AustinontheRocks.com is live!  This brand new website is all about serving up search results for local happy hour and food/drink specials based on user submitted criteria.

Say you want to find a bar in North Austin that has a nice patio, beer and wine specials this Thursday night, a big TV to watch the big game, is “date worthy’, and allows a dog.  Austin on the Rocks will deliver the skinny.  (It won’t buy you a pitcher, root for your team, find you a date, or walk your dog.)  This unique site actually caters to Austin bar-goers and Austin bar/restaurant-proprietors alike, because it matches up the perfect customer with the perfect local food and drink establishment.  Bars can control and update their own entries on the site, too.  Design cues are simple, clean, and easy to navigate, so the user experience is smooth.

From concept to creation, ENTERMEDIA made it happen for this start up custom application-based web business built in Cake, including:

• brand and online strategy consulting
• creating the cool logo
• designing all interface and admin layers
• sussing out important content strategy and user-experience decisions
• setting up a database design that will allow Austin on the Rocks to scale gracefully

Our fantastic client Cathi Rustmann and her daughter Taylore Cunningham are the one-two punch signing up the hippest bars all over Austin to be a part of this.  Cathi and Taylore have big plans in store for Austin on the Rocks and really perform a great FREE service to local folks who want to find the best food and drink specials in town. Be sure to follow AusontheRocks on Twitter and become their facebook fan:  you’ll hear about unadvertised food/drink specials and “get ‘em while they last” promotions you won’t want to miss.  Cheers!

If you’ve ever started a business–and especially if you’ve ever used a laptop computer while starting this business–chances are you’ll appreciate Kirk Ladendorf’s interview with longtime Austin entrepreneur Gary Pankonien. He led the team that developed Compaq Computer Corp.’s industry-first notebook computer many years ago.  He’s kept it moving since.

You have a range of experience in technology ranging from Compaq Computer to several small startups in Austin. How does that help you as CEO of this young company?

After you’ve ridden a few rides – and fallen in enough holes – you learn what to expect.

Many of the issues are second nature. You still have to develop the plan and solve the hard issues, but you learn how to anticipate the next moves. You learn very early that cash flow is almost more important than your mother.

What are the right traits for a technology entrepreneur? Is it technical knowledge, market savvy, organizational discipline or something else?

I think a major trait of being an entrepreneur is being able to wake up in the morning looking forward to the challenges of the day and not knowing if your business is going to live or die.

The unknown is always changing, and how you handle the change usually predicts success.

You have to process a lot of data, usually not a with a complete data set, and make decisions that will significantly impact your future.

What’s fun about running a startup?

The first time you open the mail and see the check from your first sale, it’s a good day.

I once was standing in a checkout line behind two ladies talking about this great company her husband was interviewing with and the future they were looking forward to. She eventually said who it was, and I realized that it was the company our team had built. Yes, we did hire her husband.

Think you have an idea that’s the next Digg, Amazon, or Twitter, but don’t know how to get there from here?  Before you do anything else, call us. Then take solace and inspiration from a look back at those mega-sites in their formative days, courtesy of Ross Hill, who reminds us big websites start small.  Is there any other way?  Well, supposing you had millions upon millions in seed money lying around…you could start big and get even bigger.  In which case you should also contact ENTERMEDIA right now this very minute.

Digg cost $200 to build and launch, really?  Twitter was almost named FriendStalker?  Okay, not really.  Here’s the real story of Twitter’s very first steps.