Cody Marx Bailey, and Roby Fitzhenry (of Always Creative fame) were interviewed on Biased Transmission, a weekly radio show on KEOS, and broadcast live on ustream.tv where they covered the Creative Space, starting up your own business, and marketing/branding. There was a technically difficulty at the station so the stream was broken up into two different streams. Check out the first below:

The formation of Downtown Cartel can be directly attributed to our work environment, The Creative Space. We all started as individual residents in a coworking space in downtown Bryan. We would come in after our day jobs and visit a bit. Kick some ideas around. Go out to eat, then come back and work on different projects. The office grew from five people to thirteen in just under 8 months.

I was one of the founding members of the Creative Space along with four others and somehow I knew that if we got this thing started, something very good would eventually come from it.

In December of 2007 - sometime between Christmas and New Years the four of us were sitting around one night and we all came to the realization that we had all the parts to start a software development and consulting company specializing in Ruby and Python.

The amazing talent of the other residents are a great value to our company. We can outsource work that we may not be the best at - like photography or video - thanks to guys like Michael Cummings.

The first ‘real’ company that existed in the Creative Space was Always Creative - a company we work very closely with when it comes to design and branding.

We also have access to PHP and ASP guys in the space that we can go to if we need expertise in that area.

And last, but not least there’s a Solaris admin in the group that is most useful not for his old-school unix admin abilities, but his home brewing of beer. We have found a need for beer far more than a need for Unix admin skills.

The folks outside of our company are the ones who provide us the ability to adapt to the different types of work that come in. We have the leanness of four and the experience of thirteen. This is a defining aspect of our company and we are fortunate to have the folks around us when we need them.

Social networking has under gone 2 major shifts in the last 15 years of the world wide web. The first social networks came in the form of real-time chat services like ICQ and AIM. These services allowed you to talk to your friends anywhere in the world and provided a type of communication connectivity not seen before. After a number years as king, chat services declined, in terms of hype at least (I imagine the number of people chatting is still growing), and the second generation of social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, gained the crown as the hip place to hang out.

However, cracks in the foundation of the second generation have begun to appear. The rise of extremely powerful cellphones, such as the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices, are creating a 3rd generation social network as these devices become more than phones and email devices. They are the new social network. As these devices gain functionality that make them more general purpose computing devices than phones, you will see the rise of social networking applications specifically for the phone.

There is far more potential with these types of social networking tools. By 2010 most, if not all, smart phones will have integrated GPS. This will enable large scale, location based networking (i.e. meeting people in real life instead of over a computer screen) and advertising. Since the phone knows you are standing in Starbucks, a well done social network application will be able to provide the phone owner with a coupon for the tasty dessert in the display case with their purchase of coffee. That is the real value in the future mobile social network.

If you are looking to position your company for the future rather than trying to keep up with the present, drop us a line at info@downtowncartel.com. We can help you build the future social network.

When we started Downtown Cartel,  I was pretty naive about how to go about building a client base. The last several months have been a crash course in that. I have a lot to learn still, but I think I have made significant progress. Here are a few things I have learned along the way.

Make use of everyone you know

The last couple weeks I have been going through my GMail, Linked In, and Facebook contacts and finding a ton of people that I forgot I knew (sorry friends!). One by one I am going through and contacting them individually, catching them up on what I am doing with the business and letting them know we are actively seeking client work. It really amazes me, but the most unlikely friends and family can bring you some of your best business.

Be willing to do what it takes to gain the client

One of the quickest ways to sell yourself to a potential client is to make it easy for them to choose you. To do that be willing to help them cut costs on the projects they bring you. Sometimes that will mean cutting your rates a bit, or sometimes helping them identify the core features that they really need. Look for innovative ways to create extra value in their project at no additional cost.

Work for repeat business

When you begin a project with a new client often you are implementing just the first version of what their ultimate product will be. Make sure you work closely with them to achieve their vision of what the end product will be like. You can achieve this by giving your clients the opportunity to provide regular feedback on the progress of your work. If you are not giving your client that opportunity at least every 2 weeks you are probably doing something wrong. Alternatively, if you see that their vision is a bit misguided but there is great value in their idea, help them see a different, better vision for the product. If you can do this, you will win clients for life.