Companies like Facebook sometimes don't acquire companies per se.  

Be a good egg.  Make sure you and your co-founders develop your personal brands.

Photo shot at Carmel Market in Tel Aviv by me.

They acquire a team who's product, platform or service may or may not fit into what they are doing, but they know the collective smarts of the team could be a huge asset to them.  

It's called an acqui-hire.

As your startup gets traction, consider another form of traction:  not just the collective intelligence of your company, but the people, their personalities, and their personal brands.

Make sure you are branding yourself in a way that makes you even more valuable to the right company who's not just looking for smarts, but humans who can express their humanity. 

Since it's opening in December of 2011, Geekdom has received a tremendous amount of local, regional and national media coverage.  Here's a summary of what's been covered so far.... thank you Nick Longo for your leadership and making this a very special place to make and create something very new.

Geekdom Media Coverage Report -

Try this:  start writing blog posts as if you were already a really big deal in your space, or the space that does not exisit and you inten to own.

Your startup's blog sets the stage to help build trust, thought leadership and owning the space you're in, or helping to create.  Photo by me shot in Kansas City.

I don't suggest you post these.  

Just create a post and save it for future use.  

You may or not be able to use the exact words or terms as your startup evolves, but you will benefit in one major way:  when you write down what your vision is, often times it can become a self-actualization process.

The more you write this out, the better you get at this.  

It's like any thing that you do over and over.  You'll catch your writing's sea legs.  

Don't Over Complicate It.

Write as you speak.  

Simple, plain wording that explains what you are doing, where you are headed and why you're the platform to bet on.

You never know who's watching and listening to your voice before they decide to partner, invest, buy, or acquire.

Investors in startups invest in people, not just a company.

Keep that in mind as you shop your startup for deal flow and funding.

External to how smart you may individually and collectively be, what do your personal brands say about you?  How do they attract the right people to your universe of opportunity and deal flow.

One commonality that I find in startups, is that often the founders have known each other for many years.  You may have met in high school, learned to code in a dorm room with the person who is now your lead developer, or just came up with an idea for what could be next while day-dreaming in your MBA classes.

Keep in mind that when investors are looking at your company, they are really looking at you and your co-founders.  Develop a story line on your social profiles that reflect what you're about, what you believe in and where the heart and soul of your company is.

You're not just competing for money.  You're competing for attention.  

Get it with a personal brand that attracts the right universe of people, who'll believe in your vision, your mission, and most of all, invest in the collective of what makes you and your co-founders a great team.

There's three universes that matter:  investors, partners, customers.

For the purposes of this post, the order does not matter.

Depending on where you are in your life cyle, you should seriously consider the words you use, the messages you promote, and calls to action who ask for.  

You're leaving digital breadcrumbs behind you.  

Make sure you're giving each universe plenty to snack on.

3 Day Startup San Antonio is returning to Geekdom at the Weston Center, April 27 - 29.

Catching up with Cristal Glangchai, Ph.D., Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Trinity University and 3 Day Startup San Antonio, she shared details and what's new with the program.  

Cristal Glangchai, Ph.D., Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Trinity University and 3 Day Startup San Antonio

Cristal is looking for more women, entrepreneurs of all ages and people with day jobs or those considering leaving it to get a startup of your own going.  

Being accepted to the program not only looks great on your resume, but you never know who you're going to connect with.  

And something very new....the Geekdom Fund that could be funding your next big idea.

Application Deadline is April 18.  Apply here And Start Something Up!

High Fives to Geekdom-based companies, CallGrader, ZippyKid and SnappTours who swept the Innotech San Antonio Beta Summit placing out as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winners respectively. 

You gotta come see us at the 11th Floor of the Weston Centre, certainly the swankiest building in all the land.  It's an awesome place, with friendly and really smart people.

The Beta summit is a competition for new media, software, securities and related technology companies to showcase the latest technologies to a qualified audience of decision makers.

Critical Mass and Success at Geekdom: The New Normal

While it’s certainly great to see these wins, there are other amazing things taking place here that tell a story in a much greater context.

Thursday night:  a group of high profile investors were here to gain insights from Paul Singh, Partner and Master of the Hustle, of 500 Startups, in advance of next week’s Demo Day for the graduating TechStars Cloud class.   While money was certainly discussed, it turned out to be a lesson in the realities of angel investing in what’s become an environment where the founders are on equal (or even greater) with the investors to be.  Companies that make it into and graduate out of TechStars process raises the bar even more.

Wednesday night: a group of creative filmmakers and digital media producers were in the community room holding a meeting, bringing together what’s traditionally been a disparate group of individuals needing a place that they can now call home.

Tuesday night: I sat in a group meeting of something like 50 developers who were looking for ways to meet and connect with each other. 

I heard multiple stories from people who home-school their children, code from home, and looking for a way to not only get out of the house for a few hours and meet like-minded people. 

There were also rumblings of others in the group who had day jobs at San Antonio companies, looking for way to ditch the 9 to 5 (or longer) routine.

My sense was that they were here to see if their instincts were right that maybe it was time to leave, take the leap to self-employment, or at the very least, consider connecting with other programmers

The kingdom of Geekdom is the best place to grow and monetize your brain.  And it's tons of fun too!  Come join the community and see what blooms.

Yesterday morning, I was having breakfast one of the winners of the Innotech Beta Summit, ZippyKid’s founder, Vid Luther.  

It was a conversation not about technology, but his long term of vision of what ZippyKid could become.  Seeing he, and his co-winners at Innotech today speaks volumes about something very special that’s incubating on the 11^th floor at the Weston Centre in San Antonio.  

With the Geekdom community approaching 250 members (and growing) the real winner here is not one individual company, but the collective energy that is beginning to spawn new intellectual and capital wealth.

See related coverage @ Silicon Hills News and San Antonio Express-News.

One of the most effiicent ways to be discovered by media, analysts, and bloggers is to write interestesting, helpful, and compelling content on your startup's blog.

Old School Typewriter shot by me last year while traveling.

While this may seem to be overstating the obvious, I am amazed at how many startups I meet with and ask, "where the fuck is your blog?"

The general response is... and general answer back is...

1.  It takes too much time:

You don't have to post daily.  Write something once a week.

2.  We have nothing to say:

Oh yes you do.  

You're disrupting an industry, you've got your pulse on beta users, studying industry research, getting help from mentors, and much more.  

3.  We are not in sales mode.

Even better.  Your goal is not to sell anything.  Your goal should be to be helpful and a resource to the media on your particular market segment.  

4.  We're still in stealth.

Stay in stealth.  

Maybe you illustrate your humanity and share some of the struggles, the joy and the changes you are going through in bringing your startup to life.  

I'll help you figure it out.  Free.  No charge.  Let me show you how.

The first five startups that email me a link to their site, and pitch me on what your doing, and what makes you interesting, I'll give you 30 minutes to help you get going on your blogging / story telling initatives.  alan at weinkrantz dot com.

Here's a technique I use when I am doing research for clients on who we could engage with and eventually pitch a story to:  track conferences and events relative to your space and see who is speaking.

Often times, music journalists moderate music tech conferences, security bloggers might speak at - you guessed it, a security conference.  And lo and behold, an industry analyst might release the findings of a survey about networking gear, one of their own conferences or as a guest speaker at a related event.

There's Always A Paper Trail of Opportunity on The Web 

If you put your sleuth hat on, dig in and discover, reserach and engage with targeted universes who are not only visible, but could help you amplify your message, vision and smarts.

The purpose of gaining coverage on sites like CNET, TechCrunch, Mashable, The Next Web are not only to create buzz for your startup, but to gain what I call a cascading effect.

A burst of coverage on the sites covering startups, have the cascading effect of related coverage in your vertical markets.

Photo shot on the 4th of July at South Padre Island by me.

Serving the financial services market?  You have the opportunity to cascade related coverage in.... you guessed it the financial services related vertical media. Disrupting broadcast media?  Ditto.  And so on...

Think Beyond Just Buzz

It's nice to break your story in places like these.  

Journalists and bloggers who cover specific vertical markets look to these sites for story ideas.

Think of these sites for launching your company.  

Think of the vertical markets for generating deal flow, partnerships, funding and sales.