10/15/13

10/15/13

Good morning, All,

A few months back, Facebook started using users’ names and pictures in their ads, without providing remuneration, and without permission. Of course, there was a lawsuit. Their headache continues.  Enter Google, who is doing basically the same thing (calling it ‘Shared Endorsements), but of course, they learned a thing or two from Facebook’s mistakes, and they offer an opt-out (of course, they do make it sound as though you’re missing out on something, should you decide to go that route, Mr. Phelps).

And now that we all know that privacy doesn’t exist, of course, CISPA is making a comeback as well. (Senator ‘very close’ to reintroducing controversial CISPA. Despite Americans’ widespread, newfound concern for digital privacy, one senator says he’s close to reviving the most notorious Internet privacy bill in recent history. It’s intended to make it easier for private companies under cyberattack to team up with government for assistance, but a pesky consequence of that is the government can get information from those networks—content that users may have intended be kept private.)

We belong to a list where one of the members, after having read about the latest Google infringement, asked if there was a way he could pay for the service, in exchange for his privacy. Our question: would you trust them? We’ve been a paying member of LinkedIn since they first started offering premium membership. Yet we find ourselves using the service less and less. Why? The company keeps removing services that we’ve been paying for all along, and now offering them back at a higher-tiered premium level. Three services that were part of basic premium are now only available if you move up the chain. And if/when we give in, where does it stop? If they do it once, chances are that they’ll do it again. Which seems to be the case already. The trust is gone. LinkedIn: ripe for disruption.

We live in a short attention span world, so (white)wash, spin and repeat seems to work. Or as Malcolm Forbes once said, “ isn’t it fortunate how selective our recollections usually are.” Stay vigilant. Onward and forward.

 Housekeeping:

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Deadlines:

The New York Expo and Conference is this week on October 17th – the real one! Free registration now available. And look for my bonniefoods booth there – Booth 121! It’s the largest business show on the East Coast and registration is FREE ($30 on site). 40+ Seminars. 250+ Exhibitors. Unlimited networking. And yes, that is Brian Solis on the home page. He’ll be keynoting and that’s always worth the price of admission. Register here. It’s at the Javits Center, NYC

New England Venture Summit, The 8th annual New England Venture Summit, presented by youngStartup Ventures, is the premier industry gathering connecting venture capitalists, corporate VCs, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, university researchers, incubators and premier service providers. Whether you are an investor seeking access to new early stage deals, or a CEO or Founder of a new venture looking for funding, visibility and growth, the New England Venture Summit is one event you won’t want to miss. Use code sos to save an addtitional 10% on the Early Bird rate.

Shopify/HuffPo Build a Business Competition, deadline March 31st – to build a business, so enter now! $50k cash prize (but read the fine print – it’s more like $500k), mentoring, and more. Get building!

The New York Expo and Conference is back on October 17th – the real one! Free E registration now available.
The largest business show on the East Coast is now open for FREE early bird registration. 40+ Seminars. 250+ Exhibitors. Unlimited networking. And yes, that is Brian Solis on the home page. He’ll be keynoting and that’s always worth the price of admission. Register here.
Date: October 17th
Venue: Javits Center, NYC

Angelpad Accelerator is launching in NYC, deadline October 20th. AngelPad is a mentorship program founded by ex-Googler Thomas Korte to help web and mobile technology startups build better products, attract additional funding and ultimately grow more successful businesses.

YCombinator Winter Class, deadline October 21st. It’s based in Mountainview, and they’re also accepting applications from non-profits.

The Mobiley Awards, deadline October 21st. This new national competition produced by Mobile Future seeks to spotlight and support early-stage wireless apps, services and/or products that make the world a better place. Top prize: $10,000.

Daily News Innovation Lab, deadline October 31st (applications being accepted starting October 1st). The Daily News Innovation Lab is powerfully positioned to help grow and launch early-stage companies targeting a known digital-media need by offering unique access to the Daily News in-house team, robust technical infrastructure (hosting, servers, storage) and a massive national audience. Through the Innovation Lab’s Program Service Partners, participating companies will have access to external professional services and receive post-graduation office space. A slate of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and professionals will offer advice, mentorship and support to the companies. The goal is for graduates to leave with a viable product that has been proven in the market, well positioned to launch a successful business

NYC Next Idea, deadline November 11th. Global New Venture Competition invites teams from around the world to submit their business ideas that can be launched and operated in New York City. Finalist teams will win an all-expense paid trip to NYC in Spring 2014 to present their idea to a prestigious panel of judges, who will decide the prize winners. Prizes include a cash pool of $35,000, free workspace in NYC, pro bono legal advice and mentorship from the NYC venture capital and startup community.  The Competition is looking for ideas that address issues encountered in New York City as a result of the city’s infrastructure, industries, demographics, and space. This includes ideas addressing urban challenges found in NYC, as well as ideas aligned with major industries found in NYC such as fashion, financial services, media and advertising.

DreamIt Health Baltimore, deadline November 11th. DreamIt Health Baltimore 2014 will select up to ten companies from around the world to participate in a four-month accelerator program. In addition to receiving up to a $50,000 stipend and professional services, the startups will be paired with and work closely with exited entrepreneurs-turned-mentors with domain expertise specific to their needs; benefit from an intense startup and healthcare curriculum taught by accomplished practitioners; meet with subject matter experts and investors; and enjoy access to executives, information systems, and data from leading industry players including providers, payers, biopharma, device makers, and federal agencies. Participating teams will also benefit from DreamIt’s extensive network and expertise in guiding the growth of young technology companies. DreamIt Health Baltimore is expected to take advantage of many of the strengths of the region, giving participating startups the opportunity to work closely with Johns Hopkins Medicine for potential pilots and also access to key individuals throughout the region’s wealth of federal health care institutions including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The program will be led by Elliot Menschik, MD PhD, a Johns Hopkins alum and successfully-exited health IT entrepreneur. Apply individually, or as a company.

ER Accelerator Winter Session, deadline November 15th.  $40k in funding and working with amazing mentors – including yours truly. Don’t wait till the last minute!

NEW Blueprint Health, Deadline November 27th. The application for our fifth class, which launches on January 13, is open. Join the next class of Blueprint Health – Apply to gain access to Community, Customers & Capital! Blueprint Health is a healthcare focused accelerator program based in NYC that helps early stage healthcare companies get started by providing access to a community of mentors, customers, and capital. Their companies have raised over $15 million in seed capital from some of the most well-known and respected healthcare VCs and angels. Companies and floating founders can apply by visiting www.blueprinthealth.org.

For you edification this week:

Speaking of robber barons and privacy, in case you missed it, Mark Zuckerberg overpaid in order to buy up all of the property surrounding  his Palo Alto home, for privacy, of course. This, the same week that Facebook is Removing your Option To Be Unsearchable By Name, Highlighting Lack Of Universal Privacy Controls. So, who can look up your Timeline by name? Anyone you haven’t blocked. Meaning 99.9% of the world’s population. And they are still using you as product pitchmen.

Robber barons revisited: ‘Dutch sandwich’ grows as Google shifts €8.8bn to Bermuda. The UK is Google’s second biggest market and was worth almost $4.9bn in 2012. However, it paid just £11.5m corporate tax in the UK last year.

Skype under investigation in Luxembourg over link to NSA. Ten years ago, the calling service had a reputation as a tool for evading surveillance but now it is under scrutiny for covertly passing data to government agencies.

Goodbye, tracking cookies? Don’t celebrate just yet. Microsoft and Google are both rumored to be working on replacement ad-tracking technologies, but maybe cookies are the lesser of two evils.

NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally. The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Question: if the end game is national security, why are border agents instructed to stand down?

Stanford researchers discover ‘alarming’ method for phone tracking, fingerprinting through sensor flaws. Yes, marketers, too. Who isn’t tracking us?

The New York Venture Capital and Angel Funding Report. All data is broken down by stage of funding (Angel, Series A, Series A Adjusted, Series B, and Series C+).

Proceed with caution: Seeking funding in a new era of solicitation. With the lifting of the ban on General Solicitation, most observers advise entrepreneurs to proceed with caution when navigating these uncharted fundraising waters now that the ban has been lifted. The piece includes tip to keep in mind.

3 Early Fails That Nearly Killed Our Startup. If you’re part of an early-stage startup, you know how fragile a young business can be. Without sustainable revenue or an established brand to fall back on, it doesn’t take a whole lot to crash and burn.
In Groove’s early days, we nearly crashed and burned not once, but three times. What follows is exactly what happened, and what you can learn to avoid making the same mistakes.

11 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Mobile Developer. Good to know.

10 Qualities Of A Successful Product. You can greatly enhance your chances for business success if your “new and improved” product shares a series of 10 important qualities. From a man who successful launched 500 products.

5 Myths Of Leadership. When it comes to leadership there is no one size fits all.

How Do you Motivate Yourself and Stay Focused?
Look, if you had, one shot
Or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?
[Eminem, Lose Yourself]
There’s more to it than that. Mark Suster explains.

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 our friends at Wizpert, an ER Accelerator company that just came out of beta: Wizpert is Live Chat Help for Programmers and the Next Leap Forward in Social

AlleyWatch is up for a grant from CitiBank, so please do go here and vote for us. And thank you!

Our thanks to Empire Avenue, who are sponsoring the #SMAC Summit in NYC (at the NYXPo this week on the 17th. They have secured some FREE Regular Admission tickets to enter the event using code: EAVIP2013 (You save $295) Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana, Empire Avenue co-founder and CEO, is an SOS member.

Heads up, Long Island! The New York Tech Meetup will now be simulcast at LaunchPad in Mineola. Sign up here to attend. And a big thank you to Jessica Lawrence of the NYTM and SOS member Jonathan Rudes of Cresa for making it happen.

That’s it from us this week and hope to see you at the The New York Expo and Conference (I’ll be at Booth 121 and I’ll have the new high protein, low fat,sugar free, natural power bars. They’re awesome) on Thursday. We’ll be at the bonniefoods booth, so please do stop by! Also, next week is New York Entrepreneurship Week and TechWeek, so get ready. And now, as always, help is on the way…

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