aztechbeat On Friday, at the Arizona Commerce Authority’s offices, the Furnace Accelerator unveiled its first batch of ten startups. With the level of startup activities and tech company launch events in recent months, I am starting to wonder if we are finally on the verge of a mini silicon valley taking off in the Phoenix area. … Read more
Ben Hall, Benson Garner, and the rest of the crew at Gangplank hosted an Extreme Pitch Contest for their “RoadMap To Launch” and “Semester To Launch” company participants. This biannual event is a culmination of each company’s hard work in developing a ‘lean startup’ with the help of their leader’s mentorship. This time, six new startups … Read more
It can be difficult to build a small business in an age of corporations. However, the internet has made it possible for companies of any size to be successful. Social media is a large part of marketing for companies big and small and many exist because of sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Companies like … Read more
Rand Fishkin, Founder and CEO of SEOmoz (based in Seattle, WA) packed the place out last night at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort for his talk on Inbound Marketing. With over 200 people in attendance, the room was riveted on his every word. Rand took us through a diagnosis of the eight irrational biases in the … Read more
If you missed it: Key takeaways from Pressnomics day 1. Mikkel Svane, @mikkelsvane Zendesk, a new generation enterprise software startup you shouldn’t think of customer service as a cost, but as an opportunity to increase revenue. Zendesk started out as 3 consultants who didn’t want to end up being consultants for the rest of … Read more
We headed down to ASU SkySong yesterday for the second installment of Techiepalooza, a networking event hosted by ASU Venture Catalyst that is designed to bring the Phoenix entrepreneurial and tech community together. Our first impression was that the event felt more organized and relaxed than the previous Techiepalooza this summer, when the RSVPs doubled on the day of … Read more
Last month we mentioned that on-demand driving service Uber had soft launched in the Valley, enabling anyone who signs up for an Uber account to take full advantage of the service. As of yesterday, the company “officially” made Phoenix its 18th location, and it did so with a launch event at the Saguaro Hotel in Scottsdale, where … Read more
Say hello to Convertasaurus. It’s a new tool that has just been launched by the Scottsdale-based internet marketing firm, SpyFu. Mike Roberts, Founder & President of SpyFu, has compiled copious amounts of information regarding what specific keywords perform better when placed in an ad situation. For instance, if you were trying to sell a product … Read more
Page.ly’s conference, Pressnomics, quickly sold out of the 150 available tickets, so if you weren’t able to attend, here are a few things that I took away from each of the speakers on day 1. Fun fact: It would have cost $10,000 to remove that giant chandelier that is right above the projection screen (you … Read more
Arizona has always been a hotbed for CRM companies (think Act,SalesLogix, Infusionsoft), and Tucson-based Simpleview has quietly joined that growing list. Simpleview has emerged as another rapidly growing software company that creates a CRM and CMS solution specifically for destination marketing organizations (or DMOs). Simpleview is a company that helps destination marketing organizations (DMOs) with conventions … Read more