One of the fun things about living in a cozy-sized town is that occasionally I get asked to speak to local groups about the internet and related matters. For the second time, I was asked to speak to Leadership Savannah during a panel on information and technology. The panel also included Murray Wilson of tps, Jim Goodlett of Morris Technology, and Dan Suwyn of Rapid Change.

Last year I spoke on Web 2.0ish kinds of stuff, so this year I decided to change up the style and content. The talk presented the strategies used by small internet companies that are successful and competitive despite their size and lack of huge sums of funding.

My focus on small, home-grown tactical companies was a nice contrast to a presentation by Jason Burr from ATDC who adeptly represented the more traditional approach of marrying giant sacks of VC with ideas from research institutes. Hopefully the class gained some insight from both approaches in the context of the future of our fair city.

Speaking of VC, Jim mentioned a notable Machinist, thefunded.com, as a useful resource for those looking to explore funding options. TheFunded is built and maintained by the singular and mysterious Founding Member and hosted on a Rails Machine. This is a fine example of the power of small teams.