Austinpreneur
Austin, Texas Area
- Current
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- Managing Director at Capital Factory
- Chief Evangelist at Datran Media
- Founder & CEO at OtherInbox
- Owner at The Grove Wine Bar
- Board of Directors at Greenling Organic Delivery
- Board of Directors at Lashback
- Owner at Buzz Manager
- Managing Director at Capital Thought
- Past
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- Committee Chair at Email Senders and Providers Coalition (ESPC)
- Board of Advisors at Hoop-a-paluza
- Partner at MassageEnvy
- Board of Directors at Charity Partners of Austin
- Board of Advisors at ME Television
- Chief Technology Officer at Datran Media
- Board of Directors at EFF Austin
- Founder & CEO at UnsubCentral
- Guest Analyst at Ferris Research
- Founder & CEO at SKYLIST, Inc.
- Chief Technology Officer at URaPI
- Founder & CEO at Netmonitor, Inc.
- Entrepreneur in Residence at VentureBeginnings
- Director of Business Development at IveBeenGood.com
- Trilogy University at Trilogy Software
- Moderator at ListMom-Talk
- Intern at StarNine Technologies
- Grocery Bagger at DeMoulas Market Basket
- Education
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- Carnegie Mellon University
- Recommended
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17 people have recommended Joshua - Connections
-
500+
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Joshua Baer’s Summary
Parallel entrepreneur and technologist. Early stage investor and startup strategist. Sucker for philanthropies that help kids.
Joshua Baer’s Specialties:
Bootstrapping Startups, Rapid Technology Development, Enterprise Software Sales
Email Compliance, Email Deliverability, Online Marketing, Solutions for Spam and Fraud
SaaS Architecture, Internet Protocol, Email Technology
Joshua Baer’s Experience
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Managing Director
Capital Factory
(Professional Training & Coaching industry)
January 2009 — Present (11 months)
Capital Factory is a seed stage mentoring program for startups that provides a small amount of seed capital and weekly mentoring sessions by entrepreneurs who have founded successful companies. Startup companies apply to participate in our 10 week summer program intended to get a startup pointed in the right direction with a clear path to cash flow.
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Chief Evangelist
Datran Media
(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)
February 2008 — Present (1 year 10 months)
I work with emerging media, press and corporate development.
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Founder & CEO
OtherInbox
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)
OtherInbox, Inc. is an Austin-based company that builds technology to automatically organize emails from online shopping and social networking sites, enabling users to focus on messages from real people.
OtherInbox’s email product also organizes shipping information, payment reminders, and upcoming sales and places them on your calendar. This all happens in just a few minutes without any software to install or filters to configure.
Email marketers love OtherInbox because it helps them send targeted, relevant emails that generate more revenue. Consumers love OtherInbox because it saves them time and gives them control over their Inbox. Put your email on autopilot™ with OtherInbox! -
Owner
The Grove Wine Bar
(Partnership; 11-50 employees; Food & Beverages industry)
December 2007 — Present (2 years )
The Grove is a wine bar and restaurant opened by Reed Clemons and Beth Lasita over on Bee Cave Road, just west of 360 and across from The County Line. Reed has been doing restaurants in Austin for years, such as Mezzaluna, The Bitter End, The Granite Cafe, Hangtown Grill, Reed's Supper Club, etc. I was fortunate to get involved as an investor!
From the get go our goal has been to provide a casual place where Austinites and visitors could enjoy great wine and food. When we first opened, we called ourselves a wine bar. However, since our inception, we have had a full kitchen. The menu is simply fantastic. Does this make us a restaurant, people wonder? It definitely makes us more than a wine bar, we are the grove wine bar | kitchen.
We hope our customers appreciate and enjoy what we do. It truly is a labor of love.
http://www.grovewinebar.com/ -
Board of Directors
Greenling Organic Delivery
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Food & Beverages industry)
December 2006 — Present (3 years )
Greenling Organic Delivery provides home delivery of local and organic grocery items directly to your home. For the same price as whole foods, you can have high quality organic goodies brought to your door. This award winning startup is currently servicing the Austin and San Antonio markets and expanding rapidly.
As an investor and board member, I help Greenling with their eCommerce website and online marketing strategy, as well as fundraising and corporate strategy. -
Board of Directors
Lashback
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
July 2005 — Present (4 years 5 months)
Formed in 2003, LashBack was born from the idea that someone should be able to automate an email unsubscribe request. Since then LashBack has developed and patented several 2nd generation anti-spam technologies which are being adopted by the largest ISPs in the world to enhance their spam fighting abilities. LashBack's unsubscribe "Reputation" services and automated unsubscribe service "UnsubSafe" will play a key role in stamping out the burden of junk email to ISP's anti-spam organizations and their consumers.
LashBack is raising the value of email by developing and deploying technical solutions that bring visibility, accountability and control to all players in the email Ecosystem. Currently LashBack data is used to protect over 500 million inboxes worldwide. -
Owner
Buzz Manager
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)
June 2004 — Present (5 years 6 months)
Create the technical direction, direct development resources and overall leadership for Buzz Manager. The service monitors and anlyzes online word of mouth in fan-generated media such as social networks, blogs, fan forums and influence the buzz in sports, entertainment and lifestyle markets for PR and marketing purposes.
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Managing Director
Capital Thought
(Internet industry)
March 2004 — Present (5 years 9 months)
Capital Thought builds agile web applications that live in the cloud. An Internet think tank and development partner, we bring together local and remote development resources along with a network of other service providers to get new products to market quickly and minimize risk.
Read case studies about our work with Bazaarvoice, Rackspace Mosso, OtherInbox, Return Path Sender Score Reputation Network, and UnsubCentral at http://capitalthought.com/case-studies.html -
Committee Chair
Email Senders and Providers Coalition (ESPC)
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
January 2004 — December 2008 (5 years )
The Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) was formed to fight spam while protecting the delivery of legitimate email. The ESPC members have recognized the need for strong spam solutions that ensure the delivery of legitimate email and have been very active in the war against spam.
I founded and co-chaired the Vendor Relations committee (which later was renamed the Receiver Relations committee) and currently co-chair the Technology committee.
http://www.espcoalition.org/
http://www.deliverability.com/ -
Board of Advisors
Hoop-a-paluza
(Philanthropy industry)
October 2007 — September 2008 (1 year )
Hoop-A-Paluza (HAPI) is a charity, a fundraiser and a big party all rolled into one. We hold an annual carnival each year. People register for the event online. Before the event, participants obtain pledges from donors who "sponsor" them to shoot 20 free throws. At the event, participants shoot their baskets to raise money for worthy children’s causes, after which they and their families enjoy rides, free refreshments, entertainment and fun contests. All proceeds benefit a select group of children's charities each year – and participants and their families enjoy a fun-filled carnival-style event free of charge.
With an all-volunteer organization since its founding in 2002, HAPI has raised more than $1,000,000 to aid children’s causes in New Jersey and spawned sister events around the country. -
Partner
MassageEnvy
(Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)
November 2006 — August 2008 (1 year 10 months)
Massage Envy® is a Scottsdale-based national franchise of massage clinics dedicated to bringing professional, affordable therapeutic massage services to consumers at convenient times and locations that fit busy lifestyles.
I was one of the partners and investors for a handful of MassageEnvy franchises in Austin. I was not involved with MassageEnvy corporate. -
Board of Directors
Charity Partners of Austin
(Philanthropy industry)
May 2006 — April 2008 (2 years )
CPA was founded in 2005 by a group of local philanthropists with the objective of giving back to our community, while producing fun and entertaining events for families and friends. We focus on providing funding support for nonprofit organizations that have a direct and meaningful impact on kids, families, and the arts.
http://www.charitypartnersofaustin.org/ -
Board of Advisors
ME Television
(Public Company; Music industry)
April 2006 — April 2008 (2 years 1 month)
ME, “Music and Entertainment” Television, is a 24- hour regional network dedicated to showcasing and providing television exposure for regional artists as well as the hundreds of touring groups that make up the vibrant Texas live music scene. Supporting established artists and promoting and discovering new talent is a priority. ME is the entertainment resource, with venue schedules, artist information, interviews and local live music shows every night at 7pm on ME Live!
ME Television launched October 1, 2005 and is currently broadcast to Austin and the 40 surrounding cities. ME Television is a national prototype for a series of regional music and entertainment networks around the country.
Besides hanging around the TV studio every chance I get, I also help out with the Internet strategy.
http://www.metelevision.com/ -
Chief Technology Officer
Datran Media
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Online Media industry)
January 2006 — January 2008 (2 years 1 month)
Datran serves optimized, relevant and custom created advertisements into your email inbox, like an ad server. Like paid search, performance dictates which ads float to the top and which sink to the bottom. EO.com is our media exchange that ties it all together with a real-time auction.
I became Chief Technology Officer of Datran Media in January 2006 after it acquired SKYLIST and UnsubCentral. I'm an executive sponsor for key strategic accounts including Microsoft and Turner, lead R&D projects across the companies, and represent Datran Media to the industry and the press. -
Board of Directors
EFF Austin
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Think Tanks industry)
September 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 3 months)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation Austin advocates establishment and protection of digital rights and defense of the wealth of digital information, innovation, and technology. We promote the right of all citizens to communicate and share information without unreasonable constraint. We also advocate the fundamental right to explore, tinker, create, and innovate along the frontier of emerging technologies.
http://www.effaustin.org/ -
Founder & CEO
UnsubCentral
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
January 2004 — January 2006 (2 years 1 month)
In December 2003 Congress passed the CAN-SPAM act. It made the advertiser responsible for honoring unsubscribes and maintaining an email suppression list, which many had never done before. In order to comply with the law, email marketers now needed to securely exchange these suppression files.
We launched UnsubCentral in January 2004 to provide a secure, central repository for email suppression lists and easy access control. It quickly became the gold standard for email suppression lists and provides trusted, third party compliance for billions of email messages per month. -
Guest Analyst
Ferris Research
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
May 1997 — January 2006 (8 years 9 months)
I started out working with David Ferris in college as a contract programmer for his Filemaker Pro database and website. Soon I became a guest analyst, writing and reviewing research notes on emerging technology, regulation, and best practices for distribution to F500 CTO / CIO client base.
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Founder & CEO
SKYLIST, Inc.
(Internet industry)
January 1996 — December 2005 (10 years )
I started SKYLIST as a dorm-room dot-com while studying at Carnegie Mellon. I was working with ListSTAR as an intern at StarNine and one of my consulting clients asked me if I would host the Computer Book Publishing discussion list on my server. One list became two, and then ten, and then a hundred.
By the time I graduated from CMU, I had a nice little business with a few hundred thousand a year in revenue. But it was when we decided to take the plunge and create our own email platform called StormPost that the company really started to grow quickly. We also shifted focus from discussion forums to newsletters and promotions.
By the time I sold SKYLIST to Datran Media, it was ranked best value by Jupiter research and had earned clients such as Microsoft, Nascar, Disney and the Boston Globe.
In 2006, SKYLIST was rated one of the best places to work in Austin. -
Chief Technology Officer
URaPI
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
May 2001 — January 2005 (3 years 9 months)
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Founder & CEO
Netmonitor, Inc.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
January 2000 — January 2005 (5 years 1 month)
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Entrepreneur in Residence
VentureBeginnings
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
September 1999 — January 2001 (1 year 5 months)
VentureBeginnings was an Pittsburgh incubator run by RF Culbertson and focused on the students coming out of Carnegie Mellon.
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Director of Business Development
IveBeenGood.com
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
October 1999 — August 2000 (11 months)
IveBeenGood.com was incubated in Trilogy University and also operated as UberWorks, Inc.
We launched at Internet World 1999 and were covered on the CBS Evening News and New York Times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz39wHj95c
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E0DC1E3DF93BA25752C1A96F958260
I was a key contributor from product conception to company acquisition for $20mm by Network Commerce. I developed the sales pitch and strategy for >$1M software licensing and hosting deals, opened the initial pipeline, closed $2mm+ in revenue in 6 months, and developed and executed $250,000 online marketing plan with <$3 customer acquisition cost. -
Trilogy University
Trilogy Software
(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
July 1999 — September 1999 (3 months)
TU is a three to four month total-immersion program that many view as the most challenging and most rewarding period of their career.
Each TU class is tasked with using innovation and technology to drive the execution of Trilogy's strategy. Previous TU classes have built new products and even new businesses. Others have driven Trilogy’s focus on e-commerce. A TU project in 1999 became one of our largest software deals of the year. As the company intensified its focus on leadership development the next year, a TU team created a web site that the company still uses today to communicate our vision and exchange ideas that drive forward every day.
Recognized in a case study for Harvard Business School and described in an article in the Harvard Business Review magazine, TU is a program in which young professionals are proud to have participated.
Here is an article from Fortune in 1998 that talks about life at Trilogy back then...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/21/insanity.html -
Moderator
ListMom-Talk
(Non-Profit; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)
January 1996 — June 1999 (3 years 6 months)
ListMom-Talk was an email list of almost 1,000 people who were responsible for running email lists on all platforms. Administrators from the biggest mailing list sites and the developers of mailing list software such were all active on the list. List etiquette, comparisons of list software, problems with members of a list, and listserver configuration were all appropriate topics. The List-Unsubscribe header and the rest of RFC 2369 were developed by this group and is now widely implemented by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, LISTSERV, Majordomo and pretty much everyone else.
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2369.html -
Intern
StarNine Technologies
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)
April 1995 — May 1997 (2 years 2 months)
My first real job other than bagging groceries, I was hired by Tom Biddulph to respond to ListSTAR customers on public forums and develop AppleScript extensions. This is when I first started to learn about email.
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Grocery Bagger
DeMoulas Market Basket
(Food & Beverages industry)
1992 — 1993 (1 year )
I worked after school at the store on Amherst Road in Nashua, NH.
Joshua Baer’s Education
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Carnegie Mellon University
Computer Science & Information Decision Systems , Computer Science , 1994 — 1999
- Activities and Societies:
- Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Interfraternity Council, Dow Jones Entrepreneurship Center
Additional Information
Joshua Baer’s Websites:
Joshua Baer’s Interests:
Entrepreneurship Angel investing Sustainability and Green Tech Dogs and most other pets Porsche, Tesla and racing Live Music Downhill longboarding
Joshua Baer’s Groups:
Co-Author of RFC 2369
Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC)
Mail Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)
Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
TU99
Bootstrap Austin
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Trilogy Alumni -
Carnegie Mellon Alumni -
AgileAustin -
Austin On Rails -
Sigma Alpha Epsilon -
Email Marketing Roundtable -
LashBack | Global Email Compliance -
CEO Austin -
Sigma Alpha Epsilon - PA Phi Alumni Network - Carnegie Mellon University -
Patron of the Arts -
OtherInbox -
Online Trust Alliance (OTA) -
Capital Factory Mentors -
First Growth Venture Network
Joshua Baer’s Honors:
Carnegie Mellon University Dow Jones Center Enterprise Award with Distinction
Carnegie Mellon University Senior Leadership Award
SKYLIST 13th Best Place to Work in Austin in 2006
OtherInbox TechCrunch50 finalist 2008
Texas Social Media Awards finalist 2009
Joshua Baer’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
