SF New Tech

Got a startup but don’t know which way to turn for PR? Enter: Startup PR Summit 2010.

It’s not often you get to hear from the “source” of knowledge, yet at Startup PR Summit 2010, that’s precisely what you’ll get. The source is an impressive array of professionals – national, local and technology press and bloggers- ready to impart their knowledge to you. It’s a one day weekend event this October, in San Francisco with an impressive array of talent, ideal for those hoping to hone their PR strategies.

Moreover, you’ll gather information about a range of topics you can put to use immediately, from the how-tos of pitching the press including pitfalls to avoid, to evaluating whether hiring a PR team even makes sense for your venture.  Tips like these are invaluable for start-ups, staring at shoestring budgets and a high thirst for PR exposure.

PR could've been a lot harder! (Elliot Richardson 1981 Press Conference. Photo by the late Gary Winogrand)

The speakers are an impressive lot of writers from various publications including Forbes, VentureBeat, Mashable and more. One event highlight is getting access to Kym McNicholas of Forbes who is offering 15 minute private coaching session to guide you through how to most effectively use face time with the press.

It’s an event worth attending if you’re searching for ways to promote your company, a rare opportunity to get first hand access to the writers and knowledge, you likely need most as a start-up in any business.

Now accepting startup business pitches on a napkin…for real!! Silicon Valley folklore has it that many of today’s most successful companies were pitched to potential funders, with ideas scribbled on a napkin. With that in mind, Pitch, a competition for startups, with at least one woman on board, is taking applications for their 4th Annual Pitch competition.

They’re requesting as low tech an entry as you can get: ideas submitted on a napkin. And that’s only part of the creative requirement.

Minimum requirements, if you will, are the founding team must have a female, and some flavor of technologist, and that your venture must at least be in alpha or beta testing. Slant the pitch towards what they’re looking to fund: a company with high-growth potential in a variety of businesses including: consumer web and mobile, enterprise web and mobile, consumer hardware, biotech and cleantech. If you’re a finalist, the venture capital doors open (check out last year’s panel) and you get to pitch a panel of high level funders where the real money comes your way.

Each Lunch Table at Pitch usually has "Lunch Leads” - Entrepreneurial Movers and Shakers in the Silicon Valley.

Move fast to be considered. Fill out the application, your business idea napkin and a 2 minute video as if you were talking to your customer by the October 8, 2010 deadline. That gets you into the consideration pool where judges evaluate your ideas. Feedback will be sent by Oct. 14, with judging on Nov. 4 at the Women 2.0 Startup Competition in San Francisco (get tickets here). Even better, if you’re not sure how to write up your business plan, you can link here for ideas on how to gets started using the sample application form.

Got questions? Feeling Shy? Get in touch with the Pitch 2010 peeps at this address – askpitch@women2.org

Grab a napkin and video camera and start your pitching!

Sometimes you never know who’s in the crowd trying to scoop a hot news story.

On Tuesday, Tim Hay, reporter for the Dow Jones Venture Wire and Wall Street Journal Blogger was in the house … and he nailed a great story about the Belgians breaching our shores in search of fame, fortune and Web 2.0 love.

It’s an excellent piece… especially when he mentions SF New Tech.

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/OymVh

Thanks Tim!

Someone’s gotta keep cheering — may as well be us …

Check out SF New Tech in Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle!

 October 20, 2008

Full steam ahead: That was the takeaway from SF New Tech’s event earlier this month, when the stock market had just started to crash. Attendees, mostly from the Web 2.0 world, were spilling out the doors, I’m told. Featured exhibitors, like social networking startup chi.mp, publishing platform provider Apture and wiki toolmaker PBwiki, were greeted like rock stars. "When they got on the stage, the crowd went nuts," said SF New Tech’s organizer, Myles Weissleder.

How to explain, given the gloom descending on the tech sector – not to mention the shellacking administered by the likes of Internet pioneer Tim O’Reilly for some of the Web 2.0′s "stupider and stupider ideas." Weissleder, who’s been in the tech event business for three years, has heard it all before, and he doesn’t buy it. From where he sits, there’s been some damage but the sky isn’t falling.

"There’s no slowdown in people thinking they’ve got the next big thing, that they can become the next Google," he said. "And that’s great. They’re in the trenches, feeling like they’ve got nothing to lose – at least until the rug is pulled out from under them or the money dries up."

Given the tenor of the times, his next get-together in November "could be a flop," he concedes. "But I don’t think that’s going to happen."

– Andrew S. Ross

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Communication Arts, the preeminent publication for creative types everywhere says SF New Tech is "very cool"!

 

"We just came across another very cool, and ongoing, event for the San Francisco tech community—SF New Tech. Next up: Widgets up The Wazoo!"

If you landed here from Communication Arts — welcome!

Hope to see you at our events!

It’s a new look for SF New Tech! We thought it was time for a new look and feel—and thanks to our friends at Tractor.tv, we’ve got a great new home! Now we need to keep the content flowing and the conversation going. But that’s easy. We’ll soon be introducing new folks to the SF New Tech family so please stay tuned for more voices. Be sure to grab our feed to get announcements for all our events, and more.

Onward ho!