FRUGGL

FRUGGL was my first company, and my foray into the world of entrepreneurship.

A social coupon website, FRUGGL offered college students discounts to local shops and restaurants.

I started FRUGGL my junior year of college with Dale Vaughn and my good friends at V3 Media Group. It was an experience I was fortunate to have, and tote it as My Most Successful Failure.

FRUGGL was officially dissolved in December of 2011.  Pictured below is the (unfinished) site with one of our first deals.

CCEA Logo

The Crisis Center of East Alabama logo project is one of my favorite to date. Completed as part of my final Public Relations Campaigns project, CCEA needed a logo that was light, appealing and easily recognizable. I rarely use my first idea, but the tree seemed natural choice in this project. CCEA wanted to promote itself locally (even though the hotline is available to anybody). The connection between the tree and Toomer’s Oaks seemed appropriate, not to mention trees are symbolic of strength, protection and renewal. Several variations of the logo exist.

The 40th anniversary version, and the regular print versions are pictured above. The web version, featured in the portfolio section, has an inner shadow that makes the logo appear as if the logo was pressed into the background.

I have also put together a quick tutorial video that shows how to create a vector tree, similar to the one in the logo, using Adobe Illustrator.

Startup Articles

A collection of must-read startup articles for the first-time entrepreneur. The articles below should give you inspiration and direction for your next startup. Most of the articles are geared towards web-based startups; however, the principles of starting a business remain the same. You may be unfamiliar with some of the tools and terminology used in the articles. It is imperative that you learn what they are and how to use them. Google is one of the most invaluable learning tools ever created.

Getting Started

How to Create a Million Dollar Business this Weekend -  Tim Ferris, Noah Kagan of AppSumo on creating a profitable idea, finding customers, and assessing their value.
How I Quickly Test and Validate Startup Ideas - David Berube founder of MoFuse. A short post that will give you  a taste of how to test startup ideas. NOTE: Contrary to what he says, I think Facebook and Google AdWords are awesome for testing.
How to Build a Web Startup - Steve Blank’s Lean Launchpad. He is an expert on starting a business with minimal risk. This is one of the most complete posts on starting a business.

Minimum Viable Products & Testing

How I Built My Minimum Viable Product - Micro-testing (testing products that don’t exist yet) won’t work for all products. Ash Maurya on putting together a MVP.
From Minimum Viable Product to Landing Pages - Ash Maurya on creating and testing landing pages.

Customer Development

Customer Development Checklist for Web Startups – Part 1 - Ash Maurya’s checklist could be the most valuable to startup entrepreneurs on the internet. It is a step by step process for building your product.
Customer Development Checklist for My Web Startup – Part 2 - These articles have been so popular that he built, Running Lean, an entire book around them.
The First Thing That Matters: Product/Market Fit
How I am Measuring Product/Market Fit

Educators to Follow on Twitter

This is a list of my favorite thought leaders in the realm of education reform. You can skim through and individually follow them or you can follow my list.

@MichaelEllsberg - Michael Ellsberg is the author of “The Education of Millionaires,” which includes interviews with some of the most successful people on the planet who didn’t complete college and who educated themselves in the real world.

@khanacademy - Salman Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a Gates Foundation backed nonprofit that uses YouTube to provide a free world-class education to anybody anywhere.

@DaleJStephens - Dale Stephens is a Thiel Fellow, and founder of the UnCollege movement. His UnCollege Manifesto lays the groundwork for ways to acquire an education outside of college.

@SirKenRobinson - Sir Ken Robinson is a internationally recognized leader in education, creativity and innovation development. He is the author of The Element and Out of Our Minds. His TED talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? has had more than 200 million views worldwide.

@clarkaldrich - Clark Aldrich is and educational game designer, and the author of Unschooling Rules. He discusses the value of experience-based learning.

@aronsolomon - Aron Solomon (no relation) is an education entrepreneur. He is the founder of Smartswise, and is currently a partner at Futurlogic, an education venture development studio.