Planning - for announcement and launch

We spent two full days last week working the details of our schedules in order to go live in January. There is a LOT to do from every aspect of the business. But we are making excellent progress and I believe we have narrowed things down sufficiently so that we can be successful.

We also have a couple of interns coming on to help us. We found two engineers that will help with the platform and website development. They should be on board in the next week or so. We have also identified a marketing intern that should be on in maybe two weeks. Together these folks increase our capacity and hopefully add some new ideas and creativity!

Todd has said that I am pretty into bullet lists - so in sticking with that theme, here are some of the big things that we decided in putting together our plans.

• We made (mostly) our decision on platform technology. There are two important pieces of this. First, we will use Drupal. Lots of reasons why. Biggest are that it is open source, has a large community around it, it has content management at its core, and it is based on PHP. We do have a bit more discussion around user interface technology and should have that nailed next week.

• We determined the scope of what we are calling V1.0 of the site. There will be at least three technology areas represented: Gaming; Video; and Graphics. Within each of these - we will have projects and activities supported by technology and training. The details of all of this are still to be worked!

• We have a pretty solid initial donor plan. We are not going for a large number prior to go live. We are hoping to sign up a couple to strengthen our announcement and to better prepare us for the students when they arrive.

• We have a pretty solid plan for marketing. We will be doing some experimenting, but we have a good idea of what we need to do and how we have to balance getting students to visit the site and do something with the volunteers that we need to support them.

• We have a good idea where to assign our first set of volunteers. This seems pretty trivial, but it takes real effort to first define a volunteer role and then to spend the time with them to insure that they can be successful. It is a balance that will take some time to "perfect."

This week (less some of Monday as it is a holiday) will be all about finalizing the detailed plan as well as the high level plan that we will use to insure that the different areas stay in sync, getting the volunteers on board and up to speed and to get moving on the donors.

It is all about the communities ...

This has been quite a day (actually quite a week and it is only Tuesday!) I will have a lot more to share by the weekend as we will have our detailed plans for V1.0 - the release that we will make in January as we go live!!

But for now - communities.

The key to our success is building and leveraging communities. Students who want to do a project or activity will likely not come to FreshBrain with that idea already flushed out and ready to go. They will more likely explore areas of interest through communities.

As an example, take gaming. We will not initially show the students the tools and technologies required to write a game. We will instead help them to understand what gaming is all about, the platforms that games can run on (games for a handset, PC, console, ...), the types of games that exist (sports, first person, multiplayer, etc.).

As they explore, they will interact with a gaming community. They will see projects that are being completed by others, the kinds of activities that are available and read the discussions that are taking place. They may chose to jump in and ask questions or comment on a discussions thread. They will have access to example projects and will be able to use the community to flush out what their ideas.

Once they jump in and start up a project, the community will continue to be there for input and advice. It can help them find similar games, answer technical questions or provide feedback in storyboarding their game. They will of course have an advisor that is there to help them - who is also a part of the community.

I could go on and on. But I hope that you can see how important and core to FreshBrain community is. And this is only one type of community, and one aspect to how that community will operate. Here are a couple of others.

• Communities can document and evolve best practices so that advisors have a big jump start in helping the students with their projects (wikipedia like repository ...)

• Communities of parents will provide valuable input into what they would like to see added or improved

• A community of educators will help us to understand how to best involve schools or motivate students
  

This is a very powerful concept. Communities together with our approach to allowing students to explore first and then use technology second makes FreshBrain unique.

If you have not read Wikinomics by Don Trapscott and Anthony D. Williams, I strongly recommend it. They were not the inspiration for FreshBrain, but they hit the nail on the head as to how business is being and will be done in the future.

The logo ...

Checked in with legal and they have given me the go ahead to post the new logo. We will be trademarking it and copyrighting the graphic of the brain itself. That process will take a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we will start using the new logo ...

What finally pushed us over the edge on this logo as opposed to the others that I shared in an earlier post is how clean it is and how well it conveys creativity tied to technology.

We have decided on two versions. The one above with the words on both sides of the graphic. And another with the words below the graphic. That version is still under construction!

Last thing on this. We decided that we really like the green color. It feels pretty current. Hope you like it!

Our logo ...

Oh - and by way of a tease ... we have selected our logo!! Once we register it, you will be the first to see it here on my blog.

Which way do we go ... first!

Next week is a big week for us. We need to nail down the plans for the first release of freshbrain.org - and in doing so, nail down the content that we will provide for the students and the marketing programs that we will pursue in letting them know that we exist!!

But before getting into that, just a quick mention of a couple of pre-launch programs that we plan to embark on. We would like to do a couple of things with these programs.

1. Start to spread the word about FreshBrain
2. Get some input from our target audience

We are looking at maybe two programs or contests. One would be around creating the best short video advertisement for FreshBrain. We would provide a bit of background on FreshBrain and then let them at it ... to show their creativity in explaining why it is cool, something students would want to do, all in short video form. How great would it be to see how they explain it. The results would at a minimum make our messaging. And maybe we will end up with videos that we will use directly:)

The other would be to create graphics that best communicate the areas of technology that the students can explore with FreshBrain. Some examples of these include gaming, video, graphics and website creation. We have been struggling with the best way to communicate these as graphics that we place on the website. I bet that the students that participate in this contest will come up with some great ideas ...

In both cases, the winners will get prizes. And we will get registrations from everyone who participates!!

So back on next week and the content that we will provide. There are a lot of choices to be made both in terms of how many different technology areas we start with and the depth within each of these areas. The site will provide students with areas of technology that they might be interested in. I mentioned a few of these above - gaming, video, graphics, website creation.

Then within each of these, we will look to break them down further. Using gaming as an example, there are wireless games (for a cell phone for example), games for your PC, game console games, etc. Each of these then will likely require different technologies, tutorials, training, samples and so on.

So we have to decide how many we can support and how deep we go with each. And since we will not be the content creators for these technologies, we will need to find partners that have the required content, get it from them and include it in a form that is easy for students to use.

And while doing this, we will need to put in place the project and activity structures so that we support the students completing projects and activities in the technology areas that interest them ...

Lots to do. Very exciting. Feel free to leave comments!!

More time with our board ...

Last week was a bit of catching up with some of the members of our board. I suppose you can view a board in a number of different ways. I view them as key and critical to our success. They are checks and balances to us running the operation, they are broad in their experience and offer great input and feedback, they are there to help us with fundraising and basically they are my boss!

So last week was the first time post our initial board meeting that we got to hear from them. And the input, feedback and support is was awesome. We had Mike pointing out that we are not crisp in our messages, that we need to focus on insuring that the students get that great experience and that we should be careful not to go too broad as opposed to deep initially.
Curt and Lewis wanted to make sure that we have a clear and motivating vision and mission, and that our fundraising gets off to a good start.

How much better is it than a board who are willing to spend hours working on all of this with us. I am not only pleased, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Partnering ...

This new gig is absolutely fascinating!!

I met a number of months ago with Barry Posner, the dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. This was kind of a cold call for me. While I graduated with my MBA from Santa Clara, I really never got to know Barry. How I met him is a long story. Lets just say networking:)

Anyway, Barry gave me some very good advice. He said the one thing that is frustrating to him is that there are soooo many different groups and individuals trying to help address the educational gap that we have in the US, but he doesn't see them working together. They all seem to focus on their vision / mission. As a result, we are getting less benefit than we would otherwise.

So I took this to heart. I am committed to finding ways to partner everywhere possible. Very high on my list is Junior Achievement (JA). I had my second meeting with them today. What a great experience. I met with the Elaine Curran the president of Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay chapter of JA and Mark Linsky who is on their board. We spent a couple of hours talking about FreshBrain and looking for ways to work together. I believe the opportunities are there and it is just a matter of working together to find them.

Why was this a great experience - simply because there is such passion with the people that I talk to. Elaine and Mark are great examples. I now get a couple of emails A DAY from individuals who are either personally offering to help out or pointing me in the direction of an organization that I should be working with.

We will make this a priority. I believe we will find amazing leverage with JA and/or City Year and/or Boys and Girls Club and/or ... the list goes on.

They are talking about us within Sun ...

An article was posted within Sun about FreshBrain - on the front page of our internal portal. This is the place where Sun employees go to get the latest on what is happening both inside and outside of Sun. It is where you search for the tools to do 401k or expense reports. It is the hub of all intranet web activity. How cool is that!!

I will not bore you with the whole article. But here are some snipits.

"Sun Partners with New Nonprofit August 13, 2007 - Software VP Dale Ferrario is starting a new company -- a nonprofit called FreshBrain -- to give high school kids the chance to work together using the latest technology."

"FreshBrain is being created to enhance and extend the existing educational system. It will give students a change to work with the latest technology in a supportive environment where they can explore and create, where they can take an idea and turn it into something real."

"FreshBrain was one of about 100 names to come out of multiple brainstorming parties and it eventually beat out Student Technopreneur."

"By creating a website powered by Sun's network.com and enlisting the aid of volunteer advisors, FreshBrain intends to create an online world in which students can work together on stimulating projects and activities. "

"Sun has offered a bunch of things. One is the in-kind donation of my time. The other is any technology we want to use. Access to anybody, basically. We will host the site on network.com, which for a startup nonprofit is great. I don't have to buy a computer and I sort of get infinite scale. As I need more, I go to the guys at network.com and I just ask them, 'Can you give me more capacity?' That will be another way to show the kinds of things Sun is doing. We'll make it visible that this is powered by Sun"

"One of the things people always say to me is, 'How are you going to let the kids know? You've got to go to all the schools and let them know.' My response to that is, 'I don't think MySpace went to all the schools to let them know it existed.' They didn't. So if you think about how do you create that kind of community and that kind of a phenomenon ... we've got to find a way to do that."

I sure appreciate the support that we are getting from Sun!!

Now What ...

Before I jump into some of the things that we are working on, how about a couple of interesting tidbits ...

• According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley - the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
• In the next 10 years, Infoworld says 43 percent of the workforce will be eligible for retirement, while the next two generations are about 15 percent smaller. According to Taleo, a talent management consultancy, the United States will have a 10 million worker shortfall by 2010.
• The SJ Mercury News business section today leads with - Penny-pinching entrepreneurs like these guys are changing the world of venture capital.

This is a time like no other. We are creating an opportunity like we have only seen a few times in the past. Our kids will see a very different world, with what appears to me to be unlimited opportunity. We need to help prepare them for this.

FreshBrain wants to play a role. We hope a significant one ...

So back to reality. What are we doing this week to keep us moving along.

• Submit the remainder of our nonprofit paperwork (1023)

• Work closely with the board to finalize vision, mission, objectives, goals and metrics.

• Work to fill some holes in the company, specifically finance, legal and some interns to work on the website, marketing and fundraising.

• Make progress on the engineering plan, or what is in release 1!

• Begin to build up our communities (technical, business, content, partners, etc.).

• Finalize on the corporate brand and logo.

More of an update on this later in the week.

A few more happenings

My last blog entry was all about the board meeting. But that is not all that went on. Here are a few pictures to liven this entry up. We have been working with Skona on our corporate look and feel. I included a few pictures last time on the website design. Here are a few on possible logos.

These are our top choices after reviewing them, discussing with some of our board members and after a small student focus group.

I believe we are a couple of weeks away from finalizing. We will be combining these together with a dark background or website look and trying some different colors and styles. We are toying with some combination of what we have here, the approach that Mtv has taken in allowing their logo to change look regularly (just refresh the page and see what happens) and Apple's website (with its black and white contrast and great photos / graphics).

And just for more color ... here are some pictures from our board member and partner dinner. Todd was the chef and the food was awesome. Julie was the sous chef (assistant). The two of them did a great job of buying the food, making it and insuring that the presentation and the ambiance was spectacular.

Our first board meeting ... we are on our way!

Well - we have hit our first MAJOR milestone. We have completed our first board meeting!!

First by way of introduction, here is the makeup of our board. I couldn't share this until today as we had nominated our board but they had not accepted their positions. They did that as one of the first actions. They are:

Rich Green - EVP of Software at Sun Microsystems
Lewis Gale - Dean of Goddard School of Business at Weber State University
Mike LaFave - Head of Sales for Consolidated Printing
Curt Roberts - Executive at Youth Star and Former VP Marketing for Nike
Dale Ferrario - President of FreshBrain and VP Software Sun Microsystems

The employees and volunteers of FreshBrain have been heads down working toward our first board meeting. We prepared a number of version 1.0 documents, a website prototype and a board presentation. Here is the complete list:

• Agenda
• Board Presentation
• Objectives, Goals and Metrics Document
• Engineering Plan
• Marketing Plan
• Fund Raising Plan
• Student Scenarios
• Nonprofit Documents (By Laws, etc.)
• Partner Two Page Overview
• Website Prototype

Prior to the meeting we held an informal technology discussion lead by Stan. He walked everyone through the platform that we will be building, the technologies that we are evaluating and a bit about how this will be deployed and supported in production.

Then we got into the board meeting. For me, it a first. Not only attending a board meeting but running it. What a great experience! Here is a summary of what we did.

• Called the meeting to order
• Discussed nonprofit status
• Agreed to board roles and member terms
• Reviewed FreshBrain vision, mission, objectives, goals, measures, roadmap and financials
• Demo'd the BreshBrain.org prototype
• Reviewed marketing approach and plan
• Reviewed fundraising approach and plan
• Voted
  
• Closed the meeting

This was a LOT of stuff. We had provided the document prior to the meeting, but there was still too much information to fit into the two hour slot we had allocated. But the discussion was excellent and we accomplished much of what we had hoped to accomplish. As a result, we are able to now function to the budget proposed and the roadmap presented.

We will be scheduling our next meeting with the board in roughly a month. This will be an opportunity to finalize on two remaining items. The first is the goals and measures. We have a good first pass but it needs some additional discussion and review before the board is comfortable approving. And second, we need to spend more time discussing and reviewing our fundraising strategy, target founding partners, timing and approach.

We had a very nice dinner following the board meeting. We had almost all of our board, the employees of FreshBrain and our partners Skona. We had this in my backyard. It was a nice culmination to the day and a chance to mingle and interact outside of the work environment.

Wow - great progress thus far. I am soooo excited to really get moving. The amount of work is a bit daunting, but the opportunity to make a difference is awesome and we are now truly on our way!!