The Geo-location War just got hotter! If you thought FourSquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places are cool, wait till you see Wondershake, a brand new geo-location iPhone App that promises to help you “visualize your inner taste, and connect you with other like-minded people around you in the REAL world!”

wondershake iphone app sneak peek pic

Wondershake iPhone App - See it at SFNewTech tomorrow!

Conceived in California and raised lovingly in Japan, the WonderShake iPhone App is set to hit the App Store in December. But as you know, SFNewTech peeps get to see it before the rest of the world! So tomorrow, at the Nov 10th 2010 SFNewTech event WonderShake Founder and President Satoshi Suzuki and his Team will present this exciting geo-location App.

Satoshi promises that

With WonderShake your everyday lives will be filled with fresh encounters with people and discoveries of new places!

Come and find out what all the hype is about tomorrow! Satoshi will also be giving out stickers of their cute dolphin mascot.



If you own a company or e-commerce website, the Video Genie platform will help you capture and broadcast  customer testimonial videos on the web. It is real people talking about your brand in a genuine (un-scripted) way, so you can imagine the effect it could have on other potential customers!

Justin Nassiri (founder) and Katiya (with co-founder Rob Starling in the audience), presented the Video Genie platform that, in Justin’s own words, was

Word of mouth marketing on Steroids.

Using local San Fransisco based product company DefaultCase (who make cases for iPhones) Justin showed everyone how customers or fans can quickly record a video testimonial by visiting the product/service website (even from their iphones and other mobile devices). By forcing recording time limits and other configurable constraints on the customer, you end up getting short, crisp, interesting (and hence useful) video testimonials.

The management dashboard of Video Genie notifies you as and when new videos start coming in. You can then review the video, make sure it matches your brand and then post it to your website.

video genie real customer feedback service demo justin nassiri stanford

Justin Nassiri and Katiya presenting Video Genie at SFNewTech

Video Genie also gives you a lot of analytics insight, including the ability to see which videos are driving conversions, which ones are more effective in engaging other viewers and going viral etc. You can then promote just those videos to create an even bigger viral sharing effect and dramatically increase your brand reach in a brand safe way.

Another neat feature is that the individual customers can be notified that their video testimonial is featured on the company’s website. They get a link to their video, which they are very likely to forward to their friends and family, thus increasing the sharing and marketing of the brand in a very social way!

About Video Genie

Justin started VideoGenie while at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His co-founder is Rob Starling. Video Genie received funding from Eric Schmidt (Google) in 2009. The service was one of the 20 companies that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in May, by which time Video Genie was already profitable.

website: videogenie.com
twitter: @video_genie
facebook: www.facebook.com/videogenie
contact email: accounts @ videogenie.com

Benjamin Berube of D2Soft Technologies presented nimbb, a fast and easy webcam video recorder for websites at the Oct 20th SFNewTech event. The idea for nimbb was born when Benjamin was working on a web project that needed to capture video using a webcam.  He quickly found out that there was no easy solution to do this. So he started working on a video widget that he could reuse in other projects, and that’s how nimbb was created.

nimbb benjamin berube sfnewtech demo pic

Benjamin Berube showing off nimbb on SFNewTech

nimbb is a video recording service for websites. Benjamin said that there were already big names like McGraw-Hill, BBC, Cirque du Soleil, WPP and webs.com using the nimbb service. The French Government also started using it recently to get video feedback from users.

Benjamin then proceeded to show a demo of recording video from his laptop webcam by visiting nimbb.com and clicking the record button. He said how nimbb is all about simplicity with only 2 buttons (record and save). Actually it is 3 buttons (there is a play button in the middle, to review the video you just recorded) but you get the point.

Once you record the video, you can click play to review it and re-record if necessary. When you are satisfied with the recording, you can click the save button. At that point, you will get a video url (web address) to share with others.. You can also get video embed codes to post the video to a blog or on other websites. This is all for the individual users.

On top of this, nimbb has a commercial API (application programming interface) that large corporations and website owners can tap into, to integrate the nimbb player as well as the nimbb web service into their website or online service.

Benjamin also showed everyone a live example of a website using the nimbb player and recorder on their website via the API feature and webservice subscription model.

Pricing?

The first 30 seconds of video recording on nimbb are free. But the videos get deleted after a month. Cost for the paid service is based on a subscription plan. The current rates are listed on nimbb.com in the pricing / subscriptions page.

Company Info and Links

Company: D2Soft Technologies Inc.
Company Twitter: @d2soft

Founder: Benjamin Berube
Founder Bio: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/benjaminberube
Founder Blog: http://blog.d2soft.com

Product: nimbb webcam video recorder
Product Contact: http://nimbb.com/Help/
Product Twitter : @nimbb
Business, Investor Contact: benjamin @ d2soft.com

Paying full price sucks! Paying at the door sucks even worse.

Try your hand at scoring a discounted (or free!) ticket to the November 10th edition of SF New Tech!

Over a hundred codes available!

But they’ll go quick … so if you’re feeling lucky, drop what you’re doing and get in on the action. 🙂

November 10, 2010 SF New Tech
Drinks, Demos, and Discussions with
Wonder Shake, One Medical, WikiSeer, Quizlet, Curate.Us and more!

25 tickets are 10% off with the code 1110-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code 1110-whatadeal
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26 tickets are 100% off (free!) with the code 1110-seeyouthere

Registration and information @ http://nov10sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

GO!

San Francisco based AdRoll is on an ambitious plan – to make really sophisticated display advertising campaigns available to smaller companies that had previously only been available to large brands and agencies with deep pockets.Search is getting tougher and tougher to make work. It’s very competitive and large brands come in and buy up all the high value keywords. If AdRoll pulls this off, they would’ve essentially succeeded in leveling the playing field for aspiring brands and start ups of all sizes.

adroll adam berke demo sfnewtech highlights pic

Adam Berke presenting AdRoll display ads retargeting platform at SFNewTech

Adam Berke, co-founder and VP of Business Development, presented AdRoll at the Oct 20th 2010 SFNewTech event. Adam said that AdRoll got started in 2007 and their goal in starting AdRoll was to make display advertising easy and effective for brands of all sizes.  This involved creating solutions for small and medium sized business such as ecommerce brands, start ups, niche, and local business.  These companies have not historically used display advertising because they lacked the proper tools to generate the ROI they require with sufficient control and transparency. And when you talk about ROI positive and display advertising, the 1st place to start at is retargeting.

What is retargeting?

Imagine a potential customer has visited your online shopping or e-commerce site a while back, performed some actions on your site, and then got distracted or went off to do comparison shopping. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could “recapture” that lost customer? This is what retargeting is all about. AdRoll places a piece of code on the site, cookie people on the site and based on where they go on the site, adroll can display relevant ads on the other sites that the visitor is going to, in an effort to recapture that customer / sale.

Adam then proceeded with his demo, in which he showed everyone how to set up a retargeting campaign using the AdRoll display advertising platform, and how to measure the results. Starting with valuation (for traffic, demographics etc) of a demo site selling e-commerce products, he showed how AdRoll gives you an approximate ROI estimate for your campaign as well as a daily recommended budget for the campaign. Adam also showed how you can add segments to your campaign to target very specific type of customers. For example, people who are shopping for shoes, vs people shopping for pants.

The adroll dashboard is very much like search analytics dashboards and provides a lot of visibility and transparency into your retargetting campaign. AdRoll also offers a 2 week free trial for new customers.

Competition?

Backstage, we spoke to the AdRoll founding team about other players in the retargeting space, and how similar or different AdRoll’s service was. This was what they had to say.
AdRoll Team: Fetchback was the first mover in the retargeting space.  As a first mover, they went with what was quickest to market, which is a service model for larger budgets.  If you go to their site, you’ll notice there’s no way to launch a campaign or to get started in any way without requesting contact from a salesperson.

Because we want to service any size budget, we focused on building a scalable technology platform.  This includes self-service options, transparent reporting, and the ability for marketers to manage their own campaigns much in the way they manage their SEM campaigns.  We do this through automated integrations with our ad inventory sources and optimization algorithms that do a lot of complex stuff behind the scenes.  That way we, don’t need to have people doing manual work, so they can focus on helping our customers with stuff machines can’t do (campaign strategy, etc), even if the customer’s budget is on the smaller side of spectrum.

Also, of course Google is making a major push into display advertising.  However, since this is for your own benefit, I assume you’ll want to do better than the generic “can’t Google just do this” question one can ask any web start up.

Under the Hood – Technologies Used.

AdRoll has server over 3.5 million (and counting) ad impressions since inception! They’ve been able to accomplish this enterprise level service that scales nicely, in part due to the technologies they use to power their service. This includes a 100% geo-distributed cloud based infrastructure, geo-distributed serverside cookie store built in Cassandra, Ad servers written in Erlang and Python stack starring Pylons (web framework) and SQLAlchemy.

About AdRoll. Company and Contact Info

Aaron Bell – Co-Founder/CEO. LinkedIn
Adam Berke – Founding Team/VP of Business Development. LinkedIn. Twitter @adamberke
Peter Krivkovich – Founding Team/VP of Sales. LinkedIn.

AdRoll Display Advertising Platform
website: www.adroll.com
twitter: @adroll
contact email: info @ adroll.com
contact form: http://www.adroll.com/company/contact

This Thursday, Women 2.0 PITCH Night on November 4, 2010 brings together hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, and startuppers in San Francisco.

Both men and women are invited to join Women 2.0’s biggest event of the year — featuring women-led startups and successful women entrepreneurs in technology.

Speakers include Diane Greene (VMware), Carol Realini (Obopay), and Lynn Jurich (SunRun).

Watch the finalists of the Women 2.0 Startup Competition pitch live to a panel of judges including Naval Ravikant (AngelList & VentureHacks), Janice Roberts (Mayfield Fund), David Weekly (PBworks), Maritza Liaw (Kleiner Perkins), and Rachel Pike (Draper Fisher Jurvetson).

For full agenda, visit the registration page.  Register now to attend PITCH Night!

women2 pitch night nov 4 register get tickets

Bootstrapping Founder? Student?

If you are a bootstrapping startup founder or currently a student, you are eligible to get an even better discount to join Women 2.0 at PITCH Night. Write to them at women2.0@gmail.com and find out if you qualify.

[ Update: Sunil loves SFNewTech fans so much, he has promised to give away free promo code for the EasySign App to the first 5 readers who email contact @ easysignmobile.com with the subject line: “SFNewTech” ! Go for it! ]

Sunil Patro started off his demo with a question “How many of you have signed atleast 1 document in the last 2 months.” When almost everyone raised their hands to indicate a yes, Sunil declared “So, I am at the right place.”. He then proceeded to introduce Easy Sign – an iphone, iPad app that makes signing of all kinds of documents quick, easy, digital and green.

Sunil started off by saying how in the summer of 2009, he received a job offer while vacationing at the beaches in Riviera Maya, Mexico. He thought “How awesome would it be, to be able to sign these documents on my smartphone and avoid all the hassle and wastage of printing and faxing documents?”. The idea for EasySign app was born right there. From that point on, Sunil decided to put all his efforts to creating this paper-free, signature on-the-go solution.

Sunil did a full end to end demo in which he started with an agreement documents, applied his signature from the app, added the date and got an email with the signed document from the easy sign app.

easysign sunil patro digitally sign documents from iphone ipad app demo pic

Sunil Patro showing off the EasySign iPhone / iPad app on Stage.

EasySign was officially launched in the apple app store in August of 2010. It was a dream come true for Sunil, because the launch happened while Sunil was hanging out on a beautiful beach, and so was the original idea – conceived at another beach earlier.

Sunil believes it’s a sign of destiny.

Since it’s launch, the App has been receiving great reviews from its users who use it for both business and personal documents. The Company’s mission is to make the best product available in the market to sign all types of documents using any mobile device, thus providing a quick and convenient paper-free solution in any setting from anywhere and at anytime.

Competition?

Zosh, Sign It! and Signmypad (iPad only) are some apps that provide services similar to what Easy Sign provides. However, according to Sunil, some of these apps only support PDF documents while others are buggy and crash a lot, making them unreliable.

As for his app, in Sunil’s own words..

EasySign does exactly what it promises!

EasySign digitally sign documents from iphone ipad app pic

Sign Documents from your iPhone/iPad Using the EasySign App

Under the hood

Technologies used to power the EasySign service (on the server side) include AWS EC2 (cloud server), Windows Server Infrastructure and PDF tools.

Company and Contact Info

website: www.easysignmobile.com
twitter: @easysignmobile
facebook: facebook.com/easysignmobile
contact email: contact @ easysignmobile.com

Michael Kelly – Consumer Communications Manager for American Licorice Company presented RedVines’ World Of Sharing at the 20 Oct 2010 SFNewTech event.

redvines michael kelly world of sharing pic

Michael Kelly Presenting The RedVines World Of Sharing

American Licorice Company was founded almost a century ago in 1914, opening up shop in San Francisco in 1920.  Michael said that while the process of making RedVines hasn’t changed much in decades, the way they market them to consumers has.  As consumers shift their attention online and away from traditional media, American Licorice has had to learn the ropes of the social web and get engaged in the online conversation.

The Red Vines ‘World of Sharing‘ is the latest in a series of engagements seeking to build awareness about the brand outside or their core Western markets and generate some very positive social chatter about the brand online.

Michael then visited the redvines world of sharing facebook page which leads into the website, and demostrated the process of adding a vine by posting a positive message on the website. Each message grows a 1 mile long virtual redvine around the globe. Their goal is to get to 24,000 redvines to wrap the globe completely. As the vine goes around the world, it will award users 240 4 lb. jars of Red Vines Licorice, 24 Prize packs with Red Vines Candy and Gear, and one grand prize of $5,000 to be used for a trip around the world.

redvines world of sharing demo pic

Wrap the redvine on the globe and win a free trip around the world!

Michael said monetization wasn’t their goal with this campaign. RedVines put on their “startup hat” here to figure out how to guide the people (/consumers) through the process of growing the virtual vine. Austin Harrison & Jesse Nicely at Dentsu America are the agency partners who helped create and design the RedVines World Of Sharing social campaign.

Competition?

Backstage Michael told us about RedVines’ competition and how in this niche, there isn’t really much of brand wars going on because of consumer brand loyalty.
Michael: Twizzlers, made by Hershey’s is the primary competition for Red Vines. There is a distinct regional split between Red Vines Territory West of the Rockies and Twizzler Territory East of the Rockies.  People are very passionate when it comes to candy and licorice lovers especially are known to be very brand loyal.  Every day we see the great licorice debate play out on Twitter and Facebook where people discuss which team they’re on.  Regardless of which brand they like, we all win as the conversation pushes the entire licorice category forward.

Links, Contact Info?

RedVines
RedVines World Of Sharing (look for World of Sharing tab)
Twitter: @RedVines
 Blog: crazydelicious
Michael : Mkelly @ amerlic.com

An array of advice, in various form factors, from those who’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, were presented at the one day “Biz Tech Day” in San Francisco. Through tell-all presentations and panels with representatives from successful companies and venture firms, tips were doled out on lessons learned about success.

naval ravikant rise of the angels

Angel investor Naval Ravikant presenting The Rise Of The Angels at BizTechDay San Francisco 2010

BizTechDay 2010 San Francisco Highlights, Major Take-aways

  • Getting funded: Don’t name drop or put pressure on because you’re already talking with others; models for funding startups have changed entrepreneurs are in the driver’s seat with less up front investments and more little fish succeeding
  • When looking at being acquired, dissect your business pitch into easily understood pieces so they can see the fit within the bigger picture and be patient, it’s a slow process
  • Building virtual teams take time, be around, treat it like being a parent: create a better workplace, write clear job descriptions, keep in touch with candidates you admire, use contractors as a testbed for permanent roles and always hire A players.
  • Stay close to your customer through monitoring, analytics and talking directly to customers
  • Be honest and build trust (any way possible, content, accuracy, acknowledging mistakes) the best way to keep a customer happy
  • Use your site to create a customer experience
  • Measure your marketing; find a process that works to analyze your business then invest in the right tools to evaluate the cost of acquiring customers profitably
  • Repetition and regularity build brands; find a unique niche and fill it; know what drives your business
  • Create loyalty in your customers to retain them
  • Build your brand, make it unique, remarkable and be sure it solves a problem

Bottom line: Create your own path, learn lessons from others, especially those who continually reinvented themselves until they found a path that led to success.

What do FailCon 2010, ideakick, Bonvoy, Kroobe, FunRank, CALinnovates.org, San Francisco Filmmaking Renaissance, TechMarkia, Thump Games, Mixpanel, Fordela Corporation, Topicmarks, and White Space Strategy have in common?

They all hit the stage last night to make a 60 second announcement.

Go see what they said! Click here!

Customize your message, be absolutely factual and catch the attention of the press by being different, were some tidbits of collective wisdom given to about 100 attendees at a San Francisco event Oct. 16, 2010 – titled Startup PR Summit 2010 – hosted by PR consultant Marissa Louie.

startuppr summit 2010 address and date info pic

Louie tipped off the event, noting she’d wished she’d known some of these tips when she launched her own startups.

With representation from an array of media pundits – from local to international — along with those active in a spectrum of media types – from video to blog/internet radio – attendees received a plethora of opinions on unique approaches from those various journalists.

StartupPR Summit 2010 Highlights

  • Pitch the right story to the right editor
  • Don’t pitch the same story to editors on each coast (east and west), it damages your credibility
  • Personalize your story, don’t shoot out bland press releases
  • Comment and blog about what you’ve read so the message lives on
  • Spread the word yourself, viral aspects of video/talk radio is more important than typical media pros realize
  • Engage your listeners; coupons and discount codes are best options
  • Build your base using twitter, often overlooked by many businesses, it’s easier to use than web sites with constraints
  • Use online video to show how you give back to your community
  • Video gets your message out quickly, gives you full control on your web site, if it goes viral, leverage any burst of attention with comments/tweets
  • Video content can spill over to text, another leverage point
  • Sponsor a video blogger, it’s cheaper so your dollars will go further
  • TV journalists want local content and visual appeal which they find “irresistible”
  • Submit your pitch embedding graphics or video
  • International journalists want a local spin with statistics they can verify
  • Trend pieces are most interesting to readers, so if you find a way to tie it in to what’s happening in the industry, the world, the technology, then, score for your company

Hint: “You Are Now Entering A World Of Sharing”

While the process of making Red Vines hasn’t changed much since it’s parent company American Licorice was founded nearly a century ago, the way it is marketed to consumers certainly has!

The “World Of Sharing” program is the latest in a series of consumer outreach programs that Red Vines is currently conducting, to build brand awareness and generate positive “social chatter” about this much loved candy!

Using a mashup of Google Maps and tight integration with Twitter and Facebook,the “World Of Sharing” site enables users to easily log in using their email or Facebook Connect and leave whatever short positive message comes to mind. Each positive message adds a new section to the giant Red Vine circling the planet. As the Vine goes around the world, it will award users 240 4 lb. jars of Red Vines Licorice, 24 Prize packs with Red Vines Candy and Gear, and one grand prize of $5,000 to be used for a trip around the world.

That’s all we can say right now. To learn more about this innovative social campaign come on over to our SFNewTech event tonight and enter the “World Of Sharing” with a live demo from Red Vines.

My positive message to the World?

Make Apps, Not War!

redvines shiva blogdoctor message make apps not war

"Make Apps Not War" - My Positive Message on the "World Of Sharing".

Freebies At SFNewTech?

Red Vines will also be giving out schwag (yay!) to SFNewTech peeps tonight! Michael Kelly of Red Vines says

There will be Candy and T-Shirts!

Join SFNewTech and hundreds of the best entrepreneurs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley at the Metreon this Saturday – October 23rd.

  • LEARN from the best entrepreneurs, media rockstars and investors on Fundraising, PR, Marketing, Social Media, Pricing and Branding strategies and real life stories.
  • GET UP TO SPEED with the latest technology tools that will make a real difference for your business. There are so many new “must use” tools -how do you know where to start, and what’s really worth your time?
  • CONNECT with the founders and partners of Venture Hacks, Kiva, Mashable, Gymboree, Squidoo, Squared, SmallBizTrends, Infusionsoft, Elance, SimplyHired, Flowtown, Startup Digest, Google, Yahoo!, Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Startups, CBS, Women 2.0, Foursquare, Techcrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine and more. Not to mention hundreds of entrepreneurs and small businesses like you.

All in a single day!

biztechday 2010 sf speakers list register now tickets

BizTechDay 2010 - San Francisco. List of Speakers

And since you are so cool, all SFNewTech peeps get 20% off the tickets for BizTechDay San Fraicisco 2010.

Get your discounted tickets now while it last! Use Promo Code SFNewTech at Checkout.

To learn more about this one of it’s kind event, visit BizTechDay San Fraicisco 2010.

Forget messy paper printouts, scans and faxes. Go green and digitally sign your documents from anywhere in the world using the EasySign iPhone App.

The idea for EasySign was born in a remote beach in Riviera Maya, Mexico when EasySign founder Sunil Patro had to sign some paper documents for a new job offer. Sitting on the Beach, he wondered

How awesome would it be, if I could sign and return this job offer right here, right now, right from my smartphone.

It was at this moment of clarity, that Sunil decided to create this green, paper-free, signature-on-the-go mobile app.

Fast forward a year later, EasySign was launched as an iPhone app at the Apple AppStore in August of 2010. Since then, the EasySign app has received (and continues to receive) great reviews from its users who use it for signing business as well as personal documents.

EasySign digitally sign documents from iphone ipad app pic

Sign Documents from your iPhone/iPad Using the EasySign App

This Wednesday, at our Oct 20th 2010 SFNewTech event, Sunil will show you step by step, how you can sign any document using your iPhone/iPad from anywhere at anytime without the hassles, costs and environmental hazards of printing, scanning and faxing paper documents.

Don’t miss it! Mother Earth will thank you!

It is every advertiser’s dream to generate maximum returns on online advertising investments. With it’s easy to use, highly effective and proven display advertising platform, AdRoll promises to deliver that dream and more.

AdRoll will take stage this Wednesday at our Oct 20th 2010 SFNewTech event and show you step by step, how to create a retargeting ad campaign for your product, brand or service using the AdRoll display advertising platform, and how to measure the results.

Unlike a majority of the existing advertising platform where you can’t do anything without requesting contact from a salesperson first, AdRoll includes plenty of self-service options, transparent reporting, and the ability for marketers to manage their own campaigns much in the way they manage their Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns.

Under the hood, AdRoll uses several state-of-the-art technologies including a 100% geo-distributed cloud based infrastructure. If that is a mouthful and the geek in you just has to know, then ask Adam Berke, AdRoll founding member and VP of Business Development to explain it to you in layman terms when you meet him at the event on Wednesday.

Meanwhile here he is, explaining what AdRoll can do for your business in a short simple video.

Freebies?

AdRoll will also be giving out schwag (yay!) to SFNewTech peeps. For the first 3 to 5 questions from the audience, they will give away their ever popular “Roll with me” T-shirts. (Hey, I like how you guys “Roll”!).

I already know what I am going to ask Adam.

What hair gel are you wearing in the what AdRoll can do for your business video?

I am not sure this question will win me a coveted “Roll with Me” (size M please) T-Shirt. We’ll see.

When Benjamin Bérubé was working on a Web project that needed to capture video using a webcam he thought it would be a cakewalk. However, he quickly found out that there was no easy solution to accomplish this.

Instead of complaining on forums and blogs like the average web developer would do, Benjamin did something completely different and innovative. He went out and created Nimbb, a site for recoding and sharing videos from your webcam.

Nimbb is easy, fast* and free**.

nimbb shiva sfnewtech recording in 4 easy clicks :)

My First nimbb Webcam Video Recoding. 30 seconds, 4 clicks, under 1 minute!

Benjamin will be showing off nimbb’s features and capabilities this Wednesday at our Oct 20th 2010 SFNewTech event. Come and check it out.

Benjamin is based in Montreal, Canada. He has recently moved to San Francisco to spread the word about Nimbb, because as he said it himself…

After just one week of marketing in Montreal, I decided to come to San Francisco – where all the action is – to promote Nimbb.

Well, we told Benjamin

You have arrived at the right city and at the right event!

Benjamin loves SFNewTech peeps so much, that he has pledged to give away one full month of Nimbb subscription free to anyone of you that tweets about the service during the demo and follows @nimbb on twitter.

A developer at heart – with over 15 years of experience in application software development – Benjamin will likely answer any questions you may have about the underlying technology that powers the nimbb webcam video recording and sharing service.

So don’t be shy. Come on over!

*fast = I recorded, saved and shared the above 30 second video using my webcam on nimbb in under 1 minute!
** free = Basic membership is free. For a full list of subscription types and price, see the subscription page.

VideoGenie is revolutionizing the way brands connect with their customers. Founder and Stanford Graduate Justin Nassiri will take stage this wednesday (20th October 2010) at SFNewTech so we can say hello to VideoGenie.

See Videogenie in Action this Wednesday! http://oct20sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

We asked Justin what’s in store for SFNewTech peeps, and he told us that he will show you how VideoGenie

  • captures your customers on video naturally (unscripted),
  • removes the need for complicated editing, and
  • displays these videos in a targeted and socially relevant way and
  • drives customer conversion and increases your brand reach.

Obviously there is lot more to it than this, but we promised Justin not to steal his thunder, so if you want to know more about how VideoGenie can help your brand and also meet Justin himself, head over to our SFNewTech event this Wednesday!

My Gengo was founded based on needs its founders saw as a gaping hole in the translation business: too expensive and too slow. So they did what entrepreneurs do: they solved the problem by filling that void.

Mygengo.com founders Robert Laing and Matthew Romaine knew the need was there for a consumer service, “big project management and set up fees just don’t work for every day content translation”.  Plus, Laing added, machine translations were fast but not useful for business applications and to get access to freelancers and agencies, the cost was prohibitive. Gengo means language in Japanese.

At My Gengo, you have access to a wealth of certified talent who must pass a quality test (of 11,000 applicants, 1200 passed their competency test).  As a result, you get accurate translations for 5 cents a word, about 70% less than standard translation services, translators get flexible hours plus a reliable income.

And My Gengo stands by their work, “We’re so confident, we offer a full refund if customers aren’t happy”.  That’s led to 80% referrals, 40% repeat customers and doubling of volume each quarter.
my gengo cheap fast reliable online translation service japan night demo

It works like this: you post your job at My Gengo, their certified translators will pick jobs they feel most confident completing.  Translation requests range from the simple, like a Tweet, to more complex documents.

Their second product, launched Q1 2010, is an API that can be plugged into a site so that users don’t need to go to My Gengo to get access to their services. Currently API partners are Magento (ecommerce site) and Movable (the most used publishing system in Japan, often used for blogs).

Having received seed funding, My Gengo is now moving to their next stage of funding.

Coopa, a product with a name derived from cooperation, launched the same day it presented at SF New Tech.

At the first ever Japan Night event (brought to you by SFNewTech and btrax), Coopa was presented by Tsutomu Sasaki, President & Yashuhiro Yamada (Cloud Solutions).

Coopa is a enterprise level, business application development tool for building cloud-based applications, running on mobile devices.

The company provides an application engine for enterprises developing using HTML5 or JavaScript. With Coopa, companies create customized applications using a framework library of native/hybrid type applications.

Coopa / yubizo - Enterprise iPhone / iPad App Development Engine

Showing its versatility, Coopa supports creating business applications on iphones for enterprise level applications and for Google’s Android environment.

Their applications integrate smoothly within a Google environment, as they run on top of Google apps. Sasaki noted they believe they are one of few companies developing enterprise level applications for the Google apps platform. To ensure consistency, they are a Google certified partner.

GazoPa is a search engine using graphics (i.e. images), instead of text, for search input. Why is that useful? Because, as Hideki Kobayashi, GazoPa’s Project Leader pointed out, “Keywords are insufficient for accurate image searches”, GazoPa delivers more precisely because it uses shapes and colors to deliver comparable results to whatever you’re literally looking at and for. GazoPa is a start-up project within Hitachi.

Using GazoPa, upload any image, and GazoPa’s engine searches through a database of more than 80 million archived images, delivering you the closest images to your graphical query.

Kobayashi, noted its particular usefulness for consumer comparison shopping, especially when it comes to fashion. Simply plug in a graphical image of the high-end item you’re looking for, GazoPa scours the internet, showing similar, less pricey, items.  Think of it as similar to sites like kayak.com for travel, in its quest for lower priced, similar items based on images as input.

GazoPa’s goal is to provide the service to consumers, ecommerce sites and photo sites. Given they’ve indexed more images than any competitor, yet can deliver quicker than any similar products, they’re proud of their technology.

In the past 6 months alone, they’ve moved from 30K to 70K visitors a month. Given their style search capability was launched 2 months ago, Kobayashi is now betting on traffic increasing and declared that they’re ready for it!

The Lang-8 dilemma

Your president was erected twice

Say what?!

Highlighting the applicability of his language-correcting site in every day written exchanges, founder Yangyang Xi pointed to the above sentence as needing a slight adjustment to convey its intended meaning. So with a quick switch of the letter “r” in erected to “l”, mission accomplished.

Xi is banking on corrections that simple, to those even more complex involving grammatical changes, as the intended end result of users of Lang-8.

Lang-8 is a vertical social networking site that offers a service to its users: the common interest of meeting new people along with helping these new acquaintances improve their language skills (or you can look at it as improving language skills and meeting new people in the process).

You register at the site, select your native language in the drop down menu (on the registration page), then post the entry that you want corrected. A native speaker then interacts with you, correcting your writing on-line. It’s that easy!

lang 8 social language learning community

Xi points out, it’s not intended to replace full translation services, simply a means for a slight course correction in language skills. Lang-8 now covers the written word, with plans to offer pronunciation help in the future.

With users from 200 countries, representing 80 languages, you’re sure to find someone out there who can help set you linguistically straight, and that’s very, I mean, really gr8!

Spysee is a person search engine that uses semantic web technology to collect and deliver search results about people, similar to how traditional search engines deliver results on keywords and search terms.
spysee logo

According to the W3 Consortium, semantic web technology is “a web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines,” meaning it makes the data more readable by computers by further filtering the information. As such, it minimizes the need for humans to decide the data’s relevance, the computer figures it out for you based on your input.

At our first ever Japan Night (in collaboration with btrax), CTO Tomobe Hironori explained how Spysee’s search engine crawls the web to extract data from pages, then extracts specific details such as personal data, rich media like images and videos , links that are related to the person and finally organizes it and delivers it to the user in a nicely organized visual search results page.

Asked about generating revenue, Hironori said “we plan to embed advertising as our primary model”. Though free now, in the future, varied levels of subscription services might be among their offerings.

Hironori said Spysee’s first customers have been sales teams, focused on finding the “right” prospects, adding, “Human search is one part of the search, but we use keyword extraction, image and movie retrievals to find unexpected information”.

Spysee search results are presented visually to the user, a feature he noted is particularly useful in cultures where graphics are important, in countries like his native Japan for example.

Just this year, Spysee has seen a 23% increase in use. Considering that the site is only accessible in Japan, they’re pleased with these results and look forward to consistent growth.


If you’re a designer or engineer looking for a cool new gig, want meet the brains behind FailCon, have $3+ million to invest in a language learning social network… then click on over to the 60 Second Spot listings now to track down those leads… and more!

Cheers!

The first ever JapanNight ( twitter hashtag #SFJN ) is just a day away! Are you as excited as we are? SFNewTech and Btrax are jointly hosting this event featuring top startups from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Late last week, I caught up with BTrax CEO and founder Brandon Hill and asked him to tell us more about this unique cross-cultural tech event.

What inspired you to start Japan Night?

Brandon: I have attended many of the SFNewTech events before and observed how you were doing French Night that showcased French Companies and then Belgian Nights that featured Belgian Startups. So that really inspired me to see if there could be a Japan Night for showcasing up and coming Japanese tech companies.
We also thought that we (Btrax) were a pretty good company to organize the event. Besides that, there are so many Japanese companies who try to get exposure overseas but there is no single event for them to present their apps or services in front of the US tech audience.

Is this a one time event or do you plan on doing Japan Night with SFNewTech regularly?

Brandon: Initially we thought this was going to be a one time thing. But, we got so much attention from both the United States and Japan, that we have decided to do this regularly. Hopefully twice a year, so one Japan Night every 6 months.

Who will we be seeing in the first Japan Night?

Brandon: There are 6 companies presenting at Japan Night. Coopa, Drrop, GazoPa, Lang-8, myGengo and Spysee!

Were you aware of what these companies were doing before you established a connection with them?

Brandon: I was aware of only a couple of companies because they are friends of mine. For the rest of the companies, when we publicly announced the event we got over 40 applications. We auditioned these companies and then chose the remaining four.

Do you have any surprises for the SFNewTech fans that you would like to share right now? Or, do you want to keep it a surprise?

Brandon: We actually are in the process of getting the surprises. We did, however, just receive an event prize from one of our clients. Movies.They have donated a Japanese DVD package for us.

Often during our interviews, we do what we call a “lightening round” session. Here is how it works. We ask the interviewee a series of questions in quick succession, and ask for one or two sentence answers.

Because spontaneous answers are quite interesting and at times very honest!

What is your full name?

Brandon: Brandon Hill.

Do you have a Japanese name?

Brandon:Yes. My Japanese name is Banki Katayama.

Does it mean anything special in Japanese?

Brandon: My first name (Banki) means medium feelings.

I saw a Sapporo city in your profile on BTrax.com. So is the city named after the beer or is the beer named after the city?

Brandon:(laughs) That’s the beer named after a city.

brandon hill btrax founder and ceo photo

Brandon Hill - CEO, Founder of BTrax.com

What languages do you know and speak?

Brandon: I only speak Japanese and English.

What’s your favorite music for work?

Brandon: I like rock music, I’ve been into Guns’ N’ Roses.

What is the latest type face that pleases you?

Brandon: I like Meta font, I use Meta all the time. And Helvetica is another one I use all the time.

Do you have any favorite designers or illustrators that you follow, or like their works.

Brandon: I like a Berkeley based dutch designer Rudy VanderLans. Who designed a lot of designer fonts.

What are you hoping to or thinking of learning next?

Brandon: I am trying to learn html 5 now.

Who is Cooper?

Brandon: Cooper is our office dog. He’s not here today because it’s the weekend.

Is he at the Giants Game?

Brandon: (laughs) He’s not,  he’s at home. He has more friends on Facebook than any single person in this company!

Legend has it that he can spot a pixel off on the screen from as far as 30 feet away! Late last week, I met Brandon Hill to confirm this story, and also to get to know his company btrax and get the real story behind why he decided to organize the 1st in a series of cross-cultural tech event that we are calling “Japan Night”. So here goes….

brandon hill btrax founder and ceo photo

Brandon Hill - CEO, Founder of BTrax

You call yourself a cross-culture branding and web consulting company. So, what exactly do you mean by that?

Brandon: The people in this company are all multi-cultural, basically, most of them are 100%. I myself grew up in Japan, so I have a background of Japan. I came here 15 years ago so I have a background. As a matter of fact, my father is American. So I have a dual cultural background. Likewise there are people who came from Japan in this company and there are some Chinese people and even some Americans in this company have some multi-national background. Such as guys who used to live in Japan, who used to live in Asia.

We ourselves are very mult-national and multicultural. When it comes to what we do most of our clients are related to Asian Countries? Or other companies in Asian countries. Our core service motto is doing design web consulting for companies in the United States who are connected to the Asian countries or companies in the Asian region. So, that’s exactly what we do.

That’s why we call ourselves cross culture branding and web consulting company?

Can you tell us what your major offerings are?

Brandon: We mainly do three things.

One is web strategy, web consulting work. So anything related to web, including web design, web development, mobile website design development for the United States and overseas countries.

The second one is branding. We design logos, we come up with branding strategies and we do brand positioning and brand marketing.

The third one is localization. Specifically for localizing web services to the oversea countries.

Those are the 3 key services we do. At the same time we do provide web design and development services in general. Some of our clients are US companies for the US market, we can definitely provide services to those clients.

Can you walk us through your design process briefly? Do you start your process analytically with sketches on paper, or wireframes? Or are your main initial concepts for a web design client or branding likely to come in a flash of inspiration?

Brandon: We have a very solid process on web design branding services. We start the process by listening to the client, their objectives, their goals, time-line, budget, whatever they have to say. We listen to them first and we come up with the best possibly solutions to match their objectives. Starting from there we go through a whole process of pre production. Pre-production process includes things such as creating function specifications, wire framing, creating flow charts, coming up with brand concepts, design concepts, usability goals and branding ideas.

Once the pre-production part is finalized we move onto production. Production is design, web design, UI design, branding design. The actual design work is done by designers and developers. Then the next step is post production. Post production includes usability testing, marketing, creating marketing plans, things we do after the website goes live or the design elements go live.

That’s pretty elaborate.

Brandon: Yes.

If you think of yourself as a web designer do you generally see information architecture as being part of what a web designer, either you or somebody else in your company does? Or do you bring somebody else onto your team specifically to do information architecture work?

Brandon: That’s a very good question. Information architecture is very important role for web design field because it really decides the usability quality and usability experience for the users of the web site. In this company, I used to do that type of work myself. Fortunately one of the designers in this company has computer science background. So she understands anything from the system to usability and the user experience, UI design. There is a designer who specializes in commercial architect part. So she does both design and IA type of works.

Many formally trained designers are also artists. So, do you consider yourself to be an artist and do you have any specific artistic skills or experience that you sort of incorporate into your design that you consider as unique?

Brandon: My answer would be really controversial. I define artist as somebody who creates something without making any money. I really value a person with artist skills who can also contribute his design or artistic skills to the society. We call those people designers. Those who can not possibly contribute to society or make money, I call them artists. It’s a really convenient word I think. I do think design and art, mostly design consists of 90% of training and education and 10% inspiration and artistic talent. In this company in particular, I do not hire a designer without having basic knowledge and design skills, but only relying on the artistic talent.

So artistic talent is very important, but 9 out of 10 times basic design skills and knowledge and training work a lot better in the real world.

Some people say a web designer who does everything is a thing of the past and the future will be increasingly specialized. Meaning the web designer doesn’t do everything so that translates into larger teams. What’s your experience like with this? Are the majority of the people you have here, including yourself wearing a variety of hats? Or, do you have specialists for each role in the design and implementation process.

Brandon: I think web design process takes a lot of talents or skills. It’s definitely possible that a person creates a website without any problems. That’s definitely possible. However, in this company, each person has 2 to 3, 2 to 4 specialized skills. Such as, wire-framing and UI design. Or UI design plus html coding. Or htmls css coding plus php coding. Or, flash design plus flash development.
So, I tend not to tend somebody who specializes in one particular field. But, usually I look for somebody who has several different skill sets. Otherwise we would need to hire 20 or 30 people.

What are some telltale signs that a web designer needs more education? If someone comes to interview with you as a web designer. What do you look for in him or her, and what tell you this person needs more training or experience?

Brandon: First of all I look at the portfolio of designers. Portfolio is definitely important. However equally or more equally I look for personality. Especially the designer has to have a normal personality. Many designers who call themselves designers or artists, they have weird personalities. This could turn into a communication problem. Because unique people are okay, but if a person is too unique I find myself having a hard time communicating with the person. That has happened before so I make sure that I can communicate with the person and the person can express what he is thinking to the team. Otherwise, the team work doesn’t work. So, I would say 50% is in skills, 50% personality.

What is the percent of projects where you actually meet the clients face to face? If it is less, is it because you’re using Skype or other online collaboration tools or is it the distance?

Brandon: Facetime pretty much depends on where the client is located. If our clients are located in the area, we definitely go meet the client or invite them to the office, so that we can better communicate with them. I do think that in person meeting is better than skype, phone or email communications still. If that’s possible we try to do it. If that’s not quite possible we do use Skye phone, basecamp to communicate with the client. Which is okay.

Currently we have a client in Malaysia and we have several clients in Japan. We used to have a client in the UK and we do have clients all over the United States. So it definitely requires good communication skills to communicate with remote clients.

What is the most recent client work you have executed?

Brandon: We are executing an average of 5 to 10 projects at the same time. So we are working on several different projects. But one of the projects we are completing pretty soon is the web design, web marketing for an Iphone app from a Japanese company. Who is trying to distribute Japanese Manga, which are comics through an Iphone App.

You must have obviously heard of site like 99 design and other online branding, logo, and web design sites. How do you differentiate your service from that? Do you think these types of sites are affecting companies like you?

Brandon: I think if we were doing normal web design or design services, maybe. But again, we provide all the unique services in terms of cross-culture. So, it is not effecting much or at all, I’d say. Even if one can get a good design from crowdsourcing or sites like 99 design we still need to provide the consultation in terms of the localization or cross-cultural works.
There are many clients who like to work with real humans. I’d say maybe 90% of clients can get services from sites like 99 design, but at the same time there is a 10% who do want to get services from people like ourselves.

Now we move onto a different section, background. Tell us about yourself, your background. I mean you spoke about it a little bit and how you ended up in San Francisco and founding BTrax.

Brandon: I grew up in Japan. I was born and raised in Japan, area called Sapporo which is the Northern part of Japan. After high school I came to San Francisco. The reason why I came to this county is simply because I have US citizenship. I spent 18 plus years in Japan so I thought that would be enough for me to live in Japan. I decided to come to the United States to see how the life would be in this country. So that’s the reason.

The reason why I came to San Francisco was simply I wanted come to California which is closer to Japan, although my Dad is from the East Coast. Why specifically San Francisco ? Because I just thought LA was just not a safe place to live, for the most part. I started going to college in the city and quickly realized that this multi-media and web industry is very cool. I once was struggling with whether I should pursue my career as a musician or designer or artist. Because I really enjoy playing music, at the same time I have been very good at drawing or creating art pieces. I was trying to pursue those too but I didn’t know what to do to accomplish that. When I took a multi-media class I quickly realized that was the thing that I should pursue. Because you can merge sound, music, motion graphics and design. I got so attracted by the field and later in the 1990’s the city was full of web businesses. The first .com boom was coming. So everyone in the school was learning about web I got attracted to web design development field. I started taking web design development classes by the time I was in my second year in college I started working as a freelance designer. Mostly for Japan related companies, or Japanese companies. Immediately after I graduated from the University I started this company BTrax, which is 6 years ago. Simply because my ego was too strong so I couldn’t work for somebody else. I thought I was the best designer or developer in the world, and I thought I could do the best work. Immediately after I started this company I realized that there are so many better designers out there and I shifted my thinking from expressing my skills to hiring better designers. Which makes things easier for me because I do not have to struggle myself in terms of designing things.

What about BTrax, the company, how many people do you have and what’s the distribution in terms of designers, illustrators and coders?

Brandon: We currently have 15 people and those 15 people are roughly in 3 major groups. Design team, development team and marketing team. I would say those 3 teams are equally divided. Unlike other design firms we are very heavily on the marketing part because we understand designing and creating the website is important but more importantly promoting the site or doing marketing for the client is important. So we have a really good balanced team in terms of marketing the design.

btrax team photo

Team BTrax on the rooftop of BTrax HQ in San Francisco. (Photo Credit: Tim Wagner)

Are you guys hiring?

Brandon: We are always hiring. Even if we aren’t, and if I see anybody who is a good match to the company there is always an exception.

Forbes, Mashable, VentureBeat, TheNextWeb, Huffington Post, BusinessWeek, and more, you’ve heard of their editorial brands, but how often do you get to hear directly from these pros?

Enter Startup PR Summit 2010, a one day event where you get to meet, greet, and tweet about (not to mention learn from) the cream of the media crop, so to speak. If you’re one of many ventures these days trying to get by on a shoestring budget, this is a must do event at a can’t miss it price.

startuppr summit 2010 address and date info pic

These veteran communicators will spend a day divulging tips to jumpstart your PR programs.  Getting this impressive crew under one roof was the work of Marissa Louie, an entrepreneur and experienced writer herself.. Her reason? “Throughout my career as a startup entrepreneur, I’ve learned how difficult it is to draw media attention to a small startup, even if you are building the next big thing. Startup PR Summit 2010 is your chance to learn PR directly from the top brass in media – and avoid spending up to $12k per month on a PR firm with limited results.”

Regardless of what PR mode you’re in — stealth, startup or even been around the PR block a bit ~ this is an opportunity to gain insights from the very sources you’re looking to influence. You’ll hear: from proven writers who will share their experiences from being at the receiving end of the PR pitch, allowing them to openly share what speaks to them; what it takes to motivate them to write about your company, industry, idea or executive team; everything from how and when to pitch the press, to mistakes to avoid when telling your story. Even the nuances and techniques for dealing with bloggers versus journalists in the press.

With a $40 admission fee, it looks like you’ll get more than your money’s worth.

Just 7 days, the event on Oct. 16, at Atelier BNP Paribas, 2415 3rd Street, Suite 231, San Francisco, CA 94107.

Step on up and get your discounted ticket to SF New Tech on 10/20!

Over a hundred available!

Rare! Hot! Yours!

Drinks, Demos, and Discussions with Red Vines, EasySign, AdRoll, Nimbb, VideoGenie, and more!

25 tickets are 10% off with the code 20oct-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code 20oct-whatadeal
25 tickets are 50% off with the code 20oct-yeahbaby
26 tickets are 100% off (free!) with the code 20oct-seeyouthere

Registeration and information @ http://oct20sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

GO!

What: Fukuoka Ruby Nights

When:Monday, October 11, 2010

Time: 6:30pm-10pm

Where: Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, California

Bringing the Ruby message to Silicon Valley. Spend an evening with Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, inventor of the Ruby programming language

For those who do not know, Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general purpose object-oriented programming language influenced primarily by Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, and Lisp.

yukihiro matz matsumoto invented created ruby language pic

Ruby Creator Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto presenting at RubyConf 2008. (Photo Credit: Dan Benjamin)

As an added benefit, some cool startups from Fukuoka, Japan will give a demo on some of their latest developments using Ruby!

Especially for SFNewTech members and fans, the following ticket discount codes have been made available.

For 25% discounts – Use “ohmygodsv” at checkout.

…and if that is gone

For 15% discount tickets (limited quantity while it lasts!), use “whatadealsv” at checkout.

Register here!

fukuoka ruby nights with yukihiro matz matsumoto ruby creator in san francisco sf banner pic

What: Fukuoka Ruby Nights

When: October 7, 2010

Time: 6:30pm – 10pm

Where: Twilio, San Francisco

Spend an evening with Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, inventor of the Ruby programming language.

For those who do not know, Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general purpose object-oriented programming language influenced primarily by Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, and Lisp.

yukihiro matz matsumoto invented created ruby language pic

Ruby Creator Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto presenting at RubyConf 2008. (Photo Credit: Dan Benjamin)

As an added benefit, some cool startups from Fukuoka, Japan will give a demo on some of their latest developments using Ruby!

Especially for SFNewTech members and fans, the following ticket discount codes have been made available.

For 25% discounts – Use “ohmygod” at checkout.

…and if that is gone

For 15% discount tickets (limited quantity while it lasts!), use “whatadeal” at checkout.

Register here!

fukuoka ruby nights with yukihiro matz matsumoto ruby creator in san francisco sf banner pic

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.

startuppr summit 2010 address and date info pic

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.

elliot richardson press conference gary winogrand photo 1981

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.

women 2 pitch night 2008 competition photo w2pitch

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!

Why A Conference on Failure?

See the history of any successful startup leading up to it’s success, and you will more likely than not see a string of failures along the way. Because it is inevitable that any small business or startup will encounter failures: in idea development, in teamwork, in hiring, in design, in scaling, in countless unpredictable ways.

Yet conference after conference features speakers only telling you what they did right – something that can be near -impossible to emulate.

At FailCon, join over 400 founders, investors, executives, developers, service provides, and press as they share tips and tools to avoid, prepare for, and recover from the most common startup mistakes.

Got FailCon 2010 Discount Code?

You bet we do! As a member of SF New Tech, you can claim 10% off when you register to attend, with the code 10sfnewtech.

failcon 2010 forbes mag malcolm forbes failure success quote pic photo

"Failure is Success, if we learn from it!" - Malcolm Forbes

Who will be Speaking at FailCon 2010?

FailCon continues to attract some of the top names in the industry, who come to share stories of failure, what they learned, and how they recovered. Some of the 2010 speakers include:

David Pogue, New York Times
Steve Blank
Esther Dyson, EDventures
Philip Kaplan, Blippy
Cindy Cohn, EFF
Brian Solis, Future Works
Elad Gil, Twitter
Manu Kumar, K9 Ventures
Steve Hoffman, Founders Space
Farb Nivi, Grockit
Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures

A complete list of speakers and topics can be found at the FailCon website.

Where Can I get more Information on FailCon 2010?

FailCon 2010 takes place in San Francisco, on Monday, October 25th (9am – 6pm), at the Hotel Kabuki

Please visit the official FailCon website – FailCon2010.com

And don’t forget to use our special SF New Tech discount code 10sfnewtech at checkout!

Bonvoy is a facebook application that makes planning group trips a breeze. Trip planners can create trips, invite their friends, split costs and manage the entire group travel planning within the familiar Facebook interface.

the pains of group travel planning slide pic

Group Travel Planning Can Be Really Painful!

Fed up of dealing with group travel planning issues like long deeply-threaded email chains, scheduling disasters, never-ending searches for travel deals, discounts and trying to split up travel costs, founder Mujteba Naqvi decided he’d had enough and went off to create Bonvoy last year.

In February of this year, Mujteba took stage in front of a sold out crowd at the Feb 3rd 2010 SFNewTech event and gave us a sneek preview of what was to come.

The Bonvoy facebook app went live earlier this week and is available to everyone to download, install and use!

How do I get Bonvoy?

Bonvoy is a facebook application that can be downloaded here. Once you are logged into Facebook and you see the Bonvoy Facebook app page, click the Go To Application button.

bonvoy fb app install it screen pic

Get the Bonvoy App on Facebook

Like all Facebook applications, you will prompted to allow Bonvoy access to your basic information. After reviewing the privacy policy, click Allow to start using Bonvoy for your group trip planning!

How does Bonvoy Help me with Group Trip Planning?

Bonvoy takes the hassle out of planning group trips like family reunions, bachelor and bachelorette parties, spring break, sporting events, and couples retreats. After you install the Facebook app, you can create a group trip in 3 easy steps that involves creating a new trip, inviting the other participants, then managing everything inside the trip page.

Create a new trip in 3 easy steps.

Once created, a group trip inside the Bonvoy app looks and feels just like a Facebook group, complete with the wall, discussion board, photos and messages.

bonvoy trip facebook boxes pic

Inside a Bonvoy Trip

Specific to group trip planning, the three sections that you will be most interested in are the Travel Info box, The Hotels box and the Cars box.

In the Hotels box and the Cars box, you have access to a booking engine which you can use to easily book your hotel and car from within the app. After you book your hotel and car, the travel info gets posted on the Travel Info box.

The Travel Info box is like the virtual travel information booth, where the trip planner and all attendees can see trip info as well as updates to the travel plans from all other invitees. With the social and viral nature, this alone makes the app so useful for group travel planning.

Who is behind Bonvoy?

Based in Houston, Texas, Bonvoy Inc. is a licensed and accredited online travel agency that brokers travel-related products, including hotel rooms and rental cars.

Bonvoy Inc Founder and CEO Mujteba Naqvi tells us that he and his team have been working on the Bonvoy app for about a year with a mix of work towards development, securing strategic partners, and becoming an accredited online travel agency.

Bonvoy is are currently trying to raise a seed round of funding.

For more information, contact Bonvoy Founder and CEO Mujteba Naqvi at 832-532-2406 or email him at muj(dot)naqvi(at)bonvoy(dot)com

Calling SF New Tech’s most ardent fans and followers!

It’s that time again! In celebration of our very special Japan Night on 10/13, we hereby bestow onto you….

More than a hundred discount codes!

Yeehaw!

Register fast at : http://sfnewtechjapan.eventbrite.com/

25 tickets are 10% off with the code japannight-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code japannight-whatadeal
25 tickets are 50% off with the code japannight-yeahbaby
26 tickets are 100% off (free!) with the code japannight-seeyouthere

101 discount codes! See, more than a hundred… Get it? Yeah? It’s marketing, baby! Clever, eh? 🙂

GO!

Editor’s Note: This SFNewTech demo-highlights post is from our July 20th 2010 Event. Please bear with us while we play “catch up” on our shiny new blog :)

CEO JR Johnson described Lunch.com as “like Yelp or Trip Advisor, where the common bond is your common interest”. It’s a members-driven site that facilitates building communities of like minded passionate people to share and discover relevant knowledge and opinion. Using what they call their “Similarity Network“, they match you to other users whose interests most closely align with yours, sharing your likes, dislikes, and interests.

At the July 20th SFNewTech event, Johnson guided the audience through steps on building a community on the site.

Lunch.com CEO JR Johnson at SFNewTech (Photo Credit: Matt Silvey)

Using the “What’s hot?” now feature, which highlights the site’s most active section, Johnson found a book community of about 1000 people centered around a passion for books, to be the site’s hottest community at that moment. This was followed by a quick walk-through on how to register, create new interest areas and build the knowledge based communities at the center of Lunch.com‘s user model. He highlighted the point based reward system, where users can create a badge representative of their community passion, with criteria on how members earn the badge. For example, in the book community, a user could earn the badge after having read a specified number of books.

Lunch.com has an ad-network based business model for generating revenue. Johnson noted the key to success is “generating relevant content, quality content, which drives people to search for the site.” And he should know a little about success. Before starting Lunch.com, J.R. was founder and CEO of VirtualTourist.com and OneTime. Under his leadership, VirtualTourist.com grew to a one million+ site and earned honors from a range of media including Time magazine, Newsweek, and Travel+Leisure magazine and more. The three-time entrepreneur sold VirtualTourist.com to Expedia in 2008.

Editor’s Note:This SFNewTech demo-highlights post is from our July 20th 2010 Event. Please bear with us while we play “catch up” on our shiny new blog 🙂

Search engines, social networks and online discussion forums represent much of what’s good about the internet, while trolls and online predators who stalk and prey on innocent victims with tremendous ease represent the potential bad.

A quick online search shows that online predators are steadily on the rise. So much so, that Dateline NBC’s Chris Hansen devoted an entire show to baiting and arresting online predators in his shockingly disturbing, yet wildly popular “To Catch A Predator” T.V show.

So how can website owners, online social networks and discussion forums control this problem? Crisp – founded in 2005 by Adam Hildreth – has built a sophisticated and effective system just for that.

Crisp CTO Peter Maude came on stage at our July 20th SFNewTech event and presented their service. Using their proprietary behavior pattern tracking technology, Crisp collects pattern information that makes a site safe, thereby protecting a company’s brand (think Disney, which caters to kids). Crisp detects behaviors, then profiles and auto-manage users to keep them safe online with its unique, purpose-built systems for MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games), virtual worlds and social networks. Yes, that’s a mouthful, but that’s what’s needed to catch these ever evolving predators!

peter maude crispthinking cto demo at sfnewtech pic

CTO Peter Maude's demo of Crisp at SFNewTech

Maude showed us how Crisp uses specific word and phrase filters, generated by customer request, to detect patterns of abuse across every user profile on that customer’s site. If Crisp detects an abusive or spamming pattern, their system instantly blocks that abusive user’s typed entries (in say a chat room or discussion forum) thereby saving other users from the nuisance of universal web abuse. In the case of minors, it prevents the ‘grooming’ of children by online predators by analyzing behavior patterns using syntax and language style, thereby protecting children and minors online before the predators can make a connection.

And Crisp does all this in real time, with a response turnaround of about 100 miliseconds! Maude demonstrated this using a simulator on his laptop where he entered a chat room and typed abusive keywords and phrases and showed how the Crisp system intercepted and blocked those messages, and the abusive user, in real time.

Maude noted, “many web sites need to censure based on a multitude of what they consider to be their own threat vectors” and that is exactly what Crisp delivers.

Here are ratings from SF New Tech on 9.15. It’s like the people’s choice awards …. only geekier.

Graphs below: Favorite Demo, Least Favorite Demo, Who Folks Came To See, Event Rating As A Whole, Host Rating (Myles) and Venue Rating (Mighty).

We had 10 different peeps get on stage last night for the 60 second spots @SFNewTech.

Go here to see who’s looking for what! Track down that lead!

It’s about time we did this!

We’re pleased to announce Jobs @ SF New Tech!

No, we’re not on a hiring binge, but we know people who are!

Come find your new opportunity at http://jobs.sfnewtech.com. (Or click the nifty “Jobs” tab above!)

Are you looking to hire? You’ve come to the right place!

You can now also post your own job listings at Jobs @ SF New Tech for 30 days for only $50.00.

Bonus: for the month of September use the promo code “sept50” and post your jobs for 1/2 off … that’s only $25.00 for 30 days!

Good luck!

While small-scale artisans like Luciano Barbera are going bankrupt sitting in Italy with crates of threads in their ‘spa for yarn’, barely legal Italians exports like Augusto Marietti are already here in the United States of America, pushing the limits of their big ideas in technology and innovation.

If you’ve been coming to our SFNewTech events frequently, you may remember Augusto from our March 17th (2010) event, when he demoed Mashape – a very simple Mashup Engine that helps you create web applications without any coding experience, and that too  in near real-time! Three weeks after they took stage, Mashape landed their First Angel Round of Funding.

We met up with Augusto at the July 20th SFNewTech event, and interviewed him for all our readers who may have missed the MaShape demo. We also found out what the Mashape crew is busy doing these days and what their near future looks like.

What is MaShape?

Augusto: MaShape – imagine something like balsamic mockups, but to create real applications (not mockups). We give tools to people to create real apps by assembling different parts of components and software in a drag and drop dashboard to create your own web application.

mashape easiest way to build web apps with no coding pic

Mashape - Create Plug and Play Applications in Minutes!

So, it’s all web applications, not mobile apps?

Augusto: Not yet. We are still in private alpha, so we’re just rolling invites to developers who can create new components and new applications inside a platform.

If I have an idea for a Web site and I’ve created wire-frames with balsamic or mockflow, what do I do next with MaShape?

Augusto: In a couple of months, what you can do is go to MaShape and just assemble a component like a wireframe and then you just publish it and your application gives just an HTML code so that you can embed it on your blog and Web site. In addition to that, Mashape will give you a custom URL (web address) where your application is going to run.

If I design and publish it once, is it dynamic or static?

Augusto: It’s all dynamic. It’s not like HTML. It looks like a real application and a powerful one. You can take signups from people, log-ins from people. You can create a small Facebook type application if you want it!

Is it more like a service for creating Web sites without knowing anything about how to do Web sites?

Augusto: That Web site will run on mobile as well, because it’s just changing the HTML for iPhone and Android. We will go everywhere. Right now, it’s just for browser Web sites.

Where will the mashape app I create be hosted? Do I have to sign up for hosting?

Augusto: Everything you’re going to create is hosted on our server and our cloud computing for free. It’s completely free. Even the bandwidth is free.

What’s your business model? How do you make money or plan on making money?

Augusto: Once you start to get a lot of traffic, you start to pay us. If you are a developer, you want to bring in more components into the platform — I’m going to create a component and I’m going to put a price, like five bucks. If you want that component for your apps, you just pay five bucks to the developers and we take 20% of each transaction between the developer and the buyer.

Tell us a little bit about the company – Who you are, When you formed and what your current situation is.

Augusto: The company was founded in July 2009. We code in Italy in a garage, because we didn’t have any money to come here. When the product was already done, after 100,000 lines of code, we came here in February 2010 and we started looking for money.
We are in private alpha, so we started running our alpha in late March. In April we landed our first angel round funding from early YouTube and Paypal employees. We went back to Italy, got our visas and then we came back here again. I just came five days ago!

With that money, we plan on staying here for one year and improve the alpha based on the feedback and then release the beta so that we can develop this application in late 2010.

Awesome! Who are the Founders of MaShape?

Augusto: I’m Augusto Marietti. I’m kind of the Business Sniper. I don’t want to call myself the CEO, because that is too much for me. The other guy is Marco Palladino. He’s kind of the CTO, but we call him the Tech Mind. The front end developer is 28 years old Michele Zonca. He is – as we call him – a Java Rockstar. I’m 22.

mashape stars marco michele augusto pic

The Mashapers - (Left to Right) Marco Palladino, Michele Zonca and Augusto Marietti

When is it possible for people to sign up and start using MaShape?

Augusto: It’s now possible if you are a developer. If you have tech skills, you want to code new components, you can do that. Just design it and you will get an alpha invite in a week or two. If you are more of a publisher side, a user side, you can sign up now and wait for an invite in late 2010.

You’re planning to launch sometime this fall?

Augusto: The beta launch will be in late 2010 — November or December.

Thank you and good luck.

Backstage at the July 20th 2010 SFNewTech, we asked DooChoo co-founders Paolo and Armanda what the TOP SECRET app advertised on doochoo.com was.

Armando started to smile, then Paolo stepped in and gave it up!

what is doochoo next top secret app pic

Your Web site says that the next application is TOP SECRET. Can you give the SFNewTech fans some hints?

Paolo: The next application that we are working on is Pick One and it’s a tool to organize your inner secret decision on everyday life. It’ll be ready in a few weeks.

About the TOP SECRET app, I can only say that they’re going to target two more niche markets where I don’t see competition yet, but there is a very big need!

Only one key word to define the main topic for that.

…and that keyword is….

HYPER LOOKUP!

After giving us the insider scoop on doochoo, co-founders Paolo and Armando told us how they plan on monetizing Doochoo in the near future.

show me the money sfnewtech interviews of startup business model

What’s your business model? How do you guys make money or plan on making money?

Doochoo:We can monetize both the Doochoo platform and Doochoo applications separately. Each one of them counts with a different business model or layer — also depending on the time when we can start that.

Platform can be done in two different phases. In the beginning, we can offer a premium model for API. In the second phase, when we’ve already aggregated a lot of data, then we can also — we don’t sell data, but we can sell business intelligence tools on top of data to analyze data and use it for your business.

On the application side, each application can come with its own premium model plus advertisement, specific banners. Everything’s got to be semantic, so the application knows who is the user, which movies they like, what’s his passion, what’s everything he liked about Facebook. Companies can be ad-mob or video specific ad network.

When you say applications, are you referring to web applications or mobile apps?

Doochoo:Both, but primarily we are referring to mobile apps. I see mobile as definitely the market to go immediately.

Starting this month, our SFNewTech blog will be bringing insider scoops on the latest happenings at the companies that demo their application or service on our stage. We will also be interviewing the people behind all the cool new technology!

Our first such company is DooChoo. Doochoo took stage at the July 20th (2010) SFNewTech Event. After their awesome demo, we caught up with the two co-founders Armando Biondi and Paolo Privitera and asked them to give us the scoop on DooChoo, their unique platform and applications for opinions.

doochoo couching iphone app pic

doochoo - platform and applications for opinions

What is DooChoo?

DooChoo: It’s a platform — a technological platform with some applications built on top of that. It’s like a Freebase for opinions. Imagine a Wikipedia like site, imagine a place where anybody can post opinions and can ask opinions and can get answers. Doochoo is a public, open platform. We don’t own data. You can think of it like a Wikipedia, but much better. Wikipedia is not semantic; so you cannot query Wikipedia.

We compare our platform to Freebase — that, by the way, has been acquired by Google — we have had great meetings with Freebase and we’re really impressed by their platform.

So you can imagine a Freebase-like site with API on top and applications. We are building some applications that work as proof of concept plus we can go very deep into niche markets. We can power up specific areas of the platforms. We do API. We can offer any developer or user to build an application on our platform.

So, I program in your platform and then implement it on my Site?

DooChoo: Anything you can imagine about using a platform or an application can be done. Keep in mind that it’s not just for developers and users. It’s a platform where anybody, even a non-proficient / non-techie users, can go there and query any possible question, opinions, recommendation and get an answer. Not only for data, but also for structure.

How different or similar is it to social search engines like Aardvark?

DooChoo: It’s very different in this way — virtually any other competitor of DooChoo doesn’t have structured data model — structured data for inbound information. We are starting from building a new type of data structure, very specifically made for organizing opinions and is going to help to build the semantic layer on which we can also, in phase two or three, gather data that are not structured.

Right now, a lot of companies are offering semantic too, to understand sentiment. We are not doing that. We are building a structured data set on which people can offer opinions in a structured way. Imagine a poll or a survey — you like or don’t like — yes or no.

In the future, as I said, we can also have semantic tools to understand what people are thinking, but that is not our goal.

Can you tell me a little bit about the company?

DooChoo: The whole idea started more than a few years ago from Armando, then we met through a company called H-art in Italy. The company has been officially founded in January 2010 and it has been funded as well. We had a price seed of $150,000. We’ve had a decent burn rate and now we are close to the moment in which we are going to need funding to reach our next step.

doochoo armando and paolo demo at sfnewtech pic

Paolo and Armando on Stage at SFNewTech (photo credit: Matt Sylvey)

Who are the founders?

DooChoo: Armando Biondi and Paolo Privitera.

How can people get in touch with DooChoo?
DooChoo: You can call us at +1 415-787-CHOO or send inquiries to info@doochoo.com. And of course you can visit us online at http://doochoo.com/

Thank you and good luck!

Drinks, Demos and Discussions with Vufind, Spreaker, Let’s Woosh!, Lending Club, Law Pivot, Bee.TV, HomeCook.me and more!

25 tickets are 100% off with the code : 15sept-seeyouthere
25 tickets are 50% off with the code : 15sept-yeahbaby
25 tickets are 25% off with the code : 15sept-whatadeal
25 tickets are 10% off with the code : 15sept-isnoozed

Go get ’em!

Go here to see who’s looking for what!

Track down that lead!

 

Just a gentle reminder that next week, on Tuesday, August 31, it’s SF New Tech time again!

Demos and discussions with : appbackr, iVdopia, Membase, Surfmark, 4delite, and more.  Free Tacos.  Cold drinks.  Awesome tech. Come on down! Details: http://aug31sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

Also — grab your pencil and your calendar to mark down these future SF New Tech dates:

September 15, 2010
We’re putting the finishing touches on this one now. (http://sept15sfnewtech.eventbrite.com).  It’s not too late to apply to demo if you’re anxious to show off your tech to folks who care.  https://www.sfnewtech.com/demo

October 13, 2010
A *very* special SF New Tech… it’s Japan Night!  In collaboration with Btrax Inc, we’ll be showcasing the best and brightest from the land of the rising sun.  See http://sfjapannight.com/en/ — cool huh??  (A great sponsor opportunity!  Hint!)

In other news:

Help catch a pirate!
When the weather is agreeable, I sequester myself out in the middle of the bay to get work done out on SF New Tech’s floating HQ.  Unfortunately, these waters are littered with tweakers and pirates who tend not to respect the property of others. Just ask my poor anchor line that was cut not too long ago.   Little do they know, we’ve got an eye in the sky! (Actually, the potential of ~10,000 eyes in the sky!)  If you see anything funky going on with the little white boat with the red stripe– the one that looks like a VW bus welded to a Boston Wailer– sound the alarm!   Tune in @ http://www.justin.tv/sfnewtech

Lost in space.
We had a minor server glitch last week and any mail sent to me at myles@sfnewtech.com is floating around somewhere in the interwebs.  They may be too far gone to retrieve, but we’re working on it.  That said, if you emailed me recently and I haven’t replied, this is probably why.  Gulp.  Sorry.

Hope to see you next week!

Get ’em while they last!  There are 25 tickets available for each code …

Use 083110-isnoozed for 10% off
Use 083110-whatadeal for 25% off
Use 083110-yeahbaby for 50% off
Use 083110-seeyouthere for 100% off

Demos on tap: appbackr, iVdopia, Membase, Surfmark, 4delite, and more!

Register at http://aug31sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

GO!

 

Big Thanks to All who helped make SF New Tech’s Big (Endless) Summer Social a success!  

The day was a long time coming and when it arrived — it topped off the end of week with a bang!  

 

 

Photos by Julie Blaustein

 

 

The photos tell the story:  Company founders, industry movers, tech shakers, money makers, media, and more, were among those who spread out across the Stonebrook Court estate deep in conversation on all-things-tech.  

 

Photos by Ziv Gillat

 

 

You can view the event page and the attendee RSVP list right here, complete with the Twitter handles of those who wished to share.

Here’s my heartfelt thank you to all who helped make it happen.  Let’s start with the fun stuff.

We rejoiced with ice cold craft beer from Widmer Bros, sense-tingling varietals from Cass Winery of Paso Robles, and buckets full of chilled Magner’s Irish Cider, to boot!

Honest Tea and Glaceau provided non-alcoholic bevies both sweet and tasty.  And Kicks Ice Cream came armed with organically awesome ice cream sandwiches for all — a perfect refresher in the hot Los Altos sun!

Of course, it wouldn’t be an SF New Tech event with out a taco truck pulling up!  Poster

Yep — we brought El Tonayense, our regular and uberfamous taco truck from our regular events, down to serve up everyone’s favorite tacos (and more!).  And to spice things up a bit more, we also invited Curry Up Now to dish out their super yummy (and spicy!)  Indian-style tacos and finger lickin’ samosas.  

Now — a big thanks to our big sponsors!

Thanks to Kelly Porter, director of Woodside Capital Partners, the dude who owns the house, and to Joy Ajlouny who made sure all went down without a hitch.  Kelly, a friend and confidant, is one of the few "valley guys" I know who’s actually really making an effort to intimately connect with the SF tech scene.  There’s word that sometimes it’s hard for tech hipsters of the city to connect with tech titans down in the valley, and vise versa.   Rest assured, SF New Tech is trying to address this problem.  🙂

Thanks to Motorola who gave away the brand new phones!  Motorola says they had a great time at the event and appreciated the love everyone showed for the new Droid X. If you were at the photo-booth, make sure to check out your pics here. And to catch up with Motorola, follow them on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MotoMobile and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/motorola (Who knows, you may also win a cool new phone!)

Thanks to Citi Private Bank and my old friend Steve Gold (HGHS’88!) who rallied the troops to see what all the SF New Tech buzz was all about.   I would personally be happy to introduce anyone who has an interest in innovative wealth building strategies to Steve who’s real good at that kind of stuff. 

Thanks to Terry Kelly, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, the well-respected business law firm. Terry recognized a good time early on and was initially drawn to the Big (Endless) Summer Social so they could sponsor the beer…  Terry is a guy — and a lawyer — you want to know.

Thanks to David Lucatch, CEO of itiBiti Systems for not only giving away a brand new Slate tablet (Winner: @IdaRose) but for demonstrating how one shouldn’t forget the desktop in the delivery of content and communications, a place where you can actually drive engagement in ways you probably never dreamed of.

Thanks to our friends at CALinnovates.org, who are now quoting me when describing themselves.  "As Myles says," says Lane Kasselman, Executive Director, "we’re building a bridge from Sacremento to the valley…"  Can’t deny I’ve got a thing for bridge building!  And if there were ever a time for California politicians to learn from the economy-driving tech sector, it’s now… and CALinnovates is making it happen.

Thanks to Matt Perez and Marisol Ortega of Nearsoft who won the Big (Endless) Summer Social design contest with this beauty of a poster.  (Take a look at the famous poster from the surf classic "Endless Summer" from 1966… and you can see how we were inspired!)

Thanks to Founders Space for telling more founders about this.

Big thanks to the three great companies we selected to demo in the Grand Ballroom.  They include:

* OliveWoo, the first location based application for couples that analyzes your interests and mood to find the perfect date idea for you and your significant other.

* Quantenna Communications, Inc., a leading developer of Full-11n™ wireless networking solutions and the only one to deliver the entire complement of 802.11n Wi-Fi features for the highest possible quality and reliability in wireless home networking and digital entertainment.

* clp.ly, helping Internet users easily make visual clips and quotes of web content that maintain attribution and links back to the original source.

Thanks to all who volunteered (Jai, Peter, Shaun, Georgia, Missy, Patrick, Pat, for starters.)   And thanks to Matthew M. Gonzales his consistent delivery of passion, energy and personality.

Here’s to a great event everyone– and we can only hope to shine brighter next year!

Cheers,

Myles Weissleder
Founder, SF New Tech
sfnewtech.com // @sfnewtech
415-843-1850

 

 

Big Summer Social

 


There are two types of people in this world.

Those who lead and those who follow.

Well, actually, make that three kinds…


There are also those who inspire the rest of us — like you.

To celebrate the spirit of attempting the impossible and breaking new ground to make a difference in this world, we’ll be gathering the innovators among us — the founders, the CEOs, the renegades and the revolutionaries — for SF New Tech’s Big (Endless) Summer Social.

This exclusive event is an homage to the relentless pursuit of forging new uncharted paths, building a brighter future, and finding (and catching) that oft elusive wave of success.

Please join us on Friday, July 23, 2010 from 4-9 pm as we raise a glass (or two) at the esteemed Stonebrook Court Estate in Los Altos Hills, CA.

Cold drinks and yummy food on the promenade, table-side demos of new tech in the grand ballroom, and many other great surprises await!

$25.00 from each ticket purchase will be set aside to help impact lives in a positive way thanks to citizeneffect.org.

 


Stonebrook Court is an architectural masterpiece that has played host to presidents and kings, movie stars, and celebrities.

Originally built in 1914, this magnificent home is one of the greatest estates in California. World renowned landscape architect Stephen Suzman designed the majestic garden, which includes follies, rolling lawns, a focal point of a grassy Tudor mount, knot garden, boxwood parterres, and long perennial borders filled with roses.

The pool features a stone fountain surmounted by an antique bronze statue of Neptune. The Grand Ballroom features 16th Century gilded Venetian ceiling paintings from the Palazzo Grimani.

 
 
 
 
Demos in The Grand Ballroom from
 

clp.ly quantenna olivewoo
clp.ly lets Internet users easily make visual clips and quotes of web content that maintain attribution and links back to the original source. Quantenna Communications, Inc. is a leading developer of Full-11n™ wireless networking solutions and the only one to deliver the entire complement of 802.11n Wi-Fi features for the highest possible quality and reliability in wireless home networking and digital entertainment. OliveWoo is the first location based application for couples that analyzes your interests and mood to find the perfect date idea for you and your significant other.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Big (Endless) Summer Social is sponsored by:
 

Woodside Captial Partners

Woodside Capital Partners is a boutique investment bank providing M&A advisory services, capital raising and financial strategy for emerging growth companies in the digital media, semiconductor, life science, and alternative energy sectors.

Motorola

 Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile.

Citi Private Bank

 Citi Private Bank. We create innovative strategies for the world’s wealthiest and most influential families, providing exclusive access to Citi’s global reach, extensive capabilities and the extraordinary depth and experience of our team.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

 Dorsey is a business law firm, applying a business perspective to clients’ needs.

itiBiti

ItiBiti is a white-labeled desktop content and communications app that drives greater engagement between brands and consumers.
 

CALinnovates.org

 CALinnovates.org is a statewide coalition focused on championing the conversation about the future of California’s critical technology sector, bringing together industry experts, thought leaders, tech innovators, policy makers and consumers in a non-partisan mission to promote innovation, create new jobs, spur investment and support tech-friendly policies.
 


With very special thanks to:
 
 
 
WERE YOU INVITED?  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
 
NOT INVITED?  CLICK HERE TO REQUEST AN INVITATION (No promises, sorry!)
 
 

 

Check out all the brave souls who took to the open mic last night to make a "60 second spot" announcement.  Click here!

Howdy ho!

Here are the Discount Codes for SF New Tech on July 20, 2010 with Doochoo, Lunch, CrispThinking, MotherApp, Sococo and more!

25 tickets are 10% off with the code “720-isnoozed”
25 tickets are 25% off with the code “720-whatadeal”
25 tickets are 50% off with the code  “720-yeahbaby”
25 tickets are 100% off with the code “720-seeyouthere”

Register now @ http://july20sfnewtech.eventbrite.com

GO!

Read on for some insider insight and opportunity! 

Including:

1) Our Geo-Loco Smackdown Rocked! Thanks!
2) The Big Summer Social!
3) Next SF New Tech: July 20 – Save the Date!
4) Call for Designers!
5) Call for Writers!
6) Call for Sponsors! 
7) Geo-Loco Conference 2010
8 ) EventTech Con
9) FACCSF Business Booster 2010
10) Demo your stuff on our stage!
11) Membership has its privileges!
12) Big thanks!
13) Smart People

GO!

1) Our Geo-Loco Smackdown Rocked!
Thank you to all who came out to our Geo-Loco Smackdown last week.  Holy smokes! 

Brightkite, Where, PlacePop, DoubleDutch, Booyah / MyTown, and Quova dove really deep into the geo-locational services landscape! And our panel format seemed to be a hit!  Expect more events like this one!  Check out video clips of the presenters and the panel at www.justin.tv/sfnewtech/videos  And see the RSVP list below!

2) The Big Summer Social!
A lot of folks have been asking me about our forthcoming "Summer Social". Here’s the scoop:  On Friday, July 23 from 4-9 pm, 150+ technology executives will gather at the private estate of Stonebrook Court (check it out: http://bit.ly/sHr0f) in Los Altos Hills, CA to celebrate summer over cold beer, tasty munchies, and bold new tech in typical SF New Tech-style.  We will begin inviting Founders and CEOs in the coming days and then will open up registration to others if/when space allows.  As much as we’d like to invite everyone, we can’t.  Sorry. House rules.  And it’s not my house. Now, if you run a tech company and want to get social with us please let us know at www.sfnewtech.com/stonebrook .  If you’d like to sponsor this event, here’s sponsorship info (PDF): http://drop.io/summersocialsponsorsheet

3) Next SF New Tech: July 20 – Save the Date!
The next SF New Tech at Mighty will be on Tuesday, July 20th.  Note, it’s on a TUESDAY, not Wednesday.  Details coming soon! 

4) Call for Designers!
We need a designer to help us with, um, some design work.  Specifically for our forthcoming Summer Social at Stonebrook Court. I could enlist 99designs.com but thought to throw it out to our community here first. Designers, send me a well-thought-out treatment (pdf or jpg) of a design element that captures (creates!) the essence of our Summer Social at Stonebrook  and if we dig it, you and a colleague will get into a year of SF New Tech events for free.  If we end up choosing your design, we’ll get you into the big bash too.  We’re looking for an image like http://bit.ly/bQM9Xe but more "summery" and, um, social. 🙂  We’ll use it on the event registration page and on event collateral, etc.  Any takers? (Deadline is Wednesday 6/30)

5) Call for Writers!
Calling all bloggers and excessive tweeters.  As part of our relaunch of sfnewtech.com in the coming weeks, we’ll be integrating more and more commentary from our community.  If you’re interested in writing event recaps, reviews, interviews, opinion pieces, or god forbid, "news" … we can get you published and in front of people who will want to read your words.   Interested pontificators are invited to drop me a well-written note with a link to their recent work for consideration!

6) Call for Sponsors! 
As you know, SF New Tech is the largest regular tech event in SF.  And we’re not too proud to beg. We need your help finding sponsors who want to get in with the cool kids.  We’ve got revenue share deals to offer for closed deals based on your referrals.  Who do you know?  Contact me for more info.

7) Geo-Loco Conference 2010
If you didn’t get enough geo-loco last week (or if you couldn’t swing it but really wanted to be there) than the BIG Geo-Loco Conference in SF on July 21st with Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) keynoting is not to be missed.  All the major players will be there…  And so should you.   Click here http://bit.ly/doJU5F and use the code "sfnewtech" for 20% off ticket prices.

8 ) FACCSF Business Booster 2010
Calling all entrepreneurs! The French-American Chamber of Commerce San Francisco invites you to enroll in a dynamic 7-week one-on-one mentorship program to accelerate your business.  The French-American Chamber of Commerce’s longstanding Business Booster program has begun its 2010 cycle. This course equips entrepreneurs with valuable lessons on critical startup issues and connects them with high-level mentors and experts!  Challenge & Boost your Business with weekly interactions with mentors & experts and 1-on-1 exchanges on communication, marketing, legal, finance & business development; as well as benefit from an extensive network of high-level professionals and decision makers.  At the end of the program, you’ll better understand what it takes to successfully build your business strategy. Participation Fees: $900 + FACCSF Membership.  To learn more about the Business Booster program, apply, and to get involved visit http://bit.ly/96jUEp (Sponsored Message).

9) Demo your stuff on our stage!
Get your new tech in front of a standing room only crowd of geeks, bloggers, VCs, developers, and more!
Apply at www.sfnewtech.com/demo

10) Membership has its privileges!
Walk right into a year’s worth of SF New Tech events for less than $200.  www.sfnewtech.com/membership Makes for a great gift for your favorite VC!

11) EventTech Con
If you can’t get enough of my endless blather, I’ll be speaking at Silicon Valley Bank’s EventTechCon on Friday, June 25th in Mt. View with all the big shots in the local event scene (McClure, Shipley, Pirillo, Forrest, Phillips, Zisk, to name a few).  Care to join? You can get $10 off of the startup ticket ($70) with the code "10dollar" and $29 off of the regular priced ticket ($160) with the code "mtp2010b" More info @ eventtech2010.eventbrite.com

12) Big thanks!
We would like to thank our extended family: Bullivant Houser Bailey, Mylermedia, CALInnovates.org, Future-Works, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, NerdStalker, Justin.tv, our Annual members, Matthew Gonzales, Julie Blaustein, Matt Silvey, Conrad Wade III, Alli, Kelly Porter, El Toyanense,  Mighty, Meetup.com, Eventbrite, TweetWallPro, Startup Digest, @webwallflower, and YOU!

13) Here’s the list of really smart people who RSVP’d for our Geo-Loco Smackdown. 

   *  Aaron Barnes, Business Development, PlacePop
      Website: www.placepop.com
      Blog: twitter.com/placepop

    * Adam Jackson, Community Manager, Brightkite
      Website: brightkite.com
      Blog: blog.brightkite.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/adamjackson

    * Adam Bridge, Business Development Manager, Archanics – Digital Marketing
      Website: www.archanics.com
      Blog: www.archanics.com/blog

    * Adam Kane, Founder, Stealth Mobile Startup
      Website: twitter.com/adamjkane

    * agathe b, Engineer, GoParkr
      Website: www.goparkr.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/agatheb

    * Akash Agarwal, Consultant, AT&T
      Website: www.att.com

    * Akiko Bourque, VP, Business Development & Marketing, btrax, Inc.
      Website: www.btrax.com

    * Alec Dinner, Director of Sales, CloudCrowd
      Website: cloudcrowd.com

    * Aleem Mawani, Student, HBS
      Website: Ipoonow.com

    * Alex Levinson, Lead Developer, Katana Forensics
      Website: www.katanaforensics.com
      Blog: alexlevinson.wordpress.com

    * Alex Hoenig, Account Executive, CBS Interactive
      Website: techrepublic.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/alexhoenig

    * Alex Benn, VP, Strategy & Business Development, Minted
      Website: www.minted.com

    * Alexander Niehenke, Associate, Crosslink Capital
      Website: www.crosslinkcapital.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/aniehenke

    * Ali Mills, developer, Pattern Park
      Website: alimills.com
      Blog: asserttrue.com

    * Ambika Jain, CCO, AddToAny
      Website: www.addtoany.com/       Twitter? www.twitter.com/bikapants

    * Amot Khanna, Senior Accountant, Father and son
      Website: Ipoonow.com

    * Andre Kvitka, Principal, DigitalRig
      Website: www.digitalrig.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/erdna65

    * Andrea Mariotti, Research Manager, Ricoh Innovations
      Website: ricohinnovations.com
      Blog: ricohinnovations.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/andreamariotti

    * Andreas Rimbe, CEO, Gluu Inc.
      Website: www.gluu.tv

    * Andrew Rondeau, CTO, AppFeeds
      Website: appfeeds.com

    * Andrew Mager, Developer Relations, SimpleGeo
      Website: www.simplegeo.com

    * Andy Cary, Founder, Join Us Deals
      Website: joinusdeals.com
      Blog: andycary.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/acary

    * Andy Lammers, Founder, myfriendsandmusic
      Website: myfriendsandmusic.com

    * Aneil Mallavarapu, Founder, Blipboard
      Website: blipboard.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/aneilbaboo

    * Anthony Kline, Technical Recruiter, Riviera Partners
      Website: www.rivierapartners.com
      Blog: www.linkedin.com/in/anthonykline1

    * Anthony Krumeich, CEO, ShowForce
      Website: showforce.net
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/eak4

    * Antonia Borisov, Senior Product Manager, AAA
      Website: www.goaaa.com

    * Aren Sandersen, Entrepreneur, Parkzing
      Website: parkzing.com

    * Arnold Lee, Managing Director, Aria Capital Management
      Website: www.ariacapitalmanagement.com

    * Ashley Cera, Staffing Manager, PsiNapse Technology
      Website: www.psinapse.com

    * Ashraf Shabudin, Application Support Manager, First Republic Bank
      Website: www.firstrepublic.com

    * Benjamin Reesman, Principal Software Engineer, Good Technology
      Website: www.good.com

    * Bilal Ahmed, CEO, mytweetmark
      Website: www.mytweetmark.com
      Blog: blog.bilalahmed.org
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mytweetmark

    * Bill Reichle, User Experience Architect, Contractor
      Website: https://twitter.com/sfsoma
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/SFsoma

    * Blair Swedeen, VP, Market Development, 1020 Placecast
      Website: placecast.net/developer      
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/placecastapi

    * Bob Brauer, President & Founder, StrikeIron
      Website: www.strikeiron.com
      Blog: strikeiron.typepad.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/sibob
   
     * Brad McKeon, Director, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com

    * Bradnon Hill, CEO, btrax, Inc.
      Website: www.btrax.com
      Blog: blog.btrax.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/btraxinc
   
     * Brandon Peele, Advisor, BookGlutton
      Website: bookglutton.com

    * Brendan Nee, Principal, BlinkTag Inc
      Website: blinktag.com

    * Brittany Hawkins, Communication Strategy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
      Website: www.goodbysilverstein.com

    * Bruce Smith, Scientist, Scout Labs By Lithium Technologies
      Website: www.scoutlabs.com/       Blog: www.scoutlabs.com/blog/

    * Bruce McTigue McTigue, President, Tiguer LLC
      Website: tiguer.com

    * Bryan Sise, Director Product Marketing, Adify
      Website: www.adify.com
      Blog: blog.adify.com

    * Caitlin Gorman, Educational Consultant, self
      Website: www.facebook.com/caitlinjgorman

    * Carlos Cardona, Web Developer, Zazengo
      Website: zazengo.com
      Blog: zazengo.com/news       Twitter? www.twitter.com/cgcardona

    * Carolynne Schloeder, Advisor, eMbience
      Website: www.embience.com

    * Catherine Burke Dobbs, Sales and Recruitment Executive, Betts Recruiting
      Website: bettsrecruiting.com/

    * Chris Zimdars, Dir. – Syndication Product Mgt, IAC – Ask.com
      Website: www.ask.com

    * Chris Jarvis, GIS Technician, self-employed
      Website: sites.google.com/site/jarvisresume/

    * Christie Brophy, Entrepreneur, Startup
  
    * Christina Pan, Developer, Independent
      Website: www.na.com

    * Christine Brumback, New Product Development , Consultant / Self
      Website: christineb.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/Boomer

    * Christophe Daligault, CEO, BulbMinds Inc
      Website: bulbminds.com

    * Christopher Katsaros, Analyst, Internet Research Group
      Website: www.irg-intl.com
      Blog: www.infrastructure2-1.com

    * Conway Chen, Director, Business Development, Booyah, Inc.
      Website: www.booyah.com

    * Courtenay Bird, Manager of New Media, FutureWorks
      Website: courtenaybird.tumblr.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/courtenaybird

    * courtland smith, marketing manager, adify
      Website: adify.com
      Blog: marketinghipster.blogspot.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mktinghipster

    * Craig Benson, Developer, Psychomechanix
      Website: www.psychomechanix.com

    * Cristin Zweig, Account Manager, Access Communications
      Website: www.accesspr.com

    * Dan Porter, Marketing and Business Development, RentJuice.com
      Website: www.rentjuice.com

    * Dan Gilmartin, VP Marketing, WHERE
      Website: www.where.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/dangilmartin

    * Dan Ryan, co-founder, d27n
      Website: d27n.com

    * David Staas, SVP Marketing, JiWire Inc.
      Website: www.jiwire.com

    * David Spark, Founder, Spark Media Solutions
      Website: www.sparkmediasolutions.com
      Blog: www.sparkminute.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/dspark

    * Delyn Simons, Director, Developer Relations and Platform Strategy, Mashery
      Website: mashery.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/delynator

    * Dennis Mink, CEO, Footfeed
      Website: www.footfeed.com
      Blog: blog.footfeed.com

    * Deren Tavgac

    * Devon Biondi, Platform Strategies Manager, Mashery
      Website: mashery.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/devon

    * Diane Bisgeier, Marketing & Business Development, self
      Website: bisgeier.blogspot.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/tbiz

    * Dick Filippini, Vice President, GCA Savvian Advisors
      Website: www.gcasavvian.com

    * Donald Case, CEO, BizCare, Inc.
      Website: Bizcare.com
      Blog: Bizcare.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/Gobizcare

    * donna bonifield, CVO, Revenue Chic
      Website: na.com

    * Doug Brackbill, CEO, Mobile Startup
      Website: Facebook.com/dougbrackbill

    * Duncan Logan, CEO, NationalBLS
      Website: www.nationalbls.com
      Blog: blog.nationalbls.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/nationalbls

    * Dylan Clendenin, developer, zazengo
      Website: github.com/deepthawtz      
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/deepthawtz

    * Elizabeth Chien, Attorney, Baker & McKenzie LLP
      Website: www.bakermckenzie.com/elizabethchien

    * Elsa Chang, Community Product Manager, Yahoo! Upcoming
      Website: upcoming.yahoo.com

    * Emily Taron, Student, NYU
      Website: www.nyu.edu

    * Eric Simundza, Product Manager, GIS Planning Inc.
      Website: gisplanning.com

    * Erin Tavgac

    * Erin Lehane, Membership Director, CALinnovates.org
      Website: CALinnovates.org
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/CALinnovates

    * Eva Diaz Santana, Founder, iNVASIVE CODE
      Website: Www.invasivecode.com
      Blog: Weblog.invasivecode.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/evdiasan

    * Evelyn Reyes Dixon, Product Manager, Quova Inc.
      Website: www.quova.com

    * Farshad Samimi, Systems Architect, GoldSpot Media, Inc.
      Website: www.goldspotmedia.com

    * Felicia Diaz, Director of Entrepreneur Services, Keiretsu Forum
      Website: www.keiretsuforum.com

    * Fotis Merakos, Business Development Manager, Mobics
      Website: www.mobics.gr

    * Garrett Dodge, CEO, Appetyte, llc
      Website: www.appetyte.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/garrettdodge

    * Gene Leybzon, CTO, Trusted Opinion, Inc
      Website: www.trustedopinion.com
      Blog: www.leybzon.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/leybzon

    * George Barnett, CEO, gabthinking LLC
      Website: www.gabthinking.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/gabthinking

    * George Cannon, VIce President, JMP Securities
      Website: jmpsecurities.com

    * Geppy Parziale, Founder, iNVASIVE CODE
      Website: Www.invasivecode.com
      Blog: Weblog.invasivecode.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/geppyp

    * Gigi Wang, Board Member, MIT/Stanford Venture Lab
      Website: www.vlab.org

    * Greg Silin, Senior Software Engineer, Jive Software
      Website: jive.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/gregsbriefs

    * Greg Ruff, President, White Space Strategy
      Website: www.whitespacestrategy.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/GregRuff

    * Heather Rivers, Engineer, PlacePop
      Website: placepop.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/placepop

    * Heidi Mayon, Senior Associate, Pillsbury
      Website: www.pillsburylaw.com

    * Ilya Bakshee, co-founder, d27n
      Website: d27n.com

    * Jaclyn Zhuang, Consultant, Deloitte

    * James bourque, Senior Vice President, UBS Financial Services
      Website: www.ubs.com

    * James Sanderson, Founder, DealThing.com
      Website: dealthing.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/dealthing

    * Jari Salomaa, Chief Architect, Nokia
      Website: www.salomaa.com
      Blog: salomaa.posterous.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/salomaa

    * Jasen Kim, Technical Product Manager, RIM
      Website: ipoonow.com

    * Jason Johnson, Organizer, TEDx SF
      Website: www.tedxsf.org

    * Jeff Tannenbaum, Founder, InSociety
      Website: insociety.com

    * Jeff Roberto, Sr. Director, Marketing, FooMojo
      Website: www.foopets.com
      Blog: www.foomojo.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/foopets

    * Jeff Stewart, Founder, Elohim Resources
      Website: www.elres.com

    * Jennifer Long, Product Designer, eBay Inc.
      Website: thejenlong.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/thejenlong

    * Jeremy Geiger, CEO, RetaiLigence
      Website: www.RetaiLigence.com

    * Jesper Andersen, Product Manager, Data and Econometrics, Trulia, Inc
      Website: trulia.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/jandersen

    * Jesse Taggert, Communication Strategy + Design, Citizen Space + Taggert Marketing Communications
      Website: taggert.net
      Blog: jtag.posterous.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/jag

    * Jesslyn Morrison, Regional Sales Consultant, TriNet
      Website: www.trinet.com

    * Jet Li, CEO, JM Alliance, Inc.
      Website: www.jm-alliance.com

    * Jill Smith, President, EventSmith
      Website: www.whitespacestrategy.com

    * Jim Youll, CTO, Swizzl
      Website: swizzl.com/

    * Jo Gilby, CEO, Torchglow
      Website: www.torchglow.com

    * Jochen Frey, VP of Technology, Lithium
      Website: www.lithium.com

    * Joe Robinson, Co-Founder, Poig
      Website: www.poig.com

    * johann seesmic, CTO, Seesmic
      Website: seesmic.com
      Blog: romefort.net
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/romefort

    * Johanna Lui, Teacher, ER Taylor
      Website: facebook/johanna.lui

    * John Katsaros, Principal, Internet Research Group
      Website: www.irg-intl.com
      Blog: www.infrastructure2-1.com

    * John Bennett, Creative Director, Howdy Cloud
      Website: howdycloud.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/howdycloud

    * john lin , Second Vice President , Morgan Stanley
      Website: fa.smithbarney.com/thecypressgroupsb

    * Jordan Uttal, Specialist, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/juttal

    * Josh Gould, Director of Product Management, Flixster
      Website: flixster.com

    * JP Manninen, Writer, VentureBeat
      Website: venturebeat.com

    * Julia Graham, Marketing & Community, PlacePop
      Website: www.placepop.com
      Blog: twitter.com/placepop

    * Julian Metcalf, Student, NYU
      Website: www.nyu.edu

    * julie kahng, research associate, capital research

    * Julie Blaustein, Founder, Julie Blaustein Photography
      Website: julieblaustein.com
      Blog: www.techiestuffortherestofus.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/julierb

    * Kate Fiandaca, Recruiter, GreeneSearch
      Website: jobs.greenesearch.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/greenesearchk8

    * Kathleen Donahue, Director of Design & UX, Wellsphere
      Website: www.wellsphere.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/ovaworks

    * Kati Prescott, Digital Painter, Fine Artist, San Francisco State University
      Website: www.katiprescott.com/   

    * Katie Nagl, Strategist, Goodby Silverstein & Partners
      Website: goodbysilverstein.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/katnagl

    * Kazuhiro Koga, web designer, Student
      Website: www.japanese-web-design.com

    * Kedar Shah, Marketing Evangelist, MotherApp
      Website: www.motherapp.com
      Blog: www.motherapp.com/blog/
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/motherapp

    * Kelly Swanson, Sales Superstar, N/A

    * Ken Sandy, VP Product, VideoEgg
      Website: www.videoegg.com

    * Kent Lindstrom, CEO, PlacePop
      Website: www.placepop.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/placepop

    * Kilimanjaro Robbs, Product Management – For Hire, Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business
      Website: www.linkedin.com/in/kilimanjarorobbs

    * Kirk Palmer, sem, SDG
      Website: sdg.com

    * Krishna Ganti, Sr Software Engineer, TheFind
      Website: www.thefind.com

    * Kristy Shipman, VP of Business Development, Cognitive Match
      Website: www.cognitivematch.com

    * LA Lassek, VP Marketing, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/notla

    * Lance Joe, Regional Director, Heartland Payment Systems
      Website: heartlandpaymentsystems.com

    * Lane Kasselman, Executive Director, CALinnovates.org
      Website: CALinnovates.org
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/CALinnovates

    * Laura Diaz, Strategic Business Development and Partner Managem, Verizon Wireless
      Website: developer.verizon.com

    * Lee Ladisky, Principal, pdaAnyware
      Website: Pdaanyware.com

    * Letian Liu, Business Development, Platinum Group Media Inc.
      Website: www.secretoffer.org

    * Lisa Sculati, Community Manager, SNG
      Website: www.linkedin.com/in/lisasculati

    * Maria Rimbe, Business Development Manager, Gluu Inc.
      Website: www.gluu.tv

    * Mark Jacobson, Founder & Managing Partner, Ignition Search Partners
      Website: www.ignitionsearchpartners.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mark_jacobson

    * Mark Barosko, Marketing Director, Stealth
      Website: www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=10541544&trk=tab_pro

    * Marsha Knight, Digital Art DIrector – UX design – Strategy , independent contractor
      Website: cargocollective.com/Marsha
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/MarshaKnight

    * Martin Chai, Sales, IBM
      Website: www.ibm.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/martin_chai

    * Matt Perez, COO & Co-founder, Nearsoft, Inc
      Website: www.nearsoft.com/nearsoft-quick-intro
      Blog: www.nearsoft.com/blog

    * Matt Hatoun, Co-Founder, Wholeshare
      Website: www.wholeshare.com

    * matthew silvey, Photographer, Me, Inc.
      Website: dancewithdevils.com/

    * Melroy Saldanha, Software Engineer, Adify
      Website: www.adify.com

    * Michael Madison, CEO, menumodo
      Website: www.menumodo.com

    * Michael Goff, Founder, Cocoafish
      Website: cocoafish.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mikegoff

    * Michelle Koh Potts, Consultant, *
      Website: www.iampersandi.com
      Blog: www.consumablejoy.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mkohpotts

    * Mike Blume, Visiting Fellow, Singularity Institute
      Website: singinst.org

    * mike mcgrath, Principal, Blendr Media
      Website: www.blendr-media.com/blendrblog
      Blog: www.blendr-media.com/blendrblog
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/mikefj40

    * mike hennessey, Dir BD, DNA Games
      Website: www.dnagamesinc.com

    * Mike Malone, Engineering, SimpleGeo
      Website: www.simplegeo.com

    * Mimi Steele, Manager, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/MASMECO

    * Nate Hennings, Dir of Bus Dev, NationalBLS
      Website: www.nationalbls.com

    * Nathan Beckord, Principal, VentureArchetypes LLC
      Website: www.venturearchetypes.com
      Blog: www.seedstagecapital.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/startupventures

    * Nipun Jethi, Product, TBD shortly
      Website: twitter.com/nipj

    * olafur gudjonsson, Owner, Gudjonsson Group
      Website: www.linkedin.com/in/olafurgudjonsson
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/olafur_g

    * Olivier Ricordel, Principal, Ricordel Consulting
      Website: twitter.com/ricordel
      Blog: ricordel.wordpress.com

    * Pablo Monzon, Co-CEO/Co FOunder, GIS Planning Inc.
      Website: gisplanning.com

    * Pamela Schmitz, CSM, Quova

    * Paolo Privitera, President, Digitix Holding
      Website: www.linkedin.com/in/paoloprivitera
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/pppaolo

    * Pat Diven II, Founder, AddToAny
      Website: www.addtoany.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/micropat

    * Paul Murphy, Systems Analyst/Lead Engineer, Flowcurve INC
      Website: flowcurve.com

    * Paul Gassée, Founder, BeThere
      Website: www.betheredeals.com

    * Perry Tancredi, Sr. Director, Product, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/ptancredi

    * Peter Olfe, President, Yojo Mobile, Inc.
      Website: www.yojomobile.com

    * Peter Mullen, Acct Exec, Sonic.net
      Website: sonic.net
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/pemullen

    * Peter Berg, Vice President, October Three
      Website: octoberthree.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/peter

    * Rain Hayes, Specialist, Quova
      Website: www.quova.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/RainHayes

    * Reina Hashimoto, Project Manager, btrax, Inc.
      Website: www.btrax.com
      Blog: blog.btrax.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/btraxinc

    * Renee Chu, Community Manager Intern, Citizen Space
      Website: reneecoding.blogspot.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/reneighbor

    * Richard Scherek, Software Developer, Informatix Laboratories Corp.
      Website: www.dssinc.com

    * Richard Landry, CEO, richmedium
      Website: www.richmedium.net
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/richmedium

    * Rissa Shaw, Associate, CALinnovates.org
      Website: CALinnovates.org
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/CALinnovates

    * Rob Dull, Sr. Marketing Manager, Appitalism
      Website: www.appitalism.com

    * Rob Bailey, Vice President, SimpleGeo
      Website: www.simplegeo.com

    * Rob Giuffre, Director, Business Development, CityGrid Media.com
      Website: www.citygridmedia.com

    * Ruchir Srivastava, Product Manager, 23Var
      Website: 23var.com
      Blog: Blog.23var.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/ruchir70

    * Scott Petoff, Senior Product Manager, Tracker Corp
      Website: www.trackercorp.com

    * Sebastian Storfner, Vice President, Corporate Finance Partners
      Website: www.cfpartners.com

    * Sébastien Lefebvre, CxO, NA
      Website: NA
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/S_Lefebvre

    * Seth Socolow, Partner, SF App Studio
      Website: sfappstudio.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/sethsocolow

    * Shawn Shah, Developer, EyeFi, Inc.
      Website: www.eye.fi
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/theshah

    * Siddharth Bajaj, Principal Engineer, VeriSign, Inc.
      Website: www.verisign.com

    * Simon Suh, Agile Coach, Independent
      Website: ted.com

    * Simon Lu, Geo, Twitter
      Website: www.twitter.com

    * Sophia Perl, Product Manager, IBM
      Website: www.sophiaperl.com

    * Stephane Rangaya, Designer, Seesmic
      Website: seesmic.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/stephane

    * Stephen O’Donoghue, CEO, WorkWyze
      Website: workwyze.com

    * Stephen McCurry, Product Manager, Betfair
      Website: www.betfair.com
      Blog: thefutureofonlinegambling.blogspot.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/StephenMcCurry

    * Stephen Debruyn, Principal, SDB Strategic Communications Consulting
      Website: www.stephendebruyn.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/stephendebruyn

    * Steve Hughey, co-founder, d27n
      Website: d27n.com

    * Stuart Schmukler, CTO, Breath Research
      Website: www.breathresearch.com

    * Suzanne Yu, Division Manager, Heartland Payment Systems
      Website: heartlandpaymentsystems.com

    * Sylvia Luneau, President, PsiNapse Technology Ltd.
      Website: www.psinapse.com

    * SYlvia Luneau, President and CEO, PsiNapse Technology Ltd.
      Website: www.psinapse.com

    * Ted OHanlon, SVP, Corporate & Business Development, CityMint
      Website: www.citymint.com

    * Thomas Hessler, Founder, Globumbus
      Website: globumbus.com
      Blog: thomashessler.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/thomashessler

    * Thuy Pham, Founder, eNovalink
      Website: www.enovalink.com

    * Tibet Sprague, Senior Software Engineer, 1BOG
      Website: www.1bog.com

    * Tom McCabe, Visiting Fellow, Singularity Institute
      Website: singinst.org

    * Tom Piliero, Associate, Morgan Stanley
      Website: www.morganstanley.com

    * Tom Brehme, Founder, BlockWild, Inc.
      Website: blockwild.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/blockwild

    * Tom Montgomery, Associate, IDG Ventures
      Website: www.idgvsf.com

    * Tom Tunguz, Associate, Redpoint Ventures
      Website: www.redpoint.com
      Blog: expostfacto.posterous.com

    * Tracy Chan, Product Manager, ngmoco
      Website: www.ngmoco.com

    * Trucy Phan, Developer, BlinkTag Inc
      Website: blinktag.com

    * Trung Nguyen, MBA Grad, Univ. of San Francisco
      Website: www.linkedin.com/in/tqnguyen

    * val ornoy, Business Development, Footfeed
      Website: footfeed.com

    * vinay nagaraj, Engineer, Dtech
      Website: vinaynag.wordpress.com
      Blog: vinaynag.wordpress.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/vinaynag

    * Vishal Shah, Engineering Manager, IAC – Ask.com
      Website: www.ask.com

    * Walter Roth, CEO, Founder, Appfeeds
      Website: www.appfeeds.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.comsweatinvestor

    * Wesly Michel, Founder, Mosion
      Website: www.mosion.me

    * Will Park, Editor-in-Chief, IntoMobile.com
      Website: www.IntoMobile.com
      Blog: www.IntoMobile.com
      Twitter? www.twitter.com/WillPark

    * Yogi Patel, Director of Biz Dev, Waterfall Mobile
      Website: www.waterfallmobile.com

    * Yvonne Lin, Intern, Education pioneers
      Website: Ipoonow.com

 

Lots of wants and needs took to the open mic last night.

Including info on the big Geo-Local Conference in July, a free street-cleaning reminder iPhone app, Mighty’s upcoming events, folks looking for work in design, product management, the scoop on the Singularity Summit and more.  Go track down that lead!

Check ’em out here.

 

Get ’em while they last!

25 tickets are 10% off with the code: geoloco-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code: geoloco-whatadeal
25 tickets are 50% off with the code: geoloco-yeahbaby
25 tickets are 100% off with the code: geoloco-seeyouthere

All are first-come first-served.

Register @ http://june16sfnewtech.eventbrite.com

GO!

 

Only two 60-second spots were logged last night…. and here there are.

Name:  Ramon  Suarez
Email:  123rsv+sfnewtech @gmail.com
Name of company or project: BetaGroup
Web Site: http://www.betagroup.be
What are you looking for? Or needing help with?:   
We run a massive web, mobile and tech pitch slam in Brussels every month called BetaGroup. Now that you have seen the Belgians presenting at SF New Tech it is your turn to showcase some USA startups in Belgium. We will be more than happy to welcome you to one of our events or to organize a special and unique US startup night.

Name:  Matthew  Gonzales
Email: Matthew @Hypertable.com
Name of company or project: Hypertable
Web Site:  http://Hypertable.org
What are you looking for? Or needing help with?: 
We are a high performance, open source, scalable database modeled after Google’s well known Bigtable.  Large deployments include – Baidu "Official Sponsor" and Rediff "Official Sponsor"  Looking to chat with anyone who has scaling issues or is interested in learning more.

 

 

. . . and conquered!

 

 

 

 

 

What an amazing night!    I’ll tell you — us folks here in SF and Silicon Valley better watch out!   We witnessed some real genius last night that could easily rival what we see coming out of our little techscene here.  

I’m thrilled the Beligans made a pit stop at SF New Tech while on their "Webmission".    I urge you to kick the tires of WooRank for your analytics, Beebole for a new, fresh approach to business apps (wish ’em good luck at Google IO 2010 Sandbox today!), Knowledge Plaza for their super cool and robust collaboration tools, Raz*War for their new approach to SHAVING as a service (SAAS!), TweetWallPro, for their awesome Twitter wall (debuted for the first time last night!), and musescore.com for their truly amazing approach for musicians to share sheet music. 

We would like to also thank the Belgian Trade Office for their sponsorship, as well as thank Belgium’s Minister-President Rudy Demotte, fresh off a trans-Atlantic flight, who joined in to support the awesome tech that’s coming out of his country.  

In all, a really, really great group of companies led by a great group of guys.   

Congrats  — and thanks for a really insightful and educational evening!

 

 

We’re putting all the details together now for an awesome Summer Social party we’ve got planned for June 11th July 23rd at the magnificent Stonebrook Court Estate in Los Altos Hills, CA.   

Stonebrook Court is an architectural masterpiece that has played host to presidents and kings, movie stars, and celebrities….   And maybe you! 

(See photos from our Founder’s Feast there last fall:  http://bit.ly/1KYnUn)

We’ve got room for about 6 companies to demo in the ballroom.  Are you one of them?  Want to apply to see if you can score a spot?   Hit this now to apply! 

We’re also now accepting inquiries from companies who wish to sponsor this event.   Please email me myles at sfnewtech.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hola!

Bet you never knew how well technology and tacos really went together, huh? 

On Cinco de Mayo, we tested the theory and proved it to be very true. 

Toss in a few free cocktails (thanks to Alcatel-Lucent), a bunch of killer demos, great people, and some good music before and after, and there you have one of the best tech events SF has to offer.  But then again, I’m biased.   But you can see for yourself… go check out the event ratings as they’re reported in real time right here.  

The 60-second spot listings from the brave souls who took to the mic to make an announcement can be found right here.

 

 

Shawn Cunningham, VP, Marketing Snaptic presents the Android to lucky winner, Julie Kahng, CFA, Research Associate, Capital Research Global Investors.

Big congratulations to Julie Kahng, CFA, Research Associate, Capital Research Global Investors, who was the lucky winner of Snaptic’s Android phone give-away!   Snaptic also gave away a few tickets to its forthcoming Move Your Apps Developer Conference on 5.27 with Marten Mickos, Former CEO of MySQL; Juan Enriquez, Excel Ventures; George Zachary, Charles River Ventures; Brian Chen, Wired; Cindy Alvarez, KISSMetrics, and others!.   And we’ll be giving away more soon, so stay tuned.  But don’t wait on a possible give-away!  Register now and score a 25% discount with the code "SFNewTech".  Go!!!

Next up … The Belgians on 5/18.  Stay tuned!!

 

 

 

On 5/18, we’re welcoming the Belgians back on their second "Webmission" to our neck of the woods. 

Come on down and see and hear from WooRank, an automated Website Analysis Tool; BeeBole, "Business Apps Reloaded"; Knowledge Plaza, a collaborative knowledge base tool; Raz*War, an SAAS approach to shaving (yes, shaving); and TweetWall Pro, your "professional Twitter wall".   Expect free tacos and more at this one!  I’m so thrilled about it, here are discount codes for you now! 

25 tickets are 10% off with the code: 18may-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code: 18may-whatadeal
25 tickets are 50% off with the code: 18may-yeahbaby
25 tickets are 100% off with the code: 18may-seeyouthere

Go!!

http://belgiansareback.eventbrite.com/

It’s going to be great. 

More details to be posted soon.
 

 

We’re getting loco with mobile tech on Cinco de Mayo when we’ll see and hear from Snaptic, Alcatel-Lucent, Cabulous, Goojet, ShoutOUT,
and more!

Discount Codes for SF New Tech on 5/5 are here!

25 tickets are 10% off with the code: 0505-isnoozed
25 tickets are 25% off with the code: 0505-whatadeal
25 tickets are 50% off with the code: 0505-yeahbaby
25 tickets are 100% off with the code: 0505-seeyouthere

Go!!

http://may5sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

 


photos by Matthew Silvey

Wow!  What a night! 

I want to offer up a BIG THANKS to everyone who joined us on Wednesday to celebrate our 4th year anniversary!  How thrilling it is to be surrounded by high style, cool tech and great people! 

It’s hard to believe we’ve evolved from a meetup of 8 geeks in a bar to a constant barrage of awesome standing-room-only events. 

Have you seen the list of companies who’ve jumped on stage with us over the years?   Like 200+ of ’em.   Check them out (and rate them!) here. 

I’m really looking forward to jumping into year number 5 with y’all!   Like maybe as early as May 5th when we take another deep dive in to mobile tech, Cinqo de Mayo style?  Or perhaps when the Belgians take to the stage on May 18th?  Tickets will go on sale soon. Stay tuned for discount codes!  🙂

OK, without further ado, here are some nifty links from Wednesday’s SF New Tech…Enjoy!

    *   So, Zuumer, Citizen Effect, Collaborize, Threadbox, Task Squid, Encoding.com, Apture .. who was the crowd favorite?  Not so much?  See the charts! 

    *   Who jumped on stage and why for 60 second spots? 

    *   See the Justin.tv raw stream in its entirety.   (We’ll be cutting individual clips of the presenters soon.)   Mahalo to Corporate Cinematographer –  ConradWade.com– @ThriveHD for the capture!

    *   More awesome photos . . . !
 

 

photos by Jennifer Simpson

 

 

photos by Julie Blaustein

 

 

 


photos by Matthew Gonzales

 

Check out who took to the microphone — and why — during the 60-second spot announcements at SF New Tech on 4.21.  Click here!

There are 25 tickets for each code.  GO!

Come see and hear from Zuumer, Citizen Effect, Collaborize, Threadbox, Task Squid, Encoding.com, Apture, and more!

100% off = 21april_seeyouthere
50% off = 21april_yeahbaby
25% off = 21april_whatadeal 
10% off = 21april_isnoozed

http://april21sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

 

.

 

Thanks to all who braved St. Patty’s Day nuttiness with us!

There was a pot of gold at the end of the SF New Tech rainbow last night … and the little leprechaun running around was actually me.  🙂

We witnessed demos from 8 great companies each on their own mission to do something good for the world.  Click here to see who the crowd favorites as they’re being tallied in real-time.

And the the 60 Second Spots (and lots of ’em) are here.

Photos and video are coming soon.  

Without further ado, we’re onto our next event — tonight! — to see and hear from a crop of french tech companies who are here to show the SF Tech scene what’s going down in France.  Hope to see you there!  

 

 

Live at Mighty
119 Utah Street, SF CA

Demos on tap for March 17, 2010 . . .

 

Wokai
Wokai   
Ilyssa Lu, Wokai San Francisco Chapter President   

Wokai is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that enables Chinese people to lift themselves from poverty. Wokai is Chinese for “I start,” demonstrating the commitment to helping the impoverished help themselves. Wokai.org connects contributors worldwide with entrepreneurs in rural China to help them start businesses. All contributions made through Wokai will be perpetually used to help fund these entrepreneurs. The organization is headquartered in Oakland, California, bases core operations out of Beijing, and has active chapters in Beijing, Boston, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, NewYork, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Toronto, and Vancouver. http://www.wokai.org.

 

       maestroconference

MaestroConference     
Brian Burt, Founder & CEO   

MaestroConference is a dynamic conference call service offering all the convenience of your current service, plus an array of unique features that enable you to facilitate your call just like a live workshop. Participants (up to 2,000) dial in from regular phone lines. You conduct the call from a computer using our simple web interface. You direct the action, create learning opportunities and inspire commitment — to turn your solos into symphonies.  http://www.maestroconference.com

 


 

 

WheresLulu

Where’s Lulu   
Toshio Meronek & Caitlin Wood, Co-Founders   

Where’s Lulu, a free online community where people with disabilities can get reliable information on accessibility, and provide that information to other users by reviewing their favorite (or least favorite) local businesses.     http://www.whereslulu.com

 

 

Ser'viceLive

 ServiceLive   
George Coll, SVP of New Services, Sears Holdings   

ServiceLive is the first true online services marketplace, taking the
headache and hassle out of home improvement and maintenance.  http://www.servicelive.com

 

rentcycle

Rentcycle    
Tim Hyer, Founder   

Rentcycle is the place to discover, compare and book goods for rent online.  We connect consumers with a community of over 30,000 rental businesses in the first online marketplace purely for rental goods.     http://www.rentcycle.com

 

 

argumentclinic

argumentclinic   
Gary Valan, Chief Argumentative Officer   

argumentclinic.com is neutral place on the Web where you go to have real-time arguments and debates on a variety of topics. Either argue on our carefully curated daily content by our editorial staff or add your own topics. Get a real feel of what the opposition thinks without fear of your point of view being deleted.    http://www.argumentclinic.com

 

 

Mashape

Mashape   
Augusto Marietti, Business Sniper   

Mashape is a Dead Simple Mashup Engine that enables people to create web applications; without coding and in real time "almost".    http://www.mashape.com

 

 

goodnewsforpolarbears

GoodNewsForPolarBears.org   
Dave Ingram, Founder   

I loved Freecycle but I stopped using it because I got too much email for irrelevant stuff.  Why couldn’t Freecycle be more like ebay; but for free stuff.  We set out to create a ‘better freecycle’ with images, a better search, location maps, feedback, alerts, and more.  Instead of ‘bidding’, you say you ‘want it’, then the giver chooses the winner on merit.     http://goodnewsforpolarbears.org

 
 


 

WITH FREE TACOS FOR THE FIRST
150 PEOPLE IN THE DOOR!!

Thanks to:

Rackspace

 

 

 


 

 

Tickets: 
$15.00 for early bird online tickets
$20.00 for all other (late bird) online tickets
$25.00 cash at the door if not sold out
 
Mighty is a 21+ venue.
 
 
Schedule:
5:30 pm – Doors & Bar Open
5:30 -7:30 pm – Schmooze and Free Tacos!
7:30 – 9:00 pm – Live Demos
9:00 – 11:00 pm – Schmooze
 
 

 

Become a annual member and get into events for free! Register here: https://www.sfnewtech.com/membership

Interested in being considered for a demo? Apply here: https://www.sfnewtech.com/demo

 

How about that?!

We squeezed out two stellar events in as many weeks during the shortest month of the year!  

Last night’s "working smarter" event was kick-ass.  If you were there you know.  If you weren’t there, well, you missed out! 

Big thanks to BizVideosOnline, CloudCrowd, Tweetajob, Refollow, Livevol, SlideRocket for stepping up to demo! 

Those in the house got to see this special video about SF New Tech!  Check it out (and please ask me where I got that silver-threaded beauty!)

 

And even better, Allen Tatomer, who made this video for us invited everyone to make their own video for dirt cheap with BizVideosOnline.com.  Reach him at (925) 439-0434 Email:allentatomer @hotmail.com

Without further ado, here are some raw links pertaining to last night’s shin dig…

*  If you’re interested in following up with one of the folks who made a 60 second announcement, you can find them here: https://sfnt.wufoo.com/reports/60-second-spots-021710/

*  The real-time ratings for the demo companies last night are here: https://sfnt.wufoo.com/reports/ratings-21710/

*  Check out some (purple) photos from the festivities here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/msilvey/show/with/4367569918/
*  The video stream from last night’s event thanks to justin.tv is here: http://www.justin.tv/clip/519f70b9c2b2e9dc
Big thanks to our sponsors who help keep the boat afloat! Bullivant Houser Bailey, Sun Startup Essentials, CALinnovates.org, Mylermedia, Future-Works, The New York Times, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, Justin.tv, and NerdStalker.

And this just in… The New York Times would like to report that they are on Foursquare at http://foursquare.com/nytimes. Article on Mashable explains: http://mashable.com/2010/02/12/new-york-times-foursquare/. And followers have the chance to compete for the NYTimes Olympian badge while in Vancouver at the Olympics: http://foursquare.com/user/iamkhayyam/badges/811134

See you on 3/17 at the next SF New Tech!

 

Get ’em while they last!

Discount codes to SF New Tech on 2/17 are here!

25 tickets are 100% off with "0217-seeyouthere"
25 tickets are 50% off "0217-yeahbaby"
25 tickets are 25% off with "0217-whatadeal"
25 tickets are 10% off with "0217-isnoozed"

GO!

http://feb17sfnewtech.eventbrite.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was hump day in the middle of Social Media Week and the tech scenesters (that’s you) came out enforce for one of the biggest and best SF New Tech’s to date.  I’m still buzzing from it!

We’d like to give a big thanks to Superfeedr, Bonvoy, Soundtrckr, LikeMinds, Amadesa, Talenthouse for coming out to strut their stuff! 

And, without question, we are thrilled to be working with some of the best companies on earth who’ve stepped up to sponsor our amazing event and community. 

Three cheers for: Bullivant Houser Bailey, Sun Startup Essentials, CALinnovates.org, Mylermedia, Future-Works, The New York Times, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, Justin.tv, and NerdStalker.

The next SF New Tech is scheduled for 2/17 and the theme is "working smarter".   Final details coming soon.  You’d be well-served to follow us on Twitter @sfnewtech if you’d like to be clued-in on how to score free or highly discounted tickets.  (You’re also invited to follow me on Twitter @mylerdude for meaningless drivel and unsubstantiated blather on nothing in particular.)

Without further ado, here are some key links (and tidbits) from the big event on Wednesday night:

1) The "People’s Choice" Winners, only Geekier!  See who won over our hearts and minds …. and who didn’t.

2) Check out the 60 Second Spots!  Folks are hiring!  Seeking partnerships!  More!

3) Thanks to Matthew Silvey, photos are up on Flickr (tag: #sfnt) and are also posted to the SF New Tech Group on Facebook.  Join the group and tag early and often!

4) CALlinnovates.org, one of SF New Tech’s newest sponsors, announced their launch and some awesome poll data from stage.  Like "iPhone users like Jerry Brown for Gov, BlackBerry users like Meg Whitman"   

5) See the night as it unfolded thanks to the archived live stream from Justin.tv 

6) If you’d like to follow up with Amadesa, the good folks who picked up the tab for awesome El Tonayense tacos last night, please feel free to contact Jay Sahourieh, who did the demo, directly at jay@amadesa.com or 415-690-3425.

Also of note…

David Siegel, my good friend, fellow geek and author of Creating Killer Web Sites and Futurize Your Enterprise, has spent the last two years investigating the semantic web, asking what it is, why businesses need it, and how it will appear. The book is called Pull, published by Portfolio Press. It’s all about making the switch from pushing information at consumers to letting them pull it. Siegel combines his own vision for a web of data with a nontechnical overview of what’s happening today and how it will change our lives tomorrow. Business people, technologists, VCs, and entrepreneurs will find plenty of new ideas here. You’re invited to visit the web site for the book to read Siegel‘s blog and learn more about pull at www.ThePowerOfPull.com

And, be sure to check out Tech Search Party this Saturday (February 6, 2010) in SF.  EA and Geeknet are offering prizes, and SF New Tech members get 25% off with Discount Code: SFNEWTECH. Get thee to www.techsearchparty.com today!

Finally …
Want to do a demo from the SF New Tech stage?  Apply here.
Want to walk in to the next event like you own the place?  Become an annual member and get your own comp code!
Want to sponsor this most-aweome event?  Let’s tawk!  Call me at 415-843-1850.

See you soon!

Cheers,

Myles Weissleder
Founder, SF New Tech
https://www.sfnewtech.com
415-843-1850

 

 

Folks are hiring, sharing new projects, and more!  Find all the wonderful opportunities announced by the tech community of SF from the 60-second soapbox at last night’s SF New Tech by clicking right here!

In celebration of Social Media Week, we’re thrilled to showcase some really awesome new tech from the (loosely defined) world of social media. 

Demos on tap include: Superfeedr, Bonvoy, Soundtrckr, LikeMinds, Amadesa, TalentHouse, and more!

Formal announcement coming soon. 

For the super early birds, here are discount codes!  GO!

25 tix are 100% off with the code : 020310_seeyouthere
25 tix are 50% off with the code : 020310_yeahbaby       
25 tix are 25% off with the code : 020310_whatadeal    
25 tix are 10% off with the code : 020310_isnoozed     

Register now!

http://feb3sfnewtech.eventbrite.com
   

 

For the lucky ones … here are discount codes for our big mobile event on 1/12!

We’re in for a great night with live mobile app demos apptizr, tvChatter & Temptd (frog design), RadioWeave, Personal Caregiver, Polka, VeloComputer, iSpy, and more!

The Discount Code Are . . .

0112-isnoozed  = 10.00%     off (25 tickets)
0112-whatadeal  =  25.00%  off (25 tickets)
0112-yeahbaby  =  50.00%     off (25 tickets)
0112-seeyouthere = FREE! (25 tickets)

Register HERE!

 

 

 

Wishing you and yours nothing but health and happiness now — and forever!

Next year is going to be great for SF New Tech…  and we’re going to
kick things off with a bang.

Pencil in January 12th (Tuesday) for our next BIG event.  This one
will focus on the MOBILE ecosystem.

If you’re a mobile app developer and have something you’d like to show
off — let’s get you on stage!

Please be sure to apply to demo at https://www.sfnewtech.com/demo

Until then, enjoy your holidaze and have an awesome New Year’s celebration!

See you on the flip side!

Cheers,

Myles Weissleder
Founder, SF New Tech
www.sfnewtech.com
415-843-1850

 

Another SF New Tech has come and gone …  and wow, this one was certainly the place to be this month!

 

 

.

 

 

 More than 250 people showed up and needless to say, the energy in the room was amazing.  And the energy from up on stage was equally as exhilerating.   This month, not only did we have a great crop of demos, we had two mini talks that started the evening off on the right foot.  First up we were thrilled to welcome back Brian Solis, a long time friend of SF New Tech and industry titan who took to the stage with the venerable Ben Parr, one of Mashable‘s most-trusted voices, to discuss the state of public relations in the world of technology, and beyond.  Brian recently published a book entitled, "Putting the Public Back In Public Relations" and needless to say has a lot to say on the topic.  In all, Brian and Ben were able to shed some light on how and why it’s so incredibly hard for companies to burst through the clutter and get noticed.  There are no easy answers here but these guys did a great job in de-mystifying the age old question on how to get noticed by the media, and more importantly, by the public, and getting them talking about you.

Second up, we welcomed J.R. Johnson back on stage (he demo’d Lunch.com a few months back).  This time around he was here to discuss Lunch For Good, a provocative series of events and discussions he sponsored with the help of SF New Tech and The Social Media Club, to get people thinking of how participate responsibly online, how to spark critical thought, and most importantly, how to find common ground with others online to make the world a better place.   Earlier that day, 90+ innovators and influencers met on the top floor of the Spear Tower in downtown San Francisco to break it all down and explore what it requires to facilitate ways/means to make finding common ground the rule, not the exception, in our online dealings.  It was a really amazing discussion.  Check out how Stephen Lawson from PC World summed it all up in this great article, "Techies Gather for a Lunch to Save the World".

And then the demos!  Demos demos demos!  Big thanks to ItiBiti’s NBC.com Communicator, Webvanta, Reframe It, NationalBLS, and Smedule.com for stepping up! You guys all rocked it!

But don’t believe me, check out the ratings (in real-time ) here!

Also, the 60 Second Spots are here!

Thanks to Jeff the PizzaHacker for serving up his yummy gourmet pizza, Smitten serving her made-to-order Ice Cream, and of course, the Taco Truck for dishing out famously delicious tacos to the teaming SF New Tech masses!

Finally, an even bigger thanks to Bullivant, Sun Startup Essentials, Mylermedia, Future-Works, The New York Times, and Mashable for all your support!

See you next month!

 

 

 

The 60 Second Spots from Nov 18 are here!

 

 

Track down that lead!

 

GO!

 

Discount Codes for 11/18 SF New Tech

Register @ http://nov18sfnewtech-com.eventbrite.com

1118-isnoozed      10.00% off
1118-whatadeal     25.00% off
1118-yeahbaby     50.00% off
1118-seeyouthere     100.00% off

GO!

You are invited to listen in on this morning’s Social Media Hour hosted by über connector Cathy Brooks.

Cathy was kind (and brave) enough to dive into the subject of doing social good with social tools with the likes of J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com, Chris Heuer from Social Media Club / Adhonicum, and yours truly from SF New Tech, on the program. 

Here’s how Cathy tee’d it up:

"This week it’s a deep discussion on doing social good with social media. There has been much talk, and indeed much action, amidst the digital denizens when it comes to charitable exercises. Twestival – an event orchestrated wholly online using Twitter – has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, both for global efforts and local efforts. This, however, goes beyond that. As leaders and top participants in all of these social media platforms and technologies, there still exists a problem — we are not the majority. In spite of increasing numbers, the majority of people on this planet still do not use social media to the extent that some do – and that’s just talking about regular use. When it comes to doing social good, and by that I’m talking about more than just raising money for charity, there needs to be a distinct effort by those deeply steeped in the stuff, acting as responsible stewards of that which we promote, and find ways to engage and mobilize a better society. On this week’s show, Cathy will be joined by JR Johnson, CEO of Lunch 2.0; Myles Weissleder of SF NewTech and Chris Heuer of Ad Hocnium to talk about one effort in which they are engaged to do just this. Join us … and learn how YOU can make a difference."

Give a listen!

 

As you may know, I’ve been co-producing Lunch For Good, a very cool event series with the venerable J.R. Johnson from Lunch.com and the esteemed Chris Heuer of Social Media Club fame.

 

 

 

 

The second installment of Lunch For Good was on 10.22 and I must admit — this conversation just keeps getting better and better.   Our mission with Lunch For Good #2 was to explore ways we can help evolve the notion of enticing more critical thinking online.  The knee-jerk reaction to post a comment, press a button that says "like" or "dislike" (thumbs up or down), or jump into a comment thread with happenstance prose that’s far from developed, is in essence (and often in retrospect) a demonstration of poor judgment, not of good judgment.   We need to dial this back and improve the processes and the triggers of how people are invited to participate in online conversations.

The Internet is (still) a wild place and people have become too accustomed to reacting flippantly to others versus engaging their mental gears and thinking through the best way to engage and respond, that all to often leads to an unavoidable minefield of tit-for-tat chatter that’s meant to pass a conversation — but fails miserably at doing so. 

We have all been trained since birth to think through our actions before acting but online we tend to forget about this little life lesson and the result is not something to be proud of.  The big question — and the topic of this last conversation — is how can we move away from this short-attention-span-theater type of conversation and spark more critical thinking online for the benefit of not only the conversation at-hand but to better the online environment as a place that’s truly enriching and beneficial.

There are no easy answers here.  People are being coaxed to think in 140 characters or less, leaving little room for diving into critical thinking.  

The 80 or so passionate folks who joined us for lunch last week– a hearty crew of community managers, journalists, online conversationalists, and the like — were really engaged in our shared quest for finding ways and means of improvement….and mind blowingly so!

I urge you to view the videos from this event to see exactly what I’m talking about: that there are small, but significant, things we can do as members of the online community at-large to move the needle towards more critical discourse in our online dealings. 

Sometimes all it takes is a simple idea of action for the iteration process to begin … and with Lunch For Good #2, I must say, we made serious strides in exploring the nuances that can create a c-change in the evolution of community, dialogue and, yes, critical thinking online.

Interested in an invite to Lunch For Good #3 — the grand finale of this great series?  Click here for consideration (note, as much as we’d like to accomodate all those who are interested in joining us, due to limited space, we cannot guarantee all whom apply will be invited).

 

Here’s the thank you note I sent out to the attendees (see list below) of the Founder’s Feast and Poker Tournament that went down last week at Stonebrook Court.  

 

 

This event was so much fun, we’re going to do it again.   If you’d like to get on the invite list, please click here.

 

 

 

 

Thank You!

Founder's Feast

Thank you sooo much for joining us at our first Founder’s Feast and Poker Tournament at Stonebrook Court this past Monday.    It was a long time in the making and we were thrilled to have finally pulled it off.   The weather presented some challenges but in the end, the evening was one for the ages and you were a large part of that… so thank you!

I’d like to extend my gratitude to…

Kelly Porter — the man behind Stonebrook Court.  Kelly opened up his private home to 80+ strangers in the spirit of fun and discovery.   Kelly is also a managing director of Woodside Capital, a boutique investment bank that’s keen on getting to know the start-ups of today that will be the talk of tomorrow.

Bob Crimmins — the man behind Poker 2.0 and the poker tournament.  Bob brought his poker prowess and his Seattle posse to the table and was responsible for ensuring the best possible poker experience… and he succeeded.

Amy Jurist — the amazing woman behind the yummy food!   Amy came all the way up from Los Angeles to cook her most-awesome culinary treats for us and she did not disappoint! (Hire her!)

Matthew Gonzales — my right-hand man.   Matthew was instrumental in helping me pull this off… I hope you got to chat with him ’cause he’s a real gem of an individual.

And I’d like to extend a big thanks to our sponsors for the evening…

Bullivant Houser Bailey – Bullivant Houser Bailey is a leading West Coast law firm that merged with Jacobs & Ferraro LLP, a San Francisco technology law firm and the founding sponsor of SF New Tech.  Bullivant’s clients include private and public emerging technology companies, entrepreneurs and investors in numerous sectors including software, digital media, Web 2.0, clean tech and mobile.  For more information visit them at http://www.bullivant.com

TriNet –  TriNet helps small business entrepreneurs realize their ambitions by being their essential HR partner. As their Trusted Advisor, they help them contain HR costs, minimize employer-related risk, and relieve the administrative burden of HR, thus helping them focus on their number one priority – their business.  For more information, visit them at http://www.trinet.com

Riviera Partners – Riviera Partners is an executive search firm with a focus on early-stage venture backed technology companies. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with hiring managers, founders, board members, and investors.  Riviera Partners offers a comprehensive solution delivering retained search, contingency placements and contract/onsite recruitment.  For more information visit them at http://www.rivierapartners.com

And, can’t forget to give a shout-out to Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards for the tasty varietals and to the guys behind Startup Weekend for helping this come together in the first place.

Please click here to view 100+ photos as taken by Julie Blaustein.  (They’re also on Facebook.  Friend me and tag away!)

And be sure to check out Caroline McCarthy’s article on News.com that references our little shin-dig.

Can’t wait to see you all again soon!  (Our next SF New Tech event is on 11.18… stay tuned to @sfnewtech or sfnewtech.com for details!)

Cheers,

Myles Weissleder
Founder, SF New Tech
415-843-1850
@mylerdude
 

PS:  You’re receiving this email because you registered for this fantastic event.  If you were’t able to make it, sorry.  We missed you.

 

 

 

Attendees, plus or minus a few …

    * Nate Pagel, President, Podaddies
  
    * Drake Mosier, Partner, Bhavana LLC

    * Karen Adams, Sales, TriNet
    
    * Heather Havey, Sales, TriNet
 
    * Ray Karno, Sales, TriNet
   
    * Andre Kvitka, Principal, DigitalRig
    
    * Danny Maco, CEO, Hot Shot media Inc
    
    * Jahanzeb Sherwani, Founder & CEO, Jaadu VNC | iTeleport
  
    * Chad Taylor, Founder, thrillcall
  
    * Cass Phillipps, Founder, WebWallflower Event Production
    
    * Mat Henshall, CEO/Founder, Square COnnect, Inc.
  
    * Jeff Karan, Partner, Woodside Capital Partners
 
    * Mike Genstil, CEO, eRealInvestor
 
    * Jacques Crocker, Founder, White Label Apps

    * Lydia Sugarman, CEO, Private Label Interactive
  
    * Chris McCann, Founder, SynergyList
    
    * Tassos Nicolaou, Founder, Alphadetail
    
    * Nika Jones, Founder, Ouno
   
    * Caroline McCarthy, Writer, CNET News
   
    * Dave Labuda, Founder, CEO & CTO, Matrixx Software
    
    * Kai Tse, Managing Director, TriplePoint Capital
           
    * Jonathan Rubens, Attorney, Bullivant Houser Bailey PC
    
    * Tonia Dinh, CMO, Girls In Tech
     
    * Kelly Porter, Managing Director, Woodside Capital Partners
    
    * Eve Phillips, CEO, Empower Interactive
   
    * Philip Kaplan, Entrepreneur in Residence, Charles River Ventures
  
    * Bryn Boughton, Chief Marketing Officer / Founder, IRIS Distribution / BlinkerActive
 
    * Eric Ferraro, Attorney, Bullivant Houser Bailey PC
  
    * Andrew Lee, CEO, Envolve
 
    * Bram Cohen, Chief Scientist, BitTorrent

    * Zack Isaacson, Technical Recruiter, Riviera Partners
   
    * Benjamin Berliner, Co-Founder, Riviera Partners
  
    * Tonya Shtarkman, Technical Recruiter, Riviera Partners
  
    * Michael Morell, Managing Partner, Riviera Partners

    * Joe Heitzeberg, CTO, WhitePages

    * Erik Jansen, CEO, Goodwin Industries
    
    * Rep Porter, Director, Reign Capital Management
    
    * Deeje Cooley, Founder, Clinks, Inc.
 
    * Thomas Lyle, CEO, Frontdesk Anywhere Inc.

    * Andrew Chen, CEO, SnapItTo.Me

    * David Shantz, CEO, Magnity Interactive / Graphita
  
    * Aaron Freed, Founder/CEO, Divvy
    
    * Jesse Hammons, Founder & CEO, Zaggle
    
    * Sarah Delman, CEO, Of Record

    * solana crawford, Founder, Chief Design Officer, DESIGN about TOWN

    * Eric Peters, CEO, Founder, Frugal Mechanic
     
    * Tim Smith, Founder, Element Public Relations
   
    * Christian Wiklund, Founder & CEO, Skout
 
    * Roman Gelfer, CEO & Founder, Sandbox Suites

    * Dave Pifke, CEO, Thingomatic, Inc.
  
    * Mark Cramer, CEO, Surf Canyon
          
    * Adam Jackson, CEO, OurBlock.TV
 
    * Dan Olsen, CEO & Founder, YourVersion
    
    * Duncan Logan, CEO, NationalBLS
    
    * Lucy Needham, CEO, Foodcalc LLC
       
    * Donna Bonifield, CVO, Genuus
   
    * Steve Brown, CEO, 3banana Inc.
     
    * Brian Libicki, Founder/CEO, NthSocial

    * Dale Cook, Founder, glunote

    * Bret Waters, Founder & CEO, Tivix, Inc.

    * Myles Weissleder, Founder, SF New Tech

 

Another great SF New Tech has come and gone!  

 

And another full house for the record books! 

Imagine: we only announced this event a week prior and still, over 200 people found their way to Mighty to indulge in some great conversations, cocktails, tacos, and of course, tech demos from some awesome companies. 

Big thanks to Bodukai, YourVersion, MeeHive, ZoomPool, FamiliLink, and Plurchase for taking to the stage to strut their stuff.  

As promised, here are …

Real Time Ratings – see how registered ticket buyers rated their favorite (and least favorite) demos
60 Second Spots  — go track down that lead!
Photos! — Jennifer Simpson rocked the camera, I think she even got a shot of YOU!  (Photos are also on Facebook — go to the SF New Tech group and tag ’til your heart’s content!)
A link to apply to demo at SF New Tech
How to join SF New Tech as an Annual Member

Thanks to our sponsors once again!  Sun, Bullivant Houser Bailey, Mylermedia, Tractor, Future-Works, you help make SF New Tech what it is!  And thank you Networks In Motion, too, for sponsoring the Taco Truck!    And a special shout out to Jeff the Pizza Hacker for setting up shop outside and serving up some of his most tasty artisan pies!  Come on back, Jeff, and do it again!

The next SF New Tech is on November 18th.  Stay tuned for details, coming soon.

In the meantime…

It’s not too late!  If you’re a tech company founder or CEO (or you’re in the VC community) and you’d like to be considered for an invitation to the exclusive Founder’s Feast on October 19th at Stonebook Court, one of the most majestic private estates in California, please let us know!  More info here!

Or — if you have an interest in engaging in a thoughtful dialogue with some of the brightest online community thought leaders on how to best spark critical thought online, we still have a few seats left at the second of three "Lunch For Good" symposiums taking place on 10/22.  Lunch for Good is an event series put together by myself, Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club, and J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com.  You can read more about the mission and participate in the conversation here.  If you would like to be considered for an invitation to the next Lunch For Good event on 10/22, please click here.

 Until next time …  be well, be good, and stay cool!

 

 

 

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the first Founder’s Feast & Poker 2.0 Tournament at Stonebrook Court.

This is a private and exclusive event for company founders, CEOs and VCs is set to take place on October 19th, the night before the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

If you can claim you’re one of the aformentioned, you’re invited to click here for a chance to be invited.

Who’s in?

 

foundersfeast

 


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October 19, 2009

5:30 PM – Midnight


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♠ Cocktails on the Ballroom Terrace ♠

♣ Gourmet dinner in the Grand Ballroom ♣

♥ Poker games by the fire ♥

♦ Conversation Everywhere ♦


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The Founder’s Feast & Poker 2.0 Tournament at Stonebrook Court is an invite only event and is exclusive to company founders, CEOs, VCs (and a few special guests) and will be limited to only 100 attendees.


The event will commence at the private residence of Stonebrook Court, an architectural masterpiece that has played host to presidents and kings, movie stars, and celebrities. Originally built in 1914, this magnificent home is one of the greatest estates in California. (Click here for more photos.)


World renowned landscape architect Stephen Suzman designed the majestic garden, which includes follies, rolling lawns, a focal point of a grassy Tudor mount, knot garden, boxwood parterres, and long perennial borders filled with roses. The pool features a stone fountain surmounted by an antique bronze statue of Neptune.


Dinner will be served at 6:30pm in the Grand Ballroom, which features 16th Century gilded Venetian ceiling paintings from the Palazzo Grimani.


Directly following dinner, the optional No-limit Texas Hold’em Tournament will commence.


The game will conclude by approximately 11:30 pm.


Participation in the tournament is completely optional. Those who wish not to play are encouraged to continue enjoying spirits and victuals with good company deep in to the evening.


For those who wish to play (54 players maximum, first RSVP’d, first served), the tournament buy-in is $10 with unlimited re-buys for the first 4 rounds. At the end of the buy-in period there will be a $15 add-on. 100% of the player buy-ins will be distributed among the tournament winners and Bounties and Pot Sweeteners will be provided by event sponsors.


Top finishers will receive trophies and other awards. The blind payout structures will be announced at the start of the event.


We look forward to seeing you!


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Presented By


SF New Tech

 

Woodside Captial Partners
Woodside Capital Partners


Poker 2.0

 

 

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Premier

 

Bullivant Houser Bailey

 

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Gold Sponsors

 

TriNet

 

Riviera Partners

 

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With special thanks to:


Girls In Tech

Flora Springs

 


For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club, and J.R. Johnson, CEO of Lunch.com, on a thought-provoking event series called "Lunch For Good" to help better understand how and why people contribute online — and how we can take steps to improve online communications and online participation to help make the world a better place.    You can read more about the mission and participate in the conversation here.  (You can also tune in at #lunch4good on Twitter.)

Yesterday was our first of three events and some of the most forward thinkers on the subject of online communities gathered together to discuss what it really means to be a "responsible participant" online.  (See the RSVP list below.)

 

 

 

The event began with light networking and culminated to break out discussions and then to consensus reporting about the ramifications of what it means to participate in online communities and why there continue to be issues that surround comfort levels of participation, access to participation, etiquette, as well as problems inherent in the digital landscape that can hinder inter-personal communications.  

The questions on how to ease the fears while transitioning from community participation in the real world into the online world aren’t new — but many of perspectives brought to the table yesterday were, and the conversation is just getting started. 

We’ll be posting videos from the event soon and you’re encouraged to chime in with your own thoughts on these very important questions!

I’m proud to have been able to play a role in bringing such an amazing group of people together for this discussion and am looking forward to round two in late October when we’ll dive a little deeper and seek solutions to how to better spark "critical thought" online.

If you’ll be in San Francisco in late October and would like to be considered for an invitation to the next Lunch For Good event, please click here.

RSVP list for Lunch for Good #1

    * Elizabeth Chien, Attorney, Baker and McKenzie
    * Marla Schulman, Founder, DVINIDEAS
    * michal strahilevitz, Professor of Marketing, Golden Gate University
    * jeff weissner, Media Strategy Consultant, Self-employed
    * Henry Oh, Co-Founder, Hong Kong Startup Association
    * Chris Anderson, General Manager, Principal, Freshout
    * Julie Greenberg, Co-founder, Jobnob
    * Davin Miyoshi, CEO, MesmoTV
    * Richard Ault, Founder, u8what
    * Tina Liao, Media Director, Orange22
    * Jon Wollenhaupt, Vice President, Excel Meetings and Events
    * Katherine Webster, ceo, Storytelling Media
    * Marita Roebkes, Social Media Manager, Social Media Academy
    * Michelle Fairbansk, Account Executive, Brightidea.com
    * Valerie kameya, Sr. Consultant, Valkra
    * Dom Sagolla, Author, 140 Characters
    * Maria Niles, CEO, ConsumerPop Marketing
    * Rachel Weidinger, Consultant, Weidinger Consulting
    * Sarah Dopp, Community Manager, Genderfork.com
    * Susan Tenby, Online Community Director, TechSoup
    * Violet Blue, Community Development, Swordfish Corp
    * Thomas Knoll, Community Development, Swordfish Corp
    * Navi Ganancial, Outreach Associate, Netroots Nation
    * redg snodgrass, Vice President, Skout
    * Ryan Hupfer, Communicator of Awesomeness!, HubPages
    * Kenny Lauer, Executive Director, Digital Experience, George P. Johnson
    * Amanda Cey, President, ABCey Events
    * Jan Grotenbreg Grotenbreg, Founder, Silicon Valley Link
    * Melody McCloskey, Manager, Content, Current TV
    * Taylor Norrish, Founder/CEO, Govit.com
    * Derek Overbey, Sr. Director of Marketing & Social Media, Roost
    * Rebecca Reeve, Publicist, Rebecca Reeve
    * Ben Metcalfe, Founder & Lead Consultant, Swordfish Corp
    * Amy Muller, Chief Community Officer, Get Satisfaction
    * Thor Muller, CTO, Get Satisfaction
    * Cathy Brooks, Raconteur, Other Than That
    * Jennifer Lindsay, Principal, Jennifer Lindsay Digital Consultancy
    * Melissa Dodd, Marketing Director, Ask Me
    * Jason Johnson, VP Marketing & Business Development, Via Licensing
    * kristy graves, independent agent
    * Travis Murdock, Senior Account Supervisor, Edelman
    * Harry McCracken, Editor, Technologizer
    * Lisa Sculati, Community/Social Media Manager, Sweden Networking Group
    * Adrian Chan, owner, gravity7
    * IdaRose Sylvester, Founder, Silicon Valley Link
    * Tom Foremski, Editor, Silicon Valley Watcher
    * Richard White, Founder, CEO, UserVoice Inc.
    * Dana Oshiro, Writer, ReadWriteWeb
    * Schlomo Rabinowitz, Creator, VideocampSF
    * Mariva H. Aviram, writer & entrepreneur, Mariva Media
    * Eric Wagner, IT Director, Kyte
    * Brian Zisk, Co-Founder, Collects
    * Elisa Camahort, Co-founder and COO, BlogHer
    * Vinnie Lauria, co-founder, Lefora
    * Paul Carr, Hack, PaulCarr.com
    * Alexandros Pagidas, Founder, Idea Contest 2.0
    * Caroline McCarthy, Staff Writer, CNET News
    * Diane Bisgeier, Director, Product Marketing, Soar BioDynamics
    * Axel Schultze, CEO, Xeequa
    * Chris Heuer, Founder, Social Media Club
    * Ken Yeung, Blogger/Photographer, TheLetterTwo.com
    * Adina Levin, VP Products, Socialtext
    * David Cohn, Founder, Spot.Us
    * Jake Saxbe, Founder, Toobla
    * Pat Diven II, Founder, AddToAny
    * Fredric Paul, Publisher / Editor in Chief, bMighty.com, TechWeb
    * Adam Jackson, Evangelist, Self
    * Melissa Cunningham, VP, Brand Marketing, Lunch
    * Chia Hwu, Community Manager, 23andMe
    * David Spark, Founder, Spark Media Solutions
    * Tamara Mendelsohn, Community and Marketing Manager, Eventbrite
    * Gil Heiman, Director of Community, Clarizen
    * J.R. Johnson, Founder, Lunch.com
    * Myles Weissleder, Founder, SF New Tech

 

 

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a room filled to the gills with people excited about what they’re doing with their lives, it makes me smile. 

That’s how I feel at SF New Tech.  It’s a monthly ritual of entrepreneurial goodness.

Seems like folks really enjoy talking about how they’re trying to do cool stuff.    Around the room conversations abound.  I’m a firm believer that markets are conversations and you guys who were there last night knew how to get it on.

I love when you can get past the 30-second elevator pitch of your new tech, and then find yourself shooting the shit about something totally random, only to suddenly circle back to some real world ramifications playing at hand because of your new tech… there’s magic going on.  

Relationships begin — and thrive — when the mind is open and relaxed.   SF New Tech strives to produce an environment that’s dedicated to promoting a highly social, yet academic experience. 

It’s simple.  Drink up, eat some free yummy REAL tacos, meet new people, uncover a lead, a possible job opportunity, meet a money guy, a blogger from the WSJ, a cute girl (or guy) who knows …?   And then sit down, shut up, and listen to others share with you what they’ve been working on.   It’s a wonderful dynamic, if you ask me!

Also, we place a strict five minute limit on the demos because everyone should be accountable.  The 5 minutes of Q & A is designed so anyone can connect with the CEO on stage and put him on the spot.  And the CEO finds himself on stage because he’s not only looking to show off his baby, he’s looking for feedback … and the circle remains unbroken.

So — enough out of a guy who buys crazy shirts on eBay.  

Here are some nifty links concerning last night (and then some…)

Real Time Ratings (starting on Friday)

60 – Second Spots

Apply to demo at SF New Tech

Annual Membership Info

And don’t forget … check out 8KMiles awesome Thrivabil-IT Challenge, that’s giving start-ups a leg up in the downturn.  Enter for the chance to win free IT for a year and over $15,000 of software, hardware, IT services and unlimited job postings. Check out Thrivabil-IT.com .

If you’re the least bit interested, I’m speaking on an awesome panel at Sandbox Suites about how to put together Kick Ass events next Tuesday, September 22nd.  It’s going to be a hoot – you should come!  🙂

And if you’re around on Tuesday, September 29, the Elance Team is hosting an event for all providers, employers, fans, newcomers, fresh faces, and all elancers alike to come join them at Varnish Fine Art (77 Natoma Street) from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm and have a drink (on them) and chat about how work as we know it today is changing in a big way.  And don’t forget to bring a business card – they’ll be giving away some swag and will be giving away $500 in Elance services. Click here to RSVP.

Finally — for all you Founders and CEOs … if you’d like to be considered for an invitation to the exclusive Founder’s Feast and Poker 2.0 Tournament on October 19th at Stonebook Court, please let us know!  Click here.

 

 

Awesome night last night!  Who knew accounting software demos would be so fun?

It looks like hit an attendance record  — which blows my mind because I thought people took vacations in August.  Just about 300 people stopped by last night to see some great new tech.  Amazing!

And did you see Asa Murphy’s article, "SF New Tech is a fun factory for serious entrepreneurs"  in the Examiner?  Wow!   (By golly, I’m the ring leader in a fun factory!)

As promised to all you who took the feedback poll, here’s a link to the real-time ratings of the demos.

We’ll post photos soon.

In the meantime, visit Sun Startup essentials for all your startup needs and go explore the 60-Second Spots…

Brenda Stine
brenda.stine @process39.com
Process 39 — where design ignites innovation
process39.com
Looking to help improve interfaces and launch new technologies that the market will love.

—–

Lydia Sugarman
lsugarman @privatelabelinteractive.com
Women2.0 Startup Weekend
women20.org
Participants in the Women2.0 Starup Weekend, Aug, 28-30

—–

Xavier Damman
xdamman @tweetag.com
Tweetag – Real-Time tweet agency for online medias
tweetag.com   
Frontend (jQuery) and backend (PHP/servers) developers to develop professional widgets that will be used on popular online medias websites.

—–

Sean  Ahrens
sean @outspokes.com
Outspokes   
outspokes.com   
We help companies build and improve websites by managing their team’s internal feedback. We are in private beta and are looking for private beta users.

—–

Ivan Nenov
ivan763 @gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/ivannenov
I have a blended business and technical background and Big 4 experience. I looking for a company where I can put several hats and help with business analysis, business development and sales.

—–

Joshua Merrill
joshua.merrill @me.com
joshuamerrill.com
I’m looking for a great startup team to join or augment. I have four years of experience answering hard questions about finance and marketing at The Aerospace Corporation, plus a decade of experience with startups in various industries. I have a B.S. in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University. If this sounds interesting to you, let’s talk.
 

Our next event is on 9/16 … stay tuned for details!

 

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Inagural BizSessions 1.0.

It was a packed house with a mixed audience of techies, entrepreneurs and VC’s.  A successful and educational event, filled with great panelists and good conversations.

The topic of the evening was:  VC FTW or WTF?  or Funding models for cash-starved times.

Panelists Included:

Ping Li – Partner, Accel Ventures
Jonathan Abrams — Founder, Socializr
Kent Goldman — Principal, First Round Capital
Igor Shoifot –COO, Fotki

Check out more pictures on Flickr and Facebook.  See you in August for the next SF New Tech & BizSessions event.

 

Thanks to all who joined us last night — we raised the roof!

Lots of great demos on the stage and great questions from the floor.  Woot!  

Sun’s giveaway had people on the edges of their seats — and one lucky SF New Techster walked away with a brand new WDTV.  Woot woot!

Here are the real-time ratings — favorite demo, least favorite demo, event rating, venue rating, and host rating (me).

Check out pictures on Flickr and Facebook

60-Second Spots from 7.8.9 are here.

For those who were at the event please remember your special discount code for our August 12 event where we’ll see WDTV in its full glory!   More details coming soon!

Hope to see you on Tuesday for bizSessions 1.0:  VC:  FTW or WTF?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almir Karic
   
almir @kiberpipa.org
   
almirkaric.com

Mid career python hacker & linux sys admin looking for work More at almirkaric.com & twitter.com/redduck666  🙂

================

Brenda Stine
   
brenda.stine @process39.com
   
Process 39

process39.com

Process 39 — where design ignites innovation. Go to market execution: branding, user interface, market launch Cheers!

================

Dan Galatin
   
dgalatin @yahoo.com
   
(looking for opportunity)
   
linkedin.com/in/galatin

An exciting opportunity in product management with the right tech company.

================

   
Dylan Thomas
   
dylan @rassak.com
   
Twitter Catchup – Rassak Labs
   
labs.rassak.com/twittercatchup

This little twitter app makes it easy to catch up on twitter by placing a bookmark in your stream and giving you all the updates from that point forward. I would love users and feedback. === Rassak is a marketing company focused on giving startups explosive digital growth. We are based in SF and Barcelona.

================

Mark Graham
   
mark @iskme.org
   
ISKME.org
   
oercommons.org

I am looking for volunteer iPhone and Android developers to help the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME.org) build iPhone and Android applications that relate to Open Education Resources (OER).

================

   
Scott Beechuk
   
scott @codebees.com
   
Codebees
   
codebees.com

We are looking for clients who need the following: – Web design – Application development – Database design and integration – Web Services – Mobile applications (iPhone, Pre, Blackberry) – Graphic Design

================

   
Yu-kai Chou
   
yukai.chou @viralogy.com
   
Viralogy.com

We’re a social media rank, measuring how influential everyone is on the internet based on various social media metrics. Think of us as the Alexa for People. You should find yourself on our ranking system and claim your blog to help us improve your ranking!

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adolfo foronda
   
adolfo @nerdstalker.com
   
Nerd Stalker
   
nerdstalker.com

Interview new tech and startups as well as help promote conferences.
 

 

SF New Tech is pleased to announce an awesome new series of events we’re co-producing with our friends at geekSessions that will zoom in on the business end of the technology landscape.

Introducing bizSessions!

Our first event on July 14th will be a spirited discussion about funding models in these current cash starved times.

It’s bizSessions 1.0: VC: FTW or WTF?  …  and it’s all about where money talks —  and bullshit walks.

You’re invited to join the discussion with an all-star panel representing multiple perspectives on this topic — from partners in the largest Silicon Valley VC firms to independent angel investors to entrepreneurs who have taken different paths and lived to tell about it.  We’ll dissect the value of Boot strapping, Angel money, VC funding, micro funds and Ramen noodle profitability… by asking when, why and how you should choose which path to go down?  How are companies, entrepreneurs and investors evolving after the lessons learned in the past decade?   Are social platforms, outsourcing, App stores and new distribution models enabling startups to reach critical mass without major venture capital and changing the funding game as we know it?  And more. Lots more.

Panelists include:

Ping Li  — Partner, Accel Ventures
Jonathan Abrams — Founder, Socializr
Kent Goldman — Principal, First Round Capital
Igor Shoifot — COO, Fotki

Join us for a great discussion and a great networking event!

What: bizSessions 1.0: VC: FTW or WTF?
When: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 from 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (PT)
Where: Mighty, 119 Utah, SF, CA
Tickets and Info: http://bit.ly/164CfA

Schedule:
    * 6:00 pm – Registration and networking
    * 7:00 pm – Speakers and Q&A
    * 8:30 pm – Networking & giveaways

A limited number of tickets are now open to the public! Get them while they last.

Click here to register… and see you there!

 

Interested to see what demos people liked the best from last night’s Widgets Up The Wazoo: The Smackdown event last night?  Look no further!

And here are the 60 second spots as they were announced from stage.  Enjoy!

Sasha Supra-zhenko
say @svitla.com
   
Svitla Systems
http://www.svitla.com
Excellent technical talent out of Ukraine headquartered in SF 24 hour free triaL

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Andres Acosta
andres @clothingswaps.com

DavidPerry.com & ClothingSwaps.com
http://www.clothingswaps.com
Anyone interested in social media training or cutting edge local PR? http://www.davidperry.com

Interested in refreshing your wardrobe for free. Check out http://www.clothingswaps.com local startup.

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A. "Karriem" Khan
ak2consulting @gmail.com

GAME KILLER APP POC

http://www.bigsixbones.com http://thebirthogwebd3.blogspot.com
Come to THE NEXT GEN GAMING & FREEMIUM WAve of WEB D3
http://svwebbuilder.com
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Eric Purviance
epurviance @bitpusher.com

BitPusher, LLC
http://www.bitpusher.com
Managed IT infrastructure, for web based applications… Simply put, managed hosting solutions for large and small companies.

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Carrie Bolls   
carrie @kkpromos.com
   
KK Promotions   
http://www.theschwagwag.com
I sell hip and unique promotional products.

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For any start-up or start-up entrepreneur who wants to invest 2 hours, I’ll invest two hours free of charge to review your strategy and business plan, funding pitch and funding strategy and/or demo. My comments are based on 30 years of consulting to Start-ups, start-ins and enterprise skunk works at Booz,Allen, Regis McKenna Inc, The Chasm Group (Geoffrey Moore) and my own practice – White Space Strategy. I’ve helped several dozen start-ups get funded and even more make the right choices of how, when and with whom to get (or not get) funding.
Best,
Greg Ruff
greg@ whitespacestrategy.com
415-202-7833

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Patrick Morrow Says: RefineryCMS is a brand spanking new Content Management System. It’s fun, it’s easy, it may help you lose weight. It has also just been released as an open source project. Try the demo at http://demo.refinerycms.com/admin, and see a bunch of sites built with RefineryCMS at http://www.resolvedigital.com/portfolio.

 

 

Note: If you entered your info last night and it’s not showing up here, there was a glitch.  Sorry.  Please leave your info in the comments.

 

 

Wow — last night was a lot of fun!  If you were there, you know what I mean.   From Brian Solis schooling us on the importance of communication strategy in this social-web-world we all live in, to the free tacos thanks to Rofo and the free Starbucks coffee courtesy of Guy Kawasaki, to the utterly amazing demos from Woya, Notable, Blurb, Scout Labs, Chartbeat and Alltop.   Everything went really well!

[Well, almost everything… I accidently locked my car keys in my trunk!  And the fun didn’t end there: AAA gave me a huge hassle so much so I’m canceling my account with them.  When they finally arrived, the dude poked a hole in my front seat while trying to get the doors open.  When he did finally get them open we (Evan Soloman and Tony Haile, who I was going to drive home) quickly learned the trunk wouldn’t open even with the doors unlocked.  So, I ended up taking a cab back to Sausalito at 1am, leaving the car parked outside Mighty.  Gotta figure out how to go fetch it today. The fun never ends!]

Fun aside, here are some relevant links to the Real Time Demo Ratings and 60 Second Spots from last night!

Hope to see you next week for Widgets Up The Wazoo, The Smackdown!

 

 

 

 

Here are (most of) the 60 second spots from last night’s awesome event.   Apologies to those who had trouble with the form.

 

Ken Grobe
ideaczar @kengrobe.com
Examiner.com
kengrobe.com
I’m starting a column about SF Social Media on Examiner.com. If you have a SocMed company/service/person/book about Social Media in Sf that you’d like to promote, I want to talk to you! Big companies, small local shops using SocMed for their business, etc. Come find me, email me, etc.

Riaz Rizvi
riazrizvi @gmail.com
Pickfield
pickfield.com
Looking for developers or designers to collaborate in the search space, on a top-down web browsing system. Project is at an exciting pre-release stage, the technology is interesting, the results are compelling.

Karen Hartline
karen @future-works.com
FutureWorks
future-works.com
FutureWorks is available to rock your PR needs. 🙂 Founded by Brian Solis, you know his team is nothing but the best. Please contact us for more info.

Valerie Kameya
vkameya @gmail.com
valkra
valkra.com
I have 7 years of experience developing educational games and managing community at Nickelodeon, and am looking for an opportunity in the educational and non-profit spaces.

Yu-kai Chou
fdlink @gmail.com
Future Delivery
viralogy.com
Viralogy is a social media ranker. We help personal bloggers become discovered. We also measures who has the most powerful influence on the internet.
 
Mostardi
sysadmin @pobox.com
Sr Systems Administrator
davidmostardi.com
I’m an experienced systems administrator for hire. My specialties are Unix/Linux, storage, security, networking and production systems. You can find my resume and bio at my website, davidmostardi.com. Thanks!

Rachel Polish
RNPOLISH @yahoo.com
twitter.com/rachelpolish
Public relations/social media evangelist for consumer, tech and the U.S. Coast Guard (I’m a reservist).  Looking for senior PR management role at agency or corporate in the Bay Area.  Follow me on Twitter (@rachelpolish) or email me at RNPOLISH@yahoo.com.  Love networking and looking forward to connecting!

Myles Weissleder
myles @sfnewtech.com
SF New Tech – Annual Membership
sfnewtech.com/membership
Forget discount codes.  Forget registering online.  Forget trying to remember to buy tickets.  With an Annual Membership to SF New Tech you can just walk up to the window and be ushered inside, pronto.   Makes for a great gift… and also great for agencies who like to entertain clients.

antoine rocher
editors @culturekiosque.com
Culturekiosque
culturekiosque.com
Fine arts, music, dance, popular culture, travel guides and commentary with a uniquely European feel. Professional journalists from world-leading publications seeking content syndication and distribution opportunities and new contributors. Contact editors@culturekiosque.com with any inquiries.

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!

 

Wow! 

Quite an event last night as the Belgians took to the SF New Tech stage with their fresh ideas and outlooks.  Note to Silicon Valley (and "Silicon Alley", FWIW):  Y’all aren’t the only ones pushing the boundaries and building cool stuff.  Last night we saw some pretty great tech coming from Belgium which had a lot of people muttering under their breath "who knew?!".  

I want to congratulate all the companies who shared their work with us last night.  Thank you.

Links of note:

* The results from our post-event survey (aka "People’s Choice") can be found here.

* 60 Second Spots are here.

* Archive of Justin.tv’s live stream of the event is here.  (Note: We encountered some nasty audio problems so it’s not really that fun to watch.)

* Photos will be posted to Flickr (tagged "sfnt") soon.

* Some Belgian press coverage is here and here.

* And a quick blurb in Andrew Ross’ column in Tuesday’s San Francisco Chronicle is here.

* Follow SF New Tech on Twitter! 

* Follow Myles on Twitter!

* Be sure you’re signed up on meetup.com/sfnewtech to get notice of discount codes, comp’d tickets and more!