Embarka.com

Click on the logo... go to embarka.com

I am co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Embarka Digital Media, Inc., a next generation Web 2.0 social marketplace. Embarka.com, when launched in February 2007, expects to be the first transaction-oriented international online B2C and B2B social marketplace and independent music portal.

Embarka Digital Media, Inc. (the “Company” or “embarka”) intends to become the leading portal and social marketplace for independent music worldwide using an aggressive acquisition strategy.

Our goal is to modernize the music industry and change how independent music and artists are discovered, how music is organized, shared, and purchased and how concerts are booked, such that control shifts from the record labels to the artists and the consumer leveraging the power of the Internet.

Our unique music portal concept and integrated music scene technology, supports a worldwide marketplace, where musicians, fans and clubs meet to connect, interact, network, trade, buy and sell digital media creations and related merchandise. Embarka is an online marketplace where members make money.

Social marketplaces grow revenue from multiple sources with ad and search revenue supplementing transaction fees, premium service fees and other B2B revenue opportunities. Embarka will have the download and payment features required to create a "micro-market" for members' digital media content.

Among the unique attributes of Embarka is the fact that as a personal digital media publisher, we will target one or more artist vertical application. When combined with the viral nature of a social network, artist communities connect like-minded consumers and businesses in a transaction-oriented online marketplace. This is the future of digital media and independent publishing.

The following screen capture is of the embarka home page




Go to www.embarka.com to register as a beta tester. We intend to launch by the end of February 2007.

Happy New Year! Welcome 2007

I love the first of January like I love a new car, fresh powder at Squaw Valley or a new business deal. Fresh is new, new is promise and promise is hope. Remember your first new bike or your last new car? Remember the visceral feeling of pleasure and pride that comes with having new? Having a new friend, a new partner or new pet? These are all great feelings of promise and hope. A new beginning is exciting and sometimes scary. Why? Well, a fresh start leads to the unknown, the unpredictable and in most cases the uncontrollable. Control is a myth anyway because you can’t really control anything except the decisions you make. So, if you’ve made any decisions in 2006 that you would like to take back, here’s your chance to start fresh and take a mulligan. Enjoy the fresh start and make better decisions in 2007. Happy New Year!

Yet Another Broken Business Model

Gotta love business and corporate finance. Something’s always broken or needs to be reinvented. So, I have an idea for one. Just last night we had a spirited discussion on angel financing. We talked about all those “matching” web sites and “business plan positing” web sites, formal angel groups and presenting to a caputed audience for $3,000?? Gez, if a start up had $3,000 they would be fools to spend that shot-gunning their intellectual property at one of those old-school forums. You can almost launch a web business on $3,000 these days.

So, as we took on the world’s problems one at a time, we did spend some extra time lambasting the angel financing process as we currently view it. Since we all have experience starting companies and raising seed (angel) capital, there was some basis to our ranting…and raving.

I could post a very long message, add charts and graphs, but suffice to say that it is my opinion that many “formal” angel groups should just x%$*&@ retire. The new model should leverage technology and particularly digital media. Like a YouTube for angel investing. Maybe AngelTube – Finance yourself!

Really, there is a model to explore here that could actually work. And, no wine or food is required! If you have ever been a presenter at one of these angel rituals, you know what I mean.

Here is what I am thinking. Combine the best attributes of a fundless sponsor with YouTube-type technology, the speed of Google’s search, the urgency of a ripe pear, the review process of Amazon.com and this model could speed badly needed capital (did I say badly needed capital?) to professionally screened and evaluated yet promising start up companies nationwide.

One event I attended with a client was just miserable. I asked an “angel” in the group of 30 or so middle-aged businessmen and women about their funding process and timing. Their process for evaluating investments was really, really interesting…and creative too! Worse, was their timing for a close. This fellow said their last deal took 120 days to close. OMG! 120 days is a lifetime to a start up trying to pay their phone bill that is 45 days late. Now, a Series A financing should take 90-120 days…not a $250,000 seed round. This is what I call “failure to communicate” and a broken, out-dated model for speeding badly needed capital to promising young companies. I may just do something about this.

The Worlds' Best Hamburger?

Now this is an interesting question and probably fairly subjective. Some will say "it’s outdoors, cooked on your BBQ, while surrounded by friends and family...drinking an ice cold beer". Others will say “Thad B at BOB's restaurant, with extra sautéed onions and six tomatoes". No doubt, someone will say "McDonald's" - subjective for sure and maybe even controversial.

But really, what is your definition of a great hamburger. Which condiments do you like? What is the best type of cheese? Choice of bread; toasted or cold...sesame seed bun or English muffin? Best type of vegetables and toppings. It's up to you Wimpy!

Please forward this on to your friends, family and co-worker then send me your thoughts.

Why?

Well, one of my projects for 2007 is to launch the world's best gourmet hamburger restaurant with two of the top restaurateurs in the country...they will no doubt want to know your thoughts. So, please tell us about your fantasy burger, your favorite type of fry and include your email address. When we have the results and a location for our first World’s best hamburger restaurant, we’ll let you know.

Simple Syrup

Taking charge is providing leadership on a mission for a specific purpose. Gifted leaders automatically take charge; it's just natural for them to do so. A few months ago, I attended a weekend retreat that taught leadership and relationship skills. In one of the segments, we learned how to place personalities in four quadrants; analysts, promoters, supporters and controller. That was interesting and a bit self effacing. I learned that I was a cross between a promoter and a controller. Like a good bull shitter and a control freak…sounds like a sales manager to me.

This was really enlightening…really…because there were a lot of screwed up people in this weekend leadership class. Of course I wasn’t one of them.

Some of the most valuable life lessons come from simple ideas and exchanges. I met some really interesting folks that weekend and formed one great friendship…after staring in his blue eyes for almost an hour. Yes, that was a drill and it was intense.

I also learned a valuable management lesson while listening to people and “sizing them up”. There are three ways to manage people:

1. Push them to achieve
2. Pull them to meet their goals; or
3. Hit them over the head with a baseball bat

Knowing which to do whom when is the key to successful management. So, in some cases, do all three. It’s okay to mix and match…as long as you have established where they are on the quad.

So, analysts are real slow but careful thinkers that hate to shop. That was interesting, s I started to frame my personal and professional relationships around this new thought. Kind of like a procrastinator…at least that’s the view from the control freaks perspective. They are in the top right.

Below them is the support group, the nurturers. They’re not really just a bunch of whiners. More like kind, good field reps or a good lieutenant and probably some of your most loyal best friends. Again, it’s your perspective. If I was an analyst not a controller/promoter (bullshit sales manager-type) my perspective may well be different because controllers always tell the truth.

The promoters, bottom left of the quadrant, are more dominate and to the point. The “one call closer” type. Let’s “giter-done” so we can do something else type. Great space for entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, sales, marketing and other professionals. Now, the funny thing was not one of the 30 or so folks in our session was honest enough to place himself or herself in the controller position; upper left. People wanted their friends and spouses to go (the real control freaks) into the quad…but NOT THEM. Not one person made the leap. A couple were on the line between promote and control but never crossed the line to honesty.

This was enlightening for two simple reasons:

1. People are generally full of shit and dishonest with themselves and;
2. No one wants to be perceived as a control freak.

By the way, simple syrup is that gunk bartenders use to sweeten cocktails, especially a good Irish coffee. It's water and sugar...honestly!

Embarka Music Portal is getting closer to launch...

What if there was a way to reinvent a whole industry. How powerful and exciting would that be? The Internet changes everything and forces one to evaluate basic and mature methods of conducting business. While the Internet has yet to figure out how to deliver a pizza... physically anyway, everything digital can be however. My favorite subject and industry lately is digital media. In connection with this, I co-founded embarka digital media last January because I personally believe that all media will be delivered digitally in the future making broadcast television irrelevant and CD's obsolete. If this prediction is true, then I want to be part of this shift.


We are all pretty excited around the embarka offices these days and not just because it’s Christmas. Alpha 15 was delivered 25 days ahead of schedule using 33.3% of the original budget. We are raising the second round $1 million we need to bridge us and the Beta until we complete the management team and secure our $5 million Series A beginning in January. We have a valuable salesforces.com tool set, an eBay marketplace wrapped in a MySpace social network business plan that leapfrogs the competition. A lot of domain expertise and a keen sense of the market have fast-tracked this.

So, thanks to our 8 programmers, 7 seed investors, 6 months of planning, 5 business models, 3 great attorneys, 2 project managers and 1 great idea…and a musician in a pear tree.

Recently I had a conversation with an entrepreneur who also believes in this vision. We started out discussing blogs and the fact that a new blog is started every 0.8 seconds. We then moved quickly to discussing the billions of web sites that occupy space on the Internet. This is exciting! No shortage of customers here. This tells me that personal digital publishing and user generated content will be the standard in the future for communicating thoughts and perspectives on any subject matter. I want to be part of this too.

A new venture for Bailiwick Consumer Group, my little think-tank, fundless sponsor and corporate development company, is SnapMags Personal Publisher. SnapMags is a cool patented digital conversion tool that will enable any person to create digital magazines from personal content and embed them on their blog or web site. Why is this so cool? Well, personal media is viral and by socializing personal media in a magazine format where links to support your content may be included, personal content suddenly become interactive and fun to read in a familiar magazine-type format. So, upload a story, add rich media and relevant links to a Christmas message, or personal travel log and send invitations to your friends. No image reader to download and no barrier to entry…FREE. SnapMags may become a video, photo and travel journal; a business plan, a selling document, a business brochure or book that personalizes and publishes creative works in an interactive way.

SnapMags will power this little application for up to 6 pages for free. Did I say free? Users/readers may then click on the link to the SnapMags web site to learn more or upgrade to premium services at less than $2.00 a page for bigger publications. Pretty cool, powerful and viral. But, wait there’s more. SnapMags will also help with behavior recommendations for rich media…music, video, hobbies, travel, etc. Using search and sort algorithms to manage the collection of data, users will have unique access to relevant information that may ultimately affect their purchasing behavior. Google does this with Gmail...look to the right of your Gmail email browser and see several sponsored links...it's not a coincidence that those paid links are topical.

Looks like an advertising and transaction model using a fun application that can easily be embedded into billions of web sites and blogs…I like that too!

muSick in the Head: Music 2.0 Companies

muSick in the Head: Music 2.0 Companies