Jaffe Juice

Introducing Founder's Spotlight on Madison and Mountain View

I'm proud to share with you Evol8tion's first "Founder's Spotlight" from our Madison & Mountain View Tumblr Blog. Every week, we'll ask the founder(s) of a startup in our database 8 questions, including which brand(s) represent their soul mate wishlist.

Starbucks, Gap and American Express...take note as you're called out in this week's piece.

In this debut interview, we have Brian Kantor and Sean Barkulis from UPlanMe.

Welcome to Madison and MountainView’s second editorial franchise,Founder Spotlight.  Each week, we’ll ask our Evol8tion 8 questions to feature a different entrepreneur, for our readers to get to know the face behind the emerging startup.  Every company has a story, filled with passion, challenges, and an umatched drive to succeed.  Our first interview is with our friends at UPlanMe, a live interactive event marketplace - turning everyone into a natural social butterfly.  Hope you enjoy, and if you’d like the spotlight on your team - please reach out to jessica@startupsforbrands.com for consideration.

Brian and Sean are best friends who found inspiration for their startup after a family Thanksgiving meal, when they were on a hunt for some post holiday fun.  Desperately seeking to find an open (and hoppin’) East Village bar to no avail, Brian and Sean stumbled upon an idea to create customized calendars, and thus UPlanMe was born.

Brian Kantor (@BrianScottK) heads up UPlanMe’s brand and partner acquisition and previously spent the first 6 years of his career working in online, mobile, print and TV advertising for OMD, BlackBook Media andRolling Stone.  Sean Barkulis (@SeanBarkulis) currently oversees UPlanMe’s broader product strategy, business development and technology, but began his career in Finance where he invested in distressed technology and media companies. He then left to launch his own online trading platform for illiquid securities. 

UPlanMe is a live digital marketplace for events, updates and promotions – from creator, to influencer, to consumer. For consumers, UPlanMe is a customized online calendar that updates itself automatically with the events, specials and activities going on nearby. For brands & businesses, UPlanMe enables them to place updates, events, specials and schedules directly onto customers’ calendars as well as to push out that content across the web. UPlanMe also provides online calendar software to 3^rd-party publishers, so they can pull content from our database into their websites.

Tell us… what was the vision behind UPlanMe?

UPlanMe strives to be the end-to-end solution for brands and businesses to manage and promote their updates, events, specials and schedules across the social web; while allowing consumers to easily interact with those brands and businesses, so they never miss out on events and activities.

Name one failure you benefited from – what lesson was learned, and how was it applied?

Very early on we realized the “chicken or the egg” problem that impacts many startups—it’s tough to attract users to your platform without any content, and it’s even more difficult to get brands and businesses to create content for your platform without any users. We forced ourselves to find ways to find clean, useful, reliable brand-content from alternative data sources across the web- giving users valuable content to interact with, before we’d be able to sway brands to embrace our offering. As a result, we developed a suite of powerful tools and analytics for brands to leverage our platform before having a huge user base.

Who is your Mentor?

Steve Martocci, co-founder of GroupMe has offered us a wealth of advice along the way. He constantly reminds us to stay focused and keep it simple.

Help us out here, whats the best piece of advice you can give to aspiring startups?

If someone isn’t already using Facebook, then they are a late adopter,  and probably not going to use your product.  Assume all of your users are already on Facebook,  and use that info to your advantage. Let Facebook do what Facebook  does best, don’t reinvent the wheel, and remove barriers to entry for your platform.

Who are your dream Brand Soulmates, you’d like to work with?

Brands like Starbucks and Gap are perfect soulmates for us, because of their constantly evolving suite of products, offerings and promotions  that would benefit from a direct conduit into the calendars of current and prospective customers.  (Side bar: Our Evol8tion team also thinks credit card companies, such as American Express, or Chase Sapphire that consumers are consistently using at these events would also be fantastic matches)

What is your favorite startup resource?

We’re big into our communal office within the WeWork Labs - the whole “incubator” workplace has been great for us!  Being surrounded by so many like-minded startups who share the same challenges, really serves as an unparalleled resource to overcome what ails us.

Getting a bit deep here – tell us your fears, whats keeping you up at night?

We hope our users come to find UPlanMe as an indispensible part of their daily lives. Despite our tremendous progress to date, we fear that all of our energy and resources will be exhausted before we have the opportunity to realize that dream.

I really wish I thought of….  (Come on guys - don’t say Facebook… its a cop out answer!)

SinglePlatform. Whoever becomes the hub for local businesses to manage their online presence is going to go gangbusters in the coming years.

Thanks for reading!  Check back next week for more stories, and to see if your interview was chosen - be sure to follow @uplanme for their latest updates.

Kraft your Pitch Redux

On Thursday night, June 28th, Evol8tion put on our first branded pitch night called "Kraft your Pitch" in association with Grind and of course Kraft Foods.

This was a pitch night with a twist in the form of two key differences, namely:

1. Instead of pitching to investors, the startup finalists were pitching to brand managers
2. Instead of the 1 winner format, we employed a "everyone's a winner" spirit by providing marketing/agency feedback to all finalists ahead of the pitch night to help them "kraft" their pitch. Our hope is that this feedback will deliver continued value for all their future pitches to investors, brands and agencies.

At the end of the day, it is our belief that every viable startup has a brand soulmate. We equally believe that in startups, brands can find their salvation and solutions to their day-to-day problems (breaking through the clutter, engaging consumers, building brand trust, love and health, creating relevance and resonance, delivering real service and experience, providing utility)

Kraft your Pitch is one of several ways we connect early stage startups to matched brands.

Here is a 2 minute video which summarizes the night:

The finalists (congratulations to you all) were:

• Zokos
• Preplay
• Hatchedit
• GoChime
• Huddlers
• Spacesplitter
• Brouha

...across the following categories:

• Changing the Way we Shop (Shopper Marketing)
• Social TV
• Points and Perks (Loyalty Marketing, Advocacy, Flip the Funnel)
• Technology for Today
• Social Serendipity

If you want to find out who won, watch the video :)

If you'd like to find out more about branded pitch nights, contact us via our website or info [at] startupsforbrands [dot] com

Jaffe Juice #163 - Jaffe and Joel discuss Facebook's Identity Crisis

Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and the upcoming smash hit, Ctr Alt Delete, and I sat down for our regular "debate" to discuss Facebook's Identity crisis as it relates to moving from being a Slave to VC's to a slave to Wall Street, but ultimately a Slave to Brands as opposed to Slave to consumers. Confused? Don't be...just listen and weigh in with your opinion as to whether Facebook has jumped the shark or as Jay Chiat once said, "let's see how big we get before we suck."

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

Calling all startups: It's time to Kraft your Pitch

On June 28th at Grind in NYC, we'll be helping run a branded pitch night called "Kraft your Pitch."

Like the name suggests, this is an initiative we've put together for/with our client, Kraft Foods.

There are many pitch nights where startup hopefuls have a limited time to present their best elevator pitch to an audience and panel of judges (consisting of potential investors and other subject matter experts).

Startups are generally very good at talking tech and even funding, but what about marketing and monetization -  specifically, how their product and/or proposition will help deliver value for both consumers and brands?

That's where this pitch night takes on a different look and feel. For starters, startups will be selected to pitch on the basis of their pitch being a "match" to a defined Kraft focus area. In this case, we'll be honing on:

• Social TV
• Points and Perks
• Technology for Today
• Changing the way we Shop

Then, Evol8tion will spend time with each finalist prior to the pitch night to help "kraft" or customize their pitch to the marketer audience. We'll give advice, feedback and suggestions from the buy-side/agency-side to help refine and evolve their pitch.

We hope that this feedback will prove invaluable far beyond the pitch night itself and we know that the feedback the brand gives as part of the Q&A will go all the way to the bank. This is - after all - our vision at Evol8tion, namely "early stage participation with early stage startups".

And so if you're a startup looking to kraft your pitch, you can submit via www.startupsforbrands.com/kraftyourpitch.

If you'd like to attend, you can register via the same link (spots are extremely limited)

Thanks to Grind, for helping out on the event side and of course thanks to our client, Kraft, for their commitment to helping startups get to the next level.

Here's a more visual description of what I just said:

See you there!

10 Startup Pitch Tips from Day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 in New York

I'm at Techcrunch Disrupt this week at Pier 94, which is all the way over the West Side Highway (Silicon Alley or Valley this is not...)

It's my first one and takes a little adjusting to the tech- and funding- biases which are commonplace in the startup world.

Case in point: FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. YAHOO! WOES. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO. PINTEREST. FACEBOOK IPO. FACEBOOK IPO (in that order)

Then there's the Michael Arrington - Ariana Huffington love affair / spat, which I think may have finally played itself out. Which is good.

These events are pretty grueling for all parties concerned and a special accolade to the startups who have to be "on" constantly as they "man" their booths and work the floor/room throughout the day(s).

I was contacted by several startups and as a blogger/"influencer" and believer in building bridges/relationships with the new content creators/creative class, I wanted to single out those who took the time to reach out in advance of the event:

• Activegift.me
• Chat&
• Runfaces
• ExpertTrivia (Red Ticket Games)
• GuidePal
• Lockerdome
• Parlor.FM
• SocialStock
• CallApp

In terms of themes, definitely encouraged to see quite a bit of activity in the audio category. As a podcasting "veteran", I am intrigued with the text-to-talk, next gen conference calls, audio apps etc. Another trend that is impossible to ignore is the photo/visual explosion and truly, brands need to have photo / visual POV's if not strategic approaches nowadays.

Can't believe I just said that, but it's true. Video is all the rage, but "still images" AKA Photos is right up there (or will be)

All in all, I visited with 26 startups and saw another 20 pitch on the main stage. I thought I'd share 10 ideas or tips about effective pitching (at least from the perspective of a brand marketer/agency/potential investor). Maybe you agree. Maybe you disagree. Feel free to "join the conversation":

1. Keep it simple (stupid) - the K.I.S.S. approach. This could also be called "know your audience". So many pitches dived into tech-speak and complex walkthroughs of product features versus the classic elevator pitch, the idea, the problem being solved, the consumer value proposition and corresponding benefit, points of differentiation etc.
2. Pretend I'm your grandmother. Or grandfather in my case. This is an extension of K.I.S.S. with a key nuance: talk English please :)
3. Use examples. Make it real. Or hypothetically real i.e. give me a sense of product in action and in the case of the Evol8tion business model and our brand clients, describe the perfect or your ideal brand activation.
4. Let the product do the talking....demonstration is key. if you can do a quick scroll, flip, swish or slide in the time allotted, terrific! And here's the catch...don't rely on poor 3G or 4G or even wi-fi connections, which often times are the product of busy networks (think of where you are after all). Cached or offline demos aren't cheating.
5. Do your homework in terms of the crowd and prospective audiences: partner, hire, investor, brand, press etc.
6. Be prepared for the Big Fish. If you get a big bite, be ready to pounce and reel it in. Anticipate this as an exception versus norm, but certainly capitalize on the serendipity.
7. Anticipate every type of question. You can't be surprised if people ask you how you make money for example. Or who your competitors are. Or a little less obvious, when they compare you to Pinterest or ask you what happens with Facebook or Google decides to do the same thing you're doing...
8. Use the audience as your influencers. The Techcrunch audience is a pretty big deal. Just ask them! Seriously though...these people (we) are self-selected as the innovators/early adopters in the tech space certainly, or if not can probably get the message out. So treat them this way..and it all begins by them downloading your app.
9. Special offers are key. I saw very little special offers targeted to this audience. In the case of KurbKarma, they deposited 10 Karma Kredits into our accounts. This could be as simple as letting everyone into a closed/private beta. The worst is putting this audience onto a waiting list...even if you release it the very next day (Uber conference, I'm talking to YOU...now can I get some more invites for my colleagues please :))
10. Comparisons are fine. If you don't make them, we will. We're a Path meets Open Table. Think Square meets Triangle. Oh you mean, like a cross between Twitter and Instagr.am for Newly Wed Cross-Dressers? I get it! The corollary of this is pushing back when we make the same comparisons or benchmarks.

There are a ton more that came up today and maybe I'll include them in a follow up post.

So do you agree/disagree with me? And more constructively, what tips would you offer up as either successful pitch-ers or caring pitch-ees?

 

 

Jaffe Juice #160 - Jaffe and Joel discuss Nike as a Technology company

Is Nike a Shoe company? An apparel company? A health and fitness lifestyle company? Or a technology company? DigiDay Brian Morrissey's insight and my purchase of a Nike Fuel Band prompts a great discussion about brands, branding and the future of marketing and consumer engagement in a digital world. 

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

Reflections from SxSW by Evol8tion's Partners

This year's SxSW Interactive Festival in Austin has come and gone.

Here are 10 insights/reflections from the Evol8tion partners: Sam Huxley, Gina Waldhorn and myself.

This post originally appeared on our Madison & Mountain View Tumblr Blog. If you haven't already, check it out and follow all things MplusMV (the intersection of advertising and technology) 

1. What launches in Austin sometimes stays in Austin (Sam)

In the mythos of SXSW, Twitter and Foursquare both gained massive adoption at the show and went on to mainstream stardom.  Twitter’s utility at the show, creating a back channel to the panels and quickly sharing relevant news, was matched by Foursquare’s ability to easily share location and utility demonstrated at the show was applicable to the mainstream.

For the two last years, however, the darlings of the show have had limited appeal after the show ends.  GroupMe, acquired by Skype last year for $50 million, is super-useful in coordinating large groups of attendees quickly, and is often more reliable than SMS in the bandwidth-challenged environs of the Austin Convention Center.  Outside of SXSW, however, 90% of what it does can be handled by group MMS messages, iMessage, and Gchat.  Similarly, this year’s “hot” app, Highlight, uses passive location to identify users nearby with similar interests, or contacts.  Outside of large conventions, it’s hard to see how this will solve an everyday user problem, besides helping extroverts find each other more quickly.  The other issue is that it needs to run constantly to work, which leads to…

2. Passive location startups need to figure out battery usage (Sam)

The biggest startup trend was around location services such as Highlight, Ban.jo, Sonar, and Glancee.  All of them differ in utility and presentation, but share a drawback that the great-granddaddy of location services, Loopt (recently acquired by Green Dot for $43 million), had in 2005 – they are energy vampires.  The GPS chip is one of the biggest power consumers on every smartphone, and having it on constantly dramatically shortens runtime.  It will likely take phone manufacturers a lot longer to develop better batteries that can handle these apps, than the developers to figure out how to use the GPS less.  If they don’t, it will take years for passive location to go mainstream.

3. The accelerator bubble (Sam)

One of the best panels this year was “Exploring the Top from TechStars, Frank Gruber from TECH Cocktail, Gabriella Draney of Tech Wildcatters, and Aziz Gilani from DFJ Mercury.  It was a solid, wide-ranging discussion, but one topic stood out – the incredible growth of accelerator programs worldwide.  There are currently over 200, and David estimated that there will soon be close to 500. This is an industry that is relatively immune to the normal forces of market contraction – most are isolated regionally, so they face little competition, and most of the founders have large amounts of capital that can keep the lights on until they lose interest.  The downside is that there is a finite pool of experienced mentors for startups to access, and bad advice early is one of the leading killers of great ideas.  The upside is more access to capital means more ideas get funded from a wider range of locations.  Time will tell on which wins out.Accelerator Programs” with David Cohen

4. Serendipity Rules (Joseph)

Going with the flow can produce incredible results. From meeting Christian Arno, the CEO of Lingo24 at the airport check in counter, to meeting Allison Hemming, Top Gun at The Hired Guns, on the plane, and sharing a cab downtown with Justin Glenn Davis, Lead Strategist, at Oniracom. Juan Andres Munoz Fernandez, CNN, Snr. Interactive producer.- outside hotel room door getting the newspaper. I also got a chance to catch up with Jeff Cutler and Chris Brogan one morning early at the Driskill, and it all came from waking up ultra-early due to Jet Lag and sending out a mundane tweet about being up at the crack of dawn. Who says what you had for breakfast on Twitter wasn’t valuable!?!

5. Tail wagging the dog (Joseph)

Big brands were out en masse at SxSW, but I’m just not sure it was because they really should have been there (based on proven media rationale) or because their social media manager or agency told them
they should be there. From talking to various brand managers, I understand how the opportunity to reach 50,000 Millennials had merit, but how many of them were actually “reached” and was it worth the cost?

For those brands that did participate, the ones that added value really scored above those indulging themselves. Chevy’s ride system added obvious utility, whereas Kraft (an Evol8tion client) delivered simple pleasure (and sampling) with their Mac ‘n Cheese Food Truck and speculative move in the form of branded umbrellas (keep your noodle dry). Pepsi’s presence on the other hand seemed to be inconspicuous and even absent (this may have had something to do with a much larger presence last year and perhaps not the best location this year).

Let the debate continue…

6. Nike rawks (Joseph)

Nike decided to launch their Fuelband in Austin. Apparently you can only buy them in Austin (during SxSW) and a concept/factory store in Manhattan, NY. This was a really smart seeding strategy that involved a kick-ass experiential outdoor installation, a pop-up store inspired by Apple, a seamless buying experience with personal shoppers and a constant line outside designed to raise the eyebrows and good old fashioned word-of-mouth. As the festival unfolds, more and more people joined the line based on interactions with others at the festival. Really smart implications for future festivals, namely an initial pop followed by consistent ramping up due to the momentum established by the steady flow of buyers.

The big loser in my opinion was Facebook. Not only were they completely absent, but rumor has it that their employees had to pay their own way there. Guess they were too busy counting their IPO moolah, but on two counts: their presence and actual consumer usage, my take was a giant flat-line.

7. The Freaky Line has been crossed (Joseph)

As Robert Scoble refers to the suite of new services like Highlight, Glancee, Banjo and Sonar. A whole bunch of times my Banjo twanged, the person in question was literally standing next to me. Very freaky indeed. I’m still not sure how this will play out, but glad I got to play this time round.

It was also commonplace to hear every startup pitch begin with “log in with your Facebook account,” which seems like the path of least resistance, but at what cost?

8. Design and User Experience will win the SoLoMo race (Gina)

From accelerator pitches to the line for the bathroom, every other conversation was with the founder of “the next revolution in Social Local Mobile utilities.” The space is certainly ripe for innovation, but the only problem being solved for seems to be “how do I find new and interesting things to do and places to go around me.” While there may be nuances in the platform approach (I.e. A virtual telephone pole with virtual fliers vs. an only positive recommendation engine) the usage and value propositions are the same, which means the battle for mass penetration is going to be won by getting user experience and design perfect (and this was the recommendation made to many of these startups by the VC judges on the accelerator panels).

9. Startups need storytellers (Gina)

After watching 50+ pitches, it became very apparent that a great idea can be lost in a terrible pitch. With the typical competition contestant having a technology background, and being given only 3 minutes or less to pitch their idea, the number one question from the VC’s we heard over and over again was “so, what exactly does it do?” Startup founders have no experience selling, story-telling, or pitching, and thus a great idea is often lost in a too technical, emotionless, example-less, drab presentation. Startups need the consultation (or better yet a staff member) from those who know how to sell a great idea.

10. We NEED to be thinking globally (Gina)

Some of the most interesting startups I connected with were from Chile, Australia, and London. With alternative (and sometimes more advanced) hardware, creativity abounds overseas. South America in particular had a noticeable showing throughout the conference, in both attendee and presenter numbers. With labor cost in South America being significantly cheaper (and creative design being a force to be reckoned with in S.America and Europe) not having a focused global effort will most certainly lead to missed opportunities.

So what were your takeaways?

Jaffe Juice #159 - Madison, Mountain View and Mitch Joel

In this episode, Mitch and I discuss my new company, Evol8tion, as well as the intersection of Marketing/Advertising and Technology in the form of Madison Avenue and Mountain View. We also interject some Super Bowl discussion

Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote the book on it!) @jaffejuice on Twitter and @mitchjoel on Twitter.

And be sure to forward this to any brand marketers you think would benefit from the discussion and ultimately give their perspective on the theme at hand.

Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click)

Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

Weight loss goes hi-Tech

In my new capacity at Evol8tion, we're looking to make connections between technology-based startups and established/blue chip brands.

The Evol8tion mission is to match "viable startups" to their "brand soul mate," but the real platform here is innovation, defined as new approaches that achieve disproportionate positive business outcomes and effect transformational change.

Actually that definition is mine, as the dictionary one is so bland...but you get the gist: doing things differently in order to get a result (which is the opposite of - or antidote to - Einstein's definition of insanity, as well as synonymous with "productive originality" which is actually the definition of creativity...but I digress)

A while back (2007) I started Fatblogging, which I believe is attributed to none other than Jason Calacanis, who put it out there originally. Sebastian Keil later created an autobot on Twitter to RT any #fatblogging tweets.

The concept was simple - lose weight by / via community. Put it out there and put it out there publicly. Get the support of the community, but also be accountable and beholden to that same community who will encourage and congratulate, but also chastise and commiserate. Why not?

I started (according to the post at around 224 pounds) and have yo-yo'ed since to 177 and back up to 212. Interestingly enough, I'm at the same weight now as I was in 2007 when my third child was born, so that can't be too bad. The real prize is to get back to my wedding weight of around 181, which takes me back to the beginning of 1999.

The ability to have a public "timeline" is interesting.

It's an archived record of your highs and lows (literally) and serves as a historical reminder of how you pick up weight, lose it and maintain. Sound familiar? (Facebook has just introduced "Timeline."

Right now, I'm back in the zone and #fatblogging again, but this time thanks to my Withings wi-fi scale. Yes, it's a wi-fi scale that tweets and posts to FB automatically. I realize that's a revolting concept to many, but it's equally empowering to others...you know, the masochistic narcissists.

Truthfully, that's the smallest piece of (somewhat unnecessary) functionality to the concept. The real functionality of the scale is to automatically detect a specific family member's weight and then map it to their profile to determine BMI, lean and fat percentages etc. This is automatically added to your online account, but also iPhone and iPad apps that graphs each weigh-in relative to goal etc.

Withings also allows you to share profiles with other Withings members, as well as to alert your doctor (it has a separate blood pressure product which plugs into your iPhone) if there are irregularities / negative trends etc.

It's just another example of how health is becoming intimately intertwined with digital, social and mobile technology.

My actual weight loss regime is managed via Weight Watchers Online. I've used WWO several times before and I love it. It works. Where I typically go off the rails is losing interest in the application during my maintenance period, but that's on me. Weight loss is really not that complicated:

• smaller portions
• Food awareness e.g. jumbo movie popcorn is essentially 29 points, 80 grams of fat etc.
• Substitutions e.g. egg whites for regular eggs
• Calories In vs Calories Out

The Weight Watchers App is good, but not great. It pivots around the size and quality of the database and whilst it's interesting to know every equivalent of Denny's products, truthfully no one should be setting foot into a Denny's if they're trying to lose weight. I'm not sure WWO fully understands community 2.0 and specifically social.

Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Withings book. Or Foursquare's.

I really love the ability to manage my own weight loss...with the help of technology and the community. It's empowering. Independent. And manageable.

I'd encourage any brands that either directly are built on a health and wellness platform and/or incorporate this theme into their branding, positioning and marketing to seriously look into this field. There are limitless possibilities of partnership with early stage startups, companies and apps looking to make their mark on this exciting space of DIY "Connected" Weight Loss.

What's your favorite weight loss, health or wellness startup, site or app? Share it with the community.

Photo credit: "Diet Themed Street Sign" from Bigstockphoto

It's Time to Evolve: Introducing Evol8tion and Startups for Brands

OK, so it only took me a year to finally announce what I've been up to, but trust me...it was worth the wait. 

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I can share my latest venture: it's called Evol8tion - pronounced Evolootion as in Evolution, but with an "8" which represents infinity (or two "o" 's on their side). You get the drift...

Evol8tion is an innovation agency that puts brands back in control by reverse engineering the startup to create technology solutions to business problems. Let me explain:

Innovation Agency = Innovation is typically associated with product development and packaging, but not marketing itself. The traditional agency has morphed into the digital and social agency. Innovation is the next evolution. Evol8tion is an agent on behalf of its clients (the brands) as well as an agent in the classical sense i.e. that represents the startup community.

Put Brands Back in Control = Brands have had to resort to “renting space” via middlemen in the form of paid media. We believe that brands can move from being media dependent to media discerning, i.e. become owners or even landlords in the world of impressions, attention, time spent and engagement.

Reverse Engineering the Startup = Our mantra of “startups for brands” is essentially an attempt to reverse engineer the startup from the brand backwards i.e. begin with the brand challenge and consumer insight and then work backwards into funding (via brands) and development.

Technology Solutions to Business Problems = There are too many solutions to non-existent problems or tactics in search of strategy. A branded startup needs to address a brief and ultimately deliver against a key marketing (brand health, brand love, preference, loyalty, advocacy) or business (market share, revenue, sales, profitability) KPI.

Put slightly differently: we match early stage startups to blue chip brands to partner via mentoring, pilot programs and/or investment (way under 140 characters, so there!)

Here's a video which explains in a little more detail about the "startups for brands" positioning:

There's also a loooooong version of the video (11 minutes for the masochists out there), as well as several more that speak to our various audiences and our "Madison and Mountain View" platform.

There's way too much to say in a single blog post, so here are the highlights - and they are highlights:

• Joining me in this journey are Sam Huxley and Gina Waldhorn. Sam is ex-New Media Strategies and Y&R and more importantly, he's one of the smartest strategic veterans in the digital space. Plus he's a fellow scotch-loving mad-scientist. Gina is an angel (not investor, but worth more to me) and a thousand thanks to Sarah Fay for introducing her to me. She comes via Carat and Maxus.
• Credibility is so important, especially at the nascent stages of a startup. And when it comes to talking about blue chip brands, you don't get better than Kraft Foods and Anheuser-Busch InBev, who join Evol8tion as founding clients. I can't wait to see what we'll do together...
• We're launching a thought leadership platform and community hub called "Madison & Mountain View." The first iteration is a Tumblr-powered site which you can find here and follow via @mplusmv (what's up, Ashton?) M+MV celebrates the fusion between advertising and technology. M+MV is an independent hub and so if you want to contribute just shoot us a note

• Evol8tion's first branded product is called MatchMaker, which - with a nod to Fiddler on the Roof - will help viable startups find their brand soul mate.
• From time to time, Evol8tion will take a special interest in a particular idea(s). To kick things off, we'll be working closely with TrashCanKidz and Tunespotter to help get them to the next level and explore particular connections with carefully selected brands.

The bottom line is that we see tremendous opportunity in connecting two worlds that - until now - have not naturally come together. Our vision is to swim far upstream through early stage participation with early stage startups.

We think there is significant upside, considering something like 97% of startups never get funded. Perhaps it's just because they never met their brand soul mate <3

So whether you're a brand, startup or potential partner, find out more by watching your video or contacting us to find out more.

So that's it for now. I invite you to:

• Visit our website (www.startupsforbrands.com)
• Ask the Evol8tion 8-ball a question or two
• Browse our vision deck using the very cool Greener Mags platform
• Follow us on Twitter (@evol8tion)
• Check out Madison & Mountain View (www.madisonandmountainview.com) and @mplusmv
• Download our press release -  Download Evol8tion Press Release
• Check out our videos

...and on the 24th only...we're hanging out in a Google + hangout if you want to chat during the day (you'll need to add the page to your circles)

P.S. Just realized that I founded crayon, sold crayon, launched Evol8tion and celebrate my birthday on the same day (the 24th). I had better head for the casino to bet on black...

P.P.S. Mad props to Grant Lyons and Will Cameron for all their help on our visual identity

It's time to evolve...