Startup One Stop

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. Read More...

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. Read More...

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 Read More...

Good morning, All and apologies. This time we checked it and the link is working. For those of you in the back row who might have missed it the first time, New York Entrepreneur week is coming in April 12-16 and SOS members can register – at a discount – at: http://www.nyew.org/index.php/event/agenda-schedule/ Code: sos2010

Whew!

While we’re on the subject the Bootstrapper Summit is April 1. BSS is an intimate, early stage event bringing together some of the best and most exciting startups and the top investors. Investors representing over $5B in capital are expected to attend BSS IV. And speaking of some of the best and most exciting startups – SOS member companies are invited to apply to present at the Summit and one company from our community will be selected to participate. Full disclosure: the company selected will still need to purchase a (discounted) ticket to attend ($295). Companies can apply at www.BootstrapperSummit.com and make sure to mention that you are a StartupOneStop member. BSS is by application only; is only open to approved entrepreneurs and investors; and welcomes angel investors, venture funds as well as private equity & hedge funds. For details and registration, go to bootstrappersummit.com Read More...

Good morning, All, and cool beans! Gary Whitehill, New York Entrepreneur Week organizer and SOS member, is generously offering us a discount. Or is that, is offering list members a generous discount? Tomato, tomahto – details below and hope to see you there! If any of you out of town members are coming in for the event, let us know and we’ll try to organize a gathering.

New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) is a non-profit movement formed around a single belief: entrepreneurs change the world. And now is the time for entrepreneurs who have the will and drive to prove they can achieve anything, to stand up and come together in New York State for another groundbreaking NYEW event.

The New York Entrepreneur Week movement gives you the opportunity to actively engage the foremost entrepreneurs, investors and dealmakers both in the State and from around the world. NYEW is the largest statewide movement providing an exclusive educational experience for all entrepreneurs – from enterprising young idea-stage innovators to hundred million dollar revenue generators. Read More...

Good morning, All, and today, a short message from our sponsor – me.

We know the blast gets passed around to people whom you feel can help – or who needs some aid and assistance – and that’s fabulous. Friendors are the new vendors, after all (gotta love the patois that springs up around the online economy). Back to our story: We’ve been getting a number of posting lately from people who aren’t on our list, but who get the blast nonetheless. Simple rule: you want to help? Great! You want to post? Join. Ir’s free and posting is also free to members . If you don’t want to join, that’s fine, too, but there are associated fees for non-member posts. Email me offlist.

Finally, Techcrunch Disrupt is coming to NYC May 24-26. The conference itself is $1500 BUT – it’s free for startups to apply to pitch: http://tcrn.ch/aacaoM l Read More...

Good morning, All, and the list is six months old now! Yes, it’s still in its nasciency, but I really am serious about the question above. I’ve posted it to the SOS linkedin group, and if anyone has an answer or wants to venture a guess, informed or not, post it there or email me. All answers are welcome and will be read. You can even feel free to think of it, if you’d like, in the spirit of the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational, which asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter and supply a new definition. This year’s winner: Cashtration (n): the act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

Although my favorite was Sarchasm (n) the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

We may even read the best answers – provided you all respond – at the next Salon, coming in March, and those present get to vote on the best answer. Winner gets a free drink, courtesy of SOS. If the winner isn’t present that evening, well, we’ll figure it out, so out of towners/staters/overseas members, don’t be shy. Read More...

Good morning, All, and thought we’d give some lead time here. The Bootstrapper Summit is coming up in NYC April 1 (www.bootstrappersummit.com). Registration is now open and New York Entrepreneur Week tickets go on sale this Friday. If you’re coming in from out of town – or not – the NYC share-a-cab pilot program starts this Friday (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/nyregion/22taxis.html) and of course, there’s already a share-a-cab yahoo and google group – and a FB fan page. Really, does Heloise have anything on me? C’mon.

And now, help is on the way…

Hi, All, and if you don’t want your cell phone bills run up by telemarketers, don’t forget to register your number with the Do Not Call Registry https://www.donotcall.gov/

One more thing – we’ve gotten a few emails asking for recommendations for people to speak on various panels. Always happy to suggest and oblige, and you might also want to post to the list. We’re sure the membership might have suggestions and we’ll fess up: we often do recommend people on this list, wherever and whenever we can. You know who you are, and why not? The idea is to help and support and maybe even promote each other.

As always, help is on the way… Read More...

Good morning, All, and a request to those of you on the list who post paid workshops you’re organizing or are otherwise affiliated with: please be mindful of the fact that many of the entrepreneurs on this list are startups and/or students. We’re happy to post for you, but simply request that you offer a discount to SOS list members and much appreciated. Yes, there is one posted below, and since we’ve never made this request before, we’re posting it as submitted. This time.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program…