HQ Raleigh hopped Tuesday night with 95 people gathered around the bar to share in fresh-tapped beer and subs – and to talk about ‘Things’. After a show of hands, about 50% self-identified themselves as working on an ‘Internet of Things’(IoT) project – also known as Machine to Machine...
Read MoreThe entrance to my neighborhood sits atop one of the many large hills in Chapel Hill. As you crest the hill, there’s a good chance you’ll see a squad car perched at the intersection. It points out to Highway 54, with the radar gun leveled across the window sill. And if you follow @ChapelHillPD on Twitter, you already know to slow down. That’s right, the Chapel Hill Police Department frequently, but not always, tweets out when and where it’ll be enforcing the speed limit. To figure out why the CHPD might do something so awesome yet so unconventional, I...
Read MoreEditor’s note: You’ve probably heard or read about IoT – the Internet of Things. But did you know you most likely are benefitting from it even as you read these words? Triangle entrepreneur Matthew Davis, who works at apps developer StepLeader in Raleigh and who recently helped put on an IoT event (RIoT), explains why you should get on this tech bandwagon in an exclusive report for WRAL TechWire. RALEIGH, N.C. - You are likely benefitting from The Internet of Things [IoT] today, whether or not you’re familiar with the term. If your phone automatically connects to your car radio,...
Read MoreWednesday night, more than 70 Internet of Things enthusiasts turned out for the first Raleigh Internet of Things Meetup [RIoT] at our StepLeader office in downtown Raleigh. To accommodate that many people, we physically disassembled walls in our office. The crowd did not disappoint. The standing-room only crowd witnessed four 5-minute introductions from companies in differing industries and at various stages of development. Scott Moody of K4Connect shared his startup’s vision to standardize the communication protocols of the IoT space, the team’s relentless and exclusive focus on product development and the reason they hired a Norwegian super yacht designer...
Read MoreMatthew Davis spends his working day at StepLeader, where he works on product and marketing. I’m incredibly lucky to work at a company that isn’t afraid to try new things. Ever since StepLeader started building apps for the old school clamshell phones back in 2004, we experimented with new mobile tech. The drive behind this experimentation is a belief that mobile should be easy, relevant and incredibly personal. Isn’t that the promised-land of mobile? The computer in your pocket, on your wrist, or stuck on your face gives you exactly what you need, when you need it most. Right?...
Read MoreEditor’s note: No matter how good the idea, how promising the opportunity, how hard the entrepreneurs work, not every business fails. In our New Bull City series, day five, Matthew Davis shares the inside story of a good idea gone bad. Davis is in the early stages of a new career as director of product marketing at Raleigh-based apps developer StepLeader. But in September 2011, he and a partner launched their own company, GetZeek, through which they hoped to capitalize on mobile coupons. In his LinkedIn profile, Davis explains: “Building a software-as-a-service business from scratch includes everything from in-depth...
Read MoreEditor’s note: No matter how good the idea, how promising the opportunity, how hard the entrepreneurs work, not every business fails. In our New Bull City series, day four, Matthew Davis shares the inside story of a good idea gone bad. Davis is in the early stages of a new career as director of product marketing at Raleigh-based apps developer StepLeader. But in September 2011, he and a partner launched their own company, GetZeek, through which they hoped to capitalize on mobile coupons. In his LinkedIn profile, Davis explains: “Building a software-as-a-service business from scratch includes everything from in-depth...
Read MoreMatthew Davis is Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of GetZeek, Inc, a Durham startup that provides easy, mobile access to exclusive deals and ongoing offers all year long at your favorite local spots. That picture is not him. Goal setting is a religion at our company. Every startup that wants to be the next big thing, especially those with investors, sets goals. There’s so much talk of goal setting, milestones, and KPIs it’s almost nauseating, but goals work. Period. Why can’t we, as a entrepreneurial community, set SMART goals [hat tip to Matt Williamson] for what we want the...
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