In the Hindu religion, a cow is your mother. That’s why the cow has a revered place in countries like India where cattle belong to an uber-caste and travel freely with little fear of harm. Mothers are also the source of babies, which leads to population growth and more consumers consuming! Necessity is the “Mother of Invention” that leads us to our main point: SMB startups that are emerging and impacting the economy in a powerful way.
It’s a well-known school of thought that many of the very best companies (e.g., Intel) are created during times of economic turmoil. That is because companies learn how to run lean and mean. Need relevant examples? Look no further than two prominent members of the SMB community. Shortly before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, two successful SMB consulting practices where started and continue thriving as I write these words. Aaron Booker, shown on the cover, started his well-respected Hardlines technology consultancy (located in Bellingham, Washington) September 1, 2001. He quickly learned how to plant seeds in a recession and harvest when the crop was ready. But he didn’t stop there! Aaron’s latest venture, VarVid, started in spring of 2008 as the US economy technically started its contraction (according to economists).
Closer to the epicenter of the “9/11″ tragedy and the corresponding economic downturn in the first part of the century (also driven in part by Y2K and “dot com” scale-backs) was the team of Jennifer and Carl Mazzanti in Hoboken, New Jersey. Two days before Booker started Hardlines, the Mazzantis started eMazzanti Technologies. This award-winning firm learned how to grow a start-up business the old-school way during tough times-through hard work and great service. Today this Microsoft Gold Partner and Small Business Specialist entity is often featured in Microsoft case studies and advertisements. (eMazzanti is featured in a two-page advertisement in Issue 3-3 of SMB PC magazine.)
2009 Recession Startup Wall of Fame!
Can the “economic slowdown startup” strategy from the last recession work today? Let’s find out by taking an “executive MBA scan” of several interesting startups. We consider this to be our SMB “Heroes” who are doing their part, day-by-day, to save the economy!
The founders from Doyenz, Symform, Sharedband, and Varvid discuss their respective ventures at a Seattle coffee shop in the funky Fremont neighborhood.
I recently had coffee with the founders of Team 747 on a visit to the Silicon Valley. What is it about coffee shops and startups? Must be the caffeine!
Best of the Rest</strong rel=”nofollow”>
I know, I know. I am forgetting to cover a few more startups here such as Untangle, CoreConnex, et al. So read my SMB Dude blog at our SMB Nation site to keep up with my research. That’s the beautiful thing about our combined media approach: both print and blog. This allows article updates!
Plan B: Be the Startup-Business Coach
Another SMB community citizen, Todd Colbeck, has started a new service inside Colbeck Consulting Services. Todd trains folks to be business coaches. I sat in on his recent two-week intensive Webinar-based boot camp and was thoroughly IMPRESSED! What I witnessed was an MBA-level course being delivered so that we “techies” can elevate up to being Trusted Business Advisors and grow way beyond the bits. Todd explained his solution to me this way. “Business owners need new ideas to survive in a down economy, and the consultants in my group are a great resource. Recently we have provided not only technical support but a helpful psychological lift to get our clients to remain optimistic in the current environment.” Learn more at www.ccgcoaching.com.
Plan C: Existing Innovation
As part of my research for this article, I sat in on a Verizon concall to launch its redesigned Small Business Center. This is primarily a customer-facing hosted application service and keenly positioned for the startup that would be attracted to an off-premise technology suite. What I especially liked was here is a Fortune 500 company that is innovating new small business solutions in the recession!
And then there’s Matthew Sutton at Seattle-based HyBlue. At its Queen Anne offices in the early part of the decade, HyBlue was the original host for the Puget Sound Small Business Server (PSSBS) user group created by SBS MVP Steven Banks. That’s true grassroots SMB community support. HyBlue’s flagship network monitoring product is still popular in our community today. I recently received an e-mail from Matt announcing something “completely different” that taps into a countercyclical trend I highlighted in the Geekonomics cover story (SMB PC 1Q2009, Issue 3-4): SEX SELLS! Here is the press release on his iBurlesque iPhone application! iBurlesque-Now showing on your iPhone!
Remember those “floaty pens” with the hot girls that took their clothes off when you tipped the pen over? Your granddad or uncle probably had one and now you can show him the latest version on your iPhone! We’ve updated the floaty pen for the iPhone and featured stars from the neo-burlesque scene. Just select one of our lovely performers, tip your phone to the right, and voila! Her outer vestments fade away before your very eyes! With iBurlesque it’s easy to add new stars to your iPhone in just a couple of clicks. We’ve made it easier than ever to update your collection. And we’ll be adding more beautiful performers in the days to come as well as exciting new features to add even more realism to their performance.
Visit www.hyblue.com (nice) and http://www.iburlesque.biz (naughty).
A Helping Hand!
So how does the Big M fit into this story? To be honest, I wasn’t sure when I started my research. Microsoft is now a mature company, and I just didn’t see the startup hook. But then I was reading my beloved Wall Street Journal and found a story that featured Dan’l Lewin, an executive at Microsoft who oversees BizSpark http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/pages/home.aspx). At that point, I had found my story hook! It turns out that BizSpark provides free Microsoft software (for development and external web site and ecommerce purposes) to privately-held startups nominated by the community (Microsoft Champs) that are three years of age or less and have less than $1M UDS revenue. I will cover this program much more in the 4Q2009 SMB PC magazine. Here is a short list of companies that BizSpark is supporting and, ergo, supporting the “new economy.”
Conclusion: Create Your Future in the New Economy
We’re all going to emerge from this recession older and wiser. Major forces driving the recovery will be small business startups that innovate us out of the financial doldrums impacting world economies. So please support and honor the efforts of the startups highlighted here. And maybe you should take the plunge and try out your new business idea in the free market. As you have read, the timing actually couldn’t be better!
By Harry Brelsford
Carl Mazzanti is Co-Founder and President of eMazzanti Technologies, Microsoft’s four time Partner of the Year and one of the premier IT consulting services for businesses throughout the New York metropolitan area and internationally. Carl and his company manage over 400 active accounts ranging from professional services firms to high-end global retailers.
eMazzanti is all about delivering powerful, efficient outsourced IT services, such as computer network management and troubleshooting, managed print, PCI DSS compliance, green computing, mobile workforce technology, information security, cloud computing, and business continuity and disaster recovery.
Carl Mazzanti is also a frequent business conference speaker and technology talk show guest and contributor at Microsoft-focused events, including frequent prominent roles at the Microsoft Inspire (Worldwide Partner Conference / WPC).
Carl, a serial Entrepreneur, gives back to the community through Entrepreneur teaching engagements at Georgetown University, the company’s ocean wildlife conservation effort, the Blue Project, and Tree Mazzanti.
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