I have been chosen to moderate next months Ultra Light Startups event, and after attending last months Ultra Light Web Analytics, I have a feeling this month will have a great turnout.

This Months Topic…

This months topic will be Employment Related Business Models. The topics are as follows:

• What are the most promising niches and technologies for employment-related startups?
• Revenue-generating technology for bloggers and web publishers – job boards, services and related packages. An overview and comparison of platforms available to publishers.
• Efficiency-enhancing technology for recruiters – social networks, requisition-sharing tools, etc. Which tools are essential for recruiters and why?
• Innovative employment-related startups – TheLadders, Indeed, SimplyHired, JobScore, Doostang. Which niches and approaches are the most profitable and fastest growing?
• Job search on social platforms – LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. How are these platforms changing the business of recruiting?

The reason I was picked to moderate this event was because of my background in the employment related online space. I recently co-founded  RezRedo, a vertical search engine for job experiences found in resumes. The first search engine of its kind, RezRedo is opening doors to new methods of resume writing and job related research. Prior to RezRedo, I was a recruiter at AC Lion and headed all online marketing and web related initiatives for the firm including: Blogging, Social Networking, Web Analytics, E-Mail Marketing, SEO, and exploring new advertising options. But most of this experience fails in comparison to that of the panelists:

The Panelists

Allen Ackerman

Allen is founder of A-List Placement, a digital media recruiting firm, and recently launched I Have A Req, a private social network that helps recruiters collaborate on placements and share commissions through a ‘cloud recruiting’ model. Allen is also founder of MAD-G, (aka Mobile Application Development Group) which takes a progressive ‘consortium-based’ approach to providing its clients with cutting edge mobile solutions. Allen honed his skills as a software developer, creating applications for companies such as Goldman Sachs and Sony Music.

Charlie O’Donnell

Charlie is the Co-Founder & CEO of Path 101, a NYC startup that is revolutionizing career guidance though the mining of data from millions of public resumes. After funding VCs at the GM pension fund, and funding startups at Union Square Ventures, Charlie spent a year as Director of Consumer Products at Oddcast before starting Path 101 with Alex Lines. The founder of nextNY, he also teaches entrepreneurship at Fordham University and is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at ITAC.

Jeff Stewart

Jeff is the founder of Urgent Career, a technology start-up seeking to revolutionize the way companies find, screen and assess sales talent. He is a serial entrepreneur, inventor and investor specializing in technology-enabled growth businesses through his angel fund, Urgent Ventures. Jeff has founded over a half dozen companies which if combined employ over 600 people. Jeff writes about start-ups at his blog, Urgent Speed.

Eric Yoon

Eric is the founder and CEO of JobScout, a daily email digest of great jobs in new york city for business development, product management, marketing and sales professionals. Formerly, he was a founder of JobThread and CEO since 2003. Eric has been in the online recruitment industry for the last 10 years in mainly product management roles (Product Manager at HotJobs, Product Development Manager at Bernard Hodes Group, Product Manager at The New York Times Digital for Job Market).

Event/Ticket Information

The event is going to take place on March 5th, at 6:30-9pm, at For Your Imagination. If you are interested in attending, it’s only $5 to attend and Pizza/Drinks will be served.  This is a great opportunity for recruiters, business owners, and publishers to network and grow their own businesses. The event page can be found on http://ultralightstartups.com/newyork/employment-related-business-models.html. If you are interested in reading more, check out the BusinessWeek.com article featuring Ultra Light Startups.

Due to growing number of attendees, an expectadly large crowd of ultra light entrepreneurs, I am looking forward to this event seeing you there!

Posted under Events, Job Search, Online Marketing, Ultra Light Startups

LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook, YouTube and Blogging are mainstream social media tools. On top of that list, Twitter comes in as one of the most often written about social media tools. Commonly, popular tools end up having tools built to help make them more eficient. Then tools are built to agregate those tools, and then bloggers come along and write about the “Top Tools” our there. I’ll be honest, there have been 100′s of posts claiming that they “KNOW” the top twitter tools. Unfortunately, there are 100′s of tools out there which makes it that much harder to make Tweeting a more efficient and profitable process. I have had an (@RedRussak) account for the purpose spreading the word on article, products and events. Unfortunately, I have only touched the very tip of the iceberg, but feel after I finish writing this article, that may change.

Mashable.com published an article in Fall 2007, full of 60+ Twitter tools. In Spring 2008, they published 140+ more tools, adding more to the cluttered tool list. Around the same time, TopRankBlog.com (aka: MarketingBlog.com…my “competition”), put together their own list of 5 New Twitter Tools You Should Know About.  Finally, I came across a recently updated and short list of essential twitter tools. Senior Director of Online Marketing at Folica.com, Kieran Hawe has had over 10+ years of online marketing experience, and over 2+ years of Twitter experience under the alias “@khawe“. He has tried just about every Twitter tool out there, and ove time has settled on a list of current Twitter tools he prefers to use through out his day. Coming directly from his blog Webtribution.com, here’s Kieran’s List:

• iPhone: When i first got my iPhone I started using Twitterrific, but slowly became annoyed with its UX and functionality. I tried a couple of other apps but eventually settled on TwitterFon – which I have been using ever since.
• BlackBerry: Since I have an iPhone the need to use my BlackBerry on a regular basis has diminished. However, the only app I have used – and would recommend – is TwitterBerry.
• Desktop Client: I was a big fan of Twirl for a long time but eventually moved on to TweetDeck. TweetDeck has been fairly stable for me since I started using it, plus the grouping of friends and UI really can’t be beat.
• URL Shortener: You can’t use Twitter on a regular basis and not have a preferred URL shortener – mine is Bit.ly. Bit.ly provides the basic functionality you need but with click tracking, great tool to see which of your tweets people are actually interested in.
• Twitter Management: Since I have multiple Twitter accounts (personal, professional, etc) I use SplitTweet to manage them all – great tool to send out one Tweet to any / all accounts without logging into each one separately.
• Page Tweet: Say you are reading something on a website that you feel your Twitter audience would appreciate / like, instead of copying the URL and title of the article I use TwitThis to automatically share the contents with my followers.
• WordPress Plugin: I have used just about every Twitter WordPress plugin out there and have had some issue or another with all of them. The Twitter Tools plugin isn’t perfect but it does what I need (auto post to Twitter blog posts and pull in Twitter feeds) and is fairly stable.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned is that you can interface your facebook status with twitter if you want to spread the word across both networks. It works and helps drive traffic. That’s my 2 cents. I have a feeling there are going to be new twitter tool “top 10 lists” as more supportive tools are created. For now, test the Tools and follow me on Twitter @RedRussak.

Posted under Blogs, Online Marketing, Social Networks

Sony and The Onion pull it off once again! Their revolutionary new product has been called “The biggest f***ing waste of your hard earned money to come along in years!” (TheOnion) The video speaks for itself. (Mind you, there is explicit content, so not exactly for minors):

Posted under Online Video, Viral Marketing

The recent Ultra Light Startup, yet again, blew me away. I’ve attended their events since September ‘08, taking pictures and submitting post event write-ups (Revenue Model Workshop, Monetization of Ads,  Outsourcing, SEO/SEM, and the popular Open Source CMS). I had a feeling this month would draw a larger croud due to the recent article in BusinessWeek.com featuring Ultra Light Startups.

This month presented yet another relevant topic drawing one of the largest crowds in Ultra Light history: Ultra Light Web Analytics. Topics included:

• What is Web Analytics? – definitions, terms, objectives
• Why is analytics so critical for a startup? What insights are going to justify the time spent on analytics?
• Most analytics resources are written towards operators of very high-traffic sites. What techniques are important to know and apply at my startup?
• What are the free analytics tools available and what is each best for? Will I ever need to buy analytics tools?
• Practical advice for maximizing your web analytics investment
• Startup success stories attributable to effective use of Web Analytics

With 4 sponsors (Sun Microsystems, J.C. Neu & Associates, TheHatchery and For Your Imagination) and a large venue, this month presented its attendees with a great opportunity to comfortably network and learn. As usual, entrepreuneurs were given 60 seconds each to pitch their businesses. Besides promoting my own startup, RezRedo.com, here are 5 other noteworthy ultra lights:

1. BabyNameWizard – Baby naming expert network w/ proprietary technology
2. Boomerater – Online advice for Baby Boomers.
3. Groupable – Helps groups get sponsors.
4. ProCompare – Review of business products.
5. The Factionist – Clothing and products for the ethically conscious.

Some of the other businesses present included: Customizable shirts, plus sized clothing, cheap/simple web design, marketing agencies, raw chocolate importers…as you can see, a highly eclectic mix! In addition to the 60 second pitches, Allen Stern of CenterNetworks and CloudContacts shared his “Ultra Light Success Stories”. The crowd looked generally pleased with his presentation and Q&A responses.

Surprisingly, the pizza arrived on time this month, and the networking/card swapping/pizza topping session lasted a good 1/2 hour. I was busy setting up my video camera and as the lights began to dim, I was ready to go.  After everybone found their seats, moderator Maisha Walker (President of MessageMedium and Inc.com Columnist) gave a quick powerpoint presenation covering the backgound of web analytics and introduced the following panelists (2 of which were active board members of the WAA – Web Analytics Association):

• Dennis Mortensen, Dir. Data Insights,Yahoo!/Author, Yahoo! Web Analytics
• Marshall Sponder, Sr.Web Analyst, Monster.com/Board Member, WAA
• Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder, Future Now, Inc./Founder, WAA

I have prepared a shortened video version of the 45 minute panel and embedded it here. Check it out:

Be sure to sign up for next months Ultra Light event: Employment Related Business Models. I will have the pleasure of moderating the panel and, due to growing number of attendees, an expectadly large crowd of ultra light entrepreneurs.  I look forward to seeing you there!

(*If you are interested in reading more about this past event,  Sun Employee, Robin Goldfarb Wilensky (aka: Rockin’ Rob) also published a write-up. Check it out for more good words about Ulra Light Startups!)

Posted under Events, Online Marketing, Ultra Light Startups

Founded 10 months ago by Graham Lawlor, Ultra Light Startups finally gains press coverage on BusinessWeek.com. I’ve attended their events since September ’08, taking pictures and submitting post event write-ups. (Revenue Model Workshop, Monetization of Ads,  Outsourcing, SEO/SEM, and the popular Open Source CMS.)

Heather Green of BusinessWeek.com titled the article,  Self-Help for Startups . “Ultra Light Startups is giving entrepreneurs—many of them newly laid-off employees—a chance to test their pitches on an audience of their peers.” I really like to add how right she is! According to Heather, “The group has taken off partly because of the rough economy. Fifteen people showed up at the first session last April” and I think it’s very easy to agree with that statement. Many audience members were either laid-off or quit to pursue their startups. This economy helped propell those numbers exponentially.

If you’re interested in reading the original article, check out “Self Help For Startups” on BusinessWeek.com. My only concern is the fact that there was no link to the Ultra Light Startups website or Facebook page. There is some basic SEO value in keywords here, but I hope somebody lets BusinessWeek know that they should provide a link. That’s where the big hits come in. Besides that, congrats to ULS and for all of you interested, there’s an event taking place this Thursday night: Web Analytics. A solid panel, and a relevant topic for all internet based companies. Hope to see you there!

Posted under Events, Ultra Light Startups