Website Launch!
August 16th, 2008 Adam SteinbergSo after several weeks, we finally pushed our new website live last night. This is the first step in bringing ADynammic out of its shell and into the public eye.
Many of you have already offered congratulations, feeedback and bug-spotting. We’re extremely grateful for all of this. The site is certainly still a work in progress, as we decided to get it out into the wild rather than continue trying to perfect it. Please, if you spot a grammatical error, a design error, or anything that just looks out of place, let us know. (feedback at adynammic.com)
I have to say, the whole ADynammic team has really been kicking it lately. This is an incredible time for us as we transition from crawling to walking (we’ll be sprinting soon). We wouldn’t be in such a great position if it weren’t for everyone’s contributions. (Trey pushed our designers to give us a quality logo (this isn’t an easy task); Dallas is killing it and handling all the heavy back-end lifting; TQ is creating awesome interfaces that improve every day.)
Thanks to everyone that has supported us. We’ll have more to share soon.
2008 Magazine Handbook
August 14th, 2008 Adam SteinbergMarian over at Digital Ink News lets us know that the Magazine Publishers of America just released their 2008-2009 handbook. It’s basically an analytics package for publishers. The handbook is full of awesome stats on magazine circulation, engagement, advertising and reader demographics.
The kicker stat? Digital properties for magazine are growing in audience about 4x faster than the overall web. My take? Magazine publishers still have a lot of catching up to get to a point where they’re not just online, but part of the web. Our job is to help publishers release their content silos and become a part of the web. Let’s get to it.
Check out the full report.
Tom’s Shoes’ amazing business model.
August 13th, 2008 Trey Phillips
At first they don’t look very impressive. Why do people like them? I assumed they must be really comfortable like Crocs. I didn’t give it too much thought though. Then I heard the story behind the company and the style.
The founder of Tom’s, Blake Mycoskie (a former contestant on The Amazing Race) was on a trip to Argentina and saw kids who didn’t have shoes. While in Argentina, he also started wearing the traditional style of shoe in Argentina called alpargatas. Well, he came back to America with a plan … to help those kids have shoes. From there, he came up with the idea for Tom’s. He would sell the style of shoe from Argentina and with each pair sold he would send another pair to kids who can’t afford them.
I think Tom’s is great because they are more than just a shoe company (they aren’t even a pretty shoe company). They are a company who set out to do good, and they’ve done that. Mr. Mycoskie says the shoes sell themselves because almost everyone who buys a pair and hears the story tells someone else the story and it goes on and on. He rarely pays for any traditional advertising because the story sells it’s self. Now people like Ralph Lauren and other big designers are signing on to design special additions because they love the story as well. This is capitalism at it’s best. So check out the embedded video and maybe you’ll want to get a pair as well.
The Oreo Elevator
August 11th, 2008 Trey PhillipsI wanted to share with everyone an amazing ad Oreo has now. It’s attention grabbing, fun, and perfectly appropriate. So here’s to America(and one of my) favorite cookies.
Weekend Reading
August 9th, 2008 Trey PhillipsOne of my favorite websites, Politico.com, will often on Saturdays and Sundays do a Saturday/Sunday reading post. I thought I would copy that model and share some cool and interesting links from around the web that I’ve enjoyed recently.
Mark Cuban on Small Business Taxes.
Real life Batmobile.
A biodegradable flash drive.
5 Color pallete generators. These have helped me with marketing materials lately.
Aston Martin now most expensive car in the world.
Watch the Olympics online.
How Brett Favre Made eBay $400,000 in 24 Hours.
A VC on Venture Fund Economics parts 1, 2, and 3. Lengthy but very informative.
Music to Drive By. All Songs Considered blog.
These are just a few things I saw this week I thought were interesting. Check them out if you have some time this weekend.
Trace Magazine
August 7th, 2008 Trey PhillipsBeing a service for publishers, we’re always on the lookout for publishers and magazines doing innovative things online. One of those magazines is TRACE Magazine. TRACE is a magazine about “Transcultural Styles + Ideas.” They focus on “documenting the impact of the interconnected worlds of music, fashion, film, art, politics on today’s multiethnic youth.” They caught my eye not only just for being cool and having great content, but for offering their magazine online for free in PDF. They obviously recognize the value in getting their content out in digital form over the internet to grow their readership. It’s magazines like this who will succeed while others see their circulation rates drop quarter after quarter. You can check them out at TRACE Magazine, as well as download a free PDF version of their magazine featuring Gnarles Barkley.
Tradeoffs and Cities
August 6th, 2008 Adam SteinbergLast week, Rob Johnson (one of the good guys at EventVue), tweeted “transitory living is a crippling flaw of the young professional culture. what if more of us (me included) committed to a place and people?”
This is something most of us at ADynammic struggle with everyday. This summer, we asked ourselves: “Where is the best place for us to locate the company right now? Where can we have a great quality of life and the best chance at seeing ADynammic grow and make a difference?”
Our final choices came down to Boulder, Austin, and Clemson. We really had high regard for the community in Boulder (last night’s New Tech Meetup in Boulder sounded incredible) and the quality of life. Boulder is a booming town for tech entrepreneurs, and we all felt a sense of adventure when thinking of moving to the area. The other major player for us was Clemson. This is our home - we’ve all grown up in the area. We have a really strong support base here, and while the city isn’t perfect, we all enjoy the area - especially having the mountains, lakes, and the beach nearby. The downside? Clemson isn’t nearly the hotbed for startups that is Boulder.
Should we move a thousand miles away and join a great community, or should we stay at Clemson where we have a great base and can help grow the startup community in Clemson and Greenville? We chose the latter.
While there is certainly something romantic about “going west,” there is also something romantic about being part of a transformation in our area of the country and making an impact. Committing to being a part of the growth in the area, as Rob mentioned.
I’ve been lucky to live in a few different cities over the past few years and meet some really great people. But, moving away from these great friends and coworkers is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. While these experiences have certainly made me a richer person, I’m also thrilled (yet surprisingly calm) to know that for the foreseeable future, ADynammic is going to be in Clemson, helping to enrich the startup environment in the state. There’s something about committing to a goal that let’s you put your entire being into executing on that goal. I think we’re entering that space.
What if employees could be traded?
August 1st, 2008 Adam SteinbergThe Major League Baseball deadline just passed with a flurry of activity. This was perhaps the most memorable trading deadline in the last decade, with big names such as Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixeira, Jason Bay and Ken Griffery Jr. being traded. Major league baseball has an interesting structure, especially with its anti-trust exemption. The idea of being able to “trade” people is an interesting, and perhaps even disturbing, idea. Yet practically any person would gladly subject themselves to being sent across the country on a whim’s notice in exchange for the glory of being a major league player.
So, what if employees could be traded?
Why would you want to trade employees? Suppose your organization invests heavily in recruiting and training young talent. Your managers spend 18 months training these people to be rockstar developers and killer salespeople. Then, suddenly, your VP of Sales quits right as you launch a new product; you now need an experienced sales manager stat.
Suppose at the same time, a big company comes on hard times and needs to she costs but also keep growing revenue. The solution - simply trade your young guns for one of their sales directors. Both parties win, and this is exactly what happens in professional sports.
How could this be good? If employees readily opt into an agreement where they can be traded, then why wouldn’t this be good? Employees could have provisions such as automatic bonuses upon trading, trade protection against certain cities or companies, or even full approval of any trade. This might even help companies let disgruntled employees move on while not having to go through the costly hiring process. The Coase Theorem could help companies thrive.
How could this be bad? There’s something that’s just unsettling of thinking about employees as “properties.” The economist in me says that if employees are willing to opt into this program, then there can’t be much drawback. Secondly, there are the transaction costs for the organization. It isn’t costless to integrate new individuals into an organization. The manager that makes the decision to trade personell may not be the manager that is responsible for managing and training the new “trade.” Incentives may be misaligned.
Then again, isn’t this all just really a glorified temping agency?
People that read this blog: what are your thoughts? Is this good for startups? What about big companies?
DIY Culture
July 29th, 2008 Adam SteinbergOver at the Texas Startup Blog, Alexander Muse has a great post on “Do It Yourself” culture. (I’m part of the same startup network as Alexander with the SC Startup Blog.) I’m with Alexander on this - I’m loving seeing more and more people take on new challenges and get things done.
For me, and I know most of the people at ADynammic and other startups can identify with this, there is no longer a choice between identifying an opportunity to do something better and acting on an opportunity to do something better. In most of these cases, the cost is time, and perhaps some sleep. What’s the payoff? The chance to bring something new that can make a difference.
Doing it yourself doesn’t always have to include leading the charge - it can include helping others lead the charge. Sometimes, this just adds to the reward - seeing other people extend themselves and accomplish something great.
I want to see more of this in South Carolina and with my friends around the country. We don’t have to change the world in one fell swoop, but let’s make things happen. Let’s start an open coffee club in Clemson, let’s get a startup weekend going, let’s bring out-of-state investors to the area for a one-day event, let’s build co-working space. We’re seeing some of these happen already, and I can’t wait to see more if it.
South Carolina Startups
July 25th, 2008 Adam SteinbergWe’re lucky enough to help launch the SouthCarolinaStartups.com blog. The idea is to create a place to get the word out about all the great startups happening in the state, as well as providing entrepreneurs a place to connect. We just posted our first major piece of content today - an interview with Evan Tishuk of OrangeCoat. Head on over for a great read!