News
Altavert Selected as Finalist for Business Grant Competition
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - June 4, 2010 - Altavert Alternative Advertising, the Los Angeles-based advertising service that places ads on commuter vehicles, has been selected as a finalist in the 2010 Entrepreneurial Spirit Grant from the notable small business website, ideacafe.com. Idea Café, which has been featured in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek, is giving entrepreneurs the chance to win a cash grant and gain media exposure for their business. Idea Café's Entrepreneurial Spirit 2010 Grant will present a cash award to the small business with the most original approach.
Being selected among the top fifty applicants creates significant exposure for the company, as Idea Café is one of the most visited and most established small business websites, having been an online resource for entrepreneurs since 1995.
The winner of the grant will be selected via an online poll, and voting will be open until July 7, 2010. Voting is easy and available to anyone after registering for free with the site.
Please click here to cast your ballot for Altavert.
The full listing of finalists is available here.
Even more information is available on the Idea Café's blog .
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Altavert Invited to Speak on Entrepreneurship Panel for UCLA MBA Students
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - February 23, 2010 - Jeff Blake, founder and CEO of Altavert Alternative Advertising, was honored to be one of three young entrepreneurs invited to speak to MBA students in the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Jeff, along with ElephantDrive CEO Michael Fisher and Mixergy founder Andrew Warner, sat on a panel for the Anderson School's annual Entrepreneurship week. Each entrepreneur spoke about the formation of their business, some of their challenges and successes, and answered questions from an audience of 200 future entrepreneurs.
Jeff Blake founded Altavert as an alternative, or perhaps a solution, to overpriced outdoor advertising media such as billboards. Altavert lets commuters advertise for you by placing your ads on the personal vehicles of commuters who live, work and play in your target markets. Blake, who himself recently received his MBA from the George Washington University, spoke to the aspiring entrepreneurs about the experience of starting a company from scratch. Blake had a "eureka" moment as an undergraduate when he realized that the highways are filled with unused ad space, and was astounded that this concept had not already been executed. Realizing the unmet need, Jeff founded Altavert in February of 2008. While discussing the pros and cons of "bootstrapping," that is, self-funding an entrepreneurial venture, Jeff expressed to the students the importance of Beta-testing your processes. He mused, "Think about your new business, especially a brand new product or service, as similar to an unknown garage band. You're not going to sell a lot of records right away. Sometimes, you need to give the music away and see what comes back." Jeff explained that a huge breakthrough came from offering his unique service at cost in exchange for data and feedback from the clients. You can visit the company's website at www.altavert.com.
ElephantDrive, a cloud storage provider, was founded in 2005 to meet the explosive demand for inexpensive, secure, and highly available online backup and storage. A case study on the company can be found here
Andrew Warner founded Mixergy to provide a space where business owners could learn from first-hand interviews with the greatest minds in business. Warner started a successful online business in his 20's, and in his own words, "This is the site I wish I had." More information is available at blog.mixergy.com
www.anderson.ucla.edu/x19573.xml
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