TheNew2Do.com is 25 Days Old

Posted February 2, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Uncategorized

TheNew2Do.com is now 25 days old, and it has been quite a ride so far.  Lately I’ve been doing a ton of pitching to local businesses, trying to get them to post their events, deals, and coupons online.  As such, I’ve been living the life of a salesman, which is interesting and fun.  It’s really like nothing I’ve ever done before.

The first two businesses to post events on theNew2Do.com are Conor O’Neill’s, one of the coolest pubs in Ann Arbor, and NYPD Pizzeria, one of the best pizzerias in the local area.  Conor O’Neill’s posted a trivia night, which was last night and terrific.  Meanwhile, if you go to NYPD pizzeria from 2-5pm this week and spend at least $5, you get a free slice of cheese pizza or drink- BUT, you have to join the event on theNew2Do.com in order to get this deal.

Although Conor O’Neill’s and NYPD are using free trials of theNew2Do.com, they are still my first clients, so I am trying to make sure their experiences with theNew2Do.com are excellent, and I have been promoting like crazy.

Something else I’ve been working on is recruiting some people to help me out with marketing and promoting theNew2Do.com and its events.  I’ve found some great guys, who I am hoping can take the reins when I’m gone, so I can move on to the next city, which will either be New York City or Madison, WI.

So, talk about putting on different hats: salesman, promoter, strategist, marketer, HR- I do it all!

This has been one of the most exciting months of my life so far.  I’ve met people and done things that I never would have before.

For example, I was interviewed today for the The Statement, the magazine for The Michigan Daily, and the article, which will feature me and theNew2Do.com, will be printed in a week or two.

Additionally, I’ll be presenting at an Inter-Fraternity Council meeting tomorrow night to the Presidents of every fraternity on campus.  I’m hoping that this can be a spark that helps theNew2Do.com gain some serious momentum.

Here are some of the marketing materials I’ll be using for the presentation- let me know what you think!

Brochure for Fraternity Presidents

Greek Life Presentation

I apologize that I’m so all over the place, but I suppose that speaks to my lifestyle right now.  I’m doing a million different things every day, but the important thing is that I keep getting things done, gaining momentum, and persisting.

Generating Leads

Posted January 26, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Marketing, Present Day Posts, Ways to Use theNew2Do

Tags: , , , ,

Things have been pretty busy since I got to Ann Arbor, which explains why I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ve had to move twice since I arrived here, but I think I’m finally settled in.  Perhaps I’ll do some recap posts in the upcoming week or two to go over what has been going on since I got to Michigan, but for now, I’m just going to let you all know what I did today since it was a big day.

Today was the first day I pitched to any local businesses.  When I left my house around 11 in the morning, I was more excited than I’ve been in a while.  As I turned onto Church Street from Hill, I was hit by a wave of nervousness and excitement-  I’m glad nobody was around because I’m pretty sure I was talking to myself.

I decided to first hit some of the bars and local eateries around South University, with BTB Cantina as my first stop.  I figured they’d be a great place to start considering BTB Cantina is kind of a hybrid between a restaurant and bar.  Additionally, I know that BTB Cantina and Good Time Charlies share the same owners, so I could try to get to businesses up on theNew2Do with one stop.

As I walked up the stairs, I got into pitch mode and tried psych myself up as best I could.  I was surprised at how many people were there, which made me a little more nervous.  I don’t know why, but I find it harder to pitch with people watching.

When I approached the counter, I asked the guy working the register if there was a manager or owner available.  He wasn’t, but I explained why I was there.  Here’s what my typical pitch sounds like: I want to tell you guys about a new event  and deal promotion website that should help you out with marketing to bring in some new business and new customers.  I tried to keep it short and sweet, getting to how theNew2Do will help them as simply as possible.

The register worker went on to tell me that the right person to contact would be head of marketing.  He gave me an e-mail address, and I was off to the next business.  I hadn’t gotten them on theNew2Do, but I had generated my first lead, which was pretty exciting.  I was especially happy with the response I received, however, since most of the businesses I spoke with seemed more eager to get involved with theNew2Do than the clubs I spoke with.

After BTB Cantina, I hit the rest of South University, State Street, and Main Street.  All in all, I walked about five miles around Ann Arbor and pitched to about 20 businesses.  I did get my first business user to post a profile and event in Conor O’Neills, which makes me extremely happy, considering it is one of the most well-known bars in Ann Arbor- and, I’m definitely going to trivia night next week…who’s coming with me?

Overall, the response seemed to be very positive, especially since I’m giving away business user accounts for free at this point, just to show these businesses how they can benefit from theNew2Do.

I ended the day with a bunch of leads, which means I’ve got to turn those leads into business users in the upcoming week.  The best part is that, unlike the clubs and student organizations I spoke with, I know where the businesses are, so I’ll keep dropping in until they’re on theNew2Do.  Additionally, businesses are not nearly as lazy as college students running student organizations.

After a great deal of analysis and reflection, it seems to me that going after the businesses seems to be the way to go, since they can actually provide people in the local community with things of material value: coupons, freebies, and the ability to cut lines.

Now, it’s up to me to coach these businesses on how to use theNew2Do, because if used correctly, theNew2Do is a far more valuable tool than a Facebook fan page since businesses will essentially be able to email coupons and deals directly to customers who want them.  If I can do that successfully, I think we’ll be in great shape.

I almost consider myself to be a marketing and social media consultant with a very valuable tool that no other consultant has: theNew2Do, which is what makes the business so interesting and fun.

Tomorrow is another big day.  I’ll be pitching to a lot more businesses, and doing my best to get theNew2Do rolling.  Once I’ve got a few more businesses on the site, I think it will be time to begin marketing theNew2Do to the students on campus since the site will actually provide things of material value to people.

Today was my first experience in sales, and I loved it.  I’ve been meeting so many interesting people and seeing so many interesting businesses.  I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Elevator Pitches

Posted January 16, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Motivation, theNew2Do

Tags: , , , , , ,

In the last three days, I’ve given my elevator pitch to approximately 120 student organizations at the University of Michigan.  An elevator pitch, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is short pitch- typically about 30 seconds to a minute- that you would be able to give to someone if you were riding the elevator together.  I have perfected mine, and at this point, I’m kind of sick of hearing myself pitch.  However, this isn’t about me; this is about my business, and I will do whatever it takes to get it off the ground.

I happen to have launched at a very convenient time.  The beginning of the semester has brought many of the student organizations on campus together in one place for events like Winterfest.  Given that amazing opportunity, I did what anyone would do in my position: I went to every single booth in the student union and pitched the student organizations on joining theNew2Do.  While everyone was surprised at first that I was pitching them (since they were there to pitch their own clubs), there were typically three responses that I received.

The reaction that I felt worst about was when the person at the booth would get really upset that they couldn’t pitch me.  It wasn’t that they were actually upset that I wouldn’t be joining their group.  It was just that I would go over to their booth looking extremely interested, and I’d listen intently to what they had to say.  I would never express interest in joining because I wasn’t trying to mislead them.  However, when they asked me if I was interested in joining a club, I’d ask, “What’s that?”  After all, I wasn’t trying to be rude.

When they finished, I would tell them that I was not looking to join any groups, and that I wasn’t even a student anymore.  I’d explain what theNew2Do is and how they can use it.  But, from the second I would start to explain, their faces would slowly go from a big, bright smile to something that looked like a sad puppy.  I can’t blame them.  I am a very good listener, so when I let them give their own elevator pitch, they probably think they’re doing an amazing job until I cut them off.  I feel bad about it, but my hope is that they’ll see that I am just trying to help them with their recruiting in the long run.

The second reaction, which I often found kind of funny, was when I would explain what theNew2Do is to the club leaders, and instead of asking questions about how theNew2Do will affect them or their organization, they begin to ask a bunch of business-sounding questions, such as, “What’s your competitive advantage over the competition in the market?”  I’m not asking you to make an investment; I’m just trying to make your organization run more smoothly and effectively.  Either way, I would answer all questions with a bright smile on my face until they were satisfied, at which point everyone would have a similar response: “Cool, that’s an awesome idea.”  Thanks, I think so too.

Last is my favorite reaction.  The person working the booth would get extremely excited, grab the president, and ask me to explain theNew2Do, at which point the president would tell me how they thought it was an awesome idea and that they would sign up immediately.

To all of those people in group three, I commend you for being so smart.  For all of you in groups one and two, you keep me honest and motivate me to make my sales pitch better, so I thank you for that.

Although my conversion rate has been kind of low so far, and not many clubs have signed up yet, I feel I have definitely planted the seeds.  When I start hanging up posters and marketing materials, hopefully they’ll realize that it’s time to get on theNew2Do because that’s where everyone will be.

Things have been a bit slow in week one, in terms of getting groups on theNew2Do, but the buzz has begun.  For the past six days, I have told every person I have spoken to about theNew2Do.  I have not yet hung up one poster, and as I tell people the name of my website, more and more people are beginning to tell me that they’ve heard of theNew2Do.

The seed has been planted.  Let’s see if we can capitalize in week two, and turn this buzz into actual site users.

The Latest from Ann Arbor, MI

Posted January 12, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Marketing, Present Day Posts, Ways to Use theNew2Do, theNew2Do

Tags: , , , ,

Today was my third full day in Ann Arbor, and things are going very well so far.  As of now, there are over 120 users on theNew2Do, and I haven’t even begun the blitzkrieg of promotion that is soon to ensue.

For now, I am just trying to get as many people registered for theNew2Do as possible.  I’ve been doing this largely through word of mouth, but I am thankful that so many of my friends have helped me to promote theNew2Do.

While there are a lot of people registered on the site, there still are not many groups or events.  This was expected.  In fact, I think we will start to get more groups and events on the site once I speak to more groups and organizations around campus and in the Ann Arbor community.

However, when people start using theNew2Do for all that is capable of, there will be a large audience, waiting to see what is going on in the community.

Most of the people I have spoken to have been pretty positive about the idea as a concept, and everyone seems to think it will be very useful.

One of the first groups I got on the site was my fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi.  In addition to sending out some e-mails, I went to my fraternity’s first chapter of the year to talk about the site.  It was great to be back at chapter- I actually felt like I was back in college for a second listening to everyone talking about the same old frat stuff.

The thing that made me happiest, however, was the response I received from the freshman.  While dreaming up theNew2Do, I did have the freshman on my mind a lot.  As much fun as it is to be a freshman in college, I rarely knew what was going on, from club meetings, to study groups.  Many of the freshmen in my house came up to me after chapter to tell me that they thought it was a good idea, which was great to hear.

Today, after going to FedEx Office in order to print some marketing materials, I took my first crack at signing up some organizations to use theNew2Do.  I went to the art museum, some religious organizations on campus, the office of career development within the business school, and the Student Outreach Office in the Public Policy school.

For the large part, the response I got from these organizations was extremely positive.  In fact, an organization called JAAM has actually posted a few events under their group, making it one of the first groups to have a completed profile.  I am even attending their Shabbos Dinner this weekend.

I was glad I was able to get my feet wet today because tomorrow is a very important day.  Tomorrow is Winterfest at the University of Michigan.  Despite the misleading name, Winterfest is not a celebration of Winter Beers, but rather the main event of the winter semester where clubs set up booths in order to attract new members to join their organizations.

I will be at Winterfest pitching every organization on theNew2Do.  From the overall response I’ve received so far, I am feeling very good about everything.  Before we know it, all of Ann Arbor will be on theNew2Do, finding things to do and people to do them with.  I can’t wait for that day.

TheNew2Do is Live! Day 1 in Ann Arbor

Posted January 9, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: How I Got Here, Launch Update, Present Day Posts

Tags: , ,

As you can see from going to theNew2Do.com, we are now live!  As I write this, I am sitting in my new room, in my new house in Ann Arbor, MI.  Although it is a dream come true to return to my college town to follow my dreams and get my startup off the ground, it feels weird to be back.

Yesterday was a very long and hectic day.  I woke up at 6AM and began work immediately.  We had just transferred the site to a live test link, and I had to test everything to make sure it all worked correctly.  After testing and correcting for several hours, I had to leave for the airport.  The only problem was that the site was not live yet, and I really wanted to go live before leaving for Michigan.

So, I told my developers to make the site live when it was ready.  And just as I was about to board my flight, I received an e-mail that the site had gone live.  With no internet, I checked the site on my blackberry.  Although theNew2Do has not yet been designed for mobile, I could see that visiting TheNew2Do.com took me to the correct website, and there were no major flaws.

I had expected the site to go live Thursday, and I had planned to have some friends and family over to pop a bottle of champagne and celebrate the launch.  After all, this has been the culmination of six months of work, so I felt it would be necessary to celebrate a bit.

However, I was alone in LaGuardia airport when we launched, so instead of popping a bottle of champagne with friends and family, I decided to have some beers with strangers at the airport bar.  I met some great folks and told them about the launch and theNew2Do.  They congratulated me and wished me good luck.

When I finally sat down on the plane, I stopped and thought to myself, “is this really happening?  Am I really going back to Ann Arbor to promote my very own startup?  This is crazy!”

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous, a bit anxious about the thought of such a drastically life-changing event.  But, then I reassured myself that I’m sitting on an amazing idea, with a terrific website.  Now it is just up to me to execute on the marketing and sales end.

When I finally arrived at my house, I hopped on theNew2Do as quickly as I could to see it live.  I had been waiting for this day for a long time.  The site looks great, but I have discovered a few bugs here and there that must have come into play when we transferred the site from the private development servers to the cloud servers that we are using now.

We will hopefully get them all fixed by Monday, since there are not a lot, and then it is time to start promoting theNew2Do by signing up the biggest clubs and organizations on campus and in Ann Arbor.

I hope you all register for accounts today!  And, please if you have any feedback, let me know!

One Day to Launch

Posted January 7, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Business Plan, How I Got Here, Launch Update, Present Day Posts, Reflection

Tags: , ,

Looking back, I can’t believe how far we’ve come.  When I first started this blog, I had just hired a firm to turn my vision into a real, functioning website, and I had nothing more than a business plan and specification document, which together, explained how my business would operate.

As much thought as I had put into those documents and my business as a whole, I never imagined how much detail and planning would actually go into the development of the website.  I had never built, or dreamt of building, a website before I had the idea for theNew2Do, so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Although I was able to provide the blueprints for theNew2Do using nothing more than MS Paint and the Print Screen button on my keyboard, they were nothing more than that, just a skeleton for what theNew2Do would actually look like.  I have spent the past three or four months going through, and providing details as to what would be included in the website.  I should say that I have been very fortunate to find an extremely talented, hardworking development firm.  However, throughout this process, I feel like I have almost had to create an entire set of laws upon which theNew2Do functions, which, in turn, guide every decision I make about theNew2Do.

In hindsight, I think this was a valuable learning experience for me.  In the future, I will hopefully be running a company which will function using its own set of values, which will guide every decision I will make on behalf of the business.  I hope I can take what I have learned from this experience and apply it in the future.

I am trying not to get ahead of myself, however.  I realize I have not accomplished anything yet except for spending a lot of money in order to make an amazing website that nobody uses.  As excited and proud as I am of myself and what I have accomplished, the journey begins now.

TheNew2Do has just been transferred from a private development server to the actual servers we will be using.  It is still password protected so I can test everything out before revealing theNew2Do to the world, but I do expect the site to go live before I leave for Michigan tomorrow.

There are currently three real users, one real event, and one real group on theNew2Do.  It is exhilarating to be seeing real information on the site, opposed to the test data that has been used for the past three months.  I cannot wait until we go live, and I will be able to see a plethora of real information on the site that I will be able to use to find things to do and people to do them with in my community.

On another note, I still can’t even fathom that I will be leaving for Ann Arbor tomorrow.  It amazes me that I was able to put myself in a position to go back to school for another month the year after graduating- how many people can pull that off?  Although it will be fun, I will be there working my hardest to promote theNew2Do.

With that being said, this should be the most exciting part of this endeavor thus far, and I will be documenting the entire process.  I hope you all join me while I promote theNew2Do, and I hope you all join theNew2Do this weekend.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this process.  It has been a blast, but starting a business can be quite an emotional rollercoaster.  Having the support of my friends and family certainly helps.  Mom, Dad, Justine, and Lauren- thank you all so much.

Launch Update- We’re Almost There…

Posted January 4, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Launch Update, Present Day Posts, Ways to Use theNew2Do, theNew2Do

Tags: , , , , , ,

I know, I know you were all expecting theNew2Do.com to go live today.  There are a few loose ends to tie up, and then we will be rolling.  My hope is that we will launch by Thursday, and I’ll do my best to meet that prediction, but if we have to move the date back, it will not be by much.

With that being said, the site is looking great, and the more I play around with it, the more I am convinced of the utility of theNew2Do.  On the one hand, theNew2Do is a great place to find things to do and people to do them with.  On the other, it is one of the best sites out there for managing groups online.  And, because it is free, it is an effective tool for formal and informal groups alike.  So whether you are trying to get a group together to regularly play basketball, or you are trying to organize all of your Fraternity’s events and discussions, theNew2Do is the site for you.  Each group’s profile comes with its own communal calendar which can be extremely useful, especially when you have a large group.

Additionally, theNew2Do is a great organizational tool for individuals.  I remember that I often had so many things to do in college that I would forget to attend certain events, and I would shirk some responsibilities.  When you join events on theNew2Do, they go straight to your individual calendar.  Once you are on your calendar, you can simply click on the items to get all of the event details; it’s literally that simple.

There are two things that I have been thinking theNew2Do could be useful for, especially on college campuses:

First, during recruiting season at Michigan, I went to a ton of corporate presentations, often going to 10 or more in a single week.  Although I think we all know how that went from my interviews in Chicago and at AIG, I really could have used a site like theNew2Do to organize all of those events.  The way I envision this working is that our Office of Career Development (yes, it is called OCD and appropriately named so) could create a group called “Finance Corporate Presentations.”  Anyone interested in finding jobs in finance could join the group, and the OCD, or anyone else in the group, could post an event each time there was a finance-related corporate presentation.  This has a few advantages.  First, all of these presentations would be listed in one place.  Second, by clicking one button, you could send this item directly to your calendar.  And third, you could see who is going in order to coordinate rides and such (because we all know frustrating it is to walk across campus in a suit, only to show up for a networking event beet-red and sweating despite the temperature being below zero.)

Second, theNew2Do could be an invaluable tool for office hours.  Despite the best efforts of many of my professors, office hours simply did not work effectively for some reason.  Either the professor was too busy to pick a two-hour window to meet with students, too many students showed up, or no one showed up, making the professor sit and wait in their offices for hours for no apparent reason.  TheNew2Do is the solution to this problem.  If a teacher were to make a group for students interested in attending his or her office hours, the professor could simply make an event each time they wanted to hold office hours.  This way, they wouldn’t have to commit to specific hours that they will be around for the entire semester.  Rather, they could work around their busy schedules in order to meet students’ needs.  Teachers could also see if office hours are going to be very busy so they know they should schedule additional hours, and students can also see if it is going to be extremely busy- I can’t tell you how many times I have waited 45 minutes to ask a 30 second question.  Lastly, if the teacher sees no one has signed up for office hours, they can take the day off and relax.  Everybody wins.

Those are just two applications of theNew2Do, but there are so many more.  I can’t wait until we launch, so I can start seeing how people use theNew2Do in ways I never imagined.  If you have any thoughts or ideas about ways you can use theNew2Do, leave them below; I’d love to hear all of your suggestions.

Keep checking in every day to get updates on the launch, but it should be soon.  I hope you are excited!

My New Years Resolution

Posted January 2, 2010 by thestartupkid
Categories: Present Day Posts, theNew2Do

Tags: , , ,

Happy New Year everyone!

I apologize for my absence in adding to the blog over the past week.  I’ve been pretty busy, but I assure you the most exciting posts will be those coming in the upcoming month, so stay tuned.

It is pretty crazy that it is the year 2010.  When I was little, I imagined flying cars and other crazy, high-tech gizmos being ubiquitous.  The iPhone is a revolutionary invention, and although the term “iPhone” has become part of our vocabulary, when you take a step back, it sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel.

I also never imagined that the world would be caught up social media like it is, with so many people on Facebook, Twitter, and soon theNew2Do.  It’s kind of funny actually.  I was telling my friend the other day that if I were able to speak to 10 year old Devin Chasanoff, I don’t think I would be able to explain to myself what I am doing with my life… starting an event-based social networking website?

Among the amazing things that will be present in 2010 will be theNew2Do, and I couldn’t be more excited.  Last night, as we went around the dinner table and made New Year’s resolutions, Thanksgiving style per the request of one of the girls I was eating with, I proclaimed mine to be making theNew2Do an enormous success.  I will make sure this comes true.

In addition, I have some big news.  The travel and living arrangements have been made, and it looks like I will be in Ann Arbor for about a month promoting theNew2Do.  I will be living in a house with a bunch of my friends.  I never imagined that I would be able to head back to college a year after graduating to be promoting my own start-up.  Things are getting pretty exciting, and I am looking forward to all the big things that will come with the new year.

Inbound Marketing: An Excellent Textbook

Posted December 22, 2009 by thestartupkid
Categories: Entrepreneurial Reading

Tags: , , , ,

I finished Inbound Marketing, by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, a few days ago.  Overall, I would describe the book as an excellent textbook.  It didn’t help me that much given the nature of theNew2Do, and because I’ve learned a lot of the book’s lessons by doing research for the past few months, but this book would be extremely useful to any professional trying to bring in more business- and who isn’t trying to bring in more business?

I am going to have to go through the book again since there was a lot of information in there, but I will do that when the time is more appropriate.  Shah and Halligan are very intelligent, and they do their best to keep the book entertaining.  However, given that I would describe this book as a textbook, I wouldn’t recommend reading it for pleasure.  If you want to read this book, make sure you really want to get something out of it.

To be honest, there should be classes, or at least segments of classes, taught based on this book.  Inbound marketing is the future of marketing, and it is only going to be a matter of time before you will no longer be able to obtain a competitive advantage using the techniques explained in this book.  Before you know it, especially once our more technologically savvy generation gets a little older, everyone will be using these techniques, and if you aren’t trying to get found in Google and Social Media, you will be behind the curve.

As for me, the beginning of the book was much more interesting and helpful than the end.  To be honest, I got kind of bored towards the end and skimmed through the final chapters.  However, Inbound Marketing gave me a number of great marketing ideas, and I am happy to have read the book.

I am even happier that the book is now a part of my library, since I consider every book in my library to be an extension of my knowledge.  Now that I know what the book is about, and what it covers, I can always refer back to it, and I have a feeling I will have to soon.

If you are trying to bring in more business, I would go out and buy this book today.  These guys are smart, very smart, and you can learn a lot, not only from the book, but also by following their example in how Hubspot (Halligan and Shah’s business) has done its marketing.

Now, it is time to find a new book, hopefully one that is similar to Hawken’s Growing a Business that focuses on the entrepreneurial journey.  If anyone has any recommendations, please leave them below.

TheNew2Do Website Update

Posted December 22, 2009 by thestartupkid
Categories: Present Day Posts, theNew2Do

Tags: , , , , ,

I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed that we were unable to get the Beta site up and running by December 15th.  In retrospect, this was the right move- the site simply wasn’t ready yet.  However, since then we’ve made tremendous progress.  TheNew2Do is really coming along, both functionally and aesthetically.

For the past few weeks, I have been going through the website, essentially writing down every single item that needs to be added, adjusted, or changed.  It is a tedious process, but I would imagine it isn’t anywhere near as difficult as it is to actually build the website, so I am very thankful for the talented developers I have working on the website right now.

After noting every change that needs to be made, I will compile an organized list as best I can to send to my developers.  About a week ago, when the Beta launch was supposed to take place, that list was too long for my liking.  However, just six days later, that list has shrunk tremendously, and I am getting very excited.

As we approach the launch, I am going to have to shift my mindset from a strategy and product standpoint to a sales and marketing one.  I sometimes have trouble putting on all these different hats, but I cannot wait until I can get out into the field to get the word out about theNew2Do.  After all, that is the fun part about this project, and it is what I have been looking forward to since I started planning back in August of this year.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this whole endeavor is that I come up with more ideas and functionalities for the website every day.  If I were to keep adding them, we would never launch, so I will have to save these great epiphanies for a future iteration.

However, I am happy because I’ve got big things in store for theNew2Do… very big things.