That OTHER time of year.

Good morning, All, and we mean the convergence of Passover, Easter and Spring Break, sooo – we may only be sending out a blast or two this week and next. But – if you have posts to send, we’re certainly happy to accommodate and keep with the twice-weekly program, not to worry!

Still, don’t forget that applications are due April 1 for the Open Angel Forum here in NYC. This event is for companies that have a working and demonstrable product to present. Submission form is here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHZ2WUVsQXROV3d2MWxmd1hqTU45bnc6MA
April 1 is also the Bootstrapper Summit, for those of you who are attending, or plan to and haven’t signed on yet: http://bootstrappersummit.com/

And welcome, Brooklyn! I went to Digital Dumbo last week and was blown away! A lot of tech going on in our East Coast version of SoMa (South of Manhattan, not Market, for those of us playing the home version and have even ventured to SF once or twice or ad nauseam. Once a copywriter, always a copywriter: you were warned). So, we do have a number of new Brooklyn members and hope to see you all at the next Digital Dumbo. We’re there!

Finally, there’s a good chance I’ll be in Boston next Thursday, so Boston members, ping me and maybe we can perchance meet!

Until then, help is on the way…

Good morning, All, and sorry for the late notice about Twestival. More information in Damien’s post below.

Ok, a word from our sponsor – me. What happened that the New York tech scene is suddenly on everyone’s radar? Seriously. We will pose this question to the StartupOneStop linkedin group, but just wondered if anyone on the list has any insights – and yes, we are happy about this turn of events. We attend a lot of tech-related events in any given week but in the last couple of weeks – there are reporters showing up from major news organizations. Ok, enough and back to our regularly scheduled program.

Another congratulations and this time to Gliider, which helps you plan funner trips (sic), and who just released their iPhone app, which was written up in The New York Times on Tuesday (http://nyti.ms/bhkEEq). Jordan was one of our early SOS list members.

One of our members emailed us about SCORE (http://www.score.org/index.html), a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small business start, grow and succeed nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Their services are free, so while we have no experience or affiliation with them, we felt they might be worth mentioning, and anything to help.

Speaking of which, as we mentioned Tuesday, Startup 2010 is May 20 and we have a 20% off discount code. Startup 2010 a business plan competition and one-day event about entrepreneurship and digital business that will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $100,000 prize. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider and New York University’s Stern School of Business, with support from exclusive founding sponsor General Catalyst Partners. TICKETS on sale now and SOS members can register at http://startup-2010.eventbrite.com/?discount=StartupOneStop for the 20% off discount. Remember: Ten aspiring entrepreneurs will pitch their business plans in the hope of winning a $100,000 prize. The prize includes a $25,000 cash investment from General Catalyst Partners and $75,000 in goods and services ranging from:
Up to 6 months of office space in NYC at TechSpace
Legal services from Cooley, Godward, Kronish
Opportunity to launch at DEMO
Web hosting
And much more
Submit your business plans now!

For more information, go to: http://bit.ly/af9KqZ

And now, help is on the way…

Good morning, All and first, the good news! Congratulations to list member Jack Welde, whose company Smartling recently closed its Series A financing, raising $4M from Venrock, US Venture Partners, and First Round Capital. Smartling makes it easy and affordable for internet businesses to deploy multilingual versions of their websites, via professional translators or crowdsourced translations – and Americans sometimes forget that over 70% of internet users prefer a language other than English. Ke garne? (Yes, that is Nepali and don’t ask.) Press release is here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3746214.htm

Next, The Bootstrapper Summit IV (BSS IV) conference – Thursday, April 1 – is approaching! Register at:.

If you have suggestions on the start-ups that might benefit from presenting at BSS IV – or if you’re a startup who would like to present, please sign up here. Don’t forget to mention that you’re on the StartupOneStop list, as one of our member startups will be chosen to present.

Also, Startup 2010 is coming May 20! Startup 2010 a business plan competition and one-day event about entrepreneurship and digital business that will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $100,000 prize. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider and New York University’s Stern School of Business, with support from exclusive founding sponsor General Catalyst Partners.

TICKETS on sale now! Get early-bird ticketsfor just $295. It’s free to NYU Stern students, and SAI will be providing us with a 20% discount code for SOS members. Which we will send along – and tweet – as soon as we get it.

$100,000 Prize: Ten aspiring entrepreneurs will pitch their business plans in the hope of winning a $100,000 prize. The prize includes a $25,000 cash investment from General Catalyst Partners and $75,000 in goods and services ranging from:
Up to 6 months of office space in NYC at TechSpace
Legal services from Cooley, Godward, Kronish
Opportunity to launch at DEMO
Web hosting
And much more
ATTENTION ENTREPRENEURS: Submit your business plans now! Applications are open through April 5. [Note: While the conference will focus on mobile + content topics, applications can be for any type of digital business.]

Don’t miss this annual forum for outstanding entrepreneurs and early-stage companies to meet VCs, investors, journalists, and other members of the East Coast startup community. For more information, go to: http://bit.ly/af9KqZ

What can we say? It’s all good and now, help is on the way…

And hope we all survived St. Patrick’s Day.

Good morning, All, and it seems everyone’s back from SXSW – well, the interactive participants, at least. Although I didn’t make it to Austin, certainly got the blow-by-blow – 140 characters at a time.

Speaking of the next best thing to being there – all of the posts today are region-free and for those of us who happen to be in the New York City sector of the time-space continuum at the moment, don’t forget that Job Generation is this evening. See www.ibreakfast.com for details and for your SOS list member 30% discount, email sos@ibreakfast.com.

And now, help is on the way…

It doesn’t always rain pennies from heaven. Why don’t meteorologists rate rainstorms – or Nor’easterns, like the one we just had here on the eastern seaboard – on, say, an umbrella scale of one to five? Give a little extra warning of what we’re up against out there? I went through three umbrellas over the weekend. Technically, two. The third one managed to weather the winds. Just a thought.

Announcement: The Levin Institute was awarded the contract to deliver the Kauffman FastTrac Program to New York City residents for a second year! Therefore, applications for the April GrowthVenture and NewVenture programs are now open and available at http://www.nyc.gov/fasttrac ! FastTrac New Venuture is designed to help budding entrepreneurs shape their business ideas and prepare to create/finalize their business plans. FastTrac GrowthVenture is designed to help leaders of existing operating businesses review and reshape their business models to adapt to the challenges they face in the current economic climate. Each class is staffed by entrepreneurs serving as program facilitators, business coaches, and guest speakers. New Venture runs twice weekly for 3 weeks (9am – 4pm), and Growth Venture runs twice weekly for four weeks (half-day evening sessions from 5-9pm). Business leaders can apply directly online by following the links below:

FastTrac GrowthVenture for NYC small businesses http://www.fasttrac.org/nygv.cfm?eventID=1415&CFID=22859452&CFTOKEN=42851918
For more information, please visit http://www.nyc.gov/fasttrac

If anyone on the list has any information about programs helpful to entrepreneurs and startups, please do feel free to send them along and we’ll post them. And thanks!

For now, as always, help is on the way…