Archive for the ‘Net Essentials’ Category
Twitter Marketing Guide
February 16th, 2011 
Ryan While Twitter may not be as big as Facebook in terms of traffic, it has several advantages over Facebook. Not only is it easier to gain followers on Twitter, but you can engage with people before they become your friend on a personal profile or your fan on a business page.
The following is a guide to help you setup your Twitter profile and implement a successful Twitter marketing strategy. It gives suggestions and tips for those who are new to Twitter or are just looking for some new ideas.
One of my favorite tools is Twitter Lists via Listorious – Search for Twitter lists compiled by other members from your industry. When you view these lists on Twitter, go to the following tab. Then click on each of the users. In the new Twitter layout, you will see their profile pop out on the right side of the screen so you can see their followers, following, and have the option to follow them.
Enjoy -
Ryan O’Donnell
@ryanworking
http://letsgift.it
Build your own iPhone App in minutes!
January 26th, 2011 Ryan I was on a conference call today with the guys from BeanSprout during their partner showcase. Every month, they ask 5 companies to pitch via webcast with the goal of helping companies source and sign more partnership by circumventing the normal cold call approach. This is a really great idea, and they are executing well. More on them later…
One of the companies pitching today was ImSMB which is does “websites, hosting, and internet marketing for small business.” They have a really cool feature which is effectively a drag and drop iPhone App creator. Once you create the app, you can list it in the Apple app store and get analytics too. What a great idea. The cost is ~$400 for the basic version, and is a great way for a small business to get in the game. I’d love to try it out, but the $400 is not something I want to spend right now. Hoping someone tries it and gives me feedback.
Well done guys!
- Ryan O’Donnell
http://letsgift.it
Posted in Net Essentials 
Tags: app, Apple, awesome, Entrepreneur, iphone, Startup, Tech, Tools 
No Comments »MVV – Minimum Viable Video
January 6th, 2011 Ryan Starting a company has its share of unanticipated costs that can significantly drive up the investment required to get to market. No matter how good you are at projections there are bound to be a host of options to choose from to make the product or experience better. At Let’s Gift It, we operate in line with 37 Signals approach beautifully articulated in their e-book Getting Real.
Before launch, we wanted to include some sort of audio/visual representation of who we were, what the app does, and how our customers can use it. I turned to Google to benchmark time and cost of producing a product demonstration. Thousands of dollars and tens of hours was not a commitment we were willing to make. There are far better uses of time and money, in our opinion, at this stage.
So…what did we do? We did what I think any young, scrappy, hustling company would do. We deferred to the free (even though its not free anymore at $5/publish) option of creating a Minimum Viable Video (MVV) by producing our own ‘Office Group Gift’ example at Xtranormal.
I love to fish. My friend and former colleague at Right Media, Tom Swenson, sent me the first Xtranormal video I ever saw. A five minute, beautifully scripted plea/explanation from husband to wife about the benefits of following the Striped Bass migration from Maine to North Carolina in pursuit of the elusive 50 pounder can be found here. I was hooked (literally).
We decided to use Xtranormal to create our version of the product overview which fit nicely on our then ‘under construction’ How It Works page. Sure, we will eventually spend more time on a professionally voiced over flash, screen-capture or animated version, but that is not necessary at this point. We did what any good startup should do:
1. Identify what you need
2. Identify cost/time vs. benefit
3. Strip out what you don’t really need
4. Find a comparable, cheaper solution
5. Implement
6. Get back to work
Here is the byproduct and it cost us $0.
Posted in Business Time, Net Essentials Tags: Entrepreneur, FREE, Hacks, Startup, Tech, Tools, Video, Xtranormal No Comments »My Pitch for Startup Weekend
September 10th, 2010 Ryan 
850 technologists gather at Skirball on the first Tuesday of the month. Bob is running late (stuck at a meeting) and is planning on meeting up with colleagues already seated. Bob walks aimlessly up and down the aisles looking for his colleagues who eventually see him first and wave and shout to get his attention.
What if Bob could have pulled up an app on his iphone, and see exactly where his colleagues were sitting so he can easily slip into his saved seat without anyone noticing he was late?
At the same conference Tina is excited about her new e-commerce site which has been growing at a steady clip for the last 4 months. She is a recent grad and isn’t very well connected in the tech or investment community. She is however, connected to her iPhone where she pulls up an app and is directed to the exact locations of potential partners, investors, and employees based on their check-in and integration with social media profiles. When Nate Westheimer announces the ‘turn to your neighbor’ portion of the night, Tina is prepared to connect and pitch.
I’m Sitting Here is a web and mobile application that takes Geo-mobile (ie- FourSquare, GoWalla, Places) one level deeper and enables users the ability to check-in to their exact seat at conferences, entertainment events, restaurants, and offices. Integrations into Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make I’m Sitting Here the ultimate social and business networking tool for those on the go.
Web and mobile (iPhone/droid) front and back-end developers are critical to take this concept from idea to the app store. We can’t do this without you. Other Startup Weekend participants are welcome to join the team. I’m looking forward to working on a great project over the next 3 days.
Posted in Business Time, Net Essentials Tags: Entrepreneur, Fun, Hacks, Internet, NYC, Social, StartupWeekend, Tech, Twitter 2 Comments »Startup Weekend is Almost Here!
September 9th, 2010 Ryan 
I don’t know if its the… rush of pitching to a room full of strangers, the brain flurry of trying to process the best of the best pitches, forming teams a la kickball in grade school, seeing the first mockup take shape thanks to some PHP, watching people’s mood go through a Mr. Hyde-Dr. Jeckyll-Mr. Hyde transformation (and they inevitably do), pivoting, more pivoting, presenting on Sunday, or leaving the event with the feeling of accomplishment and desire to sleep for the next 14 hours – Startup Weekend NYC is here and its going to be awesome!
For those who have never been, I’ll post a copy of the schedule below. If this is your first time hearing about it, keep following their schedule as this event is SOLD OUT!
Friday, September 10th
* 5:30 pm – Doors open
* 6 – Event officially begins. Networking time. (delicious pizza and beverages served)
* 7 – Official kick-off and welcome
* 7:10 – Speakers: Jeremy Mims (Frogmetrics), Mark Davis (DFJ Gotham Ventures), Dwight Merriman (10gen) and Jessica Randazza
* 8 – Pitches start (Pitches are 60-seconds each. Pitch your best idea first, because we may not have a chance for second or third pitches)
* 9-ish – Pitches conclude. More time for networking. Some teams begin to self-form
* 10 – Voting. Teams solidify
* 11 – Break off to a bar or coffee shop to continue the discussion or begin work
Saturday, September 11th
* 9 am – Breakfast is served. This day is all about building, developing, designing, writing, creating, etc.
* 10 – By now, teams should have prototype(s) on paper, decided on a working title, and created technical plans. Start getting servers live, buying domains, creating user flows, etc.
* 12 – Lunch & Demos from Birchbox and Market Publique
* 1:30 – More coding, business plan development
* 6:30 – Dinner
* …Work through the night
Sunday, September 12th
* 9 am – Breakfast
* 10 – Teams should have a live splash page up with an email capture and a simple blog
* 12 – Lunch
* 5pm: Final presentations begin
* 8-ish – Panel votes. Awards. Wrap-up and move out
Posted in Business Time, Net Essentials Tags: Entrepreneur, Hacks, Startup, StartupWeekend, Tech No Comments »CarrotMob…A Cool Company Doing Good
August 3rd, 2010 Ryan 
CarrotMob
Rewarding businesses who continue to do something good s pretty typical…all you have to do is spend more of your money there. The traditional method to encourage companies to stop doing something bad is to take it to the streets which often times puts the business on the defensive. An illustrative can be viewed by watching the Youtube video below.
I have yet to create a mob, and will be joining the next one that comes through New York. Hey CarrotMob Team, if you are listening, what is the best way to find out about mobs coming to my city?
Twitter is Fast…
July 21st, 2010 Ryan As in the fastest growing search engine. As a Yahoo! shareholder, it sucks to see this stock and market share continue to lose traction. There are a lot of great people in that company that can right the ship. Its just a matter of putting them in the right position.
History of the Internet
June 28th, 2010 Ryan If you don’t know, now you know…
This is a great visual overview of the net.
History of the Internet from Melih Bilgil on Vimeo.
Start-up Tech Tools
June 23rd, 2010 Ryan Start-ups are always short on time. Bootstrappers are even more pressed to maximize time as a day spent building a tool, looking for a tool thats been built, or trying to find a workaround is one more day of revenue delay.
The guys at Songkick have compiled an awesome list of tech tools, most of which have been developed by other startups. If you have been in business for more than a week, and already use many of these tools, pat yourself on the back and get back to work. If you haven’t started using tools like BaseCamp, OpenX, Firebug, DropBox, or Bugzilla – it’s not to late.
“This list is maintained by Ian at Songkick but will be a lot better for your additions! Start-ups that have contributed to this wiki include: Boxed Ice, GroupSpaces, Habit Industries, Huddle, IvyLees, Playfire, Plug in SEO, Fragegg, Poll Everywhere, Smarkets, Songkick, TinyCoupon, Webjam, Echodio, Skimlinks, Wasabi Ventures, Soup.io, highdefnow, boxedup, Achilles, PicoCraft, CogniDox,, edocr.com, TechBrewery/Zattoo, GetItWithMe, OnePage, Mediaroots, Clear Books, Urban Alarm “
Posted in Business Time, Net Essentials Tags: Entrepreneur, How To, Internet, Startup, Tech, Tools No Comments »
