An exec at a large European financial company recently told me his former CEO believed “Failure is not an option”. Great, I thought. This means they will do whatever it takes to succeed, try five or ten different approaches until it works, get the whole company focused on the goal, etc. No, he told me. What it means is “Make a mistake and you are fired.” Wow! Another example of the difference between startups and big companies. I have worked most of my career in startups where you are always pushing the envelope, taking big risks, where there are no obvious answers, and you just keep trying until you find the combination that works.  Startups play poker, big companies play chess – This “failure is not an option” discussion reminded me of the huge differences between startups and big companies. Success is not easy in either case, but the approaches are radically different. Using a game analogy, startups are more like poker players. They take big risks, they bluff, they make quick decisions, change direction constantly, and they keep their competitors off balance. Poker is an aggressive game where if you play your cards right you win big, and win fast. If you lose a hand you can come back and double your money in the next hand. There is no time to wallow over a loss. You did your best. Move on and your luck will be better next time. Chess is a different game. Both require incredible skill and talent. A great poker player is rarely a good chess player.
Big companies think long term. Like chess players they think four or five moves (years) ahead. They protect their assets, play defensively, think strategically, and carefully consider the options before making a move. Big companies have a lot to lose, while small companies don’t. Big companies leverage their assets (conservatively) and flex their muscles where they can. They go for incremental improvements in position. Big company CEOs, like chess players, work a long term strategy. Each short term move plays a part in a longer term strategy that is not visible to the casual observer. In fact, their strategy is often kept secret, and they take care to make sure their short term moves don’t reveal their long term plan. Strategy is a competitive advantage. There is another interesting topic on how to make the transition from startup to successful big company, but we will save that for another day. Fail Fast – If you are going to fail, do it fast and move on to the next thing. More in depth thoughts here. The only thing better than a "Yes" is a quick "NO". When you are raising money, selling a customer, or trying to get a deal done, it is the long drawn out process that never ends that will kill you. It is the same thing with startups. Being successful is always the goal, but if it is going to fail...Fail fast. Bill Warner, founder of Avid Technologies, Wildfire Communications, etc, said recently “Some of you guys are so smart you turn what should have been a one year failure into a five year death march.” Entrepreneurs are resourceful, smart, and have that indomitable spirit that doesn’t allow them to quit. This can be good and bad. Sometimes it is better to “fold” and move on to the next game. Hold ‘em or Fold ‘em? – “You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run.” Kenny Rogers. The toughest decision any entrepreneur makes is giving up on a company. It just isn’t in their DNA to do it. In fact, they rarely decide to do it, it is the investors who finally make the call. How do they decide? It is really about passion and commitment – from the founders, investors, employees, and customers. If the passion is lost in any two of the four groups…it is probably time to “fold” and move on. Fine line between success and failure – There are no easy and obvious answers. If it were easy everyone would have already done it. Timing and luck play a big part in success…bigger than most people will admit. There are four key elements to success in any business; great people, great idea, great timing, and luck. If you don’t have any two of the four…you are probably going to fail. I have seen startups with great people and a great idea that were too early (timing), or had bad luck on things they couldn’t control. They failed. The same idea tried five years later succeeded. Timing matters. The market needs to be ready to adopt your ideas. The answer is never obvious. You don’t know for sure until you try.
Guitar Hero recently released a new version of their smash hit video game that has sold over $1 Billion. To the casual observer Guitar Hero seems like an overnight success, a stroke of luck and genius. But this is a story of tenacity, strong willed entrepreneurs, and patient, supportive investors. I first wrote this story several years ago when I met one of the founders of Guitar Hero at the Nantucket Conference. The recent release of the game made me think of this post, and how the story is timeless. Here it is one more time.
Eran Egozy, co-founder and CTO of Harmonix Music Systems was on a panel at the Nantucket Conference entitled "Tipping Point: The keys to getting new ideas to take off". Harmonix is the maker of Guitar Hero, the wildly successful video game.
Guitar Hero was an instant...overnight success, 10 years in the making, selling over $1Billion to date. Harmonix was founded in 1995 but Guitar Hero didn't come along until 10 years later in 2005.
What did Harmonix do in the first 10 years? Harmonix founders met at the MIT Media Lab and their first idea was to create new ways for non-musicians to experience the joy of making music. Similar to another MIT Media Lab company called HarmonyLine, this idea never really took off.
Eran joked "For the first four years we couldn't sell anything but stock. We knew that wasn't a business model, but at least we had money coming in to keep us going."
Around 2000 they decided to try applying their music technology to video games. But it was 5 more years until they tasted success. They released eight video games over that period, with modest results. Eran said "The trick in the video game business is to make enough money from your game to keep you going until you can release your next game."
Most new video games don't make a profit. The game business is very much like the music business, or even the venture capital business, in that it is a "hits" driven business. One big hit pays for lots of losers.
Guitar Hero was the 9th video game produced by Harmonix, 10 years after founding the company, and it put them on the map with more than $1 Billion in sales. They recently sold the company to MTV Networks, a division of Viacom for $175M.
iRobot a 12 year overnight success. Colin Angle, founder and CEO of iRobot told a similar story. iRobot was founded in 1990 with the idea of creating robots to do interesting stuff. For 12 years they did projects and built products but never really achieved financial success. Colin said they paid employees once a month at the end of the month. They never had enough cash at the beginning of the month to meet the payroll at the end of the month. But they persisted in their dream.
September 11th 2001 changed everything. They decided to apply their robot experience to help the military in dangerous situations. DARPA, the research arm of the U.S. Defense Department paid out grants to lots of companies to develop proposals for new defense technologies. iRobot won a $200K grant to write a proposal for a battlefield robot.
Colin Angle said the company had never had $200K in the bank...ever. So, rather than use the money to write a proposal they just built the robot. What a concept!! DARPA had a big meeting to review all the proposals from various defense contractors. iRobot showed up with their robot and a tiny written proposal. They won the business and DARPA awarded them a $4M contract to build robots for use in Afghanistan. They have since sold over $150M of robots to the military.
Colin said that iRobot entered and exited 18 different businesses over their 12 year existence before finally landing on the military robot idea. They have since entered the consumer market with robot vacuum cleaners and swimming pool cleaners.
Persistence and tenacity are hallmark qualities of successful entrepreneurs. Harmonix and iRobot are excellent examples of that never die attitude. There is a fine line between success and failure. There is no secret formula or obvious path to success. Just one common trait...an indomitable desire to succeed against all adversity and doubt. Very few people have this drive and the leadership ability to attract great people to their cause. This drive is indefinable but we know it when we see it. It is sometimes misdiagnosed as being delusional and fanatical. The difference in diagnosis is success or failure. Succeed and you are a brilliant visionary. Fail and you are a delusional loser. The line between them is very fine.
Microsoft is proud to be a sponsor of JuicePitcher, an event produced by VatorNews and TheFunded, to find the most promising early-stage startups. The cool thing about this conference is that you, the audience, pick which companies get to present. Voting is open now.
More than 130 startups are competing for 10 presentation slots in front of more than 300 investors, tech executives, angel investors, VCs, and media.
To attend the JuicePitcher event register here. It will be held at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View on Tuesday, October 6th starting at 6:00 pm.
 Ten founders selected by their peers and validated by the judges will present in front of an audience of start-up founders, press, and investors. Attending investors include JAFCO, Leapfrog, Polaris, Omidyar, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Round, Blue Run, as well as various angels. Guests will be also treated to two talks by leading silicon valley CEOs on how to build an investor-friendly business by Aaron Patzer of Mint.com and generate substantial revenues by Munjal Shah of Like.com. Snacks and drinks will be served.
With several successful Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Weeks (CRM Reston, CRM Boston, Win 7 Irvine, Mobility Mountain View), we are pleased to announce Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 (Boston, MA, week of 5th October’09).
 The current economic downturn is putting many entrepreneurs under increasing pressure, making it critical to find new resources and ways to reduce costs and inefficiencies. Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 is designed to offer following assistance to entrepreneurs.
· Learning and building next generation application utilizing new and unique Windows 7 capabilities with help of on-site advisors and off-shore development team
· Getting entrepreneurs coaching from guest speakers and a panel of industry experts
· Generating marketing buzz for your brand
· Creating opportunity to be highlighted at upcoming Windows 7 launch
We are inviting nominations interested in developing Windows 7 applications that target one or more of the following scenarios:
The Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 will be held at Microsoft Technology Center, Waltham, MA from Mon 10/5/2009 to Fri 10/9/2009. This event consists of ½ day of training, 3 ½ days of active prototype/development time, and a final day for packaging/finishing and reporting out to a panel of judges for various prizes.
This event is a no-fee event (plan your own travel expenses) and each team can bring 3 participants (1 business and 1-2 technical).
To nominate your team please contact Sanjay.Jain@Microsoft.com Nominations will be judged according to the strength of the founding team, originality and creativity of the idea, and ability to leverage new and unique Windows 7 features. Over 250 startups are now launching at Ycombinator, TechStars, TechCrunch50, and DEMO. The startup community is alive and well. How do investors evaluate all these very young startups? Here are some things to consider. - Startups change rapidly - If you saw Google or Facebook at 3 months old you wouldn’t have been impressed either. A year from now, and 3 years from now these companies will look very different. Look for the vision, not the current reality.
- Great ideas are never obvious - Of course the idea isn’t obvious, or seems too simple. If it was obvious many companies would have already done it. You should scratch your head and say Huh? at this point. Was Facebook or Twitter obvious? Only a year or so later. Entrepreneurs can see around corners. The rest of us…not so much.
- Elevator pitch isn’t the whole story - It is not possible to show everything and convey the full vision in a 6 minute demo. The press can’t accurately put the company in context, and extrapolate the vision, as they write in real time for just a few lines, and publish within minutes. Investors react faster, are better at pattern matching, and size up people quickly.
- Been done before - They may not be the first to do something. Google wasn’t the first search engine either…more like the 14th entry. But, the Next Big Thing may be the old thing done in a new way. Innovation happens all along the product life cycle. Sometimes disruption happens much later.
- Just a feature, not a product - Many companies start as just a feature and evolve into a full product set and successful company. At just 3 months old it is hard to predict which ones will successfully evolve and which ones won’t. Microsoft started out with just the BASIC programming language. The DOS OS came later, and other products much later.
- Too small and insignificant – Remember that every company was once a startup. Two people and an idea. Microsoft started when Bill Gates and Paul Allen were students. Google started when Larry Page and Sergey Brin were students. Apple started with just Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. We should remember this when looking at young startups.
- Unimpressive presentation – The pundits and skeptics are quick to say “not impressed”, “nothing new here”, or “poor presentation”. They should remember that startup founders are usually not polished marketing guys experienced at presenting in front of large audiences. Startup founders at TechCrunch, Ycombinator, TechStars, etc. are incredibly bright, passionate, risk takers…and usually young geeks with no experience. Don’t underestimate them.
I have read the snarky comments from pundits and skeptics in the TechCrunch comments section and other blogs. It is easy to criticize…much harder to create. They should remember there are 3 kinds of people; Those that MAKE it happen, those that WATCH it happen, and those that wonder WHAT happened. These startups are people that MAKE it happen. They should be respected and supported by those of us in the later two categories. I hope to see many of you at TechCrunch50 next week. Please stop by and say hello.
TechStars is a startup incubator started by Brad Feld and David Cohen in Boulder, CO three years ago. This year TechStars expanded to Boston. They have been very successful with three of the original ten companies from the class of 2007 already acquired; (SocialThing by AOL, Intense Debate by Automattic, and Brightkite by Limbo).
 Today, TechStars debuted nine new startups from the inaugural Boston class. The teams presented to about 300 VCs and Angel investors for the first time at Microsoft's New England Research and Development Center (MS-NERD). These companies are about three months old and have two or three founder employees.
 TempMine – is looking to change the temporary staffing market. The company believes that they've found a way to make the temps, employers, and agencies happier with a single solution. Temp workers create a profile on TempMine that is automatically updated as placements occur, providing more transparency and traceability to the process. Employers can search directly for temps across the inventory of multiple agencies, finding the right fit. Agencies retain control over placements of their best temps. The temp agency only gets involved after the employer finds the exact temp they want. There is no cost to employers or temps to use TempMine, but they do take a 1% commission from the agencies. It is an $86B industry, so 1% can add up.
![clip_image001[6]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image0016_thumb_1BE4123C.jpg "clip_image001[6]") LangoLab – Is the most entertaining way to learn a new language…by watching popular TV shows and videos with sub titles. LangoLab leverages the American media machine that is constantly churning out entertaining content and then provides an engaging "watch and learn" experience complete with translations, definitions, user generated language notes, and self testing. Many people have learned English just by watching TV with subtitles, and this is the online equivalent. English as a second language is the largest market. As an example, Rosetta Stone had $250M in revenue last year, and the total market is around $30B.
 Localytics - provides mobile usage data and analytics for the mobile market, similar to companies such as Flurry and Medialets. Localytics says that it has both real time and "deeper" analytics than the competitors, allowing you to slice and dice the data in a variety of ways to gain better and more immediate insight into the usage of mobile applications. They also explained that they've open sourced critical components so that developers can know exactly what they're putting into their applications, and that their mobile components are highly optimized for performance. Localytics is cross platform and already supports Blackberry, Android, and iPhone applications, with plans for Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm planned for the near future. Localytics uses the Freemium model, free base service, with paid premium services. They already have 60 customers, adding 10 new customers each week, and they just launched.
 AmpIdea - is working on web-enabled baby monitoring as a platform for delivery of various services such as video monitoring, sleep tracking and analysis, statistical comparison, music streaming, and even an integrated baby encyclopedia (Baby 411) which suggests techniques to soothe sleeping babies based on age. While they're at it, they're using wifi as the delivery mechanism for audio and video monitoring, which eliminates the static and range issues that plagues traditional baby monitors. For new parents money is no issue when it comes to safety and a good nights sleep. The sleep scheduling monitor keeps a record of when the baby is sleeping and waking up over time. This helps the parents schedule when to put the baby down for naps and night time sleep. AmpIdea sells the monitor hardware and charges for additional services.
![clip_image002[6]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image0026_thumb_1BE4123C.jpg "clip_image002[6]") HaveMyShift - This company has built a tool that allows hourly shift workers to trade shifts online. The company is using a grass-roots approach and encourages employees to sign up and trade shifts with or without the blessing of the company itself. They're seeing strong viral adoption in the Chicago area market where, for example, 80% of Starbucks stores there already use the application. Many of the listings offer "bonus money" to tempt others who work for the same employer to pick up a shift, and last minute shifts can pay for emergency promotional placement. HaveMyShift makes money by taking a percentage of the bonuses offered to other workers to cover a shift. Absenteeism costs US employers more than $200M every day. There are 74M hourly workers in the USA, working 888M shifts. HaveMyShift says that it's simply facilitating a process that goes on anyway, and making it easier on everyone involved.
![clip_image002[6]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image0026_thumb_1BE4123C.gif "clip_image002[6]") oneforty - is creating an app store for Twitter applications, open to any developer who wants to build and sell a Twitter app. The company organizes the apps by category, allows for ratings, media coverage, profiles (showing what applications are used by various users), and the necessary ecommerce infrastructure. Oneforty takes a percentage of every sale. Funded by angel investors just 15 days after the start of TechStars, the company is also advised by Guy Kawasaki who says that oneforty founder Laura Fitton (@pistachio) was a major influence on his initial use of Twitter. Laura also taught Twitter for Business at Harvard Business School.
![clip_image001[10]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image00110_thumb_49D164F4.jpg "clip_image001[10]") AccelGolf - 30,000 golfers are already using AccelGolf, after just 3 months in beta, for stroke tracking, range-finding, and personalized improvement of their golf games. The company showed off their BlackBerry and iPhone applications and explained that the heart of their system is really the community of avid golfers who are now connecting and building their own social network. AccelGolf offers personalized improvement tips by analyzing strokes of golfers who are just slightly better than you, and presenting areas for improvement based on your past performance. For example, AccelGolf suggests which club to use, and where to place the shot, based on your past performance on this course. In one example the company showed the iPhone application calculating odds based on past performance for landing a risky shot over a sand trap on a dog leg left. AccelGolf already has 70% of all golf courses loaded in their system. They use the GPS on your phone to determine your position and calculate distance to the pin.
![clip_image002[8]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image0028_thumb_49D164F4.gif "clip_image002[8]") Baydin – uses email, and the words in the email, to create keywords to search for other relevant information. It is similar to Xobni, but goes beyond email data and searches all the files on your hard drive, and document repositories across your corporate network. It automatically launches the search in the background while you are reading the email, and presents the relevant results in a side panel in Outlook. The founder used an example from his first job where he designed a USB circuit board. He didn’t know that five other divisions had already designed similar boards. Baydin would have found references to this and saved him the effort of reinventing the same board. Baydin is an Outlook plug-in so it is easy to draw comparisons to Xobni here, but Baydin seems to be more focused on unlocking hidden corporate knowledge vs.. analyzing email that you've already received.
![clip_image002[10]](/Blogs/the_next_big_thing/Lists/Posts/Attachments/689/clip_image00210_thumb_49D164F4.gif "clip_image002[10]") Sensobi - bills itself as a personal relationship manager (PRM) and reminds me a lot of Xobni , but it goes beyond email and looks at phone calls and other activity on your phone contact list. In practice, it's a BlackBerry address book replacement that shows you the last time you communicated with your contacts, who's falling off your radar, and who you need to get back to quickly. You can set a reminder for each contact to remind you to connect with them within a specific time interval. It does this by analyzing the email, contacts, text messages, and phone calls on your Blackberry and then presenting your contacts in a relationship-focused view. For example, for any contact you can see the last several communications of any kind with them. The team edition takes this one step further and allows co-workers to share and leverage a unified view of communications with each contact. Sensobi uses the Freemium model, with paid premium services for $50 or $100 per year. Over 6,000 downloads in just 6 weeks, while still in beta.
TechStars plans to bring about a dozen of the 19 companies from Boulder and Boston to San Francisco on September 30th for a "best of" repeat performance. Here is coverage of the San Francisco TechStars event from last year. Do VCs really make investment decisions on a new startup in 5 minutes? Well, they decide to say NO in 5 minutes, saying YES takes longer. The key to an “elevator pitch” is to get them interested, answer the basic questions, and get to the next meeting. Next week at TechCrunch50, startups will have 6 minutes to do an “elevator pitch” to a panel of experts and 1,500 investors, tech execs, and press. It is called the “elevator pitch” because you should be able to explain your new company idea to a prospective investor in the time it takes to ride an elevator to their floor. What should you cover? The Problem – Start with the problem you are solving or the need you are filling. A real life story or scenario about the problem helps the investor understand the problem or need in personal terms, and agree that it is an interesting problem that needs fixing. Dave McClure says too many entrepreneurs start by talking about their solution and whiz bang technology. How they do it versus the problem they solve. If the investor is not interested in the problem…there is no way they will be interested in your solution. Once they are nodding their head about the problem, move on to the solution. The Solution – Explain why your solution solves the problem, and why it is better than other solutions. We do X for Y, or we are the X (well known product) for the Y market. Again, not how it works…but why it works. It might be cheaper, faster, smaller, easier, more enjoyable, or whatever. Don’t waste time explaining the technology, or flowcharting the process or value chain. Just explain why your solution solves the problem better than anything else. The Competition – If there is no competition there probably isn’t a market. Competitors help the investor understand the problem, existing solutions, and potential size of the market. Even if you think you are inventing a new market, the problem has been there a long time, and people have figured out ways to solve it. Acknowledge that there are existing ways to partially solve the problem, and companies that have part of the solution, and why yours is better. Investors will be very nervous if there is no competition. The Business Model - Who will pay? Is your solution a vitamin or a painkiller? Vitamins are nice to have, painkillers are a must have. There are some problems that no one will pay to solve. There are other problems where the one getting the benefit is not the party that pays the money. Sometimes there are multiple players in a value chain. Be very clear about where you are in the value chain, who will pay for your solution, and how much they will pay. The Team – What experience do you and your team have starting companies or specific experience in this market segment? Are there any well known advisors or financial backers helping you? Do you have connections to people who can help you get your first customers? The Close – We are solving a big problem, in a growing market, with a model that works, and a team that can execute. We need X dollars to reach Y milestone. We need investor partners to help us achieve this success. Show passion and confidence. Ask them to join the crusade. This is going to be The Next Big Thing. Spend one minute on the problem, three minutes on the solution and demo, and 30 seconds each on the competition, model, team, and close. That is 6 minutes. Practice it 20 or 30 times. Every founder and early employee should be able to do the elevator pitch. Practice in front of friends, then practice in front of strangers that know nothing about your idea. Quiz them after to see if you message got through. Every potential new hire needs to buy into the story just like investors do. In many cases customers need to buy into the story too. This is important. Get it right and life will be much easier. Get it wrong…and you will get a NO in 5 minutes or less.
Yes, there is good news in the Venture Capital world. Vinod Khosla recently raised over $1B for Khosla Ventures. Other firms have raised significant funds as well. VCs have raised over $60B in the last 2 years. Here is a list of recent fund raises. Numbers in $ Millions.
| Khosla Ventures |
1050 |
| Domain Associates |
500 |
| Mohr Davidow |
100 |
| Matrix Partners |
600 |
| Catamount Ventures |
80 |
| 5AM Ventures |
159 |
| UV Partners |
120 |
| MK Capital |
75 |
| August Capital |
650 |
| Signal Lake |
150 |
There is plenty of VC money available but firms are being very cautious about where they invest. There are lots of deals getting done. Jeff Clavier at SoftTechVC has made 41 investments in the past two years. First Round Capital has made 56 investments. Legendary Angel investor Ron Conway has made a similar number recently, and over his career has made about 500 investments. Here is a list of firms making the largest number of deals.
| Draper Fisher Jurvetson |
88 |
| First Round Capital |
56 |
| New Enterprise Associates |
55 |
| Kleiner Perkins |
55 |
| Polaris Ventures |
44 |
| Domain Associates |
41 |
| Atlas Venture |
38 |
| Interwest Partners |
33 |
| Intel Capital |
32 |
| Venrock |
31 |
Why VCs say NO 99% of the time - There is lots of investment capital available, but remember, VCs say NO 99% of the time. Each firm has an investment thesis and they try to stick to it. You may need to talk to lots of firms before you find a match. Remember that you probably say NO about 99.9% of the time in your investment decisions too. Consider that there are about 5,000 publicly traded stocks and another 5,000 mutual funds. The average investors holds about 5 stocks and 5 mutual funds. Why did you pick these 10 and say no to the other 9,990 investment alternatives? Were they bad companies or investments? Lots of other people have invested in them…they just weren’t right for you. VCs are the same way.
TechCrunch50 is in it’s third year. Bigger and better than ever. It's being held September 14th and 15th in San Francisco and just like last year, you can expect two days filled with amazing demos, incredible ideas and unmatched networking opportunities. With 50 companies launching on stage, another 100+ in the Demo Pit, lots of VCs and Angel investors, and dozens of the industry's top though leaders, there's no better place to learn everything you need to know about startups.
Here is what you can expect from TechCrunch50:
- Exposure to some of the hottest new startups from around the globe
- Insight and analysis from thought-leaders across the industry
- Network with Marissa Mayer, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Yossi Vardi, Kevin Rose, Robert Scoble and many more
- The best conference after-parties
Make sure you get your tickets soon. You can currently get them for only $1995 (a 33% discount), but they go up to the normal price ($2995) after August 31st, so act soon!
There is an amazing Panel of Experts again this year. The judging is done “American Idol” style where the judges give immediate feedback to each presenter. Several winners are announced at the end of the conference.
 Microsoft BizSpark is a sponsor again this year. BizSpark will present the “BizSpark Web Audience Choice” award this year to the best startup voted by the audience watching on Ustream. Last year thousands of people from around the world watched the conference live on Ustream. This year you will have the chance to be a judge too by voting online for your choice as best startup.
Check out BizSpark if you are a software startup (less than 3 years old) to get the software, support, and exposure you need to make your startup successful.
Please stop by and say hello if you are at the conference. Many members of Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team will be there from start to finish, and at all the parties. Come join the fun!
StartupDay 2009 is a conference exclusively for the technology industry pre-entrepreneurs, those who have yet to join or found a startup. The event will be Saturday, September 26 in Bellevue, WA, and it will feature some of the most respected and successful technology entrepreneurs in Seattle. This is your opportunity to talk to people who have started companies, and meet other people like you who want to start a company.
 “Seattle has a large pool of smart people working on the tech industry like those at Microsoft, Amazon, Real Networks, Adobe, Google, Expedia and more, who might have an idea and is wondering what does it mean to have a startup and StartupDay is the conference for them”, says Marcelo Calbucci, founder of Seattle 2.0. “In addition, there are also those who have been recently laid off and been doing work as consultants and are ready to build their startup but are unsure where to start”.
The conference has an all-star lineup of successful entrepreneurs participating, including Alex Algard, Founder of Whitepages.com and CarDomain; Jonathan Sposato, Co-Founder and CEO of Picnik; Josh Petersen, Founder and CEO of Robot Co-Op; Matt Hulett, Chief Revenue Officer of RealGames; Shelly Farnham, Founder of Waggle Labs and Pathable and others. Rich Barton, Founder and CEO of Zillow, the Founder of Expedia and an investor on many startups, will deliver the closing Keynote.
StartupDay 2009 will also include the Advisory Room – a room with experienced professionals, entrepreneurs and investors for the attendees to book one-one-one meetings. Each meeting is 15-minute long and attendees will be able to talk with lawyers, accountants, branding and marketing experts, entrepreneurs, angel investors, VCs and more.
The content of the conference focuses on giving an overview of several important topics to build a successful startup, from picking the right co-founder and idea, to build and market the product, to monetizing it. The conference even includes a talk on what happens when your startup fails, usually a taboo conversation for those who have experienced it.
Registration for the event opens today and the early-bird price is only $95.00 until August 21st. Attendees can register and learn more at the website www.startupday.com. | View in Web Browser | /_layouts/images/ichtmxls.gif | /Blogs/the_next_big_thing/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid={ItemId}&DefaultItemOpen=1 | 0x0 | 0x1 | FileType | xlsx | 255 | | View in Web Browser | /_layouts/images/ichtmxls.gif | /Blogs/the_next_big_thing/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid={ItemId}&DefaultItemOpen=1 | 0x0 | 0x1 | FileType | xlsb | 255 | | Snapshot in Excel | /_layouts/images/ewr134.gif | /Blogs/the_next_big_thing/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid={ItemId}&Snapshot=1 | 0x0 | 0x1 | FileType | xlsx | 256 | | Snapshot in Excel | /_layouts/images/ewr134.gif | /Blogs/the_next_big_thing/_layouts/xlviewer.aspx?listguid={ListId}&itemid={ItemId}&Snapshot=1 | 0x0 | 0x1 | FileType | xlsb | 256 |
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Don Dodge
Information Worker Productivity
I have been in the software business for more than 20 years. I started my software career with Digital Equipment Corp, aka DEC, in the database group. I worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search...
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Recent Posts
Failure is NOT an option – Why this can be a bad mantra
November 4, 2009
Guitar Hero, an overnight success, 10 years in the making
October 1, 2009
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Featured Startup
The BizSpark startup of the day is Avetrium, based in Canada. You will find below an interview with Tim Smith, COO of Avetrium. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!
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