by Cindy Kelly
President / Founder| Media Fusion

 Technology has forever changed the way business conduct business. Gone are the days of consumers thumbing through a phone book to search for a company. Today’s consumer heads to Google instead. Technology has changed our sales process. Traditionally, salespeople were the first to educate a consumer on their product. Today, most consumers are often more educated than the salespeople because they’ve already done their research online. This technological shift, known as Inbound Marketing, affects everyone and is transforming the advertising and marketing industries as we know it.

Inbound Marketing in  a Nutshell

The word “Inbound” describes a process that brings customers to you. The word “Outbound” describes you reaching out to your customers. Traditionally, marketers have always interrupted their prospects with their message. This has been done in the form of TV ads, radio ads, billboards etc. As technology has evolved, consumers have shown their lack of interest in advertising. They’ve purchased DVR players to watch their favorite shows without interruption, turned to their iPods for music (no ads there) and people can barely stop texting and driving much less pay attention to a billboard. This presents start-ups with many challenges when deciding what methods of marketing and advertising to use to make the most impact.

Make Inbound Marketing the Backbone of Your Startup

You’ve got the business plan, funding and product, now it’s time to market to your audience. You may be considering online ads or pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to enhance your visibility on Google. While this does get you instant exposure, it can also be very costly if it’s your only method for online visibility. Pay-per-click is just what the name implies, you pay for every click, regardless of the end result. Pay-per-click is a form of advertising and your search engine visibility will disappear if you decide to stop paying. That is unless you’ve earned that position organically. This is where Inbound marketing comes in.

Inbound marketing helps you enhance your visibility naturally. This is accomplished by understanding what your audience is interesting in, creating great content to support that, sharing that content on social media channels and getting others to talk about it. As you can imagine, there is not a quick solution for this. It takes a great strategy and many hours to accomplish however, the long-term benefits will be worth it. I like to think of PPC as “renting real estate” and Inbound Marketing as “buying real estate”. 

Building Your Inbound Marketing Toolbox

To be great at inbound marketing, you have to work with a set of tools. Here are a few basic tools you’ll need to get started 

Website: Regardless of the methods you chose for marketing and advertising, there’s no doubt your website will be the hub of all information. For this reason you’ll want to make sure your website is consistent with your brand, has a clear message and professional image.

Blog: A blog is simply an extension of your website. It’s a platform typically built into your website, meant to house educational content. Your blog will help position you as an expert in your field.

Content: Content the foundation of inbound marketing, without it you won’t get very far. Think like a writer. Think beyond articles. What could you provide people that is different? An ebook, checklist, how-to-guide, video? The list goes on.

Social Media: Love it or hate it, social media isn’t what all the kids are doing, it’s what all the businesses are doing. Not all social media platforms will be a good fit for your business. Think about the audience first, then think of the social media platform that your audience uses. You’ll use social media to promote your content, not sell.

Analytics: What gets measured, gets done. How are your marketing programs performing?  You should never stop measuring your marketing. You’ll want to monitor things like website traffic,  leads, new customers, etc.

Inbound marketing is a new approach that markets to the modern consumer. According to HubSpot, companies that implement Inbound marketing experience a cost per lead 61% less than those using outbound marketing. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface with the tools and techniques discussed in this post.

To learn more about inbound marketing, please join us for an enlightening, educational and engaging digital workshop specifically to help you market your startup at Tampa Bay WaVE on May 15th from 6:00-7:00 (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6433501777)

For more information, please contact Gracie Leigh Stemmer at gracie@tampabaywave.org.

Tampa Bay WaVE continues its excitement in welcoming the second class to the FirstWaVE Accelerator program.  FirstWaVE clients participated in an application submission process, which included a live pitch event to the FirstWaVE Accelerator vetting committee on April 8th, before being selected into the program. 

The pool of talented individuals continues to grow. Development of unique and innovative technologies is paving the way for greater innovation and job creation in the Tampa Bay area! Please stop by the FirstWaVE Venture Center to congratulate them! 

Fashion Sponge: FashionSponge give billions of fashion lovers an environment to follow, learn, discover, share, buy and sell fashion and beauty related products.

ZingScan: ZingScan is a subscription based business model for small businesses and schools to utilize an iOS visitor management app. We  offer three different plans of pricing: Basic, Pro, EDU. Each plan will also offer different features.

CityLync: CityLync is a free yield management service for high-end restaurants.  CityLync helps restaurants monetize their tables that would otherwise go unfilled and we give our members access to those tables at prices they can’t get otherwise.

Mobadwin: Mobadwin is a free app for iPhones and Androids, and the first and only win-win marketing platform. We connect businesses with their dream audience, using 25 demographic qualifiers, and allow them to engage and communicate with that audience. We provide our users with special offers and promotions from great bars, restaurants, shops, concerts and more, as well as allow them a chance to earn money and perks!

Pledge Your Bets: Pledge Your Bets is a fundraising platform that uses gamification technologies to encourage giving and provide a way for charities to engage younger donors.

Local Plants: LocalPlants.com is a venue that provides gardeners, landscapers, plant nurseries, tree farms, and garden centers the ability to market their products and businesses to their local community.
 
Truckspotting: At Truckspotting we’ve developed a better way to find food trucks other than following unreliable tweets. We came up with the idea of outfitting trucks with state of the art GPS devices that allow anyone with a smartphone the ability to track their favorites or find new food trucks near them in any city in the US…in real time.

Swap Shop Mobile: Swap Shop is the first Mobile application to do the shopping for you! Find books using your GPS location at an negotiable price! When you add the items you need to your profile all you have to do is sit back and wait for a notification to appear on your phone that someone in your area has it.

The FirstWaVE Accelerator Program offers a wide variety of benefits to startups in all phases of development, including bootcamps and workshops by local entrepreneurs and business executives, dedicated mentors, opportunities to meet with investors, access to a team of dedicated student interns and free professional services. Clients also have access to coworking and office space within the FirstWaVE Venture Center, located in Tampa Bay WaVE’s headquarters on the second floor of the Rivergate Tower, downtown Tampa.

Applications open for the next round of FirstWaVE Accelerator clients on May 1,2013. The deadline for this round is May 31st, and the new class will be selected June 5th, 2013. Apply at: bit.ly/FirstWaveAccelerator 

Tampa Bay WaVE is very excited to welcome the inaugural class to the FirstWaVE Accelerator program.  FirstWaVE clients participated in an application submission process, which included a live pitch event to the FirstWaVE Accelerator vetting committee, before being selected into the program. 

These talented individuals are developing unique and innovative technologies and paving the way for greater innovation and job creation in the Tampa Bay area! Please stop by the FirstWaVE Venture Center to congratulate them!

SHOOTRAC: Provides organizations of all sizes a simple way to capture big data on its customers, assets and workforce and use the information to leverage these resources for maximum efficiency and customer service using a cloud-based, scalable Software as a Service solution. 
 

Cartooga: Through its proprietary e-commerce platform and expert staff, Cartooga, Coracent offers shopping cart hosting and a variety of conversion optimization features designed to help businesses open an online store, drive traffic and increase conversion rates.
 

Secondhand Living: An e-commerce site where consignment, antique and thrift shops, as well as architectural salvage material suppliers promote their businesses and offer their products for sale. There are thousands of these independently owned shops in North America (even more abroad) and the majority of them have no online presence.
 

Drawer: A technology product expressed initially through a mobile application that provides a framework for capturing and cataloging real-life recommendations between friends and acquaintances. Drawer helps to catalog across various verticals – places, movies, music, products, books, etc. – in order to provide a comprehensive and centralized place for storing this information.
 

Commendable Kids: It is a community of children striving to be the best they can, as they work toward earning badges that can then be proudly displayed and shared with their supporters. Commendable Kids helps encourage and challenge children to learn new skills and reach new milestones.
 

Confy.co: Confy.co helps track and organize an event from start to finish by providing targeted solutions and management tools to conference organizers, sponsors, hosts and other event-related personnel to successfully manage the myriad of data, requirements and essential organizational needs.
 

Kite Desk: A personal cloud information manager that lets users connect their cloud service accounts and automatically links and organizes their messages, contacts, files, events and more into useful streams of information. Kite Desk provides the unique value of personalized, contextual computing to both web and mobile clients.
 

SavvyCard: A mobile web platform for actively referring business transactions. It combines features of an online business card with an intelligent referral system that generates measurable leads and sales. SavvyCard offers a convenient way to pass “warm” referrals from any web enabled device, track and respond to referrals in real time, reward referral behavior and build mobile-friendly referral networks.

FirstWaVE Accelerator offers a wide variety of benefits to startups in all phases of development, including bootcamps and workshops by local entrepreneurs and business executives, dedicated mentors, opportunities to meet with investors, access to a team of dedicated student interns and free professional services. Clients also have access to coworking and office space within the FirstWaVE Venture Center, located in Tampa Bay WaVE’s headquarters on the second floor of the Rivergate Tower, downtown Tampa.

Applications are now being accepted for the next round of FirstWaVE Accelerator clients. The deadline to apply is April 1, and the new class will be selected April 9. Apply at: bit.ly/FirstWaveAccelerator 

Our new member Nizar Bhojani, and his venture TextByChoice have brought us a new means of communication. 

Tire of sifting through emails from meetup.com? or trying to find out whats going on via Facebook & Twitter?

Text “WAVE” to 88588

We will be texting updates and announcements on the new space, when were are moving, events to be held and any other important news. WE WILL NOT, I repeat, WE WILL NOT be spamming the heck out of you, or giving your phone number to anyone. By they way, when you opt in we can’t see your phone number anyway.

This is a part of a service provided by one of our newest members, Nizar Bhojani. He has created a unique texting platform called TextByChoice. TextByChoice was conceptualized in 2010 with the intent of creating a better approach for sellers to connect with buyers. Traditional media (TV, radio etc.) provide marketing opportunities that are expensive yet not highly targeted. Emails are perceived as either spam or cluttered with unrelated information or could get too long. We looked for a an advertising solution that provided a more direct marketing opportunity for sellers while keeping costs under control. Texts are sent to the focused groups, are concise and to the point, and only sent to those who opt in. TextByChoice benefits the consumer and the vendor by making a link between them that is a mutual interest.

TEXT TO BE THE FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT i6 Grant Updates & Announcements!

Online dating has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the mid 90′s, and currently rivals the local bar scene for meeting people. It is not, however, without some painful drawbacks. Profiles are exaggerated. The pictures are often inaccurate to say the least. And people spend way too much time over analyzing profiles and messaging one another, when what they should be doing is actually meeting someone.

Seek.ly challenges traditional online dating by moving away from profiles and pictures and substituting them with real human interaction. Think of it as online speed dating. You don’t pour over thousands of profiles. You decide when you want to meet people, and then, you go online and meet people.

Most online dating sites brag about their extensive profiles and questionnaires. The problem, however, is that that isn’t how dating works. When you meet someone in real life, you don’t know every little thing about them. Unfortunately, in a world that shares an increasing amount of data, analysis paralysis has crept into the dating world.

Imagine if real life dating worked that way:  as you entered a bar, the bouncer hands you a stack of thick files on every person there. In that file was every mundane detail about the people surrounding you – likes, history, preferences in other people, etc. Let me ask you, would you sit down in a booth and comb over them, ruling out people because they don’t exercise at least three times a week, have only completed some college, or aren’t exactly sure how many kids they want yet? No. You would probably throw those files away and just go talk to people. Besides, they’re single – it would be weird if they required their date want a certain amount of kids

So how does seek.ly work? It’s pretty simple – especially in comparison to most other dating sites.

Users register a quick, shoestring profile. It includes:

An example of a seek.ly profile; simple & unsearchable

Your name

1 photo (the max allowed)

Your age

Your sex

what age/sex you want to date

and deal breakers  

Different from preferences, deal breakers are a few simple yes or no questions; absolute lines you can’t cross. For example, they ask “would you date a smoker.” If the answer is no, you won’t meet any smokers. That’s it, and the process takes about 2 minutes.

You’re matched up with people in your area and the sex and age range you said you preferred. Everything else about them is pretty random and left for you to find out – a lot like in real life. Dates are 5 minutes long, and when it’s over, you decide whether you liked that person and want to talk to them again, and have the option of scheduling more dates with the user.

Seek.ly has another advantage over online dating – you actually see the person. How many people go for accuracy when choosing their photos for an online dating profile? I’m guessing that since the creation of online dating, upwards of 4 people have actually thought ‘You know, this isn’t the most flattering photo of me, but it is what I actually look like.’ The rest? They chose the best possible photo they have, often from years ago or after digital editing.

“We were told people are sick of going through profile after profile of people who are not being who they say they are. They’d see a picture, meet in real life, and it didn’t match up,” Recounts Susie Steiner, who co-founded the company. “With seek.ly, what you see is what you get; you can’t really hide yourself on a video. So you have five minutes to interact and see if you want to meet them offline. It makes online dating more efficient. You can’t message on seekly – it’s just like meeting someone in real life, from the convenience of your home or office.”

So if seek.ly solves the problems of traditional online dating, what new challenges does their model face? One of the issues with randomized video chatting is the possibility for vulgarity. Not for long though. They’re currently at work to integrate facial recognition technology into the site, Steiner explains: “We’ve created a program so that if someone were to show too much skin, it would kick them out of the date. So we’re eliminating that issue that is associated with anonymous video dating. We will have it integrated by the end of this year.”

Seek.ly recently launched at the DEMO conference and a beta version of their product is live on the website seek.ly

It’s happening again this year. Entrepreneurs will be gathering, and this November 16^th they’ll be descending on Keiser University; pitching, ideating, creating, designing, coding, and pitching some more.  For three days the campus will be filled with the furious typing of laptops and an overwhelmingly unhealthy amount of caffeine.

Startup Weekend is coming. This will be the second Startup weekend Tampa Bay’s hosted this year.  Only this time, things are a bit different. This time, teams don’t just come to compete. They come to do battle.

Global Startup Battle is a worldwide event coinciding with Global Entrepreneurship Week. The winning teams of Startup Weekend (which is being simultaneously competed in 120 cities world wide) will enter a short video online to pitch their company. The companies are voted on and the winner gets handsomely rewarded, raking in prizes like:

• *A free trip to Rio De Janeiro for Global Entrepreneurship Congress - sponsored by Global Entrepreneurship Week. 
• *A free VIP trip to San Francisco to meet with founders, mentors, and investors sponsored by Startup Weekend.
  
• *$5,000 in-kind PR Launch Package for your SW team sponsored by Geben Communication.
• *$5,000 worth of Design Services for your SW team sponsored by Btrax.
• *$5,000 Incorporation & Legal Package sponsored by Cooley LLP.
• *More to come!

Tickets to the event are limited and going fast. Popularity for startup weekend is growing in the Bay area. “We’ve sold out every year” said Susie Steiner, Lead organizer of the event. “Last year we ended up with people on a waiting list who couldn’t get tickets.” The increased popularity of the event is part of the reason it’s now being held at Keiser University. “We needed a bigger facility” said Steiner.

If you aren’t able to make it to the event itself, there are other ways to support Global Entrepreneurship Week. Startup weekend is open to a number of sponsorship opportunities for those who want to support their local entrepreneurial ecosystem, from as large as sponsoring the event, to as little as $100 to sponsor an entrepreneur.

Want to know more? Check out Startup Weekend Tampa for yourself.

Some of you may know what CoFoundersLab is. For those of you who don’t, get ready to be excited. 

CoFoundersLab is a social network for Entrepreneurs. Now if you are thinking Facebook, think again. CoFoundersLab is more like a match.com for Founders. It helps entrepreneurs find the co-founders they are looking for. When signing up for the site you are asked a series of questions that help you seek out the perfect match for your startup. The site then allows you to browse other’s profiles to search for what you are looking for. When you think you’ve found someone compatible you send them a message and wait for a reply.
This video explains more.

So CoFoundersLab is an online platform to connect entrepreneurs to the team members they are seeking. But that’s not all! CoFoundersLab also have their own events to connect entrepreneurs in person and not just online. This is what is coming to Tampa Bay!
The event will be Thursday, November 8th, at CoWork Tampa. 

To attend the event you must create a profile on CoFoundersLab.com; then you must RSVP here. When RSVPing you must provide the URL of your CoFoundersLab profile, so be sure to sign up first!

If you are planning on attending StartUp Weekend Tampa (which you should be) this event is encouraged. The event will be a fun way to find team members prior to your participation, and thus, more likely for you to succeed in the Global Startup Battle!

I look forward to seeing you all at CoWork Tampa, Thursday, November 8th @ 6:30pm!
 Sign Up for StartUp Weekend Tampa! This years event is shaping up to be Epic, as Tampa Bay’s Startups will fight to the death in the Global Startup Battle this year! Be Sure to Register!
 

***The Next CoFoundersLab Event in Tampa will be February 27th at 6:30pm***
 Be sure to join the meetup.com group for updates on the next event!

On Friday, October 12, 2012 WaVE welcomed it’s 100th member with open arms! We’ve come a long way in four years. We used to just be a meetup for web venture entrepreneurs at the Bungalow. Now we’ve reached 100 members and our guess is that it’s not stopping there. This year has been a big year for us with two awards, 100 members, and a $1 Million grant; and the year isn’t even over yet! 

 We have so much to be Thankful for and couldn’t do it with out all the support. Thank you to all of our members, sponsors and community partners who allow Tampa Bay WaVE to keep growing.

As Father's Day approaches I find it only appropriate to recognize those Wave members who are Fathers themselves. We've been having a bunch of babies here in the Wave family, seeding for the future entrepreneurs of Tampa Bay. 

We've got to give them credit. For those of you who are working on a startup of your own, you know how difficult it is to juggle the wide spectrum of needs our startup requires. Now imagine throwing a baby or two into the equation. It makes my head spin just thinking about it. 

I must applaud all of the Father's we have in Wave, for your effort and hard work.You are not only being a Father, but you are teaching the next generation of America the meaning of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. This is something that is invaluable and for that, no Thanks is large enough. 

• Alfred Goldberg (Loco)
• Allen Clary (Jibidee)
• Aubrey Goodman (ChannelShift)
• Brian Burridge (Commendable Kids)
• Chris Bianco (Forceworks)
• Eliot Dill (Appoholic)
• Francis Suarez (Outera)
• Jack Kennedy (Kitedesk)
• Jared Rodriguez (Kitedesk)
• Jeff Juszczak (Mattercode)
• John Dalrymple (Mobex)
• Lance Raab (Jazz Media)
• Marc Mandt (Mascus)
• Ricardo Lasa (SiteWit)
• Robert Williams (goPMO)
• Scott Kurland (JoeHero)
• Steve Eckhardt (Groovy Hoods)
• Steve Mordue (Forceworks)
• Steve Tingiris (Enthusem)
• Ty Mathen (Dropost.it)

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!

In June 2008 a group of 20 tech entrepreneurs gathered in a conference room at Foley & Lardner's Tampa office to meet local peers, share their personal stories, and find solutions to the challenges that can be unique to tech startups.

Four years later, WaVE has

• Grown to than 80 members and tech startups
• Become recognized as a 501c(3) public charity by the IRS
• Established a coworking and innovation center in downtown Tampa to provide affordable office space for tech startups and a collaborative work space for the tech community
• Been named "2012 Entrepreneurial Organization of the Year" by USF Alumni Society of Entrepreneurship and honored with a "2012 Urban Excellence" award by Tampa Downtown Partnership
• Been named to founding board of Startup Florida for Startup America Partership (launched at the White House by President Obama in 2011)

Did you know….

• Our members' tech ventures range from initial development stage all the way up to post revenue stage (some with millions of users, revenue and/or funding)
• The average age of our tech venture founders is between 35 and 40 years old
• Five of the six Gazelle Lab startups, the local TechStars network accelerator, were also WaVE member ventures
• Many WaVE member ventures are also members of TBTF and Tampa Bay Innovation Center
• One of our members' ventures, Wufoo, was acquired last year for $35 million, and the most outside capital they took in was $118,000 (not a bad return, huh?)

Recently, a group of WaVE members were asked what is WaVE's proudest accomplishment?  It was not easy to answer, especially since there were so many to choose from.

As you may know, our initial meeting back in 2008 was simply a gathering of peers, like-minded tech entrepreneurs who not only had challenges in their startups to tackle but also were eager to share their personal experiences and pearls of wisdom for the benefit of other tech startup founders.  Yep, it was that simple.  There was no other agenda, and certainly no expectation that an organization would be formed.

However, as the years progressed, these passionate founders stuck together, forming bonds that will last a lifetime.  It was more than just a community, more like a fraternity or family.

In 2010, WaVE decided to launch a website simply to give its members and their ventures a little more exposure.  We knew our members were working on the area's future break-out tech companies, and we did not want to keep it a secret any longer.  Soon after, people did start to take notice, and opportunities to provide more benefits to our members began to emerge.

Thus, in 2011, it became clear that formally organizing as a non-profit would allow us to do even more for our members, their ventures and the greater local community.  That was February 4, 2011.

What a pivotal decision that was.

Since then, our membership has more than doubled – each member being a founder of another great local tech venture (the next Facebook? next Groupon? next Foursquare? You name it…).  

"I am constantly amazing at the variety of tech ventures that make up Tampa Bay WaVE," said Linda Olson, Chair and Executive Director of Tampa Bay WaVE.  "There is almost no industry or application our members' ventures do not touch: healthcare tech, restaurants, local shopping & coupons, pets, parenting, telecomm, pay-per-click analytics, virtual worker matching services, recruiting and HR, education, dating, etc.  Tampa Bay is truly a hotbed of innovation."

So what do the next four years look like for WaVE?

It's hard to say.  There is tremendous momentum right now, so we expect big things. 

Stay tuned… a little birdie tells us there is some very exciting news for Tampa Bay WaVE on the horizon too!

Happy 4th Birthday, WaVE!