From the left coast

Mostly settled into SF and focused anew on Mobilism @ Stanford and Berkeley. A few things (I like numbered lists for organizing thoughts):

1) Looking to hire a couple strong on-campus people – more detail to be found on our website, part-time over summer and through school year

2) Always looking to add strong tech people to the team – both front and back-end. Salary and equity very negotiable – remember, we’re just getting started

3) Look for our presence on campus at Stanford and Berkeley in the coming months. Wii contest still ongoing, and plan to add more prizes in the months to come!

Finally, I’d say NYU has continued to be a success. [We recently helped Project Michelle (www.projectmichelle.com) do a bit of outreach to NYU-area residents, and while turnout was not too successful, it's a start - please get involved if you haven't already. Get your bone marrow typed, and help save a life(s).] At the moment, we plan to pause our NYU operations for a few months as we focus on Stanford and Berkeley. Will most likely resume things once the new school year gets underway

Thanks everyone for your support and continued interest/patience. We’re excited about the months ahead…the rubber is about to hit the West Coast road very soon

This past week…

has been an unusually busy one. We spent 4 days tabling in Washington Sq, establishing a presence during one of NYU’s largest orientation days. All in all I’d say it was a success – we signed up hundreds of students and area residents, and met some interesting people along the way.

This marks my last post from NY. I’m moving out to SF in the following weeks to continue building our presence at Stanford and Berkeley. Mobilism @ NYU will be left in trusty hands, and I’ll be making trips back to the city to help manage things as well (particularly as the new school year nears).

And in case some people follow the blog but not the site – we’re holding a free Wii raffle through July! Sign-up for Mobilism today (if you’re at one of the target schools or live in those areas) and you’re automatically entered to win. Refer friends and you’ll up your chances.

Welcome Cecel’s Cafe and Creperie

…to our list of businesses around NYU that we are excited to be working with. Officially joined us today – look for great deals from them in the near future.

Funny moment

Was at a St Mark’s area Korean restaurant (Song 7.2) getting takeout when I noticed a Mobilism flyer posted on their wall right by the waiter station. It wasn’t a flyer we’d built for public display – and was supposed to be more sound-bite informative than visually appealing – but I guess our efforts are working!

*June 11 update – we’ve signed Song’s as an advertiser for their official grand opening. Read more about them here

Sustaining motivation

…has probably been the biggest challenge. It definitely helps to have those who lend a helping hand (Brian, Nathan, the list goes on). But it helps a LOT to have a partner/partners who are there fulltime, sharing in all the ups and downs. I’ve been lucky to have that recently and it’s made a big difference.

Now onto actual Mobilism news. In the last few weeks, we’ve managed to:

1) Hire our NYU campus manager! Lyndon’s a recent NYU grad who’ll be a great addition to the team as we strengthen our campus presence with students and businesses

2) Sign-up several NYU businesses – this has been hard work, but owners have been receptive to the concept of highly targeted, customized mobile advertising

I’m making plans to shift our operations out to SF by beginning of July, so I can refocus on Stanford and Berkeley in time for the Fall 2008 schoolyear.

If you’re a college student or live near a college campus (in particular, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, and NYU), sign-up today!

On hiring people

This week’s been an interesting one, including our site launch and starting to talk to folks (both students and businesses). I’ve just started the push to hire a few people at the respective campuses that we’re focused on (NYU and Columbia right now) – so if anyone knows people at these schools (either current undergrads or recent alums) who are either

-entrepreneurial OR
-outgoing and social OR
-well-connected and very knowledgeable about the campus

please let me know! I could use the help figuring out how to navigate campus and help executing on our goals there.

Soon we’ll be finishing the next phase of development for the site (including login capabilities) and hopefully doing a few test runs with advertisers.

First post

Hi all – thanks for tuning into Mobilism. We recently launched our website (www.mymobilism.com) and are now focusing on signing up students and businesses to our service at NYU, Columbia, and Stanford.

Plenty of updates to come in the following weeks.

In the meantime – if you’re interested in joining the Mobilism team (and/or have a strong affiliation to any of the above universities), please contact us at support AT mymobilism.com

Good luck, Kevin