We’ve built an app Trivi.al (www.trivi.al) and we’re in private beta. We’re thinking about a launch date and what goes into successfully launching an app. I’ve written a few questions down in my little notepad. They go something like this:

1. How do we get press for our startup?
2. What writers do we know (Time to hit LinkedIn)
3. How do we identify influencers in our indstray that will care enough to write about us?
4. What sites do we want coversage on?
5. What journalists can we build relationships with to cover/write about our startup?
6. How do we craft and distribute a Press Release
7. What all do we need in our press kit?
8. What can a PR company provide and how much will it cost?
9. How can we continue to be in the news and not just a one hit wonder?
10. What’s that one BADASS thing we can do? 

So, while your out enjoying this beautiful weather I’m going to be cramming as much about PR and marketing in my head as I can get in there. Hopefully we’re in the right place by asking these questions and or at least on a  good start. I’d love to hear from anyone that has experience launching apps and what you’ve learned.  Drop a comment below or hit me up on twitter @rfijoey

I can probably answer my own questions here by stating the obvious build a great product and it will market it’s self, right?

Surround your self with smart talented people who have done it before. There are a lot of young bright entrepreneurs that think they know everything, but I have learned with age comes wisdom. Find the smartest people you know and soak it in, ask questions, meet for breakfast just learn as much as you can. These guys have done it, they have failed and succeeded and they know things. Learn.

Believe in your idea. You are the number 1 salesman of your product. People are attracted to your passion. Next thing you know they want to be your friend on Facebook/twitter/LinkedIn/path etc. and share your product with their friends. Build your army, be transparent and have integrity.

Hire smart developers. And keep the good ones. The entire future is being written by these guys right now and they are in short demand.

Design is Sexy. I know for a fact sex sells. Your UX/IA and product better be sexy. We live in a visual world and people love the sizzle. With my background in design I can tell you the good products/designs evolve over time. Don’t be scared and embrace feedback. Your design is done when the problem goes away. I tell every young guy I’ve hired there’s no “crying in web-design.” and I mean it you need tough skin and your work should be iterative. Its not graphic design anymore.

You’ll have haters. They will laugh at your po-dunk furniture and write passively about you in blog posts but all this just means you’re doing something right. In some ways they’re jealous because the spotlight is no longer on them.

Legal! You live and learn or die and burn here. These guys are expensive. Trust me the cheap ones will cost you more because it takes so many times to get it right, the expensive ones well, they get it done quicker but their rates are crazier.

You may not be a finance or numbers guy but the devils in the details and everything should be tracked. Analytics are the most powerful tool in business besides instinct. Your learn to love funnels, cohorts, average this average that…blah…blah…blah…

Your not cool just because you’re an Entrepreneur. Their wasn’t some club I became a member of because I took the leap. Actually your broke, tired, alone but you get up everyday motivated to  give all you got and see what the outcome is. Then you get up to do it all over again the next day.

When to take the leap. I can only speak from my own experience here, but for me I spent 6 years at a startup that sold to a large publicly held company. I wanted to exercise that knowledge and apply it to my own endeavor. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was ego, maybe it was craziness? It  probably was a mixture of all 3 and then some but hey when you know you know. No regrets. Just focus.

Launch. Well in the great words of Steve Jobs “Real artists ship” I’ll let you know as soon as we do, stay tuned…Follow our progress at www.mobilefwd.com or our app at www.trivi.al

Spread the love. Find someone you to can coach, remember you get out what you put in!  Besides, you never know who might help you shape your idea in to the next big thing while you’re chowing down a burger over lunch.

I couldn’t be more excited about the venture ahead of me. The focus, the vision, the new relationships that will be formed. I feel like the past 6 years, as the Sr. Creative Director of Mobile and Emerging Platforms at Rockfish groomed me for what’s ahead. The people that have been my mentors in life have prepared me for this journey. To quote my good buddy Josh Clemence “This is my calling.”

I hope you join me in supporting our products and my dream and share in the excitement of the many things to come.

This is one guy i’ll continue to follow as his work is inspiring and innovative.

Today I attended the first meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Bloggers Alliance. Hosted by Acumen brands, it brought 50+ bloggers from around the area together to share common ideas around blogging successes. In attendance were great names like Ted Rubin @TedRubin, John James @quizprep, and Josh Clemence @JoshClemence. Acumen CEO/Founder John James delivered some great insight, as he discussed how he built an eCommerce empire by learning the ins and outs of Google search.

It is great seeing events like this happen here in Northwest Arkansas to help grow the technology community and inspire others to reach out and do more. Stay tuned as new events will be announced.

The below is a post by Joey Nelson, Rockfish’s Creative Director of Mobile & Emerging Platforms.  At Rockfish, Joey leads the creative execution of all mobile projects ranging from iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and recently iPad apps and emerging platforms.

As digital agencies grow their capability, new skill sets are surfacing to accommodate client needs, technology advancements and agency demands. In agencies like Rockfish that have moved to a more flexible team model, Creative Technologists are adding their varied expertise across the entire organization. These Creative Technologists come from backgrounds of all kinds: marketing; advertising; branding; programming (engineering); strategy; and all have a deep understanding of technology and how it can be used in the context of communication and design. Creative Directors, System Architects, Strategists and Social Media Gurus are all working as an extension of the forward thinking agency thus becoming solution oriented partners for our clients and their products.  Traditional agency models worked in a very siloed process moving from ideation, to planning, to marketing and thus in the end throwing the functional hardcore code work over the fence and hoping the outcome was what the creative and strategy envisioned. In today’s model, successful projects are engaging experiences that connect people and brands and evolve through agile development and good user-centered feedback. Creative Technologists influence the research, the business, the design, and the human behavior of the products. While traditional marketing will focus more on the messaging, Creative Technologists will dissect the API’s, rethink and develop the business model, and design the UX and IA based on user interaction-thus creating a holistic experience that encompasses many different touch points.

Creative Technologists are on top of the latest in technology from devices to platforms and code and can be found sitting next to programmers engaged in discussions around HTML5 vs. Flash, web services and looking at various data models that help ensure the best user experience. Traditional marketing conversed around sensory perceptions and what brands and products tasted and felt like however, while CTs were thinking about these parts too, they were more focused on the whole. Engaging experiences are not one offs.  We have seen the evolution of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and iTunes that have matured and grown based on user feedback and interaction. With enhanced feature sets and solid performance that weren’t conceived as a marketing idea from some brand group.

Those who haven’t immersed themselves in digital feel terms like UX and Agile are buzzwords when in reality they are keys to success metrics for digital agencies which have led us down a path of constant tinkering to enhanced experiences. If a non-digital agency wants to go digital, they typically throw the IA in first without ever understanding the channels the message will be deployed through. New devices like mobile, tablets, touchscreen kiosks each have a custom tailored experience where the knowledge of CT’s can play a vital role in making sure that experience is custom tailored and unique.

So where do we go from here? I would say when I grow up I want to be a Creative Technologist, but I feel I’ve already assumed that role along with my role of Creative Director here at Rockfish. We belong to a group that focuses on successful technology that people use that helps our clients business grow. As digital agencies mature new roles like that of the CT will play a vital role in the success of clients, their brands and their evolution online.