digression. Jason Rexilius tells me that all the Humanized.com guys are young and tied to the University of Chicago. Rexilius, what other companies along the Humanized.com line are there? I am going to have to call you Rex for now on to distinguish you from the Jason Fried. I may even start calling Ty Rex.
May I digress. It is 1pm on Friday and Tom Figel just called me. I told him what Dick Longworth told me yesterday. Dick was trying to find Sean Murdock or Aatish Salvi because one of them was supposed to speak at an event for Midwest journalists that he is holding on next Tuesday. (That resulted in Neal Wyant giving the talk since both Aatish and Sean will be out of town. But I still don't understand why the NanoBusiness Alliance has no phone listing in the Illinois Science and Technology Park in Skokie.)
I told Dick Longworth who has a new book coming out soon, I believe, and he is with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, that I am not a journalist and he said that I was. I said that I had never studied journalism and he told me that he thinks that "journalism school is a big waste of time and worthless." And he said I could quote him on that. He went to Medill by the way. But he said that someone should study something like science instead. Longworth's argument is that journalism is learned on the job, by doing.
Tom Figel agreed and he applies the same logic to the PR business. He said that the last thing he wants to do is hire someone who has majored in Public Relations. "They don't realize that they are digging their own grave [by studying PR]," he said. It is not a legitimate field of study, I gathered. "We want people who have studied Chaucer or archeology," Tom said. They want a wide range of knowledge and understanding. "PR is just thirty minutes of technique training," he said. Tom said that marketing is really about being creative and being creative is the ability to take disparate things and combine them. That is exactly, by the way, how Tom Friedman describes creativity, and he says it is usually linking two different fields. I think the example Friedman used was how Steve Jobs combined calligraphy with computers.
As long as I am blasting people with journalism degrees, Adam Fendelman, another issue. You are calling a clip from a BusinessPOV taping of a panel an interview. This is the Liz Claiborne thing. It is NOT an interview, it is a panel discussion and you are not doing it anyway. Why distort the language, Adam? That is false advertising and you're better than that, Adam. Why do you always throw concern for quality overboard?
Anyway, we should organize a meeting where the Humanized guys speak or at least attend. I would love to see a discussion involving Jason Fried and the Humanized guys. That could be very interesting. Well, guess what? The Humanized guys are speaking at 5pm on June 24th at BARcamp Chicago.
Look, while I love digressions, and the new world is given too little attention here, I did feel that the SurePayroll story was a good one. So, let me give you a quickie overview of some of the things that Troy and Michael said.
Overview: The company was founded in 1999, I believe, and it received $17MM in venture capital funding from local VCs like Kettle and Blue Star Ventures. I have a note below from Pat Pollard whom I fired off an email to about them. The funding was a tortuous path because just as they were making the rounds on Sand Hill Road, the bubble burst. It was very interesting to hear how the whole atmosphere for investing changed on a dime in 2000.
Here is Pat Pollard's note to me:
++++++++++++++++++++
From: Pat Pollard [Pat@bluestarventures.com]
To: ron@themayreport.com
Subject: spam: RE: I know you have not cashed out yet, but Sure Payroll has to be a winner for you. 90 employees, 18,000 customers, $3.5B payroll.
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 11:14 AM
Ron,
Nice to hear from you. I hope your health issues are under control enough for you to enjoy the summer a bit.
Surepayroll has been a very good investment for us and, while none of us has realized value from it to date, it looks to be a winner that continues to grow in value. Michael Alter and his team have done a great job of building the company and its capabilities while generating higher than projected profitability.
Like the guy from the hair club for men, I'm not just an investor but I'm also a very satisfied customer. A number of our companies are customers of Surepayroll and I can say first hand they do a great job at a great price.
Take care,
Pat
Patrick J. Pollard
Managing Director
BlueStar Ventures
200 W. Madison St. 37th Floor
Chicago, IL 60558
p: (312)384-5010
f: (312) 384-5005
pat@bluestarventures.com
www.bluestarventures.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Ron May [mailto:ron@themayreport.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 10:58 PM
To: Pat Pollard
Subject: I know you have not cashed out yet, but Sure Payroll has to be a winner for you. 90 employees, 18,000 customers, $3.5B payroll.
Ronald May
ron@themayreport.com
773-525-3944
+++++++++++++++++++++
I am not going to give you the blow by blow because it would take all day, but here are three or four interesting things.
One, when they were talking to the VCs, they fu**ed up. They happened to mention a possible customer and channel partner, Wells Fargo. That casual, almost bragging, and certainly premature chit chat cost them big time. They did not have Wells Fargo as a customer yet and were just mentioning the possibility, but what happened as soon as they threw out the name was that the funding was tied to it. In hindsight, Troy said, that they should not have disclosed the Wells Fargo deal to the VCs before it happened. And the advice to any entrepreneur is to not flap your trap about possible customers because it can backfire on you. That little name drop cost them about six months before they did eventually get the funding.
Second, the Wells Fargo deal was a double edge. On the one hand, WF became a channel partner, but on the other hand, SurePayroll had to comply with Wells Fargo's security requirements and that cost them valuable funds, like $500K, that they would have preferred to spend on customer acquisition. I was walking in and out and don't have time right now to go over the tape, but I did hear them say that the cost of customer acquisition was something like $400. That was at the start, it turns out, when they were using direct mail to get customers. But remember that this is an annuity model which means that you have the customer for a long time. The attrition rate was 10-12% they said, which is a relatively low rate because ADP is 20-22%.
But Wells Fargo has a huge sales force that has been employed to help get customers for SurePayroll and all in all, it has been a good relationship, they said.
By the way, SurePayroll's main competitors are ADP and Paychex. SurePayroll was the first online payroll and they are the largest strictly online payroll provider and they say they are #5 overall in the payroll provision industry according to Gary Swartwood of SurePayroll whom I called this morning to check a few facts. One of SurePayroll's competitors was there but it was made clear that they were just sort of a competitor because I don't believe the owner of that business even believes in the internet. That could have been Paychex but don't hold me to that.
They were doing direct mail to get customers and that was expensive at $400 per customer acquired. But then they went with the channel approach and with direct partners and they used online marketing.
A few other things about SurePayroll. They have 95 employees and process payrolls totaling $3.5B. They have 18,000 customers and they are all small businesses, 80% of their customers have 9 or fewer employees. Michael Alter says that their customer distribution follows the national averages for small businesses. Of all firms under 100 employees, 80% have 9 or fewer employees. They have all their business inside the U.S. and they have over 4,000 taxing jurisdictions, I believe Troy said.
In doing payroll, you can't be off by even a penny or the complaints will fly, they said. Payroll is a very emotive thing for employees and when things are not right, they get very upset. They have not moved into specific industry sectors such as construction or sales, but they have added services that help employers with things like compliance with laws on postings in the workplace for employees, etc.
One question from the audience, in this case from Fred Hoch, elicited some interesting information. Fred asked about customer service and what they said was that they did not focus as heavily on customer service at first as they did not taking customer issues and using them to develop better software, so their response to a customer problem was to fix the problem by way of the technology. They did say that their customer service was not as good as it could have been because it would have cost them much more to expand that area.
Essentially, they used the customer call center as a kind of science lab for the technology team to add features to the product. They could not scale if they had to add people so they had 3 minute holding times but that situation is vastly improved. They now answer 90% of the calls in 20 seconds or less and three rings.
Initially, they had funding of $1MM plus from the 3 founders and I believe some angels. By the end of 2000, they were having some trouble financially. They had 23 people squeezed into 1,800 square feet. And the seed capital had been cut in half.
They did not get the VC funding until January of 2001 and that process was delayed by the downturn in the market and the whole Wells Fargo thing. The conversations with the VCs that funded them started in July 2000, I think they said.
Someone in the audience also asked about the use of Jellyvision's automated and interactive voice customer service and they said that they used it but that it took too long and was somewhat cumbersome, so they stopped using it. But recall that Troy Henikoff came out of Jellyvision and his old colleague Harry Gottlieb was there.
One name I did recognize was that of Ken Gaebler, who has a marketing/communications firm called Walker Sands: http://www.walkersands.com/Comm_People_KenGaebler.htm
I gathered that SurePayroll uses Ken's firm and is happy with it.
Let me talk about BARcamp.
I looked at the site and it is http://barcampchicago.com
Here are their sponsors.
++++++++++++++++
Our Sponsors - contact us if you can help (info at barcampchicago.com)!
Realnets provides managed services and outsourcing of IT
Sittercity has over 150000 babysitters in the US, www.sittercity.com and you know that this is the site run by Dan Ratner's fiance Genevieve Thiers, unless they already got married.
Sagacity.com, www.sagacity.com
Parent company of Complaints and other great web properties [Matt Smith is the CEO and their main property, www.complaints.com was listed by Time Magazine as one of the top 50 web sites.]
Portage is a venture capital firm working to build Chicago companies
TECH cocktail is where Chicago tech entrepreneurs get together
Adobe Quark and Microsoft Training At Digital Bootcamp
Centro Makes Online Local Media Advertising Easy http://www.centro.net/
Elevated Rails is a Chicago based Ruby consulting group http://www.elevatedrails.com/
Business POV makes videos about Chicago Commerce
Mail Launder blocks spam before it gets to your mail server http://www.maillaunder.com/
Intentionally Designed does web design and marketing differently http://www.intentionallydesigned.com/
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center helps people build businesses
Kirix Strata is a specialty browser for accessing and manipulating data from the web http://www.kirix.com/
Tech Venue is your venue for business technology events news and networking
Cleversafe is an open source community creating software for dispersed data storage
midPhase is a web hosting company actively supporting Chicago startups
hostedlabs provides global scaling with zero downtime for your LAMP application
++++++++++++++++
May again. I included the links to a few of these sponsors' sites. I have heard recently about Centro.net and meant to mention them about a week ago. They have a new CEO named Bob Hoyler who used to be at MyPoints and Magnify.com. What Centro does is help ad agencies at a national level reach local advertising media outlets.
Here is Bob's bio from their site.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Bob Hoyler
President & COO
Bob Hoyler has joined the company as President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Hoyler, whose technology leadership at MyPoints generated revenue in excess of $63M before its sale at the height of the market in 2000, will be based in Chicago.
While at MyPoints, Mr. Hoyler brought to bear his vision of motivating consumer loyalty through incentive programs online. Well ahead of the web curve, he founded MotivationNet in 1996 after 20 years at the Keebler Company. MotivationNet was among the first companies that leveraged the power of the web to gather consumers and develop brand loyalty through rewards programs that delivered value for partners and consumers alike. After becoming MyPoints in 1998, Mr. Hoylers’ company built a completely opt-in database of more than 10M names that became a valuable media asset for its partners.
Prior to founding MotivationNet, Mr. Hoyler’s 20 years at Keebler saw him become Senior Vice President, Diversified Businesses, and Chief Technical Officer by 1993. By that time, he had total P & L responsibility for their $420 million dry and frozen food business with net operating income of $43 million, including manufacturing, distribution, sales and marketing.
++++++++++++++++
The BARcamp schedule for Saturday so far is:
12:00
12:30
Mass Customization: The Next Revolution in Software is Hardware (Ziad Hussain)
13:00
Kirix: Strata Code Sprint -- building dynamic web mash-ups with RSS and a data browser (Aaron Williams)
14:00
Cleversafe, Inc.: Global Data Dispersal (John Quigley)
15:00
Chicago Linux: Brewing Beer at Home (Tristan Sloughter)
16:00
Chicago Lisp: Anatomy of Lisp (John Quigley)
17:00
Developing cross-platform applications using wxWidgets (Dave Williams)
18:00
Ruby on rails deep dive (ActiveRecord internals) (Mike Mangino)
19:00
Rich applications with Groovy and Swing (James Williams)
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
And Sunday's schedule right now includes Humanized.
00:00
Perry still spins de trax till the break o dawn.. ;-)
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00 Mobile Web 2.0 ideas and brainstorming session
11:00 Mobile Web 2.0 MobHackaThon (go live by the end of the day)
12:00
13:00 Foresight Linux, why you want it and intro to Conary packaging
14:00 Conary packaging
15:00 Chicago Gnome User Group Meeting
16:00 Jason Jacobsohn - Discussion of Business Resources for Entrepreneurs: Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, 12A Investment Fund, and The Big Idea Forum
17:00 Humanized - Tales from developing Enso
18:00
19:00
Chicago Beta Meetup
20:00
21:00
AfterParty
+++++++++++++++
OK, May again. I am sure that the schedule will fill up.
Rexilius says that "the ITA signal to noise ratio isn't so great but there is still some signal in there. My approach to this is really a kind of open source mentality.... just throw it out there."
Jason and I then got into a discussion of Ruby on Rails vs. Python. 37Signals is Ruby on Rails and the Humanized guys are Python, Rexilius told me. I know that Ruby on Rails is 37Signals and Jason Rexilius quickly pointed out something that I knew. The Ruby on Rails product was developed by David Heinemeier Hansson who did the development work independently and before he came to be a partner at 37Signals. Jason Rexilius and I share this common belief in honoring the founder or the creator of the IP. That is not to take anything away from Jason Fried who saw a good thing and made David Heinemeier Hansson a partner. But Rexilius sees that "37signals has done a good job at incorporating that brand because Ruby is very hot. People always think that 37Signals invented Ruby on Rails but they were really just a user to start out." Translation: Fried saw a good thing and expropriated it. I pointed out to Rexilius that he should not be too fussy about IP ownership issues or recognition for creating IP. Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Thomas Alva Edison, and many other business icons did not invent what people think they invented. They got it from somewhere else.
Jason said that the mentality in Chicago is that technology does not matter, but that business matters. That is part of the problem, he said. He was a heads-down engineer at Motorola and we talked about how we can get Motorolans more involved in the entrepreneurial world.
I told Jason that since a lot of people don't seem to know much about the BARcamp and Web 2.0 scene, he should invite the media. I suggested Jon Van at the Trib. We talked about Brad Spirrison and Jason said that Brad sort of has that ITA mentality where if it does not involve a lot of money and it is not big, it does not count. I can't read Brad's mind, but I would modify what Jason said a bit. I think Brad is enamored of venture capital and if it isn't tied to VC money at least, he is less interested. Tom Figel suggested that Jon Van will not show up on the weekend since he is a grandfather and he is a family man. But Eric Benderoff might and he thinks Benderoff might go. We talked a bit about Wolinsky and agreed that he may be game for it too. I told Figel to do some work on this and he is calling Rexilius right now, about 3:10pm, to help out with some major media coverage. I think that the major media should be covering something like this.
My point to Jason Rexilius was that if we are going to build bridges in this town and get different groups talking to each other more, it has to be more than just having Fred Hoch come to a meeting to promote the ITA.
It should be a two-way street. No, that is not expressing what I mean very well.
It should not just be Fred telling BARcamp what he does and BARcamp telling him what they do. It should be more integrative, and each group can actually learn from the other and they can morph into something new. I think we have a flawed thought process in this sense. I don't want to put words in the mouths of people at the ITA but some of the powers-that-be see the BARcamp guys as garage start-ups and dreamers. They figure that a few of them will break through to real businesses.
That is the flaw in their thinking though. They are real businesses or at least potential businesses now, just not ones with great revenues. But the potential is there. The way things work around here, you have to have funding to be legitimized and you can't be legitimized without funding. So it becomes a Catch-22. You know the old line about how you have to have a job to get a job. What we need to do is get away from labels. David Peak is 42 years old. I have no idea what he did for the first 40 years of his life. But this year, he got venture capital and now he suddenly "exists" in the minds of the powers-that-be. How silly is this mentality? David Van de Walle from uSphere is in the same boat. So are the guys from GrubHub. A lot of start-ups are just there until something significant happens and that something is usually national press (not local) or venture funding.
To quote that overused line, "It may take seven years to create an overnight success."
I think we are just not tuned in enough to what is going on below the surface and we are always surprised when folks who have been around a long time suddenly appear as if from nowhere.
Back to the SurePayroll talk. Alter pointed out that if you lose 15% of your customers annually due to attrition, and you want your customer base to grow at 40% a year, you really have to grow at 55% to hit those numbers. Both Troy and Michael also said that they considered SurePayroll a Chicago firm and that they would not have moved to the Coast and that any VC who wanted that would have killed the deal. They really value the great work ethic here.
Alter said that "in the next 90 days, we will probably be announcing two, maybe three, big distribution deals.." at which point Troy interjected "Manage expectations, manage expectations" and the audience got quite a chuckle out of that.
Alter: "We will drive this through aggressive investment in online marketing, through our distribution channels and referral channels.."
What keeps Michael awake at night is how to keep growing on the customer side, he said.
They have added a lot of features and they do tell the companies how need in the bank to make payroll down to the penny. They also have all the W-2, and W-4 forms for the employers and they print the compliance notices for them. They send reminders on work anniversaries and birthdays, and all this functionality is for about $69.00 a year.
They are also making a big corporate 401k plan available at very low cost.
The question I never really got an answer to and frankly, I didn't ask the question point blank which I should have done, is this: What is your exit strategy? They were asked that and the answer was vague. They do not appear to be under pressure from the VCs to sell the firm, but most VC funds are 7 to 10 years which raises the question: When will the VCs put pressure on them to sell so that they can have a liquidity event? And that begs the question: How profitable is SurePayroll? As I write this, Michael Alter is on a conference call and he will be on one till 4:20pm or so. I may not be able to pin him down today, but I promise that I will keep trying. It is now 6:35pm and there is no answer at his phone. He is probably doing what I should be doing --- getting outside and enjoying the beautiful evening.
Look, I still have:
ITA mixer from May 30
TiE pre and post meeting interviews and attendees from May 9th
Patrick Ryan from May 30 at the EDC
The rest of the ITA awards dinner write-up on April 12th
Calamos pre and post interviews plus his speech from March 21st
ANET party which also had some entrepreneurial interviews
The story of two entrepreneurs from the last MEF meeting I attended on May 14th
AthenaVerify and Adarsh Arora as presented on March 12th at the MEF
I know, it seems ridiculous because I never get completely caught up but next week has no events except for the MEF on Monday night. This weekend I will stop by the China event tomorrow and briefly go to the Tribune and Dearborn Street Book Fair. I will work on Efoora and I have a story on Advanced Equities and a lawsuit they are involved in on the West Coast, and I am waiting for a long overdue package in the mail on it.
BTW, Lanny Feder is back in action after heart surgery. He has a newsletter about IP issues and there is a letter from him in this report.
Scott Oldach has tendered his resignation from the MIT-EF board and the MIT-EF got 60 business ideas submitted for the June 19th White Board Challenge being sponsored by RPX Group. They whittled it down to 12 to 14 and the presentations will be on the 19th. That week will be very busy, by the way. I am going to the poker charity for Abandoned Babies on the 16th, and by the way, there was another abandoned baby at a convenience store a day or two ago so Dawn Geras is a local trasure; the ITDA MMM on the 18th, MIT-EF and Jeff Pulver on the 19th, a Mashable event on the 20th and BARCamp on the 23rd and 24th. Whew! If I survive that and get my Efoora work done, I have to go into the hospital for three or four days for the laproscopic surgery to remove my gall bladder and gall stones from the bile duct. I met with Dr. Alan Koffron on Monday and he is one of the world's experts on this type of surgery. I know that is an overused term, but in this case it is true.
I run into tech folks all the time. Karen Barch took a job with the University of Chicago Press. She used to do consulting for small firms and she helped out Tom Churchwell in the old days. Michael Rubens ran into me on a street corner. Kate Igoe from Northwestern and her hubby were walking up Broadway and they make a good looking couple. I still think Kate is very cute for her age. BTW, we have a new Thai restaurant called Suri in my hood, at Briar and Broadway. Argo Tea will be my summer hang out since they have great tea and free wi-fi even though I don't know how to use wi-fi and I found a guy who plays a lot of chess -- Jim, who is 65. He told me about someone who was killed in the Gold Coast when she was forced to get money from an ATM. That is the problem that Joe Zingher has been trying to tackle. Let me get this out. It is now 8:15pm and the sun is setting.
___________________________________
The Alien Tort Claims Act: An Activist Tool for Change
By Bart Mongoven
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and British human rights charity
Reprieve filed suit in California on May 31 against logistics consulting
company Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. The suit claims the Boeing subsidiary
knowingly aided CIA rendition activities abroad and is complicit in the
torture of terrorism suspects.
The ACLU's suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is
significant because it reaches far beyond Boeing to the sizeable business
community that has contracts with federal agencies involved in the larger
war against Islamist militants. Jeppesen Dataplan specializes in logistics
support, but the rendition program alone involves many additional
contractors, all of which now see themselves as possibly facing action under
ATCA. In addition to the renditions, the United States operates dozens of
other programs that flirt with the boundaries of international human rights
norms -- and private contractors have had at least a tangential role in
almost all of them.
Legally, the suit faces many hurdles, including the defense that Jeppesen
Dataplan did not know -- perhaps was not even allowed to know -- why the CIA
needed the specific logistic support the company provided. Regardless of the
legal merit and likelihood of success, the effect of this suit and others
like it extends far beyond the offices of the defendant companies' general
counsels.
Not only is it a board-level issue, but it also draws attention from
marketing, public relations, government relations and other departments that
manage how people perceive the company. In pulling companies in so many
directions, these suits are expensive, both in financial cost and in the
distractions they cause senior executives.
In zeroing in on Jeppesen Dataplan, the ACLU is hitting directly at an issue
on the minds of voters and consumers -- U.S. detention and interrogation
tactics -- and attacking a company with high name recognition. Furthermore,
though far from the truth, the selection suggests that the target was chosen
almost at random, and that any major government contractor could face
similar action. The ACLU, in fact, said as much in its announcement about
the suit. "This is the first time we are accusing a blue-chip American
company of profiting from torture," an ACLU lawyer said. "Corporations
should expect to get sued where they are making blood money off the
suffering of others," said another.
The suit opens the legal side of what will likely be a multi-prong,
years-long process of placing the tactics used in the war against Islamist
extremists under a public spotlight. The strategy is a product of a
coalition of human and civil rights nongovernmental organizations that aim
to make sure that, using the war as an excuse, the United States does not
abuse suspects abroad in ways that are considered unacceptable within the
United States. The goal is to bolster the political position of those
calling for an end to the use of various tactics in the war and for an
increase in transparency in the tactics the federal government uses to
identify militants and their plans. Because the government is resistant to
these calls, the activist groups involved aim to make corporations see that
federal policies put them at risk, and thus turn the corporate sector into
lobbyists for a change in tactics.
ACLU v. Boeing
ATCA, which dates back to 1789, states that federal district courts have
"original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only,
committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United
States." Though used in several ways since 1980 to sue individuals, it found
new life in the 1990s as a vehicle by which foreign nationals can sue
companies in U.S. courts for violations of universally understood human
rights norms. In this case, the ACLU represents the plaintiffs in Binyam
Mohamed, et al.
v. Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. Mohamed is an Ethiopian living in the United
Kingdom who was snatched while visiting Pakistan and flown to Morocco.
ATCA has been used fewer than 20 times against companies in the United
States, with the only legal success coming in the first major ATCA suit
initiated by human rights groups, John Doe v.
Unocal, brought by the International Labor Rights Fund. (In that case, John
Doe was Myanmarese). The oil company settled the suit out of court in 2005.
The only other ATCA case that has advanced far into the judiciary, Sosa v.
Alvarez-Machain, was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the
offense in question, kidnapping, did not rise to the level of a violation of
core internationally recognized human rights norms.
While kidnapping does not rise to the level of violating international human
rights norms, the combination of kidnapping and torture likely does. The
ACLU's complaint against Jeppesen Dataplan alleges the company helped the
CIA facilitate "the forced disappearance, torture and inhumane treatment" of
three men, suspected al Qaeda militants Binyam Mohamed, Ahmed Agiza and Abou
Elkassim Britel. The three allegedly were arrested by foreign intelligence
or police in Sweden and Pakistan, picked up by the CIA and flown on charter
jets to allied Middle Eastern countries, where the subjects were tortured.
According to the ACLU, the CIA flew the men to those countries (with
Jeppesen Dataplan's assistance) because they knew the intelligence services
there would use techniques to extract information that are not legal in the
United States.
The complaint contends that Jeppesen Dataplan knowingly played a critical
role in renditions by providing flight planning services
-- including the itinerary and route used -- as well as customs clearance
assistance, ground transportation, hotel reservations and security for the
team transporting the prisoner. Boeing and Jeppesen Dataplan deny having any
knowledge of the reason for these flights, and contend that they cannot be
held liable for the activities of their clients.
The suit is a long shot in the courts. There are a number of hurdles the
ACLU must clear in order to get a single substantive hearing. First, it must
convince a judge that the company is not covered by immunity as a government
contractor. (Government contractors are covered under the sovereign immunity
the federal government enjoys.) To do this, it must convince a judge that
Jeppesen Dataplan was aiding the government but was not a party to the
rendition program itself or to the torture that allegedly followed. Even if
it succeeds, it also will have to successfully argue that national security
will not be placed at risk if the case is heard. If it passes these hurdles,
the suit will then receive a hearing, at which the ACLU will have to
convince a judge that Jeppesen Dataplan knew that some of its flights were
aiding and abetting torture.
Winning the case in court, however, is not the ACLU's game. Rather, through
the suit, the organization is trying to place Jeppesen Dataplan, its parent
company Boeing and the larger world of government contractors under
scrutiny. More important, it is warning contractors that they have an
interest in U.S. foreign policy and its practices.
ATCA's Power
ATCA's strength is that it places corporations in a position to defend
themselves against allegations of complicity in gross human rights abuses
usually committed in countries that have poor government oversight. The list
of violations that rise to the level of ATCA -- including homicide, slavery,
torture and rape -- are so heinous, however, that simply being the subject
of such an allegation, regardless of vehement denials, can hurt the
company's image.
The main goal of these suits, then, is to force the defendant companies and
others in similar situations to implement internal human rights controls and
demand more coherent external accountability mechanisms from the government.
Since John Doe v.
Unocal entered the courts in the late 1990s, petroleum, mining and other
extractive industries have improved safeguards to ensure they do not face
similar suits. After a brief flurry of cases against resource companies, the
most obvious targets of ATCA suits -- companies with operations in
developing countries with poor governance -- have not been subject to many
suits. The bulk of ATCA suits filed in the past five years have been against
consumer product manufacturers, companies that are less prepared for ATCA
allegations and have not yet instituted management safeguards against such
allegations.
The Long Term
Contractors might be almost immune from successful prosecution, but due to
the nature of the allegation -- complicity in torture -- they are not immune
to embarrassment. This suggests ATCA is being used as one part of a larger
movement (other efforts by the ACLU, Amnesty International and others are
under way as well) urging voters and political leaders to reassess U.S.
tactics in combat and intelligence operations since 9/11. As the election
approaches, congressional inquiries into such tactics -- and harsh criticism
of the Bush administration -- will be inevitable. As a result, presidential
and congressional candidates will be in a position to express outrage at
current tactics and vow changes if elected. From an advocacy point of view,
it is a strong strategy that will strengthen the activists' hand in the
coming years.
Moving against corporations will be an important part of this strategy. The
outcry from advocacy groups and politicians opposed to the Bush
administration's conduct since Sept. 11, 2001, has led to continued
congressional inquiries into the manner in which large and small defense
contracts are awarded and how billing is managed.
Furthermore, Congress also is more deeply scrutinizing companies that face
allegations of wrongdoing. Contracts considered for the companies that
managed Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison (CACI and Titan
Corp.) for the Defense Department also receive more scrutiny inside the
department, in part out of fear of congressional investigation.
While Boeing's position as a leading defense contractor is not at risk, the
ATCA suit threatens to bring added scrutiny to contracts awarded to the
company, particularly to Jeppesen Dataplan.
The corporate role is crucial because the ACLU and its allies do not trust
the next administration to be much different. As the 2008 campaign heats up,
rhetoric critical of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, renditions and
other tactics will only increase. (The rendition program did not begin with
9/11 but years earlier under former President Bill Clinton, and Clinton's
predecessors presided over similar programs). Things change, however, when
candidates become officeholders. In other words, while the politics of
interrogation techniques and rendition seem fairly easy from the outside,
the reality of fighting a war is much different than most voters imagine.
The decisions the next administration makes, therefore, might not differ
terribly from those the candidates will criticize during the next 15 months.
Though the ACLU may or may not succeed in changing how elected leaders
approach these issues, the strategy will affect how CIA and Defense
Department contractors do business. Just as the oil, mining and
resource-extracting industries have built structures to monitor problems
with an eye toward ATCA, so too will defense contractors, particularly those
with brand names and large government contracts to protect.
The ATCA suit places government contractors (and would-be
contractors) on notice: Any dealing with the government could place them at
risk of a court case that, regardless of merit, can cause long-lasting
damage to the company. The design, then, is to turn contractors into
lobbyists for human rights. It is an approach that could work
___________________________________
William Archey To Retire As CEO of DC-Based AeA
Washington, DC -- DC-based AeA, the large technology industry organization,
announced on Thursday that William Archey, its CEO, will be retiring. "In
the spring of 2006, I told the executive committee of the AeA Board that it
was my intent to retire at around the time of my 65th birthday in February
of 2008," said Archey. "By that time, I will have been the CEO for over 13
years." Korn Ferry, the executive search firm, has been selected to conduct
the search for a successor. "Bill has had an extraordinary track record as
AeA's CEO," said Tim Guertin, the CEO of Varian Medical Systems and the
current chairman of AeA. "Seven years ago, Bill rejuvenated the AeA state
policy program which has become the preeminent resource for high-tech
companies dealing with policy issues in the state houses. More recently,
Bill has been a singular leader in elevating the awareness of members of
Congress including the Democratic leadership on the profound competitiveness
challenges facing America."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20070607/pl_usnw/aea_ceo_to_retire
_________________________________
Deals:
________________
Chicago-based Twin Bridge quietly launched in 2005 with a $500 million
inaugural fund, and came out of PR hiding this week with the addition of two
new partners. Approximately 70% of its fund capital is allocated to
fund-of-funds activities for small-to-mid-sized buyout funds - which it
generally defines as $500 million or less. The remainder is dedicated to
co-investments.
On the fund-of-funds side, managing partner Debbie Ackerman said that Twin
Bridge has a particular affinity for first-time managers, or veteran firms
that have recently experienced significant change in their partnership
rosters. Ackerman previously was with PPM America, as were new co-investment
partners Joe Dimberio and Pat Lanigan.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Arsenal Capital has sold labeling company Renaissance Mark Inc. to Fort
Dearborn Co., a portfolio company of Genstar Capital. No financial terms
were disclosed. Arsenal acquired Renaissance Mark in 2002 for $85 million.
www.fortdearborn.com www.renaissancemark.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TicketReserve, a Chicago-based online ticket marketplace, has received an
undisclosed amount of funding from CBS Corp. The company provides access to
hard-to-get tickets by allowing users to reserve the right to buy face-value
tickets. These vouchers can be bought and sold through a free-market trading
system, or used to buy a face-value ticket if the event, such as a sports
game, occurs.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Infinera Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of digital optical
networking systems, raised $128 million in its IPO. The company priced 14
million common shares at $13 per share ($10-$12 range), which gave it a
market cap of approximately $1 billion. Infinera will trade on the Nasdaq
under ticker symbol INFN, while Goldman Sachs servedas lead underwriter. It
had raised over $336 million in total VC funding since its 2000 inception,
from firms like Advanced Equities (9.3% pre-IPO stake), Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers (9.3%), Mobius Venture Capital (7.8%), RWI Ventures (5%),
Benchmark Capital, Applied Materials Ventures, Cypress Semiconductor, Sprout
Group, Venrock Associates, Worldview Technology Partners, Siebel Systems and
Sutter Hill Ventures. www.infinera.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mason Wells has acquired Oliver Products Co., a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based
provider of packaging solutions to the global medical and prepared foods
industries. No financial terms were disclosed. M&I Bank and US Bank provided
senior financing for the transaction, while mezzanine and co-investment
financing was provided by BMO Private Equity. Oliver Products was advised by
Wolverine Capital Partners. www.OliverProducts.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Brentwood Associates has acquired a majority interest in Paper Source Inc.,
a Chicago-based provider of high-end paper products and related items. No
financial terms were disclosed. Susan Lindstrom and James York, the selling
shareholders, will maintain a significant minority interest in the company.
As part of the transaction, Brentwood has hired Sally Pofcher as Paper
Source's new CEO. She previously was with Gap Inc. as senior vice president
of brand strategy and business development. www.brentwood.com
www.paper-source.com
_________________________________
END OF REPORT
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