11/15/11

11/15/11

Good morning, All,

Long one this week, but next week’s a holiday, and we’ll keep that one short and pithy. First, our rooftop event is tonight and we’ve got some new investors for you to meet so register now and don’t miss out: http://terraceparty5-auto.eventbrite.com/. NOTE: the address is 121 West 45th Street, 3rd Floor. Our next EW+SOS+ER breakfast will be December 6th, centrally located at Wichcraft at 555 Fifth Avenue, RSVP here: http://roottbreakfast2.eventbrite.com/

We ran into an old friend not too long ago – a former VC who decided to return to his entrepreneurial roots. We noted that funding shouldn’t be a problem for him, given his success record and the fact that he knows a number of prominent VCs personally. “That’s the last money I’d take,” he noted. “Too expensive.” Entrepreneurs are a scrappy lot and there’s always another way, and lo and behold, look what we found, from BI: The Way Companies Are Getting Financed Is Completely Changing (http://read.bi/u7bIve). The article goes into the alternate means to funding – crowdfunding, accelerators, superangels, et al, and good timing, but wait, there’s more! It mentions a few from each category, but for more complete information worldwide, knock yourselves out:

Crowdfunding:
13 Crowdfunding Websites to Fund Your Business http://bit.ly/lSyaXU
For more intel – Infographic: The Crowdfunding Landscape (including pros/cons of different crowdfunding sites): http://rww.to/sP2pjG

Incubators and Accelerators:
List of Tech Incubators and Accelerators Worldwide: http://bit.ly/rUvM5U
Help for Startups! – A semi-complete list of (wordwide) startup accelerator programs http://bit.ly/aSjtsh
Top 15 US Incubators and Accelerators Ranked. Note, this article is from 5/11. Many more have launched in the interim, but it’s a list, nonetheless: http://bit.ly/tiobAf
Mark Birch’s Complete List of NYC Tech Incubators, Accelerators and Workspaces. “As I always explain to start-up founders, such programs are not necessary,” Birch writes.  “If you get in and use the program to its fullest advantage however, they can clearly provide a leg up. The mentors, connections and resources are invaluable especially when tough times arise.” http://bit.ly/nCQV8b
Google is launching its second incubator, this time in Israel. The incubator will be in Tel Aviv in August and initially host about 20 pre-seed stage start-ups that are developing open code technologies. http://bit.ly/vDL49D

Early Stage Investors, Angels and Superangels:
David Lerner’s Map of Silicon Alley’s Early-Stage Tech Investor Ecosystem (updated) http://bit.ly/czshFG
What are all the early-stage startup funds world-wide? For Quora’s answer: http://b.qr.ae/rSCyIr
To find an angel anywhere in the world: http://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.net/
Complete list of angel investorshttp://angel.co/

We’ll post more as we find them, but for now, onward and forward.

Deadlines:

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 winter session: Deadine November 20th. 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/

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/

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/

4 Reasons Why You Should Apply To Women 2.0 PITCH, deadline November 30th. Forbes did a piece on it. Link to apply is there as well: http://onforb.es/tnj94Y

NEW LaunchpadLA, deadline: December 5th. To apply: http://bit.ly/lf8k3J. The good news: Launchpad LA Receives VC Funding: $50,000 Per Startup: http://tcrn.ch/tAoyCQ

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

Speaking of serial entrepreneurs having an easier time of raising money, remember Color? Raised $60 million in VC money pre-launch – for a complete flop. “Bill Nguyen launches startups with haste, never researches the competition, and makes the same mistakes again and again. So why do people keep giving him so much money?” wrote Fast Company, who explains how/why this happened in Bill Nguyen: The Boy In The Bubble: http://bit.ly/nvKZis

This past week, Zynga ‘leaned’ on some of its early employees to surrender portions of their equity (http://on.wsj.com/vxOj7L). The press was up in arms, but there are two sides to every story. Well, three, actually. His side, her side, and the truth: http://bit.ly/vMoC1O

How To Fund A Startup. An oldie by goodie, from Paul Graham. http://bit.ly/6E6efW

How To Raise Money with No Lead. Also from Paul Graham, who spells it all out for you. AKA, the party round: http://venturehacks.com/articles/no-lead

Long Roadmaps: here’s a lesson in having vision for you, and what separates the winners, courtesy of Fred Wilson – and Dennis Crowley: http://bit.ly/vq10Tz

Ever Wonder What It’s Like Inside a VC Pitch Meeting? You Can Be a Fly on the Wall Here, courtesy of Mark Suster, and you might get there eventually, so best to be prepared: http://bit.ly/ttqQtW

November 16th – National Censorship Day. On 11/16, Congress holds hearings on the first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does the Internet and free speech will never be the same: http://www.americancensorship.org/

An SOS member asked us to post this: Bloomberg’s Fraud: Signing a Dead Man’s Name. Freeland Borough, PA’s Mayor Tim Martin died of cancer on September 2, 2010? Yet, one of the New York City mayor’s coalitions still claims him as a member on their website – and signs his name to petitions to this day: http://bit.ly/vL1JbJ

Your requests for cookies. As many of you know, we’ve been bringing our special cookies to events for the last few months. They’re not just any cookies: they’re gluten-free, dairy free, egg-free, naturally sweetened, contain no artificial ingredients – and they’re unbelievably good! My Type 2 diabetic other half can safely eat them, too, btw. So, we’ve actually gotten orders for them from some of you, for Thanksgiving, and happy to share, so here’s the deal: they come in three varieties: chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip (which taste like brownies) and peanut butter and yes, we can make them nut-free, if you’re also nut-intolerant – except for the peanut butter, of course. If you want to order some, email hello@startuponestop.com.  It would help if you’re NYC based. They’re $9.95 a pound, and you can pick them up, or pay S/H. Let me know by this Saturday.

If you’ve ever wondered where you really stand in the scheme of things you are here: Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS. The lightning storms and Aurora Borealis alone are worth a look: http://bit.ly/vq10Tz That’s it from us for now. Looking forward to seeing you on this evening and now, help is on the way…

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