I’ve been part of many projects with the sole purpose to streamline or innovate an existing infrastructure or processes. Many of the times the system/process became to much to support because of the overwhelming load. Then it’s either the case of IT dreaming up way to big to support system or the Marketing team wanting what does not exist. With all that, majority of the case the environment is a big hodge-podge of stuff.

I seem to have a knack to finding very innovation and simplistic solutions to cleaning up messes, mostly technology messes. Most of my solutions are out-of-the-box and far from the norm.

I’ll update this post later this with examples, plenty of examples. Right now I’m at the Boston public library and I’m hungry, so food is taking priority over this blog post! :P

In a nutshell, when your system is complex and hard to manage, it is NOT innovation. Being innovative is seeing beyond the traditional ways of production, it is clearing a new path to help make something better.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/innovation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

Throughout my career I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great bosses and worked with/managed teams of amazing people. Many of my close friends are people I’ve worked with. Here is a chronological breakdown.

Note: If you’re listed in this article and would like what I said (or a variation of it) as a LinkedIn recommendation, just let me know. :)

Ideablue / SocialSimple (recent)

http://www.ideablue.com/

In 2008 I left corporate America to take the entrepreneur path and start my own business. Luckily I had investors which enabled me to build up a top talent team. With Ideablue I was (am) the CEO so my boss was not me, it was my team. When you’re the CEO, it’s not only about running the business, it’s also about keeping your staff dedicated and happy. When you have a trusted and happy staff, you’ll have a great company worth fighting for.

Lee Waterman – The first employee who I hired for SocialSimple was Lee. I remember having dinner with his family and pitching the business plan (through PowerPoint) and doing my best to ensure the pros outweighed the cons of leaving a stable job to be part of a risky venture. I felt like a football coach convincing the family to have him play quarterback for my team.

Throughout the next year, Lee was my right hand man, the voice of reason when I would have off the wall ideas (had many). While I thought I was a technology rockstar, Lee was a technology SUPER rockstar! His dedication to doing nothing but the very best was inspirational. When I thought of taking shortcuts, Lee was there to set me straight. Not only was Lee a technology maven, a web rockstar, an innovative engineer, he was also and still is my close and dear friend. Maybe one day I’ll beat him at Rock Band. Lee also worked with me at Interactivate as the Lead Engineer whom the entire development team looked up to as so did I.

Erica Twining – I never knew how overlooked the operations / accounting areas of running a business is until Erica showed me how much it takes. Some of our staff was full-time employees with benefits (health/dental/etc.) and as an LLC we paid taxes through the nose. It’s amazing how you pay an employee $xx and the true cost of employing an employee is $xxxxx. Erica’s support in starting my own business was the cornerstone to my success. While Erica had a full time job somewhere else, I was amazed how much she helped us out in her spare time. I also worked with Erica at Miva. Just absolutely amazing she was!

Mary Salvatera – I worked with Mary at Interactivate and at Hitachi. We partnered on pitching new business leads, worked on presentations,  creative designs, and was just as passionate about always dedicated to delivering a high quality user experience. She was my VP of Everything!! This was my first time running a startup business and Mary helped me keep the priorities on track and that was to grow the business. She is a creative force that understands that keeping the end user happy through great design and great user experiences is a fundamental factor to success. Also, without Mary I could NOT have pulled off our Twiistup sponsorship.

Tanya Milhaud – I was amazed on how passionate Tanya was about Public Relations and Marketing. Although she was fresh out of college, she worked like a true professional. Tanya was also a great student of business. I had her work with me closely on lots of the business aspects and trusted her to help me run a smooth operation. When times got crazy and seemed like out of control Tanya was always there to help calm the storm and bring order. Her positive spirit and genuine smile brought warmth to the office. I still remember when we both ate an entire banana cream pie together in one sitting.

Lisa Leonte (client) – Lisa was one of those dream clients that embraced your ideas and had a great deal of trust in your capabilities. We had some bigs tasks before us and Lisa was there every step of the way in full support. She saw the talent in myself and my team and always made sure to let us know her appreciation. Even when some projects got stressful and down to the wire Lisa kept her cool and did all that she could to help us achieve success. When I would have meetings at the club, it was pure chaos and was always impressed how she was able to manage the hustle and bustle. Beyond a client, Lisa became a close friend of mine.  I will always be grateful to her for being an amazing client who had a deep passion for success. I owe a lot to her and I hope she knows it.

Eric Von Sydow (client) – Eric was a straight to the point, let’s get things done type of client. He was very successful in his business and was dedicated to always doing the best that he and his company could do. He was an amazing leader who had great respect among his staff. I am glad I got the chance to work with him on some fun and amazing projects. Eric always made you feel like you were a VIP. Not only is he a great businessman he is also an inspiring man that motivates you to have a strong belief in yourself and that you can do anything. Eric is a force of power in the entertainment industry and an ambassador of personal growth and change.

Marzena Kmiecik (business partner) – It’s hard to find powerful creative minds that equal your passion. With Marzena I felt she and I had the same mindset to push innovation to the limits, to break the mold with traditions. With SocialSimple (and Ideablue) Marzena and I collaborated a lot on many of the strategies and directions of our products and services. She was one of the few people that I looked to for creative strategies. I was inspired by her passion for the customer, passion to never settle for less than perfect. Marzena also introduced me to the best gelato place in San Diego called Pappalecco.

Johan Viberg (business associate) – Johan and I would meet from time to time for lunch/drinks/coffee and just talk about life and business. With running a small business you have the ability to change your strategic direction. I would bounce ideas off of him and truly valued his input. I have a great deal of respect for his brilliance in business and technology. I also love his iPhone app DailyFlower.

There are others that I also am grateful for (long list) which you can read here.

Hitachi (HDS)

http://www.hds.com/

Rick Repsold (boss) – One of the things I learned greatly from Rick was his candid honesty. He didn’t have time to beat around the bush, he was very straightforward which I found very refreshing. We worked together and with the executive staff to campaign strongly that the web/IT/marketing systems needed to get renovated asap.

Nigel Porter and David Burden

David Burden – David was my partner in crime in just about all operations and projects. While I was Director and David was Manager (my direct report) I always viewed David as my equal counterpart. I had some innovative ideas that shocked the foundations of traditional web and David was there with me through the thick and thin and always supportive. In corporate companies, you have lots of hurdles like internal politics, budgets, other depts you have to work through and David was there every step of the way. He was also heavily involved with social media too (Facebook/Twitter/Blogs) which helped when we both were pushing hard to integrate social media throughout the enterprise.

When I left Hitachi, David replaced me as Director which there couldn’t have been a better person to have filled the role. Watch out current CEO of Hitachi, I’m sure David will be replacing you in no time!!

Nigel Porter – I could summarize Nigel in one sentence. One of the smartest and hardest working technical geniuses that I have ever known. This is a big statement coming from me as I’ve know lots of technical folks. Nigel was the type of person that when overloaded with work, he didn’t stress, he was committed to the customer customer customer. I am just in awe of how great of a mind he is.

Crystal Mack – One of my peers was Crystal Mack who knew the business very well. When I was new, fresh from the agency world, Crystal helped me navigate the big corporate machine of Hitachi. She managed her staff well and was successful on her projects. I never told her this, but I really looked to her for an example of a good manager. She was!

Derrick Yee – Wow, what a passionate and dedicated person to quality assurance. QA has always been dear to my heart so it was so refreshing to work with someone that felt the same commitment to doing everything possible to ensure a quality product/project.

Tae Oh – Tae was one of my project manager for many of the internal projects. I was very impressed with his commitment to each project. It’s always comforting knowing you have a good PM on task. He shined beyond expectations!

Olivier Naimi – Olivier was one of my peers responsible for the public website of HDS. He and his team had a “plan” to clean up the web mess which was not the same plan that IT had. So, on day one of working at Hitachi there was already differing ideas on the overall strategy to streamline everything. Many of his ideas were a bit far fetched and not very realistic from a technology standpoint which made him labeled as the opposition by many. Being a fan of the book The Art of War by Sun-Tzu, the best quote is “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” While Olivier was not my “enemy” his group was making my IT counterparts very frustrated. I got close to Olivier and the more I knew him the more I understood his plight. Even though his plans were not too consistent with IT, his zeal and passion was still something to be admired.

Interactivate

http://www.interactivate.com/

Anthony Lloyd (boss) – When I started at Interactivate there was already a consensus throughout the company to reduce operational costs and improve the development workflow. While some ideas worked ok, my plans were far beyond anything the company has ever done before. I worked closely with Anthony on a lot of these ideas and plans to bring the web operations to the modern age which I think helped me earn much respect from Anthony. With any companies, change is hard and sometimes pushed back on. Anthony was my biggest supporter and it was his belief in me and the abilities of my web team that helped us to make things happen.

His in-depth knowledge of technologies, IT infrastructure, and business made him a man to be deeply admired. He was such a great boss to have worked for. He showed me that being a boss is not only about managing people, it’s also about helping them grow, helping them achieve the best within themselves. This approach made everyone who worked for Anthony love him with such great respect. It’s bosses like Anthony that make work a passion and not just a job.

Colleen McPhillips - While I was responsible for managing the web development and interactive teams, Colleen was responsible for the production workflow. In the first few weeks Colleen and I butted heads because I didn’t see why we both were managing the same teams. It wasn’t until the chaos at Interactivate got out of control (which seemed to be just about every day) that I learned to truly appreciate the awesomeness of  Colleen. Every day I was more and more amazed at how well Colleen was able to manage the expectations  between the Client Services, Web, Marketing, SEO, Creative teams. Just about everything funneled through Colleen. I soon became her biggest fan. The closer I became to Colleen the more productive my teams were. She is without a doubt one of the best people I have had ever worked with. In the later stages of SocialSimple she also helped us out and was our kick in the ass to keep us on track (she’s a great Project Manager). She rocked! I am lucky that she and I have became very close friends who I hold very dear to my heart.

Desiree Handley - Desiree’s development code was one of the cleanest and most quality code I have ever seen. Her commitment to quality and high standard results were inspirations not only to me but the entire team. I remember one day we were looking at code and I mentioned the < b> tag, she said “um, that tag is depreciated”. I was shocked and realized that I was getting old and out of touch. I was constantly impressed with her development talent and passion for web technologies.

Jason Fardo – Jason was responsible for Quality Assurance. Within an agency environment, getting clients to pay extra for QA was always a struggle though Jason worked his magic to ensure that QA was part of projects. QA has always been a great part of my passion to deliver high quality results which Jason was an ambassador for. I made sure he was part as many projects had he could so we can ensure the client got nothing but the best end results. Jason and I are still close friends. He also beat me to buying a boat first.

Lee Waterman, Jake Bonham, Todd Foley

Jake Bonham – When I think of people who are on the cutting edge of technology I think about Jake. He was always pushing us to be more innovative and to harness the advancements in Flash.  Jake was one of the hardest working creative minds I’ve worked with.

Todd Foley - I saw nothing but extraordinary potential within Todd. I may have pushed him a bit hard at times though it was only because I saw a developer that could rule the world one day. His commitment to his work and his strong work ethic was something I admired. I remember when a project was pushed through quickly (by client services) and was not given any time to QA it had bugs and was quickly pushed to production Todd was targeted as the blame. Seriously people!! I knew that Todd was not the cause, it was the powers that be (client services) that pushed even after our many many warnings not to. Todd is a true top talent individual that I wish I had his talent when I was his age. I look forward to following Todd and seeing him rise to greatness. Todd was the go-to-guy because we knew there was nothing he could fail at.

L-R: Jason Fardo, Erica Twining, Steve Berry, Scott Brooks

Scott Brooks – Scott was one of those developers that when given a project and task would run with it and do his very best to ensure it was innovative. When we had ideas to incorporate more social media into the client projects he was our go to guy. I remember he canceled plans just so he could commit to getting a project done for a client. His dedication was a true skill to have.

Steve Berry – Oh Steve, just about everything he worked on worked and worked well. Steve was the type of developer that loved what he did and never complained about anything.

Scott Berg - Scott and I have had many many strategy sessions on how to be more innovative with our clients. Sometimes when you brainstorm with people there is always opposing forces and ideas. With Scott we both were on the same mindset and that was to give the best to our clients. If you need to find a solution to just about anything, just put Scott and I in a  room and we’ll figure it out. Scott and I are still friends and later would be a great business partner with Ideablue.

Sean teaching Social Media

Sean Dreilinger – Sean was one of the founders of Interactivate and I was always impressed with how in touch he was with current technologies and trends. He was the spark to a lot of the fires to get the company to improve and grow. In 2007 it was hard to push social media (largely unknown then), though Sean was one of the biggest supporters to get clients more involved. It was very encouraging to hear his compliments on our projects. Also, Sean is an amazing photographer.

Kent McIntosh (boss) – Kent was responsible for the company’s operations and workflow. While working with Kent I learned a great deal about operations, about resourcing, about budget management. I was impressed with his professional respect and courtesy to his peer and staff. He was quite driven to reducing operational costs and making sure the company was running efficient. It was great working for Kent.

Thomas Sessions – Thomas was our VP/Creative Director whom I worked closely with. I remember we would just sit and draw (we both love to draw) out our ideas. It was great to meet someone that loved to draw as much as I did. Thomas was an amazingly creative individual who showed a great deal of respect for his staff. His creative genius was well complimented by his great business mind. I had a great time just being able to work beside such a creative force and leader.

Gregory Wall - I had the use of many offshore developers which Greg was our project manager for. His knowledge of web and his available resources made is easy to staff up on priority projects. He also served as a great mind to collaborate with on strategies for the company and clients. His commitment to his company Santex and team was genuine and it was obvious. He’s also a great San Diego Chargers fan. Go Chargers!!

Javier Arias – Javier was one of our Lead Developers in Argentina through Santex. I was quickly impressed with his skills and polite personality. He was amazingly thorough and always delivered quality work. I’m glad I got to know him when he made a trip here to the states. He was a great fit within our team and everyone was glad that he was on our team, an all-around great guy.

Jon Clark - Throughout my career I’ve worked with lots of SEO people and I would say 90% are hacks. This was NOT the case with Jon. SEO is one of those disciplines that can be done 20 different ways. With Jon, he was a master at SEO and in my honest opinion was a leader. He would inspire everyone about SEO and was very passionate about it which earned him great respect throughout the company.

Modern Postcard

http://www.modernpostcard.com/

Darian Pasterski (boss) – In 2006 when I was interviewing around town and about to make a decision, I got a call from Junior Trujllio, a recruiter friend of mine and asked me to stop by Modern Postcard (down the block from my work). I went and interviewed with the web team there. It was a standard interview. Then finally I met with Darian. We had an amazing conversation and I was in awe of her experience, her confidence, and her business savvy. I took the job just to have the opportunity to work with Darian. It was one of the best decisions of my career.

IT / Web Team Luncheon

While I was very focused on technology, Darian taught me about having a great business mind too. She was a great leader and teacher. Everyone in the company had a great deal of respect for her including myself and my team. Not only did she have an amazing business sense and strong technical vision, she knew how to inspire her staff. She knew how to keep us dedicated to our projects and proud of our work. Although I worked at Modern Postcard for less than two years, it was a great time simply because I had the chance to learn from such a great strategic mind. I will always have a great deal of respect and gratitude to Darian for believing in me and helping to shape me into the person I am today. She helped inspire me to be the best that I could be.

When I was starting my new job (after MP) I remember she gave me the advice of Listen, Learn, Lead. The advice was to first listen to the business and learn it’s operations then you lead. This was just one of the many great teaching from her, it was one that I still carry with me today and has brought me success throughout my career.

Julie Walker - Julie was responsible for all Creative for MP. I’ve worked with many creative executives thought the thing that set Julie apart was that she is a great business executive as well. I remember one day she drew on a piece of paper some ideas she had for my department and how we could thrive even more. I was in awe of the great ideas she had and her sheer brilliance. I still have that paper. Working with Julie on business strategies was one of the highlights about Modern Postcard.

Greg Wasmuth – When Greg first started at MP, he was the golden boy, the solution to our VDP (variable data printing) problems. Within the first few week he proved it by defining in details how VDP would work and inspired the entire company to follow suit. I also remember one day Greg and I were sitting on a plane coming back from a conference and we hashed out some ideas on how to do “lights out” print production” (100% automated workflow) which later became of one of our biggest projects. Just about every grand idea/project Greg was an inspirational part. I always admired Greg’s talent to define a high quality product. When I started my own business I still relied on the great mind of Greg Wasmuth as we continued to hash our ideas for innovation.

Marie Miscioscia – Marie was the glue that held our team together. We all had differing personalities, some shy, some crazy and Marie made us all feel as one team, as one group. I was always impressed with her work ethic and dedication to doing great work. She was loved by everyone, a personality that you were glad she was your friend. She also was not shy on expressing her love for Boston and Tom Brady.

L-R: Craig Rand, Marie Miscioscia, Ann Lynott, Dean Orman, Cameron Brown, Damon Brollini, Johnny Negretti

Cameron Brown - Cameron was our top notch web developers who quickly gained respect from everyone for his amazing talent. Working at MP was a chaotic environment and Cameron never let it get to him. Lots of last minute edits and he always came through for us. I’ve worked with many web developers and Cameron is a TOP talent developer who always worked his hardest to be the best. I’ve become close friends with Cameron who I still have drinks with. Hmmm, as I am writing this I’m just remembering I think I’m supposed to be having lunch with Cameron today. :P

Damon Brollini - I remember interviewing for the Creative person for our team and we’ve interviewed soooooooo any people. Damon was without a doubt the very best of everyone. He was one of those employees that you are so lucky to have. I kept wondering “how did we snag such top talent??“. He had a talent for design, art direction, flash, coding, and good with business management. He is truly a creative rockstar!! If I ever need creative/art direction, Damon is my first choice. I’ll pay an arm and leg just to get a small fraction of his extraordinary brilliance. I will always be one of his biggest fans. We just need to get him on Facebook!

Dean Orman - Dean was the conduit between Marketing, Creative, and Engineering which all three areas were chaotic and high stress though Dean had a knack for brining calm to the storm. One of the things I loved best about working with Dean was his smile and uplifting spirit. Our team always was a glow when Dean was with us. Beyond his genuineness, he was a strong part the business and a great mind to work with to really reach out to and connect with our customers.

Christopher Foster – I don’t think I have ever know anyone who has been so in touch with their customer. Christopher is very passionate about user data, market research, and customer feedback to deliver an amazing brand, a brand that users would love. It was Christopher that I learn to know the customer, to be the customer, then you’ll have a great product. He was loved and respected by his team and throughout the company. Not only was Christoper a great marketer he was a great person to be around, a man who when talked with you, you felt like he listened. I still need to go surfing with him, hopefully soon.

Anthony Martin - Ok, while I know IT, I will never know it as well as Anthony. I love web, it’s my passion, it’s my fuel and for Anthony I could say the same for him in Technology. Anthony also has a great business management mind and a true leader. His staff respected him well and so did all his peer, including myself. I would work for Anthony any day.

Robert Offerman – Bob was the strong force withing our business committee to ensure all projects were inline with the company’s business objects and goals. I remember just about every project Bob was the example to follow, he was the man who kept everything together.

Michael Senger (boss) – When I first started at Modern Postcard Michael was my boss who I learned so much about Marketing from. One of the things I admired about Michael was his commitment to the customers. He was a great business leader, manager, and a great marketing mind. I’ve become close with Michael and is a dear friend who I continue to take his money in poker. :P

Ryan Cowen - Most guys in IT are just seen as the dude to fix things. Ryan was so much more! He was a great friend to everyone, he was a guy who found solutions, a guy to had patience, a guy who worked hard to deliver the very best.

Ann Lynott – Ann was an amazing all around web developer who could take on just about any task. She was thorough and very consistent with her work. She also was a good friend to myself and the rest of the staff. I also remember when I left Modern Postcard Ann got my a great departing gift, it was a box of Sharpies. If you know me well, then you know that I always have a Sharpie on me!

Michael Foster – Michael was the company video production guru. One of the things I loved about Modern Postcard was the creative talent and how the executive staff let Michael show his amazing video talent for us. He would rally the staff to help make great company spoof videos. We all would look forward to the next great video from Michael. Watch out Steven Spielberg, Michael is hot on your tail. People become friends with Michael now so you can say, “yeah I know that big time Hollywood director.” Michael was also was a great help on some Ideablue video projects.

ViaSat, Inc.

http://www.viasat.com/

Gordon Dankberg (boss) – When I started at ViaSat I was tasked with creating a “web” department from the ground up. Gordon was supportive in all areas and it was his support and belief in me that helped me grow and thrive. I have fond memories of sitting in Gordon’s office and just shooting ideas around on how we could do this better, how we could better promote the website, better server our internal staff, reduce costs, etc. He was also a great manager of myself and the rest of the staff which I had nothing but the upmost respect for. He was also a great host for poker games. Hmmm, I think we need another poker game soon (hint hint)!

Shiv Bhushan – Shiv was our DBA, or should our say our data guru. I remember seeing an SQL query he was debugging taped to his wall, it was several pages long (about 5 feet long). I will always be in awe of his great business mind. Beyond his brilliance, Shiv is also a decent and honorable man. Throughout the years Shiv and I have became very close friends.

Craig Rand - We were hiring for a web developer and I interviewed a few people and was about to hire someone then Craig came in. He didn’t have much web experience though he was very passionate about learning more and just wanted a chance. I was blown away by his zeal. I hired Craig. He quickly proved he was the best choice. He was always consistent and a great employee to have. When I left ViaSat and went to Modern Postcard, I was lucky enough to have him join me there too.

Arlene Nash – Arlene and I worked on a few internal project for Facilities and soon became good friends. I was impressed with her ability to manage several projects at once. Within her group there were so many immediate priorities needs and Arlene was always there to ensure things would work out.

Jack Tassos – Jack was my boss’s boss though I always felt like he was in the mix with the rest of us grunts. He was a great listener and helped you realize your potential. I remember when we were listing out the “pain points” within the organization Jack went out of his way to listen to everyone and he truly did listen. He has a warm and genuine spirit who always made you feel welcomed and appreciated. Oh, he also was a pool shark and showed no mercy. :P

Kamal Swamidoss – Kamal was in another department and not part of my web team though he was ALWAYS a bright spirit to be around. He was always upbeat and was passionate about life which made being his friend a great joy.

Lori Stratford – Lori and I worked on the corporate Extranet which was quite the project. While my group was responsible for the technology Lori was responsible for the customers which she did nothing but the very best.

Nikolai Devereaux – Nikolai was a collaborative member on some of our internal web focus groups. Nikolai always had great advice and useful suggestions which helped out with our plans to renovate our web sites. It was encouraging to see employees from other departments take such a great interest in our web systems too. It’s been great to stay connected with Nikolai throughout the years on Facebook.

Steve Hart – Steve was one of the founders of ViaSat and well respected throughout the company and industry. Steve had a way of making you feel listened and valued. Not only was he a great business man he was also a great friend to many within the company. He also out bit me for the Chargers season tickets at a silent auction. Arrrg! :P

Cox Communications

http://www.cox.com/

Martin Jones (boss) – Marin was a great boss that motivated us to work very collaboratively on every marketing promotion. We worked together as a great team. While most managers were reluctant of pushing new and emerging technologies Martin campaigned for it. He taught me to look at each project and task as an opportunity to do better than the previous one and to do what we must to reduce operational costs.

Chris Snyder – Chris and I worked hand and hand on marketing promotion. Chris had an amazing talent to drawing the online users to be more interactive with each promotion. I was always amazed on the quality of work he did and how committed he was to great marketing.

KFKI Solutions

Jeremy Russell - I previously worked with Jeremy at Miva though worked more closely with him at KFKI. While I was tasked to focus on technology, Jeremy was tasked with product management which he did like a rock star. I remember having strategy sessions with Jeremy on defining product features and it was pretty awesome to see how organized and thorough he was with everything. I’m glad that Jeremy and I have stayed friends throughout the years.

Billy Maryanski - Billy was the company’s web designer and I’ve worked with many designers before so I just expected a default creative guy. Oh that was not the case with Billy, he was so much more. I remember just sitting by him and watching him work his design magic and being in awe. Not only was he an amazing graphic/web designer he also had a great sense of what the customer wanted and harnesses this talent to develop some great user experiences.

Miva Corporation

http://www.miva.com/

Jeff Huber (boss) – The is one thing I will always remember about Jeff is one time I was in his office and saw a cartoon making fun of management, it showed birds shitting on different levels of wires over each other, each bird below got more shit on them than the bird above them and where the final bird on top had no shit on them. Jeff thought the cartoon was funny, though he said “being a great manager is protecting your staff.” He taught me that being a manager is like being a parent. You need to take care of your staff, doing everything in your power to make their life better, making them grow in their potential, helping them discover their core passions and talent. While I thought I was a Miva Script god, I think Jeff was probably one of the only other person who loved and knew Miva Script even better which made me have such respect and admiration for him.

Quiche Jackson – I met Quiche “Q” awhile back (before Miva) when I worked at Frys and we’ve become close friends since. He had a similar passion for web and technologies so I helped get him a job at Miva. While his time at Miva he impressed everyone with his amazing skills, dedication, and charm. He has been a great friend and someone that I have a great deal of respect for.

John Maslanik (boss) - It was great to work for John (we called him “Maz”). I learned a great deal about information technology from servers, clustering, databases, and most importantly exploring other web technologies. John was really open minded to all technologies, teaching me to learn everything I could and to adapt to the fast growing changes in the IT industry. He also entrusted me with Lead on many high level projects. He was a great boss! Recently John made a joking comment to me that he just needs to follow my Facebook updates to know what happening with me. Hmmm, maybe I’m on Facebook a little too much. Nah! :P

Varigon, Inc.

John P Myers (boss) – When I was a young web developer, John saw potential in me and gave me a great opportunity to work for him. He not only helped me harness my skills, he also taught me much about the operational side of business. He also taught me a great deal about ecommerce and product development. John was a great boss who I will always be grateful to.

It seems like today everyone thinks that good social media content is how many Twitter followers you have or how active you are on Facebook. It is my opinion that social media is about content, mostly user-generated content. Yes, twitter updates are content, and yes Facebook apps are content, though I see some of the best content as funny content. Recently, I’ve noticed a large spike in parodies, especially of infomercials, iPhone, Tiger Woods, and “Kanye West Interrupts“. Here is a small list of some funny videos I’ve found. Enjoy!

Also, check out the Tiger Woods spoofs on Funny or Die.

NOTE: Most of the infomercial videos have cursing, so careful with the sound.

Just about everyday I receive some sort of email/Twitter spam stating they could help me “grow my business with social media” and ask me for an extraordinary amount of money to find out how. In my opinion, it’s all just a scam,  a bunch of con artists looking to make a quick buck off the gullible. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) is NOT about how to grow your business, it’s about content, it’s about people sharing content, content they find entertaining, content worth sharing. If you look at YouTube‘s Most Viewed (All Time) videos, you’ll see they’re all entertaining videos, none of product pitches or corporate brand videos.

Cuteness = Lots of viewers

Marketeers today are looking for the best way to make their campaigns viral, looking for the secret ingredient to getting people to send their links to a friend. Below I’ve listed some videos on YouTube of some popular videos that have a large amount of views. I’ve worked on many marketing campaigns and the goal is to get people to view your pitch, it would be fantastic if I could get 10,000,000+ people to view a campaign in little as 2 months as is the case with video #1 (surprised kitty). With Surprised Kitty (video #1), it’s getting 183,000+ views a day, why, because it’s soooooo frickin’ cute!

The tip is to be cute, to be something worth sharing. I’ve seen lots of marketing campaigns that are just so boring, although some of great value/good deals, just nothing I would send to a friend, more of something I would probably bookmark and maybe lookup later. I am not here to tell you how to be cute, this is something you’ll need to find on your own, and hopefully you will.

Your video does not have to be long, as you see, video #1 the Surprised Kitty is 17 seconds, the highest viewed video (139,000,000+) on YouTube is only 55 seconds (video #2 below), a 16 second video of a panda sneezing (video # 7) has 46,000,000+ views, and who could forget the 5 second video of the Dramatic Look gerbil with 18,000,000+ views.

Something is better than nothing

I know I’ve fallen into the trap being a perfectionist and taking forever to post something because I always find ways to make it better (to me). Most of the popular videos are NOT planned videos, most are spontaneous raw footage. For Surprised Kitty, it’s only 17 seconds long and I’m sure the author probably thought about not posting it and had no clue it would get 10 million views in 2 months. I have a friend who had a cute video of her adorable daughter dancing, though she is not a YouTube person and most likely will never be upload it to YouTube (it’s currently only on Facebook). Then again, what is a “YouTube person”, I’m not sure there is a definition.

I wonder how much cute videos are out there that will never get uploaded. For me, growing up my mother had a camera on us ALL THE TIME and filmed just about everything we did growing up. In a way, I’m glad my mother doesn’t have a YouTube account, I dread the day she does, because I know there’s tons of embarrassing stuff she has on tape, ooooooh boy!

I have an amazingly adorable pet, a dog named Ashley who I wish I could capture on video, though every time I try she is too distracted by the camera. I’ll try and try again until I get that cute video of Ashley doing something cute!

Share!

So, to my point, the true power and secret in social media is people sharing, not only those who pass around links, it’s really the power of the people that upload the content, the people who for a brief moment let us view a part of their life, may it be funny or not, the act of sharing is the real secret of the new dawn of today’s internet. Below are some YouTube videos I found that are of cute babies and cute animals that have some great numbers on views, some  videos have 200+ comments a day (video #2 & video #3).

NOTE: STATISTICS PULLED FROM YOUTUBE USING THIER DATA API.

Please email me other videos you think should be on this list.

Today is Thanksgiving, so I though it would be a good idea to list some things I am grateful for. :)

This past year has been quite an interesting year for me. I’ve experienced joys and struggles in life and in business. From childhood I’ve always had to preserver through life which had helped me to see the goodness in life, in people, and in myself. With the number 34 being my favorite number (football # of Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears) I’ve always expected my 34th year to be an interesting one, if not my best. The past year has been a year that I have never expected to be, so many life curves and discoveries. Without a doubt, the past year has been the best year of my life. It has been a year of highs, lows, joys, and struggles, though all in all, the best. The past year, I’ve learned to rediscover many truths about my life, about what I love, and what I should love. Most importantly, I’ve learned to start a new journey, a journey of peace.

Thankful For – IN 2009

Here are a few things I am grateful for in the past year.

1. Journey of Peace

This year started off high in life, then life threw a curve ball (or two) and experienced much sorrow and pain. It wasn’t until many of the things I took for granted in life were gone that I experienced true gratefulness. This past year I reached rock bottom in some areas in life and I started to see how many of the problems in my life were nobody’s fault but my own. I started to see a newness in life, a newness is me, and an opportunity to make a better life for myself. I felt like this past year was a year of redemption for me, a second chance to be a good and decent man, a better man. I simply learned to embrace Peace, to share Peace, to be a man of Peace.

2. Good Friends – Old and New

I could not have survived this past year without the support of my close and dear friends. My life-long friend of 20 years Rafael Dodge who always finds the fun in life. My best friend of 10 years Erica Twining who remains my friend through thick and thin. My new and dear friend Carisa Boatright who helped me embrace the new peace I found and to truly appreciate life. Also, my dear friends who believed in and supported me in the crazy and unpredictable path of entrepreneurship, my friends Lee Waterman, Colleen McPhillips, Tanya Milhaud, Mary Salvatera, Marzena K, Johan Viberg, Greg Wasmuth, and Lisa Leonte.

3. Family, Family, Family

I grew up with a very large family in Chicago, lots of uncles, aunts, and cousins. When I was 12, my mother, sisters, and bother moved here to California, it was just us 5 (Mom, Tanya, Tawana, Noah, and me). We learned to become very close and to help each other out in need. My family has never hesitated to support one another and no matter what life throws at us, we can always count on each other to be there. I am thankful that my family is a family of unconditional love.

4. Entrepreneurship in Social Media

I was fortunate enough to venture out into the entrepreneur life and start a small business, even more grateful to start with investors. Starting a business in social media has been an experience like none other. Lots of networking events, launch parties, and a vast pool of others entrepreneurs trying to build their idea. I found an unique niche in social media data and found investors whom I will always be thankful to for believing in the idea, the product SocialSimple.

5. Rise In Social Media

I’ve been in the web industry for 13 years and have seen an increase in the online communities and the distribution of user-generated content early on. I’ve always tried to get places I worked at or clients to embrace social media though it always seemed to fall on deaf ears. I was always asked “Why” or “How do we make money”, there was never a good ROI for corporate America go get into social media and the agencies I worked at, the sales groups didn’t understand much about the potential. Now it seems like everyone and everything is into social media, my dog has a Facebook page. Even my 55 year old mother is on MySpace and Facebook. Maybe now with the rise of social media, more people/companies/clients will learn to embrace the true power of the internet — user generated content.

Thankful For – IN LIFE

Here are a few things I am grateful for in life.

1. My Stuttering

Throughout my life I’ve always stuttered (still do). Growing up as a child, I’ve been to speech therapists, hypnosis doctors, and all sorts of “cure” stuttering techniques. I grew up thinking my stuttering was a disability, something that limited me to being successful. I even thought it was a curse by God, that God did not love me and that I was damaged goods. In school, I was a smart kid, though never showed it because it required talking, talking in front of people. When there was a problem on the board and the teacher asked for the answer, I knew it, though never raised my hand because I knew I would stutter. I lived a life like this for a long time. It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I decided that stuttering would not and should not limit me. I learned to accept it and embrace it. I am grateful and thankful that I live the life of a stutterer, that I have something unique and something that is special about me. I am capable of anything, no matter what!

2. Ashley – Such a Wonderful Dog

Eight years ago my wife and  I decided to get a dog, at the time it was a big decision for us. After a long search we found our little girl, our Ashley. She is such an amazing dog, the most gentle, and warm spirited dog. When she greets you, she has nothing but licks, licks, licks. She has been an abundance of joy, every day I am grateful that she is my little girl, my precious little girl.

3. Married* To My Best Friend

I am thankful to have had been married to my best friend Erica, more than a wife, a best friend. Even though we are divorced now, she is still my best friend. Most know that I could write more on this topic, I’ll just leave it as is.

4. Successful Career In Web

I love web, all things web. I am thankful that I get to work each day working in an industry that I love. How cool is it that I get paid to do what I love, what I do best – web. I’ve had a career in web as an Web Application Engineer, Web Developer, Manager, and Founder. I am also very thankful to have worked with many great web teams, many who have become life long friends.

5. Saved From Humbled Beginnings

Only a few people know this, though now that I am posting it on my blog, guess the mouse is out of the bag. I grew up very poor, in the slums of Chicago, my family was on welfare, ate government food from the local churches, and always wore hand me downs. In the ghetto, not many good influences around, many friends were recruited into gangs and just about everyone I knew was trouble of some sorts. My mother knew this and wanted to provide a better life for us. When you live in the ghetto it’s very very very hard to get out. My mother, found a way, found a way to get us out. With all her might and through the ridicule of our family, she moved us to California. The slums of San Diego are still 10x better than the slums of Chicago. I’ve always wondered what would have happened to my life if we stayed in Chicago, would I have joined a gang, would I have forever stayed trapped. I do not know, though I do know my life now is a better life. Thank you mom!

The Idea

In April 2009 I left Corporate America and started on a new entrepreneur adventure in small business. I had an idea on combining a user’s social media data to deliver real-time personalized advertising to online customers. The idea had great interest and secured some generous investors.

The Results

Office in Pacific Beach, #210

In May 2009 I started Ideablue Networks LLC, a small business dedicated to support the development of SocialSimple, the product. I was fortunate enough to hire some TOP TALENT people that I knew well and we opened up our office in Pacific Beach, just two blocks from the ocean. Our conference room was a trendy coffee shop right below us.

After several months worth of hard work we had a finished backend product that thoroughly analyzed a user’s social media data from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, Flicker, TwitPic, Meetup, LinkedIn and many other social networking websites. SocialSimple collected a user’s profile data, history, media, and trends to generate 30+ personalized tags that helped define that user an an individuals.

Mary showcasing SocialSimple at Twiistup 5

When we showcased SocialSimple to advertisers, we were overwhelmed with positive feedback, interests of partnerships, and licensing. In August 2009, the SocialSimple technology was acquired by a California based marketing company which will be used in some exciting new user profiling applications, including iPhone applications. Due to the acquisition being recent, specific details are currently undisclosed. We’ll keep everyone updated.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

The members of the SocialSimple team that I will FOREVER be deeply grateful to and could not say Thank You enough are Lee Waterman, Ori Guttin, Jimmy Lozowsky, Erica Negretti, Tanya Milhaud, Mary Salvatera, and Colleen McPhillips. Everyone had an equal and important role in the development and planning of SocialSimple.

The SocialSimple Team

Johnny Negretti (me) – Engineering, Business Development

Lee Waterman – Engineering

Ori Guttin – Product Development

Jimmy Lozowsky – Product Development

Erica Negretti – Operations

Mary Salvatera – Creative, Business Development

Tanya Milhaud – Marketing

Colleen McPhillips – Project Management

Johnny, Tanya, and Lee at a Mixergy Lunch 2.0 in Hollywood, CA (August 2008)

Also, Thank You to those who I bounced many ideas off of including Johan Viberg, Marzena Kmiecik, Andrew Warner, Greg Wasmuth, Scott Berg, Tyler Stample, Gavenraj Sodhi, Alex Carrillo, and the CEO & Founders Lunch group.

Being a Founder (and CEO) of a small business technology startup was such a growth experience in my professional career and in my personal life which I will be blogging much about.

Please check back or subscribe to my blog for more insightful postings yet to come.

Johnny hard at work

Many THANK YOUs to everyone who supported SocialSimple with their encouragement, advice, and most importantly, their belief in our product. We could not have done it with you!

Sincerely,

Johnny Negretti
CEO, Ideablue Networks

Here is the presentation (w/ too much text) I pitched to TechCrunch 50.

Here is a little tour video of our office in Pacific Beach

Related

• SocialSimple.com Sponsors Twiistup 5 (blog post)
• Ideablue Pacific Beach Office photos (on Facebook)
• Ideablue North County Office photos (on Facebook)
• SocialSimple Sponsors Twiistup 5 photos (on Flickr)
• Lunch 2.0 in Hollywood photos (on Flickr)

NOTE: This is an archived post from ideablue.com

Tickets, Tickets, Tickets

Last week we sponsored the Twiistup 5 event in Los Angeles, CA. Twiistup is a social media gathering event where internet start ups show off their product for bloggers, investors, and other technology driven companies/individuals.

We started off just being one of 300+ people on the waiting list for tickets of this sold out event. The chances of getting tickets were slim though one can hope. The day before the event, the organizers sent out an email saying tickets are still sold out, though there is one sponsorship spot left (includes 4 tickets). Luckily for us, we were one of the first to call and get the last sponsorship spot. The event organizers Mike and Steph were amazingly helpful with getting us on board at the last minute. I was intending to setup a booth about Ideablue Network (our services/solutions) though since we are at a good spot with SocialSimple I figured showing off SocialSimple would be the better route. In the end, it was!

Majority of everyone already had set plans for Thursday night, though I was able to get Mary Salvatera to come along (she had to cancel other plans). She rocked it out! So, now I had 2 tickets left. I figured it would be easy to give these tickets away. Well, I’ll just say it was not. The problem was I was offering them to people in San Diego, duh, should have offered them to some LA peeps. We were able to give the tickets to Alex Carrillo and Rick Rodriguez of XOL Marketing.

Last Minute…

Now that we are a sponsor of the event, we’ll have a table to pimp out our product. Since this all was last minute we had NOTHING for our booth, no signs, no flyers, nothing. I threw together a quick diagram explaining SocialSimple and rushed on over to Kinkos. Going into Kinkos I was certain they would say “Sorry, No can do” though someone was looking out for us. Kinkos was able to get all of our signs printed, laminated, and boarded in less than 2 hours. I’m not sure if they know how much they helped us out – here’s a big THANK YOU to Ken at the Kinkos in Rancho Bernardo, CA. Now it was time to head to Target to get a big screen monitor (TV) and an iPod (giveaway). The iPod was $150, then noticed an Xbox 360 was $200 so decided to give away an Xbox 360 instead. Of course, they were out of the $199 model, they only had the $299 model, me being a guy, I went for the Xbox.

“What is SocialSimple?”

Now that we had our booth setup we were ready to rock-and-roll. The night started off with a mellow pace of people stopping by as they did their rounds of stopping by each booth. Since this was our first time publicly telling people about SocialSimple outside of our private beta group, were started the night with a lose of formulated words to answer the question – “What is SocialSimple?.” We came up with…”Your Social Life, Simplified”

SocialSimple aggregates your social networking life. With your permission, we connect and gather your social networking activity, crunch and analysis the data to generate personalized tags about your personality. Similar to a blog tag cloud. Participating advertisers and ecommerce companies would use these SocialSimple tags to better market to you and to offer a personlaized shopping experience. In return, you will receive exclusive discounts and promotions.

So, in a nutshell we have a tagline “Your Social Life, Simplified”! What do you think?

Once the night got started we were swamped with a steady flow of intrigued people. Each person we talked to had a unique and interesting perspective and viewpoint on social media and social networking. Majority of the conversions regarding SocialSimple were more like brainstorming on what the person can do with such technology. Pleasantly we received many comments about it’s “simplicity” (a good thing). We were also glad to see other companies like Scour and Music World interested in collaborating. We are BIG fans of collaboration!

Our goal was to get new beta users for SocialSimple. With the incentive of winning an Xbox 360 we signed up 80+ new users that night. Of the new users, Regina O was the lucky winner of the Xbox 360.

Thanks again to Mary, our Interactive Strategy Director, who was an amazing help! She was rockin it out, helping everyone have a good and inspiring understanding of SocialSimple.

Overall

The night was a success for getting SocialSimple into the public ear and we were delighted to have made some excited fans. I’ll be looking forward to sponsoring Twiistup again!

Do you “love” Burger King Whoppers more than 10 of your Facebook friends? Burger King is hoping you do!

Burger King like most companies are jumping on the social media/viral marketing train to promote their product. The creative powerhouse at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (700 employees) who was recently named 2008 Agency of the Year by Creativity helped them launch the Whopper Sacrifice campaign. With this new Facebook application Whopper Sacrifice, I think they are missing the mark on what social media marketing is really about. You are rewarded a free Whopper (coupon) for deleting 10 Facebook friends. When you delete a friend, a public update is posted to your wall stating “Johnny sacrificed Bob for a free burger…”

WALK-THROUGH

Let me walk you through the step of using this Whopper Sacrifice.

Step 1 - Select a friend

Step 2 - Delete your friend

Step 3 - Your friend is sacrificed (animated photo burning)

Step 4 - Wall notification of deletion (auto posts)

I have not deleted 10 friends (not going to) so I am not aware of what happens once the 10th friend is deleted. I did notice that after you deleted a friend, you can add the friend back and the Whopper Sacrifice still counts that person as deleted (an app bug).

NOTE: Learned that it takes 2 weeks to receive the coupon in the mail.

ROI (Financial Costs)

While this campaign offers a shock factor as do many Burger King campaigns (creepy BK commercials), I can’t see this campaign offering a high return on investment (ROI) for the company and the user. First you take the cost of development, marketing, and infrastructure then you add the cost to the user (time & credibility). Most creative agencies charge big dollars for their services, so let’s try to breakdown the cost.

Guesstimate on Campaign Costs (if fully committed to campaign)

By Agency (CPB)
$85,000 (finger in the wind estimate)
Charged to client (Burger King)
- not only costs of “project”, also include costs of post maintenance, and infrastructure

• Strategies & Planning (cost of man hours)
• Project Management
• Design (web and print)
• Marketing (all forms)
• Development (web and interactive)
• Quality Assurance
• Infrastructure
• Post Launch Maintenance

By Client (Burger King)
$75,000 (finger in the wind estimate)
Cost of employee time/infrastructure/internal processes/materials

• Strategies & Planning (cost of man hours)
• Executive Approvals
• Marketing Collaboration
• IT Collaboration
• Quality Assurance
• Marketing (all forms)
• Sales Systems Integration
• Internal Corporate Marketing
• Internal Training (Marketing, Sales, IT)
• Design of coupon (print)
• Shipping and Handling of coupon (highest cost)
• Shipping Operations
• Franchisee Marketing
• Franchisee Training (owners and staff)
• Franchisee Print Collateral
• Public Relations

So, this is a guessing estimate of $160,000+ in total costs of ownership (TCO) for this campaign. If each coupon is worth to Burger King’s operating costs is worth .50 cents (out of pocket expenses), that’s $132,500 given way. If a user comes into the BK store most likely they’ll buy a soda and fries, let’s now value a coupon at $2.50 with a net profit back to BK of $1.25, after corporate expenses, an actual profit of .90 cents per coupon. It would take 294,444 coupons for Burger King to break even. According to their Facebook application website, 54,000+ friends have been scarified, resulting in 5,400 coupons. This is a 1.83% ROI ($0.90 profit per coupon). I’ll spare you the details of how long it would take for BK to get to a 101% ROI (100% = break even).

“WHY?”

Earlier I stated this campaign is missing the mark on social media campaigns. With Facebook most users are proud of their numbers of friends. I’ve been hearing a lot of people brag about their numbers of friends. While most friends are not actually “Friends.” On my Facebook profile I have 310 friends and I would say 10% are family, 25% are active “Friends”, 25% are old Friends (high school/college), 30% are business acquaintances, and 10% are Misc. That leaves me with only 31 people to delete (from the Misc group). Ok, that gives me the option to gain 3 free Whopper coupons. If a Whopper is valued at $2.99, that’s $9 in my pocket.

I ran the concept of deleting 10 friends for a Whopper by Marketers, Engineers, and even people who are not on Facebook and all have asked “Why?” One person said it was “Mean.” This is where we get into the ROI for the Facebook user. The biggest flaw with this campaign is posting to the users wall that John Doe deleted Jane Doe. While I may have earned $9 (by deleting 30 friends) some friends and business colleagues will see I “deleted” a friend, 10+ in all without really knowing why. The first impression is, “for a Whopper?”

I could only imagine that getting “Whopper Deleted” is like being the last person picked in Dodgeball. What will be the next Facebook application that asked you to delete a friend? How about deleting a Facebook friend who has a profile but never updates it (plenty of those) or a Facebook user that still has the default blank face as their profile picture.

REAL ROI (Industry Buzz)

I clearly pointed out the financial ROI for this campaign is flawed. The real ROI is in brand marketing and awareness. Before I heard of Whopper Sacrifice I was unaware of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and their reputation of pushing edgy campaigns. It also brought much discussion and opinions to the blogoshere on the strategy of deleting a Facebook friend. Getting us bloggers simply to write anything on this (as I am) is ROI, …priceless.

The real ROI is in brand marketing and awareness

“Whopper Sacrifice” search results (exact match) as of 01/09/2008 11:30 AM.

• Technorati (28)
• Digg (0)
• Google Web Search (5,130)
• Google News Search (81)
• Google Blog Search (2,263)
• Twitter Search (click to see)

Here are some Twitter comments.

There is no doubt that there is a buzz about Whopper Sacrifice though how many people are actually cutting 10 friends. Just about everyone I know that did not hear of Whopper Sacrifice, went and installed the applications and deleted 1 or 2 friends though did not actually cut 10. It was curiosity that many people are cutting friends, curiosity on what is this edgy campaign all about.

You can also consider a great ROI on this campaign is that now Burger King has direct access to a user’s backend Facebook information. When a user installs a Facebook application, the application owner can dig into the user’s list of friends, photos, posts, profile information, history, and other general information. To an advertiser, this is golden!

The obvious conclusions is that losing (intentionally deleting) 10 Facebook friends worth $2.99 and coming across somewhat mean for a measly burger? This campaign is probably better served (no pun intended) on MySpace which is notorious for people having lots of randoms friends. I would recommend giving a coupon (lesser value) to the friend that was deleted.

For those who are curious of where us web gurus gather to brainstorm on our plans to conquer the world. Here’s an inside view of our humble internet startup office in Pacific Beach (San Diego, CA), just two blocks from the beach.

You can find this video on:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn-t5ssO_HU (watch in HD)
• http://www.viddler.com/explore/jnegretti/videos/2/
• http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=43365339286

Today’s economy is keeping us business owners on our toes. The financial recession has reached the web industry, which has resulted in a rise in many internet startups folding and venture capital firms drastically pulling back on investments. Within the last three days (including today) there have been 15,600+ layoffs in the technology industry alone. According to TechCrunch, in the tech industry, since August 27, 2008 there has been a reported 131,000+ layoffs, that’s 963 a day or 10 every 15 minutes.

TechCrunch Layoff Tracker

Fortunately in 2008 I was lucky enough to start an investor funded internet startup here in San Diego (http://www.socialsimple.com/). We are all very excited to be developing an innovative social networking platform that utilizes social analytics and user permission data to deliver a more personalized user experience throughout the web.

To stay ahead of the curve and adapt to today’s market, we are shifting our business model and committing to new priorities. We are moving from an investor-based startup to a client services company and taking on our investor as our first client. Yes, that’s right ditching the guaranteed paychecks for a “Project” based revenue. This may seem a little off to some, especially those who are bootstrapping their business and are struggling to find investments.

Our decisions to do this came after a Lunch 2.0 event hosted at a local startup just like us. The event was at their nice spacious office a block from the beach (just like us, excluding the “spacious” part). The following week, we learned the entire company was laid off the same day due to investors pulling out. Well, we are in a similar situation, if our investors pull out, well, its time to bust out the resume again! Where did I put those shinny shoes and fancy ties?

We have built such a great top talent team who has an unmatched commitment to helping change our modern web to a more personalized web experience. Although, I am a new entrepreneur, business is business, corporate or startup, it’s about ensuring growth and long-term stability. This gives us the ability to try to survive independently if the roof falls in. I am not a serial entrepreneur, from the start it was a risky to leave a stable executive job at a large successful Fortune 40 corporation.

It’s a game of chess and to protect your king, strategically moving your pieces, and planning out all the next possible moves.

To adapt, we are now offering tailored web services and already have clients who are eager to embrace the new and emerging trends and technologies in web. We are not going to take on the world and be a “full-services” agency. To keep to our core competencies we are specializing in eBusiness and Social Media. We’ve taken down our old ideablue.com website and now our website is a network of Ideablue employees and blog contributors.

One of the biggest changes which will have a big benefit to the development community is we are working to make our existing social media application platform into an Open Source project. Our investors and myself have been highly impressed with what our team has developed, a platform for rapid application development with a robust modular/API architecture. I’m starting to sound like a sales guy, in truth, I’m just excited to get the community involved.

We are firm believers in success through collaboration.

Subscribe to our blog for more updates as we have some great ideas planned to write and collaborate on. I’ll also keep you guys posted on what it’s like turning your investor into a client (not an easy task).

Johnny Negretti
CEO, Ideablue Networks