Welcome to the BIG KITTY,
by far the most bad ass cat you’ve met in a long time.

Hello 2012!!! 

Ok time for the Big Kitty Labs update.  Ok what do we know?  Well, first of all…

If you’ve ever seen AKIRA, you know what this is- massive impact!!

The Big Kitty dev machine has been at it full throttle non-stop for the past 12 months now, and 2012 is shaping up to be a killer year for us as well.  We’re scaling to meet demand, but man oh man do we have frickin demand!!

Lots of bit news here:

We have a nice appearance in the new Startup Weekend book!!!  Hellz ya people!

We’re a one of co-organizers of WakeUp StartUp in Columbus, now on its 4th event!  Get involved, check it out!!

We’re slated to speak again at the next Startup Weekend Columbus, on February 17-19th! 

The demand for dev has been insane!!  We have many, many client projects in stealth and we wish them all the success and beta goodness they deserve!  More to come!

We’re hugely proud to be listed in ADWeek’s 40 Strangest Agency Names- we landed in at #9 folks.. hellz ya, out of 40 companies, we landed in the top ten!  Read the story behind our name!

This year at Columbus Startup Weekend, BKL decided to hand out a prize, yes people we give you the “frankencup”.

A frankenstein inspired mug that represents what we feel was the best frankenware creation out of 54 hour event.

Basically, the frankencup is our way of saying, dude you did it! Its more than just building some frankenware inspired software thing or concept over the weekend, its your essence on the concept, your approach to making it, or faking it even.

Frankenware to us is more than just code, its a state of mind injected into a construct of some sort. You took an idea and manifested in 54hrs, well dude take a frickin bow, others saw your awesomeness, that rocks!  You are kitty worthy!

We recognize those teams that we feel took some leaps like that of what we would of done. New ideas to challenging ideas, basically stuff that stands out as cool.

This year at Columbus Startup Weekend 2011, our winner of the Frankencup is UserTOS.

Everyday millions of people electronically agree to new terms and conditions published by an array of software companies with varying interests. No one has time to read and understand each document, yet many users have privacy standards they want to adhere to while using different applications and websites. The plan of a User Terms of Service is to allow users to select certain terms which they consider necessary and define terms they find to be unacceptable in the tools they use. Users will be warned if the terms and conditions of the software do not meet their predefined criteria.

I loved this idea, mainly because in my moleskin I have some scribblings around an end user agreement analyzer!! UserTOS is taking a different direction but I love that other people are thinking about the idea. The UserTOS team manifested their concept and gave a great pitch.

We actually ended up getting 2 mugs, one frankenstein and one zombie one. We debated awarding the zombie one to the team that needed the most help, but instead awarded it to the runner up!

Although LastingMe didn’t have a coded concept, their design and mock ups were exceptional. I have a habit of noticing the fine details in mockups and these guys had them. If they had a good coding team, they would of had a killer concept on their hands. Their idea was painful, creepy, passionate and could speak to a never ending niche- we’re all gonna die some day. Kind morbid but their concept evolved around how to make a better planning tool for when we pass. I know that seems like really depressing but the way they pitched it wasn’t. Messages to loved ones, kids for later when they grew up, and ways to close our ones online presence in a world gone completely digital isn’t a bad idea.

As such and because they cranked out incredible design mocks, we rewarded them the frankencup runner up.

Tushar and I wished we had more mugs/prizes to give out. 16 teams really brought it this year, one of Central Ohio’s best Startup Weekend events ever!

Lookin forward to the next one and our future frankencup winners!

Few videos sum up the sheer amount of “holy crap!!” we got stuff to do. BKL is packed, busy as hell, more than its ever been… GET DOWN!

Big Kitty Labs Areas of Focus

2011 has been an amazing year for Big Kitty. We’re small, frisky, and still having fun- thats good! The cat is outa the bag on building things. More and more people are making stuff. As we grow in wisdom and experience, I keep noting the patterns to the type of work we’re doing and what that all means to the scene thats evolving out there.

We’ve recognized five key areas of focus for Big Kitty, this is in how people perceive us and work with us, and its also how we perceive ourselves and the kind of work we want to do.

Tactical

This year really brought Big Kitty to a new level of yummyness, tactical. We’re being drawn into more tactical big picture work, not just “hey dude can you make me a wesbite”. Thinking big about someones big idea is awesome. We can open up and think about all the potential touch points, biz model, rev model, use model, adoption, tech feasibility, scalability, roadmap, lots of great discussions. We’ve always done tactical really, we just haven’t recognized it as a formal practice of the brand. But it is, its part of our core. Every job we do gives us more info that funnels into what we know and could do for tactical moving forward on other gigs. Tactical is our trend, wisdom, and experience arm. We know things, we can help folks think and move beyond obstacles we know they’re likely to run into, because we’ve run into them ourselves. We apply tactical to nearly everything we do and as such its sort of part of the overall BKL package offer. But it is gaining more ground in just doing pure tactical work- whats the deliverable on that? What do you get? You get critical thinking and roadmap kill orders- what next, and for alot of folks paralyzed in their daunting idea building process, those kill orders are worth killing over.

Surgical

Last winter we dawned on our first, I would say, purely surgical gig with Mobile Expeditions. MX already had an existing product, trajectory of goodness, they have some killer ideas and tech under their hood but hey had some specialized needs as well. Last winter they approached us with a need that was specific, go do x in our tech armada. We initially talked about a larger effort of work but opted for a surgical bit to start for two reasons- SPEED and fit. First we wanted to take on what we knew we could do and get a win under our belt as fast as possible, knowing that momentum would build as we progressed. In being surgical for folks, its like going into someones house, they have a system of order, they want things done a certain way, you’re new in that house, you have to be respectful to whats already in motion there, you can’t take over their whole house or change the perception of it. We wanted to get their specific surgical bit done fast and solid and we wanted to see if there was a future “fit” between the two of us working together. Most surgical gigs for Big Kitty land us in agreement, an understanding, alignment occurs and we’re like ok, what’s next. Thats a great place to be.

Another client we’ve done what I would frame up as surgical work is with Brand Thunder, another startup in Columbus. Again we tackled a specific need, focusing on speed and fit.

Experimental

Big Kitty started as an experiment. I wanted to take all my notions for how I wanted to do dev, and just test them out. Let’s go build stuff. The barriers to make today are nearly non-existent. It doesn’t take 400k to build an app. It doesn’t even take 40k. Just cause its less expensive doesn’t mean its easier however- the issues remain the same, the ability to overcome them is less about money and more about you changing fast enough to make the most of your burn. To us being experimental means lowering your expectations down to an aggressive for output level and less in to a perfect one. All in reflection to what you’re trying to achieve. It’s not say you want to “suck” out of the gate, its more to say you want to get out of the gate today, tomorrow, now. To me, my expectations are set to see the awesome in every build realizing i’m moving that chess piece ever closer yet open to what the evolving build is saying to me as people use it and provide feedback. If you set the bar so high that you’re always gonna feel like you can never measure up, well what the hell?! To me being experimental means I’m always grateful for whatever I get. I’m open to chance, possibility, failure. In exchange for that I learn, become more agile and wickedly fast. I can try more ideas. I’m not obsessed about look, I more concerned with fit, value, “do-ability”. It doesn’t need to be perfect, or even good, just move further along.

Experimental gigs for us started with our own ideas, take this tech mash it into that tech and ooo what do we got? I love being experimental- i set the stage how I want it, I love to see new stuff spring up over night, I want to refine it, get feedback on it, mutate it. I’m open to change, I’m flexible, i’m thinking it didn’t exist an hour ago and it does now- thats cool, now what? Most clients I would wager dislike an experimental process to a concept they are working on because they have this baby and they’re too close to it to see it in an experimental light- even if its only in their head or in a powerpoint deck. Those that do let us go and use an experimental process, which is the genesis of our protobake idea to rapidly innovate. Some folks approach us with truly abstract ideas that can only be approached with an experimental approach.

Complementary

Complementary gigs are where its at usually. Its about about working together. They’re a little more far along than just a powerpoint, they have the concept, some mocks, some expectations on how it should be yet they’re open. Thats the key aspect of complementary gigs, they’re open to advice and protobaking. Most complementary gigs pivot as the concept gets manifested much like an experimental one, however they get more out of it than the experimental folks who had no assumptions coming in the door. They will either embrace that pivot now, or they’ll note it as a likely change for the future. Not everyone is acceptable of a pivot, most seem to recognize like a bastard stepchild has entered the room and now they need to take care of that and they’re baby as well, not realizing its one in the same.

Everyone wants to get their ideas out there, seen, talked about, get that foot hold to momentum. Being complementary on gigs is rewarding, fun, and has just a twinge or two of experimental goodness. Its important to note all our dealings with clients are essentially “complementary” but this to me stood out as a kind of practice of work we do noting that its a mix of us and them working together.

Mercenary

This is the newest kind of gig we’ve been called on to do, and its growing as more and more people take the leap into making things. Big Kitty is often called on to be a mercenary on a project. Being a “mercenary” on a gig is best described just as it implies- gun for hire. We will come in and kill whatever you want dead and we move on. Its has no tactical elements other than we’re a damn good mercenary and you know your weapons of choice. It has no experimental elements- this is not a place of wonder. Its as fast as surgical but tends to be a larger effort, and while we like to think its complementary, its more in the line of execution orders.

A mercenary doesn’t care about your idea, whether people will adopt it, or whether or not you’re trying to build the right thing. To be explicit, we’ve been asked NOT to care and we have to respect that in some ways, people are set on what they want, and they give you marching orders. A mercenary executes. Mercenary is not the place I really want to be as a dev house but I recognize it as a type of gig thats growing out there. Mercenary gigs aren’t bad, they’re just straight go do this gigs, we don’t get to tap our wisdom or share our knowledge and experience as much. Maybe we want to be heard, after all or BKL, this is passion biz its not a typical shop, not that any shop i think out there strives just to do mercenary work. I’ve come to see mercenary gigs as a reality of the development world really. When I think of mercenary work, its un-emotional, robotic, fast, and frankly doesn’t care. Mercenaries don’t really care if you have a biz or rev model, they don’t care if you succeed or die, they have a job to do, go and make…er kill

Onward

When I look across all these “types of gigs” Big Kitty has done over the past year, obviously, tactical, surgical, experimental and complementary work is where I want us to be. Mercenary work comes with the territory but it doesn’t get me outa bed in the morning. Its the evil that most developers don’t really speak of, they all recognize it but few really speak of it other than its another job to do. Really good developers navigate the scene to stay away from it and we could do that as well.

I think people come to Big Kitty because of our surgical/experimental reputation. There are many mercenary firms out there, and all firms need to be complementary, but I would wager that most firms are not experimental because of the perceived “uncomfortableness” that comes with experimental thinking and process. We’re damn good mercenaries though, so it just depends really.

Thinking just about the type of folks and gigs that we’re seeing coming across our radar, we’re seeing many more big ideas and folks wanting to create. The dream is near! That makes this a great time to be in development so keep building and stay frisky folks!

I’m an addict of inspiring startup / innovation tv on the web. I started following Kevin Rose on twitter the other day, I don’t usually follow the big kids on the block because I fear their scooble like updates, but Kevin, I gotta say, I have alot of respect for. He’s just well collected these days, calm in a sea of insanity on the west coast.

One of his new ventures is called Foundation, a series of videos with startup founders talking about well, anything they’re story if you will. Good stuff.

Another new show comes from TechStars, they’ve done a few video series, founders, and now TechStars is on Bloomberg tv.

If you have the Sundance channel you can catch Quirky which is a crowd sourced product design show covering the many cool things Quirky does.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a killer conference.  I love the sheer amount of data you can harvest out of these events.  They are just packed with wisdom, talks, discussions, startups, hackathons, its amazing. Everytime I watch a disrupt I wish I was there on the floor in the center of it just absorbing the crap out of it.  Course I bet I can do a better job of absorbing the info remotely vs being there but still.

Now every disrupt has battlefield of startups that compete for the check- the winner cash prize.  How they are picked to get in the battlefield, i’m not clear on, how they are judged to pick a winner, even less clear on.  

Yesterday they announced the winners of this year’s disrupt- Shaker.  A virtual world, ie: second life + sims + facebook + not really a dating simulator game but probably world as the winner vs a handful of other hopefuls. So why them?  When I first heard they won, I was like WTF, what are the disrupting- right?  I mean farmville for people bored at home and online, virtual chat rooms with interest graphs, fake prompts and 3d avatars, thats the winning idea coming from silicon valley?  What the hell?

I mean Zynga could rip off Shaker in a month and scale it faster and bigger based off their own current audience right?  There is no proprietary tech involved in that concept, how did that get picked as the winner? Was it because Mike Arrington’s CrunchFund invested in it?  I’m sure that didn’t influence it much, we hope.

Sure I hate the idea that Shaker has won, i think the idea isn’t disrupting or innovative at all.  Its a gimmick play, its a 10% tweak on an existing idea- HOWEVER it is a consumable target for a Zynga or Facebook, and in that light, it makes perfect sense why it was picked.  It’s probably the fastest one on the stage with a potential exit.  It will not be a monster empire company, its a company that on the stage is likely to be acquired the fastest because of what they’re doing, not for innovation sake, but for making something attractive enough to a bigger fish. There is a line of BS at events like this and even at general startup weekends etc, this notion that we’re out to build business, sure, ya, but ya know flipping biz for profits is damn nice too.  Sure that’s also business, in fact its the faster return on investment side of business!

Shaker won because it was the most attractive potential exit on the stage, thats it.  Thats why they won.  Yes Zynga could dupe them in a second, but why- just buy them.  Facebook could do the same, but why, just buy them.  Google needs a hot new “it game” for its plus network, nice idea Shaker,  lets buy them.

So is Shaker “disruptive?” not by a long shot, will it exit before the others, yes or at least it will out last them.

I’m always eyeing a refresh every now and then- so here ya go. New BIG KITTY to see!

We like the new approach to sort of showcase what we’ve been working on since our start in early 2009. The ride has been incredible. We’ve got about another dozen or so concepts/clients to put on that growing list of cool stuff.

State of the Kitty?

Lots of stuff happening. Basically we’re slammed. Everyone is starting something right now, we saw that trend pick up in late 2010, but 2011 has been a screamer- everyone, and I mean everyone wants to make something.

That’s all good for the most part, I mean, hell ya, make, but keep in mind we’re all just experimenting- just cause you make it doesn’t mean cash will fall from the sky. BUT its a catch 22, you need to make it to realize it and try and catch your shot at momentum.

SPEED folks, we believe in SPEED. Get to market faster. Impress those that love you, treat them like gold, harvest their desires and go baby go.

We have lots of bit goodness coming.  Podcasts, book lists, mentor index, oh yes, BIG KITTY has much goodness for you.  Meanwhile our home town of Columbus Ohio keeps evolving and we’re seeing some big moves in the midst.  Stay frisky folks!

CueThat is trucking along quiet nicely lately.  We just skipped over 6100+ movies cue’d up for Netflix and we’re pushing 3000+ users for the service.  Folks dig it, and we dig that they’re digging it, and as bonus, we learn a little to.  Like for instance, where do people go online to find their Netflix movies and TV shows?  Where do you go?

The list is long but I wanted to give you a peek at the top 17 or so here that do the majority of the heavy lifting it seems. IMDB is by far the champ here with 900+ movies being cue’d up from their portal alone thus far. That one is sort of obvious, however the #2 slot is CueThat itself, meaning folks hit the site and just cue up movies on CueThat itself based on what other people are cue’in up.  Pretty cool.  In 3rd place is Google Search.  We could make the assumption this is folks, searching for a movie/theme etc, finding a result and aww heck let’s just CueThat right there.  In 4th place is RottenTomatoes, on my favorite sites for movie reviews.  Then Amazon, which makes sense from a perspective that you could be on there to buy a movie and then ya just say, heck, let’s CueThat’up! Then we get into the meat of the list and come across some gems like, Wikipedia, that could be a bit like Google search or Instawatcher, a popular site for Netflix instawatchers.   The list goes and goes.

Hey folks, Dan here, aka @floozyspeak on twitter and one the two principal founders behind our beloved BigKittyLabs!

We received a wonderful write up on HiVelocity this week that I couldn’t be happier with. Its awesome and humbling to be featured in an online magazine like this that covers much of what makes Ohio and the midwest rock.

Big Kitty Labs has come a long way since our flash in the pan start in 2009 where Tushar aka @dombtribe and I teamed up and say let’s do it our way.

This article on us makes me look at how far we’ve come.  We’ve done some some great work, and it exposes a bit of what we need to work on next.  Its important for us here at team kitty to really choke down much of the hard core truths that not many would openly accept with open arms.  Such as..

No Revenue Model.  It’s true.  Most our concepts are not born from thinking about money they’re are born from problem statements and technology patterns that nibble on our brains as we sleep- hit us like a truck mid workout and make us go YEAH as we nod off in elevator rides.  Ideas we believe care little about how you monetize them, they just demand to be made.  We are driven by actualize’ing them, the page doesn’t come to life until you breathe life into it.  Our next step however is to turn our ideas, our collective intel about them and the world they live in and yeah.. lets make them cash friendly.

One thing I really stressed to Gene there at HiVelocity was the resistance of saying this concept or that concept has an “ad model” for revenue.  Slapping a cheesy “ad model” on something is not what we want to do unless the concept is a really a viable vehicle for ads.  Everything out there could have an ad model but unless its really about moving/exposing ads, your lying to yourself if you think thats really what the biz is all about.  But the heart of what drives us to doodle is the patterns we see from the intake of today, not the $$ in our eyes.  In some glances thats a total sucker play, and we see that, and well we’re suckers for the moment.  But keep an eye on us, we’ll get to monetizing our big think soon enough.

Speed is critical to how we function.  We must move the puck forward everyday, every hour, move.  You have to. You have to see the progress and often that can make for a misconception about what we’re all about and what the work, our protobakes are about.

Its one thing to willing bake frankenware, a term most often associated with a half baked concept that is likely to be a broken concept that isn’t working as it should.  We willing bake frankenware.  Now of course we shoot to not make them as frankenware as most would associate with that word, but we PRIDE ourselves at good frankenware.  The reason we take so much pride in making it, is because we see two huge benefits from it.  Protobakes, our version of frankenware, enable two key audiences that every business on the planet needs to engage: their customers/investors and themselves.

When you bake a concept and truly see it manifested you start to believe its possible.  I can’t tell you how critical that is for a team, or individual making anything.  Its the reason why musicians light up when they play a guitar or an artist gets into paint and pencils.  Those artifacts, those things, enable those people to create.  Creating creates belief.  Its no longer a wondering moment in your mind, a potential what if, the minute that guitar makes a noise, you made that noise you hear it, you can apply feedback to it, figure out how to make it go this way or that way based on your playing.  The minute the paint hits the canvas, you’re painting man, you’re making something.

We meet countless groups of people, all folks who are struggling to see their creation get made.  The idea is agnostic to their efforts, it cares little if you make it or if someone else makes it.  We may think we hold that idea in our palms but that is a dream.  We are given license to it only if we act on it.  Building a protobake makes you believe your idea is possible.  That gives you BOOST to keep you and your team believing that you are gonna do it.  You’re gonna make this thing happen.  And that is KEY aspect of protobaking.  You must.  You have to.

Another aspect about the article that I don’t think people realize is that I’m not saying “don’t do research”… remember my background IS RESEARCH, what I’m trying to say, and this is the second key benefit from protobakes..

The prototype is the research.

The protobake is VEHICLE to collect research data.  Its manifested.  You can see it, touch it, test it, break it, tell a story with it, collect data on it from you, your team, your investors.

As an added benefit it shows customers and especially investors that you’re going somewhere.  You’ve started.  You have something to show, that effort of manifesting momentum despite the odds gives you “ummmmph” .  That can be attractive to folks.  People like motion, people want to see momentum.  Especially investors.

The last thing I want to stress here for our fans, readers and questioning curious folk is this… once you build it, your adventure has just begun.  You’re not done when you build it.  Alot of people seem to think that once you make it you can sit back and collect the check, very few get that.  You have to sell it, refine it, and continue to tell the story on why it matters in todays sea of attention vying apps and such.

Team Kitty carries on and we’re blessed to have the minds at our table, our insanely intelligent and talented developers and our friends we’ve made and benefited from their wisdom here in the Columbus, Ohio tech community.  We’re making a difference folks.  Our scene is upon us.  BKL is thankful to be a part of it.

Ok we’ve been busy.

We’ve been cranking out a bunch of bit projects lately for the sheer frak of it.  Our CueThat landed just two weeks ago and has amassed over 1500 users and queued up over 3000 movies! Holy cats Batman that’s just in two weeks!!  Indeed that is bad ass.  CueThat struck a chord we knew people would would agree with.  As such, the press ate it up: here, then here, and over there, and then even here.

Our own local biz trade magazine in town covered CueThat, FreakJet and our dev process here.  Sweet! But that’s not all..

The FreakJet team got their Apple approval friday and wham baby, they are in the app store!  Ohio based FreakJet crew came to us with their big idea on people watching in airports.  We laughed and said let’s do it.  We all know exactly that they’re talkin about here people.  What’s to debate, appify that baby.

Then something happened.  An idea slipped into my mind and wouldn’t leave.  That actually happens alot.  But this idea wanted to win on an epic scale of adonis DNA like magnitude.  Tiger blooded it screamed to me.

Over the weekend I obeyed.  I sent word to our hackers- make’th this happen.  And so it did.  Some ideas taunt you, they dare you to make.  We obeyed.

We give you: Place Sheen!  The ultimate image placeholder.  Like HELLO people let’s get on it – #winning!

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service that connects reporters to public in the effort to tap the public as a resource for news media.  Let’s face it, reporters need experts to help them craft their stories.  The public is filled with experts ranging from electro chemical induction (seriously) to twitter.  HARO was originally formed up as a facebook group and then grew into a large mailing list as it stands today.  The service gives those that sign up 5 emails a day filled with requests from reporters looking for that right expert out there in the masses to tap from.  While the email list is good, its daunting to sort, filter, and figure out.

Hoolykn is our take in organizing that immense feed of requests.  Users can create profiles with tags that represent their field of expertise, after that, Hoolykn working with HARO does the rest.  Users can sort the feed, see what requests relate to them and even see requests expiring soon, or ones that just expired.  If you’re a PR agent of your business, HARO is an excellent way to get yourself on the map with some free press, by simply being an expert for a reporter in need.  Hoolykn makes the experience of HARO streamlined and efficient.  Check it out sometime.

MobileXpeditions came to us in late 2010 with a bit request to take on some of their increasing complex data infrastructure for their content management system. BKL’s job started out small, as a proof of effort to make sure we’d be likely candidate for their needs.  Getting the proper fit between teams is critical.  Its all about rapport, understanding, problem solving, speed and execution.  Luckily we did fine and our work with MX continues today.

Check them out:

MobileXpeditions

Venues, organizations, municipalities and consumer brands use our software to increase customer satisfaction, promote repeat visits and generate revenue. With an MX-powered app, you can engage your customers anytime, while they’re at home or at your location.

IT Martini connects IT Professionals in YOUR IT Community with events that focus on leadership, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and FUN.  Their events amass over a 1000 people and are widely attended by the some of the most highly respected brass of IT community.

In 2010 IT Martini approached BKL with a redesign effort to reconstruct the IT Martini front end and create a custom backend content management system that would compliment the firm’s evolved workflow for setting up their own site presence.  IT Martini is on the move. They’re expanding in midwest, city by city, as such, they needed a site presence that could flex with those requirements.

It’s only a matter of time before you see IT Martini in your city.

IT Martini