ItsGoinOn: Real-Time Social Hotspots Official
Funded Startup: Principle, Senior UI/UX, Concept & Visual Designer.
January 2009 – May 2012 | 3 years 5 months | Los Angeles, CA.
There's so much to say about this project/company, I could speak for weeks. This was one of my first innovative technologies that defined my path as an innovator/disrupter. I founded and created ItsGoinOn when I was 23, with two other cofounders. I was working in house at Hurley (Nike corp.) for nearly 2 years as the senior web designer and Flash Developer. One night a coworker and I were going out to a favorite local bar. It was always a good time on Wednesdays. Week over week. One night we show up at 9:30pm to realize there's about 6 people total. Usually there's about 200+! We decided to wait and have a drink since we were already there. We figured we must have arrived early. One beer turned into three by the time my coworker said, "I wish we could've known what this was like before we left! This is terrible. Lets go." In that moment I started putting the integral puzzle pieces together in my head. I said, "Wait a minute, hold on". I realized in a few minutes how to achieve it. It had to be accurate otherwise I wouldn't personally use it. "What does everyone carry on them? All the time?" I asked myself. Keys, wallet, cell phone, drivers license... DRIVERS LICENSE! So I set out to create MyDoorman, Real Time Patron Management System. We would end up building "google analytics for physical locations" before we were done. This is how I was going to make it work! We raised investment capital from Tech Coast Angels and I left Hurley to run our company as the CEO and designer. We achieved things many said we couldn't. We were young, but we had great mentors and advisors helping us stay focused. Unfortunately, we ran out of our next round of funding during the 2008-2009 recession. Investors were unsure of the financial economy so many tech startups, including ours, got sandboxed. I find my investors still reaching out nearly 10 years later still longing to one day release our technology to the public. Google said it was one of the most innovative things they'd seen in the past 5 years. That was in 2008. Fast forward to 2020 and the technology still proves strong today. When MyDoorman and ItsGoinOn were live, we could accurately see the real time demographics of an establishment that was using MyDoorman.
Highlights:
- Conceptualized new innovative mobile and internet application technology for entertainment.
- Spent 3 months researching market and opportunities.
- Founded initial team of cofounders.
- Designed logo, branding, website, UI/UX, mobile applications and all additional creative.
- Filed and structured corporation and trademarks.
- Grew initial team from 3 to 6.
- Raised seed investment with cofounders.
- Grew team from 6 people to 17 and signed partnership agreements with Magtek ( http://www.magtek.com/V2/products/secure-card-reader-authenticators/iDynamo.asp ) and Infinite Peripherals ( http://ipclineapro.com/) ...the readers in Apple's retail locations.
- Took our MyDoorman (real time patron management system) iOS application to market and closed 41 new accounts in Los Angeles & Orange County the first 4 months after releasing to iTunes market place.
- KTLA News aired a 3 minute video piece on our application at a few accounts in Downtown Los Angeles. The reporter challenged us on privacy (which came up often)... our establishments and the consumers that entered the establishments supported our application.
- Released V2 products.
- Signed partnership agreements with TriArc Events and iLeftWord Entertainment.
- Worked with WME (William Morris Endeavor) to package up our company into a reality TV show based on young internet entrepreneurs setting out to disrupt the hospitality/entertainment industry with new technology. I was against it at first but I entertained it with my partners and looked at it from a brand marketing perspective to gain faster user adoption and downloads.
Strategic decision making within project parameters, technical requirements & brand design guidelines.
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Advertising.
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Ad Campaigns.
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Agile.
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Art Direction.
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Brand Development.
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Brand Design.
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Brand Marketing.
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Brand Strategy.
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Capital Raising.
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Computer Science.
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Construction.
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Consulting.
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Creative Cloud.
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Creative Direction.
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Design Lead.
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Display Ads.
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Ecommerce.
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Email Marketing.
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Email & Hosting Setup.
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Emerging Technologies.
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Enterprise.
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Figma.
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Frontend Development.
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Graphic Design.
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Human-Centered Design.
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Illustrator.
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iOS.
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iOT.
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Information Architecture.
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Innovation.
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Invision Studio.
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Integrated Systems.
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Iterative.
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Kanban.
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Lean.
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Lifestyle Photography.
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Logo Design.
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Miro.
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Mobile First Design.
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Package Design.
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Photo Manipulation.
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Photo Retouching.
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Photoshop.
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Plastic Injection.
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Point of Sale.
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Product Design.
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Product Experience.
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Product Management.
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Product Owner.
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Product Photography.
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Project Research.
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Quality Assurance.
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Rapid.
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Responsive Web/Mobile Design.
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Rich Media.
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Scrum.
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Senior Art Direction.
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Senior Android Design.
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Senior iOS Design.
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Senior UI Design.
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Senior UX Design.
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Shopify Expert.
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Sketch.
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Social Media Marketing.
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Sprints.
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Startups.
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Strategy.
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Team Building.
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Team Management.
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UI/UX.
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User Acquisition.
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User Adoption.
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User Journey Mapping.
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User Research.
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User Surveying.
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User Testing.
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Web 1.0-4.0.
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Web Design.
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Web Development.
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Wireframes.