Startup food for thought

Interview the founder of a relatively new, non-journalism startup? I knew just whom I wanted to reach out to --- an old University of Maryland undergrad classmate who's been innovative and successful.

Paul Mandell is a Yale-trained lawyer who in 2005 left a well-paid job at a powerful firm to start his own company, a temp legal staffing agency to service big law firms. In 2007, he sold the business to a company that outsourced to India and he saved enough money to start a new venture last year, a company called Consero, which sets up high-end, invitation-only professional conferences. He's already getting lots of buzz, including in the Washington Post and Bloomberg.

Mandell was kind enough to take a few minutes out of a very busy day (we did the interview via mobile phone while he was en route to a meeting) to talk to me about launching a startup. I'll talk more about it in class on Saturday. In a sense, Mandell's business is counterintuitive as a Web business --- after all, his whole aim is to get elite groups of people in an actual room together, face to face. But the Internet, his Web site, social networking and mobile technology all are key to the company. He started with a staff of two and now has a staff of 20. He drew his inspiration and initial client base from what he knew best: the legal community. All applicable lessons for us.

Some more data on college students and future Ask A Mom readers

I'm gathering data for my elevator pitch for Ask A Mom, still around the idea that focusing on attracting and holding the interest of college students makes sense as a central marketing strategy. Here's some of what I've learned:

• There are roughly 19 million students attending U.S. post-secondary programs (slightly smaller for degree-issuing colleges and universities), according to the National Center for Education Statistics.


• An Alloy Media and Marketing/Harris Interactive poll from 2009 found college students spend an average of 9.5 hours a day using tech gadgets including their laptops and mobile devices. And 40 percent said they share content with friends, including video and blogs.


• Roughly six in 10 college students are female, according to the American Council on Education.


• Minorities have more than doubled their presence as a share of college students since the mid-1970s, from 15 percent to 32 percent in 2007, and are expected to continue to grow in share especially Hispanic and Asian-American students. This could present real opportunity on a couple of fronts. For first-generation college students their parents may have moved in lower economic classes and have no idea how to advise them on a variety of social and professional questions. And for many first- and even second-generation Asian-American students, especially female students, it may be less culturally acceptable to admit weakness or talk about dating or trivial issues with their parents, or they may be less likely to share their parents' traditional values.


• There are more than 2,600 four-year colleges in the U.S., according to NCES.

A running tab on what's out there

I've created a list (see the top right of the home page) of links to advice columns. These include some of my favorite nationally-syndicated ones as well as some college-based advice columns. I've only found a couple of the latter, by hunting and pecking. Hoping to find a central source so I can delve in and spend a few concentrated hours getting an idea of what's out there. I found a column by a female Muhlenberg student, and a column for Cornell University students that's less about dating/personal advice and more about answers to an array of campus-based questions. But so far, I haven't found any column written by-parents-for-college-students. And I haven't found a national columnist who targets college students nationwide. As for students offering advice to other students on their specific campus, the obvious factor working against column longevity is that they're only going to be there for about four years.... So, actually, I'm feeling more optimistic about the potential market for Ask A Mom than I did a few hours ago. But I need to get a better sense of what individual campus advice columnists are out there --- and whether they're any good.

Some research, many questions

I'm still doing due diligence but already I do have some concerns about the mom-to-college-student advice Web site. I found a few Web sites that offer advice to college students - either from other young people or from more of what looked like a health center type of organization. None of the sites I've found seem wildly successful or very appealing _ and maybe that means there's a wide-open market, or maybe it means it's a limited concept that can't really get traction. The questions overwhelmingly seem to be about sex and dating, and while that's fine I'm not sure I'm interested in exclusively dispensing that sort of advice. I mean there are more both existential and practical considerations to tackle as well as the fun and tawdry and pathetic. I'm going to do a little more research on this, and I'd really appreciate everyone's feedback. But ultimately, I'm not sure this is what I'm going to put together a business plan to do. Hope to write more on this tonight.... but I'm still at work, and already late for my kid's Valentine's dance, and it's been a ridiculously busy week.

The concept

I've always loved to give advice, but asking for it is another thing.

When I was growing up, I would rather have asked a complete stranger on the street their advice than ask my parents - on basically any subject: school, career, friendship, love, meaning of life. They were both really smart - PhD. smart - but I was sure they wouldn't "get" it or that they'd judge me, or whatever. That may not a be universal feeling; I have many friends who say their mom or their dad is their best friend. But I think the view I held back in my teens and early 20s is the more common one.

Now my stepdaughter is making plans to head off to college in the fall, and that's gotten me thinking: Who will she turn to for advice if she doesn't want to ask her dad, her mom, her stepdad or me? And will she find people who give her good advice?

That got me thinking of how many thousands of college students out there would probably love to ask a mom's advice --- but maybe not their mom's. I'd like to see whether there's a market (and maybe there is - and maybe it's already oversaturated?) for a Web site that's an advice column targeting young adults, written by moms of young adults. Maybe just me. Maybe me and a couple friends. Maybe a panel with a few moms and a few dads and the advice seekers could choose who they wanted to ask, or could ask for multiple answers and compare them. Maybe we'd bring in expert panels....

I've told my stepdaughter I'd like her help in thinking this through. I'd love your help too. And I plan to use this blog to collect string for my research. What online advice sites targeting college students or young people are out there? What's there a need for? Or is this a lame idea. I have a few projects I'm interested in pursuing and this is just one. So for now I'm in a testing-the-waters mode.