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Hey Nashvillians,

It’s been a rough past few months (hence why we haven’t had any meetups), but I finally launched Freelancify.com today! It’s a site where you can find and hire freelance web designers and developers using Q&A discussions and bids. Freelancers can also go to the site to seek work.

I actually taught myself how to code via Ruby on Rails to make Freelancify. It was definitely the best decision/investment I’ve made in years to learn how to code. (I suggest everyone else too as well!) I’d also like to give a special thanks to Josh Crews and others for helping me learn.

Also, currently working with Shane from Devry on locking down a venue room here within the next couple weeks for another meetup. Probably the roundtable one, so if anyone has ideas for topics, definitely shoot’em over! james@freelancify.com

- James Fend

Continue reading »]]> A big Congrats to all 6 startups on your big day and to JumpStart Foundry for throwing a great, well planned event..

It was a packed house in there and the vibe inside the place was nothing short of epic. Nashville is definitely on it’s way up and soon to be on the map for a great place for tech startups. If not, already.

There were many great people in there and ranged from: lots of angel investors, venture capitalists, mentors, other startup entrepreneurs, a few Vandy MBA students, programmers, marketing folks, business execs, etc.

The venue was an excellent choice: spacious enough to fit 300+ people, food/drinks/snacks, and good production and sound. Agenda was organized and timed just about perfect from beginning to end.

The pitches were solid. Amazing job and hats off to the 6 companies for perfecting them. They effectively let us know what problem they were solving, how they plan to fix it, competitors, financial forecasts, teams/qualifications, and marketing plans of attack.

Here’s the 6 companies that presented and my first thoughts on them:

http://www.rentstuff.com

My favorite out the bunch. Great URL and brand name and nicely designed site. The timing for an idea like this is right, and people are willing to use online platforms to meet/exchange in real world without thinking it’s crazy weird anymore. This idea really has potential to strike it big, possibly AirBnB big if marketing and acquisition of customers is executed right. The thing with platforms is the age old chicken/egg problem. A couple big blog mentions isn’t going to take this startup to success or break-even; it needs some sort of creative scalable internet marketing method to gain users organically and exponentially. I have a few ideas but I’ll keep them to myself unless they approach me and I’ll be more than happy to share.

http://coldcrate.com

I don’t know too much about the packaging industry, but from what they showed in their pitches; it has some good potential. It’s a huge industry and if they hustle their butts off enough to get seen in front of many big customers, I think they have a promising idea and plan.

http://meevl.com

Loved the slick design and user experience in how this thing is going to work on the computer. Would like to see how this thing works in person.

http://daio.com

Love the industry they are going after. It’s a hot one right now and the mobile/tablet market will only grow huge in the upcoming years. They say during the Gold Rush, the people who got rich weren’t the ones who found gold, but the ones selling the shovels and jeans. Everybody and their mama are looking to make a mobile app, and if they can work hard to get in front of and penetrate the right crowds; they have a good chance on grabbing a ton of users.

http://kahootzz.com

This is very close second to my favorite. This thing has the potential to take over the world; like Facebook style, seriously. I don’t think the technology curve has quite caught up, but it’s coming. And if they can get their complex app working great and out in the many hands of first adopters, they may have a chance to strike it HUGE. When I say ‘technology curve hasn’t caught up’, I am meaning the majority mass of people using it for every day use. Facebook is now massively adopted, and the majority of people finally made social networking a normal thing and the word Facebook is now a verb. Same with Google, Google was created before the technology curve and the mass finally caught up and now it’s a verb as well. FourSquare (which Kahootzz is better than) is growing steady as more and more are getting more comfortable with being ‘social’ via their mobile phones. If they add a few more features in the future to include a social kick/interaction to it along with their complex algorithms; and can work hard and be patient for about 3-5 years, man oh man.

http://goodjobhr.com

A solid idea and plan. It’s going to take a “hit the streets” mentality to get their first slow and steady flow of users, but I think the app is very useful and definitely more than a fair share of companies would be interested in using something like this. Finding and filtering through their target company’s politics and chain of commands to find the HR software decision makers is always fun.


Those were just some quick opinions on what I initially thought from their pitches. I definitely think all 6 are viable ideas and have very talented and strong teams behind them. It’ll be interesting to see how they acquire their first 100 and 1,000 users because I strongly believe that startup success is 90% marketing, 10% product; at least in the first few years. Anyways, again; a big congratulations to JumpStart Foundry and the 6 companies. Best of wishes for the upcoming years!!

Sincerely,
James F.

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One day a week: 10am – 4pm

Had a bright idea to have a informal meetup every week at a coffee shop. Since alot of us work out of coffee shops once or twice a week; I figured why not all work at the same one for a day?

We can bounce ideas off each other, meet other sprouts, get feedback on your current project, ask questions, etc. Should be some good synergy. And then even go grab some lunch together.

- James F.
p.s. – Be sure to bring some headphones, so when you are in working mode only; slap those on and it’ll let everyone know not to mess with you.

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Simply put; couldn’t have had a better time with a great set of people with a similar set of mind frame. Big Thanks to the main guy who put on the whole show, Brannon! We set sail off into Old Hickory about 5:45pm and came back around 8:00pm. It was nice and hot, and the sun was hidden behind clouds all day so it was perfect. Cold beer, wine, and lots of great conversation. It was absolutely beautiful out there with the breeze blowing, especially at the front of the boat. We got to see many big houses sitting on the edge of the lake, jet skis jumping the waves that we created behind us, and I even played captain and drove the boat back. We had so much fun, we then hit the restaurant afterwards..

The attendees were an awesome group of people; a mix in different phases of their businesses. From investors, past entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs in the growth stage and initial startup stage, and those with ideas brewing in their heads. Check out the some more pictures here, and definitely stay on the lookout, as another one on the yacht may possibly spring up again in the future.

Thank you to: Brannon, Jack, Judy, Jake, Julie, John, Jodi [yeah, I know, alot of J names], Rolanda, Rachel, and guests of theirs that came out.

Until next time,

Sincerely,
James F.

Continue reading »]]> Wow.. super late post, but the kickoff meetup went great. We had great participation from all the attendees and got some good ideas presented. The venue spot was terrific and folks loved the pizza and beer supplied by the Nashville EC. Nashville Startup Weekend was this weekend (unfortunately; I had to miss it due to overwhelming work dealing with Fendza’s launch) but I am sure it went great and hope to hear some stories back from a few members that went.

Planning for April’s meetup is in the works; probably around the end of April and it will probably be more of a roundtable discussion type meetup than the presentation type the first one was based on. The GrowNashville group is also at about 86 members now..  slowly growing.

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Our first meetup is officially scheduled for March 30th at 6pm. We hooked up with our helpful friend Clay at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and they are providing the meeting space and also providing free pizza and beer. #WIN

Anyways, so everyone is welcome out to it; and everyone is welcome to sign up to present their startup or idea. We have about 20 people who have RSVP’d already. Check out the meetup.com page for more details!

See ya there..

Sincerely,
James F.

Continue reading »]]> The meetup group is growing at a nice steady rate. We have a nice ratio mix of startup entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, marketers, programmers, and even a few investors. Our first kickoff meeting has 11 confirmed attendees.

It also looks like our ‘investor showcase Y-Combinator’ type event is going to come to life sooner than originally planned. Except… on a yacht. One of our members who happens to be an investor has offered his boat to use as a venue for a investor/entrepreneur mixer type meeting. It is currently planned for sometime in June; should be pretty interesting! GrowNashville has also been approached by a few other like-minded organizations for some possible collaboration, so we’ll definitely keep you posted for any new updates.

We’re still looking to lock down a few more venues to use for our monthly meetups. So if you’re interested, feel free to give [james(at)freelanceful.com] a shout.

Continue reading »]]> Hey guys,

GrowNashville is now complete, up, and running. Over the next weeks; we’ll actively go out and seek all those we know that are into tech startups. We’ll get a whole mix of people from: web developers and designers, startup entrepreneurs and junkys, business folks, SEO people, internet marketing folks, etc. etc.

The plan is to build a good, strong meetup for us “rare breeds”. Every other city has a good central circle/hub where startup folks gather, but after searching and talking to others; there doesn’t seem to be one strictly for startups here. There’s cool annual event stuff like barcamp and startup weekend, but nothing with frequent events/gatherings. I’m not looking for any financial gain from this, just wanted to meet others like me, and teach/learn some stuff. Hopefully; one day, GrowNashville can get enough momentum & reputation to have a “Demo Pitch Day” which would be like a Y-Combinator type event where we gather a bunch of investors and can have startups in the area present to them.

The first meetup planned will probably consist of a ‘startup showcase’ style introduction discussion (where everyone that has a startup can show the group what they have within a time frame) and a startup marketing related presentation by me. [In case you're wondering, I'm a web designer, SEO/internet marketing ninja, and startup junky.]

All organization of meetup dates, etc. will be handled via the Meetup.com website. So please go on that site and join the group and RSVP. Aiming to have the first meetup around March 19th. So let’s make this a success and GrowNashville.

Sincerely,
James F.
Founder of Freelanceful
GrowNashville Founder/Organizer

Learn more about me at: http://www.grownashville.com/blog/james