How to Start a Two-Bit Operation: Small Business Tips » Publicity http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog From start to small business. Learn and live vicariously. Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:22:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Justin Interviewed on The Hot Iron http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/justin-interviewed-on-the-hot-iron/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/justin-interviewed-on-the-hot-iron/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:38:17 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/?p=208 I had the opportunity to be interviewed on The Hot Iron by Mike Maddaloni of Dunkirk Systems.  Give it a read to see what we’ve been up to and how we work as a small, virtual company.  Thanks again, Mike!

Justin

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/justin-interviewed-on-the-hot-iron/feed/ 0 Menuism wins Honorable Mention for Web 2.0 Awards http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-wins-honorable-mention-for-web-20-awards/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-wins-honorable-mention-for-web-20-awards/#comments Thu, 10 May 2007 04:27:17 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2007/05/10/menuism-wins-honorable-mention-for-web-20-awards/ 2007 Web 2.0 Awards - Honorable MentionToday SEOmoz announced its Web 2.0 awards for 2007 and to our surprise we got Honorable Mention for City Guides & Reviews!! We didn’t even know we were in the running. :)

web 2.0 2007 honorable mention

It’s a real honor to be named amongst the other web giants. It recognizes the progress we’ve made and motivates us even more to keep pushing towards our goals.

Here’s a rundown of the City Guides & Reviews winners and their financial backings:

The Winners

  1. Yelp! – $16 million in funding (1st round – $6 m, 2nd round – $10 m)
  2. Judy’s Book – $10.5 million in funding (1st round – $2.5 m, 2nd round – $8 m)
  3. Yahoo! Local - $6+ billion in annual revenue (Yahoo)

Honorable Mentions

  • Google Local – $10+ billion in annual revenue (Google)
  • Live.com Local - $14+ billion in annual revenue (Microsoft)
  • MENUISM – Self-funded
  • Citysearch – $6+ billion in annual revenue (Interactive Corp)

The Web 2.0 awards as described by the site:

Our team reviewed hundreds of sites in the Web 2.0 sphere to uncover the best in each of 41 categories. From there, we assembled a team of 25 of the most knowledgeable, well-respected experts in the field to vote on the winners.

Thanks to the SEOmoz team, the esteemed judges, any readers who might have nominated us, and, of course, our wonderful users. Every victory is worth celebrating! :D

- Justin

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-wins-honorable-mention-for-web-20-awards/feed/ 9 Menuism beats out Highrise at Tech Cocktail 4! http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-beats-out-highrise-at-tech-cocktail-4/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-beats-out-highrise-at-tech-cocktail-4/#comments Sat, 14 Apr 2007 00:39:44 +0000 john http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2007/04/14/menuism-beats-out-highrise-at-tech-cocktail-4/ Chicago, IL (AP) April 13, 2007 — Coming off a wave of solid growth fueled by a clean site redesign and exciting new features, Menuism.com ran away with the title of “fan favorite” at last night’s renowned Tech Cocktail 4 event. Menuism dominating the shell-shocked competition, including the notable new 37 Signals product, Highrise. Attendees were attracted by Menuism’s eye-catching booth setup and demo video, swayed by the suave pitch of the co-founders, and finally sold by the valuable giveaways offered by the alluring web debutante.

“Menuism rocked the house at TC4!” exclaimed one attendee who asked to remain unnamed. “It seemed like they were everywhere – I couldn’t resist being lulled by the sweet siren song of Menuism gospel. It was like those Highrise guys weren’t even around at all.”

###

Well, that’s how I imagine a PR firm would have spun it. We did attend and demo at Tech Cocktail 4 last night at John Barleycorn, and here’s the real breakdown of how it went:

  • Tech Cocktail is renowned, and was fantastic last night. The venue in Wrigleyville was perfect, with plenty of space (and drinks) to accommodate the huge crowd.
  • Menuism did win the crowd voting last night via Interactive Mediums‘ neat SMS-based voting system, but it wasn’t a blowout victory – the race was pretty tight with the other demoing startups, including the cool guys at ParkWhiz.
  • Highrise was scheduled to be demoed last night, but those guys couldn’t make it in the end. There’s little doubt they would’ve been the most popular demo there – the 37 Signals guys are icons of the web world, and Menuism’s built on the framework they created. Highrise itself is a neat product tackling a real tangible market opportunity, so kudos to them.
  • Justin and I did snag a great demo location, taking over a small bar on the side of the room but the only thing we had on tap was Menuism propaganda. :)
  • Our booth was eye-catching, but probably because it looked like something from a high school carnival – paper tablecloths, orange helium balloons holding up printed signs, and laptops looping a video slideset about Menuism. And the “valuable giveaways”? Lifesaver mints – avoided by all. :)
  • We did talk about Menuism to lots of people, which I felt was the best part of Tech Cocktail for us. Practice really does help when it comes to networking and talking, and we were better this time around, but still far from totally comfortable or relaxed. Any smoothness was probably due to the free booze.

That pretty much covers how TC went for us last night. We were looking forward to it all week, and as we were looking for supplies and setting up it totally felt like something out of the Apprentice. :) Here’s a representative picture of our setup, with me posing for the camera while Justin’s in the background, demoing his heart out. :)

Like many other companies there, we held a raffle to try to get more attendees to talk to us, with our prize being a $50 restaurant gift certificate. Congratulations to Clint from Stone Ward for winning our raffle – we’ll be in touch with you soon. =) We were able to meet a bunch of great new contacts, visible in card form here.

tc4 cards

If you were there last night but didn’t win our $50, never fear – you can still win $50 in our monthly Food Fight Contest for April. We’re looking for the best salads around, so just review some salads and you’re automatically entered!

You can read more about TC4 with writeups by hosts Eric, Frank, and on the Tech Cocktail blog. All in all, we had a fantastic time at Tech Cocktail 4, thanks to the grand efforts of Eric and Frank. Thanks guys!

-John

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/menuism-beats-out-highrise-at-tech-cocktail-4/feed/ 3 Business Cards: Vistaprint vs. Overnight Prints http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/business-cards-vistaprint-vs-overnight-prints/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/business-cards-vistaprint-vs-overnight-prints/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:58:39 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2007/04/06/business-cards-vistaprint-vs-overnight-prints/ You may remember our previous business card experience with VistaPrint.com (I won’t even give them a link!). Even after complaining and getting them to ship another order for free, there was no change in quality. The black wasn’t gray and the cutting was off. The oddest thing was that some of the cards were very black and others were very gray…the least they could do is be consistent.

Looking for a new vendor, we got a referral from our friend Hubert for OvernightPrints.com. The ordering process was really simple and they had no blatant upselling like VistaPrint. They were really fast too – ordered it on Wed and they got here in 2 days. My only complaint was that the card packing was really tight so a few got bent. Take a look at the cards and you decide which looks better.

OvernightPrints on the left (free glossy!), VistaPrint on the right.

new biz cards
I love the new cards and can’t wait to give them out at TechCocktail 4 next week – come by our demo area if you want one ;) .

Justin

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/business-cards-vistaprint-vs-overnight-prints/feed/ 19 eHub Interview with Menuism http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/ehub-interview-with-menuism/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/ehub-interview-with-menuism/#comments Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:40:05 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2007/02/22/ehub-interview-with-menuism/ Some more publicity news from February 21st.

  • Our Menuism interview with Emily Chang at eHub got posted. Another nice avenue to tell our story. Thanks Emily!
  • We submitted the PR statement to PRWeb and it got posted. It showed up on Google News and Yahoo News! We only got a handful of referrals from this but it was neat seeing it on the news sites. :)

Unfortunately, on the same day we had some issues with a web server configuration for 3-4 hours in the middle of the day that made the site look quite ugly for most people. I guess that’s the way things go…

I posted the interview to our press page.

Justin

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/ehub-interview-with-menuism/feed/ 1 One good (Tech) Cocktail deserves another http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/one-good-tech-cocktail-deserves-another/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/one-good-tech-cocktail-deserves-another/#comments Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:19:48 +0000 john http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2007/01/26/one-good-tech-cocktail-deserves-another/ I’m back in Chicago for another productive and fun working session for Menuism. This winter’s been unseasonably cold in Seattle, so I was looking forward to getting out of town, but arriving to temps in the 20s here was like jumping out of the fridge and into the freezer. I’d forgotten how the wind cuts through your clothing here, and the last time I experienced it was nearly a year ago, when we kicked off our little Two-Bit Operation. Happy birthday to us soon – we’ll recap the year in a coming post.

We timed this trip to coincide with one of our favorite networking events – Tech Cocktail 3, which was held at Amira at the base of the NBC tower. Hosts Eric and Frank have perfected the simple formula for bringing together the Midwest tech community – take a swanky lounge, add an open bar, and make the whole thing free. The local community’s definitely taken to the idea, with attendence nearly doubling at each successive event.

amira outside amira entrance
Justin and I had lots of fun at the last one, and last night didn’t disappoint. Amira’s a large venue, but even with all that space things got crowded quickly and lots of people were turned away at the door. Previous sponsor Singlehop outdid itself this time, providing complimentary (strong!) martinis poured through glowing frog ice sculptures. Thankfully, this time there weren’t any video interviewers to stumble in front of after one-too-many free drinks. =)

frog

More than the venue and the free drinks, the best part of TC was meeting interesting people and hearing about their projects. It was nice to reconnect with old friends and make new connections, though with so many in attendance it got hard to find everyone we wanted to. For more detailed coverage, check out WindyBits‘ coverage here.

As for actual work, we’ve got a couple things lined up for Menuism in the coming weeks that we’re really excited about and working hard on – stay tuned for more!

-John

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/one-good-tech-cocktail-deserves-another/feed/ 2 Winter brings snow and more publicity http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/winter-brings-snow-and-more-publicity/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/winter-brings-snow-and-more-publicity/#comments Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:19:41 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2006/12/01/winter-brings-snow-and-more-publicity/ Justin in window sill - winter 2007I’m back in Chicago now and just in time for a fresh coat of snow! It’s beautiful! I used the macbook to take a pic of myself sitting in the window sill with Grant Park in the background. There have already been a few kids out sledding down the tiny hill. Once there’s more snow I’ll get out there to make a Foodha snowman.

The past month we got a couple mentions because of our Yahoo! BBAuth Integration (a way for users to login and join Menuism using their Yahoo username and password). Any news is good news right? Here are the links:

Let’s not forget to mention that a video interview of us at TechCocktail has been posted on Technology Evangelist (Thanks Ed and Benjamin). It’s 5 minutes long and quite entertaining. A few words in our defense: We were one of the last interviews of the night after free booze (excessive cheeriness, nodding, and slightly irregular speech pattern) and talking loudly over the music all night long (voice cracking). Check it out :)

Also, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve posted some Menuism widgets on the sidebar of this blog’s front page (scroll down about 1/2-way). Now you can keep up with our eating patterns while reading the blog. Join Menuism to get your own personalized widget or buy some shirts to spread the word!

Happy Holidays!

- Justin

]]> http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/winter-brings-snow-and-more-publicity/feed/ 0 Beer is a lubricant for networking, not speaking http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/beer-is-a-lubricant-for-networking-not-speaking/ http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/beer-is-a-lubricant-for-networking-not-speaking/#comments Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:49:55 +0000 Justin http://www.twobitoperation.com/blog/2006/11/07/beer-is-a-lubricant-for-networking-not-speaking/ According to Wikipedia, “Beer is considered to be a social lubricant in many societies.” While we’ve definitely found this to be true, the wonderful effects aren’t necessarily positive on public speaking.

On November, Keith Schacht’s monthly Chicago Beta networking event took place at Goose Island Brewery. The event is geared towards anyone involved in or interested in early stage web startups (like ourselves). While most of the agenda is networking while drinking beer, there’s also a segment where companies can give a 60 second pitch to introduce their companies to the crowd. Unfortunately, this pitch time came about an hour after the start of the session and after I’d had 2 of their strong Organic Wheat ales…

Well enough excuses, I’m just self-concious since I seem a little spacey in the video :) Check it out at the Business POV website and stay tuned to find out how you can get your own cool Menuism shirt!

Chicago Beta 60 second startup

-Justin

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