Modded LLC & 2Surge Unify

Quick update to previous post and changes to Modded LLC. Modded is now a part of www.2Surge.com(new website launching shortly). 2Surge is a fully functional, scalable social application (mobile, web, software) development company with over 100 developer resources worldwide, and full scale project management.

Modded via the acquisition provides the sales, marketing and consulting front end. By combining the strengths of both organizations, we have the ability and now agility to execute on design, build, and market any type of social solution you desire. We now handle full service advertising via Omnicom, online media buying, direct media buying, digital and interactive along with our social auditing, content continuity programs.

Modded LLC is now a holding company for key social media executives and venture capital organizations to utilize as an incubation playground for social startups. Have an idea, run it by Modded, and we help get it funded, built, launched, and brought to market.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Introduction-to-Koeppel-Direct.html?soid=1104566193008&aid=zWfnJ5SCP58

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Introduction-to-Koeppel-Direct.html?soid=1104566193008&aid=zWfnJ5SCP58

Global Partnership Announcement with Koeppel Direct & Modded LLC

Koeppel Direct & Modded LLC Multi-Channel Direct, Social & Digital Media Koeppel Direct has perfected the art of media buying. Our extensive knowledge of direct marketing  and our strategic approach to integrating both TV, Social and Digital campaigns  has solidified our position as a leader in our field.  Our core competency is Direct Response Television, Social Media and Digital Media  targeted engagements which entail the following types of campaigns:   Lead Generation  Drive to Web  Drive to Social  Drive to Mobile  Drive to Retail  Direct to Consumer Product sales Koeppel Direct has developed some of the most sophisticated, proprietary media strategies  and research analytics tools currently used in the Direct Response industry and we've  helped such companies as WebMD, Turbo Tax, Rubbermaid, Biz Detergent, Cigna and  many others save up to 50% on their TV, Social and Digital Media.   Raymond St. Germain IV Vice President Sales  16200 Dallas Parkway, Ste. 270 Dallas, TX  75248 (P)  972-732-6110 Ext. 104 (M) 214-995-1744 (F)  972-407-0944 (E) rstgermain@koeppelinc.com

Modded.com LLC 2011

Welcome to the new year and thank you for following my blog.

The holidays flew by, but it was great to surround myself with my amazing family and close friends.  Now it's back to building on what we started in 2010.

So many great things coming up; like our new Chief Marketing Officer is starting next week and our new Director of West Coast Sales starts next week as well.

It's going to be a super crazy month, as we have partner meetings and trainings.  We have our very first official Board of Directors call coming up, and we are exploding our pipeline growth with outbound campaigns.

As most of you know, we just finalized our investor slide deck and it's been very well received.  While we still have some tweaking on work flow, it's just a matter of time of finding the rights folks to make that investment into our ever growing company.

We're on the brink! - the brink of exploding in 2011.  We have a wide range of client prospects in our pipeline, ranging from small business all the way to billion dollar enterprise corporations.  Why now? - great question.  Most companies that I have chatted with over the last month have told me the same thing.  We have a thousands of brands we represent but can only dedicate some much budget to ramping those brands throughout the year.  Plus they have hundreds of vendors, all touching the brand, but no one is monetizing it in a fashion that drives master brand recognition and revenue for the company.  It is a common problem that most if not all of the marketing folks I chat with tell me.

In addition, we just opened our Social/Digital Media Managed Services offering for the gaming industry.  Backed by IGA Worldwide and Red Urban (Omnicom), we can now offer full service social and digital media managed services to the U.S. & International Gaming markets.  If you're a game publisher, then you'll want to chat with Modded to help with your social and digital needs.

On that note, expect the frequency of my blogs to pick up in 2011.  Modded is growing, looking for investors, adding new team members and growing internationally.  I'm excited to see what this year has for us.

Matthew Moalem

Modded.com LLC

Wow - Christmas is just two days away.  Where has the year gone?  Crazy to think that one year ago today, I was working for a large e-discovery provider and now I have my own company.  Very exciting times to say the least.

Well on to more documented items.  This has actually been a positive, almost very positive week.  I wanted to share this brotherly story with you.  As if it's almost a coming of age, but more like the evolving of our great company.  My older brother was on a conference call with one of his game publisher connections this week.  The guy on the phone asks my brother "hey are you related to Matthew Moalem?", my brother being completely stunned by the question said "yes, I am", and said (being the big protector that he is), "how do you know my brother?".  The guy responded with "We came across your brothers company Modded, and have call with their VP of Bus Dev this week".  Now this is a semi role of reversal, as most used to ask me if I was related to my older brother, and if they could get some insight into the company he was attached too.  Now I won't go into the details, but needless to say, it's a rather good sized game publishing company.  A tremendous validation on one of our target verticals which is gaming and game publishers.

We finally completed our investor slide deck this week as well.  I'm gearing up for a series of calls today and next week, then possibly into a roadshow next month.  Never took into consideration how difficult it is to get the right message contained into a slide deck.  We probably had 15 iterations of the deck before final sign-off late yesterday.  Myself and the Modded team are still finalizing the formal business plan (80 percent done), sales compensation plan (70 percent done), and overall executive summary (70 percent done).  What I'm starting to realize is that there really is so many hours in a day.  Most of our efforts if not on infrastructure are focused on developing net new clients and partnerships.

Now I must share.  Since I starting publishing my blog, those who we have sought guidance with, have explicitly asked me to keep there name(s) out of the blog.  As you can tell, I haven't mentioned anyone but really myself during this process, and will contain to keep those who provide guidance (VC's, Angels, Investors, etc.) out of the blogging limelight.  So rest assured, I won't be sharing that info with the general public until due time and via the proper channels and press/social vehicles.

On the partner front, we're still making progress.  Interesting enough, apparently I have fans of my blog, and they agree with my assessment that there will be indeed some form of Social and Digital industry consolidation happening sooner rather than later.  Those who I initially considered potential industry competitors and listed on our investor deck, have connected with me via Facebook and LinkedIn.  Stay tuned, as this continues to evolve.  I suspect you'll start to see some major upward momentum coming Modded's way.

Well, and as usual, I have so much more to say, but not enough time to continued to enlighten you on this ever  growing chronicled experience.  I will do my best over the next week to publish an update, but if I don't, and we move into next year, then have an amazing Christmas and New Year.

Matthew J. Moalem
President/Fouder
Modded.com LLC
moalem@modded.com

Modded.com Sunday Quickie Blog

For those of you following my blog, I felt that I absolutely had to share this.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on some conference calls with Angels and VC's alike.  I was asked to explain the business model of Modded.  So I started off telling them how Modded got it start and our vision.  We then headed into our business model.  About half way through my presentation on one very specific call, I was told by one of the VC's "while we understand you are in your infancy and just getting started, you're business model is flawed and no one will ever invest in your company".  Now mind you, I spent several days assembling the proper requested documentation, and the fact that this particular VC is an industry heavy weight.

I took his comments with a grain assault, and keep moving along with my pitch.  Mind you, that over the course of 6 months.  We have started one of the first fully functional Social and Digital Media managed services company with large scale projects and revenue projects heading into 2011 with close to $16 Million in potential revenue.  So as we continued to move along, another gentlemen spoke up and said "I don't get it".  With that said, I had two options, continue to move forward on the original pitch or stop and start to educate them on why this model makes sense, and why clients and prospects care.  As we started to wrap up, they thanked me and decided that this just wasn't their cup of tea.

With complete due respect to VC's and Angels, I sincerely respect this executive guidance and even in some cases education.  More importantly I realized that these folks simply just don't get it.  Social and Digital Media operate in a disparate/fragmented industry.  Today most medium to enterprise companies have social and digital media staff on hand.  That's an expensive value proposition, because a good portion of those on staff lack the require skill set to execute a fully functional social brand strategy.  As I continue to educate folks, your brand is an extension of who you are as an organization.  The more folks who touch and enable your brand, the more fragmented your brand becomes.  Modded becomes that single voice of reason for your brand.  Why hire full time employees who lack the required skill set, and then if you do hire those with a specific skill set, they still have to hire or retain the services of a 3rd party vendor to fulfill the obligations of either the campaign, go-to-market, or product offering around your brand.

Part of what we've done at Modded in the last week, is start to assemble educational tools not only for potential investors, but for clients and client prospects as well.  I feel that it is a crucial step in our client acquisition strategy to come as prepared as possible based on either assumptions or due diligence calls to educate these folks.

Anyways, on this Sunday morning.  I wanted to share with all of you and chronicle my experience of starting our company.  More importantly, just because one person says "no", others will say "yes".  We continue to move forward with great enthusiasm and passion, and will continue to provide expert guidance and deliverables as we continue to grow Modded into the world leader for Digital and Social Media Managed Services.

Have a great Sunday!

Matt

Modded.com LLC

As the world turns . . . . . . . . .

or so the story goes.  However you want to phrase it.  This week was especially fulfilling as Modded made great progress on several fronts.  First we had an amazing meeting with a gentlemen by the name of Jason.  Due to legalities and non-competes, I'm prohibited from mentioning his name till early next year.  With that said though, we expect Jason to become a member of the Modded team very shortly.  Jason comes with a wealth of experience that will enable Modded to become a powerhouse in the micro-transaction, mobile advertising, Windows Mobile 7 application development space.  What does this mean for clients and prospective clients?  Great question my fellow readers of my blog.  This means that Modded can now not only perform Social and Digital Media Assessment, Reviews but we can now recommend Technologies (internal and external to Modded) and implement them into your environment or mobile strategy.

Second - we met with a rather large in development Hedge Fund here in Dallas.  The meeting was supposed to go for an hour and we wrapped at 2 hours.  I can't tell you much, except that they are going to be developing a series of start-ups and have chosen for all intent and purposes Modded to be there go to market Social, Digital, Mobile and Marketing arm for these start-ups.  In most cases, we'll be running the whole online business.

Third - we had a great meeting with a Media Buying company.  Can't say the name, but they are the second largest in the US.  I suspect Modded and this soon to be named organization will send out a press release announcing our global partnership. Modded has been chosen to become their go to market partner for everything digital and social media related for their clients.

So with my kiddos and wife resting comfortably, I can sit here and write with a smile on my face that 2011 is going to be a very good year for Modded.com LLC.

With that said and now shared, it's back to the grind stone.  I still owe the documents required for Modded to raise our growth capital.  Yep, you heard that right!  Growth capital, not start-up funds.  Modded is primed to be adding 4 new people to our now ever growing organization by end of year.  Each is dynamic in nature, and hand picked or introduced to help take Modded to the next level.

Finally in the span of 1 week, Modded has tripled our pipeline.  That is huge growth, considering we started the company 5 months ago, and now have 4 global partners with a bevy of other fulfillment partners to help take care of client needs.  This is tremendous, and a true validation of the dream I had when this company officially went into commission early this year.

On that note, I think I'll make a nice strong pot of coffee, charge my laptop, and prepare myself for a long evening of PowerPoints, Executive Summaries and Business Planning.

Have a great evening everyone!

Matt