Portland’s tech startup community – Startupalooza [Startup Saturday]

Last Saturday I attended one of the events coordinated by Portland’s vibrant startup tech community and encountered entrepreneurs, executives, bloggers, analysts, and consultants.  Startupalooza (link) is one of the various ways that social media is helping to bring people together.  Organized through the web this event had capped the attendance at 200 people due to space limitations, but had an additional 67 people on the waiting list.  Its goal was to provide a live networking opportunity as well as a forum for presenting ideas.  Many of the attendees had their twitter addresses on their name badges.

Among the presenters were executives from Jive Software to explain their successful startup process.  They understand the influence of the analysts and have dedicated resources to an AR program.  You will note that we blogged about Sam Lawrence’s “Analyst Report card” which certainly raised their visibility.

You can link to the descriptions of the various presentations, but I would like to point out an example of one that could significantly benefit from more analyst exposure.

 I want Sandy is a personal email assistant that reminds you of tasks, appointments, and concepts you wanted to recall.  It integrates with Outlook, sends you a morning digest, and maintains reminders by whatever email methods you use including your phone or blackberry.  Their service is free to individuals with a business model aiming toward corporate use.  A strong connection with the right analysts could promote its use in the large corporations as they consult with those analysts about email upgrades.  As a small startup they don’t have the resources to conduct a full AR program, but analysts have a significant influence in the implementation process of IT for large companies.  Some well placed connections would have impact on future revenues.

Remember, you do not have to be a client to brief the analysts and information is your best currency.  If you can create buzz about new concepts and get the discussion going you have a chance at category creation. Also, don’t forget that there are “bite sized” AR services available to help startups with entry level analyst outreach.

SageCircle Technique: 

• As always, determine the best analyst list based on rank and tier in your marketplace
• Focus on analysts that are seeking new technology or cool innovations
• Determine the related analysts that use social media, especially blogs
• Arrange briefings and then conduct them using web technologies
• Attempt to meet analysts at their conferences and social events

 Bottom Line: SageCircle research continues to show that analysts have a significant influence on the IT buyer decisions.  Startups hoping to enter new spaces will need to create awareness with appropriate analysts so that they may be considered for future corporate purchases.

 Question:

 Startups – What attempts have you made to brief the analysts? What results have you found?

 Analysts -What advice would you offer startups on how to communicate with you to provide a briefing?

How SageCircle can Help: If you need advice about how to build awareness and relationships with analysts, check out SageCircle’s two-hour and five-hour advisory paks. The advisory paks are easy to setup and pay for via credit card. We can help you by: 

• Reviewing your briefing plans and presentations
• Suggesting analyst lists
• Suggesting tactics and providing best practices for using other forms of social media

For more information, visit our website or contact us at sales [at] sagecircle dot com or 650-274-8309.