Adam Chavez

Update Jun 24 1:47PM: I just received a note from Greg Tseng — he wrote a public statement that you can see here: http://blog.tagged.com/?p=4

Update Jun 6 11:08PM: It looks like the CEO, Greg Tseng, has a bit of a history with spamming people to get businesses off the ground. See http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/index2.html

I contacted him to get his side of the story. If I hear back from him I’ll report it here.

Just got this email from a friend of mine — but he didn’t send it. It’s from a site called Tagged.com or TaggedMail.com — the scam apparently wants you to sign up at their site, and give them your email and credit-card info. It is not clear whether the site sells a legitimate product or service, but their marketing tactics are certainly immoral. Breaking into people’s email accounts and sending out false emails ain’t a good way to build trust with the community.

It appears that once you’ve given them your email Tagged.com adds your email to a list — so the spam will only get worse.

If you get an email like this below are a few steps you might want to take to make sure nobody else gets tricked:

1. Delete the email
2. Email your friend to recommend that they email the people in their address book to make sure others don’t fall for the phishing scam
3. Advise your friend from whom the message was sent to change their email password of the sending account

Hope this helps!

P.S. You can read about other people who have been attacked by this scam at this live search on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=taggedmail

…and see what he/she has to say.

http://academicearth.org/

http://etherpad.com/ep/pad/slider/13sentences

Wow. So simple — usually the coolest things are.

P.S. To see a really interesting conversation on this, go to this Hacker News thread.

I’ll be attending this as much as my schedule permits. I highly recommend coming if you are serious about getting a company off the ground.

Coates’ Venture Startup Lecture Series

Provo, UT — February 13, 2009 — Starting Tuesday, February 24th, Josh Coates will present a weekly lecture series on how to build a successful Technology Startup. Coates is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has experienced both spectacular success and dismal failure in the arena of the technology startups (but mostly success!) This six-part lecture series will provide candid advice about how to navigate the well-worn path of venture startups:

• Technology and Fundamental Business Concepts (Feb. 24)
• Raising Capital: The Simple, Well Understood Path (Mar. 3)
• Pro-active Product Development for the Enterprise Market (Mar. 10)
• Hiring the A-Team: Rocks and Clowns (Mar. 17)
• Practical Internet Marketing (Mar. 24)
• Personal Liquidity and Financial Exits (Mar. 31)

This lecture series will be hosted at the Novell Cafeteria (Bldg G.) “We are thrilled to be able to host the Coates’ lecture series again this year.” said Shauna Theobald, Program Director for the Technology Center at Novell. “Attendees from last year’s series raved about the positive impact Josh’s advice had on their businesses. Josh has firsthand knowledge of how to lead a tech-based venture to success. ”

This free lecture series is open to the public every Tuesday from 12-1:30p.m., starting Tuesday, February 24th. This series is sponsored by the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, the Provo Technology Xelerator, the Technology Center at Novell, and SiliconSlopes/Omniture.

About Josh Coates: Josh began his career doing research in parallel computing at UC Berkeley and went on to found two venture backed startups related to large scale data storage technology. His extensive experience ranges from high performance computing and data center operations to venture funding, financial modeling, marketing and mergers and acquisitions. Coates has been honored for his innovation by MIT and Ernst and Young and featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. He currently volunteers as an adjunct instructor in the Computer Science department at BYU.

For additional information: http://www.uvef.net
Contact: stheobald@novell.com
Phone: 801.318.2764

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Information:
Shauna Leavitt Theobald
stheobald@novell.com
work: 801.861-4046
cell: 801.318.2764

I’m re-reading “Art of the Start” & thought I’d take some notes — then I thought, “Why not just post them on my blog? Kill 2 birds with 1 stone” So here you go. Enjoy!

Question: How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching?
Answer: His lips are moving.

Pitching Tip 1:

In the first minute, answer the question: “What does his organization do?” — Don’t go off on personal tangents at the beginning of a pitch

Two Things to Do Before Pitching to a VC

1. “Set a timer to 1 minute. Give your current pitch until the timer goes off. Ask the audience to write down one sentence that explains what your organization does. Collect the answers and compare them to what you think you said.”
2. “Videotape yourself giving your pitch. If you can watch it without being embarrassed, you’re ready to go.”

Pitching Tip 2:

Observe the 10/20/30 Rule

• 10 slides or less
• 20 minutes (leave 40 minutes for questions/discussion in a 1 hour meeting)
• 30 point font

Pitching Tip #3 - 1 Person Talk & 1 Person Listen & Take Notes

Story on listening:

“I once accompanied a startup’s CEO and COO on a pitch to a venture capitalist. A few days after the pitch, I met with the VC alone. When we began to discuss the Management (with a capital M), all he said was, ‘I noticed that the CEO did a lot of talking, but the COO was sitting there taking notes. The CEO didn’t write down a thing. I think the COO is a quality guy.’

“I don’t remember whether what the venture capitalist had been saying at the original meeting was actually noteworthy, but that’s not the point. The point is that shutting up and taking notes or, God help you, actually listening for ways to improve is a good thing to do in a pitch, where even the smallest actions create a big impression. The visible act of taking notes says

• I think you’re smart
• You’re saying something worth writing down
• I’m willing and anxious to learn
• I’m conscientious

“Taking notes provides these benefits, plus the value of the information that you’re recording. It can’t get much better than this.”
“Also, at the end of the meeting, summarize what you heard and play it back in order to make sure you got the correct information. You can make an even greater impression by also following through, within a day, on all the promises that you made during the pitch — for example, providing additional information.”

For RSS feeds without the setup from Guy Kawasaki on startups, try startups.alltop.com

I had the opportunity to sit down with Ryan Caldwell last week. He’s the CEO of Entice Labs, a startup based in Provo, UT that is changing the way companies recruit and attract talented people in technology. Using cutting-edge, patent-pending technology, Entice Labs allows employers to reach five times as many job candidates at a fraction of the price.

Caldwell, a graduate of an earlier iteration of the Information Systems program at the Marriott School, is no stranger to startups and entrepreneurship. His first company was MadKey, an internet company that specialized in high-speed networks. He discovered an innovative way to get speedy internet to customers for less than what any of his competitors were charging. He described his competitors as being “a little miffed” as they would be out-bid nearly every time they went up against MadKey. Caldwell’s team could service an entire apartment complex with high-quality service and only charge a fraction of their competitors’ fees. Needless to say, they had no problem getting new customers. Even more impressive though, was that they managed to maintain a profit margin of 80% even with such low prices.

A few weeks before his graduation from the Marriott School, he sold MadKey for $2.9 million. Not receiving the typical graduation present, he celebrated by doing what everybody who sells their company for a few million dollars before graduation from college does — he kept working. Caldwell valued his startup experience, but wanted to see the corporate and international side of things.  He worked in the corporate world for about 9 months in San Francisco (my hometown, and one of Caldwell’s favorite places), where he traveled as far as London and Singapore for corporations like Microsoft and Visa.  After getting a good feel for the corporate world, he then came back to Utah to help a few friends with their startups.

He ended up at Entice Labs after being introduced to the team through colleagues in the area. The company had some big challenges ahead of it when he picked up the reins as CEO, and he and his team have been sprinting and sweating ever since to get the startup to its current level. “It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve done,” said Caldwell as we discussed his time at Entice Labs over Pita Pit sandwiches.

1. Go to docs.google.com (login with your gmail or google account)

2. On the left-hand side you’ll see a box that says “new.” Click that.

3. A drop-down menu will appear. Click form. An editable version of your form will appear.

4. Edit your form.

5. Click “Save” and you’ll be given a link that you can share with others.

6. If somebody fills out your survey or questionnaire, the results of what they entered will come to you in a google docs spreadsheet that you can access from your google docs account.

A chance for a student to work at a vc-backed startup this summer, and learn venture capital at vSpring once a week!

Update: We’re very interested in candidates with a background/passion for GTD.

Location:

Salt Lake City, Utah

Industry:

Finance/Banking - Venture Capital

Job Function:

Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Product Management, Project Management, Supply Chain Management/Logistics

Description

Internship:

Looking for 8-12 interns to work with successful start-up companies in Utah.

Project Description:

vSpring Capital, the most recognized venture capital firm in Mountain West Region, is now accepting applications for summer internships. Several of vSpring’s portfolio companies have expressed interest in adding a summer intern to their start-up team. Interns have previously worked on projects such as implementing software platforms, establishing financial controls, creating strategic road-maps, researching competitive landscapes, and leading entire marketing strategies.

Job Description:

We are looking for 8-12 MBA or undergraduate business students to serve as full-time interns. Interns are placed in vSpring portfolio companies to provide the company a means of accomplishing projects that might be difficult given the company’s limited resources.

Therefore, intern assignments represent significant value-add projects and tasks that help the portfolio companies to secure their competitive advantage. Intern assignments are strategic in nature, and may involve market research and quantification, competitor analysis, marketing, product and project management, R&D, or finance.

Only after individual job descriptions are developed are candidates screened and interviewed. These descriptions are then matched to the intern possessing the best combination of skills and background. Interns achieve the highest levels of quality and performance in their internships, and produce deliverables that are consistent with vSpring’s recognized standard of excellence.

Benefits and Opportunities:

Work with premier and highly-active venture capital firm and gain invaluable experience with a successful start-up organization. Establish a network of business professionals that can assist in career development.

Specifically looking for those interested in Finance, Marketing, and Operations. The portfolio companies of vSpring are in the technology & life sciences fields.

HOW TO APPLY:

Send resume and cover letter to [Update] Adam Chavez at adam@vspring.com (Mobile: 801-687-1401)

My friends Tyler and Rich and I are fed up with slow computers. So…

We started this Facebook group, “My Computer is So Slow”, to find other people who feel the same way.

If you have a few minutes, join the group by clicking the above link — and then let your friends know about it.

Thanks!

If you ever wanted the answer to the question, “What’s going on in the Utah tech community?” Jordan Gunderson has the answer. He’s compiled the Utah Tech Events Calendar, which you can access directly from the top navigation of this site.

Alternatively, you can just google “utah tech events” and the calendar will be the first result on the list.

Thanks to Jordy and the rest of the tech community for putting on all these events!