The companies have continued to meet amazing people to give them feedback on their ideas,
give them connections in the industry.
Jessica Alter from Bebo and AOL.
AOL made a decision to make a more of a push into feeds.
We decided to acquire a Techstars company from two years ago called Social Thing.
Startups are really important for us.
I'm Jessica Alter.
I was actually also acquired by AOL through the Bebo acquisition, so in Bebo is one of
probably I think the third-largest social network.
One of the biggest benefits from Techstars is the mentor network you get tapped into.
And so far the first few weeks we've really worked on building relationships with people
who we think are inspired by our business, excited to help us.
A lot of the big tech companies present to Techstars around not only what our tools are
available to them, but hoping to mentor them and start forging relationships.
Well not many people who are trying to start their own company get the type of support
that we're getting through Techstars.
It's pretty amazing to be out here and meeting these people face-to-face that we've kind
of been following from afar.
So this is what a trip used to look like.
Here's the new trip now.
We think the layout's a lot cleaner, a lot more easily navigable.
We really want to work on commenting because we found that that's a great feedback loop.
Coming from the Bay Area we see a lot of great attributes here in Colorado that make for
really great technology communities.
Having a university close by is really important.
Having some really big champions that are willing to help get things off the ground
and now attract VCs is just a really important part of the ecosystem.
You have all the natural components for what helps for startups and innovation, plus it's
a no-brainer for a nice place to live.
And I think the other thing that we really want to talk about is helping about our strategy,
fundraising revenue opportunities, like how aggressively should we pursue this.
You know, maintaining that network is something Natty and I are super focused on and is really
important to us.
Seth and Jason from the Foundry Group are our main mentors and we meet with them weekly
and they really have a lot of feedback for us and they also hold our feet to the fire.
One of the great things about Techstars is that there's a ton of energy, these teams
are really excited about what they're doing and as a mentor you get to kind of tap into
that and be a part of it.
I think the best thing about being a mentor is at the end of the long day of real work.
I get to hang out with a whole bunch of young folks who are just bright-eyed, bushy-tailed,
super excited about what they're doing.
It always increases my energy level for what I'm doing.
The way that we broke up the summer was not what's the minimum viable product we need,
but what is something that we can launch at the end of the summer that we're proud of,
that we think people will use and has the integration points, that there's value for
the user.
You know, I think a lot of what we do is hold their feet to the fire to make sure that they're
actually getting something out of the summer.
There's a ton to do in Boulder and it's pretty easy to get distracted from the fact that
you're actually building a business.
They're super supportive, we love working with them, it's always a fun time going over
to their office.
Jason, you're really nice, we'll introduce you to some more cute 25-year-old girls.
I'm all set at the moment, but I appreciate it.
Thanks for everything you've done up to this point, we'll continue working together, which
is awesome.
It's time to get really serious about, you know, getting shit done.
With Everlater, sort of, we've been able to see how their site is evolving in really
cool ways.
I'm pretty excited to get my alpha invite, I'm still waiting for it.
I can't walk past any store without thinking about how they get customers in the door,
where their biggest margins are.
What was your launch strategy with this thing?
Have you thought about putting up ads?
Where do you get your music?
Do you know how many plays it gets, nation one?
The ice cream truck charts?
Yeah.
Cool.
I think we'll have to sample the product.
One of the most surprising things in getting into this world of entrepreneurship has been
how helpful everybody is, we're one degree away from all these people that seemed untouchable.
Mentors I view as people that have seen success and been helped by others before and want
to give back.
The other thing that we're doing is really working closely with other tech stars companies,
so showing our pitches to them, having them review our interfaces, we're surrounded by
30 plus amazingly smart individuals who have a great take on what we're doing.
All right, Molly, will you give us some tips on our UI here, it's a new UI we just launched?
So let's just walk through, if I were a typical user, this would be while I'm traveling.
So my guess would be that I'm going to click start a trip.
What can I do on this website and how do I get started?
So all that happens in a fraction of a second and if they don't have a positive experience
in that fraction of a second, it's very likely that they're going to go somewhere else.
Okay, that's good.
I love all our mentors, I honestly just want to give them a hug every time we finish meeting
with them.
Thank you.
