Start Ups Founded
January of 2004 to present.
Biveo.com - is a directory and guide that helps small business owners produce their ideal primary marketing video. (Started December 1st, 2014. Beta Launch February 1st, 2017, and I am currently operating with 3 additional cofounders. See profile on Crunchbase).
Biveo lists the rates and portfolio example videos of 1,100+ US and Canadian videographers that specialize in producing a small business's primary marketing video. For small business owners that can produce it themselves, Biveo lists the rates and portfolio of 500+ remote editors for hire. For small business owners that want to either collaborate with a videographer, or produce it themselves entirely, Biveo continually evolves a concise 6-step production guide including script and storyboard templates based on marketing research surveys for 18 main industry categories. Users can browse through over 2,700 example videos for ideas.
While running past directory startups, I suspected that the online directories would provide a better user experience if a short video overview of each business was included. According to the surveys I conducted across 18 industries, 68% of consumers are interested in watching a short video before choosing a small business. This percentage can vary widely depending on the industry.
BusRates.com, Inc. is a concise, consumer advocate "Expedia for chartering a bus", that only lists licensed, operating companies. BusRates earned first place on Google for nearly all search terms by 2008. (Started 1/04, Launched 11/1/04; Sold 60% to United Motorcoach Association 1/9/09; Sold remaining 40% 10/11/12)
About 1,000 of the 4,000 bus companies in the group bus chartering industry pay to list a full posting on BusRates.com. All remaining 3,000 bus companies are listed free. Posting bus companies have a base fee of $25/mo per location or metro area targeted, and then dynamically bid to rank higher on the list when buses were unbooked. Upon launch, the site received about 12,000 visitors its first month with the help of low cost PPC (10 cents). After 6 months, the site began showing up on page two of Google for the main keywords, and in two years it had earned first place on nearly all bus charter-related keywords. Traffic reached as high as 135,000 visitors in the peak month of May, down to 80,000 in the lows of December.
BusRates' purpose is to help customers realize that most websites first found on the internet are brokers/middlemen adding 25% to the going rate. Bus operators supported the cause, and started a debate in trade magazines as to whether brokers presence in the industry is hurting more than helping. Industry buzz attracted large corporate players like Greyhound and Coach America to post. The United Motorcoach Association purchased controlling interest of BusRates in 2009 inviting me to operate the site from their offices in the DC metro. In April of 2010 I completed the work agreement leaving operations but maintaining two of the five seats on the board until selling the remaining stake in December of 2012.
MoversReviewed.com - 15 months in production, 3,400 hours of research, cross references with over 90 regulatory, association and van line sources, MoversReviewed.com is the most current and complete, consumer advocate, sortable directory listing nearly all active, licensed moving companies in the US and Canada. (Started 3/11; Launched 1/1/12; Sold to Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Co. and Classified Ventures' Jointly-owned HomeFinder.com 12/4/12.)
1,308 movers of 8,400 post a full profile as of 12/2012. MoversReviewed simplifies your search for a mover by enabling you to sort, filter and rank movers by 11 criteria to quickly narrow hundreds of choices down to a few movers best-suited to your needs. MoversReviewed.com was purchased in December of 2012 by a popular, national real estate website not yet publicly announced.
At the top of my game, I went from signing up one bus company at a time over the phone with BusRates to utilizing email, and calling on the largest multi-location movers first. Greer signed up over 1,200 moving company locations within 5 months of launch (3 times faster than my rate with BusRates.com). I could have signed them up even faster with more back-end processing manpower.
Bus Owner Consumer Advocacy Council (BOCAC) - 501(c)(6) non-profit directory of the top one-third (1700) most involved bus companies operating in the US and Canada. (Started December 6th, 2006, Launched May 1st, 2007, included with sale of BusRates to UMA, 1/9/2009).
BOCAC filled a need that BusRates did not. While BusRates listed all licensed bus companies, BOCAC only listed the one-third of companies that belonged to at least one bus association. It also listed the number of buses each company had registered with the USDOT. The idea was that bus companies that paid to belong to an association, and that were larger in size, were more likely to provide higher quality service. This site satisfied the information need of those customers who wanted to know in one glance who the major players in the industry were, whereas BusRates better helped customers shopping for low price.
Meridian Investment Club - An Investment club stared in July of 2008 among 6 friends that both
runs a portfolio as well as shares and seeks investment ideas with fellow investors. Portfolio managing members contribute a monthly amount. The site does not charge any fees or operate for a profit.
The Meridian website is a Wix template, written and arranged over the course of two days by Greer.
A Sample of My Views
- Finance is like a business's sense of smell. It helps to have it, but it is far better to have vision.
- Don't 'sweat' the details, live to explore them.