Published on February 12, 2008
in Startups.
At SoCon (which I plan to write about at some point), I attended a session which was supposed to be quick fire demos. Unfortunately some of the early presenters took way too long which meant later presenters were shortchanged for time. Regardless, one demo was pretty interesting in that it had only a little to do with technology and a lot to do with social interactions.
One World Connects just recently started taking pre-orders for their Meridian. The Meridian is designed to be recognizable object that people can wear and trade with others who are also wearing a Meridian. Basically it’s supposed to be a piece of jewelry that can be used as an ice breaker.
The company’s founders have a larger intention for their service than just an ice breaker though. By letting users track which Meridian they have and which ones they trade for (each Meridian has a unique number on it), they can see how far their Meridian travels the world. If you’ve ever seen the website Where’s George, same idea. The company has plans to donate a percentage of profits to charity on an ongoing basis some of which will be determined by the distance your Meridian has traveled. They’ve also made a commitment to be environmentally friendly in the manufacture of Meridians and their t-shirts.
I don’t think this appeals to me since I tend to not wear any jewelry (I haven’t even worn a watch for the last 20+ years) but I can definitely see the value in the product (you can keep your Meridian on your keychain, by the way). The company is taking pre-orders now ($20 for one) and you can get discount codes off of their Facebook page.
I heard an interesting PR related tidbit at SoCon this last weekend. Someone mentioned that Justin Rubner left the Atlanta Business Chronicle as their technology reporter. You can verify this by looking at Justin’s LinkedIn profile. This same person (whose name I’m intentionally avoiding) also mentioned that their PR firm said PR and the press in Atlanta are dead. I’d say that statement is probably pretty accurate. Of the two major papers we have (ABC and AJC), neither has really committed significant resources to covering the local startup scene. Yeah, we could get back to complaining about no awareness but instead I think our collective energy would be better spent in figuring out how to overcome this hurdle.
So what’s my contribution? Starting this blog for one. Getting into arguments about the local funding environment for another (there was a bit of this during SoCon as well). And for the third, I’m heading down to ATDC this Wednesday to do a brown bag discussion on PR and raising the awareness of your startup. I’ve worked up some analysis that I published before that I’ve updated and added to for this presentation. I think the brown bag is only open to ATDC companies but I’m not the one in control of that. If you really want to come, let me know and I can see if there are open spots for non-ATDC folks.
Oh yeah, if you want to get PR on this blog - it’s pretty easy. Just drop me a note and we can chat about what you’re doing and see if it fits with what I’ve been writing about.
Published on February 10, 2008
in Asides.
Sorry for the lack of posting over the last few days. I was out of town on a trip last week and then wrapped up on catching up and attending SoCon over the weekend. Things will get back to normal in the next day or so.
Lance mentioned that this might be the biggest raise (for Georgia) for 2008. He might just be right. Suniva announced a raise of $50m from NEA, Goldman Sachs, and HIG Ventures. They’re also looking to pick one of three manufacturing facilities which are located in Gwinnett or Cobb counties (woot! OTP baby!). Good new for Georgia and for Georgia Tech grads who might want to work in the energy and solar industries. It also makes me wonder if Suniva might be a good acquisition at some point for Siemens whose Energy & Automation unit is based in Alpharetta.
Published on February 5, 2008
in Startups.
I’ve been hesitant to post this but what the heck. I’m going to withhold any commentary and just let you watch the video. Asankya was the only other Georgia company at DEMO 2008 along with iVideosongs. Like I mentioned in that post, I think the iVideosongs presentation was very well done. Readers - feel free to compare and contrast the two presentation styles in the comments. Video below and on the DEMO site.