Ultra Light Startups
By Ultra Light Startups
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Podcast Description
Ultra Light Startups™ is an online and in-person community for entrepreneurs, investors, brands, and professional service providers building innovative online businesses. The community is centered around monthly pitch/panel/networking events and accompanying online forums. Events cover topics related to Technology, Design, Marketing and Finance.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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| 1 | VideoMobile Startups- May 2010 | Mobile StartupsSurvey of the mobile startup ecosystem. How much money has been made, by whom, on what platforms, with what types of applications?What differentiates a successful mobile application from an unsuccessful one?Designing and specifying a mobile application.Finding and evaluating mobile application developers (agencies, freelancers, permanent hires).Developing an application for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile platforms. Building cross platform mobile applications.Usability testing and analytics for mobile applications.Submission and approval of mobile applications into app stores. App store terms.Effective pricing and marketing strategies for mobile applications.What are the opportunities for startups with the iPad and related devices as an application platform? Moderator: Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups and CEO of BrightMap Panelists (alphabetic order): Nihal Mehta, Co-founder and CEO of buzzd Alex Muller, Co-founder and CEO of GPShopper Rachit Shukla, Co-founder and CEO of Two Toasters Greg Yardley, Co-founder and Vice President, Products - Ad Optimization at Flurry | 5/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | VideoAd Networks and Exchanges for Startups- April 2010 | What is an ad network? What is an ad exchange? Why do they exist? Who uses them? Types of ad networks - Representative, blind, targeted Ad exchanges, ad servers, demand-side platforms, publisher-side platforms, data providers Technologies/media - Display/banner, text, video, mobile, email, SMS, rich media, flash, etc. For Publishers - Selling Inventory on Ad Networks and Exchanges How to profitably use ad networks and exchanges to sell your ad inventory Estimating revenues and comparing across various ad networks Ad networks vs. exchanges vs. direct sales - how to determine the most effective way to monetize Differentiating between/among ad networks - how to know which to use For Advertisers - Buying Inventory through Ad Networks and Exchanges How to utilize ad networks and exchanges to efficiently get your message out and convert traffic Affordable and cost effective buying strategies for online businesses How to find the right ad network/exchange for your brand, message, and technology Case studies of innovative/successful use of targeted ad networks/exchanges by advertisers Moderator: Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups and CEO of BrightMap Panelists (alphabetic order): Dean Harris, CMO of Kayak.com, Vonage, and HotJobs Jonathan Hsu, CEO of 24/7 Real Media Brian O'Kelley, CEO of AppNexus Anand Subramanian, Founder and Chairman of ContextWeb | 4/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 3 | VideoSEO for New Websites- March 2010 | Terms: SEO/SEM/PPC; keywords, pagerank; on-page vs. off-page; black hat vs. white hat; crawling, indexing & ranking Strategy: Defining objectives, ROI tracking/analytics, keyword and competitive research, research tools On-Site Tactics: Sitemaps, robots.txt files, page title/H1/H2/meta/URL, image alt tags, manual submission to search engines, internal linking Off-Site Tactics: Link building, social media, PR, backlinks via badges, widgets (html, iframes, javascript) Myths and Facts: Duplicate content, link sharing networks, indexing Javascript, AJAX and interactive content, speed as a ranking factor, keyword meta tags, the "Google sandbox" SEO for New Websites Why is SEO for new websites different than for established websites? Thinking more like a consumer, and less like a marketer Strategies when using off-the-shelf platforms (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, etc) Strategies when building a site from scratch (e.g. php, Rails, .NET, etc) Top SEO must-do tips for new sites (see here, here, here, and here) Site launch - press releases, blog backlinks, social bookmarking Advanced Topics in SEO Social Media and Real-time Search: How do social media and real-time content play into your SEO strategy? Content Types: Video, audio, images, products, locations, etc Innovations in Search Engines: Real-time/Twitter search, Bing, Google squared, Google social search, semantic search, mobile search, voice search Moderator: Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultra Light Startups and CEO of BrightMap Panelists (alphabetic order): Seth Dotterer, Senior Director, Marketing at Conductor, Inc Christopher Hart, Director, Eastern Region Operations Bruce Clay Inc. Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit and Founder of SEMPO Dennis Yu, Founder and CEO of BlitzLocal | 3/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | VideoDesigning Social Websites- February 2010 | Topics: What is a social website? What makes a site social? Why people participate online. Why some social sites work and others don't. The psychology of online social interaction. An overview of interactive design patterns for online social interaction. What works and what doesn't. "Paving the cowpaths" Visual design that complements interactive design. Launch of a social site. Bootstrapping a community from zero users. Getting over the "sign-up hurdle". Monitoring, analytics and design iteration for social interaction. Moderator: Corey Maass, Founder, Gelform Panelists (alphabetic order): Bryan Hamilton, Director of User Experience at Razorfish Dan Maccarone, Co-Founder, Hard Candy Shell Alex Rainert, Principal, Tinker Studio Christopher-Ian Reichel, Director, Product Development - Social Media at Viacom/MTVnetworks | 2/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 5 | VideoPR, Branding and Buzz- January 2010 | Why is brand important to a tech startups? What difference does a good (or bad) brand make for the likelihood of a startup's success? How important is a good name and domain name for your startup? How do you come up with a good name? When is it worth it to buy a domain name? What is PR / public relations? How is it different from marketing? What is buzz? How can it be generated and sustained? What is the purpose of PR for a startup? Do all startups need to do PR? When in a startups lifecycle should it become a priority? What are the services a PR agency can offer a startup? How much should these services cost? When do they become a budget priority? How does PR and branding fit into an overall marketing strategy? When should a startup focus on PR rather than other marketing priorities (social media marketing, traditional media, CPC, CPM, etc) Interacting with the press - targeting publications/journalists, writing pitches, developing press packets, etc. When to hire a PR agency vs. do it yourself. What are some success stories of tech startups using PR to their advantage? Horror stories of bad PR? What are some success stories of tech startups using effective naming, branding and buzz? Horror stories? Moderator: John Adams, Founder of BizBriefs Panelists (alphabetic order): Todd Barrish, Managing Director of LaunchSquad Rachel Honig, Managing Director, G.S. Schwartz & Co., COO & Co-Founder, Digital Power and Light Karl Schmieder, Founder of MessagingLab Lloyd Trufelman, Founder and CEO of Trylon SMR, publisher of NYConvergence | 1/8/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 6 | VideoBootstrapping vs. Venture Funding - December 2009 | December 2009 Entrepreneur's Forum Bootstrapping vs. Venture Funding Topics: * Objectives of this panel o To help entrepreneurs determine whether venture funding or bootstrapping is more appropriate for their project. o Understanding how to position your company for financing success under each scenario. * The investor's perspective o What is a venture fund (limited partners, general partners)? o Expected returns on portfiolio companies (~80% failures, ~15% breakeven, ~5% blockbuster) o Motivations of a venture capitalist in making an investment decision o Characteristics of a fundable company (concept, market size, team, barriers to entry, etc) o Venture funding success stories: Google, Amazon... * The bootstrapper's perspective o What is bootstrapping? o Characteristics of a bootstrap-able company (early revenue, low capital requirements, low burn rate, etc) o Bootstrapping success stories:Placebase, PlentyOfFish, MacRumors. o Funding sources for bootstrappers: founder savings, full-time job, consulting, organic growth, etc. * Would I ever want to seek funding for a company that could be bootstrapped? Would I ever want to bootstrap a company that could be venture funded? Why? * The right time to seek funding. What is the right "state" of the venture for seeking funding? * Pitfalls to avoid - Common outcomes for non-fundable companies which seek venture funding. Moderator: * Owen Davis, Managing Director at NYC Seed Panelists (alphabetic order): * Art Chang, CEO of Tipping Point Partners * Brian Cohen, Founder/President of iFluence PR and Board Member at New York Angels * Mark Davis, IT Venture Capitalist at DFJ Gotham Ventures * Dennis Mortensen, Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and founder of Canvas, Evonax, and IndexTools | 12/15/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 7 | VideoEmail Marketing for Startups - November 2009 | Email Marketing for Startups Topics: * Defining the right objectives for your startup's email marketing strategy. What is email marketing good for and what is it not good for? Why not use a blog or Twitter? * Email marketing success stories: pure-play email startups (Daily Candy, Thrillist, etc) non-email startups with successful email strategies. * Platform selection o Types of email platforms: installed products vs hosted services; open source vs. commercial; CRM-based, events-based, etc. o Platform survey: Phplist, ConstantContact, iContact, MailChimp, Eventbrite, Salesforce, etc. o Considerations: Integration (with your website platform, CRM system, e-commerce system, etc) * Message volume: How much is too little? How much is too much? * Message content: Combining compelling content with a marketing call-to-action. * Automated/transactional content: Integrating content generated on your website with your email campaign. Managing technical concerns (email platform API) and user experience concerns. * Analytics: What are the most important metrics in email marketing. How do you know if your newsletter is a success? * How how to build a valuable list. Tuning content, format, features, and scheduling to maximize growth and virality. * Email marketing consulting: Services offered by email consultants. When to hire a professional for vs. DIY. How to evaluate email marketing consultants. How to determine ROI. * Regulations: What is CAN SPAM and how do we ensure we're compliant? Other regulations to be aware of? Moderator: * Maisha Walker, President of message medium and e-commerce columnist with Inc. magazine Panelists (alphabetic order): * Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory * Neil Capel, Founder and CEO of SailThru * Adam Rich, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief of Thrillist | 11/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 8 | VideoBBC World Television Showcases Ultra Light Startups | BBC World Television covered the September 2009 Ultra Light Startups Entrepreneur's Forum event in New York. | 10/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 9 | VideoSoftware-as-a-Service - September 2009 | Ultra Light Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) One of the key tenets of starting an boot-strapped, ultralight company is to rely on third party providers -- be it software-as-a-service (SaaS) or cloud-computing companies -- to avoid large capital expenditures and "variable-ize" as much of your cost base as possible. This conserves cash and gives you the flexibility to scale up or down as needed. But what about those SaaS and Cloud computing companies on whom our ultralight start-ups are built? How did they get started? Is it possible to launch one of those on an "ultralight" budget? How do you handle the capital costs up-front as well as the ongoing maintenance and support costs associated with providing these services to your clients? At the September ULS New York meeting, we plan to delve into these issues with the following panel of experts. Some are in the middle of the start-up process, others have successfully scaled the business and chosen to take external capital. Some of the questions we will ask them to address are: * How did you cover the up-front expense associated with establishing the infrastructure/software for your clients? * How did you win your first clients? As a startup with limited capital, how did you gain the trust of cornerstone clients and convince them to hand over data or integrate your software into their daily lives? * How did you cover support and maintenance costs? Did you have revenue to cover this? * How significant were outages or lapses in service compare to more established or better funded competitors? Did these hurt business? How did you regain trust? * Were you able to scale effectively as a self-funded entity? At what point did you, or do you foresee having to take capital? Moderator: * Ray Bernaz, founder and CEO of Socialibrium LLC Panelists (alphabetic order): * Jed Alpert, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Mobile Commons * Steven Asherman, Founder and President of Base One International * Sam Lessin, Founder and CEO of Drop.io * Peter Stern, Founder and President of Zenbe | 9/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 10 | VideoLocal Business Models - August 2009 | Local Business ModelsTopics:What are examples of successful startups with local business models?Common challenges faced by local startups and strategies for addressing them, including:Identifying businesses and consumers in regions relevant to your startupTargeted marketing to local businesses and consumers. Can this be done through strictly online marketing or does it require a physical (sales/marketing) presence in the target region? How can this physical presence be outsourced for 'ultra light' entrepreneurs?Dealing with varying levels of technology capability in local businesses and consumers. What are there 'lowest common denominator' problems that are unique to local business models? What level of technical capability can be assumed of local businesses and consumers?Developing a 'critical mass' of users in a target region. Making a locally targeted service useful even with a small number of users. Leveraging a critical mass of users in one region to generate usage in another. What features of mobile devices and applications facilitate engaging local businesses and consumers?Capabilities of mobile advertising networks and niches where startups have been successful working with them.What challenges are unique to business models targeting local businesses vs local consumers? Moderator: Murat Aktihanoglu, Founder and CEO of Centrl Inc and organizer of the Entrepreneurs RoundtablePanelists (alphabetic order):Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle.comMark Josephson, CEO of Outside.InMark Potts, Co-Founder and CEO of GrowthSpurLandy Ung, Co-Founder and CEO of 8coupons.com and founder of the hyperlocal roundtable | 8/6/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 11 | VideoUltra Light User Experience - July 2009 | July 2009 Entrepreneurs Forum: Ultra Light User Experience Topics: What is User Experience (UX)? Is UX a one-off task or an ongoing process for a startup?What are the components of UX and the related topic of User Interface (UI) design?Information Architecture (IA) / Interaction Design (ID)Objectives: To define the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact withActivities: Tools: Visio, Omnigraffle, SmartDraw, SiteXpert, Axure, iPlotzOutput: Functional specification, process flow diagram, sitemap, wireframesUser Research and TestingObjectives: Efficiency, accuracy, recall, and emotional responseActivities: Stakeholder interviews, user interviews, surveys, observations, card sorting, web analytics, prototyping, usability testing, eye-tracking studies, etcTools: UserVue, Ethnio, Silverback, video cameraOutput: Recommendations for revisions to IA and VDVisual Design (VD) / Graphic Design (GD)Objectives: Create a visual representation of ideas and messagesTools: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver)Output: Style guide (text), graphics/images, stylesheets (CSS)Why should usability be a priority for startups? What proportion of a project's time and budget can an ultra-light entrepreneur justify spending on UX?How is the effectiveness of UX measured? How can an entrepreneur quantify the differences in a system before and after some investment in UX?What can an entrepreneur do himself and under what circumstances should he seek external help designing his site's UX?How should entrepreneurs go about finding this help? How much should we expect to spend? What should we do if we can't afford any external UX consulting?How have successful "ultra light" startups addressed UX in the past and what can we learn from them? What are examples of effective UX designs produced on a shoestring budget? What techniques were used to maximize ROI on the time and money invested? Moderator: Allen Ackerman, Founder and CEO of A-List Placement, and The Hire SyndicatePanelists (alphabetic order):Whitney Hess, Independent user experience designerAlex Kirtland, Partner at UsableMarkets LLCKaren McGrane, Senior Partner at Bond Art + ScienceDavid Sansone, Director of User Experience at TBWA \ NY | 7/1/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 12 | VideoTwitter-Based Business Models - June 2009 | June 2009 Entrepreneurs Forum: Twitter-Based Business Models Topics: Are any Twitter-based startups making money? If so, who and how?Can Twitter be used for monetization directly or only for marketing?What products and services are most effectively marketed on Twitter? Under what circumstances does marketing on Twitter produce a superior ROI to marketing on other media?What products and services can be sold directly via Twitter? What companies are doing this and what tools are they using?What business models require manually generated, original content vs. automated content? What are examples of some high-value automatically generated Twitter messages?Are there viable business models based on receiving (rather than sending) Twitter messages? What kinds of messages can be directly monetized by receiving them?Which content producers are monetizing Twitter most effectively?Which platform providers are monetizing Twitter most effectively?What are examples of pre-existing applications or content being successfully extended onto Twitter (vs. "native" Twitter start-ups)?Which media does Twitter come closest to replacing? Will methods used to monetize these media be effective on Twitter? Moderator: Greg Galant, co-founder of The Shorty Awards and CEO of Sawhorse MediaPanelists (alphabetic order):Ivan Kirigin, Co-founder and CTO of TipjoyAndrew Kortina, Lead engineer for application integration and API evangelism at Bit.ly and BetaworksPhil Pearlman, Director and head of market research and community development at StockTwits | 6/4/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 13 | VideoUltra Light Bootstrapping - May 2009 | Ultra Light BootstrappingTopics:Strategies for starting up and getting far with little or no moneyReal-life techniques that are working for other entrepreneurs and foundersWhy, in today's environment, getting far with little/no money can be the difference between success and failureEquity-strapping: getting people to work for equityBartering for serviceForegoing the office (running a company in the cloud) Moderator: Joe Chin, Founder and CEO of SourcePad (former founder/CEO of Guidester, Diadem, and JEV)Panelists (alphabetic order):Elaine Bolle, President of ClassifEye (former President/CEO of Government Payment Service, and also of Archex)Ramesh Haridas, Partner at Russian Hill Ventures (former Founder/CEO of Chintano, and also of PrivacyBank.com)Steven Krein, Co-Founder and CEO of OrganizedWisdom.com (former Co-Founder/CEO of Promotions.com and Transformation Ventures)Nat Turner, Co-founder and President/COO of Invite Media (former founder of EatNow.com, CertificateSwap.com) | 5/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 14 | VideoMonetizing Online Video - April 2009 | Monetizing Online VideoTopics:How to most effectively monetize online video and what revenues to expect.What are the most valuable online video properties right now? What content/audience niches are they serving? What are their revenue models? What technology are they using for marketing and distribution?What online video ad units are the most effective? Linear (Pre/mid/post-roll) vs. Non-linear (overlays, skins, etc) vs. display ads (alongside an embedded player). Interactive vs. non-interactve ad units.What are the most commonly used standards for video metrics. What determines the prices of video advertising and what are the ranges being paid now?What are the different video advertising networks and what differentiates them?What non-advertising revenue models have been tried for online video? Subscriptions/memberships? Product placement? Affiliate marketing? Live streams? Syndication? Which have been the most successful?What are the main video hosting/sharing websites and relative advantages/disadvantages of each for monetization? Moderator: Jamison Tilsner, co-founder and Managing Director of Tilzy.TVPanelists (alphabetic order):Zach Harris, Ad Products Manager at Blip.tvPaul Kontonis, Chief Executive and co-founder of For Your ImaginationRoger Wu, Co-founder and President of Klickable.TVTania Yuki, Senior Product Manager and Video Measurement Specialist at comScore | 4/2/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 15 | VideoEmployment Related Business Models - March 2009 | Employment-Related Business ModelsTopics:What are the most promising niches and technologies for employment-related startups?Revenue-generating technology for bloggers and web publishers - job boards, services and related packages. An overview and comparison of platforms available to publishers.Efficiency-enhancing technology for recruiters - social networks, requisition-sharing tools, etc. Which tools are essential for recruiters and why?Innovative employment-related startups - TheLadders, Indeed, SimplyHired, JobScore, Doostang. Which niches and approaches are the most profitable and fastest growing?Job search on social platforms - LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. How are these platforms changing the business of recruiting? Moderator: Joshua Russak, founder of RezRedo, and blogger at MarketingBlog.NETPanelists (alphabetic order):Allen Ackerman, founder and CEO of A-List Placement, I Have A Req and MAD-GCharlie O'Donnell, co-founder & CEO of Path 101, founder of nextNY, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at ITACJeff Stewart, founder of Urgent Career and Urgent VenturesEric Yoon, founder and CEO of JobScout, and founder and former CEO of JobThread | 3/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 16 | VideoUltra Light Web Analytics - February 2009 | Ultra Light Web AnalyticsTopics:What is Web Analytics? - definitions, terms, objectivesWhy is analytics so critical for a startup? What insights are going to justify the time spent on analytics?Most analytics resources are written towards operators of very high-traffic sites. What techniques are important to know and apply at my startup?What are the free analytics tools available and what is each best for? Will I ever need to buy analytics tools?Practical advice for maximizing your web analytics investmentStartup success stories attributable to effective use of Web Analytics Moderator: Maisha Walker, President of message medium and e-commerce columnist with Inc. magazinePanelists (alphabetic order):Bryan Eisenberg, Chief Persuasion Officer & co-founder, Future Now, Inc. Chairman Emeritus and Founder of the Web Analytics AssociationDennis Mortensen, Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and author of Yahoo! Web AnalyticsMarshall Sponder, Senior Web Analyst at Monster Worldwide and Social Media & Community Director of the Web Analytics Association | 2/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 17 | VideoOpen Source Content Management Systems - December 2008 | Open Source Content Management SystemsTopics:Overview of the most popular Open Source CMS's - Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and more.How to build a tech startup on an Open Source CMS's; examples of successfull startups on each platform.What are the main differentiators between the platforms; why use one CMS rather than another.What you can do with a CMS on your own and what requires the help of a professional development agency. Moderator: Vishy Venugopalan, software industry analyst at The 451 Group, an IT research firm; covers the infrastructure software and open source marketsPanelists:Steve Bruner - WordPress expert, founder and CEO of SlipFire, organizer of the New York WordPress Meetup.Ezra Barnett Gildesgame - Drupal expert, Drupal module contributor/maintainer, and co-author of the book Drupal in Action.Donna Marie Vincent - Joomla expert, principal of JoomSites, LLC and maintains the site for the NYC Joomla Users Group. | 12/4/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 18 | VideoMorgan Friedman - Overheard in New York | Morgan Friedman, founder of Overheard in New York, talks about the "Five Messy Truths About Starting an Ultra Light Startup":Testing can show you things you don't want to seeDealing with peopleReinvent what you're doingThe importance of moraleFocus and obsession | 12/4/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 19 | VideoSEO & SEM - November 2008 | Open Source Content Management SystemsTopics:Overview of the most popular Open Source CMS's - Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and more.How to build a tech startup on an Open Source CMS's; examples of successfull startups on each platform.What are the main differentiators between the platforms; why use one CMS rather than another.What you can do with a CMS on your own and what requires the help of a professional development agency. Moderator: Vishy Venugopalan, software industry analyst at The 451 Group, an IT research firm; covers the infrastructure software and open source marketsPanelists:Steve Bruner - WordPress expert, founder and CEO of SlipFire, organizer of the New York WordPress Meetup.Ezra Barnett Gildesgame - Drupal expert, Drupal module contributor/maintainer, and co-author of the book Drupal in Action.Donna Marie Vincent - Joomla expert, principal of JoomSites, LLC and maintains the site for the NYC Joomla Users Group. | 11/3/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 20 | VideoOutsourcing Your Startup - October 2008 | Outsourcing Your StartupModerator:Ronald Bradford Principal 42SQLPanelists (in alphabetic order):Shishir Danani President & CEO of Ideavate SolutionsYao-Hui Huang Co-founder of The Hatchery and Gigapixel CreativeBala Mulloth Operations Manager of Brooklyn Enterprise on Science & Technology incubator (B.E.S.T)Javier Starkand Co-founder of The Spirus GroupRandy Wilburn Founder of Randy Wilburn & Co. Real Estate and featured Outsourcing Evangelist | 10/2/08 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 20 Episodes |
