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Save the Date: Lunch 2.0 on 08/08/08
Your online invitation is coming soon.
Update: Here’s the online invitation. Very few details available. ArtistForce, the event’s host, wants to surprise you. Go RSVP before it’s too late!
Five Observations from My Day with Robert Scoble
I invited Robert Scoble to check out some of the companies that I met by hosting events on Mixergy.com. Yesterday he spent the day meeting six startups and shooting interviews with them for FastCompany.tv. Here are five observations from my time with him:
- Benefits of fame - Most people couldn’t get tickets to yesterday’s sold out Twiistup event, but when the organizers heard that Scoble was in town and had a few minutes to spare before his flight, they went out of their way to get him to come. He told me he got to the front of the line to buy an iPhone because a fan spotted him and asked him to join him.
- Bobble-head - If you look at some of the interviews I’ve done for Tech Zulu, you’ll see me nodding, biting my lip and just bobbing around while the person I’m interviewing talks. It’s very distracting. I watched Scoble do interviews for 5 hours and, as you can see in the picture above, after he asked a question, he’s just still. He told me it’ll take some practice. I’ll work on it.
- Constant work - After the interviews were over, I left him alone in the studio for about an hour. When I came back in to check on him, he turned it into his office–complete with a cradle for his iPhone–and was lost in work. On the drive to the airport he was on FriendFeed writing his thoughts on the PodTech sale. If he had a minute to spare, he was on twitter, writing or reading a post. When I asked him what I needed to do to be “internet famous” he told me to keep publishing everywhere. That’s what he was doing any chance he got.
- Measuring success - I asked him if he ever wanted to be as rich as the people he covered for FastCompany.tv. I think he laughed at the idea. He didn’t even seem concerned with his traffic numbers or how many people viewed his videos. He told me he measured success by how big a conversation he was starting.
- The Mixergy community is working - I know it’s self-serving to say it, but I think the tech events we’ve all done in SoCal have helped raise all of our profiles. Alana Semuels of the LA Times once told me that she’s less interested in covering a single company than a big trend. By getting together, we’re all creating a big movement that’s making it easier for each of us to get attention. Having Scoble come here with his cameras is a great example of the growing excitement for the startups in our community.
Thank you Rubicon Project for hosting this event in your office. And thank you Robert Scoble for coming here, shooting video of our startups and for being so generous with the credit.
Why is Amazon Going Offline?
Christel, who loves her new Kindle, told me that Amazon is encouraging Kindle owners to meet offline with people who are curious about the devices.
Sometimes, Amazon realized, you have to see something in-person before you buy it.
There are times, before going to an event, when I wish we could just do it all remotely. Most people I know have Skype and web cams. So I wonder why we can’t just step into the digital age already.
But, as Amazon is discovering with their Kindle, you need to see some things in-person before you connect with them. I read recently that Apple sold more Macs after they opened their stores because it helped people try Macs in-person. I know that helped me switch to a Mac.
If these digital experts have seen the need for face-to-face meetings, I think there will continue to be a need for in-person events.
But technology can still play a role. The invitation site that tells you about an event, needs to say more than when and where it is. It needs to tell you who’s going to be there, help you figure out which of those people are good connections for you, and it should help start your conversations.
That’s what Mixergy.com is trying to do now. Let me know how we can do that better.
William Quigley of Clearstone Teaches SoCal Startups
If you sent a VC your pitch, William Quigley told us, and you didn’t hear back, it’s not because your email was somehow lost in transit or because no one had a chance to look at it. VCs look at everything. You didn’t get a response because your pitch wasn’t compelling enough.
That’s the kind of straight talk that William dished last night. He was frank, educational and helpful.
We started the evening with a short conversation with Rahul Sonnad, an entrepreneur who founded thePlatform, which was sold to Comcast. Rahul is working on his next startup, Geodelic Systems, out of Clearstone’s office in Santa Monica. William invited him to talk about the VC process from the entrepreneur’s perspective.
Before he went up on stage, I thanked Rahul for coming to speak to us. He said, “I’m always happy to pitch.” And that was one of his messages when he got up on stage. Pitch your idea to anyone who’ll listen because it’ll help you practice explaining your business and selling your ideas.
Thank you William and Rahul for presenting last night.
A few people emailed me about a copy of William’s PowerPoint. Here it is:
Right click here to download William Quigley’s PowerPoint presentation.
This event was sponsored by:
And thank you to our media sponsor:
The Sarah Lacy Interview
Sarah Lacy came as a guest to an event that I did at Mixergy. So I interviewed her for Tech Zulu about her new book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good. Here’s Tech Zulu’s video:
Following Up on Last Night’s Drinks 2.0 Event
Here’s a *raw* video of my interview with Sarah Lacy from last night’s Mixergy Drinks 2.0 event. It was shot by a guest on a little camera, while Tech Zulu filmed using their professional equipment. The audio and video on this version are pretty bad. When Tech Zulu posts the official version, I’ll add it here.
Click here to see pictures that I took:
Wm Marc Salsberry took even better pictures (naturally):
Thank you Tech Zulu for giving me 2 great new Mixergy signs! I need to do a better job of branding my events and the Tech Zulu guys helped by surprising me with a gift of two beautiful signs.
Here’s a video of Jerome Chang talking about he brought a Mixergy event to his company, BLANKSPACES.
And finally, Steve Morin, who co-hosted many of the most popular Mixergy events is leaving LA for Silicon Valley.
Why I didn’t email you about tomorrow’s Drinks 2.0 event
Tomorrow night, Mixergy is hosting the next Drinks 2.0 in Los Angeles. Here’s your online invitation.
When I started emailing the invitation last week, the guest list instantly jumped to 200 people. Most locations can’t handle such a big crowd, so I had to stop emailing. I just got word from our location host Blankspaces that they can accept a few more guests. If you want to come, RSVP now.
Food and drinks are provided by Originate Labs, our event host. Originate is flying their people in just for this event.
Also I just talked to Sarah Lacy by email. She’s going to be in LA for this event. I’ll see if I could interview her for Mixergy on TechZulu.com. If you have a copy of her new book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, bring it in and she’ll sign it.
The Local Startups that Robert Scoble Will Video
A few months ago, I told you that I asked Robert Scoble to shoot video for FastCompany.tv about some of the great startups that I meet at my Mixergy events. He agreed, so I asked anyone who was interested to submit their startup for consideration.
I got more applications than I could go through on my own and I didn’t want to flood Robert with requests, so I formed a 3-person committee to help me recommend startups for Robert to video. (I sent him our recommendations and the full list.) The three people are:
Steven Kan - Associate, Clearstone Venture Partners
One of the nice side effects of having Steven go through the list is that it he asked me for a few introductions to startups, which helped give some early-stage founders a helpful connection to Clearstone.
Tyler Crowley - Marketing & Strategy, Mahalo
Scott Metcalf - Senior Account Manager, MySQL
With their help, here are the 6 startups that Robert Scoble will interview when he’s in LA on July 17:
New Event: Strut Your Startup
Mixergy is putting together a new event to help SoCal startups get feedback and exposure. If you’re working on a startup, apply below to join.
It’s called, “Strut Your Startup” and you can think of it as American Idol for startups.
If you have a working project, we’ll give you 5 minutes on stage to strut it. After you’re finished showing it off, you’ll get feedback from a panel of judges who are in the media and investment community. If they like your project, they’ll setup a followup meeting with you to learn more.
Also, since we’ll setup a twitter account for the night, the audience can twitter what they think and vote for their favorite startup.
Mike of Twiistup agreed to give the audience favorite priority consideration for a showoff slot @ Twiistup 5.
Francisco Dao of FastCompany.com agreed to be a judge. I’ll announce more judges soon.
There’s no fee. Costs will be covered by sponsors.
[Update: no more applications accepted.]
San Diego Happy Hour 2.0 @ gWave
Melani Gordon of gWave Consulting opened up her rooftop sky box for a Web 2.0 Mixergy event. If you weren’t there, here’s what and who you missed.
To see more pictures, join the Mixergy page on Facebook.
Here’s a video of Melani Gordon talking about her company and why she did this Mixergy event:
Basil Maloni talks about his company and why he comes to Mixergy events:
Meet one of our guests, Ron Marcus talks about his company and why he comes to Mixergy events:
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