Startup One Stop

Good morning, All,

First off, our October Breakfast with an Angel will be on Wednesday, October 15^th, and our guest investor will be Jason Klein. Jason Klein has a background in media, consulting, and healthcare. He is founder and CEO of On Grid Ventures, an advisory and investment firm specializing in digital media and marketing. He is also Chairman of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels (HBS Alumni Angels of Greater NY is the second largest angel group in NY, with more than $4 million invested across 25 companies, and part of a global HBS Alumni Angels network with chapters on 4 continents, and a member of the New York Angels, the largest angel group in NY. Register here, and hope to see you there!

Two weeks ago, you’d probably never heard of Ello – and now everyone is angling for an invitation to the new social network (if you’d like one, let us know and we’ll send along as many as we can). Read More...

Good morning, All,

First, a big thank you to Jeanne Sullivan, who was the Investor at last week’s SOS Breakfast with an Investor. Amazing advice, as always, and she held court and stayed an extra two hours in order to speak to everyone who wanted her ear and pearls of wisdom. Our thanks to all of you who attended as well and hope to see you next month. Details for our next breakfast coming next week.

Every now and then, an article or two come to our attention and it’s stop the presses time. Peter Thiel is on a book tour ("Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future) and has a lot to say about this industry. Technology Stalled in 1970. Peter Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems than the ones Silicon Valley is chasing. He makes excellent points and also makes you wonder - with the exception of the Elon Musks of the world - if Silicon Valley has truly produced Masters of the Universe. Self-driving cars and Droids aside, Google sells soap. And your information, with greater accuracy than Nielsen. The cars and smart phones aren’t their bread and butter. They’re merely other vehicles for gathering information, no pun intended. Yes, having information at your fingertips on demand is wonderful, but the overarching revenue model – advertising and information-gathering: underwhelming. Invasive. And certainly at least several degrees short of genius. Here’s another thought piece, that’s worth your time: Free Is the Curse of the Internet. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Our Breakfast with an Investor is this Thursday, September 18^th, and we do keep them small so that everyone gets one-on-one time with the investor, who is the amazing Jeanne Sullivan, whom Forbes named as one of the “5 Most Powerful Women Changing the World in VC and Entrepreneurship.” Jeanne  is definitely one of the most influential women in the industr, and face time with an investor is the holy grail for startups, so don’t pass up the opportunity. Register here and hope to see you there!

One of the biggest stories in tech, that went pretty much unreported was neither the new iWatch (iPass), nor was it net neutrality, which is tame in comparison: it’s the US/Icann hand-over of internet governance, which Obama approved, and which goes into effect next year – and it just got worse. Read More...

Good morning, All,

First off, ur next SOS Breakfast with an Investor will be September 18^th – it’s a Thursday this time, and our guest investor will be the one and only Jeanne Sullivan, who’s back from her world travels and making one of her first appearance since her return, at our breakfast. Register here and hope to see you there!

Last week, celebrities were hacked and nude photos were posted online and shared, it seems (that link is not to the photos, in case you were wondering and hadn’t yet checked). Ok, you’re a celebrity. You probably know very little about technology, or rather, to use an analogy and to quote the late Joan Rivers, ‘Grandchildren can be so f---ing annoying. How many times can you go, 'And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink'? It's like talking to a supermodel." Not generally the sharpest tools in the shed, and while Apple can certainly share part of the blame for its lax iCloud security, most people use weak passwords. Read More...