Happy Indie-preneur Day! 7 Sparky Tools to Help you Celebrate your Independence

Indie.
It’s everybody’s favorite power-to-the-people word, especially when you check out the dictionary definition and discover its intrinsically American qualities: free from external control and constraint; “an independent mind”; “a series of independent judgments”; “fiercely independent individualism.

All of which translates so smoothly into a star-spangled new word: Indie-Preneur. Being an entrepreneur is so last century.

On this pivotal Independence Day 2011, it’s time we re-defined ourselves with a word that better represents the burgeoning world of plucky, passionate, indie-innovators who are busily working to rebuild our country. Our chances of rebounding may be vastly increased by honoring — not resisting — today’s fluctuating and increasingly independent workscape. Indeed, Indie ‘tude celebrates all that made the U.S.A. revolutionary 235 years ago.

An Indie-preneur may be working solo, as part of a team, small business, non-profit or even work fearlessly within a giant organization. Indie-preneurism is a state of mind; a style of being; a scrappy, bootstrapping never-say-die way of life. Indie-ism is finding new solutions to pressing old problems by honoring our inner quirks and creativity; that eccentricity that provokes us to see things in a different way. Indie can scale big or stay small. There is no hard and fast definition of Indie. (Except this: note the word: ‘fiercely’ above.)

And no, Indie is not a synonym for maverick. (But it is a synonym for Gigster)

Here’s the Third Annual Indie-Preneur Award, which goes to: Taryn Voget, CEO/Founder of The Everyday Genius Institute. Here’s why:

Not much more than a year ago, Taryn, along with noted Behavioral Scientist Tim Hallbom, kicked off the Everyday Genius Institute product line with the promise: With the right strategies, anyone can become a genius.

Now, thanks to Taryn’s blood, sweat and indie-perseverance, the Everyday Genius Institute’s “Study Smarter, Not Harder” DVD has landed in retail powerhouse OfficeMax — and will soon be in Staples, Barnes & Nobles and more.

What just goes to prove what smart start-ups know — you don’t need a crammed org-chart to make things happen. You just need one fierce, fire-in-the-belly Founder –like Taryn Voget.

Not surprisingly, Indie-Preneurs are fervent do-it-yourselfers. Here are 7 easy online tools to help you celebrate your independence:

Do It Yourself Logo Design: Logoyes.com LogoYes offers do-it-yourself logos to small businesses around the world. Guru’s Note: Logoyes is simple, fun, and even if not the perfect customized logo for which you’d pay thousands, it’ll do in a pinch. Consider it market research and explore colors, fonts and symbols.

Or tap into a world of talented graphic designers for bargain prices starting at $275. I’ve had great success with LogoTournament, especially with the logo for popular music tech blogger RedSaid. Here’s what they say: Get the logo that you really want by choosing from 50-200+ custom designs, instead of settling on a design from a handful of options that a traditional design firm provides. See your first company logos within hours, not weeks. Guru’s note: Clients sometimes come to me wondering if they should hire me to do a whole Name Generation project when they already have a name they think might work. I suggest they check it out on Logo Tournament by unleashing their name and creative brief on the site’s zillions of gifted designers. If the potential name communicates what they want it to, then they should move ahead on their preferred name. If not, I’m here to help.

Did you drool over that shimmering new box of crayolas every fall? Then prepare. Once you enter this site, you’ll be lost in color lust for hours. Colourlovers.com calls itself an international creative community that helps people discover their inner designer. There are now 656,197 COLOURlovers around the world who have created 4,012,636 Colors, 1,647,242 Palettes and 1,617,245 Patterns. (Including quite a few of mine) Guru’s Note: This site is a powerful brainstorming tool. During my Lab360s, each participant creates colors and names for whatever product we’re focusing on that day. Sparks the imagination! Also a valuable tool for banishing writer’s block.

More great ColourLovers news: The company recently raised $1 million from investors including Atlas Venture, Morado Ventures, Founder Collective, Charles River Ventures, 500 Startups, Seraph Group & Zelkova Ventures, Matt Mullenweg, Alexis Ohanian, Don Hutchinson, Dharmesh Shah, Jared Friedman, and Shawn Bercuson.

And even better, COLOURlovers used the indie-preneur’s best friend –Angel List — to build the round.

Got new website? Get new feedback. Launchly showcases new websites to an audience to help site owners get the attention and feedback necessary to succeed. Launchly’s big plus: instead of just showcasing a startup and letting it fall by the wayside, Launchly allows apps to resubmit new iterations and build on their ideas. Guru’s Note: Yes, Ms. Website Owner, you do need Feedback– and from more than just the peeps you drink with and their cousins-in-law. Website/app development very quickly becomes a myopic process — a site like Launchly is very reasonably priced ‘insurance’ in a world of fickle marketplaces and even fickler users.

Another smart way to test your site is a user experience tool called Userlytics that market research pros like me have been fantasizing about for years. Here’s the description: With Userlytics you can capture videos of participants’ screen navigation, spoken remarks and facial expressions – right from their home or workplace, within days, even hours. And even better, Userlytics offers a free study so you can test the service.

Small Business meets Big Government: SBA.gov is a web portal operated jointly by 22 different federal agencies — a kind of one-stop-resource for small businesses. With links to federal programs, links for various rules, regulations and laws, state-specific and industry-specific links, it’s just what we Indies need to stay within the lines, at least occasionally. Guru’s Note: My favorite part of this upgraded site is the new Startup America section, which delivers everything you need to know about this White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. The White House has enlisted Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, and Carl Schramm, who runs a group that encourages entrepreneurship called the Kaufman Foundation, to head the “Startup America Partnership.” They’re leading a privately funded board that will encourage large companies and foundations to provide seed money to start-ups. Follow the action on Twitter.

And then there’s the Patron Saint of the Indie-Preneur: TED. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” from the landmark conferences have now been translated into 51 languages and counting. After the fireworks this weekend, set off a few more by tuning in to TED.

Now go out and set off some fireworks of your own.

Tuesday’s Re-launch of Marin’s BayAngels Features Hipstamatic + Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell

Will I see you there?
Register

[UPDATE] Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell To Present Waba At BayAngels Re-Launch Event

BayAngels, a Sausalito based group of angel investors, today announced the re-launch of their organization. The purpose of BayAngels is to introduce early stage technology companies to seed capital and executive level talent. The newly re- launched BayAngels will bring together Marin County’s thriving community of technology executives, entrepreneurs and investors on a regular basis, through exclusive events. The first event is scheduled for May 10, 2011 at Spinnaker Restaurant in Sausalito, CA.

Featured speakers for the May event include Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Founders of Synthetic, the company behind the hit iPhone app, Hipstamatic. The executives will talk about their journey from start-up to Apple’s “App of the Year”. The event will be moderated by innovation expert, Sarah Browne, aka The Guru of New.

Five companies will be presenting to an audience including accredited angel investors, fund managers, and representatives from a number of private equity groups. Presenting companies include:
Hopscout
GagaSports & Entertainment
GlobalMojo
PhoneTell
Waba

About BayAngels: As one of the premier angel groups in the Bay Area during its original incarnation, the organization was featured in Forbes, Business Week, CNN, the London Times and more. BayAngels also served as a model for entrepreneurial groups in the UK, Australia, and Japan. OpenTable is an example of an earlier portfolio company.

Please note: Attendance at this event is limited. It is open to qualified investors, private equity and venture capital firms. Please visit www.bayangels.com for more information, write to roger@bayangels.com or contact via Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ceochiefpeople
May 10, 2011 Schedule

4:30 – 5:30 Registration, networking, wine bar
5;30 – 5:45 Opening remarks, keynote speaker
5:45 – 7:15 Company presentations followed by Q & A
7:15 – Breakout sessions with presenting companies

Happy Indie-Preneur Day! 7 Tools To Help You Celebrate Your Independence.

Indie.
It’s everybody’s favorite power-to-the-people word, especially when you check out the dictionary definition and discover its intrinsically American qualities: free from external control and constraint; “an independent mind”; “a series of independent judgments”; “fiercely independent individualism.

All of which translates so smoothly into a star-spangled new word: Indie-Preneur. Being an entrepreneur is so last century.

On this pivotal Independence Day 2009, it’s time we re-defined ourselves with a word that better represents the burgeoning world of plucky, passionate, indie-innovators who are busily working to rebuild our country.  Our chances of rebounding may be vastly increased by honoring — not resisting — today’s fluctuating and increasingly independent workscape. Indeed, Indie ‘tude celebrates all that made the U.S.A. revolutionary 233 years ago.

An Indie-preneur may be working solo, as part of a team, small business, non-profit or even work fearlessly within a giant organization. Indie-preneurism is a state of mind; a style of being; a scrappy, bootstrapping never-say-die way of life. Indie-ism is finding new solutions to pressing old problems by honoring our inner quirks and creativity; that eccentricity that provokes us to see things in a different way. Indie can scale big or stay small. There is no hard and fast definition of Indie. (Except this: note the word: ‘fiercely’ above.)

And no, Indie is not a synonym for maverick.

Here’s the First Annual Indie-Preneur of the Week Award, which goes to:Socialbees. Here’s why:

Argg! I hate when that happens:   When Facebook abruptly changed the Vanity URL requirements to a 100 fan minimum to claim Fan Page names, small business owners who had expected to nab their URL with just 25 fans were flummoxed. Then Facebook-savvy Socialbees came up with a brilliantly viral solution:  A Fan Page Chat.  Encouraged by Socialbees’ networking pro, Hazel Grace Dircksen, these chatters went beyond chatting and ‘fanned’ each other. I don’t have stats on how many of these Fan Pages jumped to the required 100 as a result of Socialbees’ small business smarts or how many valuable business connections were made that night –but it’s good example of how Indie-Preneurs can rock the rules and win.

Not surprisingly, Indie-Preneurs are fervent do-it-yourselfers. Here are 7 easy online tools to help you celebrate your independence:

Do It Yourself Logo Design: Logoyes.com  LogoYes is the leading provider of do-it-yourself logos and other premium design products to small businesses around the world. Guru’s Note: Logoyes is simple, fun, and even if not the perfect customized logo for which you’d pay thousands, it’ll do in a pinch. Consider it market research and explore colors, fonts and symbols.

Did you drool over that shimmering new box of crayolas every fall? Then prepare. Once you enter this site, you’ll be lost in color lust for hours. Colourlovers.com calls itself a resource that monitors and influences color trends. Check out color palettes, read color related articles and interviews. Guru’s Note: This site is a powerful brainstorming tool. During my Lab360s, each participant creates colors and names for whatever product we’re focusing on that day. Sparks the imagination! Also a valuable tool for banishing writer’s block.

Got new website? Get new feedback. Just launched itself, Launchlyshowcases new websites to an audience to help site owners get the attention and feedback necessary to succeed. Launchly’s big plus: instead of just showcasing a startup and letting it fall by the wayside, Launchly allows apps to resubmit new iterations and build on their ideas. Guru’s Note: Yes, Ms. Website Owner, you do need Feedback– and from more than just the peeps you drink with and their cousins-in-law. Website/app development very quickly becomes a myopic process — a site like Launchly is very reasonably priced ‘insurance’ in a world of fickle marketplaces and even fickler (?) users.

My social-media-genius pal Janet Fouts tested the hot new app Evernote: Always on the lookout for a new app, I couldn’t help but take a look. This, my friends, is a very cool app. In a nutshell, Evernote lets you add information to a database that is accessible through the web, a desktop app, and your iPhone, Blackberry or smart phone. Items are tag-able and fully search-able so you can add pretty much anything, run a search, and quickly find it again wherever you are. Now when I say you can upload things, try to visualize this. You’re at a networking event and you suck at remembering names. With Evernote you can take a picture of a person with your phone, tag them with their name and they’re saved for future reference in your database. Even more interesting, include their name badge in the snapshot, even a handwritten name tag, and evernote will recognize the handwriting and enter it as searchable text!

Small Business meets Big Government: Business.gov is a web portal operated jointly by 22 different federal agencies — a kind of one-stop-resource for small businesses. With links to federal programs, links for various rules, regulations and laws, state-specific and industry-specific links, it’s just what we Indies need to stay within the lines, at least occasionally.

And then there’s the Patron Saint of the Indie-Preneur: TED. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” from the landmark conferences have now been translated into 51 languages and counting. After the fireworks this weekend, set off a few more by tuning in to TED.

Thanks to Mashable for the heads-up on Launchly.

The Big Three That’s *Not* Asking for Money and Why They Should Go to Washington Instead.

All day long we’ve been hearing about two different sets of The Big Three.

There’s The Big Three from Detroit, now jetless and nibbling on humble pie as they carpool it to Washington armed with their freshly minted ‘strategic’ plans so they can continue to troll for trillions.

Then there’s The Big Three from California, who in heated competition, each released new technology that’s projected to generate some hefty revenue.

An excerpt from today’s Seeking Alpha:

The three horse race between Facebook, Google, and MySpace to achieve dominance in the internet identity space doesn’t appear to be letting up any. It isn’t a mere coincidence that both Facebook and Google have announced their public launches on the same day; both are struggling to establish themselves as the de facto standard for both developers and end users. MySpace managed to beat out both Facebook and Google months ago when it publicly launched its service.

Which is why I wholeheartedly agree with the mavericky (and oddly charged) Mark Cuban who declared mere days after the Election that Obama had made his 1st big mistake.

Unfortunately, the economic advisory team that he has put together looks more like a semester’s worth of great guest speakers for an MBA class than an economic advisory team that can truly help him.

There are a lot of great minds on the list.

“Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Laura Tyson, who served as Clinton’s top economic adviser; former Fed Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson; Time Warner Inc. Chairman Richard Parsons; former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson and Xerox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anne Mulcahy.

Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Roel Campos, an ex-SEC commissioner, and Warren Buffett are also on the advisory board.”

Notice anything missing ?

Not a single entrepreneur. Yes Warren Buffett started a business, but he will be the first to tell you that he “doesn’t do start ups”. Which means there isn’t a single person advising PE Obama that we know of that knows that its like to start and run a business in this or any economic climate. That’s a huge problem.

So here we are in the midst of a (insert scary word), (insert scarier word) recession, with the media convincing us that we all should be cowed and question ‘the American way’, and yet these Big Three geeks are still scrapping in the schoolyard to beat each other to the punch. Silicon Valley and its neighbors to the South practice a quirky version of spiritual capitalism, worshipping gamesmanship and brainpower, and it’s this bootstrapping version of business that needs to be well represented in Washington as President Elect Obama assembles his economic team.

Certainly, the man who used social media to the max in his winning campaign has to include brainiacs beyond academics, politicians and big business, yes?

Guru’s Note: Thankfully, Eric Schmidt of Google is on board, although has reportedly turned down the first-ever office of CTO.

Y Combinator Looking For Female Entrepreneurs. Deadline October 17!

Lili Balfour of Atelier Partners gave me the heads up this morning on a great opportunity: Y Combinator is looking for female entrepreneurs.

Here’s the link — http://www.christine.net/2008/10/mentoring-women-for-the-next-y-combinator-1017-deadline.html

The deadline for the west coast cycle is this Friday the 17th. However, if you know a female entrepreneur on either coast, please forward along to them.

C’mon, social networks, let’s get this out there.