July 9 Meeting for Utah iPhone Developers
The Utah iPhone Developer Group has announced their next meeting. Here are the details. For those of you who are already working on iPhone apps, this is a great way to connect with the local iPhone developer community. If you are just getting started, or looking for resources to get your idea off the drawing board, come and interact with many of the leading app developers featured in iTunes. All are welcome.Join us for the 2nd Utah iPhone developers meetup.The first meeting was very well attended with over 60 people and standing room only.For this meeting we have gotten a much larger room so we can all fit more comfortably.DETAILS: Thursday July 9th at 6:30pm at the Technology Center at Novell, Building ‘A’We have two terrific presenters scheduled for this meeting. Each has outstanding experience with leading apps in iTunes. We’ll hear about marketing iPhone apps as well as a summary from the recent Apple Developer Conference. We’ll be discussing the new iPhone 3.0, 3Gs, and the latest APIs.
- Evhret Milam – Creator of Green Wars for iPhone and one of the top teams in the Omniture/BYU iPhone application contests.
- Michael Alvarez – Creator of Showtimes and Yellow Pages Directory and a few others. As you can see from his wall post they now have over 2 million downloads.
Big thanks to Zagg for providing food for this event and UVEF for the facilities.RSVP on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Find the Fastest Growing Companies in Your Own Back Yard, Then Network!
Filed under: Advice for Startups, Provo Labs Academy, Social Networking Watch, Utah Entrepreneurship
Today in our training at the Provo Labs Academy for Entrepreneurs (yes, I know, we probably should think of a more creative name for it) we discussed how important it is to become familiar with the fastest growing companies in your own local area. In Utah, there are a lot of lists that make this quite easy.
The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum selects the Top 25 Under 5 every summer. These are companies that are less than five years old that are growing fast. They are companies to watch. (Here are last year’s winners.)
Yesterday, the annual Utah 100 was announced by the Mountain West Capital Network (MWCN). The web site hasn’t been updated with this year’s winners yet, but you can see the last few years of winners there. These companies are at least 5 years old, but they also have an emerging category.
Next, we looked at the Inc. 500 winners in Utah for the past 3 years. They are also at least 5 years old and are judged based on percent revenue growth. Here is the list:
Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2006
Eleven Utah companies are on the 25th annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.Logoworks of Lindon was the top-ranked Utah company, coming in 66th. Omniture, Orem, 67. Atlas Marketing Group, Provo, 143. Backcountry.com, Park City, 165. Summit Energy, Park City, 236 Universal Accounting Center, Salt Lake City, 313. Edge Products, Ogden, 328. Spring Communications, Salt Lake City, 349. MaxStream, Lindon, 391. Diamond Wireless, Salt Lake City, 419. VitalSmarts, Provo, 491. Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2005
Virginia ranked first in the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita with 4.5 companies per million residents. Massachusetts ranked second at 4, and Utah ranked third at 3.7. Companies included in the rankings posted an average three-year sales growth of 769 percent. Utah companies on this year’s list, and their rankings, are:
Die Cuts With a View, Provo, 70. Edge Products, Ogden, 89. MaxStream, Lindon, 92. Arena Communications, Salt Lake City, 123. iBahn, South Jordan, 253. Omniture, Orem, 259. Summit Energy, Park City, 291. VitalSmarts, Provo, 293. Back to Basics, Bluffdale, 389. Inc. 500 Companies from Utah, 2004
Utah has 16 companies ranked in the 23rd annual Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. . . As was the case last year, Utah led the states with the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita, with 6.8 per million residents. Virginia was a distant second with 3.9 per million residents. California had the most Inc. 500 companies, with 67.
Other Utah companies on the list are:
Edge Products, Ogden, 30th, with $9.6 million in sales, average annual growth of 734 percent. Hobbytron.com, Orem, 45th, $7.9 million, 532 percent. iBoats Inc., Draper, 48th, $8.6 million, 515 percent. USA Lending Group, Salt Lake City, 70th, $4.8 million, 380 percent. Backcountry.com, Heber, 93rd, $14.9 million, 306 percent. Summit Energy LLC, Park City, 96th, $61.1 million, 292 percent. Ibahn (STSN Inc.), Midvale, 104th, $60.6 million, 276 percent. Ikano Communications, Salt Lake City, 132nd, $27.7 million, 231 percent. FatPipe Networks Inc., Salt Lake City, 189th, $3.1 million, 182 percent. Pro Look Sports Corp., Provo, 199th, $2.7 million, 177 percent. DieCuts with a View , Provo, 228th, $7.3 million, 162 percent. Back to Basics Inc., Bluffdale, 250th, $68.3 million, 145 percent. Cafe Rio Inc., Provo, 368th, $16.9 million, 99 percent. ChartLogic Inc., Salt Lake City, 445th, $5.5 million, 84 percent. Studeo, Salt Lake City, 474th, $41.8 million, 77 percent.
Today we also reviewed the Internet Retailer Top 500 list, which includes 7 or 8 Utah companies this year. There were 6 Utah companies in the first edition, the Top 300 list that was published last year.
I didn’t review the Deloitte 500 list, but I know Omniture is on that last and probably some other Utah companies are as well. I just checked–there are 5.
So what’s the point of getting to know who all the fastest growing companies are in your area?
There is so much to learn from each of these startup companies. The founders’ stories are probably remarkable and inspiring. Most startup companies almost hit the wall before turning the corner and finding success. Most founders are also pretty open about what it took, and what the keys to success were.
You’ll find people from these companies speaking at business schools or at other local forums. You’ll find them being interviewed by local journalists and telling their story. Or, if that isn’t happening, create a forum and invite them to speak to you and all your entrepreneurial friends. Create an opportunity to learn from them.
Use LinkedIn.com to see how closely connected you are to people in these companies. Find a way to meet them. Don’t be shy. If you need a few new ideas about how to meet people, check out “Never Eat Alone,” a book that Tim Sanders recommended and I liked.
After Josh Coates (Mozy.com founder) moved from Silicon Valley to Utah, he used his networking skills, and within a few months had met just about everyone he needed to know to get his company funded, staffed, and off and running. It can be done. (If you aren’t using the free Mozy.com service to back up all your most important files already, then go sign up today. It is a no-brainer. Their beta version won the PC Magazine Editor’s Choice for this service.)
Phil Burn’s Dev Utah Geek Dinners and Phil Windley’s CTO Breakfasts are excellent examples of creating networking opportunities that will help you meet great people. Invite the people that you are dying to meet.
With the lists that are published and the social networking tools and networking opportunities that are available today, you could know someone from each of the fastest growing companies in your area within a few months. And knowing these people will change your business life forever.
Panel on Incubators
Filed under: Incubators, Provo Labs Academy, Utah Events
UVEF’s monthly lunch meeting is coming up this Thursday, October 12th. They have decided to have a panel on business incubators, and I’m excited to be one of the panelists. I hope to see you there:
On Thursday, October 12, 2006, the Utah Valley Entrepreneurs
#1 Need for Startups
September 26, 2006 by paulballen · 5 Comments
Filed under: Advice for Startups, Affiliate Marketing, Business Models, Channels, Personal Knowledge Management, Retail, SalesIn May 2005 Fraser Bullock, one of Utah’s brightest lights in the financial world (formerly with Bain Capital, now runs Sorenson Capital, helped with the 2002 Olympics turn-around), spoke at the Edison Conference in Salt Lake City.
Fortunately, I had my blackberry and I took extensive notes. Here are my notes from the middle part of his talk:
Management has to be adaptable. 1990 someone brought him into run home shopping network, pre-internet. Challenge was to get consumers to buy. They had a patent. Decided they had assets, what could they build that might be of worth. Built transaction processing engine for remote banking. Sold it to Visa International in 1994.
In fast moving tech environment, if I didn’t step back every 3-6 months to fundamentally re-assess our assets and the environment, I might be missing a paradigm shift. You need the discipline to step back.
We invested in a hardware company, but we saw the asset in the software they had developed. We invested in it, but are converting it to a software company.
Ultimately we have to produce revenue. That always comes down to distribution. Our 1990 company did deal with Visa, they distributed to thousands. For new companies, it’s distriution, distribution, distribution. Must be big, fast, easy. We always asked “Where is the money.â€
Long term, to succeed, we needed to have a strategic competitive advantage. What makes you different? What will make people buy this? This is essential to any company we look at.
When you are looking at changing behavior (even if your product is twice as good), inertia is your worst enemy. Sometimes you have to be 10 times as good.
Looking at the handheld X-Ray system he said he’d like to use this on teenagers to find out what is going on in his life.
Utah more and more is coming of age. To our chagrin, most of the big tech companies we’ve built here have left. But we are getting more critical mass. And there is more capital now. The overhand is astonishing. If you have good management team and a distribution strategy, the money is out there.
We need companies here, and high paying jobs.
The key takeaway from Fraser Bullock’s talk that I have been thinking about lately is his strong emphasis on distribution as the key to revenue.
Without sales and marketing distribution channels, you cannot get to revenue.
I also have notes from a Greg Warnock UVEF speech last year where he said a recent survey of 400 Utah entrepreneurs showed that the average time to revenue for a startup company is 14 months.
I think that is WAY too long. I think that if entrepreneurs would focus on distribution, they could cut the time to revenue dramatically, and find much greater chances of success.
I have a friend who made the Inc. 500 list in the 1990s, with a couple million dollars per year in annual revenue. He told me once that his revenue was tiny until he found a new distribution channel: home school conventions. Once his company found success with home school conventions, they started going to all of them and the company’s revenues jumped dramatically. If he hadn’t found this channel, no doubt the company would have folded.
So it’s all about the channel.
At Infobases, the first company I founded and ran from 1990-1997, our two primary distribution channels were LDS bookstores that sold our CD ROM products, and then over time, our house mailing list, which eventually grew to nearly 150,000 customers.
There are different channels for different products and services. Each industry is unique. Entrepreneurs need to discover all the various channels and layers of influence that affect how decisions are made.
There are retail channels, network marketing channels, direct marketing, distributors and value-added resellers (VARs).
Since 1996 I have been focused primarily on the internet as a sales and marketing channel. My favorite “internet channel” is affiliate marketing, where thousands of motivated entrepreneurs and webmasters aggressively promote your products to all their site visitors or email list subscribers.
My next favorite channel is search engine marketing, a powerful channel where every keyword you purchase or get high natural rankings for becomes a sales person working for you 24-hours a day.
I don’t know if I’m abusing Fraser Bullock’s definition of a channel by describing the internet as a channel. But I do know that many if not most of the pureplay internet companies from the mid-90s have expanded over the years to become multi-channel retailers.
Except for potential channel conflict, which can damage a company, there is little reason for a company to stay purely within one channel. Companies want to expand, and finding new channels is a great way to grow your business.
But for startup companies, finding the first channel that gets you customers and revenue is the most important thing.
One unusual source that I rely on again and again to discover potential channels for companies that I am involved in is the Directories in Print, published by Gale. I own a 2003 edition. But local university libraries often have the latest edition on the shelves.
Directories in Print is like the yellow pages, which I also sometimes use for brainstorming potential channels and strategic partners. It covers hundreds of categories and topics. And within each topic, it lists industry organizations, associations, published guides, and all kinds of directories of members and companies. It’s a great starting place to get a feel for an industry.
Next, I like to research all the periodicals and publications that cover a particular topic. The Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media lists more than 11,000 periodicals, newspapers, radio, TV and cable stations. The 1994 edition listed more than 50 periodicals in the genealogy industry.
The Standard Periodical Directory lists more than 70,000 titles in 230 subject areas. Oxbridge publishes several titles including the Oxbridge Directory of Newsletters.
I don’t have copies of any of these, but I hope to get copies of many of these reference books for the Provo Labs Academy Library. For now, we’ll just prepare a directory of the most useful ones along with their call numbers in the BYU Library.
I’ve blogged before about the great need for entrepreneurs to write things down. Intellectual capital, even the name and email address of a single person whom you once met, might be the key to your finding the channel that will turn your company into a success.
The Apprentice episode a couple years ago that showed two teams competing to attract brides to a single day wedding gown sale in downtown New York City ended with one team failing miserably and the other team selling dozens of gowns to the crowd of brides-to-be that flocked to the sale. The difference? One team knew about theknot.com’s bridal registry database; the other team did not.
The team with a channel wins over the team with no channel.
So what is the #1 need for startup companies? Find a channel that helps you find customers and generate sales. Of course as Fraser Bullock also pointed out, you have to have a great product to break into a channel, sometimes 10 times better than the competition that is already entrenched.
But some channels, like the internet, are great for new companies with new products. I encourage entrepreneurs to use sales channels like eBay to see if they can sell their product to the millions of people who shop there before investing thousands of dollars in building their own web site. I also advocate setting up stores on Yahoo and Amazon and not merely relying on your own single storefront. Take your products to where the customers are. Use all the available channels to reach the maximum number of people.
The ebook publishing company that Provo Labs recently invested in has some great online channels, including Handango and Mobipocket, with more coming soon, including a major web retailer.
The Deseret News has become a great partner for the LDS Media products. And mp3books.com is working with FranklinCovey to make its audio books more widely available to its customers.
FundingUniverse.com is using Sprout Marketing to help identify influencers in the angel investing world and also to find potential strategic partners. Strategic partners that bring you into contact with their constituents can also be considered channel partners in a broad sense — don’t just think retail channels.
So if you are a startup, think long and hard about the channels that you are going to use to get your company to profitability. Spend more time on that than you ever have before, and your chances for success will increase.
Alan Hall at UVEF on Thursday, September 14th
September 12, 2006 by paulballen · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Philanthropy, Utah Entrepreneurship, Utah EventsI received this email from the UVEF mailing list. I love the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum. I’ve been attending its lunches for 8 or 10 years. I’ve also heard Alan Hall speak, and he is the most active and inspiring promoter of the entrepreneur->philanthropist cycle that I have ever met. Please don’t miss the chance to hear him in person.
We’re sorry for the short notice on RSVP’s for the luncheon this month, but if you are planning on coming, please let us know by tomorrow, Sept 13th by 1:00 at the latest to ensure that we can make a place for you. Thank you for all you do to support UVEF and entrepreneurship in general!
Growing Utah’s Businesses
presented by
Alan Hall,
Founder & Chairman of Grow Utah Ventures11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Novell campus, cafeteria. Follow the UVEF signs
Alan E. Hall is the Founder and Chairman of Grow Utah Ventures. Hall also founded MarketStar, a company specializing in getting the innovative products of emerging technology companies into national markets. Although Grow Utah Ventures primarily assists early stage Utah business ventures in obtaining equity financing and in meeting revenue milestones, the company also facilitates all forms of financing, provides meaningful mentoring, and is creating an ever-expanding circle of resources. Close partners in the Grow Utah Ventures include Junto Partners, Top of Utah Angels, and the Olympus Angels.
Alan Hall received a degree in psychology from Weber State University and a Masters of Business Administration from BYU. He is the past President of Netline Inc., a current board member of UTA (Utah Technology Association), and a member of the Wells Fargo Bank Northern Utah Advisory Board. Hall was honored in 1997 by Ernst & Young as Utah’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to learn how to grow your business from one of Utah’s top ‘movers and shakers’ in entrepreneurship!
Call today to reserve your place.
RSVP by Tuesday, September 12 to: danpurdon AT cedo.org
or call 801-226-1521.Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum: Top 25 Under 5 Next Week
Please put this on your calendar–a great annual event celebrating fast growing young companies in Utah. 25 companies will be highlighted that are under 5 years old. Visit the UVEF web site to learn more about the organization that runs this program. This is kind of a pre-Utah 100 and pre-Inc 500 celebration, since it honors even younger companies.
“TOP TWENTY-FIVE UNDER FIVE” TO BE ANNOUNCED ON July 13th!
(Please note change of location from Provo Novell Building G to Building A)
The applications came in, and the data has been calculated. Your company could be one of the winners!!! Be sure to attend the meeting where UVEF will be announcing its top 25 companies in Utah that were under five years old at the end of 2005.
UVEF Thanks “Top 25 Under 5″ Event Sponsor UTFC Financing Solutions
The meeting will be held at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, July 13th, at the Provo Novell building A (Directions below). Luncheons are free to sponsors and members as a part of their annual memberships/sponsorships. Guests are welcome at $20 each. RSVP to Michelle at 801.226-1521 or michelleolsen AT cedo.org. To keep Forum costs down, please RSVP before Tuesday, July 11th, PLEASE.
The luncheon will be held at noon (come at 11:45 a.m. for networking) in the Novell complex in East Bay (Provo). Directions: Take I-15 South to 1860 S. University Avenue in Provo. Go South on 1860 South to the light at about 100 E. in front of the 8 story tall Novell building. Enter the Novell parking lot and turn left at the front of the tallest Novell Building. Head West to the end and then turn North in the parking lot. Park anywhere in that lot. Enter Building A. Note: Signs will be posted.
Attention Utah Entrepreneurs
The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum has a great lineup for this Thursday’s meeting. (Meeting will be April 13th at noon at the Novell Cafeteria.)
I will probably be out of town, but otherwise would love to be there. I know all four speakers — Adam Edmunds (Allegiance), Dave Bateman (PropertySolutions, DealElder.com), Brian Buetler (Alianza) and Gary Williams (BYU) — they are superb. I hope at least 6-8 Provo Labs people make it to this luncheon.
Hyrum Smith and the Big Business Show
Former Franklin Covey CEO Hyrum Smith gave a great presentation today at the Big Business Show in Orem. He discussed the Reality Model that is taught by his new company, the Galileo Initiative. Very empowering stuff.
Provo Labs, our Web 2.0 Internet Business Incubator, has its first booth with several portfolio companies represented, including FundingUniverse.com (matching service for angel investors and entrepreneurs), LDS Media (search engine for LDS content), Blastyx (online video), Big Idea (corporate blogging, podcasting and vidcasting services), DevUtah (a group we sponsor and endorse, but don’t own — they host Geek dinners regularly), and WebEvident (an SEO company for small and medium sized businesses.) I think I’m missing one or two.
Come by and see us tomorrow. (I may not be there because of the BYU Family History Technology Conference, plus I get to do a 10-minute spotlight on Provo Labs at the UVEF monthly luncheon.) LDS Media is giving away two free LDS songs for all new customers of LDSAudio.com and Blastyx has a $1,000 off show special for video production and online distribution — a great way to get noticed in today’s crowded web arena.
Getting out of the current and into pools
This week I spent two days at the Corporate Alliance Summit with 50 business leaders and managers. We learned about the powerful relationship-building principles that Corporate Alliance teaches, and had a lot of time to make personal connections with each other.
My first Summit was last September. It was incredible.
Corporate Alliances teaches that almost all of us swim each day in the “business current,” where we are very busy and focused on day to day business. While we are in that current, we rarely form deep relationships with people. We are focusing on transactions and operations.
Where lasting relationships are formed is in “pools,” which are places where you connect with other people in a non-business setting, and where you really get to know one another. A lot of business people golf because it is a great pool for connecting. Some of the pools that I belong to are the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, a few non profits, including the Academy for Creating Enterprise, and various groups at BYU and within my church. Geek dinners and Entrepreneur breakfasts are also good pools, as our Phil Windley’s CTO Breakfasts (I keep planning to go to those) and Genus Breakfasts, the Business Ignitor Series from Connect Magazine, and other local networking events.
But some pools are much better than others for forming relationships.
My favorite pool of all is the Corporate Alliance Summit itself, where the entire focus is on learning about each others needs (both business and personal), serving each other (as we share possible answers to each others problems) and then developing lasting relationships with each other.
I’ve never experienced anything else where I connected so deeply and so quickly with so many other wonderful people. And now it has happened twice.
I’m a huge fan of Jared Stewart, the visionary behind Corporate Alliance, and his wonderful team. I have joined the board of directors and am now an investor in the company (through Provo Labs.)
I am paying full price to send key people from all the Provo Labs companies to Summit. We all need to learn this culture and these principles. They are very similar to the wonderful concepts found in the book, “Love is the Killer App,” my all-time favorite business book by Tim Sanders.
I think Corporate Alliance has the potential to be the next generation Covey Leadership center, teaching millions of business leaders around the world how to recognize that relationships matter most in business and that there are powerful ways to develop lasting relationships with others, both within and without your company.
So here is a question for my readers: what seminar or conference is the best one you’ve ever attended and why?
I go to conferences all the time and would really love to know which ones you like the most.
Scott Frazier: Great Teacher for Entrepreneurs
Yesterday at the monthly UVEF luncheon, Scott Frazier gave a masterful presentation about investing in and selling companies. He reviewed his 5 most successful investments to date (including 2 where he was CEO) and how they were valued during the early and later stages.
His bio from a BYU web site says this:
Scott Frazier Investor; Co-founder, Utah Angels Scott Frazier is an angel investor and co-founder of the Utah Angels. Frazier’s major investments include TruVision, Omniture, MyFamily.com, Corda Technologies, iCentral, Thoughtstar, Infopia, and Cerberian. Frazier serves as president of TruVision, Inc., a rapidly growing company that operates nationwide, preferred-rate provider networks for Lasik, cosmetic surgery, and hearing aids. From 1987 to 1995, he was co-owner and CEO of Achievement Rehab, a leading provider of contract therapy to nursing homes. Frazier grew this company from 150 employees to 2,000 employees and $100 million in revenues, prior to selling in 1995. Frazier earned a BA in economics from BYU in1975 and an MBA from Harvard in 1978. He and his wife, Miriam, have eight children.
All entrepreneurs should be trained in company valuation before they get started in building a business. I wish I had heard this kind of lecture back in the early 90s when I was first getting started in business.
After sharing 5 case studies (Achievement Rehab, TruVision, Omniture, MyFamily.com and iCentral) he discussed 7 tactics that he uses to get the highest possible valuation before selling a company.
I hope that Scott will continue presenting this lecture to entrepreneurs. Maybe he will even let BusinessJive.com or FundingUniverse.com record his presentation so that entrepreneurs all over the world can learn from him. His open and honest style is incredibly refreshing and rare.
Thanks, Scott, for teaching so well.
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