How to Rock SXSW

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sxsw2009iaFriday morning the Net2NO krewe (aka NOLA <3 SXSW aka Y@T Pack) will be on the road to Austin. This road trip has taken a lot of planning, and a lot of people have worked very hard to make it happen. And now it’s here, so let’s rock it. This post is based on my personal experience at SXSW over the last 4 years, but I still have a lot to learn, so I look forward to your thoughts in the comments

How to Rock It and Get the Most Out of SXSW

  • Work Hard / Play Hard – You’re going to be dead tired a week from today so get over it. Don’t party so hard you can’t make the panels, and don’t panel so hard you miss the parties. I learn so much each year going to really interesting panels, I love seeking out new and interesting speakers. But the best connections I make are over a few beers at the parties. You have to be able to do both. So suck it up and don’t plan on getting a lot of sleep, you’ve got to hustle at SXSW.
  • Planning Your Panels – There are several good panel planners online. These are great to sift through the panels ahead of time. Me? I take a yellow highlighter and go spend an hour going through the SXSW book on the day I get there. I select my panels based on person, not topic. Anyone who you find interesting on twitter, or who may run a company you respect or think is cool is probably worth seeing. I highlight out a schedule for each day, then tear of the panel picker and stick it in my badge pass holder each morning.
  • What to Wear – While this isn’t going to be a problem for us, since we all have t-shirts, I’ll offer my 2 cents. You’ll see a lot of hipster cool, ie: Threadless Dirty Coast tees. You’ll see very few ties unless they are skinny or ironic. Jeans are de riguer. Be comfortable and if the weathers iffy, bring a jacket, because you might not make it back home before the evenings activities. Generally, I take the conference day directly into the party circuit evening.
  • What to Carry – iPhone & Moleskine. Maybe a camera. That’s it. I don’t carry my MacBook to the conference each day, b/c personally I don’t need to immediately blog my day. But really its because I just don’t want to carry it around. A bag to carry stuff is nice, but you have to carry it around all day.
  • Who to Meet – Anyone and everyone. SXSW is literally the friendliest conference I’ve ever been too. You can walk right up to your favorite web-celeb and introduce yourself. Don’t be shy, that’s what we are all here for. Don’t do anything alone. Find people to go to lunch with, go to dinner with, go out with. You’ll meet so many new friends. Relax and have fun.
  • Parties to Hit – Personally, I tend to skip most of the official parties. A general rule, the bigger the name (Google, Facebook, Digg) the bigger the crowd. Most of these parties are so packed that people are waiting outside for hours. Not me. It’s not worth getting in and then not being able to get a drink. Go to the smaller, more intimate events. Follow twitter and you’ll find them. They usually have much cooler people anyway. The Dorkbot party and all of the outdoor happy hours are great. I always have fun at these and like the outside ones. (Don’t miss the NOLA Party on Monday and St. Patricks Last Stand on Tuesday)
  • Awards Night – Sunday night is the web awards night. I skip it. But then I don’t really like the Oscars or Grammys either. You’ll hear who won on Twitter anyway.
  • BarCamp – BarCamp Austin is a great way to spend a day or an afternoon away from the convention center on Saturday. I go every year and spend a 1/2 day. I highly recommend you plan to stop by. Register @ Facebook.
  • Twitter – Definitely the official back-channel for SXSW. I wrote a post in 2007 about what social software would emerge at SXSW. Clearly it is Twitter. So much so that Dodgeball is now down for the count.
  • Rawk It – this post was inspired by the the panel How to Rawk SXSW. So go to that too.

In addition to those general way to rock SXSW, I’m super excited about what New Orleans is doing to take Austin by storm….

NOLA <3 SXSW – Road Trip Details – Lots of people have been asking me exactly what we are doing, so here is the down low:

  • Who – 30 Louisianians will be jumping on a bus and cruising to Austin for SXSW.
  • What – We’re going to promote New Orleans and Louisiana as a fantasic location for digital media & tech professionals. We’ve got fantastic culture, quality of life, and a creative climate. Since Hurricane Katrina the city has literally reinvented itself and we’ve had an influx of passionate, talented young people who want to make an impact. Our local chapter of Net2 has been instrumental in harnessing this energy and building a community of techies, now 175 strong in only 8 months. The Downtown Development District , GNO, Inc and City of New Orleans Film Commission have been instrumental in our ability to pull this trip off. We’ll be spreading the gospel of New Orleans at SXSW!
  • Shirts – We’ll be easy to spot because we’ll all be wearing the same shirts.
  • Booth – Stop by our booth 811 at the SXSW trade show to meet us, grab some schwag and tell us your story. We’ll be giving away a free weekend in NOLA each day at 5:04pm.
  • Panel – Shameless plug: Come to my panel Outsourcing 2.0 – Is the World Flat or Not? on Monday at 11:30 am in room 8.
  • Party Bus – Look for the NOLA <3 SXSW party bus cruising around the convention center and the parties each night. We’re providing free shuttle services between all the parties.
  • Party – Don’t miss the New Orleans Party on Monday night 10pm-2am at the Lucky Lounge. DJ Othertempo and the Austin Knights Brass band will perform. It’s going to be a NOLA style throwdown. RSVP here.
  • Twitter – follow @net2no for official details on the trip. And our hashtag is #nosxsw so you can search for that too.
  • Google Group – all messages and discussion for everyone going on the trip.
  • Blog – We’ll be posting everything on the Net2NO site. Stay tuned!

I’m excited to see old friends and new at SXSW. Here are my digits, let’s connect:

The Beauty of Bootstrapping: Doing It Anyway

My presentation for The Feast last Friday revolved around lessons I have learned in my 9 years as an entreprenuer and business owner. I’ve included the slides below, but wanted to add some notes, because many of the slides are not self explanatory.

The Beauty of Bootstrapping – Doing it Anyway
  • Impostor Syndrome – An entrepreneur’s crisis of self confidence. You’ve got to believe in yourself to make anyone else believe in you. So you just quit your job 2 weeks ago and started a company… that’s what you do now, go for it with confidence.
  • Sprinklers & Golf – That’s where I started my career after college. From sprinkler salesman to business development of golf course management contracts. The only problem, I don’t like golf. You must do what you are passionate about.
  • TRS80 & Vegas – What am I passionate about? I’ve loved computers since the days of BASIC on a Trash-80 and I love going to Vegas. My best friend Matt and I were in biz school and traveling back and forth to Vegas. So we decided to start a company that combined the things we love. Internet + Vegas = Internet-based Bachelor Party Planners
  • Biz Cards – I have a biz card fetish. 1) we printed at Kinko’s with the logo design by Bill Gates (MS Word Clipart). 2) BachelorBlowOut got a little more professional 3) changed the name to Destination VIP because no-one takes you seriously with a name like BBO 4) Got aquired. Notice title change. Realized 8 months into it that 25% owner means youre not in charge any more, so 5) started Voodoo Ventures
  • Charts - big changes over the last 10 years. Cost of starting a startup is falling to zero. Witness Y Combinator, TechStars, etc. Meaning, the number of startups is skyrocketing. Result? Best bet is to bootstrap until you have something “real”. 3 stages of a startup. 1) Ramen soup phase – you should be able to scrape together something and get a few customers to get yourself to 50k in rev. 2) Then the bootstrapping starts and you grow your company to 500k. 3) Growth capital is available beyond that because you have a real business. This is where I believe more capital will be entering the market.
  • You’ve got a Website, Now What – You need traffic. Best source for traffic = Google. How to get free traffic from Google? Dan Finnery gave me my “The Graduate” moment in 2001 when he whispered in my ear “Search Engine Optimization“. Check your current website, if your page title says “Frontpage” you ain’t got it. Learn this and do it. It’s free and easy and powerful.
  • Customer #1 – Relentless focus on getting in business. Get that first customer. Until someone writes a check, you aren’t in business. Mine was Dave Mullen who wrote us a check for $5000.
  • Friction - Now that things are getting serious, you are going to get distracted from your business by all the other “stuff” you have to do. Legal stuff, IRS, opening bank accounts, permits, insurance, etc. You will figure this stuff out. Don’t pay a lot of money to do this, you can do this yourself. Find an attorney who will give you a break and help you grow with them. Don’t fall victim to paralysis by analysis. If you mess something up, someone will tell you. Just keep moving forward.
  • Funding - Several options: 1) credit cards 2) rich uncle, friends & family 3) wife (mines not available) 4) cash flow. This is why cash flow is king. Focus on driving revenue. Cash flow = sustainability.
  • How Do You Make Money? – figure it out. You don’t have the luxury of not focusing on it. Google Adsense ain’t it. And you’re not getting bought by Google. How do you add value, and what will people pay you for?
  • Markets - I started my first company in Vegas in 2001. Vegas boomed, and so did we. A rising tide lifts all boats. New Orleans is seeing the same energy, and rumblings right now
  • Be Local but Act Global – Don’t focus just on your city. Have a global strategy for your supply chain and collaboration. Also focus on global customers, not just local ones. But have a personality and leverage whats special about you being in New Orleans. Culture, music, social change.
  • Be Disruptive – If someone is telling you to slow down, you’re doing something right. If you’re making people mad or nervous, thats a good thing. My first idea was GrooveOn.com and I called a bunch of record labels in LA and asked for their digital music rights. In 1999. They were mad. And scared. Understand?
  • Launch Early and Often & Fail Fast – We built and launched Huckabuck.com, a meta search engine for $50,000. We did some crazy things like signing Rebirth Brass Band to a ringtone contract and flying a plane around Jazz Fest. Then we got a check for $2.42 for our first month revenue. Spending $25,000 to make $2.42 doesn’t compute so we sold it. Launch to sale in 9 months. Not a home run, but a single and it was fun.
  • Failure - You learn a lot from failure. You have to erase fear of failure from your mind. Be fearless. You will fail, but you are not a failure. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and do it again.
  • Ideas Are a Renewable Resource – They are also worthless unless acted upon. Keep following your dreams and making your ideas a reality.
  • Give Without Expectation – This builds social capital. The old term for it is Karma.

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