At 9am this morning we’ll be taking a caravan of vehicles up I-35N to Austin to set up our booth for SXSW Interactive 2010.  We’ll be right next to the Brandstack booth, and across the aisle from our client ServerBeach Dedicated Hosting.  In fact, fitting all of our crap into our cars is going to be a challenge.  We’re taking 9 boxes of t-shirts, 6 laptops, a projector, a 10-foot banner, 1,000 brochures, a 15-foot interactive game called “The Score is Right” where people can get their website scored while watching Hans yodel his way up the mountain, just like Cliff Hangers in The Price is Right.  Yep, it’s complete with the theme music and all.

Across the aisle you can get your Speed & Performance score at ServerBeach on a giant plasma screen.  Then they tell you how to improve the performance of your website, which can help your search rankings.

So if you are going, stop by and get scored.  If you’re not going, come back to this page where we will be updating it all weekend with photos and video from the show!

Check out these videos from SXSW:

Check out these photos from SXSW:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

No Comments »Tags: sxsw

After catching up on some news this evening, I was appalled to learn how lacking the oversight is on the Government stimulus money that I feel like we were duped into in the first place.  CNN reports how a company in Tennessee was given $16 million of this federal warchest to do something useful, yet did not create one single job.  In fact, the money was used to do some soil remediation in Ohio – not even in Tennessee!  CNN also reports a bunch of money was given to Massachusetts company Aggregate Industries, who happens to be the same company who allegedly provided sub-par concrete to the Big Dig project (the largest civil project in the history of the U.S.) – so after the lies, cover up and lawsuit from the State, a big fat stimulus check arrives in the mail.

More capital needs to be accessed easier for the start-ups and small businesses to dramatically improve the economy.

Where is the funding for the start-ups?

I firmly believe that what will get us out of this economic slump is the start-ups and small businesses in this Country, not bailouts to companies who are “too big to fail” and prove over and over again that they can not manage their money properly.  The problem is that I don’t see any programs devoted to funding some of the small start-upst to develop new products, software or other intellectual property.  Sure, in Texas we have the ETF, or the Emerging Technology Fund, and I’ve even looked pretty closely at that program, but there’s enough red tape in that thing to go around the Equator.  It’s really not an attractive option for smaller start-ups like Pear Analytics.  The SBA program also has it’s limitations and hurdles.    Not too long ago I read in the local newspaper that a cap had been reached on the amount of loans available for small business.  That’s enlightening.  No more money there.  Small start-ups like us can really only turn to friends and family, or angels for cash.  A bank probably won’t give us a line of credit, so they’re useless (even though I thought that’s why they were given bailout money in the first place).

What I could do with just $1 million in Government stimulus money

If I could get just a small fraction of what these other sheisters got, I know I could do some serious stimulating.  For instance, I could easily hire an additional 2-3 web developers, 1 or 2 customer support staff, additional search engine experts and even an administrative assistant.  I would also hire a community manager, and I’m already looking for a content syndication specialist for a full-time position.  That’s easily 10 people I could hire to help stimulate our business to grow our user base and increase sales.  With more sales and more people, I would need to employ folks like Sales By 5 to handle our marketing and events, and I would need a larger office space in our building, which means Magi would be getting more money from us as well.  Of course, the 10 people I would hire would need to rent or purchase homes, eat out at restaurants and purchase cars and put money into the local economy here in San Antonio.  Think of multiplying this effect by 10 or 20 other start-ups, and look what it would do to the economy to a city like San Antonio with about 1.3 million people.

I don’t even mind if the Government stimulus money was a loan, and it worked just like any other angel deal (where they are typically treated as a convertible note) – unlike the other beneficiaries of these stimulus funds.  I would even report quarterly how the money was used and what kind of ROI (Return on Investment) I am getting for our taxpayer’s money.  I would repay the loan after five years with an 8% interest rate, just so the taxpayers gain interest on their money – unlike how it seems to be working currently.  Is any of this oversight in place now?  The best thing for me as the owner is that I don’t have to give up any more equity in exchange for the capital.

Other options?

OK, so the Government doesn’t exactly have the resources to oversee all of this and give out $1 million here and $1 million there.  But they can outsource it – they seem to be pretty good at that.  They should give a mere $1 billion to folks like Y Combinator or Capital Factory in Austin, Texas to come up with the process to screen candidates and dole out the $1 million chunks.  Sure, there would be some requirements, but these guys can process it out and streamline better than anybody.  What do we have to lose, President Obama?  We’ve already blown way more than $1 billion, and probably don’t even know where it went or what happened to it.

If you know of any programs where small businesses or start-ups can access cash a little easier, please let us know.

1 Comment »Tags: capital factory, economy, government stimulus, startups, YCombinator

The following editorial is actually a thesis written by Josh Lavine, a student at Princeton University who’s task was to interview a start-up company, preferably in the hi-tech area for an Entrepreneurship class.  It is quite long, but describes how Pear Analytics was started and where we are going, the challenges we face, and more.  I’ve also left out the Appendix due to length, which you may see notated throughout the report.  This is Josh’s final thesis, and frankly I was impressed by how much he learned about our business and industry in the mere 4 or 5 hours he interviewed me.  I also plan to implement several of his suggestions for improvement which he notes at the end of his report.  Josh is personally invited by me to come join our team at Pear any time. Enjoy!

It is December 23, 2009, noontime. I smooth my shirt and try to lick the tomato sauce stain off my sleeve, then open the door to the office of Pear Analytics. What I saw surprised me.

The office, located in San Antonio, TX is quaint, but strangely chic. It is only one big room with no walled-in spaces, except for the two small conference rooms in back. Large neon green and blue balls are rolling around the floor (I would later find out that instead of buying expensive chairs, the team realized they could just sit on cheap, cool colored exercise balls). Ryan Kelly, founder and CEO of Pear Analytics is presently standing (towering, really—he’s must be 6’6”) at one end of the room, watching one of his office mates from BrandStack, the company he shares office space with, play tennis on the Nintendo Wii on an enormous flat-screen TV—probably the most expensive piece of equipment in the room. If Kelly turned his gaze down and to the right, he would see Romy Misra, his senior analyst, writing equations in dry erase marker on a large glass table. She records her calculations on her laptop. Kelly’s other employees—just three web developers—were out for the day. I follow Kelly into one of the back conference rooms. We sit down and start talking.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment »Tags: josh levine, morris miller, pat condon, pear analytics, san antonio startups

To say that Apple has changed the mobile phone industry is an understatement. They changed the MP3 player market before that. Now all rumors point to an impending tablet/touchscreen device, what market will this affect?  Everyone else has their ideas, so I’ll throw mine in as well, some of these ideas aren’t just fantasies, but reports from sources familiar with Apple.

iPhone on Verizon

This is a big deal for the US, but not much of a surprise, AT&T doesn’t bring anything of exclusive value to the table, so the exclusivity contract will not last.  This is such a no-brainer, that I won’t spend much time on it.  If you have a contract with any carrier, and it’s about to expire in the next 3 months, great, just stay with them and go month to month, you don’t need to buy a new phone yet.

Tablet/Slate/Larger iPod Touch

I know for a fact that this is happening, and is bigger than people think it is. This is not just an addition to their line up, but an attempt to change theway we interact with computers on a daily basis. The iPhone and iPod touch were nothing more than experiments, and we all paid willingly, to be their lab rats. The first victim of this device will be the Amazon Kindle and other ‘e-readers’.  The proponents of current readers thought people would love to be able to carry the same number of books with them, as they do their music. Forgetting that most songs are less than 3 minutes long, and don’t require the undivided attention of the user. Even with things like “read to me”, the form factor is plain unsexy and cumbersome.  Combine that with text only display for magazines and periodicals, and the process of reading just becomes downright painful. Now imagine a device that lets you check your email, surf the web, and read your favorite magazine or book at any time, and it does it all in color.  That’s what the tablet will do. The first generation will not make voice calls via a cell network, but will have EVDO built in.  Now how is this better than any other tablet, or laptop/netbook?

As a consumer, it’s better because it’s further consolidation of multiple devices, it’s a bigger form factor than an iPhone, and I am 99% certain, won’t require a contract with AT&T. All data will go through Verizon’s EVDO network, with Sprint/Clear 4G coming in 2011. You can take this device to your office, “dock it”, and  use it with a bigger/newer display and your existing keyboard/mouse.

As a publisher, your content is delivered the way you want it, including Ads you sold in your hard cover editions, except now these ads are interactive. There will be a lot of naysayers when the product is first announced sometime in January/early February.. but the device will improve very quickly. There  are multiple form factors in prototype stages already, anywhere from the 10 inch tablet, to a 15, 17, and 24 inch version.

Did anyone notice that the 24″ iMac  is missing in the lineup, yet there is a 24″ Cinema Display? My bet is on a 24 inch dock/display for the tablet.

Oh, this device will run OS X, not iPhone OS.

OS Touch

Details will emerge during WWDC, but expect a lot of changes, this will probably be OS XI, 11, or whatever you want to call it, but move to a full touch system requires more than just the ability to handle multiple fingers at once, expect a lot of changes in how we boot up, shut down, and over all reliability of day to day computing devices.  How we connect peripherals, how we charge the devices, how we game, how we input information and extract it, is all set to change.  I expect this road to be bumpy, but how the majority of us interact with computers today, will be dramatically different in 2015.

Keep in mind, so far we’ve only had incremental improvements, but we’re still using a mouse, a keyboard, and are tied to our desks, even if we have “laptops”. But the way we interact is no different than 1985.

It’s funny that a $600 phone is next to impossible to brick, but a $3000/laptop can be bricked without trying.

So, what are your thoughts?

3 Comments »Tags: apple, tablet, verizon

For those of  you who are wondering how many people are using Twitter, or even how many new accounts are created per week, I kind of did a hack using Tweetie2 for the iPhone.  I’m sure there are other ways you can get this information – this is just how I did it.  I also reference some other articles and research about this towards the bottom of the post

You may have already noticed that in Tweetie2 when you click on a user to see their profile there is a number under their handle.  So I did this for a few people and was shocked to see my friend @alanweinkrantz was #10,326, whereas @pearanalytics was #16,657,710.  Clearly Alan must have been an early adopter, so I asked him when he signed up for Twitter and he told me October 2006, which I “think” is right before Twitter even launched themselves at SXSW in March 2007.  Alan even joined before @scobleizer who is #13,348.

Is Twitter Growing at 1 million New Accounts Per Week?

Last week on December 18th I created a new account, @welovehosting.  That account was #97,717,227.  So I thought if I created a new account and got that number, I could compare the two and see what the growth rate was.  So today I created @iamryankelly and am #98,669,223, which is a difference of 951,996 new accounts in 5 days.  That’s a growth rate of 190,400 new accounts per day.

Note on Accuracy

It’s difficult to determine the accuracy of this method, since according to Twitter Facts, Twitter stopped using sequential ID’s by the end of November 2006.  Then there is this blog post by Jason Kottke in May 2007 which discusses the growth of Twitter, complete with various graphs and other deliciousness.  So how accurate is this?  What do you use to find out Twitter growth?

1 Comment »

Despite a tanking economy, Apple has record sales and profits and doesn’t need a fire sale to compete this holiday season.  Find out four things they have mastered which make this possible.

Apple is coming off the best performing fiscal year ever according to cNet, with $1.67 billion in profit – which is a whopping $1.82 per share of earnings.  This along with record sales for the Mac and iPhone, I wonder how Apple does it.

When other companies struggle to weather the economic storm, how is it that Apple is able to sell a record number of some of the most expensive phones and computers on the market?  Why is it that people are willing to put up with AT&T just to have the glorious iPhone?

Image of the new iMac from apple.com

Dell just came out with their earnings a few weeks ago and missed even the most modest analysts expectations with only $727 million in profit, or $0.27 per share.  Not even close to Apple, and the new Netbooks with Windows 7 is apparently pretty hot, right?

Part of the answer is how they package it. When you buy any Apple product, the packaging is very high end – you feel like you have purchased something very special.  When I first opened my new MacBook Pro box, I felt like I was opening a gift from Nordstrom’s. Open an HP box and it’s nothing special.  You actually get instructions that look like they were meant for a 5-year old, or those wordless graphics like you see in the backseat of an airplane.  Yep – I think I can figure out how to put the battery in – thanks.

Part of the answer is how they market the products. If you visit www.apple.com from a PC, you see a page really hyping the new iMac.  If you visit the page from a Mac, then you get a page pushing new accessories.  This is smart marketing.  Visit www.dell.com and to find a monitor, you first have to decide if it’s for Home or Office – as if it matters – do they price them differently?  The Apple home page is simple, easy to navigate and puts a big focus on the “hero”, which are the products.  Their checkout process is refined and brilliantly cross-sells other accessories leaving you no choice but to fill your cart with about $300 of more stuff that you absolutely have to have.  After all, that’s great marketing, right?

Part of the answer is their trusted brand. Apple has spent years building a brand.  A brand that you can trust is reliable and where the products will last.  The only company that decided it was better to manufacture the hardware and the software all in the same place.  That means installing new software or applications will only require you to click and drag an icon, rather than having to scour the Internet for a driver.

Part of the answer is innovation. The innovative products that Apple keeps pumping out are a huge factor in their success.  If your company doesn’t change, or innovate, you likely will not experience explosive growth, revenue or profits.

So if you have all of these things and you’ve been able to create insatiable demand, you really don’t need to have sales on days like “black Friday.”  Not only would a sale “cheapen” the brand, but it creates an expectation in the mind of the consumer that all you have to do is wait and eventually the price will go down.  This is what the cable companies do at the end of every month, and car companies do at the end of every year.  Surely you’ve heard the best time to buy a car is at the “end of the year clearance sales” – right?  Apples doesn’t need sales, and unless the competition brings, well….competition, they probably won’t even have to lower their prices much either.

12 Comments »Tags: apple, marketing, marketing strategy

You heard it right…I use Keynote to develop iterations on user interface design for our products and front end retail site.  This method saves us a ton of time and cost in design and development.  I used to use PowerPoint, but then converted to a MacBook Pro a few months ago, and now I’m hooked on Keynote.

Before I get into how this works, I need to mention how cool is it that you can control your Keynote slide presentation with your iPhone by downloading the Keynote Remote app for like two bucks.  Just had to get that off my chest…

Ok, here we go:

1. Start with a basic wireframe – you’ll need to spec something out for your designer to get started.  Give them the basic elements of where you want navigation, sub-navigation, and general text and image requirements.  You basically have your header, body section and footer area.  You also might want to have an interior page concept as well.  Below I am showing you how I went from a PowerPoint slide (at the time) to the almost final design:

Here is another example of how I started designing and concepting our SiteJuice™ tool in Keynote and how it transformed into Photoshop:

2.  Research web icon sets and photos you want to use – I like to use actual icons and images in my concepts to portray the website as real as possible.  This way you can see how it would actually look, and then play with size and location.  Go to istockphoto or similar and look for “web icons” and you’ll find thousands.  I ended up with the Universal icon set, and purchased about nine different sets.  You can do a screen capture to use in your screenshots while concepting – just make sure you go and buy them later

3.  Imitate AJAX as best you can – this will give you a really good sense of how the page is going to work when a user clicks on a menu item or for areas where you expand the section.  The best way to replicate this is to create the section on one slide, and then copy and paste the graphics to another slide (they will plaste in the exact same location), and then move a section down the page and add new content.  Wheen you toggle back and forth between pages it will look like the section is expanding as if you clicked on it.  This is a neat trick and gives you a realistic sense of how the page will work.  Here is an example below:

4.  Now that you have the elements, you can concept almost anything – now that your designer has established the fonts, colors, icon sets and general layout, you can use these elements to do just about anything without having to bother your designer, or waste expensive development time.  You can easily iterate several ideas in a matter of hours, discuss them and choose the best option and then give THAT to your web designer/CSS/layout person.  Below is an example of our payment processing page that I built completely in Keynote in about 30 minutes simply using Jing or whatever screen capture tool you want, and making copies of the elements I needed.

5.  You can even create quick logos in Keynote – I took our existing logo in a PNG format and created our new Live Support logo completely in Keynote.  I didn’t need anything hi-res since this was for web, so 72 dpi will do.  I took our logo and used the stroke tool to create the effects of the “Live Support” on a piece of paper that was slightly off the page and taped along the top.  All of these features are in Keynote.

Give it a shot!  For $79 or less, you can get iWork with Keynote and start quickly iterating screenshot concepts for your product or retail site.  It is sure to save you time and money.

1 Comment »Tags: keynote, powerpoint, user interface

This morning I attended the SATAI (San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative) STARs 2009 Technology Innovation Conference and listened to Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier and Founder Pat Condon talk about some of the interesting things about the growth of Rackspace, how they dealt with venture capital, and more importantly, how culture played a huge role in their current success. Some of the cool takeaways you would be interested in were the following:

1. Culture Matters. Even after the IPO last summer, the culture within Rackspace remained the same. It was crucial that nobody changed their screensaver from “The Matrix” to the Rackspace stock price (NYSE: RAX). This would create a very short-term outlook and take the focus off of the customer, and on to dollar value. Everyone is able to express themselves in just about any way they want to as a “Racker”, which to this day, companies still have difficulty with.  At Pear, we believe in the “no cubicle rule” – everyone including myself all sit in the open, and we have amazing collaboration with office mates Brandstack.

2. Hire Attitude, Not Skills. For the first two years, Rackspace hired people with a lot of technical aptitude to manage the support team. It turned out they needed a major shift in ensuring that he people who were talking to the customers truly loved their work.  Lanham says “how many times have you been to a ticket counter at an airline where you can just tell these people really don’t want to be here (with the exception of maybe Southwest and JetBlue)”?  Put the right people in the right place.  Pat Condon refered to the book “Strengths Finder 2.0″ by Tom Rath – a book they regularly use at Rackspace to make sure everyone is playing to their strengths.

3. Focus on Your Customers. Believe it or not, Rackspace didn’t always have Fanatical Support. In the early days when they were all jammed together in a small office, a customer called in one day asking for his backup. Well, they didn’t have the backup and this was the second time they screwed it up for this particular customer. After the phone call, David Bryce stood up and said “guys, we have to do this better for our customers. We can’t keep letting them down. We need to be more fanatical.” – and hence, Fanatical Support was born. This wasn’t something that came from the marketing department – this came from a real customer experience.

4. Do More With Less. In the early stage Rackspace had no problem raising capital. Interestingly enough, the pool dried up. Their first try at going public in 2000 failed and VC’s were not writing checks anymore, and if they did they wanted a 3x preference. They were down to about 2 months worth of cash and had to focus on focus on their customers to get through.  I talked with Pat Condon specifically about this and he says that there is a tendency to want to raise more money than what you really need, but at the end of the day, raise what you need to build your product and get customers.  This way you’re not on a spending spree running up your burn rate.  When you bootstrap, you really have to come up with creative ways to make the cash stretch – and that’s what they did.  They cut their $1m per month burn rate way down to stretch the cash, and ultimately got some local VC’s to offer a better deal, which forced the larger institutonal ones to fall in line.

5. Want Money? Have a Product Ready. You’re not going to be attracting any angels or VC’s unless you have an actual product.  PowerPoints are not going to sell you anymore.  If your product has customers, is in beta, or even generating revenue, even better.  Show that you can put something together with ingenuity, creativity and financial stewardship.

Hope this helps you.  What is your company culture like?   Do you have the right people in the right place?

No Comments »Tags: culture, rackspace, venture capital