4/16/13

4/16/13

Good morning, All,

We wrote a different editorial, before yesterday’s Boston bombings. It feels inappropriate to post it today. As someone who lives in a city that also suffered an attacked, I know how difficult it is and how incomprehensible it feels. Our hearts go out to the city of Boston and to those who were affected by the violence of yesterday’s events. Here is the link to Google’s Boston person finder and we sincerely hope that you and yours are safe. What struck us is that, amid the horror and the mayhem of yesterday’s bombings, and despite the uncertainty of not knowing whether more bombs would go off (several more were later found, undetonated), people ran towards the screams to help their fellow man. Nothing justifies an act of such wanton violence, and in the horror of such sudden devastation, one would think that the first reaction would be to flee. That did not happen yesterday in Copley Square.

It was the day of the Boston Marathon: Patriot’s Day, commemorating the start of the American Revolution, and a day when strangers come together to cheer on strangers. Yesterday, strangers came together to help strangers. Doctors who were there to treat dehydration treated wounds and performed triage. Marathon runners changed course and ran towards hospitals to donate blood. In a civilized society, humanity prevails. And we will hopefully go onward and forward, taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again to more people and to other families.

Deadlines:

The list of Startup Weekend Upcoming Events

ER Accelerator  deadline: April 19th. $40,000 investment 4-month program. Follow-on investment in future rounds. 200+ awesome mentors, including yours truly. Apply now. There’s also an ERA Summer 2013 Happy Hour at Connolly’s this Wednesday, March 27th. Come and learn more about the program, and talk to members of the present class, alums and mentors – like me!

NEW  Digital Catalyst Fund Summer Boot Camp, starts in June; companies are accepted on a rolling basis.  Apply here. Applications are now being accepted for Digital Catalyst Fund’s 10-week Summer Boot Camp. This one-of-its-kind accelerator is seeking entrepreneurs with early stage ideas that can impact the new media/digital marketing space. Accepted entrepreneurs will be provided with up to $20,000 cash and cash equivalent services, as well as $30,000 in technical development resources – which can be accessed by living and working with our teams in Bucharest, Romania. For the informational webinar happening this week, go herehttps://angel.co/digital-catalyst-fund

Global Apps to Empower Competition Seeks Apps to Educate and Empower Women Everywhere, deadline April 30th. Applications that best satisfy the competition criteria will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their apps featured on Datawind’s $40 Ubislate educational tablet. That’s potentially a lot of computers – and a big win for the winning app! The UN is involved and the winning apps will be receive cash prizes, recognition (judges for the contest include Joanne Wilson, Vivek Wadhwa, Geena Davis. For more information and to apply: http://appstoempower.org/

New York Venture Summit: Apply to present/early bird registration now open.  The 13th annual New York 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, New York Venture Summit is one event you won’t want to miss. To be considered for one of the Top Innovator slots, please e-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for an application.

NEW  The Sikorsky Entrepreneurial Challenge, deadline May 1st. The Sikorsky Entrepreneurial Challenge is a competition held by Sikorsky Innovations to identify and support emerging, revolutionary technology in the rotorcraft market. The challenge provides an opportunity for entrepreneurial companies to understand some of the toughest issues facing the vertical flight community and identify their technology as relevant to one of more of these issues. See ‘I Can Help’ for more information.

Innovate Health Tech NYC, deadline May 2nd. $50,000 in cash & prizes, coaching sessions for finalists, and the opportunity to pitch your solution to health tech investors & entrepreneurs.

Startup Institute, deadline May 5th. SI works with professionals, career changers, and dynamic individuals to equip them with the skills needed to have an immediate impact on the startup company they join. The primary objective is to align passion with profession, and usher students into a life they love. This is a full-time, immersive, eight-week experience that will catapult you into your city’s technology ecosystem in the areas of web development, product & design, technical marketing, or sales & business development. Apply here and heads up: apply now: as soon as the class is full, applications close, too.

NEW  NYC SeedStart’s 3rd accelerator class, deadline May 5th. The class starts in July and will be focused exclusively on enterprise software. They’re partnering with local VCs (RRE, Starvest, Contour, Safeguard) and large enterprise partners (SAP, CA, Deutsche Telekom, Amazon). If you plan to apply, make sure to attend the info session on April 29th.

Gates Foundation offers $100k for ‘next-gen condom,’ deadline May 7th. You can’t make these things up.

LaunchHouse Accelerator Accepting Applications, Cleveland, Ohio, and all are welcome to apply. Deadline unknown. Program starts in August. For more information, see below under ‘I Can Help.’ To apply, go here. Also, just for your information, they do encourage people from anywwhere to apply – and even provide housing!

HackSummerStage, deadline May 8th.  SummerStage is looking for the app which best reflects the mission outlined above and uses the SummerStage content to engage the 280,000+ attendees to SummerStage’s annual summer-long festival.  Apps that creatively utilize both the SummerStage API and other provided APIs to offer a beneficial and positive experience to festival-goers, and reflect the fact that SummerStage extends to 16 parks beyond Central Park, will be judged higher.

L’ORÉAL NEXT GENERATION AWARDS, deadline May 10th. The three winners will be able to execute pilots across L’Oreal brands executed by the end of 2014. The winners will have the opportunity to meet with Venture Capital firms, L’Oréal executives, partners, and the press. L’Oréal will provide airfare and accommodations to attend the event. Winners will also be provided press opportunities with major consumer and trade publications. Winners will be recognized on the , on the L’Oréal Women in Digital website and invited on an ongoing basis to attend all L’Oréal Women in Digital meet-ups in local markets and internally to provide mentorship.

Fourth BigApps Competition, deadline June 7th. $150k in prizes, and there’s a NYC BigApps 2013 Expo and Hackathon Weekend at eBay’s New York offices the weekend of April 6th. More information about the BigApps competition is on the NYCBigApps website.
 
Blueprint Health Accelerator, deadline June 8th. They just had their demo day, and getting ready for the next session. The foundation of the program is a community of over 150 healthcare entrepreneurs, investors and industry executives that are committed to helping you build and grow your business. It’s the largest network of mentors with healthcare expertise of any accelerator, which can provide you with warm introductions and the strategic and tactile advice you need. Plus $20,000 in cash, over $50,000 in perks, office space at our SoHo office, and a community that is dedicated to seeing you succeed.

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For you edification this week:

There were problems at Tumblr this week, too. Besides the Storyboard layoffs, said one staffer, “Karp (26) seems to treat Tumblr like a junior high lunch room–he sits with his five favorite people of the moment, and treats everyone else like a reject.”

, What Is A Good Venture Return? This from Fred Wilson, who happens to be an investor in FS.

From Don Dodge (who is now at GOOG Ventures, we believe): Why VCs look for 10X returns – What you need to know when pitching a VC firm.

I Raised Capital, Now What? Good piece and it even tells you the best days to make your funding announcement. Yes, it makes a difference. Do you know what a press embargo is?

Why Entrepreneurs Need Charisma and Six Easy Ways to Project it. Charisma is a powerful asset that is free, can be developed easily and will dramatically accelerate an entrepreneur’s journey to success.

Stop Congress From Making a Bad Computer Law Worse. They never give up. We must stay vigilant.

Cable Companies Can Now Force You to Rent Set-Top Boxes. Here Are Your Alternatives. Aereo, currently only available in New York, is also mentioned and there’s a story that’s blowing up fast, to the point where CBS and Fox are considering switching to a subscription-only model.

Heads up, Cali: Even Checking Maps on Phone While Driving Not Okay. You’ve been warned.

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!

That’s it from us for now, and now, as always, help is on the way…

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