Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg on Funding and Futures
“It’s been a busy few weeks,” Matt Mullenweg said with a grin in response to the question about Automattic’s recent $29M funding round. Interestingly enough, this funding trails the initial investment of $1M that wasn’t fully expended.
Mullenweg talks with Brad Baldwin while visiting Park City, Utah (shhh…remember Matt you promised not to tell anyone about how great it is here) about their development team, projects, the open source community and revenue models at Automattic. Mullenweg shares some of the features and enhancements that will appear in WordPress 2.5 to be released in March 2008.
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Skullcandy CEO, Rick Alden, Invents Strapless Snowboard Binding
Rick Alden, the founder and CEO of Skullcandy, shares his entrepreneurial starts when he launched the Snowboarding Jam Event Series back when he knew everyone with a snowboard on a first name basis. While having to replace defective binding straps, Alden had the inspiration to invent a “strapless” snowboard binding. Alden shows off his first prototypes and tells about his first ride without straps. Later he sold the company to Ride Snowboards for 50 percent cash and 50 percent stock.
This presentation is a keynote from the 2007 Young Entrepreneur Summit in Salt Lake City where Alden shared his passion for starting and building businesses. Also watch a second recording where Alden talks about the genesis and brand creation at his latest company, Skullcandy.
Skullcandy: The Genesis and Brand
If anyone knows his target customer, Rick Alden does. With seven years of promoting snowboarding events and the invention, launch and sale of a snowboard binding — and company, Alden has “hung out” with extreme sport athletes for 20 years. Now he’s built the successful Skullcandy brand with audio and cell phone accessories.
Alden shares the genesis of Skullcandy, the products and the importance of brand.
This presentation is a keynote from the 2007 Young Entrepreneur Summit in Salt Lake City where Alden shared his passion for starting and building businesses. Also watch a second recording where Alden talks about his inventing the first strapless snowboard binding and sold the product to Ride Snowboards.
eMoms at Home Founder, Wendy Piersall
The success of eMoms at Home web site turned entrepreneur Wendy Piersall into a full-time blogger and social media advocate. Now as a contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine and Editor in Chief over seven (7) content channels and 10 different writers contributing to eMoms at Home, Piersall is advising people seeking home-based business advice and sharing experiences shared from thousands of readers. And it’s not just Moms anymore. Fathers are getting advice on being productive in a home office or businesses where kids are around.
Piersall takes a break from the Blogging for Business conference in Salt Lake City to speak with Brad Baldwin about the power of community.
VideoMercato: Funding Marketing and Sales
Greg Warnock has a soft spot for entrepreneurs. Whether it’s through mentoring, work deals at vSpring Capital, or angel investing, Warnock has seen a lot of companies. He’s also learned that it takes more than good technology and a strong development team to succeed.Trained as a computer scientist, Warnock recognized his bias for technology and unique IP–and he still does. However, after watching startups move from development stage to marketing and sales launch, Warnock has a new perspective on the challenge of emerging as a serious contender. So much so that Warnock and Alan Hall have created a new fund, Mercato Partners, that is focused on funding marketing and sales efforts.
Warnock introduces Mercato Partners to Brad Baldwin and describes the focus for the fund.
The “Game” of Work
Charles Coonradt is the author of The Game of Work. Coonradt had an epiphany one day when he watched how engaged and excited people were when playing basketball on a work break. His thought was why couldn’t this same model be applied to work? Coonradt created a methodology for increasing productivity through making work a game. He incorporated important lessons from sports and games, complete with feedback, scorekeeping, goal setting, coaching, choice, and accountability.
Coonradt talks with Brad Baldwin about the creation of his business “The Game of Work,” entrepreneurship, and a new book released in July 2007, The Better People Leader.
v100 Show: Zonder Into a Perfect Vacation Property
Where do you look if you want to rent a vacation home on a beach in South America? That was the question that led serial entrepreneur and vSpring v100 recipient Bob Barnes to start Zonder, a new web and eCommerce-based travel service that connects owners with great vacation rental properties to vacationers.
If your looking for a perfect vacation home, Zonder offers up a similar service of other travel and vacation sites, but does it based on owners who rent out their properties. You can search by location (ex: Kauai, HI), attraction (ex: Disneyland), or use our interactive map to drill down to your favorite region. Enter the dates you want to stay, your price range and the number of people in your party. Then, select from a list of amenities (ex: beach front, hot tub, cabin, ski-in/ski-out, etc.) to find properties that interests you most.
If you own a vacation home, Zonder brings shoppers to your front door. Owners can present their property along side other homes and let interested renters check availability and book their property.
Are You a TechStar Candidate?
Brad Feld and David Cohen go into detail about their summer project, TechStars, which is bringing 10 startup companies to Boulder, Colorado for an intensive three-month period of education and mentorship from over 30 of the best entrepreneurial minds in Colorado. Each company gets up to $15,000.00 in seed funding plus a chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the summer.
ConnectCast Weekly – 27 April, 2007
In this week’s ConnectCast, Rocky Mountain Voices‘ Cydni Tetro and Connect Magazine Executive Editor Colin Kelly discuss the top stories of the week. This week’s highlights include:
- Allegiance closes on a $5.7M round of funding
- Logoworks to be acquired by HP
- Arkona to be acquired by DealerTrack
- PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows low Q1 funding to Utah companies
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College Admissions is a Zinch
The college admissions process was such a pain that it inspired Mick Hagen with the idea for a company. Zinch.com is all about helping students showcase themselves for college admissions officers. As Hagen says, there’s a lot more to students than test scores. Zinch lets students create a searchable profile that combines their academic scores with a broad collection of achievements, talents, interests, arts, extracurricular activities, athletic, music and more.
The Zinch model: students generate their own profiles as a free service. Zinch lets the students “shout-out” to specific programs and universities they are interested in attending. Universities purchase a subscription to the content database with the ability to search various criteria. Zinch gives the university an additional way to target prospective students and then market specific programs students are looking for, rather than deliver generic, campus-wide information.
Hagen was accepted and entered Princeton University, but is taking a break to launch Zinch.com.
Video
iPodMattress Science from MyComfort’s Tony Pearce
Tony Pearce, President and co-founder of MyComfort, talks with Kip Mecham about MyComfort’s path from startup to leader in the market for innovation-driven cushioning and mattress technology. As an inventor, engineer, researcher and entrepreneur, Pearce took his knowledge and experience from the aerospace industry and focused on the bed, the place where we all spend a full third of our lifetime.
MyComfort was founded in 2006 by Tony and Terry Pearce, partners in EdiZONE, a leading research and development firm for cushioning and other sleep products. EdiZONE has developed and patented many of the sleep technologies available at MyComfort including Intelli-Gel, FLOAM, and Multi-Cell. Their technologies are licensed by companies including Dr. Scholls, JanSport, and Nike, and can be found in products worldwide in such things as medical beds for critical care patients, consumer beds, pillows, wheelchair cushions, shoes, shoulder straps, toys, and much more.
Changing a Service to a Product Company, Mark Andersen at RubberBall
RubberBall Productions is one of the longest-running independent stock photography studios. Mark Andersen, one of the founders, tells Brad Baldwin the story of moving from a an advertising photography service to a product company. While the Internet helped create new demand for still images, Andersen describes how the world demand for professional images is flattening. He also sees a big opportuny for professional video now that broadband offers a more interactive and richer user experience.
v100 Show: ContentWatch CEO Jack Sunderlage and Tech Sector Economic Growth
vSpring’s Dennis Wood speaks with ContentWatch President and CEO, Jack Sunderlage, about his participation in some of Utah’s most important economic development initiatives including the Utah Technology Council (UTC), the Utah Partnership for Education, The World Trade Center Utah, and Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) project. Sunderlage is a member of vSpring’s v100 – a peer-nominated group of the top 100 venture entrepreneurs in the rocky mountain region.
Mr. Sunderlage currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of ContentWatch Inc., a provider of Internet Management software and services. He has enjoyed a long and successful career in the Information Technology industry having held key sales and marketing executive positions with Burroughs, UNISYS, Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer, and Hewlett-Packard. His last assignment was Vice President of Global Accounts, West Region for Compaq, a part of HP. Jack took an early retirement from HP in July 2002.
Jack is the Past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Utah Information Technology Association where he continues to be a trustee with the newly formed Utah Technology Council. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board for the World Trade Center Utah. In 2006, he was appointed to the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Governing Board for the State of Utah.
Steve Grizzell, Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum Chairman
Venture capital and angel investment success in Utah is not limited to the Salt Lake Valley. Focusing on matching up investors and early stage entrepreneurs Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum chairman Steve Grizzell discusses UVEF’s origins and successes. A 20-year veteran in entrepreneurship, finance, innovation and economic development, Grizzell observes while Utah entrepreneurs and investors face some stereotyping challenges, they are becoming increasingly sophisticated—yet entrepreneurial ‘overhyping,’ corporate inbreeding and soft market research remain problematic.
With significant projected growth in Utah’s future, Grizzell sees the Wasatch Front as rife with opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors.
A nonprofit organization founded in 1989, is a support group working together to share lessons learned and to learn the war stories of those who’ve succeeded. UVEF encourages the creation and sustained growth of entrepreneurial ventures through providing networking opportunities, promoting recognition of business accomplishments and contributions, sharing business experiences, and encouraging free enterprise.
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