A High Wire with a Safety Net

Posted on May 14, 2012 by dennis

Last week I gave a “shout-out” to SalesLoft, a recent TAG Top 10 winner that benefited from the ecosystem surrounding Pardot, which is in turn a fast-growing Atlanta technology company. The ecosystem has provided SalesLoft with a “safety net” that helps mitigate the risks associated with a startup venture.

The businesses of the two companies are complementary but distinct. To summarize: Pardot analyzes prospect activity on your properties. SalesLoft finds intelligence about your prospects on the open web.

The founder of the ecosystem is David Cummings, an experienced and highly-regarded Atlanta entrepreneur. In describing his vision, David said: “Only recently, businesses have embraced marketing automation solutions to address prospects interested in your product or service. The next frontier will focus on sales intelligence solutions addressing which prospects you and your sales reps should be interested in.”

Since my last posting, I have had the opportunity to catch up with Kyle Porter and Jon Birdsong of SalesLoft, to discuss what they are up to and how the ecosystem offered by Pardot has benefited SalesLoft.

The TAG Top 10 competition focuses on how innovative a company is, so naturally, I asked Kyle how SalesLoft is innovative. He responded: “We are aggregating, analyzing, and distributing data so sales reps can close more deals. We’re doing this better than any other company in the market.” SalesLoft’s sales intelligence tools target each significant step in the sales process and complement existing CRM and/or marketing automation solutions. Their tools include: prospect rankings, job change alerts, technology scrapers, company spend prediction, keyword operators and company news tracking.

Kyle went on to say: “Imagine a world where you know all the relevant information on your prospects and their companies. Information such as: internal and external news, technology they’ve recently purchased, whether it’s a good time for them to buy, and much more…. We’re at the tip of the iceberg. All of this information better matches the prospect’s buying cycle with your sales cycle. Any company that sells can benefit from SalesLoft.”

SalesLoft is one of six companies comprising an “ecosystem” housed in the Buckhead penthouse of Pardot. Pardot is the biggest, with more than 50 employees. Pardot is a B2B marketing automation software provider that increases revenue and maximizes efficiency for companies with multi-touch sales cycles. Pardot is committed to helping small and medium sized business customers optimize their marketing programs while maximizing their lead generation and nurturing efforts.

We asked Kyle to describe the benefits of being part of the ecosystem. Kyle said: “It’s the best of both worlds. SalesLoft is a small, four-person company, but we offer our employees the benefits and perks of working in a larger company, such as free breakfast every morning, 401k match, and unlimited snacks/drinks.”

Jon Birdsong said: “One of the greatest benefits from a company standpoint is knowledge share. If one of our developers has a question or if I have a marketing/sales question, there are over 70 people around the office that you can walk over to and ask. The efficiency of knowledge transfer is very powerful.

“We also learn and experience “best practices” in marketing and sales tactics, as well as access to homegrown users and customers for each other’s products. Being part of a ‘David Cumming’s Enterprise’ really is an ‘unfair advantage’ for startups.”

So how did SalesLoft come about? Kyle and David came up with idea for the company together. Each of them individually owns equity in SalesLoft. Although Pardot owns no equity in SalesLoft, its ecosystem’s contributions to the success of SalesLoft are hard to ignore.

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Up on the High Wire

Posted on May 8, 2012 by dennis

I recently had an enjoyable networking lunch with a fairly recent graduate of the Goizueta Business School. He was telling me about his job, working on a new business being launched by AT&T. We compared the benefits and challenges of traditional start-ups with corporate start-ups. He longed for the flexibility associated with a true start-up. Although I am envious of certain aspects of that situation, I said nothing to disabuse him of that notion. I prefer life on a tight rope, without a safety net.

It is vastly easier to “pivot” when you are on your own. As long as you don’t lose your balance.

I told my new friend the story of Group Office Buys (GOB) and our origins as One Stop Dorm Shop (OSDS). Why did we change from a consumer-oriented business that sold rising college freshmen everything they needed for college to a B2B purveyor of commodity products? Why did we do this after spending two years of work, after building a complete e-commerce platform that facilitated collaboration and “project shopping” and after signing up 24 vendors? How could we throw it all away?

Here is what had become apparent to us: Our business model was flawed. By one measure the college dorm market was $5 billion. This is a “sexy” market, but not that huge. Every year we had to find our customers. To be a “one stop shop” we had to use 24 vendors, with 24 separate shipping charges and drop ship fees. There went our margins. Moreover, the college dorm market is fashion-oriented; we had to compete against the likes of Pottery Barn Teen and Target. And to top it off, we had to source extra long sheets for typical dorm beds!

Compare that to the office products business. It’s a $310 billion market. Our single vendor stocks 40,000 products (basically the same products as Staples, but twice as many of them!), so we pay only one shipping charge. Every business needs office products and they need to order them every month. So one day the three partners decided that GOB offered a better chance for success than OSDS. We have no bosses or corporate bureaucracy. We don’t even have a Board of Directors.

But there are trade-offs. It was pretty easy getting our web site up, but a lot harder to build the infrastructure that a corporate start-up takes for granted. It took quite some time, and a lot of networking, to find the right sales and marketing people. We needed collateral sales materials. We needed processes. We needed CRM. We needed customer service. We needed HR policies and procedures, starting with something as simple as a way of conducting background checks. The list goes on and on. In the M&A world some people minimize the importance of “goodwill,” but we realized that these intangibles are the difference between being a real company and staying a start-up. And the more of this infrastructure we build, the more committed we are to being an office products company and the less likely we are to “pivot.”

I am reminded of one of the best professional experiences I had. In the 1990s, the management of BellSouth (remember them?) faced the oncoming PCS (Personal Communications Service) revolution in mobility. They were concerned about competing through a cellular business with a culture that was way too similar to the stodgy old landline business. So they built BellSouth Mobility DCS (Digital Communications Service, BellSouth’s spin on PCS) from the ground up. They picked some “renegades” and put them in Buckhead, away from the corporate offices in midtown. Everything was different from the mother ship, but DCS did have all of the resources of a Fortune 50 company. It seemed to work, and it was a helluva lot of fun being outside counsel in many of their endeavors. But all good things come to an end, and as time went on DCS disappeared into Mobility, before Mobility disappeared into Cingular and ultimately BellSouth disappeared into AT&T.

Occasionally there’s a middle way between the somewhat-stifling corporate cocoon and the trapeze act without a safety net. I am intrigued by Sales Loft, a recent TAG Top 10 winner that emerged from Pardot, which is in turn a fast-growing Atlanta technology company. [http://salesloft.com/TAG-Top-10-innovative-companies]

Actually, it is something of a dream of mine, to be a part of at least one strong tech company that in turn can spawn others. But first, we will have to build the first one.

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Catching Up with Merlin Mobility

Posted on May 1, 2012 by dennis

Recently I caught up with Margaret Martin, the President and CEO of Merlin Mobility. Margaret was basking in the glow of Merlin’s recent victory in Harvard Business School’s New Venture Competition for the Southeast. You may have seen Merlin making presentations around town. I saw them at Venture Atlanta this fall and was impressed by the progress they are making. There is a buzz surrounding certain early-stage companies in town, and Merlin Mobility definitely has the buzz.

Click here to check out Merlin's site

Much of the buzz comes from Augmented Reality (AR), the same technology that makes the yellow down line appear in football broadcasts. Merlin Mobility helps consumer product manufacturers shorten the learning curve about their products, by integrating AR. 80% of consumers go online to research products before they purchase them. Merlin takes their research a step further enabling them to “try” the product before buying. The consumer simply downloads an app to access a life size, AR version of the product, which is viewed through the camera of their iOS or Android mobile device. Prospective customers can closely examine controls, test their functionality, interact with the products, compare products and even try them out in their own space.

Once purchased, Merlin streamlines product registration and delivers AR-based support by visually displaying instructions directly over the product, such as “lift cover here”. Related products such as extended service plans can be up-sold as well. Merlin’s content is created by the manufacturer via Merlin’s SaaS platform, providing easy updates, instant deployment and a dashboard for analytics. Check out their demo at: http://merlinmobility.com/demo

Merlin Mobility appears to have the ingredients required for a successful technology start-up. First of all, the start-up needs a strong team, and this begins with the CEO, Margaret. This isn’t her first rodeo. Margaret is a serial entrepreneur, and Merlin is her second Georgia Tech company focused on learning technologies. (If you take an online university level course, chances are that you were utilizing that technology.)

Second (or arguably first), is a strong technology. Georgia Tech is legendary for spawning tech companies. Merlin Mobility is a Georgia Tech VentureLab Company [venturelab.gatech.edu]. VentureLab is Georgia Tech’s center for technology commercialization. VentureLab helps faculty, research staff and students form and develop startup companies based upon their research. Margaret’s colleagues from Georgia Tech are experts in the field of Augmented Reality. Maribeth Gandy, a Senior Research Scientist at Georgia Tech, has been actively involved in the AR research community for more than a decade, and is widely published in the area. Scott Robertson has been a Research Scientist at the Interactive Media Technology Center since 1994.

Finally, a company’s chances for success are greatly increased by participating in the Atlanta technology community’s ecosystem. The centerpiece of this ecosystem is the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) [www.atdc.org], a startup accelerator that helps technology entrepreneurs in Georgia launch and build successful companies. Merlin Mobility was selected to be an ATDC Select companies, based on readiness for acceleration.

Of course, it’s a long road from promising startup to enduring performer, but with these ingredients, the future of Merlin Mobility seems unlimited.

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“…Lest Ye Be Judged” Part II: Lessons Learned from the TAG Business Launch Competition

Posted on April 17, 2012 by dennis

Faithful readers may recall that our software technology company, Dynamic DesignWare, Inc. applied to the TAG Business Launch competition. I was cautiously optimistic: We have a great technology platform, rights to intellectual property, a sound business model, an experienced team and an initial channel to ASID, a prestigious association of 20,000 interior designers.

We worked on the pitch for almost two weeks. The challenge was to make our presentation and create excitement in six minutes. We had to cover all of the usual elements for an investor pitch, including a statement of the problem, how we solve the problem, our team, competition, our business model and financial projections. All in six minutes. Not an easy task.

After our initial dry run with a local legend (his name is omitted to protect the innocent), we knew we had more work to do. Back to the drawing board. After countless hours we had another rehearsal, this time before our mentor, also a local luminary. He pronounced us ready to go.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the next round. But the lessons we learned are universal, and I will share those lessons, along with our presentation’s shortcomings, with you:

• The presentation needs to “pop.” You need to grab the attention of the audience early on. Maybe we should have done the presentation in video rather than PowerPoint.

• You need to be able to define the market. Our judges probably expected us to prove how much designers, decorators and building contractors spend on e-commerce and collaboration software. The problem is, they don’t spend that much and the amount they do spend is difficult to determine. So we tried to show the number of possible users in each category and the size of the furniture, furnishings and building supplies markets.

• The company needs to have a “secret sauce” and proprietary IP. We have both, but we didn’t do a good job of describing them. For example, our Dynamic Bundles enable contractors and designers to create bundles of items, with bundle pricing. What’s unique is that the client can change their bundles or even create their own. Each bundle is priced automatically as it is changed based on proprietary algorithms and the vendor’s objectives. We own our software platform and have an exclusive license of rights under two patent applications.

• Will anyone pay for the technology? The best way to prove this is by sales. We were at a disadvantage, because we hadn’t sold anything yet. But we do have have an arrangement that will integrate our technology into an e-commerce platform that will be offered initially to 20,000 members of ASID, the leading group for designers, and thereafter to tens of thousands of interior decorators. We will be offering it for free on an introductory basis, and thereafter for $25 per month per seat.

• The projections need to be believable. We understand that our projections were not convincing to the judges. This is frustrating. We used Venture X Group, a consulting firm with years of experience building models for venture-backed companies. They were meticulous and based the model and projections on industry research. In a different type of presentation, there would be time for the investors to explore the business model and projections, but we didn’t have that luxury.

Many times I have advised clients and friends who receive bad news in this type of competition, not to be disheartened. In this case I have to follow my own advice. With every presentation and every competition, you should learn something. And there is no shame in changing your business in response to feedback. (It’s called a “pivot”). But you have to persevere. And only the strong survive.

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The Effect of the JOBS Act on Private Placements and Secondary Markets

Posted on April 10, 2012 by dennis

As expected, last week President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which, as I reported, is intended to create jobs by facilitating the initiation and growth of entrepreneurial companies. The Act’s primary way of promoting growth is by facilitating capital-raising activities. The improvement of secondary (resale) markets would support capital-raising by increasing liquidity. Let’s consider the extent to which the JOBS Act promotes these objectives.

Among other things, the JOBS Act is designed to make it easier for companies at different stages of development to raise capital. The crowdfunding provisions permit an early-stage company to obtain up to $1 million through small investments from non-accredited investors, through portals. The JOBS Act also improves the ability of companies (often, later stage) to engage in Reg D private placements by removing the prohibition on general solicitation and general advertising, provided that all purchasers of the securities are accredited investors.

The JOBS Act also increases the number of shareholders that a company can have without having to register as a public company from 500 to 2,000. This change can be helpful not only in offerings but also in facilitating resales.

However, there remains some question as to how much the Act will benefit secondary markets for restricted securities. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in activity on secondary markets, with the emergence of online sites such as Sharespost.com, SecondMarket.com and StartupExchange.com, which provide markets for private company equities that otherwise could not be easily traded. This increase is not surprising in light of the relative lack of liquidity for privately-held companies. As market cap requirements have increased, it has been difficult for a smaller company to go public. Moreover, the cost and administrative burdens of being public have made staying private more attractive.
Is the JOBS Act likely to be as beneficial to secondary markets as it will be on private placements? In a crowdfunding, the issuer can sell securities to an unlimited number of non-accredited investors in the offering, subject to restrictions as to how much each non-accredited can invest. On the other hand, securities purchased in a crowdfunding transaction may not be resold for 12 months, except to the issuer or to an accredited investor.

Also, the changes to Rule 506 will benefit issuers in Reg D offerings, but may not have as much an effect on resales. The removal of the prohibition on general solicitation and general advertising applies to offerings, but in many cases it does not apply to resales of restricted securities that originally were sold in a Reg D offering. (The Act does relax restrictions on the offer of securities under Rule 144A ($500,000 minimum) to offerees that are not Qualified Institutional Buyers (that is, institutions with assets of at least $100 million), including by general solicitation or general advertising.)

The JOBS Act does support the continuing development of secondary markets of restricted securities, but is not likely to have as much of an effect on secondary markets as it will have on primary issuances.

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Passage of the JOBS Act

Posted on April 3, 2012 by dennis

On Thursday, President Obama is expected to sign the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which is designed to make crowdfunding a legal option. Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives resoundingly approved the JOBS Act, which had broad bipartisan support. As the name implies, the JOBS Act is intended to create jobs by facilitating the initiation and growth of entrepreneurial companies.

One of the notable provisions of the JOBS Act is that it allows non-accredited investors to make limited investments in startups raising $1 million or less through approved portals. Under current law, an issuer can raise funds from an unlimited number of accredited investors, but is limited to 35 non-accredited investors. Examples of accredited investors include banks, insurance companies, and individuals with a net worth of $1 million or more.

Another significant change for growth companies is the elimination of the rule that requires issuers with more than 500 shareholders to register as a public company with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Finally, the JOBS Act permits advertising and general solicitation of investments.

Early-stage technology companies are most likely to benefit from the new legislation. Currently start-ups typically rely on investments from friends and family, or perhaps angel investors. The new rules will certainly loosen restrictions by, among other things, permitting the start-up to obtain investments from non-accredited investors and advertise the investment opportunity.

Many early-stage companies, particularly software companies, don’t need that much capital, at least to get started. Institutional investors, and even angels, may not be interested if the business is too early or the opportunity is too small. It will be somewhat easier to raise a small amount like $50,000 to $100,000 by virtue of the crowdfunding now facilitated by the JOBS Act. The issuer can advertise, and can accept small investments from a large number of non-accredited investors.

Many detractors have expressed concern that crowdfunding will lead to fraud and abuse, creating a “boiler room” environment. The final legislation does include some investor protections. Any company using crowdfunding methods must file basic information with the SEC concerning directors, officers and large shareholders, a description of its business and financial condition and, depending on the size of the offering, reviewed or audited financial information. Certain intermediaries involved in crowdfunding must register with the SEC, make sure investors are advised of the risks, and take measures to prevent fraud. Anti-fraud provisions of securities laws will remain in place as well, and the SEC will provide regulations under the Act prior to its effective date. At the end of the day, an increase in fraud may be the price that society has to pay for greater liquidity and job creation.

After a successful capital-raise through crowdfunding, the issuer may face unexpected negative consequences. For example, a company with a large number of investors will bear additional administrative costs, and venture capitalists and other institutional investors may be reluctant to invest in an early-stage company with such a large shareholder base.

It will be interesting to see how this works out. I expect that some of my smaller law clients will seek advice as to the new crowdfunding provisions and whether this type of offering is right for them. It is also possible that one of my companies may explore the use of crowdfunding for its own fundraising. At the TAG Summit there was a lot of excitement about the JOBS Act and talk of companies vying to be the first to launch an offering in Georgia. In any event, this legislation represents a welcome change from the previous trend towards increasing regulation that has had the effect of limiting access to capital markets and decreasing liquidity.

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Top 10 Winners Display Depth and Breadth of Georgia’s Technology Community

Posted on March 26, 2012 by dennis

Today the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) announced the Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies in Georgia. These companies were selected based on their innovations. Each of the Top 10 will make a three-minute presentation regarding their innovations at the 2012 Georgia Technology Summit (GTS) on March 28, 2012 at the Cobb Galleria Centre. The theme of the 2012 GTS is Innovation: The Path to a Bright Future. All of the TAG Summits have focused on innovation, and many people view the annual Top 40/Top 10 competition, with its focus on innovative technology companies, as the highlight of the Summit.

The competition for Top 10 recognition was particularly fierce this year. This year’s Top 10 companies demonstrate the depth and breadth of Georgia’s technology community. Based on information provided by each company, I have summarized what makes them innovative.

The 2012 Top 10 Innovative Companies are:

AirWatch is a global leader and innovator in mobile security and mobile device management and mobile application management solutions. AirWatch offers scalable and flexible deployment options with Software as a Service (SaaS), appliance or on premise solutions. It offers the an innovative HTML 5 console, self-service portal and app catalog and has advanced branding options for end customers and white label offerings. www.air-watch.com

BrightWhistle is an online customer and patient acquisition management platform provider. By integrating PPC Ad Management, a digital matrix of branded websites and quality content, BrightWhistle’s online customer and patient acquisition management platform increases new customer count while decreasing acquisition costs. Its innovations include its focus on helping to automate the process of actually generating leads themselves. www.brightwhistle.com

FirstData First Data is a global industry leader in facilitating payment transactions, whether the choice of payment is by debit or credit card, gift card, check or mobile phone, online or at the checkout counter. This year First Data is recognized for its OfferWise solution, which allows offer publishers to electronically attach offers such as deals, eCoupons and loyalty programs to one or more of a consumer’s payment cards or mobile wallet to enable streamlined and automatic redemption of the offer at the point of sale (POS). First Data is currently piloting its OfferWise solution with dozens of merchants and it will be made available to its more than four million U.S. merchant locations. www.firstdata.com

Innovolt bridges the gap between power protection and asset service markets. Innovolt’s proprietary and patented electronics protection technology, is cost-effective, highly scalable and integratable, and is proven to significantly increase product reliability and lifespan. Innovolt’s comprehensive technology platform is proven to help electronic equipment last longer and with fewer service interruptions. www.innovolt.com

NexTraq provides an easy-to use, cost-effective GPS fleet tracking solution that helps automate manual business processes, saving time and money. The cloud-based NexTraq solution provides the necessary information to efficiently manage a fleet and maximize revenue. Its GPS fleet management solution drives benefits. It provides the industry’s first skype integration to GPS fleet tracking solutions. www.nextraq.com

PodPonics offers a distributed approach to growing fresh produce year-round at or near the point of consumption. PodPonics founder and CEO, Matt Liotta, has taken traditional methods of indoor growing and has added technology to reduce the overall energy usage, while increasing yield. PodPonics’ system reduces cost, improves quality, and creates local jobs while answering the strong and growing demand for locally-produced natural whole foods. www.podponics.com

Proximus Mobility is a location-based proximity marketing firm that serves relevant content to phones, allowing brands to grow sales and secure data. The software solution not only increases brand recall and propensity to buy among consumers but also anonymously captures customer data and campaign analytics. The anonymous customer profiles allow brands to personalize the customer shopping experience based on the customer’s previous shopping behavior, traffic patterns and dwell times. www.proximusmobility.com

RedBag utilizes Ozone Sterilization and Maceration (OSM) to provide a safe, community-friendly alternative for processing biohazardous waste. OSM represents a leap forward in sustainable waste management because it is more environmentally friendly and less costly than other alternatives. OSM processing eliminates the potential risks associated with spills and mishandling during transport while producing material that is guaranteed to be sterile, safe and unrecognizable before it leaves the premises. www.redbag.com

SalesLoft is a sales intelligence software company. SalesLoft delivers valuable data intelligence software with the specific objective of assisting B2B sales representatives. It provides technology aimed at easing the ability to research and identify sales prospects and rank them according to their likelihood to buy. SalesLoft speeds up sales cycles and closes more deals for sales reps by leveraging big data to reduce expensive time on research. www.salesloft.com

Velocity Medical is a medical imagining informatics software company that helps physicians better manage, plan, and assess a cancer patient’s therapy. It is the first image management system designed to met the specific needs of oncology. The software reduces the time involved in planning and evaluating cancer patient treatments, ultimately resulting in cost saving and quality improvement. www.velocitymedical.com

Based on their auditions, I am really looking forward to hearing their presentations. I hope to see you at the Cobb Galleria on Wednesday, March 28, 2012.

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“Judge Not…”

Posted on March 20, 2012 by dennis

Faithful readers may recall that I am the chair of the 2012 Top 40 Innovative Technology Company competition, sponsored by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). Our committee judges applications with the objective of choosing the most innovative Georgia technology companies. Because of my participation on the committee, I did not submit a Top 40 application on behalf of my own software technology company, Dynamic DesignWare, Inc.

But there was nothing to stop us from applying to another competition, the TAG Business Launch. My one experience with the Business Launch was serving last year as a mentor to OneSpring, LLC, which proved to be fortuitous. Recently Dynamic DesignWare engaged OneSpring to create the development requirements for our software platform, and they did a great job.

After three years of working on our technology companies, including launching two businesses, I concluded that Dynamic DesignWare was the right business for the TAG Business Launch competition: We have a great technology platform, rights to intellectual property, a sound business model, an experienced team and an initial channel to ASID, a prestigious association of 20,000 interior designers.

Of course, it’s one thing to have all the pieces in place for a successful business launch, but it is something else to have all of the ingredients for a competition. They “lure you in” with an initial application that isn’t that hard to complete. Most of it is based on an Executive Summary, and we prepared a pretty good two-pager.

But pithiness is a virtue and the Business Launch committee informed us that, going forward, best practices required a one-page document. After wielding an axe we chopped away most of a page, but we have some more work to do before Friday’s deadline.

More challenging is the presentation, the “pitch,” which we’ll make next week. In six minutes we have to cover all of the usual elements for an investor pitch, including a statement of the problem, how we solve the problem, our team, competition, our business model and financial projections.

Covering all of this in six minutes will not be easy for me; I can be a bit wordy, particularly when describing our platform. Our mentor suggested that we create a video, to facilitate covering everything in a limited period of time. When you need a video in a week, who ya gonna call? OneSpring! (Once again.) They are helping us create a video to showcase our product. Even with our tight schedule and budget, early indications are quite promising.

Over the next few days we will scramble to put the pieces together, to meet the Friday deadline for submitting the presentation slides.

The real fun begins next Monday morning, when we make our presentation to the Business Launch judges. I expect to be subjected to the same types of “constructive criticism” that I have been giving the TAG Top 10 candidates. I can dish it out, but can I take it? Will I make the same mistakes that others have made (and that I have pointed out), like too many words on a slide? Will the video play when it is supposed to? Will I fit the presentation into six minutes or will they have to cut me off? Stay tuned.

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TAG Names Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies

Posted on March 12, 2012 by dennis

Today, the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) announced the 2012 Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies. I am the founder and chair of the Committee that determines the winners. I can honestly say that serving on this Committee is the most fulfilling and fun not-for profit activity in which I have been involved.  I enjoy working on this competition not only because it gives me a visibility into our vibrant technology community but also because of the Committee members.

TAG presents these awards to Georgia-based technology companies based on their degree of innovation, the scope and financial impact of their innovations and effect of such innovation in promoting Georgia’s technology industry throughout the U.S. and globally. A list of the 2012 winners is set forth at the end of this post.

The Top 40 Companies will showcase their innovations at the 2012 Georgia Technology Summit (GTS) on March 28, 2012 at the Cobb Galleria Centre. The theme of the 2012 GTS is Innovation: The Path to a Bright Future.  All of the TAG Summits have focused on innovation, and many people view the annual Top 40/Top 10 competition, with its focus on innovative technology companies, as the highlight of the Summit.

The Top 40 Committee also determines the Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies, which will be announced soon. Each of the Top 10 will have the opportunity to make a three-minute presentation to the GTS audience concerning its innovations.

In case you missed the TAG press release, the 2012 Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies are:

AirWatch

Aptidata

BrightWhistle

CodeGuard

CompliancePoint

Concurrent Computer

Contact At Once!

CorFire

CubeVibe

DataOceans

Digital Assent

eFortresses

EyeLevel Interactive

First Data

FreebeePay

Implantable Provider Group (IPG)

Innovolt

Kabbage

Lancope

Mowgli

NCR

Neurotic  Media

NextInput

NexTraq

Numerex

Patientco

Paymetric

Pindrop Security

PlayOn! Sports

Podponics

Proximus Mobility

rappidApp

Red Bag Solutions

SalesLoft

ShopVisible

TerraGo Technologies

TripLingo

Velocity Medical Solutions

Vertical Acuity

Whiter Image

The members of the Top 40 Committee include venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs and seasoned executives.  The members of the Committee include: Ed Croft, Sig Mosley; Joshua Silver; Kelly Gay; Jamie Bardin; Knox Massey; Linnea Geiss; Mathew May; Pete Reilly; Ron Dolinsky; Spence McClelland; Stephen Fleming; Philip Lewis; Gordon Rogers; Scott Magnes; Blake Patton; and John Wilson.

I hope to see you at the Cobb Galleria on March 28, 2012.

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Filing Your Utility Patent

Posted on March 5, 2012 by dennis

Dynamic Bundles, LLC filed its utility patent application over the weekend. We finished the application in the nick of time.  Here are my thoughts and impressions from the perspective of the inventor, not as a lawyer.  My advice to anyone considering filing a patent application is don’t try to do it without an excellent patent lawyer.

We had filed a provisional application a year before and therefore had to file the utility by the anniversary date.  The biggest difference between a provisional patent application and a utility patent application is that the provisional contains disclosures about the inventions, while the utility must also include claims.  A year ago our patent lawyer, Jeff Kuester, pushed me to write a comprehensive description of our inventions for the provisional application.  Some inventors try to submit the bare minimum, but run the risk that they did not fully and properly describe the inventions.  Because we were successful in following Jeff’s directions, the provisional was comprehensive, and thus the disclosure in the utility application didn’t require that much extra work. Note that in the utility application you can change the wording of the disclosures that were in the provisional application, but new disclosures will have probative effective only from the date of the utility application’s filing.  Once the utility application is filed, you can’t change the disclosures (including the diagrams or screen shots).  So many rules!

I am beginning to understand what a challenge it is to write claims. Writing claims requires strict adherence to rules. (For example, you can’t say “not” and you can’t say “or.”) But it is art as well as science. The good news is that the claims aren’t immutable.  Whereas you can’t change the disclosures after you file the utility application, we learned from the previous utility application that you can change the claims in response to the Patent Office’s office action.

We followed the practice of “concentric claims.” As a technology lawyer I have passed this concept on to my clients with only a superficial understanding.  I am starting to get the hang of it. You start with a broad independent claim and then you add dependent claims.  The independent claim can be very broad, while the dependent claims narrow the independent claim in various ways.  Usually patents won’t issue for very broad independent claims. On the other hand, I felt that you could make a better impression on the patent examiner if the independent claim wasn’t so broad that it could describe virtually any e-commerce system.  I was warned—and rightly so—that we risk giving something up in breadth by narrowing the independent claim too much. So it’s a balancing act.

In the previous utility patent application, we had to spend a lot of time responding to the office action. During that process we changed the claims considerably.  (I had changed patent law firms between the application and the office action.)  My current patent lawyers told me that it was fine to change the claims, as long as the disclosures supported the claims.  We went through the disclosures with a fine tooth comb to find support for our claims and thankfully the disclosures supported all of the changes.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you have to pay extra for having more that three independent claims or more than 21 total claims.  It is not worth losing a solid claim to save filing fees, but these rules impart some discipline, especially on a start-up.  Apparently some patent applications had run amuck with claims until the Patent Office implemented that rule.

All we can do now is wait for the Patent Office’s response. Perhaps for a year or two.  If they deny some or all of the claims, as they usually do, we will once again revisit the claims in connection with our responses. Never a dull moment in the patent world. And if we are lucky, by then we will have some more inventions to patent, meaning we can start this process all over again for a third patent application.

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