12 Hours in San Fran

12 Hours in San Fran

I came up to San Fran on Tuesday for a quick 12 hour trip. RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), their Ibanking Division which handles all of the M&A and Funding Deals for hot technology companies. They were holding a little mixer in the city. The mixer contained about 60-100 executives and investors from the US.

I have a very nice relationship with the executives that started the Ibanking Division of RBC, so it was very nice of them to invite me to this event. I spent the 2 hrs speaking to many successful CEO’s that that have sold their companies, or brought them public.

I common theme with all the successful ceo’s was that they were nimble, focused, super passionate about their vertical and they were very very on top of SEO ahead of the ball game. In addition, every successful CEO was pretty much still involved in their company, and they were unsure of what was next.

Some trends that we discussed was that Ecommerce is coming back, and definitely on spotlight for a lot of investment firms. In addition it seemed to me their was SO many people in the EDU Lead Gen Space there. This is true.. In the last 3 weeks I have been introduced to a large number of edu lead gen firms that are “CRUSHING IT”

During this little event, I also spent time with a few executives who own larges Marketing Services Agenices. Ex; SEO / SEM

It’s interesting... SEO / SEM Agencies are a tough breed. Lots of overheard, and your servicing clients. It’ appears they are trying to figure out if they should go nuts and build their own in house properties.. This would make a lot of sense, and potentially bring in significant additional revenue. Kind of of what Tsavo.com is doing.

The group @ this event was mixed ages. From 25, 26 to about 60 yrs old. I wonderful blend of new and older energy. Most everyone was wearing a suit, including me.

Everyone agreed, the time to start a company and grow is now. M&A will pick up. Many companies will flourish. A few companies in SO Cal that we all know were thrown out there in a negative connotation. Just remember, simple is better. No need to re-invent something.. Or take component of something and put them together in to one company.

Clear Ex;

Twitter – A SIMPLE idea, SIMPLE! Founders believed in it.. Stuck to their marketing and they fucking CRUSHED IT and will succeed. Cost to build was far less than the bigger co’s out there, however they will have the biggest evalution

Mahalo – Great idea in terms of content play, and user experience, however nothing was re-invented. Al they did was mixed Google style search, with wikipedia, with Content Syndication, with Yahoo Answers and came up with MAHALO.com It can be a hit, or it can be a miss. The point is that they are trying to bring many things together in to one site. While something like Twitter was SOOO unique, unheard of, but a Phenomenal Idea.

Remember, Real Time is Huge, Targeted Marketing is Huge, Analyizing Behavior from different sources is huge. There is BIG potential to those who Nail it right now. Remember, invest in SEO! SEO! SEO!

There are a few more sites that was talked about, however ill leave it at the above.

Off to Vegas now for a Conference for 2 days, and then friends come out to enjoy the weekend. Soon I will write up about trends in the marketplace. What Co’s to look out for that will kill it, and those to stay far away from.