First, a hearty congrats to our friends at Brand Thunder for their announcement today regarding initial funding from TechColumbus. Along with the announcement, their Founder dropped Three Unexpected Lessons Learned on us, and one immediately stands out:

The Story in 10 Minutes or Less – It’s got to be a refined story, and that happens over a lot of lunches and phone calls. It starts with close friends and family, evolves to the professional network and gets polished with the investors. Ten minutes is the most time we had in a formal presentation. It forced us to be clear and concise – and ultimately, it worked.

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell your widget, land a date for Saturday night, get hired for that great new job, or pitch a startup for funding, the Elevator Pitch is essential to success. Summarizing what you are passionate about is no easy task, so work on perfecting it over time, just as Brand Thunder did. Most importantly, find a hook that piques enough interest so you’ll have a captive listener for the next 10 minutes, 30 seconds, or at least until the elevator door opens.

Welcome to Fred’s Autohaus, serving Las Vegas Corvette enthusiasts for over 25 years. Belgium born, father-son team of Fred Jr., 35, and Fred Sr., 62, migrated their Mercedes Benz focused shop to Las Vegas in 1981. Being self proclaimed Chevy nuts and having owned “more Corvettes than we can count”, expanding beyond Mercedes was only natural.

Before

Driver side interior

Passenger side interior

Dash panel being rewired

Corvette Engine MIA

The old engine

Old meets new

Existing brakes

As the sho’fr community knows, and Fred Jr. likes to point out, the passion Corvette owners have for their vehicles is unequaled, and borders on obsessive. Fred quickly rattles off some recent projects, a restored ‘64 convertible, a 1972 being featured in a local model home, or the 1964 that “turned out so beautifully”, the owner is scared to drive it. So while the Autohaus may continue to be a Mercedes Benz shop, their passion truly lies with the all-american sports car. And when asked about working on these iconic cars, Fred Jr. replies “it’s fun, entertaining, and customers appreciate what we are doing for them”.

It’s the shop floor of the Autohaus where the action happens. With room to park about 20 cars, Fred’s operates with six above ground bays, and the shop floor is where you’ll find Jr or Sr virtually every day. An authorized AC Delco, Motorcraft, and Bosch service center, Fred insists on using the right parts for the right job. This means all Corvette oil changes in the Autohaus are done with real Mobile 1 and an authentic AC Delco oil filter. Maintaining honest, proper maintenance and warranty records is gospel in the Autohaus, and Fred is quick to advise customers on the importance of authentic restorations.

After

Driver side, ready to go

Seats, Dash, Carpet

A New ZZ4 GM Crate Motor

New engine finds a home

Shiny Brakes

The final product!

So today Fred may be elbow deep (or further) in the latest restoration project, getting it ready for the street and showroom, but the Autohaus offers services for all Corvette owners. From oil changes and window tinting to complete exhaust systems, cold air intakes, and header and cam packages, Fred’s Autohaus can advise you on the right combination of parts and service to keep your Corvette singing.

Just one of the plethora of project cars that temporarily made it’s home at Fred’s Autohaus this past year was a 1965 C2, owned by Jim Mason. Originally purchased in 2007, via Corvette Trader out of San Diego, the Vette was a “real looker, but extremely tired mechanically” and it needed some very serious attention.

Staying true to the sho’fr philosophy of choosing a service provider, Jim wasn’t prepared to entrust his Corvette with just anyone. He spent quite a bit of time researching shops, including visiting multiple locations. But it was a visit with Fred Sr. where he was impressed by their obvious attention to detail, that eventually this ‘65 landed in one of the Autohaus’s six bays.

At the Autohaus it stayed for several months as Phase I (engine, drivetrain, suspension, etc) was completed. The highlight of the rebuild is a brand new GM Performance Parts ZZ4 350 cid crate motor. Phase II (brake boost, wiring, vintage air) moved a bit quicker at just a few weeks. The rest of the rebuild included: all new pulley system, rebuilt transmission, new shocks and springs, upper and lower front a-arms, new rear leaf springs, all new bushings, new wiring harness, new steering box, and power brake boost.

It’s true Chevrolet offered a Milano Maroon in 1965, but this paint job is not original. Coding suggests the car was built white, but the car now sports a color similar to the Anniversary Red that was offered on the 2003 Corvette.

With a final price tag approaching $60k, this lady comes out of the garage about once a week, “to stretch her legs”, where she’ll light the streets on fire, and make the mobs go the wild. While this real weekend cruiser puts most onlookers and innocent bystander into a trance, there is a fair share of comments and praise when Jim and his Corvette hit the pavement. On the road, at the pump, in the parking lots, “I have never in my life had so many people show such passion for a car”. For those wondering what could be next up for this monster resto-mod, asking Jim about moonlighting her as a show car receives a sly response, “we’ll see”.

So if you have a restoration project on the horizon, consider Fred’s Autohaus in Las Vegas. Just beware of “the big W”, warns Fred Jr. “If they can get the wife to agree with every and anything and the wallet can handle it, I can make your dreams come true.”

As defined en route from Chicago to Minneapolis:

Cliff Burton Syndrome |klif•ˈbərtn•ˈsindrōm|
noun

1. The inability to sleep on a bus traveling at or above 65 mph in snowy or icy conditions.

We’ve all seen the first few chapters of this book which include product names (iPod - XBox), feature names (widgets - gadgets), even marketing code words for OS components (Aqua - Aero), and as Joel recently pointed out, the Zune has the engraving on the back “Hello from Seattle”, clearly jealous of Apple’s more eloquent and emotional “Designed by Apple in California”. I agree with Joel’s conclusion in that Microsoft has no comprehension of the subtleties that go into creating emotional messaging that consumers subconsciously (or even consciously) bond with.

The other day I finally broke down and purchased my second Microsoft product—ever, an Xbox 360. Knowing why I bought my first Microsoft product explains why I finally chose an Xbox. To this very day at the helm of my Mac Pro sits a first gen IntelliMouse Explorer. Why in the world would I choose to keep this relic instead of retiring it after nearly 6 years of committed service? Simply because it’s the best. It continues to have the best ergonomics for my particular hand, 5 buttons—enough to manhandle any serious app, tracks no less accurate than than those with fancy lasers sampling 10x as fast, and it has a total cost of ownership of somewhere in the 0.0000003 cents per day range. So why change it? I’ve tried just about every mouse model you can think of and even use a Logitech MX-500 at work, but the IntelliMouse is just too perfect to replace (although the word “Microsoft” is mysteriously missing from mine). Similarly, after years of absolutely maddening online game play with the PlaySation 2, I wanted to pick a next gen console that actually worked for my primary gaming habits. Via several friends I had a chance to use XBox LIVE on occasion and was continually impressed with the thoroughness of their online platform. Having lost faith due to Sony’s constant delays in both the console, online system and my primary game development, I’d had enough. So finally after (just!) 3 years of production, the latest batch of XBox 360 consoles have revised CPUs and heat sinks hoping to avoid the long list of hardware failures that plagued early models. I figured this was my big chance to game in the glory that is full 1080p.

I’m happy to report that so far I’ve had very little trouble, save for the occasional green flash of my entire TV screen, which is thought to be an HDMI sync problem, possibly related to my Samsung LCD. But the real story here was when I opened the box. After having unboxed Apple products on a daily basis in a previous job, like many consumers nowadays, my experience of un-boxing expensive electronics does not go without study. Greeting me when I opened the lid of the 360’s box was a plastic bag with printed white text showing up vividly over the black Elite’s shell. Then I stumbled upon the english row and noticed something familiar. “Welcome” it read. “Bienvenue” it continued in another row and so on in 7 other languages. But where had I seen this EXACT idea before?

Oh yeah! The recent startup screen animation of every new mac running Mac OS 10.5. But the XBox was out long before Leopard, Apple probably copied Microsoft this time.

Or maybe not, Mac OS 10.4 was also shipped in 2005, same year as the XBox. Eh, it’s too close to call.

But wait, Mac OS 10.3 shipped in 2003. Hmmm.

And Mac OS 10.0 hit the streets way back in ‘01.

Okay now we’re just beating an embarrised horse to death. I had completely forgotten that Mac OS 9 also included the multi-lingual “Welcome” start up video in 1999.

So a mere 6 years before the xBox 360’s plagiarized packaging joined us, Apple clearly owned the concept.

So I ask the question, what is originality worth? Does the average buyer feel as jaded as I do when I see this sort of thing? If they ripped off something as simple as the packaging, what else have they stolen and how will it effect my user experience? We agonized over the selection of a name for sho’fr for months, believing that it was critical to select something meaningful with a good visual presence, while trying to be original. The same goes for sho’fr’s functionality and attempt at having an easy to understand, original interface that leads you naturally towards the information you’re looking for.

Could the 360’s culmination of weak messaging and lack of attention to detail have contributed to Microsoft’s estimated $4 billion dollar loss after only 3 years of production? Does originality equal better consumer value?

Something to ponder while I go throw down a few rounds in Halo 3.

A good friend’s startup firm, BrandThunder, received a fantastic write up in this week’s Columbus Business First newspaper. BrandThunder has a new, unique take on the concept of owning your brand while reinforcing your image thru custom built, branded browsers. Rather than stay in front of your users for the 3-5 minutes they are surfing your site, a BrandThunder browser theme keeps your brand in front of them the entire time they are online. Truly the next logical step in our “have it your way” world.

Sadly you have to be a subscriber to read the entire article, but you can find it on newsstands in Columbus today. In the meantime, you can see his handy work by downloading The OFFICIAL Washington Capitals NHL Theme or The OFFICIAL Ohio State Buckeye Football Theme for Coach Tressel.

Look for more on the sho’fr opinion of BrandThunder’s philosophy in the coming days.