Pete on Tech

Does Google 'get' gaming?

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:50:28 -0500

There has been quite a buzz about Google’s new augmented reality game “Ingress” [Google Play] which incidentally is a spin-off of the Android app “Field Trip” [Google Play] which are both from the Niantic Labs group over at Google.

If you’re not familiar with Field Trip, it’s essentially a location aware discovery app that utilizes your phone’s GPS and notifies you of nearby points of interest that are based on preferences you set within the app and populates those categories from different feeds.

Google doesn’t have a history of releasing successful games nor has anyone thought of the search giant as a game publisher. They however have a successful history with location based applications such as Google Maps and Google Local.

So does Google ‘get’ gaming or is it really that they get gamification?

Based on the available information about Ingress, the fact that it was spawned from Niantic Labs and a recent update to the Field Trip app that allows you to add a feed from the “Niantic Data Repository” under the Outdoor Art category.

(Screen capture from my Galaxy Nexus of the Outdoor Art category in Field Trip featuring the new feed from the Niantic Data Repository.)

I’m of the opinion that Google may have discovered a way to create a data collecting horde of users whom will not only go forth and populate a database with location based information, but will actually compete in doing so.

Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea both from a user standpoint but from a business standpoint as well. Not only will it cause people to get outside and exploring but it will also provide points of interest for Field Trip users that may have otherwise have never appeared on any POI map.

From the business standpoint, Google doesn’t have to try and give people monetary incentives to take photos and provide geographical locations as they once tried back in 2007 to have users take photos inside of businesses and gather additional business info such as operating hours and the ilk.

As of this writing, I have not received an invite to Ingress yet so I can’t comment on the actual game play itself, but as a Geocacher this type of game would be right up my alley. Let’s just hope after all the attention and viral buzz that Ingress can live up to the hype.

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Marketing and Design: Let's Get on the Same Page.

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:42:00 -0400

Imagine if you’re definition of a plane or a tree or even a coffee mug was entirely different than someone else who speaks your native language and the confusion that ensues when you ask for a mug of coffee and instead receive a sneaker full of coffee.

I know I’m being very dramatic in my example but I’m trying to make a point how people who work in related industries should be using the same terms and correcting themselves even if they’ve been “calling it that for years” - that doesn’t make it correct or acceptable.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed and up-tick in the number of professionals who work in the design, marketing, SEO and related fields using a number of terms incorrectly and often times interchangeably.

It’s often forgivable when a client does it since they either worked with an individual or agency in the past who was misinformed, or more likely they did some research on the internet which was either incorrect or they simply didn’t fully understand. Even Wikipedia has an incorrect definition of what a homepage actually is.

What’s most disturbing about this trend is when an “agency” that claims to specialize in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and related analytics start using terms interchangeably or downright incorrectly.

I had the “pleasure” of working with such an agency whom would refer to the homepage as a landing page because they had several ad-word campaigns running that were all pointing to the homepage with the same exact content, which in itself was spider food and not written for human consumption.

I’ll save my rant about what a complete failure and terrible waste of money it was for another post.

To get to my point, I want to define these terms for the edification of all whom have been using them incorrectly or are working with agencies who really shouldn’t be providing services of which they clearly don’t understand. I’m not going to get into a deep definition and explain variants of these pages, but enough to clearly define the difference.

Here’s the biggest offenders I’ve found being used interchangeably -

Landing page
A single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales leads. By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and Conversion rate to determine the success of an advertisement.

Home page
The index or default webpage that loads when you arrive at the root url of a website. The home page (or homepage as it’s sometimes written) will generally contain content explaining the site if it is an informational website or perhaps display products for sale if it’s an eCommerce website. A website that contains more than one page will have navigational elements to lead you to other pages of the website.

Splash page
An introductory, beginning page on a website that generally uses Flash or another type of heavy graphics that usually has little value in SEO and can easily have no value to search engines but aesthetic value to human visitors. Often times these pages will lack navigation and will direct you to “Click here to enter” the website.

Start page
The default page your browser loads when it’s initially launched or when you hit the Home button on your browser. That fact alone lends itself to the confusion of the difference between a ‘home page’ and ‘start page’, especially since your start page is usually set to open to the homepage of a website.

If you’re designing, developing or marketing anything on or for the web, you should not be referring to the homepage of a website as the start page. Period. I implore you, please. As professionals, let’s better educate ourselves and each other.

About the author
Peter Yagmin is currently working as the Senior Web Developer for a Advertising and Design Agency North of Boston, Massachusetts. Pete has over 12 years experience as an IT professional working in every capacity from developing desktop and web based applications to designing for print and web in additon to related consulting services including Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing Professional.

Google Voice Search Goes Apple

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 19:59:00 -0400

Google made an announcement today that reveals the search engine may be getting back to its roots and focusing more on its core business of search. It should be no surprise since Google’s primary revenue stream is derived from search.

Personally, I’m glad to see that Google is reigning itself in and refocusing its efforts. I’ve become increasingly concerned about the search giant since the Motorola mobility acquisition that they would become more like Microsoft and have a plethora of half-baked products they can barely support rather than focusing on a handful of core products.

The announcement came with a bit of a twist - Google Voice Search is coming to more mobile devices, but it’s not what you might think.

No, Google isn’t retro fitting the Voice Search app for devices not running Jellybean; in fact it’s moving it outside of Android and making a stand alone app for iOS.

Obviously this makes sense from Google’s point of view, putting their search into the hands of as many mobile users as possible, but at what cost? Many loyal Android users are no doubt going to have a range of emotions spanning from confusion to rage. My personal reaction to this was “Are you kidding me?!”

I’m trying to look at this objectively from Google’s point of view, but I think its important they not alienate their core user base as Android has recently taken a commanding lead in the smartphone market at a whopping 68%

How do you feel about Google’s bold move to bring it’s own voice assistant to the rival platform? Sound off in the comments below and tell me how you really feel!

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate your support on Klout; please +K my influence in Android and Technology.

Verizon: Apathetic or just plain pathetic?

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:41:00 -0400

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ you’ve likely seen me squawking about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus not receiving this fabled Android 4.1 update named Jellybean.” I say fabled not because I don’t believe it exists, but rather because waiting for the update to hit my phone seems like some sort of hellish fairy-tale written by the Brothers Grimm.”

The Galaxy Nexus phone and its operating system were developed collaboratively by engineers from both Google and Samsung and was released with the Android operating system, version 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. The device made its debut in the United States on December 15, 2011 as the new flagship device from Google and is one of the few phones recommended by the Android Open Source Project for building Android from source.

As a flagship device, one would fully expect the Galaxy Nexus to be the first to receive the latest updates from Google much like the Motorola Xoom, which it fully does if you have a Google controlled device- and therein lies the rub. While I might own a Galaxy Nexus, it’s up to Verizon or your respective carrier to actually push the Over The Air (OTA) updates to the device.

I recently (within a month before this article date) traded up from my Motorola Droid 2 Global for a Galaxy Nexus, which was at the time priced to sell at $199. I was more than happy to pay the discounted, on-contract price for this awesome piece of hardware; I honestly have no regrets about my purchase decision, although I’m mildly annoyed that the price dropped $100 within a week of my purchase (you can now get the Galaxy Nexus on contract from Verizon for $99). To add insult to injury, I feel completely betrayed thinking I was buying into the pure Google experience only to have Big Red ruin it. I would have bought the device directly from Google if I was using T-Mobile or some other carrier that would support it, but leave it to Verizon to actively not support the phone if you didn’t buy it directly from them. The one thing I did appreciate about buying my device from Verizon is that I was able to do so during the ban caused by Apple patent lawsuit.

Can you hear me now?

I know I’m not the only one who’s upset about the lack of updates or response from Verizon support about the issue, though it seems I may be the most vocal. If I root a device, I want to do it because I want to. Not because I need to circumvent my carrier for an update that’s being pushed to countless other devices including other Android handsets on the Verizon network.

I don’t know how many people and how much noise needs to be made before Verizon Wireless customers see the Jellybean update on their Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it sitting down.

So I implore you to please share this article, write a blog post, call Verizon support and tell them you want your update. One person can make a difference - but that difference is made by rallying support for a cause. Help me help you and give Verizon a reason to genuinely care about their wireless customers.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please give me +K about Android on Klout and don’t forget to follow Free Your Android on Twitter for regular updates on Android News and Reviews.

This article was originally written for and published on Free Your Android. Read the original post at: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/inthenews/verizon-apathetic-or-pathetic

Lost sales by design

Sat, 19 May 2012 20:55:00 -0400

I encountered the epitome of poor product package design today while browsing the electronics department of a big box store today. I overheard a man talking with his wife about a USB thumb drive and that he thought it was ‘for Mac only’ so I intervened to say that these types of devices are (or should be) operating system agnostic and if for any reason it did not read properly in his PC that he could format it by selecting the drive under ‘My Computer’ and selecting ‘format drive’.

I’m not sure if his looking me over was to determine if I worked there or looked like enough of a geek to know what I was talking about and I’m not sure if he actually bought the device, but after I looked at the product packaging, it was clear how he could have made the assumption that it was Mac only.

The package itself (seen below) is white and features a generic looking laptop, though it resembles a Mac book and no where on the package was there and indication or reassurance that this hardware was in fact PC or Mac compatible.

Of course I take this sort of thing for granted given my line of work and how long I’ve been exposed to computers and hardware and obviously so does someone along the process from the designer to the creative director.

There’s a fine line between making the customer feel stupid and giving them enough information for them to make an informed decision; they clearly missed the mark on this one as was witnessed first hand today. From as simple as putting 3 logos on the package (Apple, Windows and Android) or spelling it out, they could easily increase their revenue with a little reassurance.

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Is 2012 Year of the Android?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:47:34 -0500

Android has long been treated as the red headed step-child of the mobile device world.

Those of us who have been using Android from the very beginning are used to having to wait for some new app that was just released for iOS, sometimes waiting months only to receive a half-baked, sometimes half-assed attempt at an Android app and be completely frustrated and disappointed over developers treating Android as an after thought.

This may be in part that iOS has enjoyed a massive lead in market share up until recently and developers looking to monetize are obviously going to focus efforts on the largest user base.

According to Gartner, Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market is more than double what it was a year ago and it seems developers are finally starting to take note.

New data from independent research firm Ovum indicates that Android looks set to replace Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers within the next 12 months.

Does this mean as Android users we’ll finally get first crack at new apps before iOS? At the very least we can hope that major brands will make an effort to release an app on both platforms simultaneously and that independent developers who maybe can’t afford to take such a risk will see the benefit and will follow suit.

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate your support on Klout; please +K my influence in Android and Technology.

One ROM to Rule Them All

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:47:50 -0500

Leading up to the release of Android 4 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) there was a lot of talk about fragmentation and how ICS would unify the platform.

Personally I’ve never developed a strictly native Android app so I don’t know what kind of hurdles a developer might face, but there has not been many apps that I could only run on my Droid 2 Global (which incidentally is still on Android 2.2 or Froyo if you will) but not on my Honeycomb tablet.

The reverse isn’t true of course since I have an Acer Iconia A500 with the Tegra 2 processor, so obviously the difference is with the available hardware; not the operating system.

My time with ICS has been limited to playing with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus here and there that belongs to a fellow Android enthusiast I work with.

I’ll admit, I have phone envy. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware and Ice Cream Sandwich is smooth as butter. That being said, I’m not sure I want a tablet running ICS. Not in it’s current form at least.

Maybe I’m alone on this but, I like having a different version of Android on my phone than on my tablet for a very simple reason; my phone and my tablet have completely different purposes.

The fact that the iPhone and iPad have the same exact OS is absolutely revolting to me. With the release of Google’s new developers style guide, unifying the OS and defining what apps should look like, it feels more and more like we’re moving towards iOS.

The custom ROM community may be our only saving grace.

* * *

This article was originally written for and published on Free Your Android. Read the original post at: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/inthenews/one-rom-to-rule-them-all

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate your support on Klout; please +K my influence in Android and Technology.

Hybrid HTML5 Apps Are Less Costly to Develop Than Native

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:28:30 -0500

Hybrid HTML5 Apps Are Less Costly to Develop Than Native:

It seems like a fairly straightforward question: As a developer, business and enterprise, do I develop Web apps, native apps or some combination thereof? Answers to that question are anything but simple. Who is your target audience? What is the purpose of the app? There are a series of diverse questions that must be answered before jumping right into development.

Research firm Forrester, as is its wont to do, attempts to answer the question. Forrester’s answer? It’s complicated. The firm’s answer to Web v. Native has evolved since the middle of 2011 though. Last year, Forrester said to do both native and Web-based apps. At the beginning of 2012, the firm has changed its tune.

How to Earn Trust and Reputation in Social Media [VIDEO]

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:25:00 -0500

How to Earn Trust and Reputation in Social Media [VIDEO]:

The tools may change but the goals are still the same. Chris Brogan, the best selling author of the books Trust Agents and Google+ for Business, reminds us that social business always has been and always will be about people. Digital technology is just a tool.

Android or iOS

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:42:00 -0500

Why can’t we agree to disagree?

While I’m sure there are detractors in both corners, I’ve always found that Apple fan boys are far more eager to tout how the i [ Fill in the blank ] already has/had/does something that Android doesn’t.

It reminds me of something I once heard regarding tattooed people vs non-tattooed people, in this case Android owners being the tattooed people. “Tattooed people don’t care if you don’t have a tattoo, but not vice versa.”

A majority of the people who like Android don’t care if your phone or tablet already had some feature or in your opinion does something better; we’re just happy that the system we’ve chosen to use does have a feature now or that an app is finally available that’s been on the iFruit for months.

If you use Apple products, then you’ve chosen to share the Jobs vision of having a certain experience; Android users are truly the ones who “think different”.

I can certainly appreciate the design aesthetic of Apple products and no one can deny that Steve Jobs was a brilliant man; I just don’t care for the Apple OS.

Gina Trapani recently tweeted “I use iOS and Android every single day, and there’s much to love and hate about both of them. #whateverworksforyou”

I completely agree. Use what you love and stop hating on the other platform. It’s great that we have our passions, but our love of technology should be a unifying thread, not a source for venomous remarks.

This article was originally written for and published on Free Your Android.

Read the original post at: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/inthenews/android-or-ios

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate your support on Klout; please +K my influence in Android and Technology.

Start-up Fever

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:50:00 -0500

There’s not a lot of topics that I get excited about enough to talk about incessantly though if you follow me on Twitter you know that Android is one of those topics I’m most passionate about.

Lately I’ve found myself going on about a few companies to just about anyone who will listen, both online and off.

I’ve talked up baristas about Klout. I’ve gone on about Square to just about everyone I know. Recently I’ve discovered Wahooly which is a perfect match for the enthusiasm in which I spout on about products and services that I truly love.

If you’re in any social media circles at all, you’ve probably heard about Klout.

Love it or hate it, Klout wants to be the Nielsen ratings of social media influence. Klout measures a persons social media influence in particular topics based on how much content you create, how much action your content drives and some other secret mix of herbs and spices that at the very least have people talking.

Those users who actually opt into the service tend to be a very passionate group of people who in some cases get in an uproar when they see a drop in their Klout score akin to webmasters when Google does an algorithm change that makes their site drop out of the top 10 results.

While I’m not quite that extreme, I do like to keep up to date with my score and what topics Klout thinks I’m influential about and what others think I’m influential about, so I combined my passion for Android and Klout and created this app to check my score.

What really made me sit up and pay attention to my score was a recent perk to get in with a company called Wahooly.

Wahooly and Klout partnered to give a select group of influencers (those with a Klout Score of 35 or higher) the opportunity to get a piece of the “next big thing”.

Wahooly lets you turn your social influence into equity by becoming a brand ambassador and I love this idea. I love this idea so much that I almost want to do the opposite and keep it a well guarded secret.

I’ve read a few posts from different detractors talking about how they question if promoting start-ups in this manner is a conflict of interest but I think they fail to see the big picture (and also assume that people are mindless automatons).

Marketers get paid every day to push products and services in your face that they could care less about - to me, that should be a conflict of interest. They are telling you a story based on market research. Most start-ups don’t have years of market data to rely on and take a huge risk trying to make it.

If you’re truly excited about a product or service I think that enthusiasm will come out naturally and your followers will see that in your writing. Social media users as a whole tend to be a pretty savvy bunch who catch on quickly and if you’re not being genuine, you’re users will see through that.

So if you have a Klout score over 35 and want to turn your social influence into some equity, you should check out the Wahooly perk and join me in getting a piece of the next big thing! Sign up at Wahooly.com

Android Malware: Fact or FUD?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:18:00 -0500

If Mark Twain was alive today, he would probably say “The reports of Android malware have been greatly exaggerated.”

There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about a surge of malware targeting Android, but you have consider the source.

I always take security warnings from firms such as McAffee with a grain of salt; after all, they have everything to gain from creating FUD*. The enormous surge in popularity of the Android operating system has provided a great opportunity for security firms become profiteers; especially when you have an almost equally large base of detractors in the Apple camp who will gladly spread any message disparaging the rival OS.

Any community that experiences exponential growth is going to face security threats as it’s going to naturally attract a criminal element. Facebook, Twitter and even Apple have had exploits and security scares (MacDefender anyone?).

Does this mean you should trade in your new Droid RAZR for an iPhone? No, but if the IT department sighs every time you call help desk with an issue, you may want to stick with the stock ROM and not root your device.

A little common sense goes a long way when it comes to mobile security. All the same fundamentals you apply to your PC also apply to your mobile devices.

- Don’t open links or attachments from people you don’t know.

- Don’t install pirated or cracked software or apps.

- Don’t use the same password for everything.

If you’re still not convinced then $59 may be a small price to pay for peace of mind, but don’t let the scaremongers keep you from experiencing the freedom that comes with owning an Android device.

*Fear, uncertainty and doubt, frequently abbreviated as FUD, is a tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda. FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative and dubious/false information designed to undermine the credibility of their beliefs.

This article was originally written for and published on Free Your Android.

Read the original post at: http://www.freeyourandroid.com/inthenews/security-in-android

If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate your support on Klout; please +K my influence in Android and Technology.

Adventures in mobile app development

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:05:33 -0400

After a couple of false starts, I’ve finally been successful in creating and publishing my first Android app with the help of this awesome open source project Phonegap. It lets web geeks like me write apps using the technologies we already know and wrap them up in a nice little package for distribution.

If you’re already comfortable with an IDE like eclipse you can download a sample project and dive right in with phonegap (assuming you’ve already configured your environment for Android development).

Needless to say, if you come from a Windows development background like myself or you’ve never developed an app before the whole process of simply getting yourself set-up is a daunting task.

The one issue I ran into through this process was signing the package with a keystore; something I’ve never done as a Windows developer and certainly never had to consider as a web dev.

Using Eclipse, I was able to export an Android application and it would ask me to create a keystore in the process. I answered a couple of questions, and Bob’s your uncle.

For reasons unknown to me, since this is all new territory, the package that I exported was signed but wasn’t responding properly on my Android devices despite using the Phonegap sample app as a base.

Enter Phonegap Build.

Phonegap build allows you to build a web app using HTML 5, CSS3 and JavaScript, upload it to their server, and within minutes download a signed, distribute-able package for 5 different mobile platforms without having to download and configure the SDK packages.

Beauty. All I have to do is wrap up my files in a zip, upload it to phonegap build and I’ll having a working app!

Well, almost. This time my app was responding properly, just like the code I uploaded to my web server but when I tried to upload to the Android Market, it was getting rejected because it was signed with a “debug certificate”. Further reading: Signing your applications)

If you’re going to use Phonegap build, you will need to create your own signing certificate and upload it so Phonegap can sign the package on your behalf. That’s the easy part (once you realize that you need to do it).

The thing I found most difficult was figuring out how to create a keystore in a Windows environment using keytool. The process itself is quite easy, but no one explains it very clearly.

Here’s the steps I took to create a keystore for signing my Android app for publication. Hopefully this will save some of the frustration I experienced with this process.

1. Download and install the Java SDK from Oracle.

2. Create a directory easily accessible from a command prompt. For this example, I created c:\mykeys and c:\mykeys\keys

3. Copy keytool.exe and jli.dll from your Java SDK dir into the root of the new dir you created; in my case they are located in “C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_23\bin”

4. Open a command window (Start > Run > cmd) and change directory to your new dir. In this example the command is cd c:\mykeys

5. At the command prompt, type the following command, substituting your_var in the example below with your own alias and hit return.

c:\mykeys> keytool -genkey -alias your_var -keyalg RSA -validity 12775 -keystore keys/myapp.keystore

6. Type a password for your keystore and hit enter; re-enter the same password and hit return. You will not see your password when your typing.

7. Follow the rest of the prompts on the screen which will ask you for first and last name, name of your organization, City or Locality, State or Province, and two-letter country code. You do not need to provide information for all of these fields, but you do need to provide at least 2. I chose to use name and country code for my certificate. Hit enter on each prompt regardless of providing info or leaving it blank.

8. When you reach the last prompt, keytool will reiterate your entries and ask you if the information is correct. Type the word yes to accept and hit enter.

9. Enter a key password for (alias); this is optional and you can hit return if you want to use the same password.

If you were successful, you should have returned to the c:\mykeys> prompt and now have a file named myapp.keystore in your c:\mykeys\keys directory.

Please feel free to leave me comments if you need further explanation and I’ll do my best to help.

Yagmin Receives Certification in Inbound Marketing Certification Awarded by HubSpot’s Inbound...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Yagmin Receives Certification in Inbound Marketing
Certification Awarded by HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University Training Program

Boston – July 8, 2011 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Peter Yagmin as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).

This certification acknowledges Yagmin’s proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Yagmin joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. Over 2,000 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Yagmin completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)

The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.

5 Lessons from a successful start-up

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:04:00 -0400

This past Wednesday, Inbound Marketing Firm Hubspot hosted a TEDx in their corporate headquarters in Cambridge Massachusetts where speakers discussed VC, Angel investors, and “Everything we wish we had known before starting a start-up”.

HubSpot founders Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah spoke to a crowd of 150 people about what it took to create, pitch, and build one of the most well respected internet marketing companies in the industry. They were joined by Angel investor Joe Caruso who shared insight on what to look for in a new investment, what doesn’t work, and when to ignore all your preconceived notions for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

While I was unable to attend and the event was not recorded, my friend and colleague Sam Mallikarjunan was kind enough to share some notes and key discussion points with me which I thought were worth sharing.

1. Write a blog, not a business plan.

No one is ever going to read your business plan. Not VC’s, not your future partners, not your mother. Write a blog to start creating content around your value proposition and problem that you’re trying to solve. Give yourself a head start on SEO, start capturing leads and networking, and start getting key feedback on structure and functionality.

2. Stealth mode is for fighter jets, not startups.

The hardest problem you will have is convincing people that your revolutionary idea is worth caring about at all, much less stealing. Investors and VCs are not going to sign NDAs.

3. Focus on hockey stick metrics.

Ideally profit, but if not profit then revenue, leads, or even simple page views. Show growth in some way over a period of time and investors will be much more receptive to you.

4. Bring a product to market as soon as you can.

Think Agile. Your business model and product will change many times. ‘Perfect’ is the mortal enemy of ‘Good Enough’. If your initial prototype isn’t something you’re completely embarrassed by, you waited too long.

5. Angels care more about the people than the product.

Angel investors care 80% about the team, 20% about the idea. If you don’t have people on board that they can believe in, you can kiss your Angels goodbye.

Angels care more about passion and talent than the actual concept, since they know that the concept might change over time.

A good angel investor is going to focus on what’s best for the team - even if that means telling you that you shouldn’t be in charge or that someone on the team isn’t qualified.

Disclosure: Sam Mallikarjunan currently works as an Inbound Marketing Consultant at Hubspot. You can follow him and Hubspot on Twitter @Mallikarjunan and @Hubspot respectively.

tumblr wins as my choice of blogging platform.

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:46:09 -0400

While I find my time to be extremely limited these days, I still find myself with a burning desire to write about the things I’m passionate about and blogging provides me with that outlet.

I used to write a blog about personal branding and identity management, but I found it difficult to create new content for such a narrow topic on a regular basis; while it’s still a topic near and dear to my heart, there is more to life as they say.

I didn’t really want to pore over the details of hosting and configuring another WordPress blog and while I know I could get a hosted WordPress blog, tumblr really made it too easy not to say YES.

Email, password, url, go? Well ok then.

I’ll be using this blog to write about the things I’m most passionate about in and around tech; namely Android OS, apps, app development and hardware; web design and development including e commerce; internet marketing, branding, social media and the entrepreneurial spirit.

And remember, no matter where you go… there you are.