An Amazing Summer With Avelist!

My summer with Avelist (www.avelist.com) has flown by! Not only have I learned a tremendous amount but I’ve also had a lot of fun. Working for Avelist has been by far the most exciting and impactful positions I have held.

 

Over the course of the summer, my projects have changed in order to address the needs of the company at that time. Some of the assignments I have worked on included outreach, product testing, email campaign, community management, social media marketing, and media projects. The fluidity and variation of my position is what I love the most. I have had to wear many hats and nothing suits me better. I thrive in the fast pace start-up environment.

 

My favorite part of working for Avelist is the people on my team. Jody, the CEO, is an inspiration. Her story is a testament to her commitment to the company. As a leader she fosters a culture of positivity and creatively. I am going to dearly miss my team and working for Avelist regularly. I know however that even when I end my internship with Avelist I will never really leave them.

Midsummer Review – Product

Wow – It is difficult to believe it is already half way through July!

I began the summer intent on learning whether product management at a technology startup was the right path to pursue after graduation. During the past month, I have learned a lot more about the role of a product manager – all of which has made me even more excited to pursue such a position.

From A/B testing to developing, designing, and implementing new website changes, programs, and user tools, I’ve learned that the role of the product manager is a multifaceted position. I’ve worked closely with the startup co-founders to understand company direction, designers to develop websites from my mockups, and the engineering team to implement my proposal. In addition, constant interactions with marketing, business development, and operations departments are required so the full team can offer input and understand the many changes that occur throughout new product development.

I am excited to see a number of initiatives I’m currently working on to be completed by the end of my internship, and looking forward to seeing the lasting impact they have on the business.

CrowdTunes Mid Summer Update!

CrowdTunes Update

Beta Version has been released!  —  We are pleased to announce that the Beta versions of both our client (normal end user) and host (venue owner) applications have been released.  Please check them out on the app store! This has been the focus of most of our work since the start of summer.  Here are some of the cool new features we released with Beta.

• Return Credits:  If a user’s song is skipped, banned, or removed from the queue in any way, all credits are returned to the user automatically.
• News Feed: Users are able to see a detailed news feed of their recent activity.
• Station Creation: Hosts are able to generate custom stations based on the selection of up to 5 artists.
• Nuke: User has the ability to remove a fellow users song from the queue and ban it for an hour.  This of course comes for a fee multiple!
• Complete UI Makeover: In summary we updated the entire UI and brought it into the modern era!

We are excited to iterate on this version of the coming weeks / months and release some great new features.  If you have any ideas, suggestions, or feedback about the application, please do not be shy.  Let us know and email the team at contact@crowdtunes.co

Additionally, the CrowdTunes sales team has been hard at work.  We are happy to announce that we are installed in 11 locations in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area and are working hard to bring many more venues online!

Durham

• The Social
• Devine’s
• Alivia’s
• Fullsteam Brewery
• Triangle Pint & Plate

Chapel Hill

• The Library
• Back Bar
• Goodfellows

Raleigh/Cary

• Fortnight Brewery
• Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewing
• London Bridge Pub (Next Week)

  

CrowdTunes favorite Startup Resources

We thought it would be a good idea to share some of our favorite resources on the web that we regularly read and listen to for advice and inspiration in pursuit of various entrepreneurial activities.  Below are just a couple.  Would love for people to share their favorites, so we can find out what we are missing out on!

 

1. THIS WEEK IN STARTUPS – Podcast  (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-startups/id315114957)

Without a doubt, my favorite resource for inspiration and motivation is a podcast series hosted by Jason Calacanis called “This Week in Startups”.  Jason sits down with leaders at several well-known and not so well-known startups and has very interesting conversations.  He seems to really put the entrepreneurs at ease and gets them to open up about all aspects of their business.  The dialogue often gets a little aggressive and very real.  Basically it is as if Howard Stern created a startup podcast.

 

2. GUY KAWASAKI BLOG – http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

About two years back Howie introduced me to Guy’s 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint, and ever since, this blog has been a favorite of mine.  I highly recommend everyone bookmark this blog and stop by frequently to read some of his posts.

 

3. BOTH SIDES OF THE TABLE BLOG – http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/

Excellent blog written by former entrepreneur turned venture capitalist.  Great content from someone who has been on ‘Both Sides of the Table’

Midsummer update

It’s been a super fast summer here in San Francisco; I can’t believe I have less than a month left. That doesn’t mean I haven’t covered a lot of ground – I feel as though I’ve grown an enormous amount as a developer in a short time. I’ve been fortunate to be able to build components at a variety of different abstraction levels and in several different languages, and the projects I’ve taken on have been fulfilling and exciting. Our team has been especially busy this week with an impending ship date coming up. Yesterday one of our developers literally drove a flash drive to Palo Alto in search of bandwidth – we couldn’t wait to upload the files on our much slower office connection. I’m enjoying the startup life so far, and I’m looking forward to my last few weeks!

Midsummer

This summer I wanted to learn about a completely new industry, find something that particularly interests me, and have an impact on the company for which I am working.

I have accomplished the task of learning about a new industry starting from nothing. Before this internship, I could not describe the difference between a media agency, ad agency, ad tech company, or ad ops, but now I feel confident explaining the meaning and applications of : CPA, CPC, CTR, RTB, CPM, as well as a ton of other acronyms.

One of the most interesting things I have learned this summer deals with advertising and click fraud. There are fraudulent sites that employ click farms (groups of people that click on ads to generate revenue for the owner of a website, malware/spyware that has access to hundreds of thousands of people and can direct them to other sites or mimic their mouse and click movements to then replicate using a computer, and finally, sites that have hundreds of 1×1 pixel (microscopic) ad slots, thereby reaping immense profit without showing an ad to a site visitor. The people (usually overseas) that run the malware/spyware and botnets are the same people that frauded the banking industry, using the money to support illegal activities and trades. Fraud is one of the biggest problems in internet advertising industry especially since all the parties involved are not mutually incentivized to work together. Websites make money selling their inventory to the ad exchanges, ad exchanges make money selling the inventory to advertisers, and advertisers see higher performance metrics.

As for my work, I have been analyzing metrics on our site and looking for ways to measure our work, essentially creating Key Performance Indicators for my team. I will create, track, and record these metrics, and most importantly, set up an infrastructure for those processes and how to improve the metrics so that when I leave, someone can fill my place.

 

 

So far so good

Its going so fast, loving the experience of its kind in Miami. Venture Hive has turned out to be an immense learning experience for me. In addition to the office tasks, the events hosted by Venture Hive have been valuable in expanding my network and learning thoughts of others on entrepreneurship and tech business. SIPMiami arranged events involving Duke Alumni to speak about their careers which have been insightful as well. We were lucky enough to have Chris Martin in SIPMiami team, who told us about most active tech and startup community meetups such as Refresh Miami and TechCocktail. Startup Grind was another event where entrepreneurs, investors and developers could mingle and talk about their ideas and collect constructive feedback. I had always thought of Miami as a vacation resort, but since the launch of incubators like TheLabMiami, VentureHive, and RokkerLabs about two years ago, it has positively transformed into a tech companies launchpad.

Twisty vines

They say you never know until you’ve done it. Well, I think exists some variation of that phrase. The point is, there are a lot of things that have to be experienced firsthand, and no amount of articles, conversations or blog posts can ever compare to the real thing. The aim of this summer was to grow, to not only get better with the tools of the trade but to immerse oneself in the thick and thin of startup living. One thing that you encounter is the tremendous sense of responsibility that comes with doing your own thing. It is not only you, but your friends, family, acquaintances, users, investors and a whole host of people that are involved. To a certain extent, your idea grows larger than you, and defines you. When everyone has a stake in your success, it forces you to grow up quickly, far faster than you would like to. Yet, that is what makes it such a rewarding experience, interacting with passionate individuals with fires in their belly, walking down a less-trodden path to make something.

Midway

Between the bookends of summer, between a small start-up and large corporate experience, between a background in the liberal arts and a future using dance and design to make a difference.

My work as a presentation design intern for Devesh Design is a satisfying blend of design and business. One of my design challenges this week required representing the client’s corporate organization chart. Another asked me to do some visual surgery and turn the iPhone in a model’s hand into a different smartphone. Yet another pushed me to make a presentation look good…with Arial font.

The first prototype never seems to be the last, and this is a good thing. Along the way, I’m learning about visual hierarchy, typefaces, and other facets of the design world. I’m grateful for the internship because it’s laying the groundwork for my next major undertaking in design, but I stand with Terrence — the market here is so tech-heavy that it’s hard to pursue (much less think of) social or cultural entrepreneurship.

Carlos Bueno wrote a widely-read article in late June asserting that the next thing Silicon Valley needs to disrupt is its own culture. Tech capitalism has driven minorities out of San Francisco and into the East Bay over the past 7 years. Is this simply a problem for government to band-aid or is there a way to better our unspoken problems within a sustainable business model?

The tech space is awesome, but I choose design and consulting because it enables me to cross boundaries and push things in a healthier direction. So I’m okay being midway.

Time Flies: Mid-Summer Post

Hi all!

Obligatory Golden Gate Selfie

A lot has occurred during the six weeks I’ve been interning. My primary duties include creating media lists that are used to expand awareness of Earthjustice and its work, researching the Obama administration’s recently proposed Clean Power Plan to build an interactive map, and brainstorming strategy and creative content.

Additionally, I’ve written several press releases pertaining to Earthjustice’s legal work and started a blog series titled “Carbon Nation” to discuss the Obama administration’s recently proposed Clean Power Plan.

I’ve also done a great deal of casual networking this summer. I attend lunches with different members of my organization, weekly happy hours with the legal team, and weekly lunches at various environmental organizations to meet their interns and directors. It’s been going surprisingly well, and I’m happy to say the Vice President and President of my organization know my name 🙂

Giants Game With Law Clerks

I really love interning at Earthjustice. However, I would prefer much more autonomy than I currently have.

Also, in relation to the SIP program, I wish we had the opportunity to meet more social entrepreneurs because I’ve quickly realized this summer that I’m not at all interested in tech start-ups.

 

Introduction – Kyle Gibler

Hello, my name is Kyle Gibler, and I just graduated from the School of Medicine in May.  Originally from Cincinnati, OH, I majored in economics at Harvard before traveling south to attend medical school at Duke.  During medical school, I also got my MBA, graduating from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2013.  Now that I’m (finally) done with school, I am excited to take part in the Summer Innovation Program with the Med3D team!

I have a number of goals for this summer, falling primarily into three buckets.  First, I hope to get a better understanding of the legal and regulatory hurdles associated with bringing a medical device to market.  Second, I want to apply many of the hard and soft skills I learned in business school, including strategy, operations, management, and marketing, in an entrepreneurial setting.  My third goal for this summer is to network with and learn from Duke alumni who have experience in the medical device startup space.  I look forward to a great summer!