Early this month I attended the Future of Web Applications Expo in London.  It was certainly an interesting event, and anytime you can spend a day talking about the latest web applications on the internet and the night looking at the Round Church of the Templars it can't be bad.  The event did create a very interesting debate regarding startup hubs.

To call ONEsite a startup does it a bit of disservice.  Catalog.com has been in business almost 15 years, far from a startup.  ONEsite still faces many of the same pressures, challenges, and the like that any startup faces, we just happen to operate at a profit and have a profitable parent company as well, so some of that financial pressure is lessened - some at least.  ONEsite still has the need for capital that many early stage business do, it is just not a complete necessity for survival like it is for so many other companies.

However, one of the challenges ONEsite faces is its geographic location.  We are based in Oklahoma, the development team is in Oklahoma, we have the advantage of getting some of the top talent from Oklahoma - but there is certainly a lack of easy access to capital.  Which brings me back to the debate.  At the FOWA Expo, Paul Graham(Y-combinator, Etc) gave a keynote on the future of web startups.  It includes a lot of good information, but a significant part of the speech was on the necessity of startup hubs - places like Silicon Valley where there is easy access to capital - both the venture and human kind, with web experience.  This actually prompted one of the event's founders to take the stage, immediately after the speech, and give a full rebuttal.

Many new web companies, including ONEsite, are proving that success outside the valley is possible, and that there are distinct advantages to being located somewhere else - it is about the business, the idea, the talent, and the technology - not about the location.  This is the internet, and each of those plays a much greater role in success than location ever could.  And while there is some stickiness to the Silicon Valley startup - the shift is already occurring. The Wall Street Journal took notice of the changing landscape in September (Web 2.0 Deals Spread Beyond San Francisco).  A Web 2.0 startup has a lot of challenges to face before it can become successfully, but location is not, and should not, be a blocker to that success.

Online Communities are organic - they are constantly changing and evolving as they grow. For our technology, this means a constant pressure to adapt and enhance. Our development efforts are focused on building a better platform each and every day. Technology aside, it means that along with the changing dynamic of the communities, the practices, presentation, and involvement of our partners and clients has to constantly change as well. Because of this constant evolution, that only increases in pressure as the communities increase in size, there is an incredible need to create and maintain an active, collaborative relationship with our clients. The SAAS model lets us keep the technology constantly updated, but those relationships take real effort on both part to make these communities successful.

Obviously, coming to Oklahoma is not a simple trip across the street from one office building to the next. It doesn't quite require a passport, but it is certainly a different experience for most of our major clients. Every one of our major clients we have encouraged to come and visit our offices, meet the team face to face, get to know us, our technology, and our platform here where the work gets done. And it is remarkably successful. If you come see us, you'll want to partner with us. We see it as almost a necessity for building the collaborative foundation that is necessary for the successful launch of a new community.

We had a client team in this past week to go over the detailed goals - from the highest level down to the tactical features and functions - of an upcoming community. They brought some incredible ideas to the table, and it is a truly innovative concept they are looking to create - something that is surprisingly rare given the space. At lunch we took them to the lake (Oklahoma fact #287: We have the second most shoreline of any state - thanks to a slew of man-made lakes) and treated them to some oyster nachos and alligator. It was at lunch that we first told them about "The Great State Fair of Oklahoma."

And we encouraged them to go, half-jokingly. I don't know if the stories we told were enough to entice them to go out and sample the particular magic of Oklahoma's State Fair. Most of that magic comes from the incredibly culinary invention of frying. Everything that could conceivably be dropped in a vat of boiling oil and fried is served up at the fair. Fried snickers - of course. Fried coke - believe it or not, possible and delicious. Fried cattle testicle - well that is a delicacy and more for a restaurant like Cattlemen's than the fair. But that high per capita heart disease rate doesn't come out of thin air, far from it. Still, it is worth a yearly trek out to the fairgrounds to sample the giant turkey legs, funnel cake, and particular type of people that the fair attracts. Perhaps not for the out of towners, but it is a wild ride and a place where you can find anything and everything fried.

Before I get to my post, I wanted to explain a little about Oklahoma 2.0. When people think about Oklahoma, rarely, and by rarely I mean never, does internet or technology enter into their thoughts. What we have done with ONEsite is built an incredible technology company in what seems to most people to be the middle of nowhere. Oklahoma 2.0 is just a reflection on the trials, tribulations, and good times we have being a high tech company, certainly one of the only web companies, in the Great State of Oklahoma.

Yesterday I was discussing a contract with a potential client. It was a great, very productive call – they will be great to work with. Just like most companies, we always try and keep any legal issues close to home, so we naturally had a clause about the contract being governed by the laws of Oklahoma.

The potential client laughed a little and pointed out that it would probably be better to put it under California or New York law, where we might even find better protection because there was a body of law built up around the web business. Oklahoma law might provide an incredible depth of protection and understanding of which rancher owned which cows, but probably not a lot about the web.

And yes of course he is right. We have a lot of common sense laws (and some that seem to completely defy common sense) and certainly can deal with any cattle or land dispute with the best of them, but technology, maybe a little more gray. Still, there’s a straightforward way of thinking to the laws here, just like there is to life, and if they don’t have a law to cover it they can certainly figure out what a good honest person would think, and settle the dispute the old fashioned way (and I don’t mean a shootout) but without a lot of complicated legal twists and turns. So while we don’t have book after book of laws governing the web, there are certainly worse places to worry about legal issues than an Oklahoma court house.

 -Thad