South Florida Tech HubSouth Florida Tech Hub
03
Apr, 2017

By Daniel Lofaso

What Goes into IT at a Ballpark? An interview with Dedicated IT

Read Time 5 Minutes

Have you ever wondered what kind of information technology (IT) goes into a ballpark? If you’re like me, probably not, meaning that the parties responsible have done a good job of making their operations seamless.

The Ballpark of The Palm Beaches recently opened, and the technology infrastructure supporting the spring training ground of The Houston Astros and Washington Nationals is mind-boggling. I recently interviewed Benjamin Posner, CTO of Dedicated IT, who played a major role in the success of this newly launched operation.

 

About Dedicated IT and Ben Posner

Dedicated IT is one of the fastest-growing companies in Palm Beach County and South Florida. They have doubled their revenue year-over-year for the past three years, are expanding from Palm Beach Gardens to Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, and continually are growing out their business, hiring what Posner calls “A-players” as staff.

Posner began working in the IT industry back in 1989. He has extensive history in the industry, exposure to products and methods and several certifications (Cisco, Microsoft, Novell, Citrix and WatchGuard… to name a few). Ben’s motto is:

“We make sure our clients are as effective as they can be in their jobs, by us doing ours.”

I sat down with Posner to talk about the state-of-the-art facility and Dedicated IT’s involvement in the construction of this great new addition to South Florida.

 

Daniel Lofaso: How did you get involved with the Ballpark to discuss providing them IT?

Ben Posner: We submitted an RFP with the county, sat down with teams, ballpark officials and construction managers, then proposed a full Cisco environment with infrastructure management for the year, along with managed services.

 

What is newer or cutting-edge tech for this park?

With a spring training facility, you have to take into consideration audio (PA systems), over 220 network TVs, live broadcasting,  radio, and more, all running over the network. Every business needs firewall switches and wireless access points, but the data that runs over those kinds of switches is really where this type of operation gets complicated.

Specific to coaching, there are 13 fields, all with cameras on the right and left sides. There are multiple cameras covering home plate, outfield, all the bases and pretty much on every aspect of the field where a player needs to be monitored. During games, every motion the player makes is recorded as live clips to help players review and improve. Trackman, a camera specific to baseball (radar), connects to the network and displays the information on the scoreboard, which has its own dedicated rack.

There are also networked security cameras across the entire ballpark, and this is just scratching the surface with IT systems in place for all of the following:

  • Ticketing
  • Concessions
  • Retail Store – reporting back to each team
  • Lighting System– controllable by an iPad control console
  • HVAC system
  • Wine Dispensing System – tracking how much is used and how much they have to restock

When looking down at the field, you see cameras on the dugout. These systems must be reliable, you can’t drop a single sequence or it will really upset the teams. Much of the public hardly ever notices these things. There is even a camera hiding at the batter-side wall to watch how the balls fly off the bat. When I say everything on the field is recorded I really mean everything.

 

How does the conversation go with ball teams and IT teams in terms of requirements? 

The teams themselves have internal IT staff that also work with MLB and have a great idea of what their requirements are. The stadium itself does not have any internal IT staff, we are their IT team. We work with the team’s IT and put all the things in place to help them meet their goals.

 

How would you compare baseball parks today to just 10-15 years ago?

Everything is monitored and often sent back to the corporate HQ’s for evaluation.

Systems and Functions that ride on networks include Coaching Video Systems, Security Cameras, Lighting Systems, HVAC Controls, Marquee Signage, Wine Dispensers, Ticketing, Concessions, Retail Store, IPTV Systems for TV and Signage, Invisible Cell Towers, AV Controls, Scoreboard Control, Timeclocks, Press Access, TV Stations and their Satellite Trucks, Radio Broadcasting, and Data/VoIP.

  • Firewalls: 6
  • Switches: 45
  • Access Points: 78
  • VLANs: 59
  • Wireless Networks: 10
  • Equipment Rooms: 22
  • Cameras: 100+

 

What is required to set it up? 

We had an IT architect who labeled where things needed to go. It then took me 1.5 months to design, 2 months to prepare equipment, install firewalls, and setup the 22 rooms with equipment strategically placed so the cabling guys could run their lines.

  • Proposal – August 2016
  • Bid Won – September 2016
  • Equipment Delivered – Christmas 2016
  • Last Minute Curveballs: 15-20 (approx)
  • Miles Walked during Project: 350+ (approx)

I spent 3 months on site walking about 7 miles per day, working with contractors and subs making sure racks were in the right place, checking on electrical outlets, ensuring it was all tied to emergency power, mounting equipment, and working with construction crews.

A lot of what I did was assist project managers with in-the-field oversight, as we were involved in so many of the arms of their construction. I’d go to the PMs, tell them my findings, and often update them to things they thought were signed off on. Often, I was the eyes and ears from an IT standpoint to help make the project run smoothly.

 

What is required to maintain it? 

Once it is setup, there is not a lot that needs to change regularly. Most of the maintenance can even be done remotely. While I walked around the facility, I was able to make live changes from my phone.

 

What do you think about the state of tech in South Florida? 

Palm Beach seems to be a growing area, from our standpoint we will go from 2 to 4 offices in the next year, and 8 offices by 2021, and possibly an office in Utah and Colorado. The opportunities are there, the area is growing more and more. We went from 9 to 19 people in the last year, and are looking to bring on another 6 employees this year.

 

What kind of employees do growing companies like yours look for?

We want the best of the best, and one of the big things we look for is personality. You have to love your job – it can be nights and weekends, 3 days in a row, no sleep – but if you love your job it is not a big deal. Dedication is key.

We are looking for personality as the most important factor for our level 1 guys, and combined with more experience for level 2 and beyond. We are seeing talent in the Palm Beaches and more moving in all the time. This also includes the tri-county area as well as Orlando and Melbourne.

Dedicated IT is very big on family and building a great company culture. Your support system is important – I’m lucky enough to have a great wife who always supports me, but for those people who may not have that support system, we are that company that provides a great work environment and family atmosphere. We strive to be a workplace where people want to make a difference.

To learn more about Ben Posner and Dedicated IT visit them at http://dedicatedit.com/.

For more on the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, visit http://www.ballparkpalmbeaches.com/.

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28
Oct, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

Former Tyco Executive Discusses Team Building for Startup Intecrowd

Read Time 7 Minutes

Don McDougal is a former Tyco executive turned entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience in the IT field. I interviewed him recently to get an idea of what his company, Intecrowd, is all about, the transition from international corporation to startup life, and team building advice for creating a winning company.

McDougal mentions his business relationship with Workday throughout the interview. Workday is an international company that offers enterprise-level software solutions for human resource and financial management.

Please provide some specifics about Intecrowd:

  • What it is/does. Don McDougal: We are a Workday Partner providing integration services between Workday and 3rd party systems.  Additionally, we have a product line we are developing which streamlines Workday Integration development and management.
  • How you made the decision to create it. I have been in the IT/Systems business my entire 25+ year career, and am fascinated with cloud technology and the disruption it is driving, and particularly Workday with its Multi-tenant architecture.  After the Workday rollout out at Tyco I knew I wanted to stay in the Workday Ecosystem.  As I considered my options, a unique opportunity presented itself, which was to create a boutique Workday partnership.  Obtaining a Workday partnership is almost impossible to do now, and I am very grateful to have this opportunity.
  • What your end goal is with the company. Our MISSION is: “Build a powerful company that satisfies our clients through the successful implementation, integration and operation of cloud-based systems; that delivers a strong return for shareholders; and takes care of our employees.”   We are very open with our employees, that the company exists to provide employment for the founders and employees to allow them to take care of themselves and their families.”  We review one of our guiding principles each staff meeting to make sure we don’t lose sight of this.
  • Your relationship with Workday and the need you are filling with your partnership. We are a services partner that is ALSO developing products that support Workday and help Workday customers get the most value out of their systems.
  • You mentioned you are the only boutique company in the space. Can you provide some specifics on that? They have directed us specifically to make Workday Integrations, Better, Faster and Cheaper. We also collaborate with Workday to discuss: challenges customers face, our ideas for new products etc.  No other Workday Partner has this specific mandate.

Briefly, discuss the contrast between the corporate world versus the startup world:

What are the pros and cons of each in terms of business progression and innovation? Pros:  We can make decisions very quickly to hire, develop a new product etc.  The Corporate World moves much slower on these things. It is refreshing to be agile, innovative and not be restricted by heavy process, policy and bureaucracy.  Being your own boss can be very liberating AND at times terrifying. Example: in less than a week, we have: Identified a new market, developed a conceptual architecture, conducted relevant market research, and made the decision to build a new product. That just doesn’t happen at large corporations.

Cons: Large established organizations have mature sales teams, finance, accounting, operational systems, product development etc. These are powerful resources that I took for granted when I was working for large corporations. Large companies have resources, investors, capital etc., which allow the company to ride out down market cycles.  This is very hard to do in a small startup.

What do you like most about being involved in a startup?

Working with like-minded, very smart people with integrity and great energy.

What are the roles you thought you’d play in the startup world versus the roles you actually play?

I envisioned myself as technology innovator, building better business practices, etc.  I have done very little of this so far, although I have been involved in the design of some of our new products, which has been very fulfilling. What I actually spend my time on is raising capital, investor relations and business development. I remember a former CEO saying he spent much of his time with investors, and I thought that sounded strange, but it certainly has been my experience.

Team Building 

I have learned that I have to hire people who are smarter, faster, more specialized and generally more capable than me. Sometimes I even have to pay them more than I pay myself, and it has always been worth it in the long run

Intecrowd was initially 100% owned by you, then you decided to bring on a Board of Directors and share equity. Can you provide some details about that decision-making process?

Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned in business, is that I can’t do it all, I need good help. Early in my career, I would pride myself in being the strongest, most skilled engineer on my team. I have learned that I have to hire people who are smarter, faster, more specialized and generally more capable than me. Sometimes I even have to pay them more than I pay myself, and it has always been worth it in the long run. I have never been on a BOD before, I have never organized one etc. Bringing in people who have done this before has been extremely helpful.

Can you provide insight into what other entrepreneurs might want to consider when building a BOD:

What type of people did you choose for your board and why? People who have been on, and ran BODs, people who have led startups, people who have raised capital, people who are experts in business operations etc.

How complimentary are they to your skillsets? Skillsets are very complimentary.  I know our market and the specific offerings we are bringing to market. I didn’t know how to raise capital, handle financial engineering etc.  I did not know many people in the investor community, and have relied heavily on the BOD to help with this.

How much ownership do you think is a good amount for a BOD member? It varies widely, depending on what they bring, how much time they spend, the value they have etc.

How often do you meet? We meet in person quarterly, and have at least one meeting by phone each week.

How does the decision-making process differ from that of the corporate world with your team? I speculate that the process is similar, you look for people who can complement the CEO, who have specific domain expertise, who are connected in your market etc.

You mentioned company culture is extremely important to you. How and why did you develop these principles for team building? I think it is crucial, in lasting success and in attracting and retaining the right talent.

What are the guiding cultural principles of Intecrowd?

MISSION

  • Build a powerful company that satisfies our clients through the successful implementation, integration and operation of cloud-based systems; that delivers a strong return for shareholders; and takes care of our employees.

VALUES

People

Teamwork

Thinking and acting strategically

 Innovation

Trust

Agility

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

  • We focus on delivering superior value and increased marginal utility to our customers
  • We take care of and protect our partnerships
  • We strive for excellence in all of our efforts
  • We are totally committed to quality and continuous improvement
  • We pursue strategic knowledge
  • Work should be an enjoyable part of a well-rounded life
  • Integrity is never compromised
  • We believe in treating all individuals as we wish to be treated

One of the things I have learned from Workday, is to give employees equity in the company.  It fosters a team environment and helps retain talent.

You said loyalty comes from flexibility and good pay. Can you elaborate on this?

Our model is we work remotely. Sometimes we are at a customer’s location, but most of the time we work from home. This gives people back 1-2 hours a day for commute time alone. We also pay well, with average 100K+ annual salaries plus benefits.

Your team members get equity in the company. How does this influence their motivation and belief in the product?

One of the things I have learned from Workday, is to give employees equity in the company.  It fosters a team environment and helps retain talent.

Would you encourage other entrepreneurs to provide the same type of equity stake?

Yes

Funding

Almost all of our funding so far has come from Florida investors.

One of the most interesting things you mentioned that may surprise a lot of Floridians is that Intecrowd has managed to gain most of its funding from within Florida. Companies tend to think that they need to go to Silicon Valley, New York, or elsewhere, but you’ve proven that Florida is and can be a great resource.

Yes, almost all of our funding so far has come from Florida investors. The Florida Institute for Commercialization and Research (FICPR) and the FAN Fund have been very supportive.  Additionally, there are many investors who live in Florida who either have their businesses here, or who have retired and moved here. There are many retired Corporate Executives in Florida who have money and who are now investors.

One of your Board Members has lots of funding-related relationships in the state. How do you suggest a startup goes about leveraging relationships like that and asking for money?

I have found it extremely helpful to have BOD members and advisors who are connected to the investment community. We successfully completed our first capital raise, which was close to $2M; it set the framework for our current capital raise of $10M and understanding the valuation process; including how the offering was structured, building on the initial round and scalability.

You mentioned you think a lot of funding in Florida exists because people and companies really care about building up the state. Where is this stemming from?

Great question.  I think people move and live here because they love Florida.  That’s why I live here.  It has been a great place to raise a family, the cost of living is reasonable compared to the North East or West Coast, and we have great weather, golf and beaches. Building up our local businesses will provide jobs to our community, children and grandchildren. I sure hope my kids will stay in Florida.

What is your greatest piece of startup advice you can provide based on your experience?

Don’t be afraid to share equity with talented and passionate people who can help you build the business and make it successful.

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25
Oct, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

Harvard Innovation Lab Startup Heartstring Seeks Florida Musicians

Read Time 5 Minutes

I recently was lucky enough to interview a really awesome startup out of the Harvard Innovation Lab called Heartstring. These guys contacted me out of the blue to beta test their new app, and although we normally feature startups that are from the Palm Beach area, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to feature them on Palm Beach Tech.

Heartstring allows you to easily add original soundtracks to your social media videos, making them a very timely product. Given their unique backing by the very prestigious Harvard Innovation Lab, I wanted to ask them about this relationship, their technology, and of course, how they came to create such a unique app.

Below I interview two of Heartstring’s four founders, Pete Mathias and Casey Gibson, to get some insight into their creative product.

Daniel Lofaso: Please tell me a little bit about Heartstring.

Pete and Casey: We are a team of entrepreneurial musicians, designers, and technology builders pushing a new frontier in music, media, and artificial intelligence. We are ourselves musicians who believe that music has exciting possibilities in the new medium of storytelling: digital video.

Today, we tell stories differently than the earliest cultures. Oral tradition is conveyed not by word of mouth, but by the click of a button. We press record, we snap a shot of our happenings, and post it to the choice communicative platform of our times: Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube. We are building Heartstring for modern storytelling.

How did you come up with the idea? 

We come from the music world. We are touring musicians (our co-founders are the band Filligar). We have seen firsthand the exciting opportunities that technology has unlocked for musicians. The idea for Heartstring emerged from our own experiences writing music for picture. All the time, we would get requests from filmmakers wanting music for their films. Heartstring is part of that.

Who is on your team?

4 co-founders

Pete Mathias

Pete Mathias is an MBA/MPA from Dartmouth’s Tuck and Harvard’s Kennedy School, where he is a participant in the Harvard Innovation Lab’s Venture Incubation Program. Pete has been selected by mass media company Bertelsmann as a “creative shaping the future of media.”

Casey Gibson

Casey Gibson is a resident composer and producer for a Los Angeles based production house that makes music for brands. Casey was a cover feature in the LA Times Business Section for his innovative work writing music for commercial television.

Teddy Mathias

Teddy Mathias is an MFA graduate student at the Yale University School of Design, where he is studying Graphic Design.

Johnny Mathias

Johnny Mathias is a technology, media, and telecom investment banker in San Francisco and a graduate of Tuck School of Business.  Johnny has more than a decade of experience in the music industry—as guitarist and vocalist with the band Filligar and as a business development strategist for the label he co-founded, Decade Records.

How did you come up with the name?

Heartstring evokes everything we’re about: music and its ability to elevate.

How did you get involved with the Harvard Innovation Lab?

We were selected by the team at the i-Lab as a promising team on campus. We are really excited to be a part of an exciting collective.

You mentioned the i-lab helped with a lot of process-oriented stuff and mentoring. Anything specific that they did with you that helped with your launch of the project?

They have an incredible team and great resources to help with everything from strategy to legal to creative and other things a startup encounters.

How was/is the DALI Innovation Lab at Dartmouth part of your project?

DALI is an awesome collective out of Dartmouth. Their mission is “to design and build technology tools to help our partners change behavior, enhance understanding and even create delight. DALI uses mindful design to create solutions to a wide variety of problems.” They are currently exploring new frontiers for Heartstring– we are thrilled to have them part of the project.

You said it took about a year to get the product to beta. That’s pretty fast for a tech startup. How did you manage to put things in place so quickly?

We have been a band together for a long time. When you work closely with people for that long, particularly in a creative area, you move quick.

You said not much pivoting was done in terms of the original concept but you stick to Minimal Viable Product (MVP) principles when adding features. Can you give some recent examples of this?

We want Heartstring to create joy. Part of joy is simplicity. On our latest build, we eliminated features. That is a little unusual– most times you see startups adding features. But we want to create an exciting product.

Currently, Casey produces and composes most of the music. How does he come up with the ideas for this?

There is no formula for songwriting. Each new day and each new opportunity calls for a different creative set.

The app ties music with emotion. How does this work?

One area we have been trailblazing is in assigning music related to your picture or video. In support of this, we are deploying new frontier technology in image recognition and cloud vision.

You said the short-term goals for Heartstring involve getting musicians as passionate about your project as you are. What are your trying to do to get them excited?

Music has always been deeply attached to things like place, time, mood. We are connecting musicians to people in permutations of those parameters. We are excited by that and think other artists will be, too.

What are the long-term goals?

We want to build an exciting product that elevates today’s musicians.

Most music industry revenue comes from LA and NYC, do you think new technology will change that? If so, how?

Yes. Music has already fragmented distribution. There are many different ways to get your music out there. That means musicians will not have to migrate to conventional “music towns”–except for live touring.

Heartstring currently curates most of the music for the app but will be looking to get a lot more musicians involved on their own volition. What does this portion of the company look like?

We are artists curating a collective of like-minded musicians committed to their crafts. Any artists with the volition, who share that commitment to the arts, are welcome to get in touch about joining. Just email casey@heartstring.life

What’s it like for them to create music for 15-second spots? How’s it different from creating normal songs?

Music for short form can be an exciting creative exercise.  Hemingway famously wrote a powerful story in just six words. We believe that music can be written for short form, too. But Heartstring musicians do not have to write new music just for Heartstring– we just look for great musicians.

How can Florida-based musicians get involved in producing music for Heartstring?

Just fill out this form and we will be in touch!

What kinds of music genres are you looking for more of?

We welcome any artist of any genre committed to their craft.

 

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29
Sep, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

Fortune Global 500 Executive Contrasts Corporate VS Startup World

Read Time 6 Minutes

Former Hitachi Executive Nick Howe Talks about his involvement in new startup Area 9 and how it compares to that of the corporate world.

Nick Howe had a somewhat strange career arc.  He is an engineer by training and by inclination – he graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering in the UK then went to work for Bechtel Corporation in the petrochemical industry designing process equipment in refineries and oil platforms.

At university Howe had been interested in programming and had an affinity for it.  Personal computers and CAD/CAM were making big inroads into engineering in the mid-eighties, and he naturally gravitated into it.  Throughout the 90’s Howe did pretty much every job in IT – high- and low-level programming, system and network management, application support and eventually moved in IT services with EDS, the global IT outsourcer.

He ran a pre-sales team for EDS, which led into professional services and consulting with Hitachi, a Fortune Global 500 corporation ranked 37th. Howe built and ran the European professional services business for a few years, and at that point his career took its next major turn.  He inherited the customer education business, and found he enjoyed that part more than anything else.

From there Howe was lucky enough to be offered a global role leading employee development, and also the customer and partner training business – which he did for 11 years, right up until the summer of 2016.

Here’s a Q & A with Nick to get a sense of the contrasts between corporate life and that of startup life.

Daniel Lofaso: How did you get involved in Area9 and can you provide some background on what you and your team are trying to achieve?

Nick Howe: After working for three global companies, the smallest of which had 45,000 employees, In the last few months I decided it was time for a change. I now lead corporate strategy for Area9 Learning, a small Danish software company with less than 200 employees.

In my learning role at Hitachi I’d see how inefficient and ineffective most corporate education is.  Despite all the advances from the industrial revolution to the internet, education has hardly changed since Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.  Three years ago I discovered Area9, and quickly became their customer.  I was incredibly impressed by them and their products, and when I retired from Hitachi, Area9 offered me a role with them.  With Area9 Learning, we are bringing the power of neuroscience and computer science to revolutionize the way that employees learn.

Please expand on this a bit more, and the adaptive learning approach Area9 takes.

Every employee is different – different experiences, interests, schooling, attitudes – yet when it comes to training, companies treat everyone as though they are the same.  If you want to learn, say, project management, you get pushed through the exact same courses, no matter how much you already know.  This is frustrating for the learner and can cost thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

Area9 Learning’s platform enables true personalization of a company’s training content – what is known as ‘adaptive learning’.  It adjusts in real-time to your knowledge, skills, and experience and teaches only what you need.  This dramatically reduces the time it takes to reach mastery, puts the power in the hands of the learner and saves the company money.

Today we focus on a number of industries: Hospitality (hotels, food, beverage), Transportation, Energy, Retail & Consumer Goods, Industrials, and Automotive but also have clients in Healthcare, Technology and Sport.

You can find out more at www.Area9Learning.com

Hitachi is one of Area 9’s clients. It is not uncommon for startups to be created due to a need seen by an employee of a much larger corporation (but not met by that corporation). Can you speak to your experience and provide advice for any potential business owners who are thinking about exploring this path of entrepreneurship (creating a product or service that is complimentary to the corporation they currently work for/worked for)?

The nature of large corporations is that there are always competing demands for resources, and all kinds of filters on what can and can’t be done. Something that is just incredibly difficult to get done at a large company can be trivial for a startup that can focus on it 100%.

But – having the idea isn’t the challenge.  Execution and scale is the challenge.  Turning an idea into reality is difficult enough, but the thing that is really difficult in my experience is growing the customer base.  It is tempting to get excited by the first two or three customers, but scaling that up can be incredibly difficult. We saw that launching new products at Hitachi; it isn’t just a startup problem.

And if you are in a company today, and you can see a glaring problem that you know you can solve doesn’t mean that the company will be bothered to fix it.  You have to be in the right place at the right time, with the right connections – and have luck on your side.

In regards to Hitachi vs startup life at Area9:

What parallels can you draw from the corporate world and startup world?

People and mission. Ultimately all business, whether it is a 10-person startup or a $100b global corporation, is about people – how you treat your customers, your colleagues, your employees, and your suppliers defines your company.

And if you combine that with a clear mission, the business won’t exactly take care of itself, but you will have a framework that simplifies decision making and leads to the right outcomes.

What are the major difference’s you can draw from the corporate world and startup world?

The most obvious one I’ve seen is a sense of urgency – virtually all startups have it, very few large corporations do. It sounds a little stupid to say that distance creates separation, but what I mean is that distance from the customer – created because of different functions, or geographies, or layers of management – often creates a sense of detachment and a lack of focus on what matters.

How are processes different or similar at companies of these sizes?

It is tempting to say that big companies have them, and small companies don’t. It may be more accurate to say that big companies NEED them.  Trying to get anything done at scale is at best inefficient and at worst impossible in a large company without great processes.

What challenges does a startup face that you were not used to at the corporate level?

It may be counterintuitive, but sometimes scale can give you flexibility. When it comes to spending, dollar amounts that can be a rounding error on a corporate P&L can be life and death to a startup.  In the corporate world, the scale allows us to take risks that would be virtually impossible to most startups.

How does accountability differ at a startup level versus that of a corporation?

If you lead the business correctly, there shouldn’t be any difference. People have an intrinsic desire to be accountable for their own actions, and to be given the opportunity to perform.  I’ve always found as a leader that people will live up to your expectations.  There is a temptation in large corporations for politics and bureaucracy to dominate, but transparency and delegation lead to accountability, not a loss of control.

If you give people a sense of direction, the opportunities and the means to be successful, and ask them to be accountable for their actions, motivation naturally follows.

There are a lot of former executives in the South Florida area:

What are some reasons – beyond the obvious tax breaks and great weather – that you think you guys are moving to this area and getting involved in startups?

The weather! Did I mention the weather? It has always surprised me that more companies aren’t based down here in Florida.  Florida has some of the best universities in the US, a great influx of talent from Latin America, and did I mention the weather?

If Magic Leap can attract half a billion dollars of investment to the area, what’s to stop other companies?

What does this mean for talent or resources?

Hopefully, it won’t get as crazy as Silicon Valley – but it will mean that local talent won’t have to head to California, Boston, New York or Chicago for the best jobs.

What do you forecast for South Florida’s resource pool in the coming years?

That kind of depends on what how the universities respond.  Hopefully we’ll see lots of great opportunities for kids growing up here, but also an influx of talent from the rest of the country.

Just for fun: You love Tesla and have even published a book, Owning Model S that is quite popular within Tesla itself. What motivated you to research and write this?

I love technology, and performance cars. Tesla’s Model S is the perfect combination.  I was one of the first owners, and a group of us were learning as we went along because information from Tesla was so scarce.  That learning and research became my book, which I wrote primarily to help other people who were new to the world of electric cars.  It is great to get in on the front end of something that is going to be truly world-changing.

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29
Aug, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

Startup Grind with Rocco from Rocco’s Tacos

Read Time 2 Minutes

This Tuesday, August 30th at 6:00pm join us for an evening with Rocco Mangel of Rocco’s Tacos & Tequila Bar at The Fieldhouse at Old School Square.

About Startup Grind

Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting 400,000 founders in over 200 cities. It nurtures startup ecosystems in 85 countries through events, media, and partnerships with organizations like Google for Entrepreneurs. The cornerstone of their global community is monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has now hosted 2,000 fireside chats since its founding in 2010. To date, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and hires, pursue funding, and reach new users.

About Rocco Mangel

Famous for tacos and tequila, Rocco of Rocco’s Tacos will be joining us to talk about his entrepreneurial journey with the restaurant, how he became a successful restauranteur, and why he rocks white shoes when he pours free rounds of tequila to the delight of his patrons. Rocco is also highly philanthropic, having contributed $100s of thousands in fundraising to Susan G. Komen for the Cure as well as ALS Association; Leukemia/Lymphoma Society; YMCA’s Polo for Pedro fundraiser; Vanilla Ice’s Toys for Tots fundraiser; Habitat for Humanity; Genesis Work Dogs; Tri-County Humane Society; March of Dimes; Palm Beach Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and other organizations.

Rocco currently has restaurants in six cities across south and central Florida as well as Brokklyn, New York.

Your Host

Startup Grind is all about making friends, helping others before you help yourself, and giving, not taking. To help facilitate this vision and lead the conversation is Palm Beach County’s very own A.J. Ripin, the Director of Startup Grind Palm Beach and a Serial Entrepreneur, Strategic Thinker, Runner, Technologist, Craft Beer Enthusiast, and Boston Red Sox Fanatic.

Details

Date and Time
August 30, 2016
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Address
The Fieldhouse at Old School Square
51 N Swinton Ave
Delray Beach, 33444

Agenda
6:00 pm Networking
6:30 pm Fireside Chat
7:15 pm Audience Q&A
7:30 pm Wrap Up & After Party

 

22
Jul, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

FLVEC: Palm Beach Tech Executive Director Joe Russo Community Builder

Read Time < 1 Minute

The Florida Virtual Entrepreneur Center, an online directory of resource agencies dedicated to helping entrepreneur’s thrive, has written a shining profile on Palm Beach Tech’s Executive Director Joe Russo.

Here’s an excerpt from that piece:

Russo helped found Palm Beach Tech to gather entrepreneurs, ask them what problems needed solving and to solve those problems together. Palm Beach Tech focuses on three key activities. It works with local education partners to develop the talent pool for local technology companies; it capitalizes on the area’s reputation to build a county brand that will attract businesses and talent that will produce more startups; and lastly, it serves as the voice of the tech industry to government and business leaders in Palm Beach County.

Read the full profile here

 

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27
May, 2016

By Daniel Lofaso

How to Raise $382,658 on Kickstarter: Kate Reddy with DreamScreen

Read Time 5 Minutes

Recently I was lucky enough to interview Kate Reddy from DreamScreen, a local Boca Raton startup that recently spoke at one of our Meetups. Reddy shined some light on her success with Kickstarter, the popular crowdfunding website.

  1. Please tell us about your product, DreamScreen, and why you choose Kickstarter to launch it?

DreamScreen is smart LED backlighting for home theater. DreamScreen works with any HDMI TV and enhances the size of the TV, softens the image and even makes watching TV easier on your eyes. Other products in the past had to be connected through computers and had a delay in responsiveness. This was a solution in that space, as it offers a responsive rate of 60 f/s for any TV, movie or video game.  We chose Kickstarter because it has a large technology community and is full of tech early adopters.

  1. How did you get so savvy at Kickstarter?

It’s like any other marketing launch, it’s about understanding consumer behavior and knowing your target customer. This was my first venture into the platform, but I have previous experience managing digital marketing campaigns so I used that knowledge to create a buzz.

  1. You raised $382,658 dollars for your startup through Kickstarter, yet you only asked for $25,000. What’s the secret to your success?

Yes! It is a numbers game. Put a very conservative goal on Kickstarter. You want the project to fund in the first 24-48 hours of your launch. It impresses people, and gives you the availability to say you were 1,500% funded, and so forth.

Kickstarter is its own animal, most of the backers of our campaign were backers of other projects. If you meet goals quickly Kickstarter can give you better exposure on their homepage or through other internal features on the site. When people write articles about you and mention that you have sailed past your goals it makes people more likely to take notice.

If you post a really large goal and you don’t meet that mark, you won’t get a dollar. It’s kind of a gamble, so you really want to put an amount you know you can reach.

  1. What kind of startup product/service is Kickstarter right for?

Technology products are probably the best category. I’ve seen success in many other avenues though, including games, theater and arts, new food and beverage ideas, etc.; I don’t think it’s necessarily about the category, but more the quality of the product.

  1. How long would you suggest a company push a funding round on Kickstarter?

Kickstarter recommends 30-40 days, and that is ample time.

  1. How important is showing a budget for one’s company and what should this include or not include?

I didn’t do that and I think it’s more important to show a viable product. The backers are taking a gamble on you, convince them it is real, it is happening. We spent a great deal of time creating visuals, a great video, and helping to inform potential backers of all the specifics of our product. Showcasing that you know your stuff can often be a trust-earning aspect of a campaign that negates the need to show line-by-line what you intend to do with money you may earn.

  1. How can a company actively market their Kickstarter campaign? Is it ever too early to drum up pre-launch buzz?

I choose to do a soft launch and sent it to promoters – other people in tech, my immediate network, technology writers and editors, etc. I sent it out to editors and YouTubers so the general public knew it was real and that if they backed the project, they were going to receive a DreamScreen. This resulted in some good press which we later used to showcase as social proof on our Kickstarter page. It added another trust element to backers because they could see that tech magazines and blogs had already featured us.

The takeaway is that people who do a soft launch (pre-Kickstarter) probably have more success than those who are making their first impression on Kickstarter. It goes back to the trust element; if tech writers like the product why wouldn’t a consumer?

Other advice: We also spent a lot of time writing a good press release and translating it into as many languages as possible. I even closed-captioned it in English, because I found that deaf people were interested in the visual effects of DreamScreen. I had the video translated into five languages because Kickstarter is such an international community and I didn’t want to exclude anyone.  Next time I launch something I’m going to push it out to 10 languages or more.

  1. How can companies come up with good stories that will help to sell themselves as well as their products?

We wanted the product to be the face of the company, not us as founders. A lot of people wanted us to put ourselves on our video we created. We went to conferences and people suggested putting ourselves in our video and we decided against it.

That said, my DreamScreen profile is my husband and I and we linked our Facebook page to show we are real people. Other than that, we showed pictures of the team on the campaign page to show that we were a viable company. We remained product-focused and tried to keep the spotlight away from us and onto our product, and it worked out well for us.

  1. What kind of stretch goals do you suggest?

We got so much feedback from the backers that we based our goals on what backers were asking for. For example, some people wanted a Windows app, others wanted integration with a Smart Watch, some wanted new Ambient Scenes and others wanted us to integrate DreamScreen with their home lighting, so we added those to the campaign as Stretch Goals, and are currently developing those add-ons.

The backers loved it when we listened to them and did as they requested. Let the backers tell you how to improve your product and you win their loyalty and get free consumer perspective.

  1. What are good Kickstarter resources that you like?

Kicktraq.com is good resource to see where you are trending and gives you a lot of analytics on your campaign [that Kickstarter doesn’t]. We went there almost every day to see how our campaign was doing.

Other vital things to these campaigns are strong targeting of:

  • Facebook ad campaigns
  • Behavioral targeting ads
  • PPC
  • Paid Search
  • Digital Banner Ads with retargeting

 

  1. What other preparation did you do before launching?

We had all our developer work already done, we had our app built, and we encouraged people to download it. A lot of Kickstarter products don’t deliver so whatever you can do to alleviate those concerns the better off you’ll be.

The more information you can put on the page the better. My campaign page has tons of specs, timelines, photos, and a desire to inundate the user with as much info as possible.

  1. Any other advice?

One piece of advice I’d give is to not to launch your crowdfunding project on Indiegogo. Kickstarter has a higher level of legitimacy because you actually have to have a tangible product or service and a working prototype, whereas with Indiegogo you just have to have an idea, so it is a much bigger gamble to the consumer. People want to back a product that is ready to go and have the assurance their money is being well spent.

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Startup Grind with Rocco from Rocco’s Tacos
FLVEC: Palm Beach Tech Executive Director Joe Russo Community Builder
How to Raise $382,658 on Kickstarter: Kate Reddy with DreamScreen