Startups

Louis Gray recently posted a great piece about Digg and it’s founder Kevin Rose.  I’ve been a fan of Kevin since I first saw him on The Screen Savers on TechTV a little before Digg was even live.  I think that there’s really one over arching takeaway from all the talk about Kevin and Digg this week.

HOP OFF THE TRAIN AT THE RIGHT TIME!

What I mean by this is that a financially successful exit is a lot about timing. Just think of how many companies that are on the downswing or no longer even exist today, yet they made such great returns for their initial founders and shareholders because they sold out while they were on the top of their game.  On the flip side, there are many circumstances when companies have sold out to early, only to have their acquirers go on to grow the business 10x after the acquisition (still a better position to be in than having not exited at all).

Businesses and industry move in cycles and technological progress happens extremely quick these days. Companies, particularly those on the web, can so quickly fall in and out of favor. It’s crucial to exit at the right time.

Today is a good day.  We’ve just released 4 brand new marketplaces live on stage at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.  The new sites venture outside the audio space and into cartoons, celebrity pictures, infographics, and tattoos yet operating the same micro stock business model as we do at AudioMicro (i.e. crowd sourced content for as little as $1).

I’ll be posting video of the Launch presentation shortly.  In the meantime, full details on the new sites can be found in the press release below and on our new corporate site.  Check it out here.

Important to note is that our newly developed Content Management System (CMS) is available under white label.  What this means is that not only we can quickly and easily clone and deploy new content marketplaces at will, but our technology is available for you to do so as well think WordPress for Content Licensing.  If you’ve got content of your own that you wish to distribute simply drop us a line to get the process started.

Back in May of last year, we wondered what would come next after the launch of Audioo, well now we know.  It’s amazing to look back on the past 10 months at what we’ve been able to do.  We’re very much looking forward to the future.

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AudioMicro Unveils Four New Content Licensing Marketplaces

New Sites Include Cartoons, Celebrity Pictures, InfoGraphics, and Tattoos

SAN FRANCISCO, LAUNCH CONFERENCE, February 24, 2011 – AudioMicro, which offers the world’s largest collection of micro stock music and sound effects, announced today it has developed a white label CMS for content licensing, allowing the startup to quickly clone and deploy content marketplaces.  In conjunction with the announcement, the Company unveiled four new licensing marketplaces, each targeting a specific content vertical:

Cartoonsy.com – a marketplace for licensing cartoons and cartoon animations

ChooseTattoos.com – tattoo designs and tattoo flash from tattoo artists worldwide

ImageCollect.com – micro stock celebrity pictures with over 750,000 images

InfoGraphicStock.com – an experimental market for infographics and data visualization

The four new products were revealed onstage as part of the “2.0 Competition” at the Launch conference, being held February 23-24 in San Francisco.

“We’re already getting some great material from cartoonists, tattoo artists, red carpet photographers, and infographic designers.” said Ryan Born, founder and chief executive officer, AudioMicro.  “If you’re an artist with wholly owned content, upload your work and grab a piece of our growing monthly royalty stream.”

AudioMicro recently closed a round of financing led by Fotolia, Europe’s leading stock photo distributor, which spans the globe with websites in 12 languages, offices in 14 countries, and over 12 million images.

The new Content Management System (CMS) is available on a white label basis.   Content owners, publishers, and entrepreneurs that wish to operate their own marketplaces can contact the Company for details.

About AudioMicro, Inc.

An industry pioneer in licensing music and sound effects through credit-based and subscription packages, AudioMicro acts as a discovery and distribution platform for stock audio content.  Its collection of royalty free music, stock music, sound effects, and free sound effects includes over 225,000 tracks of both crowd-sourced and premium, record label-owned content.  In addition to AudioMicro.com, the company operates content licensing marketplaces for cartoons, tattoos, celebrity pictures, and infographics, as well as the voicemail sharing service Audioo.  The company is venture-backed by DFJ Frontier and Fotolia LLC.  For more information, visit AudioMicroInc.com.

About the Launch Conference

The Launch Conference (http://launch.is), February 23-24 2010, at San Francisco Design Center’s Concourse Exhibition Center, is serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis’ latest venture, attracting over 1,000 leading technology innovators and investors and over 140 startups.  40 new companies and products will launch for the first time on stage, selected to present from more than 500 applications received from around the world. Another 100 early-stage startups will exhibit in the Demo Pit.  Conference profits will be awarded equally to the 40 selected participants along with other award recognitions at the conclusion of the conference.

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I am sooooooooooo proud today.  My entrepreneurial wife Lauren has officially launched TWIG design studio with a MASSIVE  sale on One Kings Lane.  The sale’s timing is perfect for holiday shoppers.  The sale lasts for the next 72 hours so get some now while supplies last.  Click here to view the sale (NOTE:  you must register for One Kings Lane to view / purchase).

Here’s some more info about TWIG:

“TWIG design studio was created out of the concept that it’s little things in life that make a big difference. Since she was little girl, textile and surface designer Lauren Born and her mother would make each other’s day by exchanging small rocks, beautiful leaves and little notes. TWIG paper goods seeks to combine both of these ingredients—natural elements and the art of the note—in this beautiful selection of hand-painted cards.”

If you’re in the market for gift tags, gift cards, note cards, or handmade stationary, check out the big sale and buy a couple for you and your friends.  They make perfect holiday gifts!  Everything is 100% original and made 100% by hand right here in the USA (ok, in our garage actually).  Enjoy!

I’m a big advocate of telling anyone and everyone my ideas. I believe strongly that the entrepreneur who’s afraid to share his / her idea, ultimately goes no where. Seriously, when was the last time you met someone successful that had a good business idea but was unwilling to share it?

Following in the tradition to share my business ideas and seek feedback, I’m going to throw out 3 business ideas (admittedly somewhat “half-baked”) that I’ve thought of over the past fews years but been too busy to execute on because I’m busy with my stock music and sound effects business, AudioMicro. If you would be so kind as to leave your opinion on each of the 3 ideas in the comments, I would greatly appreciate it. Without further adue, here are the 3 ideas…

1. Celebrity Groupon – once a week, a celebrity goes up for auction. Fans each buy “tickets” (say for example, $100 each) and only when the total tickets sold reaches a milestone (e.g. 5,000 tickets or $500k) the celebrity agrees to attend a private event / party for the 5,000 “celebrity groupon” ticket holders. 50% of the proceeds go to us (i.e. Celebrity Groupon), 25% goes to a charity of the celeb’s choice, and 25% goes into the celebrity’s own pocket.  If the milestone to unlock the groupon is not met, the “fans” are simply refunded their money.  Out of our 50% rake, we pay for the costs of putting on the event – venue, security, etc.  Annual revenues of this company could easily reach $2M per month or $24M per year within year one.  The biggest issue I can see with this idea is that the celebrity may be unwilling to share how much they charge for a personal appearance.  To work around this, I suppose that we could always disguise the total number of actual tickets sold / needed to unlock the Groupon.  This model would also work well in attracting rock bands and other musicians to play private concerts.  Fans would have to pay for their own travel and accommodations to attend the actual “celebrity groupon” event.  We could ultimately even up-sell merchandise, hotel, and other travel arrangements to the fans.

Credit to Mike Bracco and Norm’s for helping to formulate this idea.

2. Ad Network for Commuter Vehicles – Inspired by sitting in traffic on the 101 and staring at the backs of cars, I wondered “why not stare at an advertisement instead of a blank bumper?”. In short, the clients of this business would be large outdoor advertisers and they would place massive ad buys to places ads onto the backs of 100+ vehicles in a particular zip code all at once.  Big brands would pay us to have ads run on the backs of commuter vehicles. E.g. $200 per month per car.  The ad network (us) would take 50% and the commuter would get 50%.  We would only accept commuters with cars that are new (e.g. leased within the past 3 years) and drivers with good driving records.  The ads get “wrapped” on the cars and all commuters are screened for good driving records and proper insurance coverage.  If you’re not familiar with car wrapping, the following photo says it all:

The reason this business is different from just the “wrapping” business is that we would be creating a massive ad network for big brands to get their products onto the backs of thousands of commuter vehicles in a particular location all at once, rather than a one off car owner deciding to wrap his own car with an ad for his own “dog watching” business as in the image above.  Imagine driving past 50 cars (all being paid $100 per month per car) on your way to work all with Coca-Cola ads on the back?  Wouldn’t that likely compel you to purchase a Coke (versus a Pepsi) at lunch?

NOTE:  There’s actually a company in LA doing this.  They are headed by one of my favorite new LA entrepreneurs, Jeff Blake. Check them out at Altavert.com

3.  Lockboxes for Everyone – don’t you hate getting checks and having to drive to the bank to deposit them?  What if you could 1.  mail your checks to the bank or 2.  have the people who owe you money mail the checks directly to your bank?  The bank would then scan and deposit your check and place it into your account for you saving you the hassle of every having to go to a bank or ATM to deposit your checks.  Businesses all around America have this service already and it’s called a “Lockbox“.  The banks provide it to them for free because of the high volumes of checks they receive on a daily basis.  So what if we started a company that provided “Lockboxes for Everyday People”.  Once the business reached scales – i.e. $100M in daily deposits, we’d have a pretty serious business on our hands – better known as a bank!  Now I know that Chase and PayPal already let you take a photo of your check on an iPhone and deposit it but what about all the other banks out there are folks that don’t have an iPhone or know about the app?  Lockboxes for everyone s0lves this problem.

4.  BONUS – here’s 4 more businesses that are certainly not original ideas but that would likely succeed if executed in a new market, perhaps a small town like Nashville, where I grew up:

– A Burrito chain like Chipotle, Willy’s, or Moe’s – these places are gold mines!

– A Yogurt chain like Menchies, Pinkberry, or Red Mango

– A “choose your own” salad place in Nashville – like one of those salad stations that are everywhere in NYC, including deli’s

– An indoor digital ad display network (like those TV’s you see with constantly rotating ads)

The reason I’m sharing all of these ideas here is because I profoundly believe that ideas are a dime a dozen.  Execution is everything in the business world.  Your idea will never take shape and evolve into an executable business unless you are willing to share it with friends, mentors, colleagues, co-workers, family, investors, and most importantly, customers.  If you want to get anywhere, don’t be afraid to talk about your business and share your ideas.

So what do you think of these business ideas?  Have some business ideas of your own to share?  Please email them over to me or feel free to discuss openly in the comments below.

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