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 is Jason Klein. We keep the group small, so everyone will have a chance to talk to Jason, 1-on-1 and always worth the price of admission and remember: our guest investors are always well-connected – and are always happy to make introductions for people who make it a point to show up.

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 (the second largest angel group in NY, with more than $4 million invested across 25 companies), and a member of the New York Angels, the largest angel group in NY. Register here, and hope to see you there! Read More...

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...

Good morning, All,

The quote is a stage direction from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

You know it’s a quiet week when one of the ‘top’ stories is that Elon Musk Promises Tesla Owners Better Placed Cup Holders, Maybe. And that something’s slightly amok when two Tesla owners take out a full-page ad in the Palo Alto Daily News, the cup holders being one of the suggestions for improvement. At least we’re focused on the big stuff. Read More...

Good morning, All,

So, if you’re an innovator – and happen to live in Silicon Valley – arrogance is pretty much mandatory, according to this article: Arrogance Is Good: In Defense of Silicon Valley. Arrogance leads to innovation. (Insert Steve Jobs mention/‘Here’s to the crazy ones’ ad reference here.)

Back in the 80s there was a group of young actors dubbed the Brat Pack. They were famous, for a hot minute, but none had what you might call an exceptional career. They were mostly known for their partying and their heavy recreational drug use. And where are they now, indeed? Read More...

Good morning, All,

Our guest is very active investor Mike Edelhart, who spends ½ his time on the West Coast and isn’t readily accessible to the masses. Here’s your rare chance for a one-on-one, and maybe get his perspective on the startup scene on both coasts. It’ll be a good one and hope you can make it! Breakfast is included, of course, and we always leave time for networking. Register here.   (There will also be press there, so try to behave.)

Tech is something of anomaly among industries. Not only because it crosses so many of them, but also because it is so all-embracing and impacts so many facets of our lives. Sometimes, whether we like it/consent, or not. It took a long time before the Industrial Age really took hold and changed the world. Apple and Microsoft came along in the mid ‘70s, but home computers were far from ubiquitous until at least 20 years later. The web didn’t really hit the zeitgeist in any significant way until the mid ‘90s. It being 2014, and since we live in so-called Internet time, it’s a somewhat maturing industry. Or should at least start showing signs of some maturity. Read More...

Good morning, All,

We’ve gotten feedback that you all found out about it too late – so this is your head’s up, up front and personal – don’t say we didn’t flag it. Our guest is very active investor Mike Edelhart, who spends ½ his time on the West Coast and isn’t readily accessible to the masses. Here’s your rare chance for a one-on-one, and maybe get his perspective on the startup scene on both coasts. It’ll be a good one and hope you can make it! Breakfast is included, of course, and we always leave time for networking. Register here.

A few weeks ago, we found out that Facebook was engaged in a clandestine study to find out if emotions are contagious on social networks. Of course, it’s always our theory that the first shot across the bow is more or less the red herring to see how far they can push the line and get away with. Were there serious repercussions? Would you have remembered that little exercise, had we not reminded you? Read More...

Good morning, All,

Can we not call it the Internet of Thing? How about the Internet of Devices, or if we’re married to IoT, let’s be more specific and just call it the Internet of Tracking. Think that you’re going to sit this IoT out for a while? Or that it’s still a ways off? Have a smartphone? Welcome aboard! And speaking of smart phones, in case you missed it, Apple left a backdoor on every iOS device.

No, we’re not going the paranoid route/NSA/possible governmental next steps in the name of ‘security,’ yea, even in a world where a TSA agent doesn’t know that the District of Columbia is part of the US. But security and our personal information are always of concern to us, especially in a world where networks are not secure – and more and more of the devices of our everyday lives are being connected. Read More...