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
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
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
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
Saturday, December 18, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hello Modded.com World I'm Stephen G. Barr
Hello All,
First let me introduce myself. I'm Stephen G. Barr, CEO & Group Publisher of SGB Media Group based in Scottsdale, AZ and I'll be a regular contributor here as invited by Matthew on topics within my sphere of expertise which include:
- Social Media Marketing
- Niche Social Network Development
- Affiliate Marketing
- Strategic Alliance Management
- eCommerce
- Blogging
- Public Relations
Those my core proficiencies that I will be writing about on this blog. I deal with all of the above every day for 18 hours a day and have done so for the better end of a decade now. If any of you wish to see any further information on me the best place to start would be my LinkedIn profile here. Having been fully immersed in social networking for many years before the term was even coined I'm on well over 200 social networks and do a pretty good job of keeping the majority of them updated and fed with fresh content on a regular basis and as a result I have a large number of back links and references out there on the net and here is a link to a Google search on me so for those who may be so inclined, you can check me out for yourselves. It's all there, the good, the bad and hardly never ugly except for a few flame wars back in the Usenet group days. I don't hold myself up to bed an "expert", "guru" or my personal favorite, "visionary" as some people in our industry see fit to call themselves and I don't profess to know and "secrets" or 'tips" to make you richer, better looking or more popular amongst your peers. Quite simply, I'm a road dog who's been at this thing since before AOL and high speed internet for a minimum of 12-18 hours as day, seven days a week and have done so by hacking around myself, learning my lessons one mistake after another and my only goal here on this blog is to hopefully spare some of you some of the harder lessons I've learned over the years myself.
I am making myself available to the Modded.com staff and clients to answer any questions you might have pertaining to the previously listed topics above and can be reached at sgbmedia@gmail.com or on my cell at 480-389-8810. I will take some of your questions and answer then here publicly so we all can start to build a common knowledge and move forward as a group through what is shaping up to be a highly enlightened and technologically advanced period before us.
With that I will close with a quote which I will do on all subsequent posts and wish you all a good night and happy holidays!
We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true. ~Robert Wilensky, 1996
Modded.com LLC
So the story goes......
Modded is currently interviewing for a Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Sales. Now this is no easy task. Part of starting a new company is having the right team in place to help take Modded to the next level. Heck, not a lot of folks have the stomach to endure being part of a start-up.
Interesting enough, we've had well over 1000 applications from a variety of individuals, even referrals from Venture Capital and Angel organizations interested in helping to place high caliber, high energy individuals at Modded. This kinda proves my point - Modded.com is on the right track, with the right target verticals, and the right growth plan.
Enough about the growth of our amazing little organization and on to some updates. As I continue to work with our COO. I'm starting to get a better understanding of the investment process and the documents required from us to get those who want to invest comfortable with where we are heading. Apparently you need a full scale business plan with a 3 year layout, an Executive Summary, and a easy to consume and perhaps digest PowerPoint Presentation. So we move forward, or as our COO would say "Full Steam Ahead!". All while we continue to ramp up with client acquisition and partner with link minded companies in the industry.
The great news is that both are moving forward at an incredible speed. So that leaves me with this question, if we continue down the path of acquiring new clients, and are now recognizing revenue, do we really need to raise funds via a VC? Isn't possible to obtain some type of bridge financing, or small angel round without having to give up a huge chuck of the company? These are the questions I ask myself daily.
Finally today - we engaged with one of our clients who is growing his business with an investment group in our backyard. We chatted with the investment group, and they are quite the educated and talented group. After one of our initial assessments, they are looking for a company just like Modded who can be there turn-to/go-to technology partner as they grow out their investment base. Kinda cool to wow an organization that is valued at over $100 Million dollars.
On that note, we are still looking for contributing authors around social media, advertising trends, mobile engagement and really thought leaders. If you fit the mold, send me a note too: moalem@modded.com and let's chat.
Have a great day!
Matt
Modded is currently interviewing for a Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Sales. Now this is no easy task. Part of starting a new company is having the right team in place to help take Modded to the next level. Heck, not a lot of folks have the stomach to endure being part of a start-up.
Interesting enough, we've had well over 1000 applications from a variety of individuals, even referrals from Venture Capital and Angel organizations interested in helping to place high caliber, high energy individuals at Modded. This kinda proves my point - Modded.com is on the right track, with the right target verticals, and the right growth plan.
Enough about the growth of our amazing little organization and on to some updates. As I continue to work with our COO. I'm starting to get a better understanding of the investment process and the documents required from us to get those who want to invest comfortable with where we are heading. Apparently you need a full scale business plan with a 3 year layout, an Executive Summary, and a easy to consume and perhaps digest PowerPoint Presentation. So we move forward, or as our COO would say "Full Steam Ahead!". All while we continue to ramp up with client acquisition and partner with link minded companies in the industry.
The great news is that both are moving forward at an incredible speed. So that leaves me with this question, if we continue down the path of acquiring new clients, and are now recognizing revenue, do we really need to raise funds via a VC? Isn't possible to obtain some type of bridge financing, or small angel round without having to give up a huge chuck of the company? These are the questions I ask myself daily.
Finally today - we engaged with one of our clients who is growing his business with an investment group in our backyard. We chatted with the investment group, and they are quite the educated and talented group. After one of our initial assessments, they are looking for a company just like Modded who can be there turn-to/go-to technology partner as they grow out their investment base. Kinda cool to wow an organization that is valued at over $100 Million dollars.
On that note, we are still looking for contributing authors around social media, advertising trends, mobile engagement and really thought leaders. If you fit the mold, send me a note too: moalem@modded.com and let's chat.
Have a great day!
Matt
Friday, December 10, 2010
Modded.com LLC
So here we go again. Another fine Modded day, lol (laugh out loud). I'd like to say it's all whip cream and cherries, but that's not always the case.
I always told myself I would start a company that makes a difference. Heck, why doesn't everyone start a company right? Well, starting a company on a boot strap budget and caviar dreams has it's ups and bumps. I hate to say downs, because everything we do is a learning curve.
Over the last few days, our beloved COO (and I truly mean that) and driving force behind our stableness, informed me we need to finalize our 3 year financials, executive summary and business plan. Now I'd love to be able to tell you this excited me and I dove right into this. But that is furthest from the truth. I'm a sales, business development, marketing machine. Probably why we brought on a tough COO and Board to provide that level of guidance.
So my COO sends me this spread sheet and says "so what do you think"?. I kindly respond with great, this looks absolutely fantastic. Then I pop onto Google to do a high level research on what half those financial terms mean. That being said, part of running an organization is to have an education on all facets of the business. That includes sales pipeline, profits, losses, growths, gains, and every term in between. So I dug in, and decided to dedicate myself based on the required information. All of a sudden I got struck by lightening (no not really), but it came to me. Running an organization is not all about numbers, and contracts, it's about surrounding yourself with those who have an expertise and can provide guidance to help make the company successful.
That's exactly what I've decided to do, and if you think about it, why would you as an individual contributor to an organization what to own and control everything. You wouldn't right? You would enlist the services and have faith in the team you assembled. I'm/Modded is fortunate to have such a team and Board. We're all driven towards the same goal and path.
Coming in my next blog, I will start to share my experience of meeting, speaking and conference calling with Venture Capital companies and Angel Investors. Quite the tall tale, as they all require the same type of info.
More to come on my next blog.
Cheers for now.
Matthew
I always told myself I would start a company that makes a difference. Heck, why doesn't everyone start a company right? Well, starting a company on a boot strap budget and caviar dreams has it's ups and bumps. I hate to say downs, because everything we do is a learning curve.
Over the last few days, our beloved COO (and I truly mean that) and driving force behind our stableness, informed me we need to finalize our 3 year financials, executive summary and business plan. Now I'd love to be able to tell you this excited me and I dove right into this. But that is furthest from the truth. I'm a sales, business development, marketing machine. Probably why we brought on a tough COO and Board to provide that level of guidance.
So my COO sends me this spread sheet and says "so what do you think"?. I kindly respond with great, this looks absolutely fantastic. Then I pop onto Google to do a high level research on what half those financial terms mean. That being said, part of running an organization is to have an education on all facets of the business. That includes sales pipeline, profits, losses, growths, gains, and every term in between. So I dug in, and decided to dedicate myself based on the required information. All of a sudden I got struck by lightening (no not really), but it came to me. Running an organization is not all about numbers, and contracts, it's about surrounding yourself with those who have an expertise and can provide guidance to help make the company successful.
That's exactly what I've decided to do, and if you think about it, why would you as an individual contributor to an organization what to own and control everything. You wouldn't right? You would enlist the services and have faith in the team you assembled. I'm/Modded is fortunate to have such a team and Board. We're all driven towards the same goal and path.
Coming in my next blog, I will start to share my experience of meeting, speaking and conference calling with Venture Capital companies and Angel Investors. Quite the tall tale, as they all require the same type of info.
More to come on my next blog.
Cheers for now.
Matthew
Sunday, December 5, 2010
First Modded.com LLC Blog Post
Hi there and thanks so much for taking the time to check out my first blog. I'm extremely excited to actually put my pen to paper per se (more like fingers to keyboard).
While I could go down the path of chatting about my new company, which I am extremely excited about, I thought I would share the story about where Modded came from.
Modded stands for modular development and while the term has been around for quite some time, it historically applies too gaming consoles and controllers.
Back in May of this year, I was having dinner with good friend and now Modded Board of Directors member Tom Edwards from Red Urban (Omnicom). Over the years both of us have been at a series of startups. Some great, some not so great, but still the same result for both of us. Which was to build our networks, grow our businesses and evangelize partnerships. During this process while chomping on sushi and Blue Fish here in Dallas, we quickly realized we were farming out millions of dollars in media advertising, outsourced marketing and a myriad of other social and media deliverables while still trying to fulfill obligations to our client base. Some of these 3rd party organizations are amazing and still around today, and some are a product of a down turn in the economy.
In either sense, we quickly realized not only can we provide the type of service we had always dreamed on, but do it with our vast networks via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
That is how Modded got it's start. In the coming blog's, I'm going to share a month by month account of Modded's growth, everything from trying to form partnerships, to obtaining talent, board members, partners, clients and all the bumps and bruises we've experienced along the way.
So this is my first blog about Modded.com LLC - follow us on twitter @mmoalem, find us on Facebook or just check out our website at www.Modded.com and let me know how we are doing, or if you have any insights on what we can do better.
Cheers! for tonight and catch up with all of you tomorrow.
While I could go down the path of chatting about my new company, which I am extremely excited about, I thought I would share the story about where Modded came from.
Modded stands for modular development and while the term has been around for quite some time, it historically applies too gaming consoles and controllers.
Back in May of this year, I was having dinner with good friend and now Modded Board of Directors member Tom Edwards from Red Urban (Omnicom). Over the years both of us have been at a series of startups. Some great, some not so great, but still the same result for both of us. Which was to build our networks, grow our businesses and evangelize partnerships. During this process while chomping on sushi and Blue Fish here in Dallas, we quickly realized we were farming out millions of dollars in media advertising, outsourced marketing and a myriad of other social and media deliverables while still trying to fulfill obligations to our client base. Some of these 3rd party organizations are amazing and still around today, and some are a product of a down turn in the economy.
In either sense, we quickly realized not only can we provide the type of service we had always dreamed on, but do it with our vast networks via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
That is how Modded got it's start. In the coming blog's, I'm going to share a month by month account of Modded's growth, everything from trying to form partnerships, to obtaining talent, board members, partners, clients and all the bumps and bruises we've experienced along the way.
So this is my first blog about Modded.com LLC - follow us on twitter @mmoalem, find us on Facebook or just check out our website at www.Modded.com and let me know how we are doing, or if you have any insights on what we can do better.
Cheers! for tonight and catch up with all of you tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)