A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Arthur Bart-Williams recently shared the story of his startup on Entrepreneur Thursday. He’s back today to share insights he got while attending a major Valley conference on innovation—insights to both the industry and his own path, so listen up and if the shoe fits…

You Can’t Get  Where You’re Going if You Don’t Know Where You Are

by Arthur Bart-Williams

First a little background, I’m a serial technology entrepreneur working on my fourth company.  My first one, ViaNovus, was around for over 12 years and had two incarnations before being acquired, and I’ve been working on the most recent one, Canogle, for almost two years.

I’m passionate about startups, consider myself to be a student of the process, and am very familiar with the entrepreneurial roller coaster ride.  And although I’ve done all of this while living in the Bay Area, I’ve never delved into the Silicon Valley culture and consider myself an outsider.

Thanks to some prodding I’ve started carving out time to spend at events around the Valley and attended the AlwaysOn 10^th Annual Innovation Summit in Mountain View this week.

It was definitely worth the time, with great exposure to impressive people and relevant conversations, but I was surprised at how overwhelmed I felt.

At first I thought it must have been from the volume of information that was presented and discussed, but after some reflection I’m clear that it was from the realization that as hard as I’ve been working I’ve still got a steep hill to climb that seems taller than Mount Everest in order to achieve the success that I want.

It’s going to take a whole lot more than I thought to make the annual AlwaysOn Global 250 list.  While depressing at first, it helps to know where you are on whatever journey you’re on.

I’ve always done a decent job at getting out of the building for customer development; now I’m getting an appreciation of doing it for company development.

That said, here are a few takeaways from the conference:

• Surprise, the future of media for consumers is mobile (an over $50 Billion market), but it is also transforming the user experience of applications in large enterprises as they compete and cater to a younger workforce.
• Brands, businesses and organizations need to be educated on how to use mobile and social platforms effectively.   The shift from the web to mobile is as significant as from radio to TV, and the code is yet to be cracked.
• A next phase in mobile development is a consolidation of the hundreds of thousands of apps that compete for users’ attention along with an emphasis on hyper-localization, contextual relevance of marketing and facilitating instant actions.

I’ll be happy to respond to any thoughts or questions you have, so don’t hesitate to share them in the comments.

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Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

As I’m sure you’re aware I love stories. I believe that stories are the best way to excite and engage people no matter the relationship and definitely the best way to teach.

Today’s story is from Arthur Bart-Williams, a client whose startup involves a masterful story-telling platform.

Arthur’s story is proof that a great idea is worth pursuing—even when there is a six year lag between first thought and market testing.

From Arthur…

I founded Canogle in late 2010. The name—from the words, “can” and “ogle” and pronounced kan-og-uhl—means to look without restrictions; to be fully immersed in and a part of a particular world.

Canogle is a platform on which to tell a story.

People love stories; stories about the natural world and places they visit and stories about things, happenings and the brands they love.

They want curated stories, but they also want commentary from their peers and the Canogle platform provides both.

The idea first surfaced in 2004 when I was honeymooning on Maui and Jess, my wife, was using a paper map to navigate and to note interesting sites.

She said she was paying more attention to the map than to the things around her and I thought someone ought to come up with a way to know about sites as you pass them.

By the time we got home, I was excited enough to write the first version of a business plan and convince my brother to develop a prototype.

Then life happened. We had a daughter, I co-founded Combase, which was acquired by ViaNovus and then by Sword Group, fielded a few of life’s curve balls and had another daughter.

I was inspired again while watching a Silicon Valley technology show called “Press: Here” in mid-2010 and decided to find out if anybody cared about my idea.

I told one friend about the project, her eyes lit up and she introduced me to her friend who introduced me to the Executive Director of the Muir Heritage Land Trust, which became our first beta.

Image credit: Canogle