First conference call

3D Radio had its first official conference call with a potential client today. One of the big names we've been trying to get to notice us for months.

After a series of introductory emails our potential business partner asked to set a date to talk. Then they wanted to know what number to call to reach us.

Like many startups we all have day jobs and we all work virtually. Mike and I both work at home, but our offices are on different floors of the house, and it's pretty amazing how little we interact during the day. Neither of us ever enjoyed office comradery anyway. Our colleague Jim works at his home office in Denver.

And like most startups we don't have cash to spare on fancy telecom setups. So I told our contact I'd figure out a conference bridge and let him know the details. It wasn't hard to find FreeConferenceCall.com and sign up. Before the big day four of us gave it a try, and, despite an obviously low on the VoIP QoS totem pole connection, it worked.

So I forwarded our bridge number to Big Name Company and crossed my fingers.

All in all it went pretty well. The biggest problem was Jim didn't call in on time because the time zone difference confused him. (I don't know why since we're in the same time zone ...)

We went through our deck with our contact, and I discovered right away I really gotta put page numbers on it. A good learning experience.

Of course, because we're the founders Mike and I were enthusiastic as hell. And because they are the potential spenders, the folks on the other end of the freebie conference bridge were subdued (but maybe they just sounded that way because of the less-than-clear connection).

"Well, would you use it?" I asked. "Oh, I'm kind of lukewarm," was the ho-hum response. "Besides, I'm just the go-between. I was told to find out more about 3D Radio."

We hope the guy or gal further up the chain of command is a few degrees hotter than the scouting party.