On the flight back from Austin after SXSW last March, I was taking with Jesse about how much fun it would be to have something like it in Madison. We thought it would be cool to try to set something up for the summer. When I got back, I pitched the idea to my friend Matt Younkle, who really liked the idea. In May, over some beers, we decided to try to make a go of it. As the summer rolled along, Matt, Bryan Chan and I continued to plan Madison’s tech conference.
The Forward Technology Conference took place at the Memorial Union on the UW campus on Friday and was a huge success. Over 120 Madison entrepreneurs, techies, investors and other tech savvy Madisonians attended the inaugural FTC2010 to hear from some of the most interesting people in the Madison technology scene.
FTC2010 was only a small part of the 10 day long Forward Technology Festival, which was sort of a “taste of Madison” but for all of the tech and entrepreneur focused groups in town. The Forward Technology Festival was the brainchild of Preston Austin, who had the foresight to try to bring all of the different tech groups in town together in a week long celebration. FTF2010 included High Tech Happy Hour,Capital Entrepreneurs,Sector67, BarCamp and other tech focused events.
FTC Highlights
The Forward Technology Conference kicked off with a panel called Entrepreneur 101, which featured four successful Madison entrepreneurs: Greg Tracy (Sharendipity), Dan Voell (GoBuzz), Chad Sorenson (Flamedisk) and Roy Elkins (Broadjam) and was moderated by Bryan Chan (Supranet). The panelists talked about their successes and lessons they’ve learned over their careers in the startup game. All of the entrepreneurs talked about staying focused as one of they keys to their success.
Next up was All About LLCs featuring attorney Joseph Boucher of Neider and Boucher and Kevin Kelbel an accountant from Smith & Gesteland LLP moderated by Matt Younkle (Y-Innovation). Boucher and Kelbel talked about the different types of business entities and shared stories about why different companies should choose LLCs, S or C corps.
After a quick lunch break, we did an hour of breakout sessions with topics proposed from the attendees. We ended up with a wide range of topics and settled on four. First was how to run an intern program led by Jesse Davis of Entrustet. The second group was about what a shared hackerspace in Madison should look like, led by Chris Meyer of Sector67. Another session was about biomimicry, with the last session focusing on the future of the web and HTML5 (hosted by Momenta’s Dan Gordon).
The final panel of the day was all about design, branding and identity. It featured John Besmer (Planet Propaganda), Wesley Grubbs (Pitch Interactive), Andy Wallman (Knupp & Watson & Wallman), Gage Mitchell (Gage Mitchell Design) and was moderated by Dan Merfeld, (TheoryThree Interactive). This was one of the more fun panels of the day and featured spirited discussion on the pros and cons of large and small design shops. The panelists stressed that brands need consistent messaging across all platforms or their marketing won’t work. My favorite quote of the day came from Besmer “If you’re thinking about your marketing when its time to do marketing, its way too late.”
We rolled on into my favorite part of the day: Pitch Your Biz. 5 startups had 5 minutes each to present their ideas to the crowd and then the crowd had 5 minutes to provide feedback, ideas and ways to improve the business. Biz Pitchers included Heidi Allstop (Student Spill), Derek Swoboda (Golf Links Cafe), Joseph Beck (Loacsys),Justin Beck (PerBlue) and Mudit Tyagi (Open ADC).
I love this format because it keeps the participants and the audience on their toes. The audience can’t fall asleep, since the pitches come fast and furious and there’s a new one every five minutes. All of the startups did a great job, as did the audience. My personal favorites were Student Spill, which I think has the potential to be a game changer by bringing support groups online, but with a tweak and PerBlue. Justin Beck from PerBlue is always an entertaining speaker because he is right to the point, provides compelling stats and doesn’t mince words. All five startups did a great job and Laurie Benson (Innacom) was a phenomenal MC.
Fred Foster of Electronic Theater Controls was the keynote speaker and told the story of how he founded ETC while he was still in school at UW. He told war story after war story about his battles growing the company into what it is today: $200m in revenue and 700+ employees. Foster had the audience laughing every few minutes and I could have listened to him tell stories for as long as he wanted to talk. I thought it was awesome that when he started the company, he wanted to sell theater controls to The Met and 20 years later, he actually did it. Talk about perseverance!
After the keynote, we put on a reception above the union terrace, right on the lake. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed talking with all of the attendees and learning about their current projects.
I really enjoyed FTC2010 and am hoping to make it an annual event. I know that with a full year to prepare, we can do an even better job and get more people in town to attend. Madison is turning into a startup hub in the Midwest. TechCrunch noticed. Forbes noticed and the local media is starting to take note. The Forward Tech Conference is another step in the right direction and one that I hope continues to put Madison on the map!
Did you attend FTC2010? What was your favorite part of the festival? Do you have any suggestions or feedback?
I went to the mall for the first time in awhile yesterday to pick up a few things I needed for the office. I was immediately struck by how different the employees looked. Walking around, I hardly saw the stereotypical sullen teenagers working at the cell phone kiosks, food courts and clothing stores. The foodcourt was completely staffed by immigrants and even at some of the younger stores, most of the employees were middle aged. It was strange to walk into a clothing store for people my age and find it staffed with 55+ women, when 2 years ago it was staffed by high school and college aged workers.
My guess is that young people who want jobs are getting pushed out of the market by older, more experienced and more reliable employees because of unemployment in other areas of the economy. With unemployment near 10% and underemployment much higher, people are starting to support their families with mall jobs.
I think the other factor in play is that many middle/upper class teens now don’t want to get jobs. They’d rather get internships rather than work a job that they believe is “beneath” them or they’d rather do nothing at all and hang out with their friends all summer.
It does make sense though. Teens are generally more unreliable than older people who need the job to support themselves or their families and the immigrants working the foodcourt seem to work (much) harder than the average high school junior. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out as the recession continues. Will older workers stay in the workforce longer and prevent younger people from being hired? Will younger people (even those with college degrees) have to accept “lower status” jobs? I think it’s likely. The only way out is for companies to start creating more jobs, which I don’t see as being likely on a mass scale in the current economic climate. It’s going to be an interesting next few years.
What do you think? Do you see the same phenomenon in your area?
One of the best things we’ve done with Entrustet this summer is hire 9 interns from the University of Wisconsin. They’ve been a huge help to us and hopefully Jesse and I have taught them a few things too. As the summer winds down, most will be heading back to school, so we wanted to do something fun heading into the last few weeks. Here’s what they came up with:
Introducing the Entrustet music video “What My Assets Will Become” a cover of All the Things I’ve Done by The Killers. Daniel Thompson plays the piano and with Rob Howard on the camera. I hope you enjoy…I know we all had a ton of fun with it.
Ever since South By Southwest, I wanted to put on a smaller version in Madison. SXSW was such an amazing experience because it was a place I could learn, meet awesome people and then relax with a happy hour and entertainment at night. I pitched Matt Younkle on the idea few months back and we decided we wanted to make something happen in Madison.
We’ve partnered with the founders of the Forward Music Festival and have an eye toward unifying the dates for the music and tech festival in the future.
10:05 am – Startups 101: A panel discussion with Madison-area entrepreneurs with businesses at different stages of development. Hear what’s working and what’s not in today’s market. Your questions and participation are encouraged.
11:00 am – All About LLCs: Finally learn about the in’s and out’s of Limited Liability Companies. We’ll have an attorney and a CPA on the stage together to set the record straight, and you won’t have to worry about any hourly billing.
1:00 pm – Unconference: Here is where the attendees become the presenters! Come with topics to discuss and ideas to share. We’ll poll you and the other attendees for hot topics, and split off into four or five groups based on interest.
2:00 pm – Branding and Identity Panel: Learn about what to look for in choosing a good graphic designer, hear about relevant design trends, and learn about different identity philosophies from some of the area’s top design minds.
3:15 pm – Pitch Your Biz: Here’s your chance to pitch your new biz or big idea in front of your peers for some no-holds-barred feedback. Biz-pitchers will have exactly 5 minutes to sell the audience on their concept. After that, the floor is opened for feedback, compliments, and criticisms. Contact us if you’d like to be a Biz-pitcher
All of the session will have high quality speakers and presenters, but I’m most excited for the Pitch Your Biz session. 5 entrepreneurs will get 5 minutes each to pitch their idea, business plan or even full fledged business and then the audience will have 10 minutes per company to provide feedback to try to improve the business. I haven’t seen anything like it and I think we’re going to have some really strong presenters that should make the session really interesting.
After the panels, we’ve reserved the top level of the deck overlooking the Memorial Union where we’ll host a networking happy hour, with 2 drinks included in your registration fee. There will also be a live band on the terrace, which should be awesome.
I’m also excited that people in Madison are getting excited about technology, entrepreneurship and startups. I’ve already started to hear some buzz surrounding FTC2010 and think that Madison has the chance to really showcase its entrepreneurship credentials. After being featured in TechCrunch last week, people outside of the state are starting to figure out what’s going on in Madison. I’m hoping that Forward Technology Festival, Forward Music Festival and the rest of the Forward Movement can help bring the Madison community together around new, interesting ideas and the culture that’s needed to help the city grow.
Between USA/Slovenia and USA/Algeria, we drove up to Madikwe Nature Reserve for a three day safari. We booked online just before we left, so we didn’t really know what to expect, but all three of us were excited to see some animals. We were happy that we’d gotten a discount from the official rates and it was about a 4 hour drive from Pretoria, so we left fairly early in the morning and drove northwest, via Rustenburg.
We arrived at Madikwe, which is about 15k from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana and entered the park. There are three types of reserves in South Africa and three different types of safaris. There are national parks like the famous Kruger National Park or the newer Pilanesberg, which allow anyone to drive around the reserve in their own cars in search of animals. There are also private reserves that are generally much smaller and are owned by companies that feel that they can make a profit from safaris. Madikwe is a public/private combination of the two, in that the land is owned by the government, but private companies were allowed to build accommodations in small areas of the park. You also must be accompanied by a guide at all times in Madiwke, so there is much less traffic than in Kruger or Pilanesburg.
Elephants at Bush House Watering Hole
We got to the park and made our way to The Bush House, a few km inside the park, just off the main road. We really didn’t know what to expect, but we were greeted by friendly staff and luxury accommodations. The first day, the three of us were the only people staying at The Bush House out of a possible 12, so we basically had a private, luxury safari for a day. The Bush House is in the wild, surrounded by electric fence to keep the animals out and guests safe. In addition to luxury accommodation, they have a watering hole that is right outside the fence, where you can watch animals come take a drink when you’re not out in the park.
Each day, we would get up at 7am and do a 3.5 hour safari with our guide, Jason. After about 2 hours, we would stop for coffee and tea and then cruise around for awhile longer. When we got back, breakfast would be ready for us outside in the breezeway. We had the next few hours to ourselves, then had “afternoon tea” which was really like a lunch at 230, before another 3.5 hour safari that included drinks at sundown and 30 minutes or so of night safari. When we got back, dinner was ready for us. We were there for three full days and the entire experience was completely worth it.
It is winter in South Africa, so it gets really cold at night. During the day, it was comfortable to walk around in shorts and a tshirt, but as soon as the sun went down the temperature would drop from about 70 to about 40 in twenty minutes. We made sure to bundle up for the morning and night safaris because it was frigid, but it was completely worth it.
Giraffe on Safari
Our first game drive started out slowly our first afternoon, but it was fun to be in the bush, looking around hoping to see the big 5 (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard). We saw a bunch of antelope and wildebeest and continued to drive around. Our guide got a call on his radio that there had been a sighting in another part of the park, so we drove that way. He pulled off one of the dirt tracks and all of the sudden, we were 10 feet from two sleeping lions. The guides use radios to share sightings between each other, but Madikwe has a cool rule that only allows 3 vehicles to be at a sighting at once. Other parks have no limit and cars crowd around the animals, which doesn’t seem fun or safe for the animals.
20 feet from a lion
I was continually suprised at how close we could get to the animals without them running off or us being in danger. Our guide told us that the animals view the vehicle as one big blob, which looks dangerous to them, so they do not want to attack or show interest. He also told us that as far as he knew, there has never been a case of a lion grabbing a human off of a vehicle before. We never really felt in any danger, but was a little disconcerting to be 30 yards from three rhinos who continued to stare us down.
Sundowner drinks/snacks in Madiwke with our vehicle
Speaking of rhinos, they look like they are from a different time and place. They look prehistoric and you can really tell they’ve been on earth for a really long time. They’re also incredibly wide. I’ve seen rhinos in the zoo before, but they’re always just sitting around in their enclosure. Seeing these huge creatures in the wild was completely different. They are the ones in control, not you. We also learned that the guides do not talk about rhinos over the radio because poachers have been very active in killing rhinos for their horns. There are only about 6000 rhino left in South Africa and over 125 had been killed already in 2010. A full grown rhino horn is worth close to $1m because mostly Asian cultures want them for either rhino horn knives, which are used in coming of age ceremonies, or to be ground up and snorted or eaten as an aphrodisiac. On our second to last day in South Africa, there was a story in the Cape Town paper about a rhino that was brutally attacked with a chainsaw for it horn. It’s an incredibly sad and unfortunately growing problem, even on the nature reserves. Madikwe has not had any poacher problems yet, but they are constantly vigilant to prevent rhinos from being hunted to extinction.
Three rhino
After seeing the rhinos, we got back to the Bush House and dinner was waiting for us in front of a roaring fire. It felt great to get out of the freezing cold and the meal didn’t disappoint. We had ostrich steak and lamb chops, accompanied by potato and leak soup, which were both really good.
The next morning, we got up for another game drive. We drove into a more mountainous region of the park and ran into a group of 8 giraffe. Giraffe are under appreciated animals, but I think they might be my favorite. They’re huge, but we were able to get within 10 yards of them. I didn’t realize that they have cones on the top of their heads that they use to fight and defend themselves. Our guide told us that the males have much bigger cones and the older ones generally have broken cones from all of the fighting they do. During mating season, the males fight to show dominance and apparently a giraffe fight is really brutal, with the loser dying of concussions or a broken jaw from time to time. The males also get darker as they age, mostly to show dominance. Again, seeing giraffes in the wild is a completely different experience from seeing them in a zoo where they just sort of stand around.
Right after the giraffes, we spotted one elephant on the side of the mountain. After stopping to take some photos, we realized that there were a ton more coming down from the hills. Elephant go up into the hills at night and then come down to eat when the sun comes up. We quickly found ourselves in the middle of a group of 50-60 elephant, including a bunch of babies. The babies are pretty funny, because they can’t use their trunks yet. They try, but they sort of just dangle there, useless. Elephants learn to use their trunks after 6-12 months, but have trouble until then.
These elephants were huge. They were so much bigger than the mostly Asian elephants I’d see in zoos. We were close enough to smell them and hear their vocalizations. The younger males, 10-12 years old, are sort of like human teenagers. They think they’re invincible and are really interested in the opposite sex. They start to cause trouble and then a senior male, usually 45-55 years old, disciplines them. Once the young male learns his lesson, the older male mentors the young one, teaching him how to interact with females, other animals and how to behave. We were told that in areas with lots of poaching, the young males miss out on this mentoring and then don’t know how to interact with females or other animals and cause trouble, many times leading to them having to be put down. Elephants live into their 60s and their lives parallel humans. It’s amazing how far the parallels actually go.
View from the room, the bush house
That night, more people came, so our private safari was over, but it was still really fun. They didn’t believe us that it got cold at night, so they froze the first night. We ended up finding a large pride of lion, with over 10 lions in it. After watching them for awhile, we noticed the younger cubs wandering off, so we went to find them. On the other side of the hill, we saw all four of them getting the last of the afternoon sun in what looks like a staged picture, but I can assure you is not. After dark, we saw two lions hunting and heard the shrieks of antelopes, but the lions didn’t catch them. The lions were huge and slinking through the tall grass.
The next day, we saw a ton of zebra and went in search of wild dog, but didn’t find them. Instead, we stumbled on a herd of 250+ buffalo. They were huge and their horns looked like they could do some serious damage. Our guide told us that buffalo are the most dangerous of the big five because they are so smart. He said that he’s heard stories of buffalo that are shot by hunters that double back and attack the hunter from the rear to kill them. Later that day, we saw the only cheetah on the reserve. There used to be 60 cheetah, but the lions killed them all. The park is trying to move 15-20 of the lions and then reintroduce more cheetah. Our guide had been in the park for 6 months or so and had never seen the cheetah, so we were fortunate. We were also fortunate to see two male lions eating a freshly killed wildebeest from really close up.
It was amazing how much all of the animals blended into the landscape, especially the lions and cheetah. I had always thought of lions are yellowish and probably had a bad picture of cheetahs in my mind because of the cheetos guy, but both are almost light brown and really hard to see. I could easily imagine walking right up onto a lion without even knowing it.
I really enjoyed the three days on safari. Besides the matches, it was the highlight of my trip to South Africa. Seeing these huge animals in the wild is a completely different experience than seeing them in the zoo. If you go to Africa, you must go on safari. It’s really not that expensive. If you do choose to do a safari, I really recommend Madikwe and the Bush House based on value for money and all of the animals we saw.
Note: This post is the fourth in a new series called “Entrepreneur Profiles.” These posts focus on an interesting entrepreneur who I’ve gotten to know and hopefully provide a window into their business that you might not otherwise find in a newspaper or magazine.
Nathan Lustig: Hey Jeremy, thanks for talking with me. Can you give me a brief overview of your company?
Jeremy Shafton: Door-6 was started in June 2009 with the goal of developing mobile phone games with a level of quality only found on handheld gaming devices. We want to eliminate the need for additional hardware by bringing features like immersive 3D environments to the phone. By doing so, gamers will no longer have to spend money on additional hardware, and will be able to directly download our games on their phone’s integrated marketplace at a fraction of the usual cost.
Our first product was Atmosphere: The Training Mission which we built specifically for the 2nd Google Android Developer Challenge. The game was completed in a single month, yet we still managed to reach the final round, finishing in the Top 20 Arcade and Action Games. We continued to improve Atmosphere over the next few months and released its successor, Vacuum, to the Android Market in March 2010.
Between April 1 and May 31 we ran a cash prize contest to reward the top three highscores in Vacuum, for which we recently announced the winners.
We currently have six part-time people, and will be taking on more in the next few months. We’re focused on setting ourselves up for success.
NL: What kind of background did you have to be able to start a mobile gaming company?
JS: I was a big gamer in high school and have had a little bit of Java programming experience, but I saw a great opportunity in this industry and worked with two people who shared my vision on getting this company off the ground.
NL: Many founders of startups have some sort of an “ah-ha moment” when they first got the idea for their company. Did you have one and what was it?
JS: Together with my partners Jon and Ryan, we looked at the way things are in mobile gaming today and realized that over the next few years there would be a significant transition. 97% of all teenagers and adults have cell phones in the US, even the majority of 12 year olds have cell phones now. The hardware is getting so powerful and so inexpensive, that soon it will be completely out of the question for most gamers to buy more portable gaming hardware than just their phone.
NL: What is the biggest reason you founded your startup?
JS: The startup life is the life for me. In high school I started my first business selling build-to-order desktop computers online. It wasn’t a success by any means, but I gained insight into a lot of the elements of entrepreneurialism. In reality, my first business was in elementary school, I built balsa wood airplanes, painted them “cool” colors, and sold them on the street corner in a custom booth.
And yes, I have photographic evidence of this.
My last startup was The Gadgeteers and it was a small success. I found a unique product, built a website to sell it, briefly existed as the exclusive retailer within the US, and sold hundreds. As exclusivity ended and I had to become a normal ultra-competitive retailer, it just wasn’t as fun anymore.
NL: What is the biggest unexpected challenge you had to overcome?
JS: The biggest challenge we have come across, but have not yet overcome, is breaking into this highly cluttered market. With the release of Vacuum we were able to get the blogs talking, using press releases and YouTube videos, but in the end we didn’t sell more copies than other games. The cash prize contest was one the big ways we drew attention, and even that did not generate significant sales. Instead of rushing into the next product, we are taking the time to build something more groundbreaking that will force the market to pay attention.
NL: What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about starting a startup?
JS: I would suggest that you share your ideas with the intelligent people around you, and seek out those who can help you build your idea into a business. Having a great partner or two makes the difference in the early stages.
Work as hard as you can at it, but don’t be afraid of changing your business model as you go. You have to be flexible and consider every opportunity that presents itself.
NL: What are three websites you check everyday?
JS: I like to stay up on the technology, software, and smartphone industries, so I read Engadget and TechCrunch daily. TechCrunch is great for seeing more about what’s happening in the startup world. Number three is Gmail which I have open 24/7.
The Android Development Blog from Google is a good one to check irregularly.
NL: Do you have any funny stories or amusing anecdotes about starting or running the company? Do people ask you “when are you going to get a real job?”
JS: Everyone always asks how we got our name. We came to it after sitting for days in a conference room trying to pick out a name and after a long while the only consensus we had come to was that the door to the conference room was quite unique looking. From there we just counted how many people were actively involved in the company, and now you have Door-6 Inc.
I get asked the real job question on occasion, but my family is supportive. My girlfriend would prefer if I had a steady salary, but she knows I’m doing what I believe in.
NL: What/who has been the biggest help to you and your company?
Working with Jon and Ryan has been the driving force of the company. Partners make all the difference, like I said earlier. We all count on each other to make this company succeed.
NL: What is the most fun part of running your company? The least?
JS: The most fun I have had at Door-6 has been building our team. We’ve recruited some talented individuals, and it has been a great learning process for how to build a team and collaborate successfully. Having big meetings where we all share ideas and work together is a blast. The least fun thing is dealing with the fact that pretty much everyone has to commit part time, because of the lack of a salary. It makes it harder to coordinate meetings, and harder to meet deadlines.
NL: As always, it’s been great talking with you. Good luck with Door-6!
