Who Starts a Company During Economic Collapse?

Yesterday, I attended Demo Day for AlphaLab, a local tech startup incubator here in Pittsburgh (and a sponsor of PodCamp Pittsburgh 3). The six companies they're currently working with will be nudged out the door at the end of the year, so yesterday was their chance to spread their wings (and make their pitch) in front of a roomful of potential investors, advisers and other interested parties.

But will any of their ideas fly?

Web-Wide Ripples of Discontent

Earlier this week, Steve Woolf of Epic FU (formerly JetSetShow) announced that they'll be ending their relationship with (formerly-considered-to-be) rising web video production company Revision 3. Due to international economic calamity, among other factors, Revision 3 is dropping numerous shows from their lineup, including Epic FU and Gary Vee's Wine Library TV -- which is odd, considering they're some of the web's most successful niche shows.

Perhaps their production costs outweigh their current revenue potential, but the long-term implications of this decision seem to be: Revision 3 can't afford to keep incubating emerging web video hits long enough for them to take flight on their own.

So if a company that's supposedly trafficking in The Next Big Thing (aka the web video revolution) can't keep their flagship shows afloat, what does that mean for companies like AlphaLab, who are incubating similarly-positioned, service-driven companies whose business plans hinge upon Web 2.0 metrics?

Building Houses During a Forest Fire

Every new company is fighting an uphill battle during this economic downturn, not to launch or to grow, but merely to validate their own right to exist. New ideas and properties that might have had a few years to experiment and develop an audience won't have that same luxury from investors who will increasingly be looking exclusively for "sure things" -- and if there's one field that's anything but "sure," it's the entire social media spectrum.

Admittedly, the AlphaLab-supported companies I consider to have the most potential -- Chogger and GameHuddle -- seem sexy to me because they're social media-based, and that's the arena I work in. But just because I can see their potential, that doesn't mean investors -- or customers -- will. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these companies may be the exact right idea at the exact wrong time: concepts that COULD be sticky and even useful, if only their business plans didn't rely on large numbers of niche users having the time to find them, use them and spread the word.

In this economy, time is even less abundant than capital.

So: how can emerging companies -- social media-based or otherwise -- insulate themselves from an uncertain economy? Or, do new companies need to stretch beyond existing patterns of business thought and seize upon new opportunities before those uncharted waters seem too hazardous for anyone to fund?

Screw the Latte; Where Are the Hand Towels?

I was at a Starbucks last night, overhearing the barista (who may have been an assistant manager) loudly discussing her method for getting into the flow of the workday. She was lamenting the ways customers can then derail her flow when they mention pesky needs like, "Oh, the washroom is out of hand towels." As she explained, when she's in "the zone," the customers need to wipe their hands on their pants and stay out of her way.

But here's what's funny about that: I don't care how well-managed or slickly-operated a cafe appears to be on the front end; if the back end is broken, it ruins my experience. And if you, as a cafe manager, can't be bothered to ensure that your customers have (for example) a pleasant washroom experience, then no amount of effort expended on the front-end facade will make up for the back-end derailment of THEIR "zone."

Generalized moral of the story: are YOU focusing on the right priorities to ensure YOUR audience is having a great experience, or are you mismanaging your time and effort, leaving your customers with shoddy memories and chapped hands?

My Digital Child Is in Kindergarten

This week, we launched the 6th season of Something to Be Desired, the web's longest-running sitcom.

Since the first episode arrived in September of 2003, that makes the show 5 years old -- which means, if I'd invested all my time, money and effort in procreating (rather than this more ambivalent "creating" thing), my kid would be entering kindergarten... and, like dad, he/she would probably be skinny, sarcastic and prone to conspiracy theories...


We're also converting our site to a WordPress theme as we relaunch, so we have some bugs to work out, plug-ins to add, etc. Which brings up some good questions, like:

What do YOU like to see as part of a web video site?

What would help YOU better understand and enjoy the website / series / experience?

What information would YOU like to see more of?

And, do YOU have any suggestions on great ways to help promote and spread the word about STBD?

If you're a longtime viewer, thanks for sticking with us! And if you're new to STBD, relax: this season is going to be our best yet! (PLUS, it comes with a dog!)

Post-PodCamp Pittsburgh 3: 5 Ways to Gauge an Event's Success

First off, thanks to everyone who attended PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 this past weekend. Although we haven't tallied the final check-in numbers yet, all practical indications (like perpetually running out of food) point to this being our largest and most well-attended event yet. (Either that, or everyone got a free tapeworm in their swag bags...)

Also, as one of the event's primary organizers, I can never thank my fellow organizers enough. I know how much work went into planning PCPGH3, and even though things never run 100% smoothly at any event -- much less one involving technology -- I'm exceedingly proud of how well things came together this year. Everyone did a great job and I'll be very happy to work with all of you again next year... after we all hibernate for a few months.

However...

After throwing a huge event, I think there's a temptation on the part of the organizers to pat themselves on the back and say, "well done." But when it comes to social media events like PCPGH3, we won't *really* know how well we did at organizing the event until several months from now, because the long-term impact of education-based events like this can't be measured immediately. We have to see what people DO with the information they learned here.

So, in the meantime, here are 5 Ways I'll Be Gauging the Success of PCPGH3:

1. Attendance -- Although we had our largest number ever of pre-registered attendees, we'll need to tally the final head count before we know if our active numbers are actually increasing or remaining stable. The good news is, I didn't recognize about half of this year's attendees, which means we're definitely bringing NEW people in. (Also, weather plays a factor in attendance, so don't judge a summer event straight-up against a winter event, etc.)

2. Press Coverage -- If your event is a success in the eyes of the attendees, they'll talk about it afterward -- in our case, via blogs, Flickr, Twitter, etc. The more we see, the more we'll know that the PCPGH3 experience was share-worthy, and that's always a good thing.

3. Who Follows Up? -- We're holding a smaller, informal gathering on Wednesday, November 19 @ 7 PM at the Firehouse Lounge in the Strip District. Our goal is to support the conversation (and the community) that coalesces every year at PCPGH, but then seems to recede as the months intervene between events. Knowing that people want to keep the discussion (and the activity) alive beyond an annual clip is a good indicator that the ideas they encountered at PCPGH3 have traction.

4. Who Takes Action? -- Since PCPGH is an event designed to help people learn more about creating web media, it follows that we like to see our attendees creating newer, better things all the time. The long-standing content creators here in town won't be fading out anytime soon, but for the dozens of attendees who don't yet blog or podcast, who among them will start experimenting and reaching out for help when they need it?

(One great way to stay involved is to join the newly-created OMGPittsburgh blog, launched for us by Bostonian weekend-expat Chris Brogan live at PCPGH3.)

5. Who (or What) Will Become Next Year's Success Story? -- A year ago, none of our attendees had been a finalist for major web awards like the Bloggies or the Yahoo Video Awards, but this year, that (twice) changed. So did the idea that you can't invent a new word and have the public take notice (bacn, anyone?).

So will someone else take the lessons they learned (and the relationships they built) at PodCamp Pittsburgh 3 and use them to build the next killer app, the next red-hot web series or blog, or even expand their business? If they do, then the concept of PodCamp Pittsburgh as a reliable incubator of game-changing ideas will live on.

How do YOU think we did at PodCamp Pittsburgh 3?

Photo by Locobone, who would have made this available under Creative Commons License if he'd thought about it... ;)

Perseverance (Or, Succeeding Because You're Too Stubborn to Quit)

NOTE: This blog post is my entry in the 2008 Heart Kids Tweetathon, organized by Dr. Mani to help raise money for children with heart defects. His theme for this year's event is "Passion, Purpose, Persistence."

When I quit my day job in 2005 to live the luxurious life of a freelancer, I never imagined how difficult a life I was volunteering for. Instead of the sanity (and health insurance) that comes with a steady paycheck, I was opting to live by my wits. I was stubborn (or cavalier) enough to think that I could make at least as good a living on my own as I could from all the clients my day job had worked so hard to bring in and keep happy.

In short, I was wrong.

Not about the money part, but about how easy I thought it would be. I took the security of my salary, and the ease with which work fell into my lap, for granted. I spent the better part of two years struggling to make ends meet, paying credit cards with credit cards, and dressing five layers deep in the winter to save on heating bills.

I was a mess.

But I was also stubborn. I refused to blame anyone other than myself for my inability to live a comfortable life. (Well, at least in the end, after I tried a bunch of excuses and realized none of them were legit.) More than anything, I knew that what was separating me from success was my own attitude and motivation, not some karmic conspiracy to keep me down.

So I kept at it. I made new connections, pursued new clients, took chances. And, most importantly, I had support - from friends, from family, and from people who refused to let me sink too far to recover. (Perhaps not coincidentally, all of the business I currently enjoy comes from clients who were either acquaintances of mine or who recommended me to their friends.)

I'm not quite living the life of luxury yet, but I've also held fast to my promise to myself, that I would find a way to avoid having to work a 9-to-5 job again. I hated not having control over my own destiny -- and even though it took me several lean years to figure out exactly what kind of responsibility comes with that control, it's a lesson I wouldn't trade. In fact, I highly suggest it. There's no better way to learn what's inside you than to put yourself through incredible difficulties simply because you refuse to change your course without achieving success.

Just make sure you bundle up in the winter.

Photo by Evan Prodromou