Team Formation Summit for Worldhistory.com
Filed under: Companies to Watch, Entrepreneurship, Events, History, Provo Labs Companies, Recruiting, Utah Entrepreneurship, Utah Events, Utah Jobs
Last year I wrote in Connect magazine that I would be trying a grand experiment in team building. I would be trying an idea I got from The Entrepreneur’s Manual, a very popular book for entrepreneurs published in 1997. I would hold a 2-day retreat with a couple dozen executives to brainstorm, network, plan, and then vote on the Founders Team for Worldhistory.com.
Sometimes I have too many ideas, so I can’t get around to all of them. Sometimes ideas just go away. They stop bothering me. I almost always write every idea down, so that I won’t forget them forever, but they stop getting current brainshare.
But this team formation idea has been popping up its head every month or so. So I’ve decided to go ahead with it. Instead of a 2-day summit, we’re going to try a 1-day retreat to a local cabin. The date will be Friday, October 20th. I’m going to invite 15-20 friends developers, marketers, consultants, strategists, and entrepreneurs to meet for a day (probably from 9 am to 4 pm) to determine the future of Worldhistory.com.
So far, I have invited several individuals who know about the Worldhistory.com mobile subscription business model and love it. 100% of the people invited so far have said they will come.
But since I don’t know everyone (yet), I thought I should also blog about this Summit and invite others to apply to attend it. Even if you aren’t looking for a new job, consider coming. We need advisory board members as well as a group of founders who can make this company happen.
If you are interested in being invited, please contact Pat Sheranian at 373-6565, our Provo Labs office manager, talk with her about your background and interest, and email her your resume. Or, email me your resume if you want. (paul “AT” provolabs.com)
This will be a great networking event, and you’ll meet some fantastic people and hear some very interesting discussions about the future of mobile location-based services, the delivery of text, audio and video content to cell phones and other mobile devices, and see the very beginning of what I hope turns into another Utah business success story.
The first half of the day will be devoted to Corporate Alliance type networking, where you will have a chance to meet every other attendee and connect with them on a personal level. After lunch, which will be provided, we’ll break into teams and do some planning and brainstorming.
Finally, there will be some sharing of the best ideas and plans of the day, and we’ll have a discussion about how to form and fund a new corporation with all the assets that Provo Labs currently owns in the history space (including data, web sites, and software code).
I don’t know if we’ll actually hold a vote on who the Founding Team should be; but if the attendees want to this, we will.
I’m excited about this summit. Read the Connect article about team formation, and get your hands on a copy of the original team formation ideas in The Entrepreneur Manual. You can buy it used on Amazon for as little as $5.74.
I really believe this idea is a big one. I believe that millions of people worldwide will one day subscribe to a mobile history content subscription service, so that whereever they travel in the world they will be able to pull up text, audio, and video clips that describe or explain the history of that location. If we get the right team in place, and can get the right content and design the right interface and market this service through the right carriers (or “off portal” if necessary) I think we can pull this off right here in Utah.
I guess that makes us a Four Domino business model, right Josh?
But if we get the right team together, then we’ll be down to Three.
I also think that “history” is way down the list of the content types that all the biggest players have on their radar, and so it won’t be immediately launched by the larger players. History is kind of like genealogy–it’s not a multi-billion dollar category like travel or finance or real estate–so it’s not at the top of the list for the carriers or internet media companies.
Like I said in Connect, I promise to write an article about this experiment and what we learn from it.
Let me know if you want to come. We can only take a few more people, but if you think you are qualified and have a lot to offer here, please apply, and we’ll let you know.
Investor Meetings: by Referral Only
Filed under: Angel Investing, Provo Labs Companies, Venture Capital
Most VCs don’t have time to look at the thousands of unsolicited deals that are sent to them "over the transom," an interesting phrase defined by Wikipedia. Most only look at deals that are referred to them by people they know and trust.
So when VC Forum comes to your town looking for local deals that are promising, the Forum requires them to be submitted by a local VC firm that has of course screened the deals.
So local companies that want to pitch at the VC Forum events will need to have already gotten in front of credible people and started telling their story. You have to get noticed, you have to have a good team and a good story, and then you get the referral you are looking for.
The team at FundingUniverse.com has been very grateful for the support of hundreds of angel investors, VCs, sponsors, and entrepreneurs in Utah that have turned its online angel investor matching service and its Speedpitching events into key components of the Utah funding scene.
We heard today that all of the deals but one that were featured at Utah VC Forum event last week had previously attended FundingUniverse.com Speedpitching Events.
Many of the best deals that I have seen at the Speedpitching Events were looking for more money than is usually available from angel investors; so I’m glad to see that some of these are moving on to the VC arena. I hope the coaching and feedback they have received at the Speedpitching Events will help them land the venture capital they are looking for. I bet that it helped some of them get the referral they needed to present at this prestigious VC Forum event.
MyFamily.com Alexa Chart
Filed under: Companies to Watch, Competitive Intelligence, Genealogy, Provo Labs Companies, User Generated Content, Viral Marketing
It is interesting to look at the 5-year Alexa chart of MyFamily.com–a web site that was a high-flying pioneer in user generated content, photo sharing, free voice chat, and viral marketing; but which has been neglected in both development and marketing for nearly 5 years. Now that MyFamily.com has opened an office in Seattle and is recruiting web 2.0 developers and experienced internet marketers, you wonder if this web site will make a resurgence.
While we’re at it, here is the chart for Ancestry.com, the chart for Rootsweb.com, the chart for genealogy.com, and the chart for familysearch.org from the LDS (Mormon) Church.
It would seem that people are losing interest in genealogy. 
I hope not, because WorldVitalRecords.com launched its subscription web site today. Starting with several dozen databases, WorldVitalRecords.com is seeking to become a significant player in the genealogy industry over the new few years. We add at least one new database to our web site every day. The subscription fee is only $49.95 per year; but since we are just getting started, we are offering a 2-year subscription for $49.95 during the month of October.
We have a wonderful content acquisition team and advisors who are finding databases around the world that we can digitize or license. We also have on our team the two engineers that wrote the original search engine at Ancestry.com and prepared the first 3 billion records that Ancestry.com has online. We are excited to re-introduce many of the original ideas and practices of Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com to see if we can help people worldwide connect with their families.
Our current effort is small, but with the support of customers who believe in what we are trying to do, and of partners who want to provide access to their content to our customers, we hope we can make a mark.
We will be starting our search engine marketing and affiliate marketing programs in the coming weeks, and launching some incredible new databases and features — so stay tuned.
Please check out our vital records databases, tell us how you like the online mapping features that we have associated with most of our databases, and let us know what you’d like to see us do next. We have hundreds of ideas that we hope to implement in the future, but your input matters most to us. So please tell us what you want to see!
Note: I have not been associated with MyFamily.com in any official capacity since leaving the company in February 2002.
Help Wanted: World History Blogger Network Technical Manager
Worldhistory.com is looking for a talented developer who can work part-time to help us maintain our current blogger network and launch new blogs as we add new editors.
Experience setting up WordPress blogs and web analytics software is required.
Eventually we hope to have hundreds or thousands of historical bloggers in our network, so we need a developer who can not only set up WordPress blogs on new domains for our new bloggers, but can also improve our efficiency by automation the creation of blogs in the future, the cross-promotion of those blogs, and the tracking and reporting of site traffic and revenue for all of our editors.
If you are interested, please contact Amy Rhoads, at amyrhoads “AT” gmail.com.
Provo Labs Academy Training Schedule
Filed under: Advice for Startups, Provo Labs Companies, Utah Entrepreneurship, Utah Events
Provo Labs has opened an Academy for Entrepreneurs in Provo, Utah, in the new office building adjacent to BYU on 9th East in Provo. Our address is easy to remember: 1234 N. 900 E., Provo, UT 84604. (See us on a Google Map.)
We have 18 spaces for 1-3 person startup companies and they are starting to fill up. Pat Sheranian is managing the office. If you want a tour of the building or learn about our Bronze, Silver, and Gold Membership packages at the Academy, please call Roger at 852-6163.
More important than the office space, phone, internet access, and computer that you receive as an Academy member are the business networking opportunities that we provide and the entrepreneurial training that you receive.
On Monday at 4 pm, 50 potential members showed up for the Provo Labs Academy open house–more than we expected. It was exciting to meet all the potential members, to hear about the companies they are running, and to talk about the many topics we will be covering in our training meetings and in the brainstorm meetings that will be held almost daily.
Our facilities are still not completely finished; but members are signing up and moving in. This is getting very exciting.
So, for those who have signed up already (or who do in the next few days), here are some of the training sessions that I’m going to be running in October:
Thursday, Oct 5th, 10:00 am.
“Using LinkedIn to Open Doors and Build Your Business”
Tuesday, Oct 10th: 4-5:30 pm. “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing: Running Your First Pay Per Click Campaign”
Wednesday, Oct 11th: 9:00 am. “Online Lead Generation: Easier than Online Sales”
Friday, Oct. 13th: 9:00 am. Brainstorm Session–What is the Biggest Challenge You Face in Business Right Now. (This will be limited to 12 attendees. Each will be able to get brainstorm help from all other attendees. This will be patterned after our traditional Entrepreneur Brainstorm Lunch, otherwise known as “Twinkie Talk.”)
Monday, Oct. 16th: 4:00 pm. An Invitation to Use My Rolodex. (I will invite 10 attendees to sit with me and go through my Corporate Alliance CARMA database, my gmail contacts database, as well as my LinkedIn database of 1.5 million people, to see if I know anyone who can help them with their immediate business concerns.)
More events will be scheduled later.
We’ll do some on raising money from angel investors, using online surveys with prospects and customers, and lots of other internet marketing topics, including web site design, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online PR and much more.
Plus, all Provo Labs Academy members can schedule a brainstorm meeting at any time on any topic, and invite other members to join with them. I’ll attend some of these as well.
Let me know what other topics you’d like to see covered.
If you live outside of Utah, stay tuned because we’re trying to determine how to do a national Academy for Entrepreneurs as well. Then I hope we go international as well.
Our goal at Provo Labs Academy is to help entrepreneurs increase their chances to succeed. Most startup companies fail, but we don’t believe this has to be the case. We’d like to enable entrepreneurs to learn from successful entrepreneurs and mentors, and to network with each other as they try to get their business off the ground.
We also want to teach dozens of important internet marketing tactics to our members so they can use the internet to find customers and partners. The world is embracing the internet and every company needs an internet strategy to be competitive in the 21st century. Companies who do this right have an excellent chance to succeed.
Jumping into Online Video
Filed under: Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Business Models, Internet Marketing Tactics, Provo Labs Companies, Video
I wrote an article for Connect Magazine’s September issue about skating to where the puck is going, not to where it has been, and I specifically addressed online video. I encourage companies to rush into online video, to take advantage of this new trend, and gain a competitive advantage by being an early adopter.
There are so many ways to take advantage of the low cost of producing and distributing online video: marketing, PR, training, recruiting. The conversion rate of video can be much, much higher than of traditional online text or banner ads.
Yesterday at the Provo Labs open house, one of my friends told me that Current TV — the cable TV channel that plays only user generated content — is now paying producers of video content. Current uses its web site so internet users can vote on the best video segments. Then the company plays the best ones on its cable TV channel. This is a remarkable business model!
A couple months back Revenue Magazine had an excellent article written by its publisher about how affiliates are starting to use online video to increase conversion rates. That is the trend 10Speed Media is trying to lead.
It works! This past week 10Speed Media launched several test campaigns and achieved an overall result that thrilled me. Our team met yesterday and decided how our test campaign results are going to affect our strategy moving forward. The results suggest we should launch more campaigns (I think we have 35 more planned) so that we can determine which industries and merchants to focus on first.
Last week, a MarketingVOX article reported that at OMMA a panel of advertising executives agreed that 15 second online video advertisements are most effective.
Today, a press release reported on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers, which among other things explored the length of video advertisements they are willing to endure based on the size of the screen they are watching: cell phone, iPod, computer, vs. television. Here’s an excerpt.
For the first time consumer receptiveness to advertising by device and screen size was explored. Applicants were asked what the maximum length of an advertisement they
Changes at Provo Labs: Returning to the Original Vision
September 1, 2006 by paulballen · 18 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, Provo Labs Companies, Utah EntrepreneurshipA month or so ago I held a difficult meeting with all the employees at Provo Labs. I started the meeting by admitting that I had made some mistakes in the past six months. Specifically, our burn rate got too high as we hired too many people, particularly developers. Our sales and marketing investments weren’t sufficient enough to cover our overhead. And more importantly, we weren’t creating dedicated teams for each new company idea, and giving the team members equity and letting them take risks along with the investor (Provo Labs), risks such as lower-than market salary. Instead, we were paying full salaries, and not giving options out, and shifting people from project to project. We should always be in bootstrap mode and we should not try to do so many things at once.
In fact, I now believe that rapid serial entrepreneurship is superior to parallel entrepreneurship, at least for me. I’d like to do one company at a time until it gets on its feet, before shifting attention to the next one. Maybe I’ll try that in the future.
So at the company meeting I announced that Provo Labs would return to its roots as an investment company in seed stage startups (usually from ideas that I generate) and that all the existing staff would be assigned to one of the existing portfolio companies (some of them were already dedicated to a single company already) or be let go.
Our remaining funds were not going to be used to incubate new startup companies, but to support the 11 companies in our current portfolio. Specifically, I am choosing to fully fund 10Speed Media, a promising company that runs a video affiliate network mainly for direct response video, and WorldVitalRecords.com, which aims to be the #2 genealogy company in the world.
I was blunt in saying that our other companies would have to sink or swim, or as one developer put it, eat what they kill. This of course causes everyone in each company to focus on generating revenue. That is a good thing.
I also said that options would (finally) be available for employees in each company. (It was always the intention to do this, but we didn’t always get around to it). If sacrifices have to be made by team members, then of course they are taking risks and deserve the reward of more ownership.
The meeting went better than I expected, but it still made it very difficult to let go of 6 talented employees who don’t fit with the current needs of any of our portfolio companies, or where funding just isn’t adequate to keep them.
Hardest hit was the development team, led by Phil Burns, an extremely creative and well connected technology, and someone who has become a good friend over the past year. My proposal there, since Phil had been working for a few weeks to find contract work from outside clients, was to spin out the technology team into a new company that does Web 2.0 development work. One of my close friends helped form Erudite, a development outsourcing and training company in the 1990s that was the fastest growing company in Utah for 2 years in a row. Doing contract development work is not necessarily a high margin business, but with a focus on Web 2.0, and with a large network of developers and a nice reach into the blogosphere, I was hopeful that Phil and his team could land some large contracts and keep things going.
Provo Labs original vision was to fund 12 companies over a 3 year period with up to $250,000 in funding, and to use that seed capital to get to cash flow positive or to be positioned to raise capital from angel investors (thus, the importance of FundingUniverse.com) or VCs.
I think we hired too fast and spent too much money, so in the end, we’ll probably only end up with 8-10 portfolio companies that got as much capital and as much as my time as I would have liked.
But in the seed stage investment game, if just one small investment goes well, the entire fund gets repaid and the investors do well. In our case, we hope that more than half of them will succeed. And to me that means at least a million in annual revenue within 3-5 years. We have several companies that should achieve that. And we have a couple that are very promising — big ideas and a great team.
What we don’t have is a large payroll now (we’re down to 3 people on the Provo Labs payroll) or a lot of talented developers working on new technology.
What we do have is the peace of mind that comes from a low burn rate and a focus on the top priorities.
I believe that I have maintained a good relationship with most of the people affected by the layoffs, and I am of course still involved in the active portfolio companies, helping where I can with strategy and marketing.
I have read some of the blog posts about the changes at Provo Labs. When every employee in a company is asked to blog regularly, and then when a change like this happens, of course lots of people will have lots of things to say.
I know this was a difficult change for many people. But we couldn’t have gone on indefinitely without running out of money. Our fund is a small one and it has a definite strategy. For me, this reorganization was a painful but necessary return to the original vision of Provo Labs being an investment fund, not an operating company.
I made the changes openly at a company meeting, admitting my mistakes, and I hoped for and actively worked for a good outcome for those who were affected. I can’t guarantee that everyone will end up with a positive outcome, but as one former employee said in a recent email, he is a better person and employee for the time he spent at Provo Labs and what he learned from our successes and failures. I hope everyone feels that way. If not, I’m sorry. I’d be happy to have a private conversation with anyone who hasn’t yet given me a piece of their mind.
I’ve been very gratified by the amount of goodwill that exists among the former Provo Labs team and the current portfolio companies. If there is any animosity or back-stabbing, I haven’t seen it (or felt it yet!). Well, I saw a little, but it seemed resolved with an anonymous poster bravely stepped forward to apologize about what she had written.
I welcome any comments to this post and any questions that you want me to address in future posts.
Happenings
September 1, 2006 by paulballen · 3 Comments
Filed under: Customer Surveys, Entrepreneurship, Provo Labs Companies, Utah Entrepreneurship
- Yesterday was our best FundingUniverse.com board meeting ever, in the wake of another successful speed-pitching event. The team is energized and the company should be profitable soon (maybe October or November). Then, it will have an indefinite runway on which to launch new products and services for entrepreneurs and angel investors. Great job, team!
- 10Speed Media, our video-based affiliate network led by CEO Erik Johnson (formerly with iBahn), rated very high at the speed-pitching event. Getting good feedback from attendees is a great motivator.
- This week Evident Marketing had record sales of Childrens Miracle Music as our first email campaigns began hitting. We have some very exciting marketing plans for this product. My philosophy is to always do a split A/B test on email campaigns. Never miss out on a chance to learn something. This time, we tested subject lines. One generated an open rate of about 3.9% while the other was under 3%. It’s very important to learn something every time you invest in an email campaign.
- LDSAudio.com, an LDS music download site is having an excellent month. It’s home page promotions (daily discounts on certain products) have increased revenue significantly this month.
- Yesterday I hired an experienced manager to help me finish the build-out and furnishings of the new Provo Lab office space on ninth east in Provo, next to BYU. The entire 1st floor will be occupied by members of the Provo Lab Academy. For as little as $200 per month they get shared office space, equipment, and training on internet marketing and entrepreneurship. I hope this will become the smartest place to start a new company in Utah.
- But yesterday I also saw the new E-Station at the Davis Applied Technology College. What an incredible facility! FundingUniverse.com has an office there. I am very impressed with the commitment to entrepreneurship that is being demonstrated by this building and those who are there to provide training and services to entrepreneurs.
- Yesterday I surveyed the nearly 30 applicants to the Provo Labs Academy that have signed up in the last week. We are going to do a random drawing soon (maybe this afternoon) to choose 1 applicant who will get their first month free, a $200 value. I asked the applicants what kind of phone systems and computer systems they want, and what most attracted them to our Academy. Every business owner needs to do regular surveys of customers and potential customers if they want to know how to provide better service and how to make their marketing messages better. Anyway, I was pretty surprised that 36% don’t even want an office phone–they rely on their cell phone for their business. Another 36% want a live receptionist to answer their phone calls. 54% don’t need a computer–they’ll either bring in a desktop or their laptop. 36% want us to supply them with an Intel based desktop. No one asked for a Mac. 45% are ready to move in to the new space in September. 27% in the fourth quarter. The #1 reason for people wanting to join the Academy was to be close to other entrepreneurs! 2nd was internet marketing training. And #3 was the location. I liked the write in votes that said they wanted to be close to me. Made my day!
- This morning I got up at 2:30, couldn’t sleep. So I worked on my Chamber of Commerce talk today. It will be about the economy, China and India, the need for more entrepreneurship, and some of the most powerful internet tools that modern entrepreneurs need to learn how to use. I’ll definitely be plugging LinkedIn.com and promoting blogging. But there are so many things to talk about.
- Then I worked out and ran 12 miles at the gym. Did you realize Gold’s Gym also spells "go LDS" gym? Hey, I like to promote my favorite religion whenever I can.
- I’m listening to the Portable MBA audio book from audible. While I was watching the local news, I noticed that LogoWorks, a company founded by Morgan Lynch (who has been kind enough to lecture at my UVSC classes in the past) was ranked the #1 fastest growing company in Utah by Inc. Magazine, and #66 overall nationwide. So now I need to go see what other Utah companies made the list. Usually, we are the top state in terms of companies per capita making the list. Congrats Morgan and team!
- Now, due to popular demand, I finally need to write a very thoughtful post about the recent changes at Provo Labs.
Multiple topics
August 30, 2006 by paulballen · 5 Comments
Filed under: Advice for Startups, Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Events, Incubators, Provo Labs Companies, Utah Entrepreneurship, Utah EventsTOPIC 1.
Marty Fahncke, an outstanding direct-response marketer, finally convinced me to join with him as he launches www.learnfrompaulallen.com. I guess he really couldn’t have done it without me. Our first conference call, where I will answer questions from listeners about internet marketing and other entrepreneurial topics, will be held on Thursday, September 7th at 1 pm MST. This is a free conference call, so register now for one of the limited spaces.Please don’t think because I’m doing this that I know everything or that I wouldn’t rather be learning from someone else. I view this whole conference call experience as a group learning experience. Like my brainstorm lunches, I love the questions entrepreneurs ask and the answers that everyone else at the lunches give. We all can learn from one another.
TOPIC 2.
In the last week, I’ve been promoting the Provo Labs Academy, where we provide office space and internet marketing training to startup companies for as little as $200 per month.We’ve had nearly 30 inquiries so far, and two individuals who want to promote the Academy for commission. A large local newspaper wants to do a story about the Academy. And the city has been showing a lot of support. Economic development activity, according to Governor Huntsman, drives everything else by providing funds for education and transportation. Provo City really supports entrepreneurial activity. I am thankful for all they are doing to support the Academy.
Before we spend tens of thousands of dollars on furniture, equipment, and phones, I decided to create a little online survey for all of our possible tenants. It took me about 20 minutes to write 4 survey questions after signing up for freeonlinesurveys.com. It’s an okay tool. Does anyone out there use something else that they like even more?
Once we get feedback from the possible tenants on their phone and computer needs, then we’ll make the necessary purchases. It is so nice to have email and the web to attract customers and then find out when they want.
My favorite experience in finding out customer needs was at MyFamily.com where as VP Marketing I wrote many surveys every week (sometimes several in a single day) and got thousands of responses every day from our active users. I loved finding out what my customers liked, disliked, and wanted us to do next.
TOPIC 3.
The FundingUtah.com speedpitching event at Thanksgiving Point yesterday was superb. Out of the 10 companies that pitched, Simplifile was rated the best pitch by the investors there. But there were several other excellent ones as well, including more than one company that was profitable. One of my favorites is a company that had its first profitable month in August after 18 months in business. None of the six founders have ever been paid. They are all working to create future equity value. Hopefully they’ll get funding so they can eventually pay themselves, but I am very inspired by a team of entrepreneurs who can build a great company simply because they don’t take any salaries.If all startups did that, I bet nearly 100% of them would survive.
TOPIC 4.
I’m speaking at the Provo Orem Chamber of Commerce lunch on Friday. I think I’ll talk a lot about how startups can become worth a lot if the founding team will defer all of their compensation.I’m listening to an audio book called the Portable MBA or something like that. It claims that companies that incorporate stay in business for at least 8 years 50% of the time. 25% of them are still run by the original entrepreneur. 25% of them are run by someone else.
I guess the really bad statistics about business failure might take into account companies that never incorporate. Maybe they were never really a serious business in the first place.
The author also says that 4 of 5 venture funded companies are still alive after 5 years.
TOPIC 5.
I accidentally posted this blog without a title. Makes me wonder how all the RSS readers out there will handle it? And how will it show up in MyYahoo, which usually links from the title of a blog post to the blog site.So I’ve updated the post and it now has a (lame) title. But does anyone know what happens out there if people post without titles?
May I help you grow your business with powerful internet marketing tactics?
August 23, 2006 by paulballen · 6 Comments
Filed under: Advice for Startups, Entrepreneurship, Incubators, Internet Marketing Tactics, My Organization, Provo Labs Companies, Search Engine Optimization, Software for Entrepreneurs, Utah Entrepreneurship, Web Analytics, Web Design and UsabilityYes, this is an advertisement.
It’s an invitation for you to bring your startup company to the new Provo Labs Academy, where you will learn dozens of important internet marketing tactics that can help you find more success for your business.
In September, a new office building will open in Provo with space for dozens of small startup companies. It is adjacent to BYU on Ninth East, across from the Creamery on Ninth. If you like the BYU Dairy chocolate milk (best tasting in the world) you will love moving your small business into our new space.
For as little as $200 per month, you can join the Provo Labs Academy and learn all about growing your business through internet marketing. I will be drawing on 10 years of personal experience (including what I learned at MyFamily.com and 10x Marketing) and hundreds of case studies to teach you dozens of tactics on how to get your web site noticed and build up your customer base.
You’ll learn about pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, online advertising, affiliate marketing, web site design and development, blogging, using web analytics to improve your conversion rate, customer surveys, online PR, using auctions to generate revenue, viral marketing, how online audio and video can help you succeed, and much, much more. Provo Labs tracks its portfolio companies in 51 important areas. You’ll learn how to make smart choices in each of these areas in order to improve your chances of success.
You may be a BYU or UVSC student preparing your business plan for a competition. Or perhaps you want to start a new company on the side and need just a few hours a day of office space. Or maybe you just want to learn internet marketing skills every week so you can more effectively promote your current company. We may have exactly what you’ve been waiting for.
Or, if you need dedicated space so you can work around the clock, we can accomodate you as well.
We’re even offering a chance to win a free one-month membership in the Provo Labs Academy, a $200 value, if you sign up on our web site by August 31st.
Provo Labs has leased the entire 1st floor of this new building and divided it up into small spaces that are ideal for a small startup company. You can sign up for as little as $200 per month: that includes space, desk, computer, phone, high speed internet (using iProvo’s fiber optic network), access to our business library, conference room and break room. And, it includes all the training that the Provo Labs Academy will provide.
I teach internet marketing at BYU and love to help students and entrepreneurs learn online marketing tactics. To help you succeed, I will be inviting dozens of friends and associates who have been incredibly successful in their own internet careers to come to our training meetings and teach you the valueable things they know.
This is a rare opportunity to learn from true experts and to network with other entrepreneurs. We hope the Provo Labs Academy will become a center point of innovation in Utah.
Register for more information and a chance to win your first month free — a $200 value!.
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End of commercial. Please spread the word.
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