Circle The Wagons: What Everyone Is Thinking But Nobody Will Say

This article is written to highlight a systemic problem in our ecosystem and to create a conversation around the solution. 

The Raleigh-Durham (Triangle) region of NC has a goal of becoming a top 5 city for entrepreneurship and innovation. The community needs to be on the same page in order for this to be accomplished.

The journey won’t be easy. Frankly, it will be much harder than most people anticipate. Cities all over the world are aiming to accomplish the same goal. From San Francisco to London and Boston to Las Vegas, there are plenty of smart people who are passionate about winning. Keep in mind – Las Vegas has $350 million to play with!!

The Triangle community’s efforts must be synced in order to stand a chance of competing. If someone doesn’t pull their weight, it is the community’s responsibility to hold them accountable.

“The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack”

I’m writing this to hold members of our community accountable. We are not all on the same page but we must be.

Whether we like it or not, local media is our main voice to the world. Social media is powerful but nothing can top a well-written article by an unbiased, respected journalist. While the Triangle is saturated with a number of amazing writers, many of them are not reaching the audience they deserve.

The reason will surprise you….

Paywalls are preventing the spread of information. A paywall is a system that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content without a paid subscription. In layman terms – paywalls prevent the free dissemination of information. Most local media paywalls seem to include a range of topics but one particular paywall stands out.

The idea that we must “tell our story” has been identified and reiterated at many local events. The tech / entrepreneurship community is exploding and accomplishing some awesome things but no one is successfully telling the stories to a larger audience. Success stories include 5 IPO’s and a total of $200+ million raised in the first 6 months of 2013. Big time stuff!

There are a number of options when it comes to getting local tech / startup news. The News & Observer is notorious for leveraging opinion pieces from entrepreneurs and investors, with the occasional long-form, traditional journalism article. Unfortunately, tech and startups are not a main focus for the N&O and it shows in volume and quality.

ExitEvent is a gritty platform that I consider to have great story-lines and boots-on-the-ground reporting. If you are looking for the local TechCrunch, this is your best bet. Joe Procopio has done a fantastic job building the audience from scratch but has limited resources and writers to cover everything happening.

The Triangle Business Journal has made a huge push lately to focus on tech, startups, and entrepreneurship. While the volume has drastically picked up, they are still the new kid on the block. Being new is hard but they have a solid team of journalists that are ready to tackle the challenge. I expect their audience to continue growing if they keep up the current trajectory.

(UPDATE: Bill Spruill sent me the following quote that I felt was worth adding for context and relevance: “The Triangle Business Journal has been a great and venerable supplier of news and features about local companies since I started following the community back in 1995. Even when implementing payment requirements they only did so based on number of page views per month and thus did not overly restrict access to valuable content and information.”)

This leaves me with WRAL TechWire. Most entrepreneurs and investors feel that Rick Smith and TechWire are the most trusted source for local (and Southeast) tech / entrepreneurship news. This reputation has been built from a solid record of professional journalism that includes great angles, interesting exclusives, and early scoops. Nobody can dispute the past performance but I believe WRAL has made a grave mistake.

WRAL TechWire is the only news site in the region to place tech and entrepreneurship news behind a paywall. Yes, our best voice is being silenced by a focus on monetization. Ridiculous – A pure slap in the face to the entrepreneurs and investors who are working hard to create stories of success.

Instead of making wild claims, here is some data that highlights the problem. Of the last 20 articles written on TechWire with the tag “Startups”, 14 of them are hidden behind the paywall. Of the 6 that are “unlocked” from the paywall, only 3 articles have more than 50 words and contain any substance. Making matters worse, 2 of the remaining 3 were interviews conducted by CED as part of an on-going series they run. The final article is a self-serving piece that promotes the work of WRAL’s parent company (Capitol Broadcasting) at American Tobacco Campus.

This is a huge problem. In fact, this may be the single biggest problem that the Triangle entrepreneurship ecosystem is facing. Outside investors have no idea what is going on with Triangle companies because most of the stories are hidden. This is such a problem that CED heavily invested in building Triangulate NC in order to help give more insight to these people. Want to increase access to capital in the area? How about we unleash the stories of past success that are currently being hoarded and pimped out for pocket change.

This not only affects the dissemination of information to those outside of the region. Earlier this year Justin Miller of WedPics raised $1.1 million and TechWire wrote an exclusive article. The article was hidden behind the paywall, which caused majority of the Triangle ecosystem to remain in the dark about this awesome accomplishment. TechWire also wrote an article about Anil Chawla and ArchiveSocial. Anil hadn’t been able to read the article about his own company when I spoke to him two months ago.

This practice is ridiculous, damaging, and must come to an end. While WRAL is trying to monetize the story-lines of Triangle success, they fail to realize that they are systematically preventing success to breed more success. Are a few dollars (paywalls historically make very little money) worth potentially sabotaging the momentum of local entrepreneurship and innovation? Not in my mind.

Each one of us has a voice in the issue. You voice your opinion in the currency of your actions. Every time you click on a TechWire article, you are encouraging this behavior. Every time you agree to give TechWire an interview that will go behind the paywall, you are encouraging this behavior. Every time you give TechWire an exclusive scoop, you are encouraging this behavior. Every time you agree to write content for TechWire, you are encouraging this behavior.

It is about time we stop the madness and hold WRAL TechWire accountable. I am calling for a boycott of TechWire until they remove the paywall, align their interests with the community, and acknowledge that we are all stronger together. I understand that they are a for-profit company that needs to make money. However, there are numerous ways to accomplish this and I’m willing to spend time to help them set a strategy to accomplish this at no charge. I doubt they will accept the offer.

As a community it is time we stand up for what we know is the right thing. The status quo is disrupted when a group of individuals passionately advocate for what is right. If you want to join me, I’d love for you to take 15 seconds and sign this petition to have WRAL TechWire take down their paywall.

Please share this with anyone and everyone you know. By posting it to social media and sharing with friends, we can rally the passionate group of individuals that is needed to create the necessary systemic change. Thank you!

The petition can be found here as well: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/wral-techwire/

HQ Raleigh vs American Underground @Raleigh: The tale of the tape

The Triangle region of North Carolina is quickly becoming a goliath on the innovation and entrepreneurship scene across the nation. From top 10 rankings on numerous national lists to large IPOs and acquisitions, measurable results has been the name of the game lately.

Wednesday, August 7th 2013, is going to be one of the days that ends up on a timeline of “how it happened.” Capitol Broadcasting Company and American Underground announced that they will be opening their third location in the heart of downtown Raleigh. Almost simultaneously, HQ Raleigh (formerly HUB Raleigh) announced a move to the Warehouse District that will nearly quadruple the amount of space they have.

Hold on. Stop the press. Shut up and read that again – the two largest entrepreneurial focused spaces in the region both announced big plans for expansion on the same day. Try telling me again that it is not worth paying attention to the Triangle?!

While these plans for growth are individually positive, what is the impact from a macro-level? Can Raleigh (or Triangle) have too many co-working spaces? Is it possible to have too much density?

Some may differ in opinion but I emphatically believe there is no such thing as “too much” when talking about density and growth. It is no secret that successful ecosystems are positively correlated (and sometimes caused by) to density of entrepreneurs, advisors, service providers, and investors.

Not only is there enough room in Raleigh for 2 co-working spaces, but there is room for 3-5 more. HQ Raleigh currently has a long waiting list of potential members. American Underground (AU) has filled up 2 locations in Durham very quickly. For all the economic minds, this is a classic case of market demand driving increased supply.

I am looking forward to spending time with both HQ and AU@Raleigh. Whether it is office space, events, or the casual conversation, I don’t see a reason to “pick sides” or pledge alliance to one side or the other. This isn’t a battle. It sure as hell isn’t a zero sum game.

To the community, I ask that everyone keep an open mind, embrace growth, provide value, and keep killing it. If it wasn’t for the individual entrepreneur or startup, none of this would be happening. Never forget that we own this city and this region. It is up to us to set the tone and execute the actions that will one day be written on the timeline of “How the Triangle became the most entrepreneurial region in the history of the world.”

Dream big and realize that we are living in a period of time that will be talked about for decades to come. Personally, I am glad that HQ Raleigh and American Underground @Raleigh will both be with us as we write the next chapters…

What do you think of each move? How do you see the region, community, and city of Raleigh being affected? Leave a comment or tweet me @APompliano!

This Is What Happens Every 60 Seconds On The Internet

The internet is a big deal these days. Social media isn’t going anywhere either. This infographic does a great job illustrating just how much activity is going on. Buckle up – some of these numbers may blow your mind…

Quantity of content is not a concern. No need to be worried about e-commerce either. Expect these numbers to double and triple over the next 3-5 years.

What is the most surprising statistic to you? Tweet me @APompliano!

 

(h/t @prsarahevans)

Why Nobody Gives A Shit About Cool…

Photo credit to shirtoid.com

Entrepreneurship has been a trendy topic for the media lately. Every kid with an idea and their mom thinks they’re the next Zuckerburg. News flash – You have a better chance of winning the lottery and getting hit by a car all in the same day!

I spend a lot of my time with other founders, particularly young ones, in an attempt to leverage my (very) limited knowledge as a resource for them. This activity organically forces me to allocate time away from DigaForce, while still keeping my mind sharp in an area I care about.

TRANSLATION – It feels amazing to realize other founders have the same issues that you do. There is sanity in chaos.

All I’ve been hearing lately is about the “cool factor” of so many startups.

We have this really cool feature that does X….Every potential customer we talked to told us they thought this was really cool…..Won’t it be cool if we connect X with Y?

At first, I played the nice guy and tried to give solid advice without offending the founder(s) who’ve been pouring their heart and soul into the startup. I offered alternative solutions, potential validated learning experiments, and in rare cases, my own industry knowledge. None of this warm and fuzzy, feel-good approach ever seemed to work.

Each time the founder would say “Thanks for your time and feedback. I really appreciate it.” and be on their way. Maybe they took a small snippet here or there to heart, but the fundamental issue still remained. Eventually I had enough.

Within the past month I have been on an absolute tear.

The nice guy has been replaced by a lean, mean, truth-spittin’ machine! I realized I was doing a huge disservice to the founders I was meeting with if I didn’t give them my honest opinion. Giving them the opinion was only half the battle though. I needed to give the advice in a concise and blunt manner. No sugar coating. No kumbaya stuff.

So here is my go-to piece of advice – “Nobody gives a shit about cool, they want to know where the fuck the value is!” Talk about a complete 180 degree approach. Over 4 weeks I have used that line at least 25 times. Probably more.

The reason this is so important is that cool rarely makes money. Gone are the days of businesses having a strategic plan to create value and make money. Everyone is too focused on getting eyeballs. A wise man once told me, “If they ain’t got no money for ya, leave ’em to die.” A little dramatic coming from a 62 year old but you get the point.

The best part is that the message is working. As soon as I drop the hammer, founders immediately sit up and begin engaging on an entirely different level. They have a million questions. They want to debate the “why” for hours. It is like everyone has been telling them how great they are and now they’ve found one asshole who doesn’t buy their smoke and mirrors.

The ensuing conversation has led to some amazing results. One startup realized their entire business model was unproven and that they were about to spend $25,000 on development for a product that they didn’t know if anybody wanted or not. Another startup realized that their value proposition was so small that it wasn’t worth being cool anymore. Lastly, two rockstar founders realized they had great value in what they were doing, but weren’t including that story in their pitch or marketing material. The new facelift has them looking like a completely different company already.

So forget me, Anthony Pompliano, for a second. This could be any Mark the Mentor (sorry that’s all I have left in the creativity tank). I’m writing this to get two points across. First of all, entrepreneurs need to start focusing more on value than on the cool factor. You aren’t Instagram, so stop thinking your business model is to “just get acquired.” The media, universities, and entrepreneurial peers are all responsible for bashing this concept into the heads of first-time founders.

Secondly, mentors and advisors need to step their game up. Stop trying to be everyone’s friend. If my idea sucks, I want to hear “This idea sucks and you’re wasting your time.” Throw me a bone, homie. Help me out. Give me smart, honest, and blunt feedback so I can act on it immediately. Just like employees want to work with A-level players, founders want advice from A-level mentors.

So remember, “Nobody gives a shit about cool, they want to know where the fuck the value is!” The more entrepreneurs and mentors that can focus on this, the better off the startup ecosystems will be. I’m trying to do my part, are you?

Agree? Disagree? Shoot me your thoughts in the comments or tweet me @APompliano!

How SGT Mark Baum Changed My Life

My friends and family rarely hear me talk about my deployment overseas. Mainly, I believe that it’s no ones business. We were sent to Iraq to fulfill our mission and come home alive. Today is one of the days where I’m compelled to share my thoughts in an attempt to express my gratitude to one of our great warriors.

As a 20 year old kid, I was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to Taji, Iraq. I spent a year patrolling the streets of a war zone in the middle of the night, just 20 miles north of Baghdad. We were tasked with conducting Route Clearance – to identify and defeat ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IED) in an effort to make routes safer for the rest of the armed forces. Our missions were carried out with special vehicles and skeleton crews (minimal number of soldiers in vehicles in an attempt to minimize casualties).

When I first arrived in Iraq, everything was surreal to me. There was a lot of sand. Everyone carried guns. Each soldier was on high alert. With that being said, it didn’t feel like war. That all changed on February 21, 2009.

My unit was conducting only our 3rd or 4th solo mission. A few hours into the mission, SPC Mohney and I heard a “whiz” right over our head. Immediately both of us ducked inside our vehicle and stared at each other. The conversation that ensued included “Was that a bullet?”, “Holy shit, possible sniper?”, and “Dude, I’ve never been shot at before but I hunt a lot and that was a fucking bullet!” Needless to say, we called out to the rest of our convoy and alerted them to the possible sniper (we never confirmed it). Crisis avoided for the time being.

Within minutes, the convoy turned onto the largest supply route in Iraq. We began going north and clearing the road. A few seconds down the route, there was a huge noise and flash of light. Our vehicle shook. Although we had never been attacked before, everyone immediately knew….game on! The first vehicle in our convoy had run over a large IED. The vehicle was lifted up and slammed into the ground. Thankfully, the lone driver only suffered a severe concussion.

As soon as the explosion occurred, our training took over and we went to work. Screams of “IED, IED, IED” rang out, while others yelled “Scan your sector and find that mother fucker!” Someone had just tried to kill one of our brothers. We were gonna find him and return the favor.

My vehicle’s driver maneuvered to the front of the convoy and we located a group of men running through a field. A group of men running through a field at 4am with weapons and immediately after an IED explosion? According to the Rules of Engagement, we were cleared to engage the enemy. Our gunner opened fire with the .50 caliber machine gun that was mounted on top of our Stryker. Short bursts of bullets began flying. He missed. He missed again. Finally, a direct hit. One guy went down.

The other men immediately hid where we couldn’t see them from the road. While we were engaging the enemy, a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) was spun up and sent to meet us. They are tasked with providing backup support when a unit is attacked. Immediately after hitting the first enemy soldier, QRF showed up.

What transpired next has forever changed my life. I will spare you of many details. A number of soldiers set out through the field to capture the wounded man, while looking to capture or kill the others. At the end of the field, an enemy ambush awaited. Once the US soldiers reached the ambush, the insurgents opened fire with an AK-47. Everyone hit the ground. Fire was exchanged back and forth. At some point during the firefight, SGT Mark Baum stopped returning fire. He was shot in the head.

The firefight was over quickly. A call was made back to our main base to have a helicopter fly in and air lift SGT Baum out of the combat zone. Our worst nightmare came to fruition. SGT Baum was the first US soldier to die while we were deployed. He wasn’t a member of my unit. I had never met him before February 21, 2009. He showed up with his unit to help my platoon and I. In the end, he gave his life for his country. He gave his life helping us.

After February 21st, we knew we were at war. I have carried SGT Baum’s memory with me every day since. He reminds me that life is fragile. Tomorrow is never promised. If we don’t live our lives to the fullest, we are wasting a gift that others wish they had. SGT Baum’s wife no longer has her husband. Their children no longer have their dad. This is real life and stings every day. SGT Baum has had a major impact on my life, but unfortunately he hasn’t been here to see it.

My hope in writing this is that at least one person is positively affected. If one person’s life is changed, it was worth it. Enjoy life and do the things that make you happy. One day we will all join SGT Baum. I plan to show up with great memories and some awesome stories.

Entrepreneurs Need Help….Not Maps

Most entrepreneurs care about building successful businesses that solve large problems. They work tirelessly into the wee hours of the night, forgoing large salaries and quality time with their families, for the possibility of success. Nothing is guaranteed and I don’t know an entrepreneur who would want anything given to them. This is the modern day school of hard knocks. One day you are on top of the world and 24 hours later you don’t know if your company will last the rest of the month.

In an environment where there is so much volatility, it never hurts to have support organizations to help calm the seas. Here in the Triangle, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development is one of the largest and most well-respected support organizations. They have been around for over 30 years and are responsible for multiple conferences, an educational lunch series, networking events, and a robust mentorship program, among other things. To be completely transparent, I am a member of CED and regularly attend many of their events.

Yesterday, CED unveiled the Triangle Network Map at their annual members-only conference. This map has been under construction for months and is the product of many individual’s input. Here is my issue with this “Network Map”:

How does this help my business grow? How does it help me gain more customers? How does it help me attract the best talent? How does it help me avoid making a fatal mistake?

The answer is obvious – it doesn’t. Now I am not completely against having some sort of resource that gives outside investors or entrepreneurs a quick snapshot of the region’s density. But does this tool do the trick? Does it really help the individual companies that are already here? I predict it won’t. While the CED has the best intentions with the Triangle Network Map, it has fallen short of the potential it could have. In an effort to provide a solution, I want to issue a challenge to the CED.

Let’s measure the effectiveness of the Triangle Network Map and publish the results. Let’s measure the amount of traffic, where the traffic is coming from, which companies benefit from it, which individuals benefit from it, and how (if at all) does it help propel a local startup closer to “success.” Most of this can be done through Google Analytics, but the key is to publish the results. If the Map is a wild success, I will be the first to praise it. If it fails, let’s bring together the community to figure out how to tweak the “digital front door” so that it can be more valuable.

In closing, the CED is a great organization that tackled a difficult problem. I commend them on their propensity for action. In my opinion (what I think really doesn’t matter at the end of the day) the solution can be tweaked to become much more valuable. Instead of guessing, let’s measure the impact and then create an open discussion around what can be improved. By nature, entrepreneurs are collaborative and open, I hope the largest entrepreneurial organization in the region is ready to do the same!
UPDATE: According to WRAL, this map will cost $100,000 a year to maintain as well. I am not privy to the itemized costs but that seems excessive all by itself.