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Introducing Startup Riot

Published on March 10, 2008 in Events, Startups and Venture Capital. 9 Comments

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for a while and it’s finally time to test the waters and see if I can pull off this event. At the last Startup Dinner, I mentioned that I’d like to do a startup focused pitch event. The idea would be for startups to get up on stage and do a (strictly enforced!) three minute pitch on their company. I’m calling this event Startup Riot.

Target Audience

The invited audience will be three pronged so that all interested startups will have one or more groups to pitch.

First, I’ll look to invite folks who are looking for jobs especially those who are just graduating from local colleges. Rather than condemn these folks to cube farms, let’s try to get the best and brightest working in some great startups.

Second, I’m planning to invite those involved in technology with large local corporations and non-profits. Clearly getting these folks as customers would be a boon for any startup. Non-profits actually present a unique opportunity for both parties. Startups can leverage these folks as early adopter customers and get valuable feedback on their product/service while non-profits can have the opportunity to adopt new technologies for free/cheap.

And finally, I’m planning to invite investors - angels and venture capitalists. No need to explain why I hope.

Between these three groups, every startup that wants to pitch will have one or more groups that they’ll want to appeal to. But remember, you’ll only have three minutes in which to do this.

The Schedule

The format I’ve been able to come up with would get us through about 45 company pitches over the course of the day with lots of time left over for networking and private discussions. The format may change and adapt based on the venue I end up using as well as the demand for pitch slots. If it’s way over 45, then I’ll rejigger the event so that everyone gets a shot.

I intend to allow any startup that wants to pitch to be able to do so although I reserve the right to refuse anyone a slot based on my sole opinion. Realistically though, most anyone can suffer through three minutes of the most idiotic pitch.

Sponsors and Cost

This isn’t going to be cheap to do. I’m looking into catering (lunch and whatnot), venue costs, printing, etc. I’m fortunate to already have a few people volunteer their time for this event but the overall cost is still going to be hefty. Given that, I’m planning on running this event differently than most of my other events or events run by other local entrepreneurs.

First, I’m going to get sponsors for the event. Yes, that includes service providers. But once costs are covered, I’m not going to keep taking sponsors on for the event. The goal here is to cover cost and not overwhelm the event with non-startup folks. So if you’re interested in sponsoring this event, you probably need to contact me sooner rather than later since I’ll give preference to those who contact me first.

Second, the event is not going to be free for all individuals but fees will take into account each groups ability to pay. Pitching startups will get some allowance of folks they can bring for free. This also goes for non-profits looking to potentially use products and services from the startups. Large companies will have some minimal fee to make sure qualified folks are signing up. Job seekers will pay some minimal amount in an effort to make sure folks who show up are qualified candidates and aren’t just signing up with no intention of showing up. Finally, investors will pay some amount to attend as well.

What I Need From You

So what do I need from you? Well, first I need to make sure that I can actually get 45 or so startups lined up to pitch. If there are more than that who want to pitch I need to know that as well since I need to figure out a schedule that works for this event. At this point I’m targeting either late April or early May for this event and it looks to be an all day event in Atlanta. If you are a part of a startup that wants to pitch, fill out this form and indicate your interest in pitching. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email, contact me via LinkedIn, or send me a note on Twitter.

JungleDisk Up For Webware Award

Published on March 5, 2008 in PR & the Press and Startups. 0 Comments

Our friends over at JungleDisk have been nominated for a Webware award in the utility & security category. Show your love for an Atlanta based company and vote for them to win.

I’m not sure if any other Atlanta based companies are represented but I’m sure other East Coast companies are. If you find them and like what they’re doing, use their proximity to the East Coast as your tie breaking decider on who to vote for.

Good luck Dave and JungleDisk!

2008 Georgia Technology Summit

Published on March 4, 2008 in Events. 0 Comments

Last week I lucked out and got a ticket to go to the 2008 Georgia Technology Summit thanks to Lance Weatherby and the folks down at ATDC (I’ve been begging, to no avail, for one for a while).

I was going to write a long post about what I thought was right and wrong with the event. Fortunately both Lance Weatherby and Scott Burkett did that job for me. I will chime in on the whole video thing (Lance railed on this last year as well). I think it’s really silly to have a videotaped intro done by someone who is in the audience. Not only that, this same person will come up to the podium after the video shows. Generally, people use video for including individuals that can’t make it to the event. And if you are going to do something silly like this, the presenter should be well rehearsed and have a smooth presentation. One can forgive a presenter stumbling when they present in person but you can re-record a video as many times as is necessary to get a smooth presentation.

Speaking of in-person presentations, John Imlay was an outstanding speaker. Of course, if I were European I’m not sure I would have appreciated a number of his jokes but for us Americans the talk was great. This talk alone made the trip to the Summit worthwhile. As an added bonus I can now say that John Imlay is in fact a real person since so few people have ever seen the man. He does exist and he is absolutely hilarious.

Personally this was a great event for me because it shows what should and shouldn’t be done at a pitch event. I’m taking these lessons and will incorporate them in the event I’m working on. More details soon!

I’m Back

Published on March 3, 2008 in Asides. 0 Comments

Like I mentioned before, posting was light last week. I’m just getting back into the swing of things so expect new material soon. I’m also working on scheduling the next Startup Dinner. If you’re interested, make sure you’re signed up.

RingBranch Climbs The Telecom Tree

Published on February 27, 2008 in Startups. 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to write about RingBranch for some time. But now that they’ve opened up some beat invites, it’s probably time to talk about them.

RingBranch is a relatively new Atlanta based startup. Basically the idea is a service that allows cell phone users to break free of their free minute circles and make more free calls. So if you have one of these cell phone plans that allows you to pick a phone number or numbers that you can make/receive calls from, using RingBranch you can effectively grow the number of phone numbers you can call to or receive calls from for free - free cell phone minutes that is.

How is that? RingBranch allows you to store up to 100 numbers that you can call from any phone by calling your RingBranch number. The beauty of this is that if your cell phone dies, gets stolen, etc. then you can still call your most important contacts. In fact, this is the impetus of RingBranch when co-founder and CEO Allen Graber was in New Orleans and he needed to call people but his cell phone was dead.

Even more important, I think, is the recent news that the U.S. Customs Service is seizing cell phones and downloading everything on them. Yeah, that’s pretty scary but if you save all of your stuff on the network, then maybe you’ll be safe from this physical copying of your data. Of course that doesn’t stop these agencies from getting subpoenas on providers and downloading your information en masse. But I digress…

I haven’t dug too deeply into this but the company says their technology is based on Microsoft technologies like .Net and SQL server. They’re also using some other telecom hardware and software but I’m not totally sure what that encompasses at this point.

Like I said, the company has opened up beta slots. There is no cost, currently, for using the service although that may change as the service matures and moves beyond beta. One can expect that this service will necessarily be priced less than “normal” per minute charges per carriers and is basically an arbitrage opportunity for RingBranch.

Also note that similar, but not identical, services may be obtained by using Grand Central (which is now owned by Google) or Mobivox. Grand Central is free but Mobivox costs money to use.

The company has been self funded to date. I suspect that will change at some point but the company has not shared any fund raising plans with me as of yet.

Disclosure: Allen Graber was an angel investor in my previous company but, as usual, that doesn’t mean I won’t abuse him. ;-)