Downtown Cartel

RT @designcamp “now officially…

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:08:30 +0000

RT @designcamp “now officially on Jan 17 @ Astin Mansion in Bryan TX. Central loc in Texas for all!”

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MiniBarBCS is tonight… don’t…

admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:43:53 +0000

MiniBarBCS is tonight… don’t forget! 5PM Varisco in Downtown Bryan - come early, come late - it doesn’t matta one bit.

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We are really excited and prou…

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:51:34 +0000

We are really excited and proud of the relase of Merb 1.0 RC1. Great work to all of those who made it possible.

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Surviving the credit crisis

Aaron Farnham — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:00:10 +0000

I have done a lot of thinking this past weekend about what Downtown Cartel should do to ensure we survive the current economic down turn. We are in a pretty decent position right now, though we certainly have our fair share of risks. Those risks are essentially the same we started the company with so they are nothing we are not experienced dealing with. Frankly, I think this is a major point for us. We are experienced with the risks we face already and I do not foresee any new risks from this down turn. However, I have done some plan B thinking about how startups in general can survive this economic crisis and came up with a few ideas.

First, if you are building a product and have been doing it for more than six months you have probably gained some significant exeperience in the business problem you are trying to solve. If you take some time to explore how the problem and solution you have been thinking about can apply to other businesses that are not your target customer, you can probably find some decent consulting jobs to generate some extra cash. Yes, it will take away from your product development time, but it buys some runway for waiting out the down turn.

Another is option is to cut your own salary. How much do you really need to live on? If you asked me this before we started Downtown Cartel, I would have said double what I am living off of now and I have the same mortgage and car payment as I did before we started. Do you really need that venti, upside down, iced, non-fat caramel machiatto every day? Or cable TV? Or Netflix? The question is how much do you really want to make your startup succeed?

Now take that same thinking and apply it to your startup. How much do you spend on office space? Do you need fulltime office space? Could your entire company work from home and meet in your living room, a coffee shop, or something else when needed? Sell your office desks and chairs on eBay. How much are you paying for your servers? Find a cheaper host. Don’t pay for Microsoft Office when you can use Google Docs or Open Office.

If anyone else has thoughts on how startups can save money right now, please post them in the comments.

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Downtown Cartel will be repres…

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:11:58 +0000

Downtown Cartel will be representing (not presenting ) at Tech Crunch in Austin tomorrow night. Woot.

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Innotech Preview

Cody Marx Bailey — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:41:38 +0000

Our good friend Whurley was recently spotted in a commercial in Austin promoting the Innotech Conference coming up on October 16th. Susan Price had asked Julie Gomoll, Dusty Reagan and myself to speak on a panel on coworking. I’m really excited about the opportunity as each of the coworking spaces are radically different from each other but maintain the same spirit.

Here’s the vid:

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@JellyInDenton - Welcome! Cowo…

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:13:15 +0000

@JellyInDenton - Welcome! Coworking has done our company wonders. Good luck in the Dallas region. Make sure we get an invite!

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The owners of Downtown Cartel …

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:01:29 +0000

The owners of Downtown Cartel would like to offer their hospitality to anyone leaving the Texas coast for Hurricane Ike.

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Write up of dm-sweatshop

Brian Smith — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:16:58 +0000

Ben Burkert wrote a cool gem called dm-sweatshop that will help you dynamically generate date for tests. Adam French wrote an excellent article about it. I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

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Downtown Cartel sponsors local Film Festival

Cody Marx Bailey — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:08:28 +0000

Downtown Cartel, as a whole, believes that culture is a very important part in our local communities and that is why we have chosen to sponsor the 2008 Red Wasp Film Festival. The Red Wasp Film Festival attracts many film industry professionals early in their careers. Through the years we have enjoyed the festival and this year we felt that stepping up and sponsoring was the right thing to do.

We live in a small city where finding culture isn’t as easy as it may be in places like Los Angeles or Chicago. When we started our company we knew that we couldn’t sit around and wait for others to bring the culture to us. Sometimes you have to be the catalyst and actively cultivate it.

I think this attitude and understanding runs very deep in Downtown Cartel, as well as the other members of the Creative Space. I hate sounding cliche, but the words “Be the change you want to see in the world” seem to resonate in us.

The Sixth Annual Red Wasp Film Festival in downtown Bryan at StageCenter (201-B W 26th St.), October 24-25, 2008, from 7:30 until 11:30 pm. Tickets are available at the door: $15 for one night or $25 for both nights. There is also a special student rate of $10 for one night and $15 for both nights.

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