I’m writing this post after the tough process of making decisions for Launch Pad Ignition and communicating the good and bad news to the companies that applied.  It was a very competitive process and we had a lot of great applicants, which made the decisions hard.  This year we added an advisory board to Ignition made up of investors – 2 NOLA, 2 NY, 2 SV.  They provided very valuable guidance and feedback and ultimately we made the decisions.

While its fresh, I want to share some thoughts on why some companies did or didn’t get in, so you can be better prepared to apply next year or to another accelerator.

You need:

• Shovel-ready product development - even if you don’t have product yet, we need to have confidence you’re ready to hit the ground running.  If you’re not building or ready to build, you’re not ready.
• Hustle and drive - the best way to communicate how good you are is to show that you are building this company anyway, with or without Ignition.  We had a founder who went from talking about his idea at our info session in December to having a prototype built before he finished interviewing. It was clear he was building this company with or without us, and this communicated a lot about his drive.

Deal breakers:

• All founders not able to attend the whole program - last year we flexed on this a bit and learned why its so important for all founders to attend the entire program.  If you we’re able to commit to being in New Orleans for the whole program, we didn’t let you in.  The value of an accelerator is in being part of it, and if only one founder attends, it leads to companies not being calibrated.
• Uncommitted founders – founders who still are working full-time or have a second company were a deal-breaker.  You may be able to bootstrap a company or self-fund it this way, but its not an appropriate structure for an accelerator or attractive to investors.  You may see it as a safety net, but we need you all-in.
• Unable to communicate vision – several companies left us scratching our heads as to what they did or wanted to do, even after multiple interviews. You need to be able to communicate your vision succinctly.  Practice this with regular people. If they don’t understand it, simplify and refine.
• Kitchen sink approach – take your core value proposition and then layer on everything else you might possibly build. Not a good approach.  Refine your core value to its core functionality. You can build up later. But you must have something core that makes people want to use your product.

We’re excited to be announcing our class Feb 13.  Hopefully this feedback is helpful to applicants who didn’t get in and to those who will be applying next year.

TribeCon is about the community I love, the tech community in New Orleans. Two things have inspired TribeCon for me more than anything else: First, the emergence of the grass-roots New Orleans tech community that picked itself up by its bootstraps on the heels of Katrina and realized that we had the both the opportunity and responsibility to shape this City’s future. This inspiration led to Net2NO, Launch Pad, the SXSW pilgrimage, GNO Code, and so many other groups. Second, after the death of my father, I examined everything I was doing, and decided it was time to follow the old entrepreneurs’ adage – do work you are passionate about.

Driven by these two things, in the back of the bus on the way back from SXSW in 2009 Adele, Tiffany and I had the spark of the idea to do a conference with the Voodoo Experience. We had no idea what we were getting into, but we pitched it to the community and pitched it to Voodoo and six months later were producing our first conference. It’s been such a great run to work with the amazing people involved in this event. Peter, Matt, Megan, Katy, Tiffany, Adele, Molly, Andrew, Melissa and many more people have given their time and energy to make this such a special event. Thank you guys, you are my Tribe!

I felt compeled to share my personal feelings here, if you have other questions, check out the interview on Silicon Bayou News.

Peter and I had the privilege of visiting a new startup incubator in Kazan while we were visiting our office in Russia this week.  They invited us to do a presentation and we did a talk called “How to compete with Silicon Valley from Russia” with a focus on early stage startups and perspective from the incubator/accelerator ecosystem in the US.  We started by answering the red herring title of the talk… don’t try to be Silicon Valley, build a great startup culture in Kazan.  And we drew a lot of parallels to what we’ve been focused on building in New Orleans.  Here’s my favorite “quote” from the talk:

«Мы любим стартапы! У вас, в России, есть прекрасные инженеры, прекрасные программисты, и мы рады тренировать начинающих бизнесменов, рады им помогать», – считает  Крис Шульц.

” We love startups! Do you, in Russia, there are excellent engineers, excellent programmers, and we are happy to train novice businessmen are happy to help them “- says Chris Schultz.

It has been fascinating to watch the startup ecosystem emerge in Kazan.  The IT Park is a beautiful facility that has opened with a lot of government support.  Of course, the energy is in the grass roots, and the collaboration thats emerging on the ground between Flatstack and the many spinoffs created by former employees is really exciting.

Slides and video of our talk below. We borrowed a lot of ideas from Dave McClure, Paul Graham, and Brad Feld, so thanks to them.

I am excited today to announce Launch Pad Ignition, our new startup accelerator program.

This is the culmination of several years of planning and preparation, and we are particularly excited to be launching as a part of the TechStars Network, and by extension the Obama administration’s new Startup America Initiative.

Ignition has been a personal passion project. The conversation started a year ago, after I wrote my open letter to David Cohen (see, they really work).  Andrew Hyde has been a huge supporter and Taylor Davidson has been instrumental in helping us model this out and make it happen. Thank you to the fantastic mentors who have already committed to being onboard.  If you’re interested, please contact me. I’m excited to be working with my co-founders of Barre Tanguis, Will Donaldson, Peter Bodenheimer and Mark Graffagnini, this really is like a startup itself.

An exciting leap for the New Orleans startup ecosystem, Ignition creates a framework to help founders refine their product offering, invigorate their business plans, and raise funding to fuel their growth.  So, if you are a startup in New Orleans, or willing to move to New Orleans to accelerate the growth of your company, definitely check out the info and get your application in before March 18.

Learn more about Launch Pad Ignition, the TechStars Network, and Startup America.  See more detailed information in our press release. We are proud to be playing a role in accelerating entrepreneurship.  Startups, start your engines!

We’re doing a Five Minute Pitch on Wed at Launch Pad.  Here is the coaching guidance that I just sent out to the companied presenting.

• format – we are going to hold you to 5 min, so be sure to keep your pitch tight and focused.  this is plenty of time if you are rehearsed and gives you an opportunity to communicate about your company or project in a way that will keep the audiences attention and hopefully spark conversation with you afterwards.
• goal – what do you want to accomplish?  start there, think about that deeply.  are you trying to raise funding, attract users/customers, generate press? utilize this forum to accomplish something for your business. focus on achieving that goal and don’t worry if your pitch isn’t broad enough to be interesting to everyone.  that’s why we’re keeping them to 5 min. this is not an exercise, this is an opportunity to accomplish something for your business.
• ask – close (and maybe open too) with your ask.  be specific and be clear.  ie: 1) we’re looking to find new school customers, so if you know anyone in education, please refer me to them. 2) we’re currently raising a seed round of $500k and have $200k committed.  3) we are looking to generate awareness about our platform so please follow us @yourname and tweet about us 4) we’re looking for beta users to please sign up on www.yourwebsitename.com for an invite.
• practice – please, please, please give your pitch out loud, standing up.  if you don’t you will run too long.  You will have 100x improvement in your pitch by giving it several times, getting feedback, doing more of whats working, less of whats not.  ask for candid feedback.  treat this as the real-deal, not a practice.  you want to be proud of your pitch.
• show, don’t tell – if you have a product, show it, demo it if you can do it very quickly.  1-2 min videos are great, b/c you can prepare them in advance and they can be extremely professional. live demos are difficult to do, if you are going to do it, please have someone else to “drive”.  screenshots of your product are actually much better than a live demo.  remember, the audience doesn’t know your product nearly as well as you do, so showcase the “wow” factor, but don’t expect them to understand it and don’t try to do a deep dive about how it works.  focus on the sexy and sizzle.
• elevator pitch arc – there are lots of blog posts about what people want to hear in an elevator pitch.  this obviously varies depending on what your goal is.  but have a clear outlined format, don’t just talk. you’ll be judged by the audience as much on your professionalism and clarity in approach as you will on your product.  remember to touch on things like: problem, solution, market, team, traction, business model.
• deck –  i’d recommend keeping it to 5-8 slides, unless you are able to run your preso very tightly and succinctly.  don’t read whats on the slide, use the slide for backup and then give context, explanation or tell a story.  make sure that what you are saying connects with the slides but you are not reading bullet points, nothing is more dull.
• get excited! relax and have fun – the coaching advice here is to help you be prepared and confident. practicing beforehand will give you confidence and help you relax. make sure your excitement about your company comes through, excitement is contagious. this is a friendly audience, everyone is rooting for you. you will be great.

Here are some resources that I like:

• http://www.slideshare.net/UTR/how-to-pitch-a-vc-dave-mcclure
• http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html#axzz1ASoQA9sv
• http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/funding/the-social-entrepreneur-s-pitch/
• http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/24/five-minute-pitch-sliderocket/
• http://ryanacademy.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/techstars-show-how-to-pitch-with-passion-prt-1/
• http://www.quora.com/Elevator-Pitch-Descriptions?q=pitch

New Orleans is home to many exciting happenings in the world of Ruby on Rails this week as RubyConf comes to New Orleans for the first time.  We’re excited to be hosting events at Launch Pad and sponsoring events through Flatsourcing.  I wanted to take a minute to share everything that is going on this week.

• RoR Training Fundraiser – 11/10 9am-4pm – Jumpstart Lab is hosting an all-day training session at Launch Pad on Wed.  This class is an excellent TDD/Rails3 primer.  I’m personally looking forward to taking this class and challenging Anton to a code-off next time I’m in Kazan. All proceeds from the class are going to a Teach For America classroom. Sign up here.
• RubyConf – 11/11-13 – RubyConf will be held at the Hilton Riverside and features three days of fantastic content.
• RubyHappy Happy Hour – 11/11 5-7pm – Join us at the IP building for happy hour in the IP building and at Capdeville hosted by iSeatz, Audiosocket, Flatsourcing & Launch Pad. Sign up here.
• Ruby Bayou Meetup – 11/11 7pm – Following the happy hour, take part in New Orleans’ own Ruby Bayou monthly meeting at Launch Pad. Register now.

I’m excited to be supporting these through Flatsourcing & Launch Pad, and most of all, I’m excited to take the class on Wednesday and start rocking the rails myself

On this 5th anniversary of Katrina, there has been much reflection about New Orleans.  We have made many strides as a city, yet there remains much work to be done.  The city is broad and diverse and I wouldn’t for a minute pretend to know the challenges that so many have faced over the last five years.

One bright spot has been the emergent entrepreneurial community in New Orleans.   I been a New Orleanian equal parts pre & post storm now, and it amazes me how different the business climate is today.  There is a collaborative, bootstrapping, can-do spirit driving us and the last few years have been the most inspirational of my business career.  There is something truly special going on in New Orleans right now, and I am humbled that the people of Launch Pad, our community, is playing such an vital role in this resurgence.

There has been plenty of coverage this week about what is going on in New Orleans, and I wanted to share some of it with you here.  Thanks to everyone in New Orleans for being here and to everyone else for your love and support!

• The Daily Beast
• NBC Nightly News
• NPR – All Things Considered
• CNN

We have been hard at work for the last month getting things fired up for TribeCon 2010.  Thank you to all of you who made last year such a success, and we can’t wait to have you back to New Orleans again for this year’s edition of the conference.

We’ve started to get things fired up for this year, and want to engage you to help us shape the conference and the programming.  It’s a community-powered conference and we really appreciate your engagement.

THE BASICS

• What: Tribecon 2010
• When: Oct 28-29, 2010
• Where: New Orleans, LA – City Park as part of the Voodoo Experience
• Web: http://tribecon.com

SPEAKERS

Interested in speaking, or know someone who would be great, we want to know about it.

• Why you should consider speaking: http://hu.la/9k2sym
• Submit a speaking proposal here: http://hu.la/speakattc2010
• Add to our hit list for speakers here: http://hu.la/tcspeakerhitlist

We really appreciate any ideas you have, help us create the content you want to see.

SPONSORS

We are looking for sponsors for this years conference.  Please contact Chris Schultz at chris@voodooventures.com to receive a sponsorship proposal.

ENGAGE

Last year this Google Group (our Tribal Council) truly shaped the conference.  It was a huge help to Tiffany and me, and we deeply appreciate your support in pulling this together.  We hope that you’ll once again share ideas, feedback, brainstorms with us right here.  We truly value our community.

• Join the Tribal Council
• Get our newsletter
• Follow us on Twitter

What would make TribeCon an amazing experience for you this year?

I’ve talked about my investment in Jackson Square Group previously, but since the company has just closed the round of funding, I wanted to highlight why I think Jackson Square Group is going places.

First, a little context:  In March, I invested in Jackson Square Group through Voodoo Ventures and took a seat on the board of directors.  Jackson Square Group just closed its seed financing round on July 15.

I invested in Jackson Square Group because:

• Patrick Comer, the CEO is as driven a founder as I’ve ever met.  He has extensive background in the market research industry and as an entrepreneur.  Industry experience and multiple startup experiences are a winning combination.
• The team is top-notch. It’s been eye-opening to me to see the talent that New Orleans has to offer and the energy that this team has brought to the company (of course this is hindsight, b/c I was already committed, but its a good start).
• The technology is disruptive. This is a bit of a cliche, if your technology isn’t disruptive that might be a problem.  But the Federated Sample platform that Jackson Square has launched increases quality & deliver-ability, automates transactions, and provides many-to-many connections in a industry dominated by one-to-one manual relationships.
• The market is rapidly evolving. The world of market research surveys adapts as new data collection methodologies come online: door-to-door begat telephone begat email lists begat social networks. Jackson Square’s Federated Sample technology is well-positioned to to move the industry to its next phase.
• Data. Enough said.

Here is some recent press from Time Picayune, Research Magazine, & Market Research Online.

I’m very pleased to be an investor in Jackson Square Group.  If you are interested in the company, please contact Austin Lavin. As always, if you have questions for me, hit me up.

I am excited to introduce Voodoo’s latest project, Hu.la, a URL shortener.  If you’re reading this post, you probably got here via a tweet or Facebook post via a short link.  While largely a commodity now, we decided to get in on the action too.  We secured this domain name earlier this year, and decided to launch our own URL shortner.  We’ve been using it internally for a couple months and now are rolling it out publicly so you can too.

One of the fun things about having the great engineering talent at Flatsourcing is being able to pursue projects like this, and occasionally they require a few hacks.  So, we want to share the story of how we built Hu.la:

• bit.ly is the leader in the URL shortner space and we applied to and were accepted in the beta of their bitly.pro program.
• The bitly.pro service powers New York Times, Amazon and TechCrunch’s own URL shorterns too.  You can sign up here.
• In order to get a homepage that allows others to access the service, we took a lesson from the guys who created 511cc.org using bitly.pro.
• And voila: we’ve launched Hu.la – take your links for a spin today.

Any questions or suggestions, please let us know.  We’d love your feedback and for you to make it your default URL shortening service.