Startup One Stop

Good morning, All,

We had our first SOS 1-1 last week and despite the torrential downpour, it was a hit! Yes, it was an outdoor barbeque, and our guest investors, Aaron Price and Joy Marcus of DFJGotham, braved the rains and talked to every SOS member who wanted one-on-one facetime with him. Aaron stayed until well after 10 to talk to everyone! Our hero! Thanks also goes to our sponsors, 1099partners.com, who literally cooked up a storm, rain and all, and met with and advised members as well. Stay tuned: the next one is coming next month and yes, will do a Labor Day bbq as well, for anyone in town.  Date: September 4; Raindate: September 5. To Register: http://soslabordaybbq.eventbrite.com

In the meantime, our next Rocking it out on the terrace event is next week, August 16^th. We had quite a good investor turn out last time, so don’t forget to RSVP: http://terraceparty.eventbrite.com/ Read More...

Good morning, All,

The 1^st SOS 1-1 is tomorrow, August 3^rd and our first guest VC/early stage investor is Aaron Price of DFJGotham. He’ll let you know what sort of investments they make and what the sweet spot is; then you have an opportunity to ask questions, then meet him, one-on-one. We’re keeping it informal which means, yes, there will also be a barbeque, and our thanks to our bbq sponsors, the 1099partners.com, who will also be there to talk to you about their services (they’re also plugged into the investor community) – and they’re always open to meeting new potential 1099partners.com consultants. Hope to see you there. To register: http://sos1-1.eventbrite.com/We will do more in future, we will be incorporating technology so that non-New Yorkers can also participate and have 1-1s with the investors, too, so stay tuned! BTW, raindate is August 10th and only if it pours in the evening. In case of rain, check twitter (@SOSlist). Or open the newsletter and the updated tweets will be there, of course!

Don’t forget: our next EW-SOS-ER Terrace Party is August 16th! To register: http://terraceparty.eventbrite.com/ Read More...

Good morning, All,

The 1^st SOS 1-1 will take place on Wednesday, August 3^rd and here’s how it works: We invite a seed/angel/early stage investor to come meet with you. The investor will do his or her presentation, letting you know what sort of investments they make and what the sweet spot is; then you have an opportunity to ask question, then meet him or her, one-on-one. We will start with a single guest early stage/angel investor and our first guest is Aaron Price from DFJGotham (and host of the perpetually sold-out Hoboken Tech Meetup). We’re keeping it informal which means, yes, there will also be a barbeque, and our thanks to our bbq sponsors, the 1099partners.com, who will also be there to talk to you about their services – and they’re always open to meeting new potential 1099partners.com consultants. Hope to see you there. To register: http://sos1-1.eventbrite.com/ We will do more in future, we will be incorporating technology so that non-New Yorkers can also participate and have 1-1s with the investors, too, so stay tuned!

Early bird rate still available for our next EW-SOS-ER Terrace Party, August 16th! Over 420 of you turned up to our last one, including 7 VCs; 2 superangels; 6 angels and 2 banks. To register: http://terraceparty.eventbrite.com/ Read More...

Good morning, All,

The inaugural SOS 1-1/(one on one) barbeque, Monday, July 25^th, (http://bit.ly/nO4zHI) and here’s how it works: All startups need one thing. Besides help. And money. We need access to investors. So every month or so, we’ll have a gathering and invite a seed/angel/early stage investor to come meet with you. The investor will do his or her presentation, letting you know what sort of investments they make and what the sweet spot is; then you have an opportunity to ask question, then meet him or her, one-on-one. You’re also free to network with each other, while waiting  your turn for your 1-1, and everyone who wants an opportunity to talk to the investor, will have one. We will start with a single guest early stage/angel investor and our first guest is Aaron Price from DFJGotham (and host of the perpetually sold-out Hoboken Tech Meetup. We’re keeping it informal which means, yes, there will also be a barbeque. Since we know some of you may want a few minutes of 1-1 time with Aaron and some of you might just want to come out for some bbq on a beautiful summer night, all are welcome and both types of tickets are available. Hope to see you there, and it’s less than a week away. To register: http://bit.ly/nO4zHI. We will do more in future, and hope to have a couple of angels/early stage investors available who cover different verticals, and we will be incorporating technology so that non-New Yorkers can also participate and have 1-1s with the investors, so stay tuned! We do try to be inclusive.

Over 420 of you turned up to our terrace party last week, including 7 VCs representing $5B in capital; 2 superangels; 6 angels and 2 banks. So we’re giving you early warning this time: the next terrace party will be August 16^th, so register now for the early bird rate! http://terraceparty.eventbrite.com/ Read More...

Good morning, All,

Find A Cofounder is tonight and we’re looking forward to seeing many of you there. It’s summer’s first big outdoor party at a 4000 square foot terrace overlooking the Hudson. Come find a cofounder for your startup. Network with fellow entrepreneurs and investors. Enjoy the views and a cold brew at sunset. Sponsored by EW, SOS and ER. RSVP: http://findacofounder2011.eventbrite.com/ To all of the SOS members who volunteered for this evening: Thank you! Others out there: there’s still time to volunteer (hello@startuponestop.com and any and all help is appreciated!).

So we’re starting SOS 1-1 (One on One) and here’s how it works:
Every month or so, we’ll have a gathering and invite a seed/angel/early stage investor to come meet with you. The investor will do his or her presentation, letting you know what sort of investments they make and what the sweet spot is; then you have an opportunity to ask question, then meet him or her, one-on-one. You’re also free to network with each other, while waiting to get the investor’s ear, and everyone who wants an opportunity to talk to the investor, will have one. It’s more an elevator pitch than office hours, and you can always follow up at a later time. Our job is to make the introductions. We may do a special mailing when details are all finalized, or it’ll be posted next week, so stay tuned. Our first guest will be Aaron Price from DFJGotham, and organizer extraordinaire of the Hoboken Tech Meetup, which we did not post this week, since it’s waitlist only. Gotta be fast to get into that one! And we did give you advance notice. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Heads up: Our next Find A Cofounder is Tuesday, July 12^th and it’ll be under the stars. Yes, it’s summer’s first big outdoor party at a 4000 square foot terrace overlooking the Hudson. Come find a cofounder for your startup. Network with fellow entrepreneurs and investors. Enjoy the views and a cold brew at sunset. And it’s free to entrepreneurs and developers and an EW, SOS and ER co-event. Oh, coincidentally, it falls on the same night/same time as Feed-A-Cofounder, and yes, we are looking for someone to sponsor the food. Feel free to contact us (hello@startuponestop.com). You will be featured in our next newsletter and at the event –  and you’ll be making many a hungry attendee happy! To RSVP: http://findacofounder2011.eventbrite.com/

As we all know by now, GOOG went social in a big way last week with google+. (Does that strike anyone besides us as a bit oxymoron?) Mashable spelled out some (early) pros and cons: http://on.mash.to/j7PAIc MySpace founder Tom Anderson also chimed in with his feelings on the launch http://bit.ly/mSn0iF Google’s a big company with a huge footprint and an enormous suite of products. Early reports are already predicting the demise of twitter, facebook, linkedin, quora (can foursquare be far behind?) and half the marine life on the planet. One major problem/irritation from reports we’ve gotten is that people anywhere can add you, seemingly almost randomly. So, is social media a numbers game, or is it about meaningful relationships/connections?  Chris Brogan, who spent some time checking it out, offers the Google+50, a list to get you thinking about a bunch of different possibilities: http://bit.ly/klNELs Is the social/war for eyeballs on? Facebook Blocks Friends Exporter Plugin (a chrome extention): http://on.mash.to/kR2S2Q; Google Disables Realtime Search – Will Replace Twitter with Google+: http://bit.ly/kJ97Cx
It’s still early days and the votes – and the upgrades – aren’t all in yet, so we can only watch and wait. And at the end of the day, decide just how much more personal information we want GOOG to have on us, after all. And how much more of our online real estate – and decisions on search results – we want to further cede to the behemoth. Onward and forward. Read More...

Good morning, All, and we hope you’re enjoying your Sunday!

It’s raining here in NYC and the SOS barbeque will now take place tomorrow, July 4th. Come join us for beer, burgers (yes, there will be tequila as well) a dip in the pool – and feel free to bring friends. It’s supposed to be a gorgeous day tomorrow, so if you’re back early from your holiday weekend, come join! If you’re heading down to see the fireworks, stop by first for some food and conversation.  RSVP: http://bit.ly/kIgxae

And remember: if you have anything to add to Tuesday’s newsletter, you still have time. Post your wants, needs, news and questions to www.startuponestop.com. No matter where in the world you may be. Read More...

Good morning, All,

First thing’s first: We are planning a SOS barbeque for those of you who will be in town over the July 4th holiday weekend. Come join us for beer, burgers (yes, there will be tequila as well) a dip in the pool – and feel free to bring friends. RSVP: http://bit.ly/kIgxae

Before you take off for the long holiday weekend, remember: Entrepreneurs Roundtable36 is June 29^th and you could win up to 50 roundtrip tickets on American Airlines for your company.  For more information and to RSVP: http://er36.eventbrite.com/ Read More...

Good morning, All,

We know the next few weeks will be hectic, what with July 4^th weekend, Canada Day and summer vacations so heads up: We are planning a barbeque for those of you who will be in town over the July 4^th holiday weekend. Come join us and feel free to bring friends. RSVP: http://bit.ly/kIgxae Our next Find A Cofounder is also coming up and we’re planning it for mid-July. Really, and we hope to get all of the details finalized by next week. And make sure you read ‘Upcoming Events’ this week: You could win up to 50 roundtrip tickets on American Airlines for your company at the next Entrepreneurs Roundtable. Details below.

Europe had its first ever Digital Agenda Assembly this past week (http://bit.ly/fDbhwl) in Brussels to help thrash out information and communication technologies’ role in Europe’s future. From all reports, there was a shortage of entrepreneurs present/invited (not surprising) but it was a start. Not that entrepreneurship was the main thrust of the Assembly, but rather, the importance of a neutral internet, among other topics. Still, it might have been helpful to get the perspective of people who actually work in the industry. Full story is here: http://tnw.co/lxrGHy. The Silicon Alley Talent Fair was also last week and there was an enormous turnout of both startups and people looking to work for startups. At the end of the day – literally -, Rachel Sterne, NYC’s Chief Digital Officer, announced that New York may well become the first city in the world with its own domain – .nyc – not just for the prestige but of course also for the revenues that it will generate for our fair town. All well and good, but heads up, NYC government: while we were happy to see that you supporting the job fair, how about supporting entrepreneurship in a truly meaningful way, and we don’t mean by announcing a new way to collect revenues from us via the TLD. How about tax breaks for entrepreneurs? Or – heaven forfend! – less regulation/lower barrier to entry? There’s a reason why incorporating in Delaware or Nevada as opposed to NY is a frequent discussion on many a NY tech-based listserv. New York does not make it easy, or affordable, to set up shop here and pretty much buries one in bureaucratic paperwork on a regular basis. Just thought we’d throw that out there as ideas to consider, presuming that the goal is to potentially create more jobs – and even more revenue – for the city. Yes, we know: you, too, would love to see the forest, too, but all those bloody trees are in the way. Onward and forward. Read More...

Good morning, All, and no, we’re not talking about silly walks but instead, domain name registration. Yes, the Name Game.

We went to the kickoff mixer for StartupWeekendNYC and it occurred to us: all of those people there to launch startups – how the hell do you name the damn thing? Takes some people more than 54 hours just to come up with a name for their new company – and the website, of course. So we sat there thinking about website names and their relevance to the site itself – and does it matter? Example: Google. Apple. Facebook. Myspace – ok, never mind that one, but we never said that a name is necessarily an indicator of the long-term success of a site. Zaarly came out of the last StartupWeekendLA and they’ve even raised a round of funding. The site helps you buy and sell with people around you. Don’t tell me that one of the zaarly team members didn’t show up to the LA StartupWeekend looking a bit, um, off, when another member of the team said, ‘go home, get some sleep and don’t forget to shower and shave before you come back here. You’re looking a bit zaarly.’ A name was born. As a former copywriter, moi could even venture a guess as to how the name Cialis came about. A few creatives sitting there, tasked with coming up with a name for the product, and they were coming up with bupkis. It was getting late; everyone wanted to call it a day, or a night, more likely, until one guy said, “Who would use this stuff? My grandfather. The guy has a girlfriend. And he’s in his 70s! See, this is the stuff my grandpa would take when he’s going to see Alice.” Done!

CNN reported nearly a year ago that we’re running out of IP addresses (http://bit.ly/jQDSnT). How long before we run out of decent dot com names, too? Creative spellings (kohorts) and -.ly have become very popular lately. Bit.ly. Comp.ly. There are a plethora of them and we’re surprised -.it hasn’t caught on. Why go for an adjective/adverb when you can go for a call to action? It’s a thought. Not that bit.it portends that anything good might come out of the site, but just an extension you might want to keep in mind, whilst attempting to come up with a name for your next venture. Gofor.it! Onward and forward. Read More...