7/26/11

7/26/11

Good morning, All,

The 1st SOS 1-1 will take place on Wednesday, August 3rd and here’s how it works: We invite a seed/angel/early stage investor to come meet with you. The investor will do his or her presentation, letting you know what sort of investments they make and what the sweet spot is; then you have an opportunity to ask question, then meet him or her, one-on-one. We will start with a single guest early stage/angel investor and our first guest is Aaron Price from DFJGotham (and host of the perpetually sold-out Hoboken Tech Meetup). We’re keeping it informal which means, yes, there will also be a barbeque, and our thanks to our bbq sponsors, the 1099partners.com, who will also be there to talk to you about their services – and they’re always open to meeting new potential 1099partners.com consultants. Hope to see you there. To register: http://sos1-1.eventbrite.com/ We will do more in future, we will be incorporating technology so that non-New Yorkers can also participate and have 1-1s with the investors, too, so stay tuned!

Early bird rate still available for our next EW-SOS-ER Terrace Party, August 16th! Over 420 of you turned up to our last one, including 7 VCs; 2 superangels; 6 angels and 2 banks. To register: http://terraceparty.eventbrite.com/

The Mayor of the City of NY put forth a challenge: That NY could beat Silicon Valley and he’s offering subsidized real estate and $100 million in infrastructure upgrades to any institution, university or consortium that builds a world-class science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island, Governors Island or Brooklyn Navy Yard. Bloomberg projects that, within the first 30 years, this school will spin-off 400 new companies and create more than 22,000 permanent jobs. Article is here: http://wapo.st/q3xkoR

30 years, Gracie? Newsflash: New York has world-class universities: Columbia, NYU, Cornell, to name a few. Suggestion: what if the city took those funds and granted $250k to 400 NY startups? Successful companies with net revenues of $1m or more can then play it forward and the initial $250k can be reinvested in other entrepreneurs. Think we’d see 22,000 new permanent jobs in a hell of a lot less than 30 years? We’d put our money on it. Oh, wait, we pay taxes in NYC. That is our money. Vivek Wadhwa, who wrote the article, suggests putting the money into immigrants, who were the entrepreneurs who helped to build the city. Ok, but let’s not exclude the progeny of those immigrants. We’re still here, and we’ve still got that entrepreneurial drive, what, eh, kids? And current taxes and regulations that weren’t around in those immigrant days certainly don’t make it any easier. Onward and forward.

Deadlines!

The NYC Big Apps Challenge is on! You have until July 28th to enter your submission. For details and information on how to submit: http://ideas.nycbigapps.com/

The City of New York announced its first-ever hackathon: Reinvent NYC.GOV, July 30-31st  <http://www.reinventnycgov.com/>, is a collaborative design and development event to re-imagine the City government’s main website, nyc.gov. We’re partnering with General Assembly, who is hosting the hackathon on July 30-31. It will feature API resources and reps from DonorsChoose, ExpertLabs, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Twitter and YouTube onsite to support participants. At the conclusion of the hackathon on Sunday afternoon, a panel of judges (Mimi Chun of General Assembly, Dave Tisch of TechStars, Scott Heiferman of Meetup, City reps) will evaluate demos. You’re invited to attend, participate, and encourage talented coders and designers to apply. For more information: http://reinventnycgov.com

Sanofi-aventis U.S. Innovation Challenge:Data, Design, Diabetes. Deadline: July 31st. This next-generation challenge brings together the richness of open data sets made available on healthdata.gov, the values of human-centered design, and the leading-edge methodology of the top innovation accelerators. Starting July 1, we invite innovators to submit their ideas for consideration on our website: www.datadesigndiabetes.com.
The Data, Design, Diabetes Challenge offers:
– Month-long mentorship to develop a prototype from the RockHealthaccelerator program and its partners
– Opportunity to demo your solution to hundreds of industry leaders and innovation
– Additional prize money to generate user feedback and engagement from real people living with diabetes
– Over $200,000 in dilution-free earnings
This challenge is not just for healthcare apps! We’re enlisting your help to encouraging everyone – hackers, designers, dreamers, and entrepreneurs alike – to submit a solution that can help change the lives of the 100 million Americans living with diabetes.
www.datadesigndiabetes.com
Email info@datadesigndiabetes.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dddiabetes
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Data-Design-Diabetes/129625740449604
IMPORTANT DATES TO KEEP IN MIND:
July 1, 2011 – Submissions open
July 31, 2011 – Last day to submit an entry
August 5, 2011– 5 semi-finalists will be awarded $20,000, and mentored for 1 month as they create a prototype of their concept.
September 2011 (exact date tbd) – Demo Day: 5 semifinalists will pitch their concepts to contest judges and the public. Finalists will be selected by the judges and through open voting on the website.
October 2011 (exact date tbd) – 2 finalists will be awarded $10,000 to gather feedback about their concept from real people living with diabetes.
December 15, 2011– Winner will be announced and awarded $100,000 to develop their solution.
NEED INSPIRATION?
Fact:25.8 million people in the US have diabetes. CDC, 2011
Fact: 79 million more have pre-diabetes. CDC, 2011
Fact:The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes by 2050. CDC, 2010
Fact:Diabetes is one of the most serious epidemics our country has ever faced.
Fact: You can help. For more information about the disease of diabetes, and how the Innovation Challenge poses to help, please check out our video:
http://bit.ly/pyneNC
NEED DATA? For a variety of data sets and resources, please visit our links page: www.datadesigndiabetes.com/links
NEED HELP? For submission rules and guidelines for success, visit our criteria page: www.datadesigndiabetes.com/criteria

Investors’ Circle Call for Applications: Deadline August 5th. Are you: An Entrepreneur creating a more sustainable world with your business? Raising capital for your high-impact enterprise?  Looking for investors with values that align with yours?
Investors’ Circle is dedicated to the growth of businesses with high social and environmental impact.  We invite early-stage entrepreneurs to apply to present to our network of socially responsible angel investors, venture capitalists, foundations, and family offices.  Since 1992, Investors’ Circle has facilitated the flow of $150 million into 225 companies in a variety of sectors:
Energy & Environmental Solutions
Sustainable Consumer Products
Community & Economic Development
Health, Biotech & Wellness
Social Media & Software
Education
Will your venture be next?
For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/eDSKnB

The Daily Candy 2nd Annual Start Small, Go Big Contest: Deadline August 5th. Here’s your chance to launch your bazillion dollar idea. One winner from each of our categories (fashion, beauty, food and drink, and home) will win a trip to New York City, a DailyCandy write-up, and a day at the DailyCandy Academy, where the likes of Isaac Mizrahi, Marcus Samuelsson, and Rebecca Minkoff will mentor the begenius out of you. Just think, you have nothing to lose but your day job. For rules, details, and an entry form: http://bit.ly/aR8Yk5

StartupChile Round 2 deadline August 11. Start-Up Chile is a program of the Chilean Government, created by the Ministry of Economy, executed by CORFO via InnovaChile, that seeks to attract foreign, high-potential entrepreneurs to come to Chile to bootstrap their businesses with the end goal of converting Chile into the innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.  Start-Up Chile provides access to a mentors network, attendance to weekly networking events, and the support of the Program which offers all the necessary contacts to find the money, the talent, the expertise, the visibility or other support that you may need. The Program assigns a $40k grant per project ($20,000,000 CLP), a 1-year resident visa to every founding team member provided on the application, a temporary workspace (desk & wifi). And you surrender zero equity in your company. The program is conducted in English, and entrepreneurs worldwide are encouraged to apply. For more information: www.startupchile.org. To apply: http://bit.ly/i8bFur

Heads up, college students! Moverandchangers.com is all set to launch its third nationwide challenge to uncover the country’s next young entrepreneurs who want to make it big with their innovative ideas for a new business. The contest is open to 16-28 year old college students to develop and produce a compelling business proposal. Ideas must be original, feasible, scalable and practical. More information on the site, which features a video with Dennis Crowley, who, just for the record, wouldn’t qualify for the contest now, nor would he when he first started foursquare.  Deadline is October. Information is here: http://bit.ly/EvBLZ

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For your edification this week:

Governor Cuomo Signs Bill to Enable New $25M Seed Stage Equity Fund. As we were just saying…: http://bit.ly/pubGyX

New York vs. San Francisco: The Cost of Operating a Business in the Valley and the Alley. We always find information like this interesting, but do note the much higher local taxes in New York. Again, as we were saying… http://bit.ly/r22L9e

Financing Your Startup .As Roger Ehrenberg says, Bootstrapping. Friends & Family members (F&F). Angels. Venture investors (VC). These are each viable – and even appropriate – ways of financing your start-up. The question is: which is right for you? There are no easy answers, to be sure, but Roger goes through some insightful scenarios worth a gander:  http://bit.ly/oXp4Rs

How to Demo Your Software Product. Software is magic. A Demo is a magic show. So says Nate Westheimer, who’s been running the NY Tech Meetup for 2-1/2 years – and has developed software of his own. There’s good advice here, from start to finish, and most importantly – make sure your potential investors catch the magic: http://innonate.com/demo/

The Essential To-Do List for First-Time Entrepreneurs. When you leave the corporate world to go out on your own, you trade the illusion of security for the illusion of freedom, say the authors. The traps and landmines are out there, as we well know, so here’s a good roadmap on what to do, keep in mind, and plan for: http://bit.ly/m0XZ84

And just because….New York Ousts Boston As No. 2 Tech Hub. The city of Boston was outdueled, or should we say out-funded, in the second quarter as start-ups in and around the Big Apple raised $624.2 million in venture capital funding. Story is here: http://bit.ly/q27lNe

Homage to NASA: NASA just completed its last mission, but way back in the space program, the agency realized that with astronauts going into space, they needed a writing implement that would defy gravity, and so spent $10 million developing the space pen. Know what the Russians did when faced with the same problem?

They used a pencil.

For your amusement this week: you’ve probably all seen the eharmony cat video by now (http://youtu.be/mTTwcCVajAc), not to mention all of the spoofs on it. Jay Leno says it best, as the cats weigh in:  http://bit.ly/mmAkM4

This week, we have a post from London, and people from anywhere in the world can post, FYI. And we do know that you’re reading this outside of the US, so don’t be shy! We’re here to help. Speaking of which, help is on the way…

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