Here are some post game thoughts from the panel…

Today we are going to take a look at the business side of Blabberize to see if there are ways in which we can help improve the business model, traffic to the site and the overall user experience.

To help with today’s show we are bringing in a few rockstar young entrepreneurs in Boston.

Nidhi Makhija: Call me P Niddy or Cakes - Recent Emerson grad, I do marketing & try my hand at social media. I also cook sometimes. Indian, Thai and Chinese.

George Gayl: SEO & SEM guru, harnesser of social media channels to increase brand awareness, drive traffic and engage users

Paul Northup:  Graphic and web designer, snowboard enthusiast, music lover, talker

Come out and meet tonight’s Pokin’ Holes’ guests, have a cocktail and chat it up with other young Boston entrepreneurs.

Cactus Club is located at: 939 Boylston Street in Boston… Take the green line to Hynes or Copley and it is directly across from Hynes Convention Center.

Don’t forget your BYFAD cards as Cactus Club is a BYFAD bar.

If you don’t know what BYFAD is, it is a way for you to get free drinks at the bar. The card that BYFAD provides you works like a credit card at all their affiliated bars. For every dollar that you put on your card, BYFAD adds an additional 20%. So if you throw in $25 you will get an extra $5 to spend at the bar, that’s a free drink!

I would recommend grabbing one if you are going to come to wrap parties because we are going to be hitting up a lot of BYFAD bars around Boston!

To get your BYFAD card click here!

We had an awesome conversation getting at some of the action items that Sean Pierre can execute to take his company to the next level.  Let us know what you think in the comments below and if you have ideas for Sean Pierre we would love to hear them!

Check out the video below to see what all of our guests thought about the episode.  Want to know more about the guests?  Check out the pre show post.

We are going to tackle this very question tonight, Pokin’ Holes on Sian Pierre Regis‘ start-up called Swagger Paris (http://www.swaggerparis.com).  Swagger Paris is  an interactive, street style website allowing you to check out what the fashionistas of Paris are wearing, where you can buy their wardrobe and provides you with their contact information so you can connect with them.

To help Sian Pierre with his start-up we are going to look at a couple key topics…

- The current business model and if it is sustainable

- How to build his brand both offline and online to increase traffic to his site

- Upgrading his current website… What platform should be used to deliver the most value for the user

To help us with these topics we have three awesome guests…

Sarah Merion: Ann Arbor, MI Native | Social Media Protégé | Anomaly | Assistant to @LewisHowes

Nicolas Ward: Gainfully employed geek by day, gamer by night

Aaron O’Hearn: Entrepreneur and currently working with Living Social and BuyYourFriendaDrink.com (yes I plug his company all the time becuase it is that awesome!)

If you want to mix and mingle with tonight’s panel and connect with others in the young start-up community of Boston we hope to see you there.

Don’t forget your BYFAD cards as Red Sky is a BYFAD bar.

If you don’t know what BYFAD is, it is a way for you to get free drinks at the bar. The card that BYFAD provides you works like a credit card at all their affiliated bars. For every dollar that you put on your card, BYFAD adds an additional 20%. So if you throw in $25 you will get an extra $5 to spend at the bar, that’s a free drink!

I would recommend grabbing one if you are going to come to wrap parties because we are going to be hitting up a lot of BYFAD bars around Boston!

To get your BYFAD card click here!

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday!

Red Sky
16 North St
Boston, MA 02109

So I thought I would share something with you. Last week Dart102 received some criticism from an experienced entrepreneur. He wrote to us insinuating that if we want to “poke holes” we should solicit advice from people with more start-up experience. While I appreciate his input on the topic, I am going to have to disagree him on this.

Two weeks ago I was in LA for a conference held by NAFSA, the association of international educators where Muhammad Yunus delivered the opening speech. I left the conference hall feeling incredibly motivated by what I had just heard. The overarching message of his speech was that sometimes it is best to be inexperienced in whatever business it is you are getting into.

Yunus started as an economics professor from Bangladesh who went on to receive a Nobel Peace prize in 2006 for his efforts in micro-credit and for creating Grameen Bank. Yunus’ concept was simple, lend small amounts of money to the poor and they will pay back the loans with interest over time. When he first approached banks about the idea of giving loans to the poor, they said it was impossible. Yunus was convinced and fought banks for months until he finally decided to personally take on the risk as the guarantor in exchange for banks to loan the money. Yunus knew nothing about banking when he started, but from his experience working in the poor villages knew there was an opportunity to improve the standard of living for many. Today Grameen Bank has over 8 million borrowers with a 98% pay back rate, pretty impressive! Yunus advises that we are more likely to develop breakthrough ideas by not being exposed to how things have been done in the past.

I am not suggesting we ignore the lessons learned by experienced entrepreneurs, but instead that we also listen to what young people have to say. There is a different kind of value in being young and having a bit of naivete. Sometimes knowing too much can get in the way of actually making things happen.

Boston has been a distant second place to San Francisco for fostering young start-ups. At Dart102 with programs like Pokin’ Holes we hope to improve the start-up environment by building a community in Boston that focuses on young people with awesome ideas.

Let us know what ideas you have too for Dave and Native Structures.  Feel free to add to the conversation in the comments below!

We had a great panel and you can check them out in the below video and hear what they thought in the post game report. You can learn more about them in the Pokin’ Holes Native Structures overview.

And some photos from tonight’s episode!

We are going green this week thanks to the efforts of Jake bringing together tonight’s company and guests. 

Native Structures is an eco-friendly builder that develops green solutions for their clients that they say, won’t break the bank.  The topic of ‘building green’ is so popular right now especially among the developer community. But is the market becoming saturated with people who say they are ‘green builders’?  How can a company that’s entire business model revolves around the idea of being green, differentiate oneself from the rest of the wannabes?

To go along with this question we are going to delve into a few other topics including:

- Proving to the target market that Native Structures is the real deal when it comes to green building

- Conveying the advantages of building green to people looking to either build a new home or undertaking a renovation

- The feasibility of succeeding as a green building company start-up in today’s hurting economy

To help us figure out how to improve Native Structures business strategy are:

Emile Chin-Dickey -Principal at ZeroEnergyDesign and self proclaimed (at least in his twitter account) business model geek

Andrew Hopper -A Boston based web developer who co-founded Agent Master

Maria Thurrell - Social media strategist and consultant at her company MediaAwaken.com

Check out the post game thoughts from the show!