Startup One Stop

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day and let’s hope…

Good morning, All, and yes, we leave for London later this week (weather permitting, of course) and will be participating in Social Media Week there. And no, we will not be spiking the newsletter and tweets with some fake British accent, not to worry. That would be just too bloody pretentious.

Anyway, the good news: Philly-based DreamIt Ventures has come to NYC, and who’s heading up the new NY office? None other than entrepreneur, investor – and SOS member – Mark Wachen. Congratulations, Mark! Mark is truly one of the good guys. We’ve known him forever and his background: he raised $1 million to launch his own company, Optimost, which he ultimately sold for $52 million. Full story is here: http://bit.ly/eZtFkS More good news: Applications are now being accepted for the program, which runs from May to August 2011. Deadline to apply is March 16 (http://dreamitventures.com/apply/ Best for last (ok, so it’s all good): DreamIt is hosting an Alumni Night on February 15 at Solas and you’re all invited to attend, but you must RSVP: http://www.dreamitventures.com/news/events.php). Read More...

Good morning, All,

Ok, so first came the announcement that Larry Page was stepping in as CEO of Google come April (http://read.bi/hQGNRe), and the announcement was all over twitter, pretty much to the exclusion of all else but our favorite was tweet from Eric Schmidt himself: “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!”

Next came the Crunchies and Twitter won for Best Overall Product or Startup, and for being anindispensable part of social communication and a key ingredient in the fabric of the web. Read More...

Good morning, All, and our thanks to British Airways for making it possible. Yes, we are one of the winners of the BA Face-to-Face Competition, which is bringing American entrepreneurs to London to meet with the British business community, so let’s use this opportunity to meet, London-based members!

Arrival Date: February 4. Meetings: February 5. February 6: happy to plan an SOS gathering, so let me know if you’re in, and let’s get together at some pub or other. Open to suggestions. We love to put faces to email addresses and always happy say hello, no matter where in the world you happen to be.

This week’s good news: congrats go to pixable.com, who just launched their photofeed app, which will sort and categorize your Facebook photos. You can read all about it in techcrunch (Pixable’s Photofeed Sorts And Categorizes Your Facebook Photos: http://tcrn.ch/f4R7ob) and/or mashable (Pixable Aims to Change the Way you Browse Facebook Photos: http://on.mash.to/heRZLC) Read More...

Good morning, All,and so much for the peaceful Year of the Hare. Onward and forward.

Congratulations this week to Campbell McKellar (Founder & CEO, Loosecubes)
Loosecubesraised $1.2M funding and launched global network of shared workspaces that makes it easy to find a place to work, and is one of the Women 2.0 Female Founder Successes of 2010 (http://www.women2.org/2010-female-founder-startup-successes/). Campbell was also featured this week on the startuplist: http://startupli.st/post/2625979706/loosecubes. Great way to start the year!

Appy Awards early bird deadline January 14. Final deadline: January 28. The Appy Awards are all about acknowledging extraordinary Applications, whether they be mobile, social, or Web-based Apps living inside another Web site. The Appys do not discriminate by format, platform or device; instead, they focus on honoring the best Apps in a diverse range of categories, from Games and News, to Health & Fitness, Social Networking, Photography and many others. Enter your winning app today, or check out the complete list of categories to learn more about the Appys.(All entries received on or before 1/14/11 will save up to 20%.) http://bit.ly/fYzxpE Read More...

Good morning, All, and hope you had a fabulous start to the new year. And we’re referring to the weather here in NYC, nothing more (that we’re aware of) – freezing and 19” of snow to end the year; 50 degrees and balmy on New Year’s Day, which we will take as a good portent.

Congratulations (again) to Emily Lutzker (openinvo.com), who ended the year with a write-up in Techcrunch (this time) and started the new year with paying customers! The piece is here: http://tcrn.ch/hCS6oc and just for the record, we love sharing good news about members, so if you have news, do tell!

January deadline reminders: Read More...

Good morning, All,

That’s what the WSJ called the ‘thundersnow’ storm that hit Manhattan on Boxing Day, which was Monday, for those of us playing the home version. Thunder and lightning in the midst of a blizzard (http://on.wsj.com/ejiMcf). It was wild, and nothing like ending the year with a bit of sonne et lumiere, eh, courtesy of Mother Nature and thanks for the show! And lest we forget, it was our second blizzard of the year – and we had three tornados, too. Now, back to our regularly scheduled weather and program.

First, something for the creative on the list: The Adobe/Motorola Video Contest. Motorola and Adobe are seeking original, inventive ideas to convey the exciting possibilities made possible with full web browsing on new mobile devices like the DROID smartphones by Motorola with Adobe® Flash® Player. Read More...

Good morning, All, and we told you there’d be a holiday party!

Apologies for the late notice, but it’s been a bit hectic lately and actually, Hans Zaunere gets all of the credit for organizing the event and thank you, Hans! RSVP: http://www.bootup.io/holiday-party/rsvp and if you’re in NYC, hope you can find the time to stop by and raise a glass of cheer!

Last week we attended VatorSplash, and kudos to Henry Blodgett, CEO, Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Business Insider for his 10 Commandments (for entrepreneurs). It’s as close as we plan to get to an end of the year Top Ten list, and there’s some very good advice here, beyond the obvious (1. Build something you care about). One that hits particularly close to home: Don’t “be an entrepreneur” — Build a great product and company. Lots of people can go to events like Vator Splash and come up with ideas and say “I am an entrepreneur,” but a brilliant entrepreneur will focus on nothing but building the business. Reduce other activities “to the exact amount of time that is helpful.” Right. For the complete list: http://bit.ly/eVDSCg. Also worth checking out: the pearls of wisdom from blip.tv founder Mike Hudack, who changed his original business model before it was even de rigueur to pivot, (http://vator.tv/n/14e3)and boxee founder Avner Ronen (http://vator.tv/n/14e6), who refused to take no for an answer. Read More...

Good morning, All,

In Boston: Over 40 VCs will gather for The New England Venture Summit,™ dedicated to showcasing early stage VCs, corporate investors, and angel investors committed to funding early stage and emerging companies. Good time and place to get on their radar! More than 50 top innovators will be presenting, and whether you’re a startup seeking capital and exposure or aninvestor seeking new deals, this is one event you won’t want to miss, and it’s happening tomorrow, December 15, in Boston, presented by youngStartup Ventures. Register online now and take advantage of the special $100 SOS discount. Click on http://www.youngstartup.com/newengland2010/overview.php and enter discount code “sos”. To register by phone or inquire about group rates, call Rivka at 718.447.0009 and mention “sos”.

Tomorrow in NYC: Vator Splash NY. Vator (short for ‘innovator), will spotlight 10 promising startups across New York City’s hotbed of emerging technology companies – and we have an SOS discount! Go to: http://vatorsplashny.eventbrite.com/, enter the discount code: “SOS25”. In addition to general admission tickets, 25% discounted demo tables (including 3 admission tickets) are available to startups who missed the competition deadline. Enter code “Vator25” when registering. Avner Ronen, CEO of Boxee. will be there to talk about launching in the highly competitive set-top box space and Blip.tv co-founder and CEO, Mike Hudack, will talk about how his attempt at knowledge management software resulted in Blip.tv. Keynoting will be Henry Blodget, Founder and CEO of Business Insider, an up-and-coming business news site. Doors open at 5:00pm, Program begins at 6:00pm. Read More...

Not yet: this is a big month in the startup world!

Good morning, All,

First, application deadline for SXSW Accelerator is this week: December 10, and we all know that South By is one of the biggest showcases of the industry. And Accelerator provides an outlet for early stage companies to present their new online Entertainment products, Social networking applications, News-related technologies, Music-related technologies, Health technologies, or Innovative web-based technology services to a panel of industry experts, early adapters, and representatives from the Venture Capitalist community. It all happens March 14-16, 2011 in Austin, Texas and we’d love to see some of you there. As finalists, we mean. Or, just there. Apply at http://sxsw.com/interactive/accelerator or if you’re a music technology company: http://sxsw.com/music/accelerator Read More...

Good morning, All,

Ok, so it’s official: The New York Observer reported that Techstars NY is more selective than the Ivy League (579 applications mean 1.7% will be accepted) http://bit.ly/higFLV, so time to shift your focus – and we mean startups everywhere – to SXSW Accelerator, which returns for its third edition to showcase some of the web’s most exciting innovations, which can include companies like yours! The application deadline is December 10, 2010. SXSW Accelerator provides an outlet for companies to present their new online Entertainment products, Social networking applications, News-related technologies, Music-related technologies, Health technologies, or Innovative web-based technology services to a panel of industry experts, early adapters, and representatives from the Venture Capitalist community. Past judges have included Guy Kawasaki, Paul Graham (Y Combinator), Tim Chang (Norwest Venture Partners), Robert Scoble, Jeff Pulver (140 Conference), Chris Shipley (Demo) and Tom Conrad (Pandora). We invite your company to join us for this incredible event, as we highlight the technology market’s most impressive new innovations. The application deadline is December 10, 2010. Happening March 14-16, 2011 in Austin, Texas. Apply at http://sxsw.com/interactive/accelerator or if you’re a music technology company: http://sxsw.com/music/accelerator

Speaking of deadlines coming up – Founder Labs: Mobile Edition (Menlo Park) is this January and deadline to enter is December 1, 2010. Click here to apply, and it’s open to men and women, despite the fact that it’s a Woman 2.0 event: http://bit.ly/cctiqX.
How is Founder Labs different:
– We are focused on rapid prototyping.
– You work hands-on with potential team members.
– You don’t have to quit your day job or drop out of school. Come with enough energy to burn the midnight oil after work/school hours.
– There is no formal curriculum.
More information here: http://bit.ly/bmf2X0 Read More...