So this is sort of a rant and sort of a business post.  I went to pick my car up before heading up north two hours for Thanksgiving.  Something had been wrong with the coolant/ hoses.  When I got there I had been hit with some pretty random charges.  They also diagnosed my vehicle for a new warranty, and said in order to get the warranty I’d have to spend over 5,000.  Keep in mind, they suggested Pirelli P Zero Tires. WTF, those are un-needed and cost about 500 dollars each?  I also had been given only two days of coverage with a Rental Car, instead of three, “just because”  So I asked to talk to the manager.  He was polite at FIRST.  He said he would reduce the pricing, then turned around and literally a second later told me to go screw myself, this is the bill, and I’m not helping you.  I asked politely if he could tell me why there was a certain change in attitude. He said, that it was none of my business, to pay my bill (which was $200 and they didn’t even fix anything), and get going.  Bottom Line, this act of straight up rudeness lost a customer and possibly more.  I would travel to this dealership, which is in Ft. Lauderdale, all the way from Miami, just because of their exceptional service.  If you’re going to run a company and a business, every single employee from the janitor to the CEO has to understand customer service and be exceptional at it.  One of the core tenants of our business and the way we plan to make ourselves known is through exceptional customer service.  We’re going to offer 24/7 Customer Support for Free to All levels of membership. I’m also going to have my personal number public, along with my email.  Keep your customers satisfied, and you will keep them for life.  Be rude to you customers, and you will lose them for life.  I think Rackspace puts it best: Fanatical Support.  Be fanatical about your customers, you work for them, they are your boss.  Have any other good examples of customer service? Let me know.

[tags] customer service, support, miami, ft lauderdale, web 2.0, rackspace,publictivity [/tags]

Ahh, so everyone is curious what exactly happened to theWeblogWire. Let me give you the background story. In early June, Frank and I, had decided that we wanted to start developing technology for the Public Relations industry. We stumbled upon the opportunity, just due to interest at looking at the market opportunity. Frank and I had been spending the past 9 or so months evaluating opportunities and startup ideas. Some were built, some were just conceptualized,etc. We figured, hey why not at least look at the PR Software Market, and Frank had a PR firm contact. Well, it turns out, the PR industry was ripe for some great software, especially on-demand software. It really just hit us the right way. Know when you see that beautiful girl for the first time? This was her, in a business form. Boy was she looking good. At the same time, Brian Breslin, who designed theWeblogWire, was interested in doing a startup for 500 dollars in under 1-2 weeks. We said, hell why not? Let’s break into the PR industry by creating some initial buzz, and generate some leads for our main focus: Publictivity (at the time, StartPR and originally: Software Services). At worst, we’d gain some credibility, insight, and buzz, and at best, a real money maker. Fast forward a two months into it… we realized theWeblogWire would be a startup itself, requiring tons of time. We were so involved with Publictivity, that we just couldn’t handle a side project. So Frank and I made a decision (Brian stayed working for his design firm Infinimedia) to be focused. theWeblogWire was near and dear to our hearts, but personal emotions cannot get in the way of a business… it just can’t. So we decided we were going to let theWeblogWire be, and stay focused 110% on Publictivity. It was a valuable lesson for us: Stay Focused and Keep Your Eye on the Prize. If I can give ANY piece of advice to an entrepreneur, it is to just stay focused. This whole entrepreneur thing takes time. When you’re underfunded, understaffed, underexposed, and underdogged you need EVERY ounce of energy you can get. I hope this clears any questions up that some of you might have. If you used the service, Thank You!

[tags] theweblogwire, publictivity, web 2.0, startups, pr, startpr, public relations, software on demand, sas [/tags]

I Think this is my first time venturing into a topic that involves public relations, journalism, and technology. I’m a big fan of Marc Benioff and what he’s done with SalesForce, and the on-demand industry. It’s a huge inspiration to what we have planned here at Publictivity. Nick Denton at ValleyWag broke the story of Marc Benioff and his interaction with Pui-Wing Tam. To get a really simple overview of the situation, go see what Tom Foremski has to say at Silicon Valley Watcher.

There’s a Fine Line

There’s a very fine line between a person’s privacy rights, and the freedom of the press. The Recent HP Board scare, which Pui Wing was involved with scared a lot of Silicon Valley High-Ups, and rightfully so. I can understand Marc’s need to privacy, but having her arrested may have gone too far. I don’t know everything about the situation. Emotions were probably running high.
Some Things Are Meant To Be Kept Personal

Marc supposedly flew to the WSJ offices to “browbeat” top officials there. Some things are just meant to be kept personal. The press has a duty, and every right to report on issues. If they didn’t, freedom of speech wouldn’t be where it is today. In this case though, mentioning the arrest and the details of it, would have created un-needed drama. It would have erupted a whole new situation, which is happening already due to Denton’s reporting. This situation would have been bad for all parties involved. It’s good to stay away from the Tabloid articles, that focus on nothing, but creating un-needed drama.

Just a simple post, since it is something that’s been running through my head. Feel free to correct me on many facts, as this seems quite intricate. More posts to come later in between work.
[tags] silicon valley watch, valleywag, nick denton, gawker, salesforce,WSJ, marc benioff, reporting, hawaii [/tags]

I’m probably a little bit late on this topic (all of 12 hours), but I find it to be an important one. The Yahoo! memo by Grad Garlinghouse, that was leaked today finally let’s Yahoo! come clean: they’re in trouble. They’ve spread themselves too thin and are way too big, is the basic overview of the letter. How can Yahoo! fix the problem? THINK LIKE A STARTUP. Best of all, Yahoo! has some of THE best startup talent out there ie- Flickr, Delicious, Bix, etc. Yahoo! is brewing with startup ideology, and it needs to be let loose. Right now, Yahoo! feels like a boring old traditional media company. That’s a shame, because I’ve always loved Yahoo!, and still do. Yahoo! was one of the first sites I used as a kid, at about the age of 11. So here are the startup tips Yahoo! needs to focus on:

Focus- Find a clear and simple message for the company. What are you going to make your mission internally, and then how can that be displayed to the public. Is it search, is it advertising, is it social media,etc? What do you want people to start thinking of Yahoo! for starting 2007 on. Startups need to focus on something and do it right, ask any VC or entrepreneur. Yahoo! needs the same from itself
Consolidate- There are way too many Yahoo! products doing the same damn thing. This is an identity crisis for the user, and it takes away mind share. Yes, delicious is growing, but it will never become monstrous with MyYahoo. Same with Flickr. Stop confusing your users. Unify everything, and consolidate it. Think about it, all the good startups are clear with what their product features do. They definitely don’t have repetitive ones.

Bring Out Leaders- Get rid of the hierachy that is too entagled, but create leaders. With the consolidation of products and focus, it needs to be glued together by GREAT LEADERS. The same way startups work because of who leads them, is the same way Yahoo! can succeed if it has larger than life leaders in the company.

Be Smart With You Money aka Bang For Your Buck- No you don’t need to buy Facebook to shock and awe the world with a big acquisition. That’s right, get rid of your “Google bought youtube” pride. Startups are known for doing A LOT more with A LOT less. Snatching up smaller companies in the 10-30 million dollar range is a great move, and something Yahoo! has been doing. DON’T SPEND, JUST TO SHOW OFF.

Is it stupid of me to suggest that Yahoo! can succeed by acting like a startup? Maybe. Something has to happen. Yahoo! is getting to be big, boring, and just the status quo like AOL. I love Yahoo!, and I believe that they will reinvent themselves. It will be one hell of a ride.

PS- Peanut butter Sucks

[tags] yahoo, web 2.0, startups, memo, google, youtube, facebook, delicious, flickr, publictivity,tech crunch, Brad Garlinghouse [/tags]

We had internally called Publictivity, StartPR for the better part of five months. We officially decided upon a launch name for the project about a month ago. Frank gets the credit on this one. Publictivity, if you couldn’t tell is a combination of Productivity and Public Relations. So what are the steps towards getting the right logo for your startup? There’s quite a few, and I’ll guide you through what we went through in the past few weeks:

Overall Feel-Overall feel of a logo is the huge first step. It should coincide with what your product defines. In our case, we’re business software. We had to go with a more professional and straight forward logo. If you’re a consumer app, or possibly a brick and mortar business, there are other feels. Consumer apps tend to be more bold, “fun looking”,etc. Brick and Mortar businesses tend to have a feel that can easily translate into a physical logo to place above the store.

The Colors-Most likely, you will have started some of the design for your application. If so, pick colors that match the application or compliment the scheme. You’re also going to want to have “alternate colors” developed, that will present alternate options. This is pretty straight forward. If you haven’t picked the colors for the design of your app, then you should do that first.

The “StandOut”-What is going to be noticeable about the logo? Sometimes it is a graphically designed letter, an accompanying icon, or something very clever. Look at FedEX’s logo. Inbetween The E and the X, it forms an arrow. Very cool, right? In our logo, we have the P designed graphically. In MySpace’s logo, there are the group of people. Basically, pick something that makes the logo distinguish itself. Make it a talking point, or something that if a person was only able to see that part of the logo, they would know it was your company.

The Slogan-This is sometimes very easy or very hard. We had to play around with words. At first, we had it as: Making Public Relations Productive. Well, that was kind of arrogant. We made it seem like PR practitioners did nothing all day long, which is far from true. Then we had Making Public Relations More Productive…. whoops. We’re a combination of productivity and public relations, not productive and public relations. Finally it came down to: Increasing Productivity in Public Relations. Not arrogant, and had productivity. The slogan should be your ethos, the one sentence that defines your product. For example, Sales Force is “Success On Demand”. It defines that their product is on-demand, and gives you the feel that it increases your productivity. Very short and very simple. Perfect.

Picking a Design Company-First rule of thumb… DONT CHEAP OUT. You will pay for it in the long run. The extra 75 dollars you save, will bite you in the ass. It will cost you more time, energy, and give you a logo you don’t want. Also be sure to check that you retain the IP rights to the logo. Also look up some past reviews on the company. In our case we went with LogoJeez. Reason being? NOTHING TO PAY UP FRONT. That’s right, they do all the work, and if you don’t like it, you don’t pay. We got 5 different options, and from those 5 different options we could revise one logo upto four times. Hands down, go with LogoJeez. We were able to receive a discount that made the bottomline price 208 dollars. Well worth it.

Revising It-This depends which company you go with. At the end of the day, you need to be picky. Revise it, and add what you really want… you’re paying for it! We used all four rounds of revisions we were allowed. Also, modify the version you get in photoshop, and send back detailed instructions to the artist. Trust me, this helps. No one can see what you see, but it helps them get closer to it.

So thats about all. Your logo is important, and take your time with it. This is the logo, slogan, and branding that will *hopefully* be seen by millions of people, and most importantly YOUR CUSTOMERS.

[tags] web 2.0, logos, logo design, logojeez, corporate branding, publictivity, myspace, web 2.0 logo design, tutorial, startup logos, startups, fedex [/tags]

It’s great to hear Web 2.0 startups exiting, as it is the pinnacle of any entrepreneurs career.  Today we saw two awesome startups, Bix and MyBlogLog sell to Yahoo!. Check out the tech crunch links for the juicy details. Once again, Congratulations guys!  Feel free to comment who is next.  No, not publictivity…yet.

[tags] startups, web 2.0, entrepreneurship, exit, bix, mybloglog, tech crunch, congratulations [/tags]

I’m from New Jersey, if you already don’t know. I was proudly born and raised in Norwood, NJ, a town only a few miles from New York City. Growing up, 50% of everyone you knew would attend Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Some of my best friends go there, and I’ve even taken a class there in the past. If you haven’t partied there, trust me you ARE missing out. This is coming from someone who has gone to the University of Miami, so trust me on this. Anyway, up until recently, more like this year, Rutgers football, well hasn’t been anything too amazing. Fast forward to this year, and Rutgers is a Top 10 football program, that’s right, and undefeated. One of the key ingredients according to their Fearsome Leader, Greg Schiano, is “The Chop”. What is it? Simply put:

“Coach Greg Schiano has instilled the phrase with the No. 14 Scarlet Knights, his way of telling the team to maintain focus no matter what the situation. “

This applies easily to a football game, but it applies to business just as easily. Here are some simple scenarios where “The Chop” applies to business.

1.) STAY FOCUSED

A startup will throw you tons of curve balls. Your team is small, your budget is limited (even if you are venture or angel funded), and your immediate future is uncertain. This may even be your first startup, which makes it even harder. The best thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to keep moving forward. Set your goals up, and then knock them down. If things come along in between… which they will, ignore the drama/ bullshit, and take care of the very few that are important. Once that’s done, get back to your goals and keep chopping. If you have a goal, just get it done. SEE A GOAL, CHOP IT DOWN UNTIL IT IS FINISHED.
2.) Adapt And Keep Moving

In Football, you may lose your quarterback due to injury in the second quarter or receive an unjust penalty. Guess what? Life is unfair. Football teams that succeed adapt to the changes, and stay focused on their goal of winning the game. As an entrepreneur, you may get thrown curveballs, have a venture deal fall through, lose a partnership, have downtime, lose a key team-mate,etc. The best thing you can do is understand the situation, take it in, and ADAPT. Once you’ve adapted, stay focused on your goals. See a curveball, CHOP IT DOWN.

I hope everyone found this useful. Entrepreneurship is a lot like a football game:

• It is long. Football is not one quarter, one game, but a series of games leading to a championship. Sometimes games have overtime. YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT FOR THE LONG RUN.
• You will lose. It’s inevitable, you will lose some games. You really lose, if you do not learn what you did wrong during those games. Same thing with entrepreneurship. LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.
• It is a team sport. Football is a team sport, and the best teams succeed. Entrepreneurship is the same. Ask any venture investor, potential hire, advisor, or even seasoned co-founder… THE BET IS PLACED ON THE TEAM.

I’m not a sports expert by any means. If anyone has any contributions to this post ie- analogies, insight,etc. post them in the comments. I’ll add them to the post. Thanks again everyone.

[tags] rutgers, football, bcs, rutgers football, greg schiano, new jersey, entrepreneurship, rutgers chop, the rutgers chop, scarlet knights, business, web 2.0, blogging, startups, jason l. baptiste [/tags]

Ahh, so it’s taken quite a while to even get to the point of a simple announcment. Many of you who know us, have been very curious what we’ve been upto for the 6 months, our overall goals,etc. Well, we’re proud to officially announce what we’re working on: Publictivity.com. Publictivity.com is an on-demand software suite for the Public Relations Industry. In simple terms, we’re going to make your lives as PR professionals a LOT easier. So we’ve got a blog, but more importantly, what can you expect from it? A Lot. We’re not going to give you the boring once a month update company blog. We’re going to talk about everything such as Entrepreneurship, Our Product, Building a Company, Venture Capital, and even post completely random things we enjoy such as videos from youtube or cool new sites. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about us go sign up for the beta.

[tags] web 2.0, public relations, PR, software as service, SaS, publictivity, publictivity.com, productivity software, web 2.0 blog, office 2.0 [/tags]

If we linked to you, don’t worry, this blog will be up this week. Just testing

[tags] web 2.0, public relations [/tags]