10/19/10

10/19/10

Good morning, All, and guess which venture capital firms are writing checks to early-stage internet and mobile companies in NYC?

You don’t really have to guess, because chubbybrain.com put the list together for us. Mind you, the rankings are not of the top NYC-based venture firms, but rather, who’s providing funding to NYC-based startups. But do you really care where the investors have their offices? Of course not, and the winner is…Lerer Media Ventures! For the full article and the whole list: http://bit.ly/bkXY7d

Which brings us to “Find-A-CoFounder3” taking place this evening at the Hudson Hotel and we’ve gotten a huge response from developers, who’ve already registered to be there. Hey, we read the post – we know that a lot of you are looking for developers and technical co-founders. Here’s your chance! We’ll even have past attendees speak for a few minutes about how they successfully found their co-founders at previous FAC events. So come, find your co-founder, then get busy and refer to the chubbybrain.com list of who to go for early-stage funding. Sounds like a plan to me!

Our VC/entrepreneur panel will feature Silicon Valley VC Vishal Shah with GGV Capital, who recently relocated to NYC and has a different take on what investors look for. We’ll also have serial entrepreneurs Joe Chin (sourcepad.com, Guidester – now Searchandise Commerce – et al) and Beth Schoenfeldt (co-founder, Collective-e and Ladies Who Launch). Next up: a speed-dating session to make it easier for you to partner up. And our thanks to HodgsonRuss for sponsoring. FAC is brought to you by Entrepreneurs Roundtable, StartupOneStop and cozywallet.com. To register: http://fac3.eventbrite.com. And we hope to see you this evening!

Speaking of wake up calls, Zazu would like to treat you to coffee! Well, not ALL of you. They’re a startup, after all. Zaza is now officially published on the Android marketplace and available for free and additional features such as calendar integration, advanced RSS controls, better voices, and more will be released shortly. To celebrate, they’re giving away free coffee to users who wake up with Zazu! Random users who set an alarm on Zazu will wake up to a gift card to Dunkin or Starbucks! Why? Of the 1200 beta testers we signed up, an overwhelming majority of sign ups indicated coffee was part of their morning, so they figured why not give away a cuppa?! For details: http://bit.ly/a01qQ2.

Speaking of free, don’t forget that if you want to attend New York Entrepreneur Week for free, Founders Block is launching a video contest for you to share your entrepreneurial story. Tell us “What is an Entrepreneur?” in 60 seconds or less and you can win a complimentary conference pass, valued at $874.12. The deadline is next week – October 24, and a winner will be chosen on October 25th. Click here for entry details. If you decide not to put your creative juices to work but want to attend anyway, NYEW is offering a 66% off discount to SOS members! But, we also have a ONE TIME SPECIAL – Save 75% (more than $650) on a full week pass – only 20 tickets available! Use code SOS345

The event takes place November 8-12 here in NYC and is the premier movement dedicated to promoting a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world. With over 100 speakers from 40 cities, 15 states and 3 continents, NYEW unites the state’s diverse entrepreneurial community, giving you the opportunity to connect with and learn from New York’s best and brightest entrepreneurs who are relentless, driven and dedicated to improving your business and the economy. For more information and to register: http://www.nyew.org/ SOS discount code: SOS345

Finally, we leave you – for now – with this: Groupon founder Andrew Mason on how to get super-rich. Mason’s first startup – thepoint, and yes, you’ve never heard of it – was not exactly a raging success, but he did learn something from it and here are six points are his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs trying to build businesses (full story here: http://on.mash.to/bUz1j2):
• 1. You’re building a tool, not a piece of art. Mason suggests that you don’t get blinded by vision, as he was with ThePoint. Groupon has been the total opposite, very focused on hooking the customer within the first few seconds.
• 2. Recognize and embrace your constraints.
• 3. Have a growth plan.
• 4. The best tools aren’t always that cool. Groupon chose e-mail because it’s simple and universal.
• 5. You’ll probably fail. Mason suggests that you have the fear of failure in the back of your mind because it’ll help you confront reality and shape your decisions towards building a viable product.
• 6. Quit now. Sometimes you have to let an idea go.

BTW, we got an ovewhelming response for Hashable invites and not to worry – we will get to everyone. Working on it…

For now, on with the show. Hope to see you all this evening at the Hudson Hotel and in the meantime, help is on the way…

Comments are closed.