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Month: July 2012

7/31/12

7/31/12

Good morning, All,
First, our next SOS gathering is coming up on August 20th. Yes, it’s still three weeks away, but early bird rate is available now, and we always look forward to seeing you: http://sosaugust2012-zvents.eventbrite.com/

There’s a movement afoot that if you’re a NY-based company, you should put a ‘Made in New York’ imprimatur on your website. We do have our own CTO of the city; plans are in the work for a new $2 billion tech campus. And there is a lot of the technology coming from New York-based startups – many of whom incorporate their companies in Delaware. Or Nevada. We realize that incorportion is a state matter, but while our mayor doesn’t hesitate to opine on national matters, the city might be better served if he focused his energies on coordinating with the Governor to make New York incorporation more attractive to companies.  Both the mayor and the governor seem to be interested in bringing business to New York. Kudos to Startup Chile, a program of the Chilean Government to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs from any where in the world to start their businesses in Chile (http://startupchile.org/). We’ve already cited Five Reasons Britain May Be The Best Place To Start A Company In 2012, and yes, government initiatives are part of it: http://onforb.es/LEgmui (This newsletter is global: if you know of programs anywhere in the world, please do share and we’re happy to spread the word.) Yet in New York City, where we have a mayor who is a businessman, many businesses have left the city since he took office, although Bloomberg LLP has certainly fared well under his reign (Citizen Bloomberg – How Our New York Mayor has Given Us the Business: http://bit.ly/NDYUmY). Aside from the aforementioned tax payer-funded initiatives, he has done little to foster entrepreneurial growth in New York. Tax incentives might be a good start. Affordable housing for entrepreneurs who bring their businesses – and potentially, jobs – to the city is another. We belong to many New York-based listservs and it’s not infrequent that the question comes up: where to incorporate. New York is neither at the top of the list nor ringingly endorsed. Yet we see ‘Made in New York’ banners popping up more and more. We’re all entrepreneurs: we know the importance of seizing any opportunity that may present itself and all of you NY-based Delaware corporations out there – don’t pass this one up. It may well be time to send a message, and to tell the whole story. After all, many of us live in New York, New York – named twice, in case you didn’t hear us the first time. Onward and forward.

Deadlines:
The list of Startup Weekend Upcoming Events
Oxygen Accelerator, Birmingham, England, deadline July 31st. A 13-week intensive mentor led bootcamp, followed by 13-weeks of incubation that culminates with a series of investor days where we will help you pitch to a large, carefully selected group of Angel investors, VCs and Private Equity groups for next stage funding. Up to €40,000 per team in exchange for 8%-10% equity, and much more, including relocation allowance:  http://www.oxygenaccelerator.com/ The Guardian Small Business Awards, 1st deadline (Winning New Business) August 3rd. All entries that meet the criteria will appear on the Small Business Network’s best practice exchange and the winning entries will be written up as a feature in the Guardian. For more information and to enter: http://bit.ly/QaTcw4
NEW  Design for Education with Udemy, deadline August 5th. For its next social media project, Udemy is inviting YOU to submit your most DARING artwork on the themes of “Education” and “Lifelong Learning”. Grand prize: $1000, a framed copy of the design, 100 T-shirts featuring their design, feature in all of Udemy’s social media channels, $100 worth of Udemy courses, and more. For more information and to enter: http://bit.ly/Oy3CDY
NEW  Launchpad LA, deadline August 6th. This startup accelerator and mentorship program combines the best VCs in Southern California, many experienced CEOs and a very select group of service providers who are committed to working with early-stage companies. It’s a 4-month Santa Monica-based program, giving $50k to companies in exchange for 6% equity. http://launchpad.la/apply NEW  Thrillist/Samsung Speed Dating for Startups, deadline August 6th. Think you’ve got the perfect start-up idea on your hands? All entrepreneur’d up with nowhere to…entrepreneur? Then upload a 30-second video describing your brilliant start-up idea. Grand prize: the ultimate business launch package that’ll get your start-up all started up, including the chance to be showcased on Thrillist. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/NZkx2F NEW  VictorySpark, Milwaukee, WI, deadline August 22nd. This is an exclusive program designed for innovative, high-growth, Veteran-initiated startups. $20K given for 6% equity: http://www.victoryspark.com/
Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition.  PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS
NEW  WIBO 1st Annual Executive Summary Competition, deadline September 7th. A well developed Executive Summary can open the door and a great Pitch can help you seal the deal.  The purpose of this competition is to guide you through the process of getting your thoughts about your business out of your head and on to paper! http://bit.ly/OC9Oe0 THE NEW ENGLAND VENTURE SUMMIT Call for Top Innovators, early deadline September 12th. If you are a Startup seeking capital and/or partnerships, submit your plan for the opportunity to present at The 7th Annual New England Venture Summit, 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 Venture Capitalists, Private Investors, Investment Bankers, Corporate Investors, and Strategic Partners. To apply to present: e-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for 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. Early bird registration is now available. For more information: http://bit.ly/LjlttK
Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.
powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week:
12 Business Incubators Changing the World. Yes, article in Forbes – research from SOS members Chubby Brain: http://onforb.es/OaaGXQ Divorcing Your Cofounder: Sooner or later you are going to face the truth; the team you start with is not the team you end up with for the long haul.  Most founders tend to accept this fact when it comes to employees, but what if it happens to be the very person(s) you launched your startup with? http://bit.ly/MKiu0f Tech Reporter Contact List. From Brad Feld, and it includes the top tech blogs, tech blog reporter, top 100 newspapers (and reporters at those papers), and more: http://bit.ly/OBZuTw Growth Capitalism: How Accelerators Are Transforming the Start-Up Environment in Latin America. And if any of you have questions about the value of accelerators, read on: http://bit.ly/O0EFAI The perils of aiming too big too early. Niche to win, baby: http://bit.ly/N7K5ag
Pitch the future, build for now. You know how it works – one step at a time: http://bit.ly/NJNC2L Building All Star Teams. Putting together an A+ great team is worth 100x more than any “rockstar” individual, or as Kayak founder Paul English put it, The difference between an A team and an A+ team is the difference between a million in revenue and a billion in revenue: http://bit.ly/M2S0bR You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome. It knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do. It peers deeper into American life than does the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. And it’s a database marketing company: http://nyti.ms/L0DQ60
Elevator Pitch/Member News Hint, hint: Feel free to tell us what you’re working on, or if you’ve been featured in the press…Share, and we will, too!
Free work space for SOS members worldwide, from our friends at loosecubes: Loosecubes is a private workspace sharing community where you can find and book a free place to work for the day in over 40 countries around the world. This week we transitioned to an invite-only model, whereby all ‘cubes (1,000+ worldwide & over 150 in NYC) are completely free to book by our members on a daily basis. And any SOS member can get immediate access as a subscriber to Startup One Stop with this linkhttps://www.loosecubes.com/startuponestop. When they join via our link, you’ll be able to sign up immediately and find a place to work. SOS member Ilana Eberson was Nominated for the 2012 Small Business Influencer Awards in Experts. Make sure to vote for her, she’s awesome: http://bit.ly/M4Y9k1
That’s it from us this week. Your turn and now, as always, help is on the way…

7/24/12

7/24/12

Good morning, All,
The long-overdue and highly underreported Kayak IPO finally happened last week (http://bloom.bg/M54bqK). The stock jumped from its initial offering – and rose steadily throughout the day, adding $91 million to the company’s coffers. The founders are not twenty-somethings or media darlings; the company is profitable – and has been for some time. They do face their challenges. Still, the initial investors did not cash out at the IPO. They’re in it for the long haul, as are the founders.
With tech stocks essentially dead after the Facebook IPO debacle, the Kayak IPO should have been bigger news, or should have gotten more ink than did the demise of Digg, whose founder walked away with millions, despite the fact that the $164 million company was sold off for $16M. Is that success? Nick Bilton wrote an excellent piece describing his move to Silicon Valley and its bifurcated culture (Disruptions: Looking Beyond Silicon Valley’s Bubble: http://nyti.ms/QobVUU) “This belief that everyone is an entrepreneur has a stultifying effect. It can drive founders to seek an easy acquisition instead of a quest for true innovation and a sustainable, profitable business — a truly entrepreneurial challenge.” Kevin Rose (named a “Top 25 Angel Investors (#14)” by Bloomberg, “Top 25 Web Celebrities” by Forbes, “Top 25 Most Influential People on the Web” by Time and BusinessWeek magazines, and one of MITs “Top 35 Innovators under 35”) is at Google Ventures, since Google bought his next company, Milk (now defunct. Too. Why Google or Facebook Buying Your Favorite Startup Means It’s Probably Toast: http://ti.me/LEijWz). He has made some good investments (http://about.me/kevinrose) – from the money he made off investors who didn’t fare as well by investing in him.  Video killed the radio star – and the adoration of youth over substance is certainly not doing much for online. If you’re going to start a company, do it because of that fire in the belly; that passion to somehow move the needle, even if it’s just in some small way. And have a path to monetization. Media attention is fine, but don’t forget your investors. Be a Kayak and in it for the long haul, because unless you’re suddenly made one of the anointed, you might otherwise just some day find yourself up the creek without a paddle. Onward and forward. Deadlines:
The list of Startup Weekend Upcoming Events
Amplify.la – deadline unknown. Our accelerator program is four months of intense collaboration designed to help entrepreneurs amplify their business far beyond where it is today. We provide up to $50,000 in seed funding, free workspace at our Venice campus and hands‐on mentorship. Our companies also benefit from a variety of free or highly discounted services including hosting, legal, banking and more. For more information and to apply: http://amplify.la/
Oxygen Accelerator, Birmingham, England, deadline July 31st. A 13-week intensive mentor led bootcamp, followed by 13-weeks of incubation that culminates with a series of investor days where we will help you pitch to a large, carefully selected group of Angel investors, VCs and Private Equity groups for next stage funding. Up to €40,000 per team in exchange for 8%-10% equity, and much more, including relocation allowance:  http://www.oxygenaccelerator.com/ NEW  The Guardian Small Business Awards, 1st deadline (Winning New Business) August 3rd. All entries that meet the criteria will appear on the Small Business Network’s best practice exchange and the winning entries will be written up as a feature in the Guardian. For more information and to enter: http://bit.ly/QaTcw4
Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition.  PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November for top prize. Got a startup idea but no team, or got an idea but don’t know how to build it? You have at least THREE MONTHS starting today to emblazen the deadline of August 31 into your head and make it happen. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS
THE NEW ENGLAND VENTURE SUMMIT Call for Top Innovators, early deadline September 12th. If you are a Startup seeking capital and/or partnerships, submit your plan for the opportunity to present at The 7th Annual New England Venture Summit, 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 Venture Capitalists, Private Investors, Investment Bankers, Corporate Investors, and Strategic Partners. To apply to present: e-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for 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. Early bird registration is now available. For more information: http://bit.ly/LjlttK
Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.
powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week:
How To Score A Meeting With An Angel Investor. David Rose told people on Quora exactly how to score a meeting with him: http://read.bi/NDXpFx Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25. Of course, the piece should be entitled, If You’ve Never Encountered Millenial Entitlement Before, Read On:  http://bit.ly/Q9fO1a
15 Dumb Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Investors. Pitching venture capitalists or angel investors is nerve-racking. Young entrepreneurs explain trip-ups you should avoid at all costs. http://bit.ly/N6o6oO
What we should have said to Paul Graham. Remember: if you don’t take the lead, the scenery never changes: http://bit.ly/PNGnHZ   What Founders Wish They Knew Before Starting Companies. 1 in 12 startups do succeed, but that’s not to say there weren’t bumps in the road. http://on.mash.to/NPcp1N
Everything Americans Hate About the Internet in One Chart. File this under ‘know your audience’: http://bit.ly/PdzQkY
How the BlackBerry Died: The Five Mistakes That Killed a Once-Great Device. http://bit.ly/M55DJM Moving the needle. As you get bigger, what moves the needle changes dramatically: http://bit.ly/LTb6MX
Elevator Pitch/Member News Hint, hint: Feel free to tell us what you’re working on, or if you’ve been featured in the press…Share, and we will, too!
In honor of the Summer Olympics, Entrepreneur Week is throwing an Olympic-Size networking event, including a free drink and an opportunity to win four Yankees tix! It happens August 9th, but early bird ticket sales end July 27th. To RSVP: http://bit.ly/M5dCqi We’ll also be hosting another SOS gathering later in August. Details to come – soon – and until then, as always, help is on the way…

7/17/12

7/17/12

Good morning, All,
The big news this week was yesterday’s announcement that The Marissa Mayer Era at Yahoo starts today.  Google’s employee #20 certainly knows her stuff, and guess we’ll see if she can make a difference to the company: http://tnw.co/MtXKNY
A while back, a friend’s parents went to the racetrack for the first time in their lives. They knew nothing about the sport, and since my friend is a dancer, her mother suggested that they bet on a horse called She Can Dance.  “She Can Dance,” her dad said, “but can she run?” They won: he chose a horse with better odds. Hashable shut down this week. Admittedly, we personally never found it compelling – the gamefication of introductions/death of the business card. But gamefication was the catchphrase du jour, you needed that element to get the attention of investors and the company’s founder was a successful entrepreneur.  Hate to state the (maybe not-so-) obvious, but if we want traction, the question always should be: how will this play in the vowel states (you don’t flyover in an online world). And: who is your audience (yes, Yahoo’s is primarily female, just for the record). Or try: how will this improve life as we know it out there? We in tech do live in a bubble: we live in tech hubs rife with early adopters, and we seem to forget that out there, there is a much lower percentage of people who: – Feel a burning need to have a web-enabled phone – Feel incomplete if they go to dinner – sans their mobile – Feel that everyone will think they haven’t left the house in months if they fail to compulsively check in on foursquare. If you build it, eventually they will come. But we can’t abandon the ‘fixed’ (as opposed to mobile) web just yet, and above all, again we remind you, don’t piss off your user base. And wasn’t Digg a lesson in that this week: The Lessons For Facebook, Twitter And Reddit In Digg’s Demise (http://onforb.es/PW3mSs). From 30M down to 8M users in a year, by simply releasing a new version of the site – and not listening to feedback from their most active members. So the former darling of the online world, once worth $164 million, had its parts sold off for $16 million, and it was all self-inflicted. Founders tend to live in bubbles. It’s our product; we know what’s best. And we’re not always responsive to user feedback – or the vagaries of our site/application/product features that keep our users coming back. Visionaries are few and far between. They see a future we cannot imagine, not a feature we feel compelled to implement. The better part of entrepreneurship may well be stewardship, and that may be the thing that distinguishes a dot com from a dot bomb. Choose wisely because in our world, fortunes can fall even more quickly than they rise. That’s horseracing! Onward and forward.
Deadlines:
The list of Startup Weekend Upcoming Events
NEW  Amplify.la – deadline unknown. Our accelerator program is four months of intense collaboration designed to help entrepreneurs amplify their business far beyond where it is today. We provide up to $50,000 in seed funding, free workspace at our Venice campus and hands‐on mentorship. Our companies also benefit from a variety of free or highly discounted services including hosting, legal, banking and more. For more information and to apply: http://amplify.la/
NEW  Angelpad, deadline July 21st. Angelpad is a mentorship program founded by Thomas Korte and other ex-Googlers to help web-technology startups build better products, attract additional funding and ultimately grow more successful businesses Twice a year, we provide an extensive mentorship program to carefully selected startups, during the course of 10 weeks, in our San Francisco office. For more information and to apply: http://angelpad.org/about/
NEW  The Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure, deadline July 21st. This program will host ten companies for a three month, on site, focused on building businesses that take advantage of the cloud. The program runs from September through mid-December in Seattle and is being powered by TechStars, using the same mentor driven methodology pioneered and proven by them in New York, Boulder, Seattle and Boston. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/LW1Tdi NEW  Springboard, deadline July 22nd. Springboard is a unique opportunity to turbocharge your startup by working with accomplished mentors and experts in a dedicated business environment. We are only one of two “startup competitions” that have been endorsed by UK Trade and Investment (“UKTI”) for applications for a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Visa. Subject to your team being made an offer by  Springboard, you can apply for a Prospective Entrepreneur Visa that enables you to enter the UK for up to 6 months, and allow you to participate in Springboard and seek to secure funding. Business plan not necessary. For more information and to apply: http://springboard.com/view/faq/
Oxygen Accelerator, Birmingham, England, deadline July 31st. A 13-week intensive mentor led bootcamp, followed by 13-weeks of incubation that culminates with a series of investor days where we will help you pitch to a large, carefully selected group of Angel investors, VCs and Private Equity groups for next stage funding. Up to €40,000 per team in exchange for 8%-10% equity, and much more, including relocation allowance:  http://www.oxygenaccelerator.com/ Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition.  PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November for top prize. Got a startup idea but no team, or got an idea but don’t know how to build it? You have at least THREE MONTHS starting today to emblazen the deadline of August 31 into your head and make it happen. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS
NEW  THE NEW ENGLAND VENTURE SUMMIT Call for Top Innovators, early deadline September 12th. If you are a Startup seeking capital and/or partnerships, submit your plan for the opportunity to present at The 7th Annual New England Venture Summit, 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 Venture Capitalists, Private Investors, Investment Bankers, Corporate Investors, and Strategic Partners. To apply to present: e-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for 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. Early bird registration is now available. For more information: http://bit.ly/LjlttK
Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.
Dell Launches $100M Innovators Credit Fund. Qualified start-ups can get extra funding and technological resources from the computer giant. The catch is, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. Article is here: http://bit.ly/NsJpQK For more information: http://eir.dell.com/
powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week:
Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners calls NASDAQ & Morgan Stanley Criminals in Facebook IPO Debacle. Show of hands: who’s surprised? http://bit.ly/NbbLzF
The complete guide to Israeli startup accelerators. And a lesson is what to look for and why accelerators work for some and not for others: http://tnw.co/LiRYs7 Five Reasons Britain May Be The Best Place To Start A Company In 2012. Over the last five years, the British Government has announced changes in every annual budget to help nurture the growing ecosystem that had already started to establish itself organically in the UK. Other governments can take a lesson: http://onforb.es/LEgmui Vinod Khosla: Maintain the Silicon Valley Vision. Ok, he’s a SV-based investor. Better (more inclusive) title would have been: How to Build the Future. Still, a lesson in pursuing the mission, not the exit: http://nyti.ms/N8h3fj Your LinkedIn Intervention: 5 Changes You Must Make. If you want to get results though linkedin, there is an etiquette. Learn it may well lead to more successful networking: http://onforb.es/Nemp6m The Secret Lives Of Teenagers Online: A Full Report From Business Insider. And remember: they’re the future:  http://read.bi/NU39vb
What Agencies (and startups) Can Learn From a Superstar Startup. It’s dollarshaveclub.com. Speed is important, and bold means memorable: http://on.mash.to/LiK6vp How To Prepare Your Startup To Raise An Angel Round. Approaching a well known angel investor cold with the expectation that they’ll fund you, is like walking up to a beautiful stranger and expecting you’ll be planning a wedding by the end of the conversation. Be prepared: http://tcrn.ch/NAiD3S 7 Do’s and Don’ts for Founders: http://bit.ly/LmbtE2 The Formula. Television is formulaic – and startups can be as well. Brad Feld suggests following the formula, when it works – but don’t be afraid to deviate from it, when necessary: http://bit.ly/N3qbeU
Elevator Pitch/Member News Hint, hint: Feel free to tell us what you’re working on, or if you’ve been featured in the press…Share, and we will, too!
From SOS member Conrad Egusa: When I was writing for VentureBeat.com I learned pretty quickly that most entrepreneurs do not know how to approach the media, and when they do look for PR, they need to spend hours collecting the contact information of tech reporters. My company spent 100 hours creating a free comprehensive tech reporter contact list. The list is here: http://www.brownsteinegusa.com/find-tech-reporters I’m also releasing a free Beginner’s Guide To PR: http://brownsteinegusa.com/beginners-guide-to-pr/. I hope they are of help.
How Hoboken, New York’s Baby Brother, Built An Innovation Scene Of Its Own: http://bit.ly/Lwvvxz And congrats to Aaron Price, NJ Tech Meetup founder, Entrepreneur at Large for DFJ Gotham, founder of CrafterMania.com and SOS member, who certainly played his part in making it happen. We keep telling you: it’s worth the trip across the river! Yes, the NJ Tech Meetup is tonight – waitlist only, as usual.
Our thanks to everyone who came out to help me celebrate my birthday – and yes, we are planning another event for August. Stay tuned and until then, as always, help is on the way…

7/9/12

7/9/12

Good morning, All,
The next SOS event is tonight and we have a 25% discount for SOS members.  Code: sos. It also happens to be New York State Day and my birthday! We are hosting in conjunction with DoItInPerson, so hope you can join us for an evening of drinks and networking with business owners and entrepreneurs. Thank you, DoItInPerson, for making it happen. To RSVP http://bit.ly/LnJuAT and hope to see you this evening! Two interesting graphs circulated last week: Google Graveyard and Microsoft Morgue. We’re still waiting for the Facebook Follies and Ya-hoo Thought that would work? Behemoth’s don’t always get it right and yes, while money is made, jobs are also lost. Companies seem to get to a size/place/hubris where they want to own all eyeballs everywhere, seemingly losing sight of the cardinal rule of business: does it add to our value proposition? There’s no doubt that FB has a lot more members than Linkedin, but here’s How LinkedIn Gets TWENTY Times More Money Per User Than Facebook (http://read.bi/KYFeeM). LinkedIn users spend an average of 18 minutes a month on the site to FB users’, 6.4 hours. But LinkedIn gets $1.30 in revenue for every one of those hours to FB’s 6.2 cents. Since its IPO, Facebook stock has skidded 17% so far, while LinkedIn shares have leapt 64%. Facebook is still banking on the ad revenue model; LinkedIn – monetizes data. The full Forbes article is worth a read: How LinkedIn Has Turned Your Resume Into A Cash Machine: http://onforb.es/LClNKa. We remember when the internet was referred to as the information superhighway and, social or not, that basically hasn’t changed. Many of us simply forgot, or didn’t know that in the first place. “@NickLukan: “A million guys walk in to a Silicon Valley bar. None of them buys anything. The bar is declared a rousing success.” via @Quora. Eyeballs are great, but the real value of a business always shows up on the bottom line. At the end of the day, it’s all about building a sustainable business, and currency is still the currency of the day. Spend it wisely. And don’t piss off your end users by arbitrarily changing (timeline; fb email) or diluting your brand. Onward and forward.
Deadlines:
It’s that time again – Startup Chile, deadline July 10th. For more information and to apply: http://startupchile.org/about/apply/    NEW  Heads up, Israel: Up West Lab, deadline July 10th. This is a Silicon Valley accelerator supporting Israel’s best entrepreneurs and offers a 10-week program and takes a small equity and give up to $20k per company. They also help you sort out living arrangements, and offer post-program support after Demo Day. For more information and to apply: http://upwestlabs.com/ NEW  GameFounders, deadline July 10th. GameFounders the first gaming startup accelerator in Europe (Estonia). It’s the usual 3-month mentor-filled program, but the startups will get several opportunities to practice and present to international VCs, corporate and angel investors at Demo Days held in Tallinn, Helsinki, London and San Francisco. Investment taken: 9% for 5k per founder (up to €15k).For more information and to apply: http://www.gamefounders.com/ NEW  Digital Catalyst Fund, Romania, deadline July 15th. This fund is dedicated to helping highly promising entrepreneurial teams to develop businesses centered on the future of digital media, digital marketing and digital communication and provides them with the funding, support and connections they need to flourish. The DCF initial commitment is to provide US$500,000 financing to ten carefully selected projects. This 3-month bootcamp is based in Bucharest. For more information and to apply: http://digitalcatalystfund.com/ NEW  The list of Startup Weekend Upcoming Events
Oxygen Accelerator, Birmingham, England, deadline July 31st. A 13-week intensive mentor led bootcamp, followed by 13-weeks of incubation that culminates with a series of investor days where we will help you pitch to a large, carefully selected group of Angel investors, VCs and Private Equity groups for next stage funding. Up to €40,000 per team in exchange for 8%-10% equity, and much more, including relocation allowance:  http://www.oxygenaccelerator.com/ Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition.  PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November for top prize. Got a startup idea but no team, or got an idea but don’t know how to build it? You have at least THREE MONTHS starting today to emblazen the deadline of August 31 into your head and make it happen. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS
Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.
Dell Launches $100M Innovators Credit Fund. Qualified start-ups can get extra funding and technological resources from the computer giant. The catch is, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. Article is here: http://bit.ly/NsJpQK For more information: http://eir.dell.com/
powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week:
A must read from Vanity Fair: Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant. From the article: Microsoft had a prototype e-reader ready to go in 1998, but when the technology group presented it to Bill Gates he promptly gave it a thumbs-down. “He didn’t like the user interface, because it didn’t look like Windows,” a programmer involved in the project recalls: http://vnty.fr/LjkvUq. 5 Great Tools That Help You Create Apps For Your Business. In the end, you must pick a tool according to how complex your app will be. The more tailoring you have to do in the development stage, the more shades of gray start to appear on what you should choose from this list: http://bit.ly/MTDBid 5 Trick Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Answer Before Asking For Money. It’s all about minimizes the chances of a future misalignment: http://onforb.es/IRbuOR 7 things I wish we knew before our seed round. Once you’ve raised the money, it’s just the beginning: http://tnw.co/N2wHpP Thanks, but No Thanks: Passing on an 8 Figure Venture Round. Why did they say no to this huge opportunity? They had their reasons – and they know the risks. And we sincerely hope it works out for them: http://bit.ly/MVtBk5 Nice Try, Twitter: Here’s A Quick Workaround To Get Your Tweets Published in your Linkedin Feed Again. Twitter cut ties with LinkedIn; tweets will no longer appear on LinkedIn via status updates. It’s part of Twitter’s effort to control tweet consumption: http://read.bi/N9Jnf2 12 Rules For Building Your First Profitable Startup. Sell, sell, sell – and make sure it’s a product people will buy into. Literally: http://bit.ly/L8H129 Higgs bosom in plain English, and why it’s so important. Often referred to as the ‘God particle,’ there’s your first clue as to its importance: http://tnw.co/N90Sf9
Time to Vacate Wall Street. Despite all of the bluster about NYC becoming a tech capital and creating opportunity and jobs, one need only look at the industries that are here – and quickly evacuating – to see how it won’t be long before our industry, too, is strangled and forced out by regulation and taxes. The blue social model devours its own: http://bit.ly/N8u7z3 Scientist Creates Pizza Healthy Enough to Eat 3 Times a Day, Every Day. 100 taste testers said it was as good or better than other frozen pizzas available on the market. They go on sale in UK supermarkets later this year.http://bit.ly/N867w0
Elevator Pitch/Member News Hint, hint: Feel free to tell us what you’re working on, or if you’ve been featured in the press…Share, and we will, too!
Congrats this week go to Alden Levy (http://mybillregistry.com/ ), who heard about the iEvening pitch event through SOS – and won the evening! Congrats also go to ER Accelerator company Bizodo, who were just featured in  PandoDaily and will also be featured in this month’s edition of Inc Magazine And from Julianna Davies: I’m part of the design team at MBAOnline.com, and we created a graphic that illustrates the 30 years of innovation at Microsoft and their failures along the way. Title: Microsoft MBA: Over 30 Years of Innovation Graphic: http://www.mbaonline.com/microsoft-mba/
That’s it from us this week and hope to see you this evening at my bday celebration. The newsletter will go back to its Tuesday schedule next week. It being my bday, decided to err on the side of caution this week. Until then, as always, help is on the way…