Flip the Media
A blog about the digital media revolution
Apr 8, 2010 1 comment

From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the fifth in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Dave Schappell, Founder and CEO of TeachStreet

1.  What is TeachStreet?
TeachStreet helps people find classes–local or online–in hundreds of lifelong learning topics. Classes run the gamut from Spanish, piano, yoga and SEO to dog training, wine appreciation and more. If you want to learn it, we’ve got teachers and schools for you.

As a marketplace (like eBay), we help teachers and schools get more students by providing them with easy-to-use tools and services to promote their classes. We offer tools so that independent teachers can set up their classes and collect payment. And we also work with large nationwide class providers (such as Kaplan Test Prep) to generate student referrals.Dave Schappell_Resized

Essentially, we built TeachStreet to create a place for people to explore their passions and help them enrich their lives through learning.

2.  What are some interesting classes offered on TeachStreet?
Go in and search for the craziest things you can think of, and I bet we’ll have classes for you. Poker? Cat training? Hammered dulcimer? Swordfighting? All our learning categories are listed here.

3.  How large is the TeachStreet community?
We don’t disclose actual member numbers (teacher or student counts), but the website’s been live since April 21, 2008, and in just the last month we’ve had more than 170,000 visitors from more than 170 countries. The great majority of visitors are from the United States, since our local classes are currently restricted to the U.S. But online classes (added late in 2009) are starting to attract students worldwide. Read more…

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Apr 3, 2010 Leave a Comment

I spent half of my March trying to convince journalists, thought leaders and academics in Boston, New York, and Washington that “something was in the air” on our end of the country.  It’s a hard sell in a region that has so many powerful, rich, entrenched institutions (from the media capital, to the federal seat of power, to the Route 128 Corridor).  As someone who built my career in the northeast, I always had the sense that they had it “figured out.”

But the digital media revolution, combined with the Great Recession has turned a lot of what we once considered self-evident, upside down.  What was once bedrock has been shaken to the point of crumbling — old business models of mass media, faith in Wall Street’s unbridled approach to capitalism, impregnable university endowments.  Suddenly, as an ambassador of a self-sustaining graduate program within a state-funded university, far, far away from the corridor of power, I had an opening.  I spoke of my own transformation from corporate media journalist to independent storyteller, of how we were partnering private and public entities in our region with our students to produce groundbreaking work (which we call “community scholarship”) and how we were pioneering collaborative methods of education through a re-imagination of the classroom (the “Media Space” — we have a name for everything).

And I spoke of our desire to embody what we stand for in our upcoming event, TEDx Seattle.  I’ve always wanted to position our MCDM program at the heart of our community, and its values.  I was recently inspired by a blog post by the founder of Seattle startup Knowledge Mosaic, who said:

The most interesting and vital businesses understand and embrace the idea that where they come from determines who they are.

Read more…

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Jan 29, 2010 3 comments

startup logoIn December 2007, Jim Manis founded the Bellevue-based Mobile Giving Foundation to establish an infrastructure for mobile charitable giving. After the earthquake in Haiti, the Mobile Giving Foundation worked to support more than 20 nonprofit organizations and helped set up high-profile campaigns for Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation and the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.

Why do you think the appeal to donate to Haiti by texting has been so successful?
It was a powerful message replicated across all communication platforms for the benefit of major charities. Texting provides an immediate way for a person to respond. It’s a powerful medium to take action.
Its success builds on a few factors. Mobile giving reaches an addressable audience of 260 million cell phone users. As a country, we send billions of text messages a year. The technology has become ubiquitous. Because of the work we’ve been doing, the infrastructure and technology were in place when the earthquake struck Haiti, and agreements were pre-negotiated with the carriers. And the billing aspect is appealing because it doesn’t require the use of a credit card.
Hasn’t this technology been around for a while? What has changed since the tsunami in 2004?
When the Asian tsunami hit, two things were relatively new: Shortcodes only emerged at the end of 2002 and started as a way for brands to interact with customers; premium billing capability is even newer and came about in early 2004.
The vision for the Mobile Giving Foundation came through the initial response to the Asian tsunami. People at various wireless companies got together by phone at 11 a.m. one morning and by 5 p.m. we had a campaign across carriers. For those working in the industry, this feels better than trying to sell text alert packages.
After selling my company m-Qube, I wanted to establish an infrastructure for every day charitable giving.
Do you think mobile giving appeals to a younger generation of donors?
No doubt about that. One of the reasons nonprofits are interested in mobile giving is that it gives them access to a younger demographic that they have a hard time reaching. The demographic profile of mobile donors is assumed to skew heavily to the 18 to 21 crowd, which is valuable to nonprofits. They may give small today, but over a period of time may grow into more substantial donors. We’re currently putting research around that, trying to establish hard metrics.
Younger people like mobile giving because it’s a technology that’s familiar and it provides immediate satisfaction. In our research, one phrase we heard over and over was that “they felt empowered.”
What’s been the impact of social media on the success of text giving?
Social media had a strong impact, especially in the first 24 hours after the Haitian earthquake. There’s a period of huge emotional pull, which social media accelerates. We were able to go live with our mobile giving campaigns within two hours. Facebook and Twitter helped the campaigns go viral.
Does this success represent a sea change for mobile giving?
Yes, it has had an accelerating effect on making consumers more comfortable with text giving and on generating more interest from nonprofits. Before the earthquake, we were servicing more than 400 organizations. Since the disaster, we have added more than 23 charities specific to Haiti relief.
Mobile giving is attractive to nonprofits because of three elements: acquisition of new donors, fundraising and donor engagement—nonprofits can ask donors if they want more information, and, for instance, send them a link to their Web site.
What types of campaigns are most successful?
In our experience, mobile giving doesn’t work equally well for everybody. Response rates vary. The type of cause makes a difference. Campaigns that try to raise funds for capital construction, for instance, may only get a 1.5 percent participation rate, whereas campaigns that have a service element are a lot more successful. Text giving has a very immediate response, so it’s perhaps not surprising that more emotional appeals work best.
What are the costs to the nonprofit?
One-hundred percent of donations are given to the nonprofit. The only direct charge from the Mobile Giving Foundation to the charity is a $350 application fee.
Fees charged by the mobile marketing companies we work with vary. It depends on what the nonprofit needs. Do they want a sophisticated campaign that’s integrated with an online campaign, requires technology acquisition, database management or Web widgets? That adds to the cost. On average, the total fee structure is 6 to 7 percent. In emergencies, some mobile marketing companies will waive the fees.
What have been the biggest challenges to establishing the Mobile Giving Foundation?
Like any startup working toward a vision, everything can be a challenge. We had to resolve technical issues with the carriers and eliminate their typical 50 percent revenue share. We had to raise awareness among nonprofits and needed to explain how to use this as a fundraising tool. We had to reassure consumers worried about security and breach of confidentiality. Organizationally, we had to figure out how to raise enough money for the services we provide.
Why did you choose to locate the company in Bellevue?
I live in Redmond, so it was a matter of convenience. Some of the benefits to being in the area are that it is close to many wireless assets including AT&T and T-Mobile. There are many leaders and pioneers in the wireless and nonprofit industries in this area as well.

Why do you think the appeal to donate to Haiti by texting has been so successful?

It was a powerful message replicated across all communication platforms for the benefit of major charities. Texting provides an immediate way for a person to respond. It’s a powerful medium to take action.

Its success builds on a few factors. Mobile giving reaches an addressable audience of 260 million cell phone users. As a country, we send billions of text messages a year. The technology has become ubiquitous. Because of the work we’ve been doing, the infrastructure and technology were in place when the earthquake struck Haiti, and agreements were pre-negotiated with the carriers. And the billing aspect is appealing because it doesn’t require the use of a credit card.

Hasn’t this technology been around for a while? What has changed since the tsunami in 2004?

When the Asian tsunami hit, two things were relatively new: Read more…

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Dec 31, 2009 Leave a Comment

From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the third in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.
Shane Brinkman-Davis, Founder and CEO of Imikimi
When was Imikimi founded?
Development began in July 2006. The site went live in May 2007.
What does Imikimi do? What makes your company unique?
Imikimi.com is an online community where people create, re-mix and collaborate on digital images in a fun and easy way. Imikimi artists have created more than 1.7 million original photo-frame templates. A digital photo frame is an image with one or more sections—drop-ins—where photos can be placed. On our site these frames range from e-cards (Thank You, Happy Birthday, etc.) to basic frames (both fancy and plain) to silly (face drop-ins).
Other users can customize these templates with their own photos and share them with their friends. Users have uploaded a quarter-billion photos into Imikimi photo frames.
So you have thousands of users creating templates that millions of other users customize and share. Everyone gets to be an artist whether they have only a little or a lot of skill.
How and why did Imikimi get started?
I’ve always had a passion for good UI, and I love using graphics programs. It was a joy to create Imikimi’s easy and powerful editor, and it’s gratifying that it has now been installed by millions of users.
But, to be honest, my original goal was to create a business that could become a platform for testing and supporting my research into core computing technologies such as parallel processing, programming and runtime environments.
What was your initial target audience? How did Imikimi change in response to users?
Originally I thought our site would attract artists and website creators, which turned out to be only partially accurate. There are thousands of artists using our site, but they comprise less than 1 percent of our users. The other 99 percent was completely unexpected.
The digital photo-framing space that we now occupy totally took us by surprise. In fact, I’m still trying to grok the implications.
Our current demographic is primarily women, ages 13-30, using social networks.
What’s been the biggest challenge for Imikimi?
Keeping a large site operational while trying to continue development on a shoestring budget.
How do you make money? How has your business model evolved?
Our plan was to make money with advertising. We still get the majority of our revenue this way, but it is only about one-tenth of the revenue we expected to generate. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out why.
We also attempted to get our customers interested in purchasing physical prints (on everything from mugs to calendars to hats, etc.) of their creations, but that didn’t take off.
Last summer we added premium features for a nominal subscription ($3/month with discounts for signing up for a year).
What do you predict will be the next big thing in digital media?
That’s not easy to answer. I could list many things that will happen sometime in the next 20 years, but which one will hit in the next 1-3?
One interesting thing that I think is just around the corner is virtual actors. Very soon it will be possible for computer graphics to convincingly create photorealistic humans. I’d expect to see actors licensing their face in the future.
Another thing that might radically change our computer-interfacing in the near future is SixthSense technology. SixthSense is a wearable device that enables new ways for the real world to interact with data. As everything becomes digital, this technology has the potential to tie the digital back into the physical.
What’s your favorite gadget or application right now?
I’m still in love with my iPhone. It is such a pleasure to use. It is good-to-excellent at most of its core tasks, and with all the apps, its functionality keeps expanding. For example, Imikimi just launched its own iPhone app.
What’s your advice for wannabe entrepreneurs?
You are going to make mistakes both big and small. There is going to be too much to do by a factor of 10. Just remember to cut your losses as quickly as you identify them. Don’t dwell on the past. Just stay focused on the core things (3-5 max) for making your business a success.
The next time I start a business, the most important thing I would do differently is to get funded. We were self-funded for way too long. We struggled to keep up with our initial crazy growth curve. We then struggled to keep up with all the operational maintenance issues. The result is that we have very little time and money left to put into forward development and providing value to the customer.
I’ve read that most successful startups are founded by people with at least 5-10 years of experience in their industry. This gives them the contacts and operational experience that you don’t have time to acquire while running a startup.

From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the third in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Shane Brinkman-Davis, Co-Founder and CTO of Imikimi

shaneWhen was Imikimi founded?

Development began in July 2006. The site went live in May 2007.

What does Imikimi do? What makes your company unique?

Imikimi.com is an online community where people create, re-mix and collaborate on digital images in a fun and easy way. Imikimi artists have created more than 1.7 million original photo-frame templates. A digital photo frame is an image with one or more sections—drop-ins—where photos can be placed. On our site these frames range from e-cards (Thank You, Happy Birthday, etc.) to basic frames (both fancy and plain) to silly (face drop-ins).

Other users can customize these templates with their own photos and share them with their friends. Users have uploaded a quarter-billion photos into Imikimi photo frames.

So you have thousands of users creating templates that millions of other users customize and share. Everyone gets to be an artist whether they have only a little or a lot of skill. Read more…

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Nov 11, 2009 4 comments

From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the second in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Ksenia Oustiougova, Founder and CEO of Lilipip Studios

When was Lilipip founded?
The idea for Lililip originated in 2005, and we incorporated on paper in 2007. But the actual business didn’t really take shape until the summer of 2008. Read more…

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Oct 21, 2009 2 comments

From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the first in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Mark Briggs, CEO of Serra Media


Serra Media CEO Mark Briggs When was Serra Media founded?

Officially in 2007, but the company didn’t start doing business until January 2009.

How and why did Serra Media get started?

It grew out of a side project while I was working at The (Tacoma) News Tribune. A friend of mine, who had started a couple tech companies in Seattle, and I came up with an interesting idea and decided to build a prototype. After showing it to several prospective companies and receiving positive feedback, we decided to launch the company to market the idea.

What does Serra Media do?

We power Web sites and provide mobile solutions to build community for hyperlocal news, information and shopping and help companies capture local advertising dollars shifting from traditional print publications.

Read more…

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