Venture Capital Videos

Andreas tells us about some of his major recent business success and read some interesting listener emails.

Andreas tells us about some of his major recent business success and read some interesting listener emails.

Email Marketing for Startups Topics: * Defining the right objectives for your startup's email marketing strategy. What is email marketing good for and what is it not good for? Why not use a blog or Twitter? * Email marketing success stories: pure-play email startups (Daily Candy, Thrillist, etc) non-email startups with successful email strategies. * Platform selection o Types of email platforms: installed products vs hosted services; open source vs. commercial; CRM-based, events-based, etc. o Platform survey: Phplist, ConstantContact, iContact, MailChimp, Eventbrite, Salesforce, etc. o Considerations: Integration (with your website platform, CRM system, e-commerce system, etc) * Message volume: How much is too little? How much is too much? * Message content: Combining compelling content with a marketing call-to-action. * Automated/transactional content: Integrating content generated on your website with your email campaign. Managing technical concerns (email platform API) and user experience concerns. * Analytics: What are the most important metrics in email marketing. How do you know if your newsletter is a success? * How how to build a valuable list. Tuning content, format, features, and scheduling to maximize growth and virality. * Email marketing consulting: Services offered by email consultants. When to hire a professional for vs. DIY. How to evaluate email marketing consultants. How to determine ROI. * Regulations: What is CAN SPAM and how do we ensure we're compliant? Other regulations to be aware of? Moderator: * Maisha Walker, President of message medium and e-commerce columnist with Inc. magazine Panelists (alphabetic order): * Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory * Neil Capel, Founder and CEO of SailThru * Adam Rich, Co-founder and Editor-in-chief of Thrillist

The Talk: Uncertainty and Startups Bio: Eric Olson is Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Venture Partners' first Associate. His responsibilities include sourcing deals and working on due diligence. Prior to DFJ Portage Olson worked in Partner Development at Google and in Business Development for DFJ Portage backed startup FeedBurner which was acquired by Google in June 2007. Olson started his career as an analyst at Cambridge Associates in Boston, MA where he focused on alternative assets and particularly Venture Capital. In his spare time Olson is one half the founding duo of TECH cocktail, a quarterly networking event for technology people in Chicago and the Midwest, which draws in 500+ of the best Midwest entrepreneurs each quarter. Eric also volunteers at World Bicycle Relief where he advises on web strategy. Olson holds a B.S. in Finance with a minor in Information Technology from Bentley College (magna cum laude). Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Venture Partners On CNMS: My hope for the CNMS is that the summit will shine a light on all of the great new media goings on in Chicago. Chicago is absolutely a new media player and the summit will allow others to recognize that and will bring all of the new media talent in Chicago together. On Eric: "The fact that DFJ Portage picked up Eric shouldn't be a good indicator of how brilliant and energetic and connected and driven Eric is. Not at all. I knew him wayyyy back in April 2006, when he was with the plucky startup, FeedBurner, and wiring up tons of relationships between content publishers and advertisers. Eric had a perfect ability to be humble, friendly, approachable, and yet business-savvy enough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Everything that has come between then and now all magically slots into Eric's powerful ability to transform passion for ideas and people into insight for business and future trends. What Eric watches, I look into as well. What he shares his passions about, I investigate. Watch this man. Stay close, and bring him into your world as soon as possible, because he's going all the way to the top." - Chris Brogan (new media superstar)

Scale Venture Partners Managing Director, Rob Theis, who invests in technology infrastructure and applications tells how it is a great time to invest in successful consumer applications that can be brought to the enterprise. His latest investment, HubSpot is an example of such an investment. HubSpot has incorporated the products, processes and methodologies to make best of breed marketing applications for small and medium sized businesses.

Sorry, folks, but a billion dollar payday does not imply success. A bubble, perhaps, but success? Hardly. "Success" is a product of two key characteristics of a natural system: efficiency and sustainability (note that MONEY is NOT part of a natural system). It's time we stopped accepting richness and dollar amounts as our guiding metrics. We know better let's act like it.

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