Entrepreneur Magazine

Entrepreneur Magazine covered our efforts to sell the MotorSport Ranch series which ultimately resulted in the sale of the pilot to INHD and the series to Dish Network (Rush HD Channel).

The article, titled “Working the Net” described how social networking sites offer entrepreneurs a chance to connect with investors, potential partners and customers. Read the full story by C.J. Prince:

Paul Allen, managing partner of business incubator Infobase Venturesin Provo, Utah, likes to help entrepreneurs with advice on business plans and raising capital. But as a frequent lecturer at business schools and conferences, he recently found himself inundated with requests. So he made a new rule: If you’re not a member of the LinkedIn network with a minimum of 10 connections and two endorsements on the site, don’t even bother calling him. “The most important thing for an entrepreneur is not necessarily what they know, but who they know,” says Allen.

Allen’s prerequisite underscores the growing popularity–and scope–of online business networking tools such as Palo Alto, California-based LinkedIn Corp. These sites allow members to build networks of friends and associates, as well as gain warm introductions to investors and potential clients. “It’s really automating and streamlining the historic word-of-mouth introduction process, which tends to be the best source of investment opportunities,” says LinkedIn member Chip Hazard, managing general partner at Boston-based VC firm IDG Ventures.

More Than Money
Beyond just bringing entrepreneurs and investors together in a trusted context, these virtual communities are helping small businesses find potential customers, board members and other strategic business partners. Spoke.com, run by Palo Alto, California-based Spoke Software, helps small companies with sales prospecting and lead generation. Tim Connors, a general partner at U.S. Venture Partners who helped found Spoke Software, realized that the speed with which a small venture could get to a decision-maker at a prospective company had a direct impact on the company’s success. “We needed to get to companies quickly and understand quickly whether there was opportunity there,” says Connors, 38. The software developed by Spoke analyzes members’ e-mail traffic to assess the strength of relationships with contacts and bring people closer through those connections.

In addition to hastening introductions, virtual networks are leveling the field by replacing costly middlemen small businesses can ill afford. Alexander Muse, co-founder of Dallas-based Hive.media, a production company developing programming for the nascent high-definition TV market, realized this benefit when he was shopping his pilot to the networks. He found that reps wanted anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 upfront, plus 50 percent of the profits from the sale. “And all they’d really be doing is making introductions,” says the 33-year-old executive producer.

Instead, Muse and his partner, Scott Ryan, 35, joined LinkedIn for free and found program directors at major cable networks and marketing folks at advertisers like BMW who have expressed interest in buying into the reality show, which follows three amateur car enthusiasts racing at 300-acre MotorSport Ranch. “It looks like those contacts will result in the sale of the program,” Muse says.

Clearly, the value of online networks has grown along with their memberships. LinkedIn, for one, has been adding 60,000 new members a week, according to vice president of marketing and co-founder Konstantin Guericke.

Muse observes, however, that the growing pool could hurt entrepreneurs. “I think, over time, it’s going to get less useful because there will be too many people connecting to too many people, so eventually, we’re all connected,” he says. Discriminating users, he adds, could help maintain the value.

Muse also points out, as do VCs, that virtual cocktail parties are not a replacement for face-to-face contact. “It’s a neat tool you can use in conjunction with your networking,” Muse says. “But if you never go to networking events and just sit in your house and play on LinkedIn, you’re not going to get anywhere. You have to know people for it to have value.”

Business Week

Business didn’t cover MotorSport Ranch, but they did cover the MotorSport Ranch blog in their Selection of Small Business Blogs back in July. Stephen Baker, began covering technology for BusinessWeek as Paris-based European correspondent 1998. He came to New York in 2002 as acting senior editor for info tech, and is now a senior writer. Here was Stephen’s coverage:

Thanks for all the responses to my call for small business blogs. I went through the comments and put together these links, in no particular order, so it will be easier to check them out. They range from a first-time Hollywood producer to Aldo Coffee in Mt. Lebanon, Pa. (where I used to live, back when BW still had a Pittsburgh bureau). Here’s a small biz site, run, naturally, by a small biz. This 55-person data recovery company bet that a blog with the voice of the CEO would pay dividends. BlogBridge is a three-person company that has an open-source aggregator. A British sheet metal company runs the Tinbasher blog, and a British tailor posts on English Cut. Here’s one for those, as one reader writes, who are drawn to the “gloriously uneuphonious phenomenon of composting toilets.” Hayden Trumpets teaches tooters not only how to hold the horn, but even how to breathe. This consultants’ blog just debuted in June.

One bracingly frank writer has started a blog on specialty insurance–but isn’t convinced yet that it “will have a big impact on marketing.” (We’ll be glad to have an update on that one.) Paul Perdue’s Purdue’s new blog deals with Internet order fulfillment. Marqui, which made a splash earlier this year by paying bloggers, has a communications management blog of its own. Finally, this from a luxury resort business.

There were a couple of comments touting blogs, but without including the urls. I didn’t hunt them down. A couple of the other ulrs didn’t seem to work. Also, I’m having a miserable time getting onto sites from this laptop. I usually go through a post and try the links before posting. But that’s holding me up today. Sorry in advance if any of them are duds. Also, if you click through these blogs and find an approach that seems either really smart or… otherwise, we can discuss. I’m only starting to look at them myself.

Black Enterprise Magazine

My first conversation with the reporter from Black Enterprise Magazine was a bit awkward as I tried to explain that I wasn’t black. Of course, the reporter didn’t really care about the color of my skin, instead he was more interested in the quality of my story. Karen Jones’ story was titled, “Rubbing Elbows in Cyberspace: More professionals are connecting through online networking.” Read the full story here:

As executive producer of hive.media, an independent television production company based in Dallas, Alexander Muse knows that while creating a television series is one thing, selling it to a network is quite another. After completing the pilot for Motorsport Ranch, a high-octane series about a country club for people who love to race cars, Muse received numerous offers from “third-party consultants” asking for hefty sums, plus a percentage, to introduce him to the right people at various broadcast and cable networks.

Instead, Muse tapped into his online database of trusted contacts at LinkedIn.com, a business-oriented networking site with more than 2 million registered users. “I searched [LinkedIn] for program directors and program managers for every television network I could think of and it netted conversations with several of them,” says Muse. Though he is awaiting finalization, Motorsport Ranch is as good as sold.

Proponents of online social networking say person-to-person networking cannot compare to having access to a massive digital database of business professionals. “I have 418 of my contacts on LinkedIn.com. These 418 connect me to 1.2 million professionals. It is wild to think you can reach that many people,” says Konstantin Guericke, co-founder and vice president of marketing at LinkedIn.

An initial network of 10 people, each adding 10 more, could quickly grow to a web of 10,000 professionals. Users can search their network for jobs, services, referrals, and more. “Most people prefer to hire people from a trusted contact,” says Guericke.

Lee Green, director of the National Black Business Trade Association (www.nbbta .org), has between 400 and 500 direct contacts on the association’s online network (www.nbbta-network.ryze.com), which he moderates on Ryze.com, another business-oriented networking site. He estimates that networking on the Internet gives him access to 20,000 to 30,000 contacts. Green, a big believer in the benefits of networking, emphasizes that online networking provides “the tools to extend ourselves out to the larger marketplace.”

Meanwhile, Darren Smith, co-owner of Global Ad Marketing, a commercial printing and advertising firm, moderates the Black Business Network on Ryze.com. He says online networks like Ryze and others are excellent sites to advertise business services because “they allow you to reach a massive audience at one time.

“Networking is a key element in building relationships that enable you to gain support from friends, relatives, associates, and acquaintances to help you reach a goal or objective.”

Fast Company

Fast Company asked, “Are you really ready for the rise of DIY media?” in their regular ‘blogjam’ article. The author pointed out,

Sometimes, the amateurs even turn pro. Alexander Muse started his own DIY media project — a reality tv show called MotorSport Ranch, which followed a few members of a Texas country club built for car racing enthusiasts. He taught himself how to produce the first high-definition reality show, used LinkedIn to find people to work with and pitch the show to, sold the pilot to INHD and is now negotiating for additional episodes and distribution in Asia. All because the tools are available, knowledge is easily acquired and connections are simpler to come by.

We’ll let others hash out if Web 2.0 is the right term for what is happening on the Web right now. What is already having an impact on the way we do business is the arrival of the remixable Web, with the ‘audience’ now taking an active role with their own DIY media tools. Blogs, sure. But also homebrewed podcasts, shared & tagged photo libraries, and now, today, word of YouTube (flickr for video). With tools like Technorati & del.icio.us, these do-it-yourself media creations find their own audience. And quickly.

What’s your plan for listening in and responding to this multitude of voices

Silence is not a sound strategy. Exhibit A: Dell. When Jeff Jarvis started having trouble with his Dell, he naturally started talking about it on his blog. As the problems dragged on, he amp’d up the volume. Eventually, ‘everyday folks’ (read: not obsessive bloggers) were overheard talking about the Jarvis issue and saying they wouldn’t buy Dell.

That conversation spread and spoiled potential Dell sales. (Spurring a Dell Cluewatch feature as a not-so-nice byproduct. Others continue to pile on — like IT services provider Architel who just blogged the other day that Dell servers aren’t holding up for their clients over the long haul.)

Dell’s online response? We’re still waiting. While Dell sits on the sidelines, the conversation continues on without them.

Exhibit B: Vonage. During a massive outage the other day, they had no quick way to broadcast a response to the online chatter that was developing. They were getting Dell’d.

Exhibit C: Kryptonite.

Enough cautionary tales. How can you use those DIY media tools for good?

• Take an open source approach to your marketing. Alex Wipperfurth (who wrote the book on what he calls Brand Hijacking) would counsel you to ’scrap the focus groups, fire the cool chasers and hire your audience.’
• Give em something to talk about. If information wants to be free, the new tools make it easier than ever to spread your memes. Compare the Netflix amateur presence online with an amateur Blockbuster-focused site. Who has the evangelists working for them?
• Host the party. Cobrandit is a new idea for an agency, inviting everyday consumers to contribute DIY media bits to showcase the real impact brands can have.

Sometimes, the amateurs even turn pro. Alexander Muse started his own DIY media project — a reality tv show called MotorSport Ranch, which followed a few members of a Texas country club built for car racing enthusiasts. He taught himself how to produce the first high-definition reality show, used LinkedIn to find people to work with and pitch the show to, sold the pilot to INHD and is now negotiating for additional episodes and distribution in Asia. All because the tools are available, knowledge is easily acquired and connections are simpler to come by.

The people are ready to post, tag, subscribe. What are you doing?