The Purple Tornado

As a veteran of the first Internet bubble in the late 90’s, I found Chris Shipley’s (DEMO founder) article about the impending tech winter very interesting.

“Take a look at the leading indicators. For the past 36 months, startups have popped up like dandelions in spring. Literally thousands of entrepreneurs have taken advantage of favorable market trends – open source, public APIs, cheap hosting, and cheaper capital – to quickly bring Web 2.0 products online. A majority of these products are a clever mashup of open technologies. There may be new ideas behind these sites, but not necessarily a lot of new technology or protectable intellectual property. While some of these products have proved to be a popular success, most were taken to a market without a clear plan to turn traffic into meaningful and sustainable revenue.

…

A lot of people will view the end of the Web 2.0 frenzy a lot like kids who see that the summer fading and realize that school is about to begin again. It’s important to realize, though, that Web 2.0 isn’t “over.” Instead, a set of ideals, methodologies, and even some technologies have matured and are moving mainstream. Companies that have prepared for the long road ahead — those that did their “summer reading,” if you will — will fare well and build on the foundations laid down over the past few years.”

I welcome the upcoming pop as much as I dread it. Bubbles are great because they offer a fertile environment for innovation and trying new things without the typical new business constraints. And this is even more true with web 2.0. It’s even easier to start a company. You’ve got developers building open source technology for anyone to use and customization is easy as long as you create a good brand. Execution is the name of the game and the challenge is being the first person to build the idea instead of just talk about building it. But because it’s so easy to build something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should - or that the world wants it. In bubbles there are many companies that just wouldn’t exist in other times and it’s these companies that ultimate make the bubble pop - and give the tech industry a bad name.

This is why I welcome the bubble pops. It requires entrepreneurs to do their homework and think about their business model and whether their audiences really want their product. Good technologies and ideas that occur in bubble don’t necessarily go away. They may go into hiding for years waiting for their time to go mainstream. (This is what I think happened with DHTML/AJAX in 1999.)

When a bubble is big, the pop is big, the recovery takes longer and it is a larger impact. I hope our current tech bubble pops sooner than later - because it means we’re closer to correcting. I’d like to see the tech community work together to create sustainable growth instead of sensational spikes.

* photo by Arc-Light

The ladies of the Purple Tornado have infiltrated Boston for ROFLCON - the “congress of the internet memes” taking place for the first time at MIT. Not only is Purple Tornado attending, we are one of the sponsors.

Here are our 10 reasons that we have made the trek all the way from the West Coast to ROFLCON:

1. See the birthplace of xkcd.
2. Young proto-geek college dudes. (just for looking!)
3. Boston’s famed “HOT NUTS”
4. Peanut Butter Jelly Time
5. We have too much surplus “ass” so we’re here to ROFLMAO
6. Find out to turn One Red Paperclip into a house - and a BOOK
7. Discover more about the Stuff White People Like
8. Hit up as many Friday college happy hours as possible
9. LOLCATS FTW of course
10. On the real - we are here because we are internet denizens too - and inhabit the dark corners of the interwebs that only the twisted, perverse and digitally native see.  We are here because we celebrate the lurkers who spend their time in forums rather than social networks, and because we know that the true heart of the internet is in the uncensored self-expression of people who are brave enough to let their freak flags fly.

As unconventionally-minded marketing professionals, we also know that MEMES rule the world. Most advertisers and marketers aim to emulate the natural viral influence of internet memes, striving to artificially create these virii and push them onto unwilling hosts in their “target markets.”

As for me, I believe that LOLCATS can sell anything. (Or perhaps it is just that I would buy most anything with a Lolcat on it.)  But the whole point of the meme as a virus is that the host must be infected willingly, and replicate (link) willingly - and that kind of opt-in doesn’t always translate into the “conversions” that clients are looking for.  You can’t control the spread of a real meme. You can’t even own it. A meme is a behavior or an idea that intrigues and catches fire when released into the wilds of the internet.

We’ll be getting lots of video coverage for Boingboing tv - and if you want to follow us on Twitter as we traipse around Cambridge - follow twitter.com/carmenleilani and twitter.com/heathervescent!

I like to put my money where my mouth is and support things I think need to happen - ROFLcon is one of those things, so threw down some of my cold hard earned cash to help make it happen.

Anyway, here’s another triumphant and relevant coup for ROFLCon - Purple Tornado, a great marketing company in LA, is helping us out for realz! They focus haaardcore on internet marketing and have a real solid understanding of the potential for new media advertising and PR. They’re also just cool people, and will be coming to the ‘Bridge to schmooze and mingle with all y’all in April. Just six weeks to go. Yeah seriously. We’re so stoked, and you should be too. Link.

I’m headed to NYC on Monday in preparation for the awesomeness that is ROLF. And I definately have some things up my sleeves. See you there!

You’ve got an idea. You want to start a company. You want to make your mark. You want to create something. You want to change the world. Where do your ideas come from? How do you take your ethereal idea dreams and make them a successful business? That’s where the Purple Tornado comes in. We are the bridge from the magical world of ideas where anything is possible to the world of financials, customers and product launches. Let’s take the tornado as a metaphor.

The wide funnel top of the tornado is where all possibilities of your idea exist. As we bring the idea down to earth, we crystallize the specifics of the idea in successive steps of granularity and clarification. We start with high level strategic programs (like business modeling, product and branding strategies), then move on with specific tactical executions and end up with your idea launched in the market place.

The tornado can be a dangerous place and we must be careful to not get caught up or distracted by the winds of possibilities. We do this by maintaining calmness. It is from this calm center location (they eye of the tornado) that we conjure what is needed to make you successful.