Modernize Newspapers

Proposed Newspaper Resolution for 2010

Here's my proposed newspaper resolution for the next year/decade... put the best way I have ever seen:

Newspaper and local media companies need to embrace innovation by either incubating innovation or partnering with innovators.  Great developers are the key to the future.  It's the only way to stay relevant long enough for online business models to catch up.

Happy New Year everyone!

Newspapers as Local Tech Resellers

Much attention has been given to old business models as folks in the local media business struggle to figure out how to make newspapers economically viable.

I have an idea that I'd like to throw into the ring -- turn newspapers into resellers of technology products to the local market.

Newspapers have a large local sales force that understands the need of local businesses.  Sure, in some cases, the sales force at your local newspaper is nothing more than a group of semi-qualified "order takers", but if that remains the case then it would behoove each local paper to get rid of everyone on staff and outsource sales to a call center in India.  "Order takers" have to become more economically viable, or they'll be replaced or eliminated over time.

Local businesses need help navigating technology.  Even in 2009, a lot of people don't understand the value of technology and how it can (and often is) harnessed to help businesses be more productive, advertise better, or provide better products and services to customers.

Yahoo has tapped into this to some extent with their Newspaper Consortium.  But I'm thinking of something bigger with a lot more potential.  I'm thinking of something akin to Microsoft's partner channel.  Microsoft doesn't sell directly to customers as a focus of their business.  Instead, they employ a variety of resellers to serve as front-line help, sales, and support for Microsoft products.

It's a radical idea, but it makes a lot more sense to me than hanging on to an old way of doing business.

On a less radical front, I do think that newspapers could be an effective reseller of products that help local businesses reach customers.  Just about all local businesses need help advertising themselves in their local market.  Local media can help make that a reality.  That's why we're beginning to offer our products MinutesNotice to select local media families.  I think it's a model that can help newspapers and local television companies find margin where there simply wasn't any before.  More to come as we progress.  For more information, check out our recently improved web site.

Welcome Damon Cali to Notice Technologies

I'm thrilled to announce that Damon Cali has joined Notice Technologies as VP of Operations.

I first met Damon in business school in 2003 -- over the years I've learned that Damon is in many ways the ideal startup executive.  He is one of the brightest and most analytical startup people I've ever met.  But perhaps more importantly, he's an action-oriented executive whose workstyle fits the rapidly changing environment of the Web and Internet advertising.

He's taking on an operations role here at Notice Technologies, which means that he'll be focused on helping us make our customers happy as we scale our business and grow over the next few months.

We're thrilled to have Damon aboard!  We talked to him recently about joining us -- check out the interview we posted on YouTube:  Damon Cali Joins Notice Technologies

Blog silence in this case = good problems

Howdy everyone -- I've been a little negligent posting on my regular schedule to this blog because work has heated up a bit in the last 7-10 days.  Lots going on at Notice Technologies between our work building a local real-time advertising platform and a few consulting gigs.

June is shaping up to be a very big month for us with a lot of announcements and progress.  We continue to be encouraged by the response we get from customers and partners about our products... it's a pretty exciting time.

For now, back to work -- I have a few interesting things to say but it will take me a few days given how much things have picked up around here.

A Little Help from Friends

A quick update today on our work at Notice Technologies... we are wrapping up work on our Closed Beta that will roll out in Austin.  I think we'll get out in earnest mid-next week with the local advertising network/publishing tools (MinutesNotice) and a consumer web site (Youpons.net) that will help people find great local deals.

I've been very encouraged at the response we get when we show MinutesNotice and Youpons.net to both local businesses and consumers.  We've shown a few friends who have also offered to join the team... people are pretty passionate these days about helping local businesses succeed and they are passionate about finding innovative ways to save a few bucks.  We do both.

Barring unforeseen disaster, we'll unlock these things for you next week.

2009 - Customers, not Outcomes

Happy Holidays everyone!

The holiday season is a great time to refresh... to get away from the pressures of the business world for a bit and chill out.  I've certainly had a few great days to relax, disconnect, and now I'm thinking about what we've achieved in 2008 and where we are headed in 2009.

2008 was an interesting year.  Like a lot of other startups, we evolved to meet the needs of our customer base several times... gradually moving closer and closer towards something that is both relatively unique and solves a major pain point.  We have kept quiet as a strategic move to not "blow our 15 minutes"... and we've been learning as we've gone along.

Now that we've largely figured out the real customer pain point and we've built a product to address it, we'll go into 2009 with an obsessive focus on customers.  Finding more of them, supporting them, and making them successful.  We will answer to metrics that demonstrate success for our business in this area.  We will not waste any time or energy daydreaming about outcomes or future milestones.  We'll minimize distractions while we build our company one successful customer at a time.  It's admittedly a cliche, but truthfully nothing else really matters.

Update & focus on Local Advertising products/technologies

Howdy everyone... what a crazy month it has been.

About a month ago at this time, my wife and I started packing our belongings for a move back down to Austin after a little over 3 1/2 years in Seattle.  Unfortunately, we're still a bit displaced.  We are still lacking a few important pieces of furniture, as well as appliances that did not quite arrive on time.  If you've ever tried to live without a fridge, washer, and dryer for an extended period of time, you know the hell that is our lives right now.

On the business front, our crew at Notice Technologies is finalizing the next rev of our technology.  We've taken some of the concepts of our test app on Facebook, changed a few things, and we're now on the brink of a new release focusing more on the immediate opportunities we see with local advertising.

Local internet advertising is a hugely underserved market that lacks killer products.  I would suspect that one reason for this is the fact that local advertising is a highly fragmented market... companies that want to succeed in local advertising have created products/services that solve the basic needs of as many companies as possible.  But look at the current offerings -- Google's Local Business Center, Yelp, Citysearch, web sites created by local newspapers -- all of them truly offer only "the bare minimum" of what is possible -- hours of operation, location information, etc.  They're undifferentiated and quite frankly, relatively boring.

We can and will offer more.

Onward!

Update & a generalist puts on his selling shoes

It's been a busy 7-10 days for me personally and for Notice Technologies.

On the personal front, we are preparing to move cross-country from Seattle back to Austin.  As you can imagine, there are a lot of "little things" to handle.  None of them are difficult or terribly time-consuming, but the collective weight of everything involved is pretty harsh.  There are highlights like the extremely reasonable folks at Door to Door Storage, and there are lowlights (I will spare you the details).  Suffice it to say that planning a cross country move is a real pain, and it is an experience that tests your will.

But we love Austin and I think I can build a successful tech business there.  More to come later on the Seattle vs. the Valley vs. NYC vs. elsewhere debate in our business.

Last week, my CTO flew in for a series of meetings with customers in the Seattle area.  Nothing clarifies your thought process like a scheduled 12 hours of presentations across four different areas.  Well maybe VC meetings but only if you truly *need* their money.  Now I've done this many, many times before -- as a startup entrepreneur, a Microsoft employee, a business development executive, a friend trying to help another entrepreneur, etc.  But I am more a generalist than a sales professional, which means that each of these meetings is a learning experience for me!  Some quick observations:

• Every engagement is different -- you have to read the room in the first 10-15 minutes and adapt.  Failure to do so can be fatal.
• Experience helps -- during every meeting, I encounter a situation that I've encountered before.  I may not have all the answers, but dealing with similar situations in the past really helps today.
• No matter how much experience you have, you will make mistakes -- in the heat of the battle, it is easy to lose focus on all the little things you need to achieve along the way.  Be sure you know what you want and don't get derailed based on anything that happens along the way.
• Find common ground early & often -- you set the wrong tone if you fail to get agreement early & often.  Set the tone and set it in your favor.
• Demo as little as possible -- I'm a big believer in Murphy's law for demos.  In one of our meetings, something that hasn't been broken in 4 months crapped out.  If you agree to do a demo, just be prepared for the worst.
• Don't force a square peg into a round hole -- you may have the exact tonic for a customer's problem, yet you still may not win the sale.  I have a different take than most -- I think you stand a much better chance moving on to the next customer than you do by forcing the deal.  Not everyone is going to want what you have.  It's OK.  Dwelling on it is unnecessary if you've built something that is really as important as you think.  Those of you who like to cook know that some things need time and low heat :-)
• Run with it -- if you have a customer who aligns with who you are and what you have, go with it.  Make them successful.  These are the best customers to have, and they are the ones who will work with you the most.

Have a great week everyone!

A Primer on Hyperlocal

Hyperlocal is perhaps a leading contender for “buzzword of the year” in Web 2.0.  New companies and startups have latched on to the phenomenon, and you’re seeing more and more coverage as time progresses.

 

First, what is “hyperlocal?”  I’d contend that it is any application of Web 2.0 concepts to local, long-tail businesses.  Many early definitions of the term have been focused on changes to media, but I think hyperlocal trends are a lot more profound than that.  My old friend John Cooper, a wireless industry consultant in Austin, has been professing for many years now that communities will rally around intelligent and cost-effective resource sharing especially for local wireless Internet networks.  He has a point… as wireless technology improves, why should every house in every neighborhood in America have a separately managed router and wireless access point?  I think there are profound shifts coming in marketing and advertising.  Media businesses such as television and radio continue to suffer from margin contraction and declining audiences.  Social networking gives us an opportunity to learn more about our neighbors, maybe more than we want to know!  All told, our local experiences are likely to change significantly over the next 8-10 years, and it will change how we interact with the "stranger-neighbors" we pass on the street every day.

 

VCs I speak with either really love or really hate hyperlocal business opportunities.  The cynics say that hyperlocal businesses are incredibly risky, and customer acquisition costs are killer.  Good points although I think that just means that the critical problems are a little different – a hyperlocal startup must 1) lower customer acquisition costs, 2) create a “self-serve” model to help the long tail help themselves, and 3) get help wherever possible with infrastructure needs to focus on their main product/technology.

 

Enterprises, especially retail chains, can and probably should at least investigate hyperlocal business opportunities as part of a broader Web 2.0 plan.  But those enterprises need to be extremely realistic about how and where they fit in.  For example, a toy store with two locations isn’t nearly as good of a candidate for hyperlocal as say a landscaper or a day care company with 10 locations in a given metropolitan area.  Why is that?  Well, for one early technologies are a better fit when a customer need is solved, not a customer “want”.  (OK, the next Teddy Ruxpin, Tickle Me Elmo, or Furbie may cause a crisis in your household, which then creates a customer need, but it's rare.)  But need isn’t quite enough.  Geographic density or even coverage is critical, especially when other hyperlocal alternatives exist.

 

Whether or not you are cynical about hyperlocal business opportunity, I do know a few things:

1. Someone in the startup world is going to figure out the secret to taking advantage of hyperlocal business opportunity,

That person is going to be very, very wealthy,

Enterprises that experiment with hyperlocal projects in their Enterprise Web 2.0 work will catch on and do amazing things, and they'll be on the cover of Business Week,

Hyperlocal is quite possibly the final frontier of the digital advertising/marketing revolution we've experienced since Google Adwords.

This is a trend that I’ll talk about more as time progresses.  We at Notice Technologies are working on some hyperlocal infrastructure and technologies... we'll tell you more as time progresses.

Local advertising -- costs, implications, and Web 2.0

In a meeting with one of our first customers the other day, we discussed their local advertising costs.  The customer was telling us that he didn't believe that the choices were particularly effective yet they were way overpriced.  A few data points:

• Full page newspaper ad in his market... $1,500/day
• Small newspaper ad... $1,500/week
• Television ad... roughly $5-$10 per 1,000 viewers + production costs
• Billboard... $2,000-$3,000 per location + production costs
• Yellow Pages... depends on location but full page ads can run up to 5 figures.

In this environment, it makes a lot more sense that local businesses would be skeptical of advertising.  They're overpaying across the board... and what's worse is that they have no idea what works and what doesn't.

Over the first 4-5 months of the life of Notice Technologies, we've uncovered a real need here.  Local businesses are starving for more effective advertising alternatives.  Every local company we speak with needs to market their products and services better.  And if the prices quoted above are any indication, there is significant economic value in helping them market themselves more efficiently.

The good thing about Web 2.0 is that it has brought about efficiencies in advertising, data sharing, and real-time communications that have not been possible to date.  If conversations with our customers are any indication, then local advertising may be a new frontier for Web 2.0 and internet marketing innovation.