TBAN TechNV Honors 2013

TBAN shined this week at the Moon Nightclub for the TBAN TechNV Honors. They put on an awesome night with food, drinks, dancing, amazing videos! by Mike Cao, and of course awards. TBAN hasn’t always necessarily been known for their hip, upbeat events…but they are making some pretty great strides in creating a more engaging and fun environment.

Under President Mike Gardineer‘s amazing tenure, TBAN has really started to bridge the gap between the young tech startup scene and the corporate technology arena. TBAN was the first to step up to help Gabe Shepherd raise money for the SXVegas movement, which is now less than a week away. And I have on strong authority, that they are planning some very cool things for 2013. With young superstars like Alexis Glaser helping guide TBAN, the future is very bright.

On Wednesday night, there were representatives from every facet of the tech community. From young startups like LaunchKey and Romotive, to veteran tech professionals like Fred Cox, it truly was an event with broad appeal. Jason Mendenhall, EVP at Switch, hosted the evening…and he was pretty funny! He was like Ricky Gervais up there mocking the losers and petitioning winners for donations. He was a great addition to the evening. Even those that did not win had a great time (well, at least the ones that were prepared did).

All in all, it was a great evening and everyone involved should be very proud of the great work.

So without further adieu, here is a list of the winners:

Most Promising Early Stage Start Up
LaunchKey

Technology Company of the Year
VadaTech

Entrepreneur of the Year
Mio Babic, CEO iStream Planet

Vegas Technology Spirit Award
Shavonna Tiera

Product of the Year
Romotive

Tech Transplant of the Year
TicketCake

Technology CIO/CTO of the Year
Chris Nordling, MGM Studios

Technology Star of the Public Sector
Rob Lang

Technology Hall of Fame
Fred Cox

#VegasTech is at SXSW in a big, big way

In case you haven’t heard, South by Southwest is insane. Like, mind-blowing, body-blasting, mad chaos insane. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people descend upon Austin, TX to network, learn, gain visibility for their companies, be inspired, watch films, listen to live music, and generally party their faces off.

Sleep, of course, is optional.

So for a community harking from the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s a no-brainer: SXSW is a must-do. But as in everything else, it’s not about what you do, but how you do it. Typically, young professionals artists, musicians, and anyone who likes a good time would make their way down to Austin and represent their individual entries, whether it be a tech company, studio, events agency, or band.

We’re doing things a bit different.

Rather than dilute resources and attend SXSW as individuals and companies — because what startup has boatloads of money to burn on a trade show stand or sponsored party? — the Vegas tech community has bonded together is going to South by Southwest as, well, #VegasTech.

Switch, who offered to be the headlining sponsor back in July of 2012, is joined by multiple community sponsors including Downtown Project, TBAN, UNLV, and Fuller Street Productions, who is contributing the entire trade show display and producing the party. Of course they wont be alone, accompanied by #VegasTech startups Alice Receptionist, Used Gear Sale, Tracky, Tabeso, LaunchKey, RollTech and DocBeat. Mix in Las Vegas based, Tech Cocktail and this has the makings of an incredible, all hands on deck community effort.

It’s the kind of thing that only a tight-knit, creative, and truly collaborative community could pull off — but that’s who we are, and how we’re doing it.

So, come see what the first ever community representation at SXSW looks like, what we have to say, and how we show our pride.

The Trade Show

Eight startups from Las Vegas will showcase their products and services in an 800 square foot stand, self-designed and executed. Interview booth hosted by media partner Tech Cocktail.

The #VegasTech Lounge

Old school Vegas is back. Register today for the swanky cocktail hour networking party on Sunday, March 11th.

The #VegasTech Party

It wouldn’t be a South by without a big rager to close out the festival. Register today for the blowout bash on Monday night. Over 3,000 attendees are expected throughout the evening; you should probably be one of them.

From Left to Right: …nevermind

-Guest Post by Ana Yoerg

I’m certain I join the entire #VegasTech community and beyond in mourning the loss of Jody Sherman. It was just yesterday evening I learned of his passing. Although I only had the privilege of meeting him twice, we formed a great connection. It seems that’s a trend with all people Jody met. He leaves behind a big hole that will never be filled. His larger than life energy, tireless pursuit to help others and extraordinary business savvy will be missed by those who knew him professionally. As for those who knew him personally, I cannot begin to image the grief and loss you are experiencing. I am so very sorry.

I invite each of you to share your thoughts, memories and condolences below.

Be well, Jody!

- Sarah Evans

If you’d like to Register, or just to find out more information, CLICK HERE.

I know that to a lot of the #VegasTech community, Biz Dev (including Marketing) is a four letter word. But if your company is ever going to get major funding (or traction), you’re going to have to suck it up and sell / market your product. Thus, having a solid foundation in Marketing is crucial to the success of your company.

This week we had the Social Media Marketing Expo in town at the Aria. It was seriously an amazing conference with incredible speakers (including Sarah Evans from Tracky & Nate Luman from Zappos). Each session had a ton of actionable data for every aspect of marketing your business via Social Media. What I was planning on doing was just trying to give you a few of the highlights of the sessions I went to each day (they had two sessions going on simultaneously throughout the day), but I decided to one-up that and include ALL the presentations from each speaker for the entire conference. High Five! 

So, take a look at these sessions and the ones you’re interested in, you can download their presentations by clicking on each speaker. Seriously, do yourself a favor and read over these presentations…your business will thank you!!!

SMX Social Media Marketing Day 1 – December 5, 2012

Sarah interviewing Kourtney Kardashian

How did you get started in PR? 

I jokingly say I’ve been bringing people together since the tea parties I planned when I was three or four. Seriously though, I think it’s in my blood. I really enjoy bringing awareness to an idea, a cause, a great product… I was doing “PR” long before I knew it was an actual job title.

You have over 90k followers on twitter…how did you get such a following?

By practicing what I preach. I never recommend anything to a client or employer before testing it out first. I guess you could say it’s four plus years of an ongoing experiment. It’s a lot of sharing knowledge, spending time connecting with others and providing as much value as possible. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve had some amazing media exposure along the way, either.

What brought you out to Vegas? 

I’ve always had a dream of becoming a show girl or Blackjack dealer, so…….. Just kidding. I love a challenge and calculated risk taking. When the Tracky team and I decided to make it official, moving to Vegas was part of the deal. We wanted our core team to be in the same place so that we could really make a go of it. I’m a productivity junky and Tracky is so much a part of who I am.

What impresses you most about working with David & Jennifer? 

The fact they are husband and wife and still like each other at the end of the day. I love my husband more than anything. Heck, he’s my best friend. Could I work with him? Probably not. “Worlds colliding.” Not only do David and Jennifer work together, they treat one another with so much respect and admiration. It’s really inspiring. They are also two of the hardest workers I’ve come across. Oh, and they also can cook a mean meal. Together. In the kitchen.

David & Jennifer Gosse

What are some of the raddest things you’re doing to help drive users for Tracky? 

The sky is the limit in my job. David andJennifer give me free reign to ideate and think big to not just drive users, but build a community of doers! When I get that kind of autonomy, I like to think that big things can happen. We’ve done things like:

• Hijack the hashtag of a well-known competitor’s annual event and launch an infographic pitting us against one another (in a completely fun way);
• Moderating an online event that landed me on the big screen in New York’s Times Square (Can you say bucket list?); and
• Landing some amazing media placements in places like TechCrunch, TechCocktail and SEOmoz (among others)

What have you seen with the VegasTech community that you’ve liked most? 

The most? The fact that the word community is used and it really is a community. The startups seem to root for one another, realizing that a success or big win for one means a win for everyone — generating buzz for the big things in store. I also am partial to the #sxVegas movement. Gabe and his team are really putting VegasTech on the national map with the 2013 SXSW. I’m thrilled to be part of it and the fact that Tracky is one of the sponsors doesn’t hurt either. All I know is that this community has a contagious amount of entrepreneurial spirit and I dig it.

What’s the best part of working out of the inNEVation Center? 

That it exists. I love what Rob Roy and Switch are doing to show real commitment to entrepreneurs and the state of Nevada. It’s not everyday you have access to so many decision makers in one place. We are really lucky to have such a state-of-the-art facility as our office space. Seriously. Thank you, Rob!

You just had a book come out. Tell us about that. How did that come about? 

I still can’t believe it! [RE]FRAME: Little Inspirations For A Larger Purpose is really some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in the professional world. I published with SlimBooks (a startup, of course) where they say “no to overweight books,” and that is one of the reasons I wanted to publish with them. I also wanted to do something different with this book. I included a socially-sharable image with an inspirational message on each page, along with a 140-characters or less soundbite, perfect for sharing on your favorite social network. It’s my hope that the little lessons learned will resonate with others and help those who need a little professional “boost.” By the way, the book is available in print and e-book (i.e. Kindle, iBooks, etc…) via www.slimbooks.com/reframe.

What are the 3 most important things every startup needs to be doing PR-wise?

Only three? Oh man. You’re tough. Okay, here goes:

1. The most successful startups succeed when they break down their PR efforts into a few segments. They’re typically working with smaller teams, so they need to be strategic in how they spend their efforts. Depending on the amount of time and resources, I recommend focusing on: content marketing and engagement, proactive and reactive media opportunities and networking. Of course, there’s much more to PR than those categories, I like to think of PR as what keeps people coming back (as opposed to marketing, which gets people in the door).
2. Start building your media, story and pitch list now. Yes, I’m going to pitch Tracky as the tool to use, but you should. We have a fine tuned media relations process that works, in large part, due to how we’re using Tracky. Make a list of 20 people you want to write about you. Work on a unique angle for each. Don’t forget about the human interest stories that make your startup unique. Even if now isn’t the right time to pitch them, document them via photos and text. Archive them for later or for your True Hollywood Story.
3. Use HARO and Pitchengine.

Here are few other tips and resources you might be interested in:

• Sarah’s Faves. Shameless promotion? Yes, but I write my blog for my mom. I don’t post anything that’s not easy enough for her to understand, at least that’s my intent. –> How to scale social media for your large brand 
• AngelList. Startups: How to Hustle with AngelList in 10 Steps
• ifttt. One of my favorite online automation tools.
• Buffer. My favorite social scheduling tool.

Project Vesto, a business competition backed by The Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization and Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), has 100 grand to give the winner of its 3 stage challenge. That’s the biggest prize ever offered to a business competition winner in the history of the state.

After submitting a one page business model, modeled specifically from Alex Osterwalder and businessmodelgeneration.com, entrants will present for 5 minutes in the room of VCs and private investors. The top ten go to an online vote and the winner is decided from there.

This competition is inspired by the enthusiasm for and innovation that takes place in Nevada. It’s designed to help a Nevada business start, grow, and thrive.

NIREC’s creation of Project Vesto gives start-ups the opportunity to make things happen in the state. There are requirements, such as the winner must hold a Nevada business license. The criteria for entering is pretty simple: you must have a startup or early stage venture with under $1 million in revenue and less than $100,000 in external equity investment.

To enter, visit http://ves.to. Details and helpful hints, insights, etc, can all be found there. The deadline has been extended to December 31st. Don’t miss out!

You can follow Project Vesto on Facebook.

And Twitter at: @projectvesto

This is a guest post by Gian Brown. Gian (“John”) Brown has been lurking around VegasTech for about a year now.  With a background in corporate venture capital, transactional law and working with start-ups, he occasionally advises local companies.  Feel free to reach out to him at gianbrown@cox.net.

Jelly Break-out Session Follow-up

If you missed the Jelly break-out session on 11/8, you missed a great presentation from two accountants with the Las Vegas CPA firm of  Wallace Neumann & Verville, LLP.  A few folks asked for the slides used by Dustin Wheeler (@dustinwCPA), who conducted the first part of the presentation on accounting software for startups.  The presentation, posted on SlideShare, is shown at the bottom of this post and addresses real-time accounting data on the cloud.  Dustin also covered a few technologies such as bank transaction importing, document management, online invoicing and online bill payments that can automate many accounting processes and make it easier for entrepreneurs to manage their businesses.

A few innovative products that Dustin discussed include:

1.       QuickBooks, which has been a leader in the small business accounting market for many years, offers desktop versions that can be hosted and a SaaS product (QuickBooks Online).

2.       FreshBooks, focusing on small service-providing businesses, has great tools for time tracking and online invoicing so that customers can pay their invoices online.

3.       Wave Accounting, a free (ad-supported) web-based software, does double-entry accounting and imports bank transactions.

4.       Xero, utilizing a unique method for classifying and reconciling transactions including bank rules, is another cloud product bringing business owners closer to zero data entry.

Thanks to Dustin for sharing some great ideas with the Las Vegas tech community to tackle their accounting challenges!  Here’s the link: http://www.slideshare.net/dustinwheelercpa/choosing-the-right-accounting-software-for-your-startup-15144110

VT: What was the inspiration for Alice? What’s the backstory? How did you get involved with this concept?
MY: ALICE, which stands for A Live Interactive Communication Experience, was created out of the need to solve a common business problem. Back in 2000 Frank (my brother and partner) and I were running a Software Development shop with 30+ developers. Our customers didn’t come to our office often, but when we did, because we couldn’t justify paying for a full time receptionist, they would have to ring a bell or they would start wondering around the office looking for someone. At the time we were competing with much larger national firms for development contacts, and the impression we gave when a client would came to visit us was important. That’s when the concept for ALICE was born.  I developed a simple solution using instant messaging which we used, but realized it wasn’t a commercially viable product at the time. Fast forward 10 years and that problem still exists for businesses, but now the technology had advanced to enable us to solve it with 2-way video communications, voice & video over IP, touchscreens, remote receptionist and mobile device connectivity at a business friendly price.

VT: When did you start placing them in locations?
MY: Our first install was about 2 years ago, we setup a few beta clients here in town that helped us refine the system and get a better understanding of how the public would use a system like ours. After that period we started deploying to customers mostly throughout the US and a few overseas businesses.
 
VT: What are some of business in town that have Alice installed?
MY: Some of our local customers include Nevada Dental Benefits, Cornerstone Merchant Services, Provident Trust, Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada. A number of other local customers including the City of Las Vegas and Switch have purchased systems which we will be installing at local locations in the next 30 to 60 days.
 
VT: Are they just here in Vegas or elsewhere?
MY: 90% of our customers are located outside of Nevada.  We have installations all over the US, in Canada, the UK and Australia. Our solution is one that solves a problem common to business the world over. ALICE provides a new way to manage visitor traffic and improve building security, which is a universal concern for businesses worldwide. It’s a huge market opportunity. While we’ve tried to stay focused on the US, we’ve had strong interest from overseas companies.

ALICE was recently featured in Inc. as one of the 6 featured “Cutting-Edge Gadgets to Watch”.

 
VT: What brought you to Vegas?
MY: Frank and I moved from Virginia to Las Vegas in 1995, at a time when our software consulting firm was doing a lot of business in Silicon Valley and the west coast in general. We had a couple of contracts here in Vegas, and just decided the benefits of living in Nevada outweighed the challenges posed by being a business owner in California. That was over 17 years ago, and we couldn’t be happier to see growth of the #VegasTech community and all the entrepreneurs and technology startup that are planting roots here.
 
VT: Any major investors that you’d like to name?
MY: We secured a bit of seed money a little over a year ago, and are currently working on the process of securing our first round of growth and expansion capital. This will enable us to expand our markets quicker and open our technology to national and global distribution channels. While we are not limiting our search to the local investment pool, we would be excited to see some investor from our own community get involved. Interested investors can contact me for details and information on our PPM.
 
VT: What are your plans for the next 6-12 months?
MY: A lot will depend on the speed at which we secure the funding. Once we secure funding we’ll be able to build out a global distribution channel with companies we are already in talks with. We will be able to execute marketing campaigns that will allow us reach a largely untapped market that we’ve proven is ripe for our product once they become aware that this solution exist. And lastly we’ll expand our local business with added software developers and other team members to allow us to manage what we anticipate to be an explosive growth. Until that funding is secured, we’ll continue to sell direct to customers, build our book of active customers, establish resellers and refine the ALICE product and our product marketing message.

Frank & Mike at the Influence Awards.

 
VT: How has the VegasTech community influenced Alice?
MY: We had already rolled ALICE out to a few of our early customers even before the VegasTech community really got started.  I attended my first Jelly the week after the first Startup Weekend was held downtown. The energy I felt at that first Startup Weekend was something I haven’t seen in the technology community here in Vegas before. I knew right away it was something special.  The VegasTech community has renewed my belief that we can get the word out to others that Vegas is a great city for entrepreneurs and technology companies to thrive. I got involved with helping organize the SxVegas initiative because I believe that will do a lot to further that cause. Through the people I’ve met and have become friends with in the VegasTech community, we’ve gained access to resources and an expanded communications reach beyond what we would have been able to do on our own.  In return we’ve tried to be an active participant in that community and give back when possible.
 
VT: What advice do you have for young startups out there?
I don’t believe there is a single formula for a startup to succeed.  Even the definition of success is subjective and personal.  For me, I’ve always had a need to work harder, longer and smarter than those around me.  Apply that approach to whatever you’re doing and you will greatly improve your chances for success. If you’re able to combine that approach with building something your passionate about you’ll be unstoppable. That doesn’t mean you won’t fail, but failures won’t stop you, they’ll inspire you to go harder and smarter at the next challenge.

I’m excited to see what Mike does with ALICE, but knowing him…ALICE is going to have a very big 2013!

Leith Martin is not the typical tech entrepreneur. He is clean-cut, has a southern drawl, and wears crisp white dress shirts everyday…or at least every time I’ve met with him. He’s been recruited by Fortune 100 companies, is a Harvard Business School grad and has averaged over a 100% yearly growth rate for the companies that he’s managed. He’s a sharp guy, to say the least. But he is not the only sharp guy at Ubiquita. In fact, being remarkably sharp is just the norm at the company which recently graduated from Beta testing it’s latest device, TINA, and is now deployed in businesses all over the valley. Leith is joined by Fred Cox and Dominic Marrocco to form one of the most impressive ownership teams in the valley. But more about those two later.

TINA (Telephony Integrated Network Appliance) is smaller than a standard router, but packs some serious punch. What exactly does Ubiquita (and TINA) do? Well the official explanation is: Ubiquita provides enterprise quality, intelligently integrated communications and IT services to small to medium sized business in a small montly bill. The less official answer is a little more simple…they take away all the complexity of IT services so that business owners can focus on their customers. With a single device, Ubiquita gives you a very long list of services…namely:

Legacy PBX Integration
Feature Rich Telephony Services
Voicemail to Email
Electronic Fax
Mail Server
Call Recording
Wi-Fi Access
Central File Storage
Off-site Backup
and much, much more.

In fact, it’s pretty insane. It’s easy to see why companies like Raster Media and others all over the valley are so pumped about what they get with Ubiquita.

Now, back to the incredible ownership team I was talking about earlier. In addition to Leith, there are two more guys who are making Ubiquita one of the hottest tech companies in VegasTech.

Dominic Marrocco – If the name sounds familiar, it’s because you probably have been to Tyson’s old house for one of the many amazing parties that have been held there, which he owns. Or you’ve heard of his entrepreneurial training program called “Entrepreneuria”. Or you went to Harvard, where he graduated from. Or you go to UNLV, where he’s listed as the “Entreprenuer in Residence.” Here’s a quote from his bio on UNLV’s website:

“Dominic can best be described as a serial entrepreneur. At 37 Dominic, who is originally from Leeds, UK, divides his time between the UK and US where he runs businesses in property, IT, his own venture capital fund, and supporting multiple charities. His success story (he became a millionaire at 21) is one of inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and future business leaders…Dominic takes on the challenges of diversifying the economic base of Las Vegas by encouraging technological growth and developing a productive intellectual property component for UNLV’s College of Engineering. ”

Fred Cox – His bio reads like the resume of a U.S. Senator.

Fred received a degree from Texas A&M University in 1956; an MSEE from MIT in 1958; and an EE Professional degree from MIT in 1959. He was class valedictorian at A&M, is a member of several engineering honor societies, was a National Science Fellow in 1956-57, recipient of an MIT Corporate Leadership Award, and holder of 3 technical patents. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force upon graduation from Texas A and M. He is a member of Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. Fred began his technical design career while stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, California. There he designed, implemented, and placed in operation a tape data translation system for processing aircraft flight test data. Three patents were issued on the design, and the system remained operational for many years.

Fred even built systems for NASA…yes, NASA. He’s founded 5 tech start-ups, the most noted of which is Emulex, a computer networking company listed on the NYSE (ELX). Since retirement, he’s been focused on charitable activities like donating over a million dollars to UNLV, being a founding member of the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and creating programs like Senior Design and the newly established Engineering Innovation Fund.

As you can see, the team is as great as their product. And speaking of their product, if you think your company could benefit from what they have to offer, give Leith a call…or just come to tomorrow’s Jelly, where he’ll be speaking to the group.

Keep an eye on Ubiquita…they are going to do some big things.  And a rising tide lifts all boats!