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The Green Goose enhances the urban cycling experience by automatically tracking distance, locations, and savings earned along your daily bike commute.




We interviewed Brian Krejcarek from Green Goose and picked his brain about Green Goose.


OEN:         Describe the moment that the 'light bulb' (idea) first appeared in your mind?

 

GG: There really wasn't a light bulb.  We've been iterating over and over.
We started out making smart thermostats.  Then we tried focusing on energy savings.  In the end, it came down to a product offering that was lots of fun and really low-cost.

 

OEN: With whom was the idea first shared? What was their reaction?

 

GG: Conversations with an awesome local tech community of supporters.  We thought the idea was a bit nutty, but we learned we were actually solving some real day-to-day problems.

 

OEN: At what stage of your business planning did you experience the most 'go/no go' feelings?

 

GG: It's been a daily struggle, but we kept pushing the ball forward while seeking critical feedback.

 

OEN: What event, decision, conversation, etc. transitioned you to 'all systems go'?

 

GG: All of the above, of course.

 

OEN: How will you ultimately define success for your business?

 

GG: Lots of revenue.  A product people get excited about.  Creating jobs, and having fun.

 

OEN: In terms of relationship to OEN...

 

GG: I had actually been a member of the old OEF about 10 years ago right out of college.  It was a great early experience while trying to build a little dot-com company back then.  It also helped spur some motivation to earn an MBA and build some more working experience before rejoining OEN.
       

0 Comments Permalink Tags: oen, angel_oregon, green_goose

This week OEN announced the finalist for Angel Oregon and I am proud to be profiling a few of them. First one is ZUBEO of Portland.


A short summary about ZUBEO for those not familiar:

 

 

http://images1.zubeo.com/images/logo.pngThe Company

Zubeo is a privately held company committed to the idea that technology should enable connection between people and what matters most to them – their purpose, their communities, and the larger world beyond. We are located in Portland, Oregon.

The Mission

It is our mission to help people grow in the areas important to them. We do this by connecting each person to his or her ideal audio content in a way that creates an optimal listening experience and fosters an enduring relationship with the provider of that content. We do this in areas the listener is passionate about and in a manner that helps organizations further their purpose.

It is our way of improving the world.

 

 

 

 

The Questions for Kevin Ulam of ZUBEO

 

Q: Describe the moment that the 'light bulb' (idea) first appeared in your mind?

 

A: October 16th, 2006 at 2am.    It was a surprise to me as I was primarily starting to look for a job.

 

Q: With whom was the idea first shared? What was their reaction?

 

A: My wife. Concern from a financial standpoint.

 

Q: At what stage of your business planning did you experience the most 'go/no go' feelings?

 

 

A: No Go = Only a few times when setbacks occurred, though cash flow will dictate the future.  Many, many ‘Go’ moments, especially when we’ve achieved milestones and received positive feedback from listeners and content providers.

 

Q: What event, decision, conversation, etc. transitioned you to 'all systems go'?

 

A: My initial focus group market research that uncovered the universal appeal of a customization engine that would let each person hear a unique mix of shows for them

 

Q: What keeps you awake at night in regards to your business - funding, competition, team?

 

A: Cash flow vs learning how to educate listeners on the new way of show listening Zubeo offers.

 

 

 

Q: How will you ultimately define success for your business?

 

A: Cash flow positive, providing at least a 5X return for investors, and positive feedback from show listeners and content providers.

 

Kevin Ulam is Currently an OEN member, has presented at Pub Talk in 2007, attended Angel Oregon in 2007 and presented Zubeo in a 60 second pitch.

 

Kevin has also participated in one OEN training series andis part of the OTBC

 

 

 

Some facts about OEN’s Angel Oregon since inception:

 

• Since 2003 more than 33 companies competed in OEN’s Angel Oregon
• Two past OEN’s Angel Oregon presenting companies have had successful exits, Castor & Pollux/Pet Appeal was the first
• OEN’s Angel Oregon alumni companies produced more than $85 million in revenues up from 2008 revenues of $66 million
• The OEN’s Angel Oregon alumni have raised $67.5 million in equity to date
• OEN’s Angel Oregon companies employ 546 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington up from 478 employees last year

 

OEN’s Angel Oregon is the Northwest’s premier deal flow and networking event for Oregon and SW Washington based angel investorsand early‐stage entrepreneurs. Registration to OEN’s Angel Oregon is available online atoenangeloregon.org or through the OEN offices at 503‐222‐2270.

0 Comments Permalink Tags: oen, angel_oregon, angel_investment, zubeo, kevin_ulam
How to Create the Financial Projections for Your Business Plan            
0 Comments Permalink Tags: community, business, entrepreneur, investment, mentoring, network, mentor, education, fundraising, coaching, referral, start-up, financial, projections
29 Insights Into the VC Mind - Oregon Entrepreneurs Network Resource center    
0 Comments Permalink Tags: community, oen, angel, investing, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, investment, venture, oregon, northwest, pubtalk, mentoring, network, mentor, education, fundraising, capital, technology, coaching, investor, referral, scalable, start-up

Presentation from Aug. 19th 2009. Hope everyone had a good time and also learned something too.


0 Comments Permalink Tags: community, oen, marketing, social, media, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, investment, oregon, mentoring, network, mentor, education, fundraising, strategy, advertising, technology, seo, roi, coaching, email, investor, radio, tv, smo, keyword, referral, scalable, start-up

Relevance is something I have been talking about for about a month on various panels, client training and internally at Bonfire. What the idea truly comes down to is making sure you are recognizing people exist. Now I know this seems like a no brain-er and, well, it should be. But it is something that's often forgotten in the hustle of running a business.  If you have not already noticed, there is a conversation happening online weather you like it or not.

 

Internet users have unprecedented access to speaking their own mind in the form of reviews, blogs, comments, tweets, forums, Facebook and about a Trillion (with a capital T) places to be prolific. You do not even have to be a business owner to be reviewed for something you have done. LinkedIn give users opportunities to recommend prior work or Trusty's for sole proprietor/contract work.  mcdonalds

 

Anyone that takes the time to write about your business or you want to be recognized. This is increasingly important with the amount of clutter on the web today. Good, bad or indifferent, by responding to a mention, review, link, etc. will reap dividends in customer loyalty and company culture.

 

The lesson here is listening and responding. Have you Googled your business? Have you searched Twitter for mentions? Do you know who the influencers are online and what are they saying about you? Do you understand how to search keywords on Technorati?  Your clients are talking, but do you hear them?  What you don't know might really hurt you.

0 Comments Permalink Tags: customer, social, media, business, search, twitter, facebook, linkedin, google, service, technorati, trusty's, bonfire

When to Re-Invite

Posted by Ryan Lewis Jun 8, 2009

confused

 

So you made some profiles and invited your friends to "fan" your company on Facebook or "follow" your company on Twitter. Now what? Did half your friends do what you told them? Have you reached a plateau for members? What do you do now?  This is a question I come across A LOT! And although there are many ways to spam your way to more members, here is what anyone getting involved in social media marketing needs to know: Be interesting. What I mean by that is if you want people to come to your business and be involved, you have to be involved with them. You also need to keep going. This is not your normal marketing campaign. It requires you to be relevant and interesting more than once. You don't have to talk about really mind bending ideas. You're not writing a book. You just need to be there and be relevant. Here are a few examples of what your company should write about:

 

  • Hire someone new? Make them feel welcome!

 

  • Carrying a new product? make an informal introduction (without sounding salesy)

 

  • Serving up a special dish? put in on special!

 

  • Featuring a new beer? tap your fans for feedback!

 

  • Having a sale? make a coupon and spread it around!

 

  • Not sure what to do over the weekend? ask your fans!

 

  • Like/Hate the weather? make a comment!

 

As you can see, It can be a casual as the weather or as immediate as a food special. The important thing is to keep trying to connect. This is about energizing and connecting with your customers, not talking at them about self serving purposes.  I find that using twitter 15 minutes per day, updating fans twice a week and sending emails once a week is about the right amount of contact to not be "spammy", but retain that top of mind awareness. If you are producing good content, you won't need to re-invite. But if you do, make sure you have a reason to re-invite them and don't say because you have the coolest company on the planet. Your company is it's coolest only in your eyes.  Practice this regularly and you will notice people gravitating to you and growing your marketing database. If you ever need inspiration, fan Threadless on Facebook. They are outstanding at keeping users engaged.

 

Cheers!

0 Comments Permalink Tags: marketing, social_media, twitter, facebook, small_business, best_practices

It is my humble opinion that no other time in the last 60 years have small and medium sized businesses had more opportunity to gain market share through marketing. Today there is a wealth of free or very low cost ways to reach customers effectively on the web and through social media outlets. Traditional media has seen rapid declineand consumers are becoming more savvy to tuning out television advertising. The engagement, conversation and cost of social media is designed for small and medium sized businesses.

 

The only problem I see is time. Small and medium sized businesses do not have the time to give social media the attention it deserves. So I decided to list the 8 least used and most effective free online advertising for businesses to hopefully make the online beginnings easier.

 

  1. Google Local Business Center: Everyone uses search engines to find what they are looking for. Why would you ever notput your best foot forward and control the conversation? Google local Business Center allows business owners to add or claim their listing through either an automated phone system, or by mail. After you are confirmed as the owner of the business, you can get visitation figures, notifications of comments, add coupons to your company listing, upload photos, upload videos, write a summary of your business and fix hours/company address. Search for your business show in Google and in Google Maps.http://www.yelp.com/business
  2. Yelp: Yelp is a mixture of Citysearch and Facebook. Users go on Yelp to search for local businesses, find friends with similar interests and post reviews. Businesses can claim or add themselves to the listings. By being the owner of the listing, companies can get analytics of visitors, get email alerts when users review, adjust company information, upload photos, add announcements that show on the listing and respond to reviews. Yelp has over 20 million visitors per month, so ignoring it is not really an option.
  3. Merchant Circle: Merchant Circle does not get a lot of traffic, but that is not really what they should be used for. Merchant Circle has partnerships with CitySearch and Dex (both cost money to get listed), but if you are listed on Merchant Circle, more than likely your business will be picked up by both CitySearch and Dex for free. Merchant Circle allows business to have total control of their listing. They do have dismal customer service, but honestly who cares if it’s free. Merchant Circle has all the same features as Yelp and Google, so customization and reporting is top notch. One last thing, they got something my good friend calls “Google Juice.” Merchant Circle will show up favorably in a Google Search.http://www.insiderpages.com/
  4. Insiderpages: Insiderpages is a social search engine that works very well for businesses. Social search engines are user generated listings. I’m going to go into too much depth, but let’s just say they are exactly in the middle of Yelp and Merchant Circle in terms of traffic and features.http://www.twitter.com/
  5. Twitter: Talk about your ultimate company microphone. Twitter is the top “microblogging” service that is exploding with growth. Build a company profile, be helpful and nice, gather followers and turn your company in to a broadcasting tower. See some of my other posts for more information: How to Use Twitter, Essential Business Tools For Twitterhttp://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages
  6. Facebook Pages: Online marketing is about engagement not advertising, so make a free page on Facebook about your business before someone else does. Facebook is quickly becoming the worlds biggest tree fort. It is not only civilized (unlike MySpace) it is also extremely easy to use. Facebook provides very useful tools for businesses including: in depth analytics of views, viral “fan” gathering, an open platfrom for developers, uploaders for photos, videos, addresses and summaries. I could write a whole blog on Facebook Pages, but instead I’m going to say just start a page for your business, be patient with fan growth and have fun.
  7. Craigslist: Now I know what you are thinking, “I know about selling my wares on Craigslist.” This is not about selling things, this is about events. No business can deny the sheer volume of visitors to Craigslist and so many people actually use the site to find things to do as well as things to buy. This requires a lot of updating, but it’s free and effective for any business wanting to make events aware to the public.
  8. Your Company Blog: Blogs are so crucial I should have put them as #1, but this list is not sorted by importance.  But let me put it this way, if your company has a blog and you are not using it you need to start now. If you don’t have a blog, it’s time to hire some help and be energized to learn. If online marketing was a house, blogs would be the foundation. Your company blog is the starting point for any online marketing. Blogs allow you to incorporate RSS feeds that automatically update many of your other profiles above saving time and universally branding your company.

  9.  

Although I could probably go on for several pages of many other tools available for businesses, I am going to leave it at 8. If you have any other suggestions, please comment below. I hope you can incorporate these tools appropriately and with success.

 

 

 

Hyperlinks in this post can be found at Bonfire Marketing LLC

1 Comments Permalink Tags: marketing, small_business, google, craigslist

moron-indexWhat seems like somewhat of a harsh title is nothing more than a mantra every business owner, marketing professional and web designer needs to practice. What it means is very simple. Ideas are the easy (but complicated) part, making them simple for other people to learn and enjoy is the hard part. This applies most specifically to web design/engineering, but can be implemented just as effectively for any business owner or marketing professional.

 

First, let's define a maven. A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven "comes from the Yiddish, and it means one who accumulates knowledge. In the business world, these are the people that know a lot about everything. Malcolm Gladwell used it in his book The Tipping Point (Little Brown, 2000) to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. We'll move past defining a moron. If you need a definition, don't worry about the rest of this post.

 

 

Some of the most popular websites and businesses these days are very complex in their idea, but are simple to operate. Lets look at the abstract micro-blogging service Twitter as an example. Twitter does one thing extremely well (for those that have been on Twitter for longer than 10 months and remember the constant outages and crashes, please just agree that lately they have been very reliable) and make it painfully simple to operate. As a business, they let outside developers (mavens) make it as complicated as they wish by opening their API to anyone to build on. Another way to think about this is for a city to build a park with well manicured lawn, basic athletic equipment and unlimited access 24/7 to highly caffeinated athletes from around the world. In Twitter's case the athletes are talented developers, the lawn is their powerful servers and the equipment is their API.  A fourth thing that makes Twitter so valuable is what attracts businesses. Twitter indexes everything written over their service and makes it searchable by keywords. Going back to the park example, it would be like having searchable video equipment on all the time for companies/schools/teams to scout athletic talent with ease and ability to contact them directly. It's pretty powerful stuff if you think about it.

 

Another example of where the title is played out with a product is the Apple iPod. There are several mp3 players on the market. Many of them are better, last longer and are cheaper than the iPod. But they will never succeed because the iPod is so simple to use. The iPod unit is nothing more than a scroll wheel and software that is easy to use.  apple_ipod_classic_1That's it! Where the "maven" portion of the equation come in is the iTunes store. The sheer mass of selection trumps every music store out there. With over 10,000,000 songs on record to choose from, mavens can be satisfied with nearly any title.

 

 

amazon_logo1As far as emerchants, there are few better to apply the title concept as Amazon.com. Amazon not only makes a one click shopping button that allows for instant purchases, they also remember all purchasing, browsing, and wish listing for an easier shopping experience. Mavens are satisfied by their customer service, open platform for partner emerchants and the enormous selection of goods. The largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles. Amazon in contrast has over 10,ooo,ooo SKUs in their database.  Hopefully this posting has been a little helpful analyzing your business, product and marketing. If you have any opinions, we would love to hear them.

3 Comments Permalink Tags: marketing, entrepreneur
Ryan Lewis

Ryan Lewis

 Member since: May 28, 2009

Blogs by Ryan Lewis on internet advertising and random musings about marketing

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