Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

I talked about the Rocket Pitch event earlier this week. Well, it turned out to be a great event. First off, the turn out was very good. This is the 6th year Babson has held this event, and interest continues to grow. The audience consists of students, faculty, and alum as well as a professional investors, lawyers, and others. The primary goals of the event are: 1) Allow early stage companies an opportunity to “pitch” their business concept and receive feedback 2) Make connections with potential investors, customers or advisors.

As for me, these two objectives were certainly met and exceeded. I got very positive feedback on the concept and had quite a few individuals express interest in partaking in an early beta of the product. I was also able to demo my current prototype of iPresent Producer. All in all, I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to speak about the company and the products in front of a great group of people.

Here is a podcast of my speech in both MP3 and Windows Media formats. I re-recorded it so I could post it here:

Podcast: MP3 or WMA - (3 minutes, 42 seconds)

P.S. - Stay tuned, in the next day or so, I’ll be posting an audio with synchronized slides version of this presentation that will be created with an early version of iPresent Producer.

My company got a mention in this week’s edition of Mass High Tech. Here’s the article. They had a short write up on this year’s Babson Hatchery businesses. It’s always nice to get some coverage, and this qualifies as our first. Anyhow, I’ll be presenting this Friday over at Babson as part of their annual “Rocket Pitch” event, so I’ll be posting a podcast of my “pitch”. I will also be posting on how the event goes. This is really my first public event where I’ll be talking about the company, meeting people, and getting feedback. I’m looking forward to it.

I just got started blogging and I’m already lagging in posts. Well, at least it has been for good reason. I’ve been working on getting a bunch of things done in preparation for next week’s “Rocket Pitch” event at Babson College. This is a great event that allows aspiring entrepreneurs to “pitch” their idea to a large audience of investors, potential partners, service providers, as well as to fellow students, alum, and faculty. In addition to gaining some exposure to an influential audience, each team receives valuable feedback on the merits of their idea, from a panel comprised of various business professionals. If you happen to be in the Boston area next week and have some time, I highly recommend this event.

And, in case you were wondering, yes I’m currently a student at Babson College, in Babson Park, MA. I’m finishing up my MBA, while I continue building iPresent. Babson is a great school and my experience has been a very positive one. Babson has once again been chosen as the #1 ranked MBA program for Entrepreneurship , marking the 12th connsecutive year. Babson truly lives and breathes entrepreneurship, and events like “Rocket Pitch” echo that sentiment. Anyhow, if you happen to get over to the event next week, feel free to look me up.

First off, it is not an Apple product. :] I struggled with the company/product name for quite some time, but I kept coming back to iPresent. I just thought it captured the essence of what we are trying to do. It’s about empowering users (presenters) with easy to use, yet powerful rich media authoring and publishing tools. Our software is designed for those individuals that need to communicate, train, and express thoughts to others quickly and effectively - but they don’t want to be bogged down by the technology. Here’s the more formal introduction. Read more »

I had a rather lengthy first post planned. It was fairly ambitious - it described the company I am starting, a bit about myself, what this blog is about, and some philosophies on building software and businesses. Then I thought, I don’t need all that stuff up front - just let the blog evolve, let the posts themselves describe who, what, and where. Plus, I didn’t want to scare people off with my long-windedness.

So, here’s the short version. This blog is about starting a small software company. I hope to have an open conversation with others about the process. I am dedicated to building better software by listening to feedback. I hope to learn by listening, and to contribute something back through my experiences.