How can any of us forget Gary Vaynerchuk and the “get off the bitch train” comment.  Since that show I have been keeping in touch with JT Keller the caller during that show for many reasons, one I did a follow up with him for StartupRecap and I was curious about his startup and where he was headed.  I found him extremely smart and expect big things in the future.  This prompted me to write this piece, my plan is to track his trials and tribulations of his startup with hopes that many of you will be able to learn from his experience.  If you have any questions you’d like me to ask him, please send them to me: startuprecap [at] gmail.com.

Q&A with JT

After calling into the show was it easier to choose between your two ideas?

It didn’t necessarily make my choice easier but it did help.  I took away two great value adds from my call-in that allowed me to move forward with a singular concept.  The first was perspective and the second was a sense of urgency.  After my call-in, I totally reframed the way I was looking at my ideas which helped tremendously.  I also better understood the fact that it’s important to take that initial first step with “true” intention and know that failing is OK.  You just need to learn from your mistakes and pivot intelligently.  I’m sure you’d like to know the deciding factor about why I chose the idea that I did and it came down to domain expertise, which has paid dividends as we develop our platform.

Can you briefly describe your startup?

Sure, but I’d like to preface my “pitch” and apologize for my vagueness ahead of time but some of the key features that give our platform a definitive advantage over competitors need to be kept under wraps until we get closer to launch. Branding is a huge challenge, especially for small and medium sized businesses which are alienated from using large, well-established branding consultancies because it’s extremely cost prohibitive.  We’re building a solution, a platform, that will allow our target audience to tackle their branding challenges with the same knowledge base and processes provided by the likes of an Interbrand, Landor, Siegel+Gale, etc…  We’ll move them from A to Z, from brand creation to maturation utilizing crowdsourcing, social media, and many other features.  Although we’re utilizing crowdsourcing, we’re being careful to create a solution that’s as far from a “spec” work platform as possible.  I really love what we’re developing.  I feel like we’re making so many improvements vs. current competitors in the market space and really making great branding solutions affordable and more accessible.  I’ll definitely share more as we move forward.

It is my understanding you had the business model fairly complete, what were you lacking to get started?

I think the biggest obstacle was having the right frame of mind…and a great technical co-founder.  I think it’s really important for anyone reading this to really understand their frame of mind and make sure you’re putting your intentions in context and be truthful with yourself.  You have to have a serious inner monologue and for all of the cheerleading and feel-good rhetoric, you have to realize that you’re about to undertake a hell of a journey filled with peaks and valleys and trials and tribulations.  You have to know in the end, no matter the outcome that you “left it all on the floor” and that makes all the difference.

How did you find a developer?

I found my co-founder by reaching out to the TWiST community and being really sincere in my approach.

Not being a developer how did you know what to ask to know whether the person was knowledgeable in what you needed?

I’ve always been tech savvy but I’m also fortunate to have a consulting background which really trains and hones your ability to do a “deep-dive” and become versed in an industry or market fairly quickly.  I took the same approach that I would have, if I were consulting in an unfamiliar vertical or market.  In addition to my “deep-dive”, I digested a ton of material in terms of how you hire someone technical both from the perspective of being technical and non-technical and scouring tons of wanted ads.  I also got my hands dirty by hacking on a few open source languages.  Last but not least, I also reached out to the TWiST community and gained some great insights from others who had tackled the same challenges.

Now that you found someone did past shows about bring on a partner help?

Definitely, as we move toward episode number 43, TWiST is becoming a great repository/reference for a number of startup topics.

Did you get lawyers involved?

Legal can be an expense, especially if you’re bootstrapping, but it’s necessary.  I think that you always need to complete your due diligence upfront and have a conversation about the pay/equity structure and your individual roles and responsibilities.  I would also recommend creating a legal business entity early in the process to protect everyone’s interests.

How has bringing a co-founder onboard help?

Creating, defining, and developing a startup is an arduous task and it’s definitely much easier having a co-founder on board.  It’s been a great experience thus far because we complement each other’s skill sets very well.  I would definitely urge anyone looking for a co-founder to take the opportunity to make sure that you’re finding someone who’s your antithesis.  If you’re a great developer, look for someone who has a great business background and domain expertise and vice versa.  It’s timely that you ask this question because we’re thinking of bringing another web developer on-board as a co-founder.  We’re being careful in terms of maintaining the overall chemistry that we’ve established and making sure that we bring someone onboard who is as dedicated as we are in moving this forward.  It’s amazingly paramount that you’re cautious when adding additional team members and making sure that you surround yourself with individuals who are smarter than you are.

Any difficulties in working together?

At this point, everything is progressing very smoothly.  I think the key so far has been making sure that we communicate clearly and concisely.

The next follow-up will be in two to three weeks, if you have any comments concerning this article please add them to the comments I’m sure JT will chime in.

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TWiST 37

Pete Kistler calls in to pitch Brand-Yourself, a platform to manage your online reputation (in short, SEO for people)

Jason and Phil’s comments:

Overall a poor pitch, decent idea which is what you want verses the opposite.  Jason comments he has been asked how to get things removed from Mahalo and other services so the idea has legs but the mystery of SEO and how to explain what Brand-Yourself does is difficult which leads to a credibility problem.

Pitch critique:

• Price seems expensive, the service provided isn’t clear
• Never said the name of his company or at least in the beginning
• Delivery was stiff and confusing
• Idea has potential
• The service that you provide isn’t necessarily clear, who actually does the work (me or you)
• Dashes in a domain name are “like wearing sneakers to a funeral” (Tyler)
• Website doesn’t convey trustworthy
• Re-brand your name it’s not unique, consider something unique, Phil comments on a post by Evan Williams about not being to literal with naming (If anyone can help me find the post Phil I’d be grateful)
• Consider adding a before and after profile as an example showing success
• An interesting showcase of your service would be to take a “problem” celebrity case and see if you can get your profile of them on the front page

My Recommendations (some website changes have been made since the show):

• Consider branding the site a bit better, I see a lot of stock images
• I like the video but I would consider a video showing an example of your work, don’t giveaway your method but show results.
• To create buzz I’d offer your service as a contest for 5 lucky winners (use a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn campaign) with the caveat that they have to allow you to showcase your results.
• Promote your blog a bit better, it appears very active, I would move the link to the header.
• I see you removed the pricing for your service and moved to a form (for more info).  The problem with this approach, in my opinion, is without genuine credibility and a clear proposition of what you offer I think you will struggle with conversion.

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TWiST 35

Tyler Koblasa calls in to pitch Mingly, a social media CRM tool to help you maintain relationships.  The app basically monitors your social profile and inserts time based reminders in a to do list.  If you are interested in a beta invite Tyler is currently accepting email addresses at Mingly.

Brad and Jason’s comments:

• Be sure to internalize your message to yourself first before you pitch to be able to show your emotion and passion for the idea.  Being technically correct in your pitch is important but don’t be afraid to let your passion for the project shine through.
• Brad shares a TechStars tradition that for the first couple of weeks companies have to pitch their company to each new person that attends the weekly event, so people will get comfortable pitching their idea.

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JT Keller a friend and helper to this site is looking to add to his startup team in the form of a co-founder, below is a brief description of what they are working on and who he already has on his team.

Seeking a Founder Level Elite Web Developer for an Innovative Branding Platform (Front End Focused/Generalist)

Posted On: March 9th, 2010    Job Type: Co-founder Job Location: NC , Virtual

Redefine a Stagnant Market, Eliminate Barriers to Entry, and Cultivate Fundamental Change
We’re searching for a founder level elite ninja/Jedi web developer to assist us in creating an innovative Web 2.0 branding platform that leverages crowd-sourcing and social media. We’ll be redefining a stagnant marketplace, removing barriers to entry, and cultivating fundamental change. We expect this person to not only be responsible for the development of the platform but to also be able to creatively collaborate at crucial pivot points during its evolution to beta.

You’ll be joining a great founding team that leverages domain experience from a globally ranked top 10 branding and marketing firm, a talented graphic designer, and a fantastic developer/CTO familiar with both front and backend web development.

If you are interested please visit this site for more details.

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TWiST 35

Ryan Clarke calls in to ask, I have great domain experience, should I consider outsourcing the technical end for my idea?

Brad and Jason’s advice:

• While you can try to outsource the work the chance of success is slim, the better approach is to get a co-founder that can develop your product.
• The opposite the opposite holds true, someone with developer experience that lack domain experience can succeed, if they listen to the customer they will be able to improve quickly.  It boils down to ideas are easy and execution is hard.

Ryan follows up with, how do I find a developer?

• Search LinkedIn for people who worked for companies that just went out of business or were recently sold.
• Consider Craig’s List
• Hacker News
• Friends of a friends

Finding a co-founder will be your first test as an entrepreneur, if you can’t do that you may have bigger problems down the road.  Also when choosing that person be sure they fit well right from the start because you will both ride the ups and downs together.

If you still can’t find someone consider teaching yourself to code, in the beginning your work will be rough but it will improve and may inspire others to come on-board after seeing some progress.

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TWiST 34

Anthony Colarusso who created myfaceshirt.com, a site that designs and prints the face of the buyer on a t-shirt. He wants to know, how to make his product more visible?

Jason’s advice:

• You need to get this viral and in the social space, DailyBooth may be a perfect place to start marketing your idea.
• Disadvantage is you are making individual shirts not bulk
• Reach out to high profile people and send them one and see if they will tweet or twitpic to their followers
• Consider adding their shirt to Threadless and creating an affiliate program
• The uniqueness of the idea limits your ability to scale
• Jason asked the question to the Mahalo Answers community, How would you market myfaceshirt.com? and received some good advice.

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TWiST 34

Jonathan Dusing of row27 Mobile calls in to ask, how do I defend my product against a big name competitor that wants to throw it’s legal weight around, how aggressive should I be?

Jason’s comments:

You have to be careful but you have to look at what you have to lose and what you have to gain.  You may want to consider taking the “unofficial” approach and be a bit more edgy with your product.  If that doesn’t interest you, consider contacting CBS to try work out a partnership.  If that approach doesn’t work, (fight up) use this to inspire your team to crush CBS, to make a product 10x better and reach out to more schools.  Write some blog posts and be aggressive about why your app is so much better.  Keep iterating, your advantage is that you are nimble and can pivot quicker than a large corporation.

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TWiST 34

Tommy Leap calls in to ask, how do I become an angel investor?  First you have to meet the SECs rules to become an angel investor.  If that is met, you have to understand the risk and create a portfolio that diversifies you enough to find a winner understanding that many startups will fail and only a few succeed.  If you don’t have a significant amount of discretionary income to meet the SEC rules but have a little extra cash, consider creating your own startup and have control of your own destiny.

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JT Keller

I would like to introduce and thank JT Keller for joining me at StartupRecap.  JT will be assisting me recap some of the segments and also adding some content.  You may also remember him for the recent launch TWiST StartupEffect a side project he thought might help the community.

JT is a strategic marketing and branding consultant specializing in brand strategy, portfolio management, brand equity research, and social media strategy.  He’s been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with some fantastic teams at companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to pre-funded start-ups spanning multiple industries/verticals.  He is a self professed technology/Web 2.0 junky and recently decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

Outside the interest of entrepreneurship he enjoys college basketball (University of North Carolina, his Alma mater), reading, and movies (sci-fi is one of his favorite genres…a huge Star Wars fan).

I think you will all benefit from his insights.

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