Mixergy Event Recap

On Tuesday, Monique and I drove up to Santa Monica to participate (as audience members) in the Mixergy event, Strut Your Stuff. Internet startups presented their sites to a panel of four amazing specialists, one being Alex Funk of digital-telepathy.

The Mixergy event itself was an awesome experience. Sean Percival of docstoc, Jackie Peters of Heavybag Media, our very own Alex Funk and Nicole Jordan of The Rubicon Project provided the startups with valuable feedback about their websites.

Sean Percival spoke about search and we were impressed by his SEO knowledge. He always told the startup what he liked about their site and then went into some search strategies that would help optimize their site. Dedicating someone solely to the job of SEO, watching and analyzing Google analytics, and having a good page design were some of the techniques he offered. We are both following Sean on Twitter now and are looking forward to the words of wisdom he will share in the future.

Jackie Peters of HeavyBag Media presented her views on social media and was very captivating. We have been researching social media all summer, and we think she nailed it in terms of giving the startups some good ideas about building communities around their websites. She encouraged the startups to create a story for their brand that users could connect to.

Alex Funk was of course awesome. He spoke about different ways the startups could implement and utilize a widget strategy. Before working at dt, we never knew that embeddable content could be so effective.  Alex’s knowledge is definitely not limited to widgets, but he did an amazing job of coming up with strategies on the spot.  Monique and I agree that he definitely belonged on the panel of EXPERTS.

Finally, Nicole Jordan from the Rubicon Project was helpful with some PR tactics. Since we do not have very much experience with PR, it was nice to hear Nicole reminding startups to find their target market.  As marketing ladies, we can relate.  She also reminded them to work on an “elevator pitch.” We think this is important, especially when trying to get funding from some VC’s.

Some startups from the event that we found particularly interesting and groundbreaking were:

• eCar Services
  • Provides price transparency for car repairs
    • The site offers four services: an estimator, Ask Tommy (live car repair advice), find a mechanic, and a database to keep your car repair history
  • We like this site because it provides a service that a variety of people need, it’s user friendly and the clever mechanic Tommy serves as a mascot for the brand
• Quiz School
  • Allows the user to create, share and take quizzes
    • There are several different categories of quizzes, ranging from educational to entertainment
  • We find Quiz School appealing because it has a clean design and has already implemented a widget strategy for their site
• Creative Citizen
  • Creates a community where people come together to share green solutions
    • Features include user-generated solutions for sustainable living and a point system that rewards philanthropic organizations
  • We enjoyed the ideas behind Creative Citizen because being green is a topic many are passionate about, and this site gives people the tools to share their passions with others

We found the Mixergy event to be very insightful and thought provoking. It was amazing being able to see the startups’ ideas presented to an audience of established web professionals. Hearing the panelists’ feedback was not only valuable for the participants, but also for the audience members. Thank you to Mixergy for putting on such a great event, and a big thank you to those who presented and also to those who sat on the panel. We realize that it took a lot of courage for the presenters to showcase their ideas and that it took a lot of time and energy for the panelists who provided great feedback throughout the event.

–Lacy and Monique