Congrats by the way to Scott Taylor who now ascends to the role as MFG.com’s VP of Technology! Scott joined at the same time as me, and we were jointly tasked with “kicking it up a notch”, as Emeril would say. There is absolutely no way that we would have accomplished all of our goals without his leadership and knowledge. Scott’s a great dude if you ever get a chance to meet him. And if you’re a fan of jazz, check out his wife Kayla, who is an awesome jazz singer.

Best of luck to Mitch and crew at MFG! I had a wonderful time there, and met some truly dedicated, passionate professionals.

Off to find some more problems to solve and trouble to get into … and not necessarily in that order :) For starters, we’re preparing for the next StartupLounge event on March 20th here in Atlanta.  Hope to see you there!

Cheers.

I’ve always loved rock and roll – but it wasn’t until I joined the Army and went overseas that I would begin really exploring the depths of metal music.  Mind you, this was in the 1980s.  Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were in their prime, and a young band in Los Angeles decided to ditch the name “MetalMania” in lieu of a catchier, less cheesy one – Metallica.

Jason Penner - Brain Damage

Shortly after my arrival to Delta Company, 3/64th Armor in Schweinfurt, Germany, I met Jason Penner.  Jay was a cool cat all-around – knew his shit, whether it was about tanks or rock and roll.  As it turns out, he was the lead singer in an all-soldier band called “Brain Damage.”  Saw them play here and there.  They sounded pretty tight.  I’ve got an old VHS tape around here somewhere of one of their shows.  If I get the courage one day to try and play it (for fear of it being eaten due to age), I’ll try and digitize it and post it here somewhere.

As with all soldiers, the time came for Jason to head back stateside.  Demand for the band was growing, but they now needed a singer.  For some reason, they picked me.  One day, out in the middle of nowhere (REFORGER ’88, if I remember correctly), the drummer, Kirk Strieter, comes up to me out in the bush and says “Hey, I heard you could sing.  We’re looking for a singer, so you’re in, right?”  I chuckled a bit, as I tried to figure out why in the hell anyone would start a rumor that I could actually sing.  I agreed to come hang out with them when we got back from the deployment.

The practice room at the time was a tiny (miniscule, really) room underneath a place called Zapfhahn’s.  Zap’s was an institution in Schweinfurt, a dive bar located on the corner of Frühlingstraße and Niederwerrner Straße. Cozy little place, rock and roll always blaring over the speakers.  It had a reputation of being a great hangout during the week, and a place where GIs would go to beat the snot out of each other on the weekends.  What’s not to love?

That little practice room couldn’t have been more than 10′ x 10′.  And believe me, that space fills up quickly when you add in a drum kit, a bunch of amps, mic stands, and a sound board.  The acoustics were nothing short of, well … non-existent. I walked into the room for the first time and was completely sucker punched by the noise. Deafening.  Beautiful, but ear-shattering.  We used to practically rock the pictures off the wall in the bar above us. We got a lot of complaints from Zap’s, usually when they couldn’t hear their own jukebox because of the noise emanating from the basement. They loved us practicing there, though – we brought them a lot of business.

At any rate, at that first practice session, Tony, the guitarist, asked me if I knew this one particular song by Judas Priest.  I shook my head negatively.  “What about song X from Iron Maiden?”.  Nope.  Never heard of it.  Hmm.  “Well, what about Rock and Roll, by Led Zeppellin?  Everyone the hell knows that song!”  I flashed a wide grin and we rocked it.  The rest is, well history, I suppose. We played that song in every live gig we did after that.

I had some pretty big shoes to fill. Jay was the kind of frontman that every bands wants to have … needs to have. He had a natural “stage swagger” about him. He was confident, inspired. Plus, he had a history with the other guys that I didn’t. It was a little awkward at first, to say the least.

But, we practiced and practiced, wrote and wrote, played and played.  We rented a practice room just outside of town, in a farm village called Sennfeld – Herr Geyer, proprietor. He was an old guy, and didn’t give a crap about rock and roll, but he gladly took our geld. He once said that American beer looked like “apfelsaft” (apple juice) and tasted like “piss water” – we agreed.

We trolled the strip in Schweinfurt, at the height of 80s metal and American military presence. We shredded places like Maggie’s, The Green Goose, Jackpot, Wellington’s, Eastwood, the River Boat, and about a million other places. We were the kings of the boardwalk. There came a point where we didn’t pay for many of our own beers – a sure sign that you are going down the right path as a band.

We eventually changed our name from Brain Damage to Shadow. Even though we had our military duties to contend with, we were four single American boys living the dream in a rock band … in Europe!  After one particular show in a little town called Oberlauringen, a producer approached us backstage and set more things in motion. We recorded a record – vinyl, no less (the Iron Umbrella LP).  We reaped enough crazy stories to fill a book (which at one point, someone was actually working on.) Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you the story involving the Rajun’ Cajun, some two week old Ox Tail soup, and a strange night time anomaly apparently known as the “Southern Lights.” (*snicker*) No kidding …

I was the baby of the group. At the time, I was 19. Tony (Thornton), Monte (Starling) and Kirk (Strieter) were all 5-7 years older than me. They razzed me, they gave me shit. But they were like big brothers, too. They took care of me, and made sure I didn’t get into any trouble. Well, at least any trouble in which they didn’t get to participate. We became the best of friends. Inseparable, and insufferable to be around if you weren’t part of the “Shadow circle of trust.”

We had some crazy songs.  We wrote about things from a human perspective.  What does it really mean to be a soldier, and to carry those burdens for the rest of your life?  What is stage fright really, truly all about? What would it be like if the world really came to an end?  How would someone truly feel if their lover committed suicide?  We even had a song about a guy simply called “The Missionary” who killed prostitutes in the name of his god.  Stuff that most bands wouldn’t touch, and we did it with an edge.

Scott Burkett, Germany, 1988

We had a built-in fan base, simply given the fact that we were all soldiers.  At the time (height of the cold war), the United States had somewhere around 300,000 troops stationed in Europe. And as for the Germans? They loved us simply because we were an American band.  We had it good.

One by one, we each concluded our military service commitment. Tony had been out for a while, but I got out next. So I moved into an apartment right off the Marktplatz with Tony. Monte and Kirk eventually got out as well, and we made our way back to the States.  We started building up a following here in the U.S. – even had some metal radio airplay with a few of our songs. We were rockers, and we partied like rockers should. Good stuff.

Eventually, however, as most bands do, for one reason or another, we disbanded, and everyone headed their separate ways. Tony continued his music career, and is still playing today.  Monte resurfaced in a new band recently as well.  Kirk went back into the Army, and get this, is currently stationed back where it all started (Grafenwoehr, Germany, not that far from Schweinfurt, where we all met all those years ago). Small world.

About 15 years later, I started getting emails from people around the world, asking me whether or not I was the same Scott Burkett that was the lead singer of Shadow, and if I had any more copies of the old vinyl record.  The frequency of these emails picked up over time – I still get them today. In trying to determine why so many people have emailed me over the years asking about the old Shadow record, I discovered some interesting things.

For starters, the underground heavy metal collector circuit is rather large, and apparently fairly affluent.  A copy of our now vintage, rare metal album, in “excellent” condition, is listed for sale on one collector site for $1,400, and on another for over $1,200. An auction from just a few years ago shows a copy selling for $400. According to some, there is a bit of an underground “cult-like” following of the band all across Germany.  Who knew?

I thought it would be cool to create remastered digital versions of the songs, and make them freely available to people who wanted to download them for personal use.  Maybe even have a charitable tie-in to a non-profit organization to help veterans.  Unfortunately, the only digitized copies of our songs that I have are ripped from the vinyl, and the quality simply isn’t that great. If you happen to have any decent vinyl rips from that original LP, please send them to me :)

As a next step, I decided to try and obtain the master recordings from the studio in Maßbach, Germany where we recorded the album.  Unfortunately, the studio had changed hands over the years, and it seemed no one knew what had happened to those original reels.  I tried contacting GEMA (the German version of our ASCAP), but again, no one could seem to find the mastered recordings that we filed as part of our copyright process. Sigh. So the hunt continues.  There is a bounty available if someone in the world can produce those original reels.

Over the years, I had been toying around with acoustic arrangements for some of our old songs. In 2003, Tony and I reunited for a series of acoustic sessions to produce some new music.  We re-arranged and recorded 5 songs from the original album, as well as 3 previously unreleased Shadow songs, all in an edgy acoustic format.  As we hadn’t yet reconnected with Monte and Kirk, we brought in some pretty darn good musicians to provide some tracks for a few of the tunes.  On drums, we had Ron Wikso (Foreigner, Richie Sambora/Bon Jovi, David Lee Roth, Cher), and pulling the bass strings was Lance Morrison (Alanis Morrissete, Rod Stewart, Simple Minds).  It was a blast!

At any rate, I decided to at least put together a little Shadow tribute section on the site here.  It turned into something larger, with photos, tunes, road stories, and more.  All of the tracks from the original LP are there, as well as the tracks from the acoustic sessions. If you are so inclined, you can go explore the world of Shadow.  Or, at least what was. It truly was the time of our lives.

Cheers.

I’ll be helping out again with the Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition, which is always a rewarding experience.  And yes, the good Mr. Blake and I are in the process of giving StartupLounge a fresh kick in the pants.  Stay tuned for more on that.

I’m also sifting through over 200 draft blog posts that I’ve started over the years, in an attempt to locate any that deserve finishing.  The vast majority of them will be deleted, as they are no longer timely or relevant.  But there are a few gems I’ve found already.

At any rate, see you on the bitstream …

Cheers.

After three years of blood, sweat, and tears at StarPound, I’ve decided that it’s time to move on.

We achieved a great number of successes over the past few years, and I’m incredibly proud of the entire team. When I joined the company, it was a 3 person company (that had been whittled back from 80 or so at one point) Our initial VC had long written off their original $4M investment, with that particular fund approaching sunset. The product wasn’t really complete, and subsequently, there were no customers.

Since then, we:

• Got the product stable and out the door – the world’s most advanced open source BPM and call center platform


• Secured our first customers, including a Fortune Global 100 company, the largest in its industry


• Designed, built and launched another incredible product in Teledini, a mashable VOIP/SIP phone for the browser


• Received a lot of really awesome recognition by the community, including TechAmerica’s Spirit of Endeavor Awards, TAG Top 40 Innovative Company (twice), and named to VARGUY’s Open Source 50 list for 2 straight years (alongside Red Hat, MYSQL, Drupal, SugarCRM, and others).


• Brought in another round of investment, and provided a financial exit for our initial venture capital investor

Even more importantly, we came together as a team and overcame an almost unimaginable collection of obstacles. We truly became friends for life and created an amazing company culture. When you see each other more than you see your own families, suffice it to say you tend to form very strong bonds. This is largely why this decision was incredibly difficult for me to make.

My reasons for leaving are varied. Some are personal, some are professional. Nevertheless, my departure is very amicable, and I feel that I am leaving the company in significantly better shape than it was when I joined. I may remain involved on the board, or as an adviser, which is cool. I’ll be working with the team over the next month or so to transition everything and to reach our next development milestone.

So, what’s next for me? Well, the first thing on the agenda is our first family vacation in almost seven years. Definitely way past due.

One of the side effects of becoming completely immersed in any effort is that it can become an incredible time sink. If you know me at all, you know that I really enjoy working with the larger startup community on various things (StartupLounge, TI:GER, various business plan competitions, lecturing/speaking, mentoring, coaching, etc.) Unfortunately, a lot of those activities had to take a back seat for a while. I’m definitely looking forward to re-engaging with the community that I loved so dearly.

Beyond that, I have a few ideas I’m tossing around, and a few other irons in the fire, as it were – so we’ll see.

Thanks to everyone on the StarPound team for all of your hard work and sacrifices over the past few years. I wish you all the very best!

Cheers.

I agree, in principle, with Matt Ingram’s view that new media entities should be treated as traditional media. Clearly the world has evolved beyond newspapers, radio, and TV.  I would venture to say that more news breaks over new media than traditional media these days.

But with that respect and treatment comes a responsibility. There have been plenty of times where traditional media outlets such as the New York Times have refused to publish certain things, often on the basis of national security.

Publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents is not journalism.  It’s treason against humanity.  And the soldier that gave them to WikiLeaks is, in my opinion, guilty of treason against the United States.

This isn’t the same as “exposing” a story. That’s something real journalists do. This isn’t a case of Jeffrey Wigand or Erin Brockovich dong the right thing.  In this case, sans any real journalistic purpose, WikiLeaks’ actions were wholly irresponsible and unjustified. Quite frankly, given the absence of any real journalistic purpose, it borders on electronic terrorism.

Why were they published? To what end? If the documents had shed light on some deep-rooted conspiracy, such as our government knowingly invading another country for oil, or to boost some politician’s ratings, then I’d be all for it.  That would be responsible whistle blowing. But even in that case, one wouldn’t have to publish hundreds of thousands of unrelated classified documents to serve the cause.

Wikileaks has described itself as follows:

WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.

Publishing all of these classified documents is counter to their own mantra.  In my view, the  documents they chose to publish are not “important news and information.”  Exactly what “suppressed and censored injustice” is being spotlighted here?  War?  It’s a dirty business.  Deal with it.  Wars are not fought with pillows. Putting the spotlight on how dirty war exposes absolutely nothing.

Again, if in these documents, there were cases of groups or individuals ignoring orders, violating laws, etc., then those individual documents deserve to be brought forward. The New York Times would publish them, as well they should.  But they wouldn’t run a mountain of classified documents, many unrelated, through their printing presses. The last time I checked, it wasn’t a crime to call the Prime Minister of Xanadu a bumbling idiot.

I’m actually fairly liberal in some of my views these days.  But I do not define “liberalism” as “hey, let’s be completely transparent, open and free, and publish classified documents online.”

If someone gave me their sister’s diary, irrespective of what it contained, and I published it word-for-word on the Internet, is that responsible? No. It’s juvenile at best.

Cheers.

Faded Glory is a true story of a group of aging athletes, good friends for over 18 years, who never gave up the dream of playing baseball at a competitive level. Through the eyes of their manager Rick Cohen, Faded Glory follows the National Network team, 18 men over the age of thirty-five who have overcome life’s adversities, including injury, divorce, bankruptcy, infidelity, drug addiction, incarceration, and one life-threatening disease. It all takes place as National tries to win a National Amateur Baseball World Series title. Faded Glory is a captivating document of friendship, courage, humor, and the indomitability of the human spirit.

Through his hard work and passionate evangelism of his film project, Rick raised some angel capital for this film (partially through connections he made at one of our StartupLounge events).  I haven’t sought permission to mention the name of the investor in question, but he is one of the most successful technology entrepreneurs in the past decade here – and a good guy to boot.  Just goes to show you, no matter what industry sector your venture is in, you never know where a possible angel investor is lurking, and what motivates them to make an investment.

And interestingly enough, this investor shared this with me:

“I did invest some money in his movie as a result of meeting him at your StartupLounge event.  Not so much because I think movies are a good investment, but because I admire his passion and the way he has bootstrapped it thus far.”

There ya go.

The film has gone on to win a lot of critical acclaim:

• Delray Beach Film Festival Audience Award
• LA United Film Festival Audience Award
• ALL SPORTS LA Film Festival Audience Award
• Atlanta Film Festival Runner-Up Audience Award
• Real to Reel International Film Festival Runner-up Audience Award
• Newport Beach Film Festival – Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment names the film – audience favorite.

And hey, you can’t get better endorsements than these:

ANGELO PIZZO -
Writer of both “Hoosiers” and “Rudy.”

“A compelling documentary with authentic, well-earned emotions.”

ROGER TOWNE -
Writer of “The Natural.”

“Roy Hobbs and the New York Knights live in Rick Cohen. I’ve not seen so much blood and guts, self-less honesty, despair, pathos, passion, honor, and above all, — so much bravery in filmmaking.  Rick’s poignantly invested and dramatized love for his friends and the game of baseball shows clearly in this documentary.”

LEIGH STEINBERG -
Legendary Sports Agent who inspired the character of “Jerry McGuire.”

“This is THE documentary that resonates and connects with the deepest hopes and fears of males throughout the country and is a landmark event–Rick is a truly gifted talent! Faded Glory offers an unique opportunity for women to experience the locker room environment and psyche of men in an alternative habitat. It should not to be missed!”

Hey Rick, can I get a cameo role for promoting this? :)

Sooooo ….. support a local Atlanta entrepreneur and pre-order this awesome film on DVD.  Get the original indie film before Hollywood turns it into a blockbuster that may or may not capture the true spirit of Rick’s original vision. You can visit the online store here.

Rick will be attending our upcoming StartupLounge event on March 6th, and we’ll be giving away some signed copies of the DVD there as well …

Cheers.

Dear Mike,

I still remember giving you shit about your middle name.  Austin.  “The 6 Million Dollar Man”.  I’ve no idea why I still remember that, but I do.  I suppose some things are just indelibly etched into one’s mind.  That’s the funny thing about being in the military – you tend to forget the big shit, and remember silly little things like that.

Writing this is hard.  Really, really, really hard.

I remember your deceptive baby face.  Behind those blue eyes, blonde hair, and youthful good looks, you were built like a brick shit house.  You were quick to laugh at even the silliest of my jokes, and just as quick to punch someone’s fucking lights out if they were getting stupid. Even so, you know, I don’t think I ever saw you in a sour mood?  Not once.  Even when the shit was really bad, you just smiled, made a joke, and kept on trucking.  You have no idea how many days and nights that kept me going.

Twenty years ago, you and I were on a shared journey.  When  that journey was over, we both got swept up in life, and went our separate ways.

You died 7 years ago.  St. Patrick’s Day, in 2002.  And I just found out about it.  I am angry at myself for not picking up the phone, and calling you more often – keeping in touch – being a friend.

It’s a sad fact of life that  guys don’t write Christmas cards.  We never call home.  We do a pretty crappy job of keeping in touch with the people we care about.  I wish it weren’t that way – because now, it’s too late for me.  I can’t grab you, shake you, and look you in the eyes and tell you all of the things that I should have been saying to you for the past twenty years.  I can’t save you from yourself.  But I can’t dwell on it, can I?  Such is the nature of a soldier’s training:  Put it where it needs to be.  Toughen up.  Move on.  Deal with it later. I can’t help it, though.  It hurts.  I’m crying right now just writing this.

In 1990, we were ramping up for the Persian Gulf War.  I still remember the day that I got my little love note from Uncle Sam in the mailbox, gently letting me know that I still belonged to them, even though I had been out for 6 months or so.  You drew morgue duty back in the States.

The last time I spoke with you was in 1991, just after the war.  I was back home in Georgia, and you had made your way back to Connecticut.  We talked about things a bit, and I could tell you were dealing with it as best as you could, but you were different.  We were trained for button-pushing tank combat, where you rarely, if ever, were in close proximity to enemy combatants.  You, however, had to endure seeing the effects of war up close and personal – dead G.I.s – 379 of them all told.

My wife asked me how close we were as friends … back in the day.  “Pretty damn close,” I said.  Then, I thought about it.  Did you know that we had nearly 2,200 meals together?  Even though most of them were terrible, we made the best of it.  We also drank an estimated 2,086 beers and almost 600 shots of whiskey together.  There is the healthy side, too.  Conversely, we also ran almost 2,500 miles together, and did a whopping 36,000+ pushups together.  We spent a ridiculous amount of time in the “great outdoors” together, too:  Hohenfels, Grafenwoehr, Area Mud, Winter Warrior, REFORGER, FTX, rollouts, alerts, lariat advances, you name it. Nothing says “good times” like toting an M16 and freezing your ass off in a few feet of German snow. That’s the kind of shit that makes you a brother for life.

I remember sneaking your girlfriend into the barracks, because women weren’t allowed in the barracks back in those days.  We’d dress her up in some Army sweats, pull the hoodie over her head, and distract the CQ while we ran her up the stairwell.  You still owe me for that, by the way.

I remember pouring back what seemed like a truckful of Hefe Weissens and going out to get tattoos.  You decided to get a big red rose that stretched across your bicep.  You wanted a banner underneath it.  And while the rest of us were happy getting some gal’s name permanently inked onto our bodies, you simply put “Langster”.  I remember saying to you – “Really?  You are putting your fucking nickname on your arm?”  And of course, there was your reply.  “You idiots are going to break up with those chicks at some point, and you’re gonna be stuck looking at her name for the rest of your life.  Me?  My name ain’t ever gonna change.”

Guess what, bro?  You were right.

I remember looking at you one morning in the field.  You were brushing your teeth for what seemed like the 12th time that morning.   I asked you why in the hell you were brushing your teeth so much out here in the middle of nowhere, since there were no women out here to impress.  I remember you smirking and whispering in your best “tough-guy-who-is-respecting-light-and-noise-discipline” voice:  “Hey!  Hygiene is fucking important, douchebag!”. That still cracks me up to this day.

I remember pulling guard duty together in the cold air of Grafenwoehr one night.  After our watch, you pulled your Sony Walkman out of your field jacket and plopped in a cassette tape that your sister Heidi sent you.  She would always send you tapes of new music that was hitting the charts back in the States.  I still remember you handing it to me saying “Damn, bro, you gotta hear this band.  They call themselves Guns ‘n Roses.  This song Sweet Child O’ Mine is pretty awesome. These guys are gonna be big.”  Personally, I thought they were overrated.  Again, you were right.

There were countless times where I was tasked with doing something, and you were never far behind me, ready to help your squadmate out.  You were always ready to pitch in and help out your brothers.  We always knew where to find you – at the center of the fight.  Which is why it is so hard for me to understand what happened.   I just got off the phone with our old friend Dreier – the old man of the bunch – then 27, now 47. I told him the news, and like me, he is struggling for answers.

In talking with your friends and family, I am learning more about your journey in life after our time together overseas. Some things are better to be kept in the heart, rather than in print or on the Internet, and I am sensitive to that.  I do not profess to fully understand what happened, Mikie.  But I’m trying. I swear to god I am trying.

In some cosmic way, I feel like I let you down when you needed me the most in your life.  I could have, should have, would have … been there to help you. Had I just known.  Damnit, had I just known!  I would have dropped everything going on in my life if it meant making even the slightest difference for you in your own life. My wife keeps telling me that there was nothing I could do.  And deep down inside, I know she’s right.  But it doesn’t matter. You are gone, and you aren’t coming back.

This is a burden that I will carry in my heart until the day I die.

From me, Dreier, Harmon, Sinke, Gerdes, Woodberry, Hyatt, Cortez, Shepherd, Gonzalez, Cervantes, Bolden, Rivers, and the rest of 3/64 Armor, 3d Infantry Division:  Rock of the Marne, bro.  Eight times, Keeyah.

Rest in peace, man.

Michael Austin Lang
U.S. Army, 3d Infantry Division
1969-2002

You were a damn fine soldier, a good man, and a best friend. Save a spot at the bar for me.  The next round is on me.

Your eternal friend and fellow Marne dog,

Scott Burkett
U.S. Army, 3d Infantry Division

Music and fashion weren’t the only things torn asunder in the 1980s.  We were locked into the Cold War with the Soviets.  The Soviets had missiles in Syria, capable of reaching Israel, and the Soviets/Cubans were monkeying around on the island of Grenada, not far from our own shores.  Two days after the barracks bombing in Beirut, the United States invaded Grenada.  President Reagan, who later became my first Commander-in-Chief,  delivered a powerful speech to the nation about both events a few days later. It was a crazy time.

Those of you who know me personally have a public view of me:  a tech geek, father of two little girls, wacky sense of humor, and passionate about startups and entrepreneurship.  But there is another side of me that many of you don’t know.  One that is deeply patriotic, and incredibly respectful of the traditions and sacrifices Americans have made throughout our history.

This past Saturday was Independence Day, and like so many of you, I enjoyed the fireworks with my family. Our 3 1/2 year old daughter cackled with glee at each explosion and burst of color.  But as each stream of color and smoke faded into the night, I said a small prayer for those warriors that died on the morning of October 23rd, 1983.  I said a small silent thanks to Lang, Dreier, Combites, Rivers, Cortez, Woodberry, Bamford, Starling, Strieter, Sinke, Fuller, Mitchell, Evans, Sciortino, Teal, Rey, and all the rest of the guys I served with in Delta/HHC companies, 3rd Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment, 3d Infantry Division, VII Corps.  Most of us couldn’t wait to get out of the Army, but as the years have rolled by, I think we all look back fondly on that shared experience.

Through Winter Warrior I and II, four Grafenwoehr gunnery densities, countless deployments to Hohenfels and Area Mud, REFORGER, Border Patrol, and all those 2:00am lariat advances and base lockdowns, we develop a shared history and bond that remains to this day.  To my fellow Marne Dogs of the 64th Armored Regiment, and the 3rd Infantry Division: “Rock of the Marne.  Rampage. We Pierce!”

My favorite song is, and since October 1983 has been, our national anthem.  I still choke up whenever I hear it. During a recent recording of the StartupLounge podcast, I was waiting for my cohort Mike Blake to finish munching a doughnut so we could get on with the recording (yes, I’m not kidding).  For no reason at all, I burst into singing my favorite song.  Of course, the mics were on, and the tape was rolling.  Doh!  Afterwards, I chuckled a bit, but Mike thought we should work it in the final edit of the show, as (at the time of taping that show) Memorial Day was approaching. So, we edited it in, complete with an added stadium effect.   I got a lot of emails about the song after we published the podcast, and I thought I would include an audio snippet here in this blog post.

Me attempting the National Anthem on the SL Podcast

Now with the musical portion of the post over with, I’d like to make a brief announcement.  I’ve teamed up with Jason Jones (CresaPartners), a fellow veteran (TOP-GUN!) who flew A-6 Intruder missions off the deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise, to form VetLoop.com.

VetLoop is a unique (not-for-profit) community of veterans in the Atlanta community that aims to:

• Help service members transition from active military service to the civilian workforce, especially those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan
• Build relationships among veterans in Atlanta to help each other in business
• Educate the veterans community with an emphasis on business topics, and applying the lessons learned in the military to the business world

Once we roll it out in Atlanta, we would like to see the concept spread to other cities as well.

I found this great definition of a veteran online somewhere:

A veteran is someone who, at one  point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The  United  States of America” for  an amount of  “up to and including my life.”

Cheers.

If you are an entrepreneur, and you aren’t plugged into the Twitterverse with other like-minded thinkers, you are already down two strikes.

Several weeks ago, I was down at the ATDC doing something or another – can’t remember exactly what.  Whenever I’m down there, I try and stop by and say hi to some of my fellow entrepreneurs located in Tech Square who are working hard getting their ventures off the ground.  Of course, I usually end up making the trip down the hall to visit with the rowdy crew over at Georgia Tech’s VentureLab (Stephen Fleming, Paul Freet, and Keith Mcgreggor).  On my drive down I had exchanged some text messages with Paul and we committed to hooking up for a quick lunch to get caught up, as I hadn’t seen him in a while.

At any rate, I walked in and Paul was giggling like a two year old in his office. He said something to the effect of “man, you’ve gotta see this.”  The rest is history.  I think.

Apparently, the VentureLab crew decided to play a joke on Sanjay Parekh, chief organizer of Startup Riot (among other things) and one of the co-founders of Shotput Ventures.  If you don’t know what Startup Riot is, it is basically a really cool all-day fast-pitch event, where 50 companies get their 4 slides and 3 minutes of fame in front of Atlanta’s startup crowd.  Each presenting company is screened and vetted, and offered an opportunity to receive some free pitch coaching.

The joke was pretty simple – create a fictitious company with a completely over the top pitch, and submit it to Sanjay for screening.  Keith and Paul came up with the original concept of “Wifi Cat” – apparently smoking god knows what.  When they showed me the 3 slides that they were submitting to Sanjay for consideration to present at Startup Riot, I literally fell on the floor laughing.

The slides depicted what was obviously a very strange idea – a Wifi repeater connected to a cat collar – the concept being that it would provide roaming WiFi hotspots in your house, AND help you track your pets on the web.  What was even funnier was the overall approach and feel of the pitch – it appeared to be an attempt at a serious pitch, but purposefully made some mistakes often seen with novice or inexperienced entrepreneurs.  That, coupled with such a whacky idea/subject, just made it even funnier.

So, those slides were submitted to Sanjay for consideration (under the fake name of Barry Jarrell) – and eventually we all had a good laugh at it (including Sanjay himself).  Oh, but that wasn’t the end – merely the beginning. :)

The Kitty Grows Up

At some point after we all shared that initial laugh, someone (I think either Keith or Paul, but possibly Sanjay) said “Hey, someone should actually pitch that at Startup Riot – that would be, well, a riot!”  Paul was already set to pitch one of his new startup projects at the event, and Sanjay, being the organizer and moderator of the event, recused himself.  Keith was simply smart enough not to volunteer to do it – lol.  So, I basically said “sure, what the hell – I’ll pitch it!” Sanjay agreed to give us a slot, provided he had enough room in the event schedule.

After a few days (maybe a week), Paul (I think), made the first loose allusion to Wifi Cat on a random tweet of his.  Keith McGreggor, Sanjay, and I all “corroborated” this new company with tweets of our own. This wasn’t really planned, as much as it was just an inside joke being played out on Twitter.  Nevertheless, we all just sort of gently pushed it along.  Other than a few “who is Wifi Cat?” type of replies, nothing much happened initially – but the seed was planted in the Twitterverse.

Of course, soon thereafter, the tweet stream started to pick up, with more and more people asking questions about this new company.  All we would say is “stealth mode” – “unbelievable technology” – “gotta wait until StartupRiot to see it – that’s the coming out party for Wifi Cat”.  The mystery meter started going up …

In looking back, there were basically four things that played a key role in Wifi Cat going from loose references on Twitter to “hot startup.” NOTE: This wasn’t a “plan” by any stretch of the imagination, but in retrospect, it is easy to see the cause and effect of things, and illustrates the viral nature of social media outlets.

1) The New Chairman

One day I was sitting in my office working on some stuff for my day job.  After a while, for no apparent reason, Wifi Cat popped into my thought stream.  I dropped a tweet announcing my acceptance of the role of Wifi Cat’s Chairman of the Board, and the company’s request that I pitch the deal at Startup Riot myself.  I fired up my blog editor and wrote this post, announcing the deal to the blogosphere.  I’ve no idea why I did it – sleep deprivation?  Who knows?  But one thing was for sure – that post cranked the hype meter up a notch or two.

2) The Media Lockout

After I posted, I got inundated with emails and Twitter DMs from people inquiring about Wifi Cat.  What do they do? Are the funded?  Is Sig in on the deal? It was classic.  One of the people that called me a few times was Urvaksh Karkaria from the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Can’t blame the guy – it seemed like a pretty hot story.  I decided not to call him back right away – because if asked what Wifi Cat was, I would have been hard pressed to (A) keep a straight face and (B) lie to him.

Urvaksh, being a methodical reporter, called several other people – some who were in on the joke, some who weren’t.  Thankfully, those who were in the know kept quiet.  Those that didn’t know about the joke took Urvaksh’s call and inquired to other people about Wifi Cat.  Next thing you know, everyone around town is digging for info on this “hot stealth startup” in Atlanta that is apparently going to change the world.

Note: I’ve since apologized to Urvaksh, and explained why I had to keep him in the dark initially.  He was a good sport about it … thankfully!

3) The Coaching Session

One of the things that Sanjay offered to the companies presenting at Startup Riot was a free coaching session.  Sanjay asked Atlanta angel Jeff McConnell and me if we would help him out at the session,and we agreed.  Right after we broke for lunch, we were sharing some laughs about Wifi Cat.  We then dropped a few tweets about how “amazing” the Wifi Cat presentation was, and how revolutionary the idea was.  A few joke comments were made about me having too many slides (presenting companies were limited to only 4 slides – counting the title).  All in all, it reinforced the growing myth of “the Cat.”

4) The Yates Effect

After the pitch coaching session concluded, Jeff McConnell and I were tossing around ideas.  We thought it might be a funny thing to have someone else within the Atlanta community drop a tease tweet as well.  This person would have to be respected, and not one who would be suspected of being involved in the prank.  A few days before the actual Startup Riot event, Paul Freet reached out to John Yates of Morris Manning & Martin.  John is a very well known attorney in Atlanta who focuses on tech companies.  If Yates is involved in a deal, it most certainly has to be real.

At the time, John was overseas in India.  So he dropped a nifty tweet claiming to have just toured the “WiFi Cat production plant” in India.  Brilliant.  This pushed the hype meter to the limit.

More Random WiFi Cat Anecdotes

After the whole thing went down, I began to hear a ton of backnoise about how WiFi Cat had apparently completely taken on a life of its own.

In fact, one of my own sales guys dropped the Wifi Cat name in a meeting during a random tangent about startups who seem to get a lot of buzz.  It took everything I could do not to completely lose it.

Sig Mosley, the biggest angel investor in Atlanta, told me that one of his portfolio companies (in the WiFi space) reached out to him asking him if he’d heard of WiFi Cat – not knowing if they were a threat or a possible partner.  Sig had no idea at the time, but told them he’d look into it.

The Pitch

As the date for Startup Riot approached, I knew I needed to get the Wifi Cat presentation ready to roll.  I spent a night or two with the original slides and jazzed them up a bit.  We needed to create a logo, a fake product image, some filler material, and of course, some more things to illustrate the pitch mistakes made by many entrepreneurs.

The night before Startup Riot, I spent about an hour or so making some notes for each slide – not a speech, just a few talking points and humorous bits that I wanted to work into the pitch.  I printed them out about 2:00am, and went to bed.  Five hours later, I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, and headed downtown to the event.  Wouldn’t you know it – I left my notes on the printer at home.  Yay!

Of course, I didn’t realize this until I was well over halfway into my drive down to Midtown – so, I had to wing the whole thing.  I must admit, it was hard for me to keep a straight face when I started, as you’ll see in the beginning of the video.  Keep in mind, that I had never actually rehearsed the presentation.

At the time of this writing, Sanjay and crew were still editing the professional video production – but here is a bootleg, courtesy of someone in the audience with a video recorder.

I’ll update this post when Sanjay and crew publish the final videos – but this one will suffice for now, especially since everyone has already seen it.

Update: Replaced the bootleg video with the final one from Flashpoint, the company that Sanjay brought on to produce the event and record each pitch.

Here are the slides that Paul posted on Slideshare. You can browse them while watching the video below it (there are only 4 slides, so it’s pretty short).

Slides:

Video:

The Real Message Here

I tried to end the whole spoof with a positive message for the community – hopefully, the end result was at least adequate.  I truly believe that social media was one of the missing links in the Atlanta startup ecosystem.  WiFi Cat went viral through Twitter and blogs – and took on a life of its own in just a few weeks time.  That is a great indicator that we actually have a startup community in Atlanta now.  It’s all good.

As Paul Freet and I have written about and evangelized before, over the past 25 years, Atlanta has morphed into a “dumbell” of sorts.  We have a lot of innovation centered around Midtown and Georgia Tech, but the vast majority of the personal wealth distribution has migrated northward (10-to-2, northern arc) above the perimeter).  This 20-30 mile distance has long been a thorn in the side of the startup community.  The good news is, social media has created a realtime “bridge” of sorts.  You don’t need to get up at 5:00am just to get downtown for an event anymore.  There is a very real conversation happening on Twitter and in regional blogs, and people can plug themselves into this conversation very easily.

If you are an entrepreneur, and you aren’t plugged into the Twitterverse with other like-minded thinkers, you are already down two strikes.

This is awesome.  We needed social media.  It has, in effect, provided the vehicle we’ve needed to bring the community together in ways that we could have only imagined in the past.

What is interesting about the whole thing is our abuse of “trust” in social networks.  No question, we pulled the wool over more than a few eyes with WiFi Cat.  Granted, we could have just gone around town and spread rumors about WiFi Cat, but technology made it a hell of a lot easier to do, and reached a broader audience.

“I read it on the Internet, so it must be true”, right?

:)

It was great fun, and I hope WiFi Cat lives forever … we have more “special” WiFi Cat announcements coming soon – stay tuned!

Off to get ready for CapitalLounge tonight … hope to see many of you there.  WiFi Cat will be there, in spirit, possibly raising money, maybe not.  I can never truly ascertain their strategy :)

Cheers.

If you’ve already applied and been accepted to attend, you should receive an email tonight with directions to the new location.   If for some reason you do not receive an email tonight, check your spam folder (doh!), or go to the StartupLounge.com web site and pull up the event details page – if you’re logged in, you’ll see the information on the new location there.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and look forward to seeing everyone on the 25th!

Cheers.