As we prepare for our VC coming out party up in DC, I guess you could argue the timing couldn’t be worse.  There is so much “sky is falling” chatter right now.  Jason Calacanis’ latest prediction:

It’s my (belief) that the economic downturn will be much worse than it is today, and that 50-80% of the venture-backed startups currently operating will shut down or go on life-support (i.e. 3-4 folks working on them) within the next 18 months. 
(It looks like Jason asked TechCrunch and Alley Insider to take down their verbatim reprints…Read Full Email Here while it lasts…or just sign up for his email).  

Here’s the good news for us: Heck, we’re already 4 dudes and a Rails box.  No offices (except for our Starbucks board room), no stupid expenses, tiny overhead….All code, no filler.  Recession, Depression be damned.  Why does history always repeat itself?  Didn’t we learn anything from the nineties.  Glowing aluminum signs, Aeron chairs, Killerspin ping pong tables….Get mad.; Bootstrap!  

In the previous world (ie a couple weeks ago), VC money was the opiate of the tech masses.  One should always see VC money as simply a catalyst for your startup chemical reaction.  Even if you don’t have it, the chemical reaction still occurs, just at a slower rate.  If VC money is treated as the reaction itself, then you will be in that 50-80% that goes to Pets.com heaven.  

Our first little venture is already breaking even.  We’re expanding/improving our current product line every week and have two more exciting projects in the pipeline (including an iphone app).  Personally, I’m bullish.  Every decision we make here at 4What is based simply on whether it makes money.  That should be the golden rule in the best of times and the worst of times.

Mr. Market is in the ICU.  Many a fortune will be (have been) lost in the coming months…but a few fortunes will be made.  Right now, there are a lot of bargains on the stock market shelves (and plenty of falling knives).  Guys like Buffet have made their bones in times like this.  

But how do you distinguish the babies from the bathwater? DON’T PANIC, NO SHORTCUTS!  Why we’re here in the first place.  You got to be cool and clinical like the Investment Wolf in Pulp Fiction…

Use ButtonALL’s financial channels to carefully research your next moves.  Find those companies that have solid (cash) positions and long term sustainability.  Research! Research! Research! DON’T PANIC, NO SHORTCUTS! 

Business News Channel 1 (Add this channel, click once)

• Yahoo! Finance
• CNN Money
• Bloomberg
• MSN Money
• Reuters 

Business News Channel 2 (Add this channel, click once)

• Wall Street Journal
• MarketWatch
• Financial Times
• Forbes
• Business Week

Business News Channel 3 (Add this channel, click once)

• The Street
• Smart Money
• Motley Fool
• NY Times Business
• Economist

Stock Lookup Channel 1 (Add this channel, click once)
Just enter the stock symbol on the search field

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSMoney
• CNNMoney
• WSJ

Stock Lookup Channel 2 (Add this channel, click once)
Just enter the stock symbol on the search field

• Bloomberg
• Barron’s
• FT
• Smart Money
• Hoovers

As always, you can add these search engines via the Customization Screen (look under “Business”)

I recently tweaked the Google Channel a bit (replaced the “Google Products” red button with the more useful “Google Updated Within the Last 24 hours”).

From a single page, you are now one click away to searching yourself (or your company or product or that upcoming blind date) from every conceivable Google angle (news, blogs, images, websites within 24 hours).  It is one of the best ways to keep up with the latest developments of any hot topic that is of personal interest.  I think journalists, bloggers, and media professionals will really like this functionality.  It is one of my personal favorite channels.

To add the Google Channel, go to the customization screen and drop down to Search Engines :: Google Channel.  OR you can just click here (once or it’ll add another duplicate row…you can delete rows by going to customization)

Either DC is the Technology Promised Land, or there are a bunch of alcoholic IT professionals up there.  I met up with Laz (of Baltimore) at the sold-out TwinTech happy hour (read all the press).   Happy Hour as in free booze (good booze, too, except, for, maybe, the strawberry champagne).  Damn, this was an impressive event featuring a cast of a thousand tech folk (all disciplines, all industries) packed in a three floor nightclub.  I really suck at “networking,” but even I could start a conversation at TwinTech/exchange business cards….Speaking of business cards, a quick shout-out to Innsbrook Kinko’s (you guys rock for getting us cards at the last minute!) .  

Richmond (I’m talking to you Tech Council), we need to do something like this!  If you can believe it, DC/NOVA already has two more technology-based happy hours scheduled in the next couple of weeks: September 23, 2008 NEW MEDIA SALON & “Dot Com” NETWORKING PARTY | October 2, 2008 TECH cocktail DC 3.  Like I said, alcoholic IT professionals.

In part, this DC meetup with Laz was also to celebrate ButtonALL’s latest milestone, our first meeting with Venture Capitalists (celebratory post-dinner at my favorite “old-school” Chinese restaurant Tony Chen’s upstairs).  We were chosen as one of ten companies to present at the upcoming Tie-DC Pitch Dinner co-sponsored by the Northern Virginia Technology Council.  This closed private event (no audience) is designed to be an intimate one-on-one session between companies and VC.  We have eight slides, five minutes to make an impression.  Not a lot of time, so we’re thinking about hammering three themes: the demo, our market, monetization, monetization, and monetization.  Stay tuned!

TechCrunch50 did an awesome job with this year’s conference.  On the one hand, sure wish we could have attended; on the other hand, the webcasts were so clear (kudos Ustream) that it was nice watching it in the comfort of my living room (analogous to the “pros and cons” of watching a football game live or on tv).  The panel sessions were simply amazing.  Each one could have been a plenary or business school keynote anywhere else.  Again thanks to the TC50 team for letting us watch for free and live!

As promised, just for fun, we’ve created a TechCrunch50 ButtonALL channel highlighting five finalist companies (where search was a relevant component…many of the promising search services, especially in the image and video category, are still in beta sign-up mode, so this the best five I could come up with).  Here are the companies and descriptions (from the TC50 website):

• Blah Girls
  Blah Blah Blah” is a new original content Web property that delivers a unique perspective on popular culture from the vantage point of the Blah Girls. The Blah Girls are an animated clique of teenagers who enjoy providing their commentary on the latest entertainment themed news and happenings. With this initial foray into the digital medium, Katalyst Media is applying their expertise in content creation in a new form, and providing a compelling offering to advertisers. (yeah, the Kutcher company)
• Causecast
  Causecast is a powerful online social medium that connects nonprofits, leaders, celebrities and brands to those who want to want to make a positive impact on the world. The site educates and entertains using original content and - most importantly - inspires people to get involved with the issues they want to support, in the ways they want to support them. Only on Causecast do media, social networking and philanthropy all converge in an unexpected and unparalleled way. Causecast helps make it easy for you to give back and make doing good your own. Causecast is also the only outlet that provides real-time daily coverage of cause-related news from around the world.
• Footnote
  Footnote makes it easy for members to combine profiles of people with historical newspapers, photos and documents directly related to them. Footnote adds millions of historical images each month to more than 40 million pages of military records, naturalization papers, photos and newspapers already on the site. It does this through partnerships with leading archives and by encouraging members to upload content from their shoeboxes. All content can be annotated and connected by the Footnote community. More than 80 million Footnote profiles are continuously enriched by users uploading photos and documents - or connecting to existing Footnote images. Each profile visually depicts a personal narrative as life events are plotted along a world timeline of historical milestones. The result is a deeper view of the key people, locations and events related to each unique individual.
• Good Guide
  GoodGuide.com provides free and easy access to the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental and social impacts of products and companies. Today, GoodGuide offers ratings on over 60,000 products commonly found in your home - from baby shampoo to household cleaners - making it quick and easy to find safe and healthy products that are right for you and good for the planet. GoodGuide helps you see what’s behind the label, find better products, get expert advice, and view recommendations based on what’s most important to you. GoodGuide delivers the information you need anytime, anywhere - online or on your phone. In the coming months, GoodGuide will be adding new product information for food, toys, electronics, automobiles, and beyond, making it the best resource for buying safe, healthy and green products that protect you and your family.
• Tweegee
  Tweegee.com is a pioneering destination site that empowers Tweens to express themselves creatively and safely in an innovative and customized online environment. Tweegee integrates social networking, digital content, and interactive tools to offer a complete online platform for Tweens. Tweegee provides Tweens with the ability to take full ownership of their online activities, to create their full personal web sites, communicate via web based email, organizer, and more , engage in rich multiplayer games, interact with a webcam games and application, read news most relevant to them, and author their own articles and much more, all at one destination. Tweegee’s novel approach offers a creative and independent outlet for Tweens to construct their online characters. All communications are protected with technologically advanced safeguards, such as the patent pending “WordUp!” feature, human and automatically moderation and more Tweegee equips Tweens with a genuine web 2.0 experience; addressing Tweens interests and concerns yet allowing them to experiment with the “real internet”.

To add this channel, go to the Customize Screen and scroll to “Fun” then choose “TechCrunch50 Companies” OR you can just click here (once).

I will be following (and rooting for) Virginia-based companies over at the Richmond Good Life’s Tech News section.  There are two Virginia companies represented at Demo: (1) Paidinterviews (Blog) of McLean, VA and (2) SitScape of Vienna, VA.

As for TC50, they just released the companies, and from my initial research (clicking on the crunchbases), I don’t see any Virginia-based start-ups.  :(  There are lots of California, but I guess that should be expected.  I haven’t even looked at the Demo Pit companies (Too much work…Sure wish they’d publish a list of origin city/countries like Demo).  Once I figure out who’s Virginia, I will start covering them (UPDATE! I clicked on all of em.  I only saw Samepage of Falls Church, but there were tons of companies without location data).   In addition, the Commonwealth is being represented at TC50 by the folks at Mixx (McLean, VA) who’ve created the official TechCrunch Mixx (a mashup that aggregates all the “Diggs, Feeds, Tweets, and Blog Posts” onto one page).  Mixx was recently profiled by Somewhat Frank (Video: Visiting The Mixx HQ Mixxing Bowl) who is covering the TC50 event in person. 

If I see any good, working search engine type products, I will create a special limited search channel for ButtonALL later this week!

Damn, with press like this (Startups: your web site sucks), who the hell needs the Big Conference launch?  Well, there’s that old adage any publicity is good publicity even if “they” say you suck.  But seriously, we start-ups should heed some of Scoble’s advice (1) leverage video (which we’re NOT currently doing, but should.  None of us are telegenic, but I guess Scoble is living proof that you don’t need to have a hot geek chick host and a Panasonic VariCam to do this) and (2) explain the pain that your start-up solves (This seems to be Commandment Number One: see Kawasaki, Calacanis (1 | 2), Solis).  

How does ButtonALL stack up on pain relief (or at least, our attempts at communicating our pain relief message)?  Right now, I think we do a fair to middling job in describing our “value proposition.”  The home page is purposely simple (deceptively simple…Google is our role model on that decision).  No signup barriers, and a default screen that even a caveman’s grandmother can figure out (actually, field-tested with Grandmothers…none were harmed).   There are only three links right now that go to pages that describe how we deliver our solution (About Us, What are the Red Buttons, and Customization…the first two links economically double as gateways to this blog)   Customization, of course, is what makes us cool, useful, and different as an all-in-one search engine.

So I guess to follow-up on Scoble’s post, Commandment Number Two might be don’t launch anything this week (September unless you are freakin insane…Let’s see…

70 companies debuting at Demo
+
53 companies launching at TechCrunch50 (plus a 150 companies in the demo pit…see why ButtonALL chose not to demo pit.)
=
273 New Launches + Every tech journalist going to California with an aching in their heart*.

So call us crazy, next week we plan to blast a press release and launch a new website… It’ll make sense once you see it, eh. (I’ve been furiously working on it all day).  It’s almost akin to counter-programming the Super Bowl or Olympics.  Yeah, it’s gonna be the moral equivalent of the ESPN Cheerleading competition.**

*For my Richmond readers, Janet Martin Band’s cover of this song is almost as good as Zeppelin’s!
**Speaking of cheerleaders, I need to send a shout out to my good friend Marni Singer.  Marni is the first person that I ever met who actually competed on ESPN’s cheerleader challenge (where she brought it on).  She went on to law school at Emory, passed the bar, and joined the rat race.  She recently quit that racket to follow her dreams of opening a dance studio in Atlanta, Georgia teaching young children.  That, my friends, is a real start-up.  None of this Silicon Valley bullsh…

Wow, talk about the long tail…You don’t see too many Mixed Martial Arts Search Engines…until now!

I’ve got a friend out in California who is a huge MMA fan (suggested the sites).  I am an old school fan myself.  I liked it especially back in the day, when no-one knew what the hell they were doing, except for, maybe, the Gracies.  Sumo Wrestler vs Boxer vs Shooto vs Judo vs Karate vs BJJ.  No weight classes.  It was almost video gamesque.

When Ken Shamrock took out Pat Smith (a badass looking karate guy) with an ankle lock, it really opened my eyes to a new kind of martial art.  It was very exciting watching that stuff for the first time (triangle chokes looked like some kind of magical trick).  I actually took Sambo/Shootfighting for a while, but I was awful (no flexibility, no cardio, I hate getting hit, and I bruise like a San Marzano tomato).   

Anyways, the evolution of fighting has been interesting to observe.  Those guys back then would get creamed by the fighters of today who are just so balanced.  It’s amazing how prophetic Bruce Lee was with his jeet kun do concepts of taking the best elements of different disciplines and “mixing” them into a superior system.   Bruce Lee was way before his time having trained with Judo Gene Labell (a pioneer in submissions).

Anyways, the sites suggested for the inaugural MMA Search Engine are as follows:

• Five Ounces of Pain
• Bloody Elbow
• MMA Junkie
• MMA Mania
• Fightlinker
  Give it a try…try “Couture and Lesnar” in the search box!

To add this search channel to your ButtonALL you can go to the customization screen or just click here (click once, or it’ll continue to add this search row. Remember, you can always delete and re-arrange in the customization section)