GoFetch KickOff

Happy Holiday and Happy New Year!


Welcome to the first blog entry for GoFetch. I want to thank my Master Mind group for participating and providing input in this process. I’ve thought about this entry for some time. It is important to establish a common understanding of the story behind GoFetch. So, my initial blog entries will focus on short history segments. Then, I’ll explain my ideas about the business. In every entry, I’ll list steps taken to advance GoFetch from a marketing and development perspective. Along the way, feel free to comment on anything.

Beginning History

Several years ago, I worked as an adjunct Professor at the University of Denver. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to share knowledge gained from years of IT consulting experience. The students demanded up-to-update information on all of the latest industry trends. This isn’t an easy task because Information Technology changes daily. New trends this week quickly become outdated in short periods and to stay current I read constantly. Most of my reading is online where I frequent the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNN, MIT Technology Review, Wired, The Economist, PC World, CNET, and Slashdot. There is so much information released daily I struggle to keep up but I enjoy thinking about the next BIG THING. My favorite topic is Internet applications and this is also my professional focus. I’ve built numerous Internet applications in my career since ‘97.

During class, I would use content found online in lectures. I’d also post this information to our online class blog space. As a result, students got a handle on what I was reading, where I found the content, what I thought was important, and hopefully they would also develop reading habits which further their knowledge and careers. A short time after establishing this habit, my Internet browser was stuffed with hundreds of bookmarks. Additionally, saved HTML files were distributed across folders on my PC. It was difficult and tedious to find anything. Many of the bookmarks were just for a story, it wasn’t a website I’d go to frequently but it had this one story I wanted for research. I quickly became frustrated with my browser and GoFetch the idea developed.

Initially, I wanted to build a browser which opens multiple websites quickly for daily reading. Once I started to think about it, I also wanted my browser to download HTML pages with one click. I wanted my browser to organize downloaded pages and free me from the task of picking a folder to save the file and trying to find it again when I needed it later.

My online reading habits are keen, I can look at a page and quickly determine that there are several stories I want to open. This was another function I wanted in my browser. I wanted to open interesting hyperlinks to stories in the background while I finished reading a story or a home page.

The idea for GoFetch came to me while working as a Professor, and inspires me still. In the next blog entry, I’ll write more about features and social aspects of GoFetch.

Steps Taken

I realize there is a process I must work through to develop GoFetch as a business. Most products and services on the Internet are free. Even though this sounds like an insurmountable obstacle, I firmly believe people will pay for the convenience GoFetch offers.

In every blog entry, I’ll talk about the steps taken to promote and develop the business.
• Developed 1st Version of GoFetch in .Net, started in 2002
Since June 2009
• Setup the CarveTek.com website to handle purchases, downloads, and registers
• Setup the community web page with built-in profile sharing for GoFetch
• Established business relationships with several mentors and development partners
• Attended numerous Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship meetings in Boulder and Denver
• Secured a marketing consultant relationship. Defining demographics and helping secure PR opportunities.
• Made several movies about GoFetch
• Keyword marketing via Google
• Trademarked GoFetch
• Got an 800 number
• 50 people have downloaded the software

Next Steps

This is where your comments will help. Please share all of your ideas and post them here.
• Develop more movies on social aspects of profile sharing. This is similar to Digg.com.
• Work on software development and saving content, some DOM bugs with included styles
• Keep spreading the word – offer more trial versions and establish relationships with Universities.
• Develop a plan for offering B2B GoFetch. The business opportunity for companies to use GoFetch internally exists with heightened security. Executives would find the convenience of GoFetch and the story social aspects useful. For example, SalesForce.com – could use GoFetch as their preferred browser. Or The Wall Street Journal could offer their subscribers GoFetch with their own pre-configured web assets.


Cheers! And GoFetch
Will Thayer
President CarveTek, Inc.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/wthayer70
http://www.carvetek.com