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| | 01/18/2009
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| | Scoop
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| | [Actually 1/07/2009]: The May Report: 1/07/2009: Len Bland & David Carman draw more than 50 people to their monthly business plan presentation group; Josh Karp's new venture, theprintedblog; and I have to go...
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| | January 7, 2009
The May Report: 1/07/2009: Len Bland & David Carman draw more than 50 people to their monthly business plan presentation group; Josh Karp's new venture, theprintedblog; and I have to go...
Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here: http://www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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Does your program have the following great features?
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312.242.3346 ext. 5
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The Entrepreneurial Quest® GROW Peer Roundtable
Presented by the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University
Begins Friday, January 16, 2009
8:00 - 11:00am
DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd.
Roundtable will meet the third Friday of every month, January - December 2009
Register at http://cec.depaul.edu/calendar/2009/01/the-entrepreneurial-quest-grow.php.
The Coleman Entrepreneurship Center is pleased to announce our newest program, the GROW Peer Roundtable, to help business owners: have a trusted sounding board of peers to address business challenges and issues; make consistent progress toward business goals and objectives; generate new ideas to grow and expand their business; and use their experience to help solve common business problems of peers.
To be eligible, each member's business must meet the following requirements:
Annual revenue of $250,000 - $5 million
Minimum of two full-time employees in addition to founder(s)
In business for more than two years
Annual membership to participate in the Roundtable is $1,800. A $500 deposit is due upon registering with the remaining balance due no later than January 9, 2009.
Review the membership agreement at http://cec.depaul.edu/peer-roundtable/the-entrepreneurial-questr-grow-peer-roundtable.php.
Register at http://cec.depaul.edu/calendar/2009/01/the-entrepreneurial-quest-grow.php.
FACILITATOR
Bruce Leech founded CrossCom National, Inc. in 1981, a company that recently reached $100 million in annual revenues. CrossCom installs and services voice and data systems for large US retailers like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster Video, and TJ Maxx. In 2004, Bruce sold a majority interest in the firm to Goense/Bounds, a private equity firm, and continues to serve on the company's Board of Directors. Bruce is a partner with BTA Enterprises and Evanston Advisors, companies that provide consulting services to business owners related to business transition and financial planning. Having been through this process himself, Bruce is able to provide insight into this very important area in the life of the business owner. Furthermore, he serves as an advisor to several companies and is involved with a number of non-profit organizations and educational institutions. Bruce earned his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University, and an MBA from DePaul University.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- BigFrontier.com event right now
-- No Doctor's Today, Thank You
-- Crazy Harper Reed and flickr (2 messages)
-- Briefly noted, by Ron May
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www.chicagomicro.com
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_____________________________
BigFrontier.com event right now
From: slundin@bigfrontier.org
Subject: BIGfrontier event tomorrow morning...
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:14:10 +0000
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
Cc: ron@themayreport.com
Sign up at the door.
BIG Idea Breakfast forum: January 7, 2009
Don Schultz on his new book: Media Generations
Attention all media buyers, planners, brand managers and anyone interested in understanding the interrelationship between new and traditional media. Northwestern's marketing guru Don Schultz has some advice for you: READ HIS NEW BOOK BEFORE YOU GO ON YOUR NEXT MEDIA BUYING SPREE. Don has identified 31 new media forms and shares them with you in Media Generations.
EXCLUSIVE CHICAGO PRESENTATION:
SPACE IS LIMITED: Complimentary
9:30 AM - Noon
DATE: January 7 , 2009
The Merchandise Mart Conference Center
9:30-10:30 Meet the author over coffee and doughnuts;
10:30-11:30 Presentation
11:30-Noon questions.
co produced with mobium creative group
www.bigfrontier.org
Steve Lundin
Chief Hunter and Gatherer
Main: (312) 238-9308 Direct: (312) 602-2434 Cell: (312) 391-8007 Fax: (312) 602-2450
BIGfrontier Communications Group
600 W. Van Buren Suite 507A Chicago, IL 60607
www.bigfrontier.org
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No Doctor's Today, Thank You
A poem for the day to get the year off to a good start:
No Doctor's Today, Thank You
They tell me that euphoria is the feeling of feeling wonderful,
well, today I feel euphorian,
Today I have the agility of a Greek god and the appetitite of a
Victorian.
Yes, today I may even go forth without my galoshes,
Today I am a swashbuckler, would anybody like me to buckle
any swashes?
This is my euphorian day,
I will ring welkins and before anybody answers I will run away.
I will tame me a caribou
And bedeck it with marabou.
I will pen me my memoirs.
Ah youth, youth! What euphorian days them was!
I wasn't much of a hand for the boudoirs,
I was generally to be found where the food was.
Does anybody want any flotsam?
I've gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam?
I can getsam.
I can play chopsticks on the Wurlitzer,
I can speak Portuguese like a Berlitzer.
I can don or doff my shoes without tying or untying the laces because
I am wearing moccasins,
And I practically know the difference between serums and antitoccasins.
Kind people, don't think me purse-proud, don't set me down as
vainglorious,
I'm just a little euphorious.
Ogden Nash
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Crazy Harper Reed and flickr (2 messages)
From: charlie festa cfesta9@gmail.com
Subject: Flickr / threadless
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:11:42 -0600
To: ron@themayreport.com
This is that crazy guy harper's flickr.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/natatwo/3174491939/ he made some crazy pay phone thing...give it a call
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Subject: got any questions?
Date: 1/6/2009 4:56:44 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: jeffrey@skinnycorp.com
To: ronaldmay@aol.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/natatwo/3174491939/
--
Jeffrey Kalmikoff
CCO
skinnyCorp / Threadless
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1468 Pearl Street, #200
Boulder, Colorado 80302
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Office: 773 878 3557
Direct: 773 453 0246
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Briefly noted, by Ron May
* I have to leave for Lundin's event down at the Mart. It is 8:23am Wednesday. Happy New Year.
I attended the business plan presentations run by Len Bland and David Carman last night. Good turn out. They had just over 50 people, and most I did not know! Some folks you may know included: Bruce Montgomery, Robert Harney, Spencer Maus, Art Mertes, Lloyd Epstein, Sheldon Rosenfield, Terry Flannagan, Larry Zinox, Jack Curley, Len Bland, David Carman, Bill Houston, Steve Fortman, Stephen Smith, and Jeff Grossberg, but there were many whom I met for the first time. Montgomery was a plant of sorts. Malachi Leopold, one of the presenters, brought him there to ask questions.
The four presenters did fairly well. The first presentation by the Stuart Straus of Beautology Brands in Oak Brook, a firm that did over $12MM last year, was pretty good and understandable. Most of the audience liked it. I will have much more on them for you.
The second presenter was offering a good deal on broadband access was an I-banker named Glen Anderson, managing director of Cogentic, www.cogentic.com . He has been working with the firm since August. They are quoting a $56MM pre-money valuation. There is dark fiber available from the Lambda rail (??) network in 30 cities tied to the federal labs. They have a $150MM asset and can offer access at great price points. Essentially, the government is almost giving it away. I am not sure of the name of the firm. Oh, here it is: www.darkstrand.com.
The third presenter, Warren Bent, from www.inchargesys.com, was offering phone numbers and VoIP security to keep people from being scammed on phone calls just as they are in emails. warrenbent@inchargesys.com.
The fourth was a producer named Malachi Leopold who runs Left Brain Right Brain productions, www.lbrbproductions.com has an interesting idea but it needs more business planning.
Overall, I was impressed. I expected lower quality presenters because Len Bland had told me that the firms were not coached when we spoke in the morning. He undersold and overdelivered, it turned out. The first two presentations were stronger than the last two, but they were all understandable and may need some tweeking. Getting it in under ten minutes is a problem.
But I read between the lines as you know. Len and David did not prep these firms which tells me that they did not want to pay the $1,000 fee for coaching. Len did not deny that later when I asked him. They are selling coaching services to go along with money raising, but right now, they have something starting here and we'll have to see how it develops. One thing they are clearly doing well is getting presenters. Another thing to add to that now is getting attendees.
There were a lot of business advisors and guys who help firms raise funds, but not many investors from what I could see.
A group of four former CEOs looking for their next gig, including Larry Zinox were there. I think this group may call themselves Abacus Business Development. Larry calls his firm www.veridian3.com and his email is lcz@veridian3.com. One of Larry's previous ventures was Planetary Motion and he had two partners in that business.
Two guys I want to have lunch with are David Stoll who is an interesting character. I have seen him for years at the Chicago Humanities Festival and the Dearborn St. Book Fair and other lectures, but never at a business event. He is a gadfly with a very interesting story. He used to be a chimney sweep.
Another interesting guy there was Ray Markman who knows Bill Lederer and his mom and dad going way back. He also knows a guy named Michael Kahn.
I don't know how Len and David do raising money, but they clearly have something going here, and it is giving the ITDA a run for its money. Because most of the attendees are not investors per se, I would not put it in the category of what Dennis Serio does or what Ron Kirschner does just yet. But it is drawing a larger crowd every month and they have had four presenters a month for the last few months. They already had to move from the offices of the ITA to the law offices of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.
My sense on the money raising is that it's a work in progress, especially as far as Len and David as a team are concerned. Len has been doing this on his own for years and right now, they have a partnership but not a single shingle business. My sense is also that Len brings money contacts and David brings people to the meetings. But that is just a matter of gut feel.
I don't think from the things that they have told me that they are entirely on the same page, but it is a work in progress as I said. I liked it and will return.
Len doesn't try to be Tom Churchwell or Joel D. here and he does not overmanage the Q&A that follows each ten minute presentation.
He does take the audience from one to ten for how much they liked what they saw. Curley voted a "5" for the broadband idea involving the federal labs. David Stool and I think it was Steve Fortman voted a "7" for the Malachi Leopold presentation. I questioned them on it and they said they really liked it. Malachi is involved in many projects and for this one, he has put in $10K of his own money and is looking to raise $50K but in the Q&A it came out that he just raised $130K for a documentary.
It is amazing what comes out in the Q&A. Warren Bent admitted that he wants to have 27 million phone numbers at ten cents a number by 2011 and expects to have 5% of the world's phone numbers by 2013.
Len Bland brought that out in the Q&A, so Len does seem to cut through the bull but he does it in an unassuming and low key fashion.
Correction: I misspelled Ed Denison. It is with one "n" not two. I have written Dennison too often.
I misspelled Matt Schobe as Scobe in the headline, no less. The correct spelling is Schobe.
Dick Green was at Gibson's with his buddies from Briefing.com on Dec. 15th when I had dinner with Gian Fulgoni.
Correction: I wrote this in the first report of the 30th of December:
"And the history of U.S. monetary policy is Bernanke carrying out his birthday promise to Milton Friedman," David said.
That should read: "And the history of U.S. monetary policy this year is Bernanke carrying out his birthday promise to Milton Friedman," David said.
Another minor correction: David Hale's wife's name is Lyric Hughes Hale, not just Lyric Hughes.
And her website is www.chinaonline.com
* http://twitter.com/ChicagoTechNews Todd Allen is back to reporting on local tech.
http://aimgroup.com/index.php/article/chicago-sun-times-group-joins-monster-network
* Here is more info. from www.compete.com on the traffic for localized advertising sites (and I also checked out some local organizations and a few other companies):
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/getfave.com/?metric=uv
GetFave appears to be doing well.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/localeze.com/?metric=uv
Localeze is getting up and down movements in traffic and has had as many as 26,000 unique visitors a month and last month was at 17,500.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/condoperks.com/?metric=uv
Last month, only had 500 visitors compared to 2,000 in March 2008
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/bigmachines.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/mitefchicago.org/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/tie-midwest.org/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/illinoistech.org/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/nanobusiness.org/?metric=uv
No traffic since June 2008
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/cleargauge.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/stg.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/acumence.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/cleverbridge.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/trustwave.com/?metric=uv
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/smartsignal.com/?metric=uv
Local advertising seems to be a major trend of sorts that we should be paying close attention to.
* Later this month, Josh Karp, who built and sold Free Rain Systems a year and a half ago, will launch a new business -- in fact, it has technically been launched.
It is called www.blog.theprintedblog.com. I won't give you the whole discussion today that Josh and I had last Friday, but the essence of it is this.
1. He is starting with one paper a week as a pilot project to see how things go.
2. It is a printed paper, to be distributed mostly at "L" stops in Chicago and San Francisco initially. They could end up with 100 or more distribution points in Chicago alone.
3. Think RedEye with blogs for content, user driven content voted on online by the readers themselves.
4. Think RedEye with localized, really localized, advertising that is very inexpensive.
5. And that is key. Josh wants the ads to be really at the neighborhood level, so the plan is to print out two issues a day with a great deal of flexibility.
6. How can this be done? In terms of technology, he is using InDesign which is like Pagemaker that they used to use to put together the paper I wrote for years ago.
As far as labor is concerned, he is using interns up until now. And social networks. The cost of producing the paper is key. Josh thinks it can be accomplished cheaply and efficiently using technology that is available.
They are also using social networks on Facebook and Twitter, but when it comes to jobs, he wants only LinkedIn for resumes.
Josh believes that newspapers are not going away, but they have to adapt to the online world. Josh is now on Twitter and you can find him at www.twitter.com/jkarp or at www.twitter.com/theprintedblog or at flickr at www.flickr.com/theprintedblog. Readers can submit photos there if they want to.
The two "L" stops that Josh plans to start with are the Belmont stop and the Fullerton stop, plus the BART in San Francisco.
Josh is thinking about 1,000 readers per location, and six pages to start. There would be many ads per issue and ads can be run very cheaply, priced between $15 and $30.
Josh has asked me to write something for the paper and I thought that the upcoming MIT-EF meeting on campaign would be a good topic.
Will the dog eat the dog food? I don't know and neither does Josh, so we'll have to see how it goes. Since selling Freerain Systems, Josh has come up with a lot of ideas and has written 2 or 3 page outlines of each idea. He has had about 25 of them.
This does sound to me like it is possible and it does capture some of the trends that we see elsewhere, like user generated content and truly localized and focused advertising.
But this sort of project is all about execution. Josh has about eight people working with him now, mostly interns, and they have space at TechNexus tied to the ITA.
Here's a blog entry from last week that one of his interns posted. You can see that many of Jamie's friends are enthusiastic and some not so enthusiastic.
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http://ohhowlovely.net/2008/12/30/the-printed-blog/
the printed blog
Author: Jamie Filed under: internin' Tuesday
Dec 30,2008
As you all know, I've been super annoying about keeping my internship hush hush until was able to. Well, now I can let the cat out of the bag. Or puppy since I like puppies better. The puppy is coming out of the bag!
I'm interning for a new media startup called The Printed Blog. It will be a twice daily printed publication with all our content being pulled from the internet...from blogs. We hope for everything to be user generated. You're photos will be published, your writing, your music, your games, etc.
It's all about you.
You can find out more about it on the blog I made for it. We're still getting everything going and preparing for our launch next month and my next move will be to start signing up bloggers who'd like the opportunity to be published, more recognition from a broader audience and eventually part of our ad revenue. Seriously, I'm like the blogger fairy godmother. Maybe I should put that on my business cards? Jamie Lovely: Blogger Fairy Godmother. It has a nice ring to it, no?
Anyway, It's a very cool idea that has some serious potential if it takes off! Fingers crossed!
What I need from you guys is to go check out the blog to find out more info, follow us on twitter, join our Facebook group. Help make me look good in front of the boss man! haha
But really, this is an awesome opportunity to get involved and be part of something great and completely new!
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25 Responses for "the printed blog"
jessica maria
December 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am
LOOKS STELLAR! Awesome job. Will look into...
Ben
December 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Yay! Good luck!
downbeats
December 30th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Sounds super-dee-duper cool. Congrats on landing such an awesome internship.
Gretchen
December 30th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Congrats! That sounds very exciting. I can't wait to check it out!
Jamie
December 30th, 2008 at 11:43 am
That's a really great idea! Keep us posted on how it goes, I'm really interested (being a media guy myself...)
brookem
December 30th, 2008 at 11:43 am
wow! that's awesome lady! what a great opportunity! good luck to you!
(could i use any more exclamation points in one comment?!)
Marie
December 30th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Yay you!
amy
December 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
yay, what a fun opportunity for you! great idea, too. hope it goes well :)
Melange
December 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Sounds like a very interesting and cool idea, congratulations and good luck!
ExMi (expensivemistakescheapthrills)
December 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
that's divine.
good luck bloggy fairy godmother!
Lauren
December 30th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Good luck with it! Sounds awesome!
katelin
December 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
oooh jamie this sounds so cool. woo!
MFE
December 30th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
No offense, but I really don't see how or why this is a good idea. Things like this already exist (so it's not as if it's the first of it's kind), and the ones that do exist aren't popular/widely read. Don't waste too much of your time; otherwise, you'll end up sorely disappointed.
-Michelle
Jaclyn
December 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
What an awesome idea! I really hope it takes off for you :)
Peter
December 30th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
That looks like a pretty fun idea.
Congrats.
bFlat
December 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
What a great idea! I hope everything works out.
mandy
December 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Sounds awesome and it looks fantastic!
Paula
December 30th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
sounds awesome - all the best with it jamie! :)
libby
December 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
girl, you are a rockstar! HOW many blogs are you running now? i could never do it...i commend you! it is a fab idea!!
susan
December 30th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Such a good idea - good luck!
Lindsay
December 31st, 2008 at 10:28 am
This is fantastic! Good luck with everything.
Vanessa
December 31st, 2008 at 10:53 am
Check. Check. Check. I've got you all three places now, awesome project and good luck!
Meghan
December 31st, 2008 at 1:24 pm
You're awesome and I shall check it out. Oh, and you're awesome.
seriously? 2008 is over? - Oh! How Lovely!
December 31st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] hard to make this internship a [...]
Phil
December 31st, 2008 at 6:52 pm
This sounds like a fantastic idea! I'd love to see where it goes and what comes from it.
Phils last blog post..A year of moments, more defined than my abs.
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* May again. Continuing with the ITA Holiday party from December 11, 2008. For all the events, all I can do is keep on going and it will all get done this week:
Tom Kunkel of NextEndLLC, www.nextendllc.com , formerly R3 Systems Group, tells me that he was never told that he had to pay to play.
He and his firm are involved in a project with the Chicago Public Schools. They are focused on e-waste and recycling. There are 300,000 kids in the CPS system.
Some guy from M-5. They laid off seven or so in the sales group here and have three left, I believe he said.
LinksGolfCafe, John Notorangelo. They will start with 20 shops across Chicagoland to start. It is a 3,000 sf coffee shop and golf shop combined. They are trying to raise $15MM for 28 shops. They have 558 units, at $28,700 for each unit. They have Chip Beck on board. 269-426-1467. John lives in Sawyer, MI.
Heidi Levin has a new gig, not the Northern Trust Bank any more. She is with a market prediction site called Inkling Markets, http://home.inklingmarkets.com. Back in December, the issue was how long Blago would last, and today, Heidi has a poll on whether the Senate will seat Roland Burris. Heidi's site is saying the chances are 20.4%. Well, not so fast. Today, Wednesday morning, the chances have improved considerably to 47.3%.
Look, there are more than 30 other items for the report but I have to leave now if I am going to make it to Lundin's event. Lundin will owe me $10 since it looks like Burris will be seated. I said that all along. Lundin lives in Indiana so he knows nothing about IL politics.
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