FounderBuzz

Interview with Sean Beeson, independent composer of music for mobile apps and other media

When I interviewed Patrick Chukwura, designer of Goop, one of the things he spoke to me about was the importance of sound effects and original music to his game. Who did he use? Sean Beeson. Today I am excited to share an interview with Sean Beeson who talks about the composition business. Sean has scored over 50 games and has been recognized in his industry multiple times for his work including three nominations for G.A.N.G. awards.

Sean gets his business connections the old fashion way through word of mouth and great references. He is actively using the web and social media to maintain connections with developers and shares his advice on the importance of music and sound effects to a mobile game.

Startup interview with Mike Shultz, CEO of Infoglide, about MinorMonitor’s free service for Facebook parental monitoring

Mike Shultz joined us to talk about his new offering MinorMonitor from Infoglide. This is a product offering that is near and dear to my heart because as a father of 4 I haven’t even considered allowing my children to get Facebook accounts because of my concerns about cyber bullying, appropriate content and safety. MinorMonitor is a product that seeks to at least address some of those concerns.

MinorMonitor is a new free tool for parents to monitor their children’s Facebook accounts and alert parents of inappropriate or dangerous content. MinorMonitor was developed by Infoglide that has a long history of developing anti-fraud and security solutions for business and the Federal Government. This service gives parents a tool to make them feel more comfortable about the growing use of Facebook by teenagers.

“We are so very proud to introduce MinorMonitor to all of the parents out there worried about what their children are up to on Facebook,” said Mike Shultz, CEO of Infoglide and head of the MinorMonitor effort. “We built MinorMonitor to take advantage of our deep security analytic technology, and extend this as a free service to benefit parents who want to make sure their child’s Facebook activities are safe.”

They have a lot of details on their solution in their press release. Here is what they have to say about how it works:

“How MinorMonitor Works:
MinorMonitor, as a free web-based tool, has sophisticated algorithms that leverage an extensive keyword phrase library (of over 3,000 keywords) and natural language analytics that identify potentially dangerous activities such as bullying, drug use, solicitation, sexual references, and profanity. These algorithms and keyword phrases are continuously updated, with new words added to follow trends and slang. MinorMonitor also watches out for suspicious friends by identifying friends significantly older than the child, friends with a very small number of mutual friends, and friends who post an abnormally high amount of negative content.

MinorMonitor analyzes every type of activity including wall posts, notes, photos, videos, and messages. This continuous monitoring is available to parents at any time through an intuitive, easy-to-navigate dashboard. Proactive alerts may also be set up in order to receive immediate emails for extremely concerning events.

MinorMonitor’s proprietary, analytic technology foundation comes from Infoglide who brought its core capabilities downstream to benefit parents. More than just identifying and flagging concerning keyword phrases, MinorMonitor is also built with unique self-learning and natural language analytics that make it smarter over time, providing a more accurate analysis and fewer false alarms.”

Interview with Sean Wilson, founder of Fullsteam Brewery

Sean Wilson, founder of Fullsteam Brewery, joined me to talk about his company and how he is using Twitter, Facebook and blogging to build a significant following for his new company. Sean only launched his brewery seven months ago, but he already has over 6,000 Twitter followers and over 4,000 fans of his Facebook page.

How did he do this? Instead of waiting for his brewery to launch, he engaged in an authentic social media conversation early and often as he build up his company and capabilities.

Sean explained, “I think that’s been Fullsteam’s story as we’ve built out this brewery. We’re only seven months old. Our launch coincided nicely with the mainstream acceptance of social media, and we ended up telling a story of our build out, our process, our ideas, our trials and tribulations, and engaging the audience as we rolled out instead of being kind of cloak and dagger or being closed off and then opening the doors and saying, “Here we are.” We actually built I wouldn’t say necessarily a following, but an audience and some intrigue as we were in that year-long build out.”

When asked about the secret to his success in social media, Sean pointed to authenticity and allowing your personality to shine through as the keys to social media success. I loved talking with Sean and think that his experience holds good lessons for all entrepreneurs.

Interview with Jess Constable, founder of JessLC

Jess Constable, founder of JessLC, joined me for an interview about her jewelry business and how she has used a combination of her blog, Twitter and Facebook Page”>Facebook to dramatically shift her business to an online sales model.

When Jess started her company, she was primarily focused on selling to brick and mortar jewelry retailers with modest online sales. In 2009 she started her blog and engaged in a strong social media promotion program and now does over 80% of her business online, a complete flip of her business model.

Jess provides a good example of the value of blogging to a business in getting people who are invested in your success. Her advice to aspiring bloggers and social media practitioners? Be authentic and passionate.

There is great value to be obtained through engaging in social media in a meaningful and authentic way and that’s advice I think any entrepreneur can take to heart. I hope you enjoy this interview.

Interview with Josh Baer, founder and CEO of Otherinbox

Mobile computing is hot and with thousands of mobile applications being built and purchased for smart phones and tablets alike many companies are looking to enter into that space. Josh Baer, founder and CEO of Otherinbox, joins us today to talk about how their mobile app is helping make it easier to find the messages you are looking for on your mobile device.

Josh speaks to the importance of marketing to their existing user base to promote the mobile app and hopefully give good reviews to drive toward better success on the iTunes store. He makes a good point at the end of the interview which I think speaks to the approach a lot of companies are taking with marketing their mobile application:

“With that said, we don’t think that we’ve got it all figured out or anything. Mobile marketing is definitely something that’s new and there are a lot of challenges to it. It’s still, I think, more of an art than a science. We’re going to try a lot of things and fail quickly and learn as we go.

As they learn more we’ll follow up with Josh to see how they did.