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One of the fun challenges with my startup was finding out the best set of tools to use. As with many online businesses we were wondering where do you manage all your contacts? What email program should we use? So we tried a number of solutions.

For a CRM system we tried Highrise from 37 signals which seemed a bit too simple for us.  We then went to the extreme opposite and tested out Salesforce for a bit.  It is definitely not geared for startups! It has every bell and whistle you can imagine crammed into it and it would take an inordinate amount of time to learn it all. It does have its accolades for sure, but until your startup has a dedicated large sales team I would definitely pass.  It also doesn’t let you use all the great 3rd party plugins until you pay more for the higher level subscriptions which again is major overkill.  After a lot more research and reviews we settled on Batchbook.  It seems to have the best balance – simple, useful, and will integrate with other 3rd party apps.  We are just in the early stages of using it but so far so good. Although I did notice that they eliminated they’re free account and replaced it with a 30 day free trial which I don’t like.

As to email tools we’ve tried Vertical Response which is pretty good. We did end up settling on Mailchimp as the UI is superb and its 3rd party integration is really good.   Again we’re still in the early stages but really like what we’ve seen with Mailchimp so far.

So if you’re a startup and are looking to test drive some great apps, check out Appsumo where they are  currently offering a bargain for anyone wanting to try these services out for the next 6 months. The deal ends in a few days from now. For $55 you get 6 months of Batchbook, Mail Chimp, Freshbooks, Formstack and get 100 Moo business cards.

Mobizou was recently selected as 1 of 20 Canadian startups to head down to the Valley. We were guests of the the local Canadian consulate and C100. We were featured a couple of times with Techvibes with our pre-trip report and post-trip report.

Being based in Calgary, launching a startup is definitely offering up its challenges. While there are a ton of educated and smart people here, there just isn’t a concentration of smart people focused on the high tech sector from a start up perspective.  I naively thought though, that we could still slug it out here in isolation.

Well I was wrong. Not wrong on the part that we could still launch a successful company located in Calgary but wrong on the part that we could do it in relative isolation here in Calgary. Having been down in the heart of Silicon Valley for just 2 days really opened my understanding of the unique culture pervasive in the Valley. Not only do people “get it” but there are a ton of people that do.  I would dare say that I met more like minded people down there in those 2 days than what I would meet in Calgary for an entire year (or more!).

The contacts we made down there during those 2 days were very beneficial to our mobile marketing startup. For sure no substantive immediate gain has been realized but many many doors have been opened so that down there road, it will be so much easier tapping into resources when needed.

So was it worth the expense? Well, I definitely plan on making it down to the Valley a few times a year.

And another thing we learned on the trip, you definitely need a pass when walking around within the Goolge campus!

Please join us for a free seminar and learn how accessing the mobile channel can help grow your business.  Learn how to leverage the exploding mobile channel to increase sales and to dramatically reduce customer acquisition costs.

Presented by Arpad Barabas, Founder & CEO of Mobizou, Arpad will provide useful and easily actionable tips on how to engage with your customers via a number of different mobile mediums.

Seminars will be held in Calgary May 12 and 14.

Please visit www.mobizou.com/seminars for more information and to sign up.

For retailers looking to increase foot traffic to your store and to make the plunge into mobile marketing, try Mobizou out for 6 months! There’s no contract, no obligation and cancel at any time.  We hope you get a lot of value and enjoy the service.  Creating mobile coupons and surveys is very easy to do with our online interface.  You create the content, set start & end dates, and can target offers using our advanced targeting criteria. Track results in real-time.

The details:

-The first 30 days are free as always

-A Basic account will receive a $125 credit at sign up

-A Premier account will receive a $500 credit at sign up

-An Elite account will receive a $750 credit at sign up

-Limited to 100 new accounts in Canada

Open only to Canadian businesses joining for the first time.  Once signed up, the offer is not transferable to another account.  There are no “refunds” for any unused credit.  If you upgrade to another account, you will not receive additional credit. If your campaigns are moving along well, you will start accruing charges if you use up the credit before the 6 months are over.  If you still have credit remaining at the end of 6 months, it’ll still be there for you to use up.  If you have any further questions please email us at support@mobizou.com or call 1-888-912-4456.

Over at a business community that I am a part of on Linkedin, there is quite a warm debate over the validity of any serious company going to pitch on the show as no “real” company should subject themselves to such a circus. There are such unrealistic valuations typically presented by the entrepreneurs and extremely aggressive terms typically set by the dragons who normally end up taking a controlling interest in the companies that the forum is treacherous waters at best for an early stage start up. Take into the fact that the producers will present you in a light that is best for TV and will cut sequences to put on the best show possible – even if it makes you look like a donkey’s rearend.

But the upsides can result in raising money which most young companies need. And the big plus? Exposure. Not a single company who makes it onto the show could pay for the exposure that the show brings. So what did I do? Well, hopefully you’ll be able to catch me season 6. You can watch my audition here. Just look for “Mobizou”.

We’re hoping to share even bigger news by the end of the month. Stay tuned!

If all you need is an informational site there are just 2 places you need to know about. The one I’ve already talked about here which is elance. But first, where to start. You’ll need a logo first off. I would suggest 99designs for this. You submit a proposal, create a prize amount and post. You’ll get dozens and dozens of submissions within a week. Mobizou is current undergoing a logo redesign right now – you can check out my current project page of all the designs.

Once you have a nice logo, you’ll need a great homepage and a template for any secondary pages to your site. Yes, 99 designs can do this for you too. Once you have all the files in hand, head over to Elance to find a developer to put a site together for you, host it on a service like Rackspace, MediaTemple, or whatever service you like and voila.  Get a solid web presence online and then make the next jump into mobile marketing.

As a newer blogger, I ran across a very nice article about a few things to get your blog “out there”.  One is to register your blog with Technorati which I’m doing right now KH6F45FC3VAM.

I’ve been using a good amount of stock photos here there to place in video, web and other marketing efforts.  A great picture can really punctuate the message. Being from Calgary, I of course started using a local startup success iStockphoto. The selection is great and the prices were reasonable. I started switching over to another provider, Fotolia as I got to know Patrick Lor a bit who is a local Calgary entrepreneur who co-founded iStockphoto but is now heading up Fotolia for North America.

Both services are great but what really matters here when you have services offering pretty much the exact same product? Yes, it comes down to price and as a early stage startup, price is a critical component of the buying decision process. In comes a great site I found that will definitely make your stock photo buying experience so much nicer: SpiderPic. This great site gives you side by side comparison of pricing of stock photos across sites. All you need to do is go to a site like Fotolia and paste the link of the photo you are looking at into the SpiderPic search and voila, a list of competing sites offering the exact same photos pop up at which point you can make a bargain buy.

This is great for small purchases here and there but for large purchases, buying a subscription agreement from the stock photo company directly is your best bang for your buck.