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Calling all NC Start-Ups!

July 31, 2008

Looking for free stuff is one of the ear-marks of the boot-strapping entrepreneur, so how about some free publicity?

We’re looking to feature local (NC) start-ups and give them some free coverage.  It would be a format that allows you to promote your start-up:  the idea, the funding, the founders.  And you can promote your product or service with pictures of video clips.

Send an email to learn more: NCStartUpBlog@gmail.com.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Can you hand me the business section?

July 29, 2008

I’ll keep this short.  Although maybe not as short as the News and Observer’s “business pages”.  But let me start by giving a full disclaimer: this post is mostly a rant about the scanty business coverage the Raleigh-Durham daily newspaper provides.

Let me illustrate the situation.  This past Sunday’s business section of the N&O consisted of 6 pages and that seems to be pretty typical.  It’s actually not the “business section”,  it’s called “Work & Money” and there seems to be no “Business” section as such.  Which, I guess, means that “Work & Money” not only needs to cover business issues, but also employment issues (though not Help Wanted) and personal finance.

Let me describe what you get:

  • Page 1 is local content: tips for getting a good deal when buying a car, office etiquette, some local iPhone application developers.
  • Page 2 is mostly “scrap”: reader talk-back, an editorial about minimum wage, a poll about personal finance, some ads.
  • Page 3 is all personal finance stuff.  Not relevant if you’re looking for local business news.
  • Page 4 and 5 look familiar.  The kinda stuff you read in the Wall Street Journal.  Wait, this is the WSJ… inside the N&O.  OK, that’s one way to fill a paper, you copy whole pages from another paper.  (It even says “Wall Street Journal” at the top of the pages).
  • Page 6 is the continuation of 2 articles from page 1 and has two short stories about new phone services, neither of which has a local angle.

So I get it — it’s a cost-cutting issue.  The paper had to reduce resources to stay profitable.  But its a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.  As you reduce the content, you start to loose readers.  Which in turn may force you to cut your costs further.  Etc.

Maybe I’m spoiled having read the Sunday business sections of papers like the Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Arizona Republic and others.  But I can’t help but feel that strong coverage of local business helps maintain and promote a strong local business climate.  And everyone benefits from a strong local business climate, whether you read the business section or not.

So I’ll use the “Work & Money” section to swat flies and look for local business news elsewhere.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Startups |  

Start now!

July 20, 2008

Thinking about starting up for yourself?  Not sure if this is the right time?  Worried if the current economic sitiation will make it extra risky?   Think again….

Alexander Muse from our sister blog Texas Start-Up Blog just made some very good points that this might just the right time.   Read it here.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

The role of the media…

July 20, 2008

Put the term “RTP Start-Up Weekend” in the search field on the web site of the News & Observer Newspaper (the daily that covers Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) and you get one (1) result, which is actually coverage of the coverage.  It’s about 130 words to tell the reader that NBC is covering the “RTP Start-Up Weekend”, a very local event that’s all business.  I could find no actual coverage in the N&O.

I’ve only lived in NC about 2 months, but I quickly dove into the N&O “business pages” to get a sense of the local start-up scene.   Yes, I put “business pages” in quotes, because I could barely recognize it as that.  It’s actually called “Work & Money” and today (Sunday, July 20th 2008) it was a very skimpy 6 pages (which seems to be the norm).  I found nothing that I would consider of value to a local business owner.  Now I know that the N&O has suffered recent budget cuts and staff cuts, so let me acknowledge the difficulty of running a daily newspaper publication.  And I won’t debate how I think they should spend their resources, because not enough resources simply means some things don’t get done (unless you innovate your way out of the cost structure).

The pity, or is it irony, is that NBC sent a camera crew to cover the start-up weekend and was in town for a good part of the weekend, while the local paper chose to skip it (more or less).   You might jump to the conclusion here that paper publishers like the N&O are loosing ground (and readers) to the “newer media” like CNBC.  But maybe the media is just diverging because the physical aspects of consuming a publication like CNBC are so different from a newspaper like the N&O.  Sometimes I don’t want to sit behind my computer and the newspaper experience is nothing like a Google news search — in a good way.  Just like video didn’t kill the radio star, our consumption of newspapers is simply changing.  For the N&O and others like it, the challenge is to find a new business model.  And for the reader it means we have to change our expectations…

Anyway, here’s some actual coverage of the RTP Start-Up Weekend by CNBC.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Media, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

An interview with Jess Martin, one of the organizers of the RTP Start-Up Weekend

July 9, 2008

This coming weekend is the RTP Start-Up weekend from Friday July 11th at 6PM till sometime on Sunday the 13th, location and details here.  I had the chance to do an email interview with Jess Martin, one of the organizers.  Here is the transcript…

NCSU Blog: How does the RTP start-up environment compare to other ’start-up hot-spots’ around the country?

Jess Marten: The web start-up environment in RTP is growing but decentralized.  There are several start-ups in Chapel Hill, a few in Durham, one or two in RTP proper, one or two in Raleigh.  However, there’s not a real sense of community or organization.  Whereas other start-up hot-spots around the country are densely concentrated and highly connected, the Triangle start-ups are somewhat isolated from each other.  That’s just the web start-ups though.  There is a dense concentration of biotech start-ups in RTP that I’m not familiar with.

NCSU Blog:  What do you see as the strengths in this area in terms of VC?

JM:  The strengths here in terms of VC’s are their desire to grow and promote this area above others.  John Glushin from Intersouth Partners in Durham summed it up well, saying “I would prefer that I never had to get on a plane to make a deal.”  The VCs here genuinely want to invest in local companies.

NCSU Blog:  How do NC’s agricultural roots tie in with the start-up culture?

JM:  I’m fairly new to the area, so this is somewhat an outsider’s perspective.  Issues of agriculture and race go hand in hand in America’s past.  Historically, the different communities (Chapel Hill, Durham, Carrboro, Raleigh, Cary) have been segregated racially.  Even now, the racial makeup of each of the towns is drastically different.  While this racial segregation has lessened over the years, a lingering effect of segregation seems to be that members of each community still tend to socialize and collaborate only among those in their immediate vicinity.  Unfortunately, there isn’t yet a collective identity for entrepreneurs in the Triangle.  My hope is that community leaders will emerge that will encourage the different communities to work together and pool our resources and relationships for the benefit of all.  The amount of talent and creativity in the Triangle is tremendous, but it still seems to be separated geographically.  This geographical separation could be a result of North Carolina’s historical agricultural and racial roots.

NCSU Blog:  What types of start-ups are likely to do better here?

JM:  Biotech can thrive in RTP.  It’s one of the top areas in the country for biotech.  Consumer web startups is a small but rapidly growing segment of the startup market here.  There is a remarkably large group in the Triangle of social media/web marketing folks who are very good at what they do.  They are always using and promoting new consumer web applications such as twitter and Seesmic.

NCSU Blog:  How many people have signed up for the RTP Start-Up Weekend so far?

JM:  42 as of Wednesday.

NCSU Blog:   Any veterans from other weekends?

JM:  About 5 people will be there who have been at past weekends (including Jess, Wayne Sutton, Brian Russell)

NCSU Blog:  I understand CNBC will be covering the event.  How did you get them interested?

JM:  CNBC contacted us.  Wayne Sutton (the other organizer) followed up.

NCSU Blog:   What are your hopes and dreams for the start-up weekend?

JM:  My hope is that the energy and excitement will be infectious and that many smart people from the Triangle will catch the entrepreneurial bug.  Also, over the course of the weekend I hope they will establish relationships that will help support and encourage them to pursue a startup idea of their own.

NCSU Blog:  Talk about your proudest accomplishment as an entrepreneur?

JM:  Leaving graduate school and turning down a comfortable and high-paying job at Electronic Arts to take a risk and start something on my own without a clue as to where it might lead.

NCSU Blog:  What is your biggest dream as an entrepreneur?

JM:  My “mission statement” is to develop online tools that allow people to build strong communities offline.  But more specifically I dream of reshaping an entire industry to tilt the balance of power towards consumers and away from large companies.  I have a couple of startups in the pipeline that have the potential to do just that for the music and the advertising industries.

===

It’s not too late to sign up and join the RTP Start-Up Weekend.  Look here for more about it after the event.

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Start-Up Weekends, Startups |  

Changes at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development

July 4, 2008

A short article in today’s News & Observer (click here for the article) reports changes at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.   Some organizational changes that include a lay-off of 30% of the staff to “balance revenue and expenses” and a renewed focus on its core mission.  The changes are part of a larger “evolution” that will unfold in the coming months.

Its obviously unfortunate for the people being laid off, but staying focused is necessary in business for uncompromised decisions.   We’ll keep watching the changes at the CED-NC as they develop.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

- marc

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Not just a Big Idea…

July 3, 2008

It seems like a bit of a pun, starting up a blog about start-ups.  Just a humble beginning about things with mostly humble beginnings, lots of drive, a bit of ingenuity, and a single big idea.  For this blog, the big idea is to promote and discuss start-up activities in North Carolina: new initiatives, venture capital, incubators, etc.

Lets start off with a local start-up weekend on July 11-13 in Raleigh.  Here is the concept: a seemingly random (though self-selected) group of people spend a weekend together with the big idea of creating a company from concept to launch.  The organizers are Jess Martin and Wayne Sutton, two local guys passionate about the dynamics of the start-up community.  The details are here:  http://rtp.startupweekend.com.

There have been two dozen start-up weekends in the US and abroad since the idea’s roots in 2007 (more here: http://startupweekend.com).  You can wonder what the chances are of a successful start-up with the randomness of people selecting themselves to be part of it and the huge time-crunch going from nothing to launch in a weekend.  I don’t have any knowledge (yet) about the success or survival of the companies that sprouted from past start-up weekends, but their success or failure is not really the point.  At a middle school science fair you don’t expect to see a demonstration of perpetual motion, but you do know these kids are expanding their minds.  Similarly, these start-up weekends are like a science-fair for talent, ideas and entrepreneurial energy to flow freely and explore.  Ideas are born and developed, friendships are made and seeds are planted.  Its like creating a new recipe — throw some good ingredients together and see what happens.

The concentrated nature of the start-up weekend allows tremendous exploration and sorting out of big ideas, applications and execution.  For a successful start-up it requires all three of those and not just a big idea.  I welcome comments and stories from past participants.

-marc

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Welcome to the North Carolina Startup Blog

July 1, 2008

Welcome to the North Carolina Startup Blog. SpringStage is a new startup founded by David Cohen, Alexander Muse and Micah Baldwin. Our objective is to build a network of online, offline and media properties in an effort to promote entrepreneurship. Our focus is on local community development and in an effort to generate local content we are looking for a writer who is connected to the regional startup scene to blog about startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital and interesting people in your area. If this sounds interesting apply online below: http://www.texasstartupblog.com/startups/startup-blog-network/

Written by Marc DeWalle · Filed Under Blog, Startups |