The Ten
The goal of Portland Ten is to assist 10 companies in getting to $1MM in revenue by 10/2010, and we anticipate our first company hitting the mark this coming March! The following individuals have joined the Portland Ten– read on to hear about their projects & experiences in the program.
Round 2: June 8- August 30, 2009
Eileen Quenin, founder of Blabylon
Blabylon is a community for those who want to present, collaborate and learn online.
Team: Catherine Lenihan, Jim Fisher.
"PortlandTen is proving invaluable to me. I spent the past few years "networking" and "talking" about my start up. I was working on it, but not really focusing on the essentials. I didn’t know what the essentials were. I actually had little understanding of the machinations of the market, of what venture capital was about, the "real" business side of thing. I had never actually done true market validations, researched funding, or looked closely at my own biases, blind spots and motivations behind my business/product development decisions.
Carolynn provides a wealth of experience and a unique kind of "tough love" that has proven essential to a new entrepreneur like myself. She gives empathy and steadfast clarity. The other founders’ stories and adventures help me discover so much about myself - what it takes to launch and run a successful company.
I still believe I can do great job coming up with product/features(s) to meet market needs and guide a company. The boot camp has knocked out (thankfully so) a good deal of grandiosity and naivety. I find it challenging and appreciate the growth it provides. I told a friend, ‘It is like the difference between slumping over reading a magazine on a treadmill and having a personal coach push you to your edge while making sure you don’t injure yourself.’"
Alan Wizemann, founder of Cularis
Cularis is real time eCommerce.
Team: Daniel Warner, Jason Glover
"We consider the experience and guidance from Carolynn and the PortlandTen to be an invaluable asset to our growing start-up. Through the exercises, their experience, founders groups and private checkups, we have honed our business procedures, product pricing, and go to market strategies while increasing our pre-sales for our upcoming product, ShopIgniter. Coming from a technology background, P10 has helped me dive into the realm of a business development founder and has become paramount to our strategy to become a million dollar company at or before the end of next year. As any start-up founder can tell you, getting the right advice on your company is almost impossible, as is exploring the world of angel and venture capital investment. With P10, we were able to use the knowledge and experience of Carolynn to bridge that enormous gap and help us generate buzz around what we are doing. I highly recommend any new business to try to get into P10, you will be glad you did."
Don Hollerich, founder of Dedicated Maps
Dedicated Maps is web-based, interactive maps customized to meet unique business needs.
Team: Don Hollerich
"This is my fifth start-up, of which two had successful exits, and the other two, not so much. When I was first introduced to Portland 10, my first reaction was: Been there, done that, why do I need this? But I decided to give it a try. What I found was that I was forced (encouraged) to focus on the things that are important during the start-up phase, like how does this product provide customer value and how does it make money , rather than on just the things that I am good at, like developing software. I wish I had this group at least a couple of times before."
Steve Woodward, founder of Nozzl Media, Inc
Nozzl Media is Pandora for local news and data: a real-time, personalized stream.
Team: Steve Suo, Greg Griffiths, Brian Hendrickson
www.twitter.com/oregoniansteve
"We’re only halfway through our 12-week session, but Portland Ten is already helping put my business back on track — a track I didn’t even realize we had left. Carolynn is relentlessly honest and backs up that honesty with insightfulness, experience and smarts. The program isn’t for the faint of heart, but for an entrepreneur who is ready to learn the tough lessons about what it takes to succeed, it’s the best deal in town."
Round 1: March 3-May 22, 2009
Ben Parzybok, founder of Walker Tracker
Walker Tracker started in Portland, Oregon in January of 2006 after Ben’s brother gave everyone in the family pedometers. There was an immediate addiction. The result? We were healthier, more active, we spent less time driving. Backaches went away and energy sprung up in its place. David suggested Ben make a site to track who had walked the most. Voila!
We’ve grown tremendously since then, becoming a home to many walking communities and people looking to improve their health and fitness, drop a few pounds or change their lifestyle. Join us!
"From the perspective of having successfully put together a boot-strapped product, I was particularly interested in Portland Ten to learn about taking the project to a new level. My short term goals include working through the enterprise sales cycle, understanding best-of-breed practices for startups and connecting with a community that is undergoing the same process. Portland Ten has been an invaluable help as Walker Tracker re-envisions its objectives and gets on task."
Dave Miller, founder of GiftoFile
Dave Miller began Portland Ten working on Giftofile.com, a web-based application which featured event planning & gift registry for weddings & baby showers.
Throughout the course of Portland Ten, Dave dug into competitive research and market analysis, and made the difficult decision to pull the plug on Giftofile in order to pursue new opportunities with increased market potential. We consider this to be an incredible success story– it’s tough for an entrepreneur to walk away from their idea, yet it’s always best to do so when losses can be minimized and prevented.
"First and foremost Carolynn Duncan’s Portland Ten bootcamp is a hell of a deal. The training is fun, challenging, and comprehensive, with plenty of one-on-one problem solving. I’m learning a ton and having a great time doing it. "Two months after our final session, Portland Ten continues to pay off with new connections, with the application of much improved business practices, and as a motivator to reach the revenue goal to which we committed.""
John Metta, founder of Hydrasi
Hydrasi provides online data aggregation for the climate and water sciences.
Understanding our world and the way it changes is a difficult task. It’s made more difficult by stopping the flow of information behind walls. A graduate student studying climate in Oregon has information that an urban planner in Sydney could find very valuable, yet they have no way to find out that each other exists. Until now.
Hydrasi is building the tools that people need to do what must be done. We don’t need software. We don’t need a new database. We need a new way of looking at our world. Imagine, scientists, planners, universities, corporations. Entire countries all using the same open system to answer the important questions.
All the information we need. Finally flowing. Finally free. Hydrasi is breaching the dam. Can a single company save the world? Of course not. But that won’t stop us from trying.
"Portland Ten is a group focused on razor sharp honesty. You call them reasons and learn that they are excuses. You call them obstacles and learn that they are your own fears. You call them gold and learn that they are just really horrible, horrible ideas. It’s hard and often painful, but so is starting a company and I’d rather take the hard knocks in a room full of peers than one full of angry investors who learned too late that there’s no market for my product. When I started Portland Ten, I had a vague idea. By the end of Portland Ten, I had the foundations of a strong company, and a month later I have a co-founder, waiting clients, and am in full development. We’re bootstrapping with strong revenue-driven goals and a no-nonsense attitude, and funding is now a choice, instead of a requirement.""
Kenneth Beare, founder of Lingofeeds
Lingofeeds is dedicated to providing niche-specific English learning materials for professional purposes. English as a Second Language portals drive multiple millions of page views. However, the vast majority of English language learning content online is generic. English learners in the global work force have an on-going need for niche-specific English communication skills.
"Portland Ten is driving me to understand Lingofeeds from all angles. It’s exhilarating, challenging in the extreme, and brutally honest at all times. Most importantly, it is helping me put the pieces together to form a successful online venture. Lingofeeds.com is now five months into Portland Ten, and on the cusp of launching a solid first product. I’ve developed important third party relationships, as well as done significant market validation. All of this has been done on a bootstrapper’s budget. Without Portland Ten, it would all still be a ‘great idea’."