11/1/11

11/1/11

Good morning, All,

Mark your calendars: November 15th, the early bird rate is available, so make sure to register now: http://terraceparty5-auto.eventbrite.com/ We’ll have a new crew of investors on hand, and we’ve moved the venue to Hubitat, a new space that’s opening for entrepreneurs on 26th Street, and it features excellent amenities, associated corporate services – and it’s backed by a team of mentors, including serial entrepreneurs and angel investors to help members where and when they need it. It seems to us a cross between an accelerator and an incubator/shared office space, with mentors in residence. The best of all worlds, and Neil Anderson, who has organized the space and who is himself an angel investor, will be on hand to tell you all about it – and to talk to early stage startups, so be there, and our thanks to Neil and Hubitat for hosting.

We’re also starting our EW+SOS+ER breakfast series – Rock Out For Breakfast this Thursday, and here’s the drill: $25 includes breakfast at Wichcraft, and your chance to have intime conversations with fellow entrepreneurs, possible mentors, and angel and VC investors.  ONLY 30 TIX available for each breakfast, which starts at 8.30 am; personal introductions around the table at 9; and networking until 10. A great way to start the day and it kicks off this Thursday, November 3rd. You don’t really have to rock. Just be there, and we’ll be kicking off a lunch series, too, for those of you who like to sleep in. To register: http://breakfastevent1.eventbrite.com/

Having a mentor who can help you with your startup is important. Accelerators have them, and how many articles have we cited here about that. So, this could help: it’s a teleclass for startup entrepreneurs, and  this one is being conducted by one of our partners and a trusted source.  And the topic is so timely for small business owners:  funding.
Stefan Doering has owned 7 companies over the past 30 years and raised millions and has helped many others do the same.
On Thursday, November 3rd, at 12noon PST, 3PM EST, he’s holding a free teleseminar Smart Funding– Entrepreneurs Don’t Need Wall Street!
On this call you will learn:
●      Why Wall Street and banks are not equipped to fund small businesses
●      What are the five crucial components that do into a smart capital raise
●      How entrepreneurs can take matters into their own hands for getting funded
●      What are the key stumbling blocks to raising capital and how to avoid them
●      What goes into an action plan for raising smart capital
●      Tips to keep focused and held accountable to raising capital while running your business
Looking forward to being on the call with you. To register: http://bit.ly/t0INKT

Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins reported on internet trends for 2011 at the Web 2.0 Summit a few weeks back.  It’s worth a look at her presentation – and interesting to see where the US is falling in the internet pecking order these days: http://www.kpcb.com/internettrends2011 What we also found even more interesting is that the fastest-growing competitors to the US in technology are countries to which many a US corporation – startup, too  – outsources development. It’s cheaper – or so they say. Note: there’s a huge market in secondary IP and you may well be outsourcing to countries where they do not recognize US IP laws. Oh, wait! Those countries don’t recognize IP laws. At all. We’re not saying that all outsourcing is evil or that there are not serious entrepreneurs in those countries who have indeed built outstanding products. Of course there are. We’re just suggesting that, when in doubt, you might want to protect your braintrust. Lean startup concept aside, it still takes money to start a company, and key players, especially good programmers, can be a major cost factor. Which is why – might we suggest insourcing? Just last week we reported on the rise of the South as a tech center. Cost of living is considerably lower than it is in other parts of the country. Maybe not as cheap as China, but the time difference is also a lot easier to deal with and you may actually be able to sleep at night. And for more reasons than just the time difference. Just a thought. Maybe even a caviat.

OK, we can’t resist: Groupon – that classic study in what not to do – is going pubic this week, If you want to know why we spotlight the company so often and so vocally – listen and learn: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/79161022/ Onward and forward.

Deadlines:

Anna Curran is the New York Co-Founder of The Startup Foundation (a Kauffman Foundation project). It takes a lot for a startup to get noticed in this town. Lack of visibility is one of the many a major challenges facing an entrepreneur who is on the path to growing and scaling their businesses. To answer the call, the Startup Foundation  NYC will be hosting press events where journalists will have the opportunity connect with several startups curated by theme. The goal is to reveal early stage startups to journalists and help them gain traction. If you’d like a shot at some great press for your startup, here’s a start: http://bit.ly/qsyWz4 Winners will be notified November 2nd.

NEW AppCircus the open global app showcase platform. – coming to London, deadline November 2nd. For more information and to enter: http://appcircus.com/

NEW SXSW Accelerator, deadline November 18th. Do you have a tech startup that began after SXSW last year? Will your product or service be ready to show off at SXSW this year? Does your product or service totally rock? The fourth annual SXSW Accelerator will take place March 12-14 at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Show off your innovative web, social media, mobile, web entertainment, health or news technology startup in front of an audience and top judges. (One of last year’s winners was Storify, to give you a point of reference.) Think your company can compete with the best of the best? There’s a $175 fee to apply but if you don’t get in, you still get a great rate on a badge for SXSW. Head over to http://sxsw.com/interactive/startupvillage/accelerator/enter.

ER Accelerator is now accepting applications for its winter session: Deadine November 19th. You don’t have to be NYC based, but you will have to move here during the program – and it is worth your while: each company gets $25,000 in seed funding and three months of:
Free collaborative office space in the heart of New York City
Best-of-class one-on-one mentoring from 140+ of industry’s best experts (both during and after the three month session)
Access to experienced technologists, UI gurus and other product experts
Free legal and other services
Hands-on help from inSITE business interns and engineering interns
Exposure to dozens of leading seed investors and VCs during the Accelerator
At the end of the session, startups will pitch to hundreds of angel investors and venture capitalists and continue to utilize the ER Accelerator network indefinitely! So get those applications in.  http://eranyc.com/apply/

Startup Colorado to launch in November. Silicon Flatirons, a program of the University of Colorado Law School, announced Thursday the creation of Startup Colorado, a program that will attempt to expand the breadth and depth of entrepreneurial networks throughout the state. Program kicks off November 9th. For more information: http://bit.ly/qTjkc4

6th Annual New England Venture Summit  – Call for Top Innovators and an SOS discount! The early deadline for presenting company applications is October 26thIf you are a Startup seeking capital and/or partnerships, submit your plan for the opportunity to present at the premier venue connecting emerging growth companies with active Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, Corporate VCs and Investment Firms. A select group of 50 Top Innovators from the technology, life sciences and Clean-tech sectors will be chosen to present their breakthrough investment opportunities to an exclusive audience of investors.. E-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for more details and an application. To nominate a company please forward: company name, main contact at firm, contact details and why you think they should present to nominations@youngstartup.com. The event happens December 14th; 50% off if you register by November 9th: http://bit.ly/nCkYN6For a further discount, the code is: sos.

Finishweekend, Holland, MI November 12-13. Starting isn’t difficult, but finishing certainly is and we LOVE this concept. Members in Michigan, lucky you. Organizers elsewhere, take note: http://finishweekend.com/

Women 2.0 Startup Weekend in SF, November 18th– 20th. We provide the co-working space and brain fuel, and you bring the energy and innovation to build something big over the weekend. Both men and women are invited to get your ticket for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend now! To register: http://w2.startupweekend.org/tickets/

Blueprint Health, Deadline November 13th. Blueprint Health is a startup accelerator based in New York City that helps entrepreneurs improve the health and wellness industry. We offer an intensive three-month program and provide $20,000 of seed capital, extensive mentorship and a shared work environment to help entrepreneurs go from idea to prototype and provide access to angel and venture capital investors. To apply: http://bit.ly/qzwW7K

Samsung’s $100k Challenge to Developers, deadline November 29th. Samsung is offering $225,000 in cash and prizes for the most innovative converged apps that enable an interactive home entertainment experience between Samsung TVs and other devices. The 2011 Samsung Free the TV Challenge invites software developers to create compelling converged apps that offer seamless user interaction between a Samsung Smart TV and at least one other screen, such as a phone, tablet or computer. Last year, we released the first-ever Samsung TV App SDK and launched the 2010 Free the TV Challenge to develop native apps on our line of Smart TVs and Blu-ray devices. This year we take another leap forward to free the TV with “converged apps” — multi-screen apps that offer immersive, interactive home entertainment experiences. For more information and to apply: http://www.freethetvchallenge.com/

The 5th Annual PITCH: Women 2.0 Startup Competition, deadline November 30th. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/pVlwCg The competition is open to early-stage ventures around the world, from high growth business ventures in web to mobile, from cleantech to gaming. Applying companies must have a female in the founding team, be in beta stage, and have received less than 3 million in funding.

NYC Big App Awards – New York City is challenging software developers to create apps that use city data to make NYC better. $50k in cash and prizes! You have from now until January 25th to enter. For more information and to apply: http://2011.nycbigapps.com/

The Appy Awards – enter once and you could win twice. Deadline March 21, 2012 but any entry you submit today may also be selected as our “Featured App of the Week“, scoring you some seriously instant gratification. And we doesn’t love that? For more information and to enter – any time – http://appyawards.net/

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For you edification this week

Since we’re on the subject of angels: How 7 Top Angels Do Business. Author Bill Clark is the CEO of Microventures, a startup fundraising platform that uses crowdfunding to allow investors to invest between $1,000 to $10,000 in startups. He also manages the venture capital firm MicroAngel Capital Partners. You can follow him on Twitter @austinbillc. Here, he summarize the strategies of some of the most successful angel investors. http://on.mash.to/vBTI62

Dave McClure’s 10 tips for the perfect investment pitch. “If you’re constructing a way to present your story, you should be aware that most investors have small attention spans”, says McClure. “They may be late to the meeting, they may be reading other stuff on their iPhone. So you want to organize your information in a way that allows them to process it more efficiently.” As a general rule of thumb, the more time you spend speaking, the less time they spend listening. And yes, it is about money, sex and power. The more things change… http://tnw.co/swHuHc

What can an entrepreneur say in an investor meeting that instantly marks them as an amateur? Venture capitalists and angels all have an internal switch that can flip in a meeting with an entrepreneur. Something gets said that marks the entrepreneur as simply too green to invest in. It can be anything. Here’s what some investors who were queried said: http://bo.st/u6sxa7

The Most Effective Habit For Entrepreneurs.  James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing, but this advice comes from Steven Covey’s book. Still, all good, and the best advice: be proactive: http://tcrn.ch/u5s6Kf

PETER SCHIFF: In Defense Of The 1%. We’ve heard a lot from the other side, and since the theme today is investors: http://read.bi/rz1NIv

Mentors: an essential engine for growth, lest we forget. How should one best engage a mentor and secure their support? Roger Ehrenberg spells it out: http://bit.ly/pfiUjy

As we said, the first Internet message sent 40 years ago today. Ok, so it crashed the computer. But, gotta start somewhere: http://usat.ly/vkwRVT

Just for fun this week: 7 billion people and you: What’s your number? The world’s population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? http://bbc.in/uvNabZ That’s it from us this week and hope to see you at the breakfast on Thursday, and don’t forget to turn your clocks back this weekend!. Unti then, as always, help is on the way…

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