Girls In Tech

where to start? Join us at the Open Source Workshop: a hands-on

▪    what open source is: where it came from, what makes it important, and the many ways to contribute

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After days of heated debate with your co-founder, you’ve finally settle on the perfect name for your startup. You go to check if the .com is available and, lo and behold, the domain is taken and being parked at Go Daddy. To add insult to injury, Go Daddy won’t even tell you who the seller is unless you fork over $75 for one of their “certified representatives” to fetch the information for you.

Sound familiar?

Every day, entrepreneurs with new ideas are discovering that the domains they’d like to build business on have already been registered, most likely by a domain speculator. Since nearly every business these days needs an internet presence, good domains are very valuable properties. Just like physical properties, domains are not fungible. Sex.com is tremendously more valuable ($13 million dollars more valuable, in fact) than xes.com, despite having the same letters. While domains only cost $5 – $10 to register, savvy professional domainers regularly flip them for five to seven figures. Domainers who got in early on the game and scored valuable short dictionary word domains (color.com, disco.com) can flip for millions.

As a broke startup founder, you probably can’t afford to purchase a domain for more than a few thousand dollars. Even if you’re funded, you’d be wise to play the domain acquisition game right to not waste cash. This has lead to the proliferation of intentional misspellings (Flickr, Tumblr) and creative use of international top level domains (Frid.ge, GeneralAssemb.ly). Unfortunately, competition for domains has also led many startups to choose wacky and unwieldy names that make their companies hard to remember.  Before you make this mistake for your startup, get familiar with practices you may be able to use to acquire domains with terms acceptable to you. To get you the scoop on what’s worked for the industry, we talked to a number of experienced domain buyers, sellers, and brokers about how they handled their deals. Here’s the advice we distilled:

Understand the Value of Your Domain

Domain appraisal is a tricky business. Quantitative methods are based on SEO characteristics and historic sale prices while qualitative ones consider upcoming business and product trends. Kevin Ohashi, an entrepreneur and long time domainer, develops algorithms for appraisal competitions. His best algorithims hover around 44% accuracy, while the best ones in competition reach only about 68% accuracy. The long tail is very hard to predict.

Given this, the best way to think about your desired domain is the business impact of the brand value and whether you could possibly work with alternatives. With all the startup competition in the consumer web space, companies with short, easily memorable names like Path or Color have an advantage in standing out amidst the noise. That said, if you’re inventive enough to create your own brandable identity like Yahoo or Zynga, this path could be ideal since you’d own the keyword, but you’ll face challenges early on in trying to get your average consumers to remember just who they hell you are. Finally, if a number of brandable names could work for you, this can improve your negotiating power. If you desperately need a specific domain, you may be out of luck when it comes to price flexibility.

If you need a domain name in order to test a product and aren’t sure yet whether that product will be successful, consider whether social media might be a reasonable alternative to a brand name domain.  Rob Holmes, a cybersecurity expert turned domain broker, has been working with domains since the mid 90s and has represented many high profile clients in his career. In the past, when SEO was king, his clients would regularly pay six figures or more to acquire domains. These days, social media can deliver a superior ROI and many of them have discovered that their $50,000 budget is often better spent on a Facebook and Twitter campaign than on domain acquisition. These days, the domains Rob buys for his clients sell for substantially lower prices.

One final tip: do not be tempted to lowball a domain seller. Domains, like physical property, are valuable. Domainers get emails nearly every day offering joke amounts of money for a valuable domain. Give a reasonable first offer or you’ll risk undermining your own credibility.

Consider Alternative Deals such as Leasing and Buying With Equity

The original owner of Mint.com was Hite Capital, an east cost hedge fund. When raising their Series A round, the startup negotiated an equity deal with the fund to acquire the domain for stock as an alternative to paying six figures cash up front. The hedge fund reportedly received between 1-2% equity, which totaled “a couple million dollars” when Mint sold to Intuit for $170 million.

Equity deals happen surprisingly often with startups, especially because they give the entrepreneur the option for a low upfront cash outlay while preserving seller upside in the increasingly heated acquisition market. One domain broker we spoke to had brokered alternative deals for some of the hottest startups in the Valley. Each deal is individually negotiated, a process which can take months, but one of the more common financing agreements he’s structured involve the startup paying some portion of a fair price up front (usually 1/3 or 1/2) and getting three years to build out their business. At the end of three years, the domain owner can opt to get 0.1-1% of the company’s equity or buy back the domain for $1 if the business fails.

Another interesting deal structure he’s brokered is the 99-year lease model. In this arrangement, the value of a domain is paid out to the owner in what is effectively a lifetime annuity (ex: $4000 a year). Should the business fail, the seller simply gets the domain back and retains all accrued earnings from the lease.

For this article, we ran a survey of founders to see how open you guys are about these alternative models. While 73% of you said you’d much prefer to buy outright, 76% of you said you would consider a leasing arrangement if an outright buy wasn’t an option. 58% said you would consider renting monthly at an average max rate of $220 a month or $2460 a year.

Should you be interested in such deals, we highly recommend speaking to an experienced domain broker. If you’re a venture-backed startup, email us for introductions.

Profile Your Seller

The domain investor crowd is quite diverse. You’ve got everyone from your stay-at-home mom looking to make a few extra bucks on the side to hugely profitable domain investment firms that manage over 500 million domains. In between are professional full-time domain speculators who manage anywhere from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand domains.

The first thing domain brokers do after collecting client requirements is dig up information on the seller. To conduct a strategic negotiation, you need to understand what type of seller you’re dealing with, how savvy they are, and what sort of return they’re looking for. About 10-15% of domains have a legitimate business built on top of them, so you’ll have to compensate the owner for having to rebrand their company after you buy their domain.

One unique way to research a seller, recommended to us by an experienced broker, is to make an offer on another domain in their portfolio, not the actual one you’re looking to buy. This allows you to gauge the range in which a seller is hoping to sell a certain type of domain. When you can’t agree on a price, ask to see what other domains they have in their portfolio.

If you’re hoping a seller will be open to leasing or selling for equity, be mindful that one characteristic that unifies domain sellers is that they like things simple. Most aren’t willing to deviate outside of the standard practice of selling outright, especially since alternative deals can mean months of negotiation between parties. Large companies like Oversee have the resources to monetize their domain portfolios and generally consider leasing to be leaving money on the table. To monetize unsold inventory, Oversee builds out quality content and makes money through SEO and advertisements. This process generally requires a high degree of industry knowledge, solid SEO skills, and website development expertise. Additionally, content development takes about 6-9 months to start generating revenue. Given this, individual domainers without content development capability might be your best targets for a leasing deal.

The sentiment may be changing, though. Nick Hoffmann, COO of Auzzy, a domain marketplace, has considered implementing a lease-to-buy model for his company. Adam Strong, an experienced domain investor and broker, has brokered several leasing deals for entrepreneurs. Even Oversee might be interested in working with you if you sell them the Mint.com story.

Founder’s Block would like to thank the many contributors to this story, including:

Kevin Ohashi, Entrepreneur
Adam Strong, Domain Investor & Broker
Nick Hoffmann, COO of Auzzy
Rob Holmes, CEO of IP Cybercrime
And several others who preferred to remain anonymous

Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Boston, Girls In Tech, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, santa cruz, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

The Founder Institute (www.founderinstitute.com), a pre-seed incubator, recently unveiled a program designed to increase the number of females founders in technology. Their goal? To launch 175 female-led tech companies in 2011.

The Female Founder Fellowship program will provide extraordinary female applicants the opportunity to launch their dream company with the Founder Institute – free of charge. The Institute will subsidize the course fee for the most extraordinary female applicant in each of it’s ten Spring Semesters; including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., San Diego, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, New York City, Boston, and Singapore.

Best part of all:  Any female who applies to any of these Spring Semesters is automatically eligible. Many of the deadlines are approaching, so apply today at http://founderinstitute.com/join.

To date, 16% of the Founder Institute’s 250+ graduated technology companies have been founded by females – which sadly is quite higher than the industry average. More importantly – the Institute’s acceptance rate amongst female applicants is essentially equal to that of the men, while the graduation rate amongst women is almost 20% greater than that of the men. With this in mind, the Institute hopes to double the number of female applicants with this program – which will in turn push the number of female graduates over 30%, equating to over 175 new female tech founders in 2011.

Some notable female graduates of the Founder Institute include:

1.     2RedBeans (www.2redbeans.com) – Q Zhao (Bay Area)

2.     Ergolution (www.ergolution.net) – Charissa Shaw (Los Angeles)

3.     EximFlow (www.eximflow.com) – Stacey Arbetter  (Boston)

4.     Fashioning Change (www.fashioningchange.com) – Adriana Herrera (San Diego)

5.     Memetales (www.memetales.com) – Maya Bisineer (Seattle)

6.     Micromobs (www.micromobs.com) – Himani Amoli (Bay Area)

7.     MySweetsBox.com (www.mysweetsbox.com) – Regine Harr (Berlin)

8.     Skimble (www.skimble.com ) – Maria Ly (Bay Area)

9.     WhatsFun.com (www.whatsfun.com ) – Katherine Chalmers (Washington DC)

10.  Zebraminds (www.zebraminds.com) – Oza Klanjsek (Denver)

Apply today!  *(You know who you are!)

Tags: entrepreneurship, female founders, Founder Institute, The Funded
Posted in Berlin, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Diego, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

To date, the Founder Institute has launched over 190 technology companies in 10 cities worldwide – many of which have been founded by women, such as Skimble, Memetales, WhatsFun, and many more. Is yours next?  Applications are closing soon for Winter Semesters in Silicon Valley, Houston, Seattle and Boston.

This 4-month startup accelerator program provides structured training to launch an enduring technology company, in a teamwork-oriented environment where everyone participates in a shared equity pool. In addition, sessions take place once a week at night, so you are not required to quit your day job.

Their great Winter 2010 Mentors include:

- Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint.com;

- Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch

- Gina Bianchini, Co-founder, Ning

- Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin;

- Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo;

- Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote;

- Phillip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy;

- Jeffrey Dachis, Co-Founder of Razorfish;

- Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute;

- and many more.

Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur should apply. It only takes a few minutes, and you don’t even need an idea – just a passion to create a great technology company.- Apply to Silicon Valley by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Houston by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Seattle by Nov. 21st

- Apply to Boston by Jan. 16th

For more information, click here.

Tags: Founder Institute, start-up, technology, The Funded
Posted in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

Below is part II of Girls in Tech’s celebration of Women’s History Month. This week we offer another exclusive interview. This time we’ll check in with an innovator in the technology field – Danielle D. Duplin, Vice President and Executive Program Director for the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.

Cheers,
The Boston GIT Team

1. Name, title and your current job and/or mission in life?
My mission is to catalyze innovation. My goals are to educate employees worldwide on emerging trends in business and technology and create the conditions that inspire them to experiment, collaborate, and create new economic and social value.

2. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it that’s worth passing along to others?
My biggest mistake was to spend too many years early in my career heads-down instead of taking the time to build a professional network. Don’t get me wrong, focused devotion is important for building domain expertise and strong relationships with close colleagues. It’s just that now I realize how critical it is to also cultivate a broad network of peers, advisors and experts. My advice is to pro-actively connect with colleagues within your profession (not just within your company), and even more importantly across disciplines. The strength and diversity of your network provides a wealth of inspiration that can amplify your options and accelerate your dreams into reality.

3. What’s your biggest success in the workplace?
I am most proud of creating a Global Seminar series that has produced nearly 300 seminars featuring over 750 internal and external speakers that have been enjoyed by over 100,000 attendees. I love creating a culture of continuous learning and generating that spark of enthusiasm within our communities that could one day lead to a breakthrough idea. Every day is renewing and it’s a privilege to do it.

4. What’s your life or work motto?
Strive to wake-up in the morning with something to look forward to, and put your head on the pillow at night with something new to be proud of.

5. What woman in history inspires you most and why?
The 18th century founding families of this country are my heroes . . . the everyday women and men who banded together for a higher purpose to create a system of government that honors individual freedom. They put their fortunes and their lives on the line to create a better future despite the danger and uncertain outcomes. Their grit, resourcefulness and irrepressible spirit are a true inspiration for today’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

6. What piece of technology can you not live without?
My iPhone! If I left my wallet at home I might not go back for it, but if I left my phone I would race back!

7. What tech trend are you following for 2010?
Open Government has the potential to radically alter the ecosystem of public policy development and citizen engagement — having public access to this treasure trove of data will yield tremendous insights, valuable opportunities and revolutionary applications.

8. What one piece of advice would you give the Girls in Tech of tomorrow?
Smart is sexy and passion is attractive. Do something you love and pursue it with unbridled enthusiasm and determination. You’ll soon find that others will want to join you and wealth (the kind that matters) will come naturally.

9. What three items do you always carry on you?
Lipstick, credit card, and iPhone . . . you can go anywhere and do anything!

Tags: Danielle D. Duplin, Director, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, girls in tech, Innovator, Women's History
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Do you have a killer product concept and are ready to finally make it a reality? 2010 might be your year to build it out, launch a company, and change the world.

Betaspring – a mentorship-driven startup accelerator for technology and design entrepreneurs – is opening up applications for it’s 2010 summer program. They bring the best entrepreneurial teams from around the world to Providence, RI, for an intensive twelve week program. During that time they get your company up and running, provide mentorship, legal assistance, office space and a small amount of seed funding. At the end of the program they line up investors who want to fund you and strategic partners who want to work with you.

As Co-Founder of Olive Interactive, LLC. (DandyID and Claim.io), headquartered in Providence – and a Rhode Island native – I can personally attest for our vibrant community of technologists, artists, business leaders and innovators. Not only will you spend the summer working with stellar Betaspring mentors and members – you’ll also bump heads with The Creative Capital’s top scholars (think RISD and Brown students/grads), energetic young professionals, and enjoy plentiful access to a thriving nightlife and live music, great eats, and ocean/summer activities. Watch the I Heart Providence People’s Confessions videos for more takes on what makes this city shine: http://www.betaspring.com/2010/02/21/why-providence/

The deadline for applications is March 22nd, but early applicants will have the benefit of allowing the partners more time to get to know you and your company. The application process is quick, easy and painless, and will ask nothing you don’t already know. Head to http://betaspring.com for more information about the program and to access the application form. Questions about the program? Email Program Director, TJ Sondermann at tsondermann@betaspring.com

Tags: betaspring, providence, startups, Women Entrepreneurs
Posted in All Chapters, Boston | 1 Comment »

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Greg Mortenson speak.  Greg started a campaign 16 years ago to increase the number of rural schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has since grown into the Central Asia Institute (among other initiatives).  I could say a lot more about him, but I’ll let you catch up with his bio.  PS I might as well tell you to read at least one of his two books, because they have a lot of really great insight (I’m sure many of you have actually read Three Cups of Tea).

There were several points during the discussion that made me think of Girls in Tech and some of the philosophies and missions we support.  I’ve listed a few of the below.

1. The importance of empowering young girls. One of the major foci of Mortenson’s work is not only to increase the educational opportunities of children in these areas, but specifically of young girls.  His idea is if you educate a girl, they effect a whole community (based on various factors such as the fact that they don’t leave for rural areas, they are nurturers, and they are generally the teachers of families, and thus communities).
2. The importance of listening to your elders. This wasn’t specific to young girls per se, but when Mortenson asks young kids whether they have regular discussions with and learn from their grandparents, maybe 10% of the kids in the US raise their hands.  It’s 80-90% in countries like Pakistan and Afhganistan.  My first thought? That’s so awesome.
3. The importance of women in terms of peace. I spent a summer in graduate school researching the Bangladeshi “terrorist scene” with the goal of identifying the threat to the US of terrorism that may or may not be coming out of the madrasa (school) system.  As I’m reaching the time for the conference report of findings, it was becoming clear that the threat to the US was in fact quite low.  However, what was more clear was that there was still domestic unrest, hostility, local acts of violence and distaste for the government…. All good ingredients for terrorism.  However, one of the most promising ways in which that could be combated based on the current system in place was to educate and empower the women in the community, who were not only the family leaders but often the teachers in these schools.  This alone could be powerful enough to quell several types of violent outburst.  Mortenson used the example of jihad: when an individual wishes to declare jihad of any sort, they must get the approval of their mother.  When the mother is more educated, they are much less likely to give that approval.  Enough said.

So much of this rings for Girls in Tech.  Empowering the next generation of women is a very important part of our mission, whether it’s locally or internationally, but also gaining valuable knowledge from the generations before us.  Both of these apply no matter what your age.  I know one of my goals in the Boston Chapter has been and will continue to be to get the involvement of all age groups, from young girls to grandmothers, because there’s so much that can be done when you can capture everything that’s in that span.

And lastly, in terms of number three, I mean, it’s simple.  Women rock in a serious way.  And the more we can all do to give them the means to rock, fantastic.  Isn’t that why we’re all here?

Tags: girls education, greg mortenson, women in technology
Posted in Boston | 4 Comments »

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Girls in Tech will be offering exclusive interviews with leaders in the technology field.  To start of this weekly blog post series for the month of March, we’d like to highlight Leah Busque, Founder and CEO of RunMyErrand – a web and mobile marketplace that provides people and businesses with an easy and trusted way to get everyday tasks done in their own community.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts from the likes of Danielle D. Duplin, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology; Sophie Farrell, Google; Leena Rao, TechCrunch; and Christina Wong, QinetiQ.

Cheers,

The Boston GIT Team

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it that’s worth passing along to others?

My biggest mistakes are always when I don’t trust my instincts.  I’ve learned most of my decisions, especially at the early stage of business, come down to the gut level.  I trusted myself enough to start RunMyErrand, now I need to continue trusting myself and my team to build it.  There have been a couple times when I veered away from trusting my gut, and I’ve paid each time.  I now have even greater faith in my instincts, and feel confident that I’ll make the right call.

What’s your biggest success in the workplace?

My greatest success is building a product people love and who immediately understand the value.  Another homerun is my bringing together an exceptional team of mentors, advisors, investors, and team members who both get and believe in RunMyErrand and the amazing potential we are unlocking.  For example, my advisory includes Zipcar CEO, Scott Griffith; leading communications expert, Robbie Vorhaus; wildly successful serial entrepreneur, Tom Erickson; and best-selling author, Tim Ferris.  All of whom have contributed to catapulting us to where we are today.
I was also honored winning the Facebook Fund Incubator program (fbFund REV) during the summer of 2009, where I was connected with Silicon Valley’s best and brightest.  RunMyErrand was the only east-coast company that won the competition, and it was an amazing experience for me and RunMyErrand.

What’s your life or work motto?

Work motto = Move.  Faster.

What woman in history inspires you most and why?

The woman who inspires me the most is Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.  I’ve always been passionate about our universe and outer space and as a kid I dreamed of going to space camp and becoming an astronaut.  I was just four when Sally Ride made her first trip into space, and I remember it on the news.  Sally Ride was a true modern day pioneer for women, inspiring an entire nation of young girls to be exceptional and literally reach for the stars.

What piece of technology can you not live without?

My iPhone.

What tech trend are you following for 2010?

Location and mobile based apps like Gowalla and Foursquare.  They have huge potential beyond their current feature functionality, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.  Just like RunMyErrand, they are going to be big.

What one piece of advice would you give the Girls in Tech of tomorrow?

Be passionate, confident, tenacious, and trust your instincts!

What three items do you always carry on you?

My iPhone, my MacBook Pro with its spiffy green cover and chapstick.

Tags: GIT, gitbos, interview, leah busque, run my errand, women in technology, Women's month
Posted in Boston | No Comments »

Confession: I had a ridiculously hard time coming up with a Christmas list this year. I was prodded since September for a reasonable list of things I would want to see under the tree, and it took me almost two months to pull together three items that I wouldn’t otherwise purchase for myself.

I really can’t remember the last time it took me so long to put together a wish list – I’m not selfish, but since it’s an inevitable part of Christmas (“I really don’t need anything” doesn’t fly in my family), I tend to store ideas in my mind over the year.

It got me thinking about my gift-getting preferences. Since college, I’ve found myself requesting more items I need versus things I want. Additionally, more and more of my Christmas lists have included gadgets and tech gear over clothes or jewelry (well, none of my Christmas lists have included jewelry – I’m much too picky). Last year, a GPS. The year before, an iPod. I think next year, a FitBit (still too early, need to see more consumer reviews).

As it turns out, I’m not alone: She-conomy mentioned a Wired study from last year that said 77% of women would prefer a new plasma TV to a diamond necklace, and 56% would opt for a new plasma TV over a weekend vacation in Florida.

For the women who are asking for such items, seems your requests are being heard: According to Best Buy, 28% of gift givers this year plan to give an iPod this season, while 22% will give a computer game console and 20% will give a digital camera. 19% will give a large household appliance and 14% of those polled will give Smartphones.

What’d your list look like this year? Did you have your eye on the new Droid or an upgrade to your digital camera? And are you buying more gadgets and devices for the women on your list?

Posted in Boston | 2 Comments »

I was the guest of the 6 November episode of HubSpot TV, where I discussed social media news, DigiActive/digital activism and most importantly Girls in Tech.

You can get the full show notes on the HubSpot Blog.

Tags: digital activism, girls in tech, Hubspot, hubspot TV, social media
Posted in All Chapters, Boston, Silicon Valley | 1 Comment »