SOMEWHAT FRANK

MacBook Air Unveiled, Yahoo Goes OpenID, Sun Buys MySQL, VC Funding At High, Facebook Plaxo Rumors & the 2007 Crunchies Awarded

Photo of the Week: Gabe Rivera of techmeme shows off his award for best bootstrapped startup at the 2007 Crunchies (more Crunchies coverage below). Photo taken by Zivity.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 01.20.2008

TECH cocktail Chicago A Sixth Great Time

I co-hosted a sixth TECH cocktail in Chicago last night and co-host Eric Olson and I had a blast doing it. With 500 plus attendees at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville there was so much energy and love in the room it was an amazing feeling. I got to see many familiar and as well as new faces as we continue to try and build a better and more tightly connected community in Chicago.

Leading up to TECH cocktail Chicago 6 was super, as there was lots of TECH cocktail related action. For example, DC TECH cocktail demoing startup PatentMonkey.com was acquired by Patents.com. Songza launched and then demoed at TECH cocktail last night. Also, TECH cocktail demo alum GrubHub got funded by repeat TECH cocktail sponsor Origin Ventures. TECH cocktail got a little local Chicago press love. Oh and I almost forgot, we now have a Twitter account so you can follow TECH cocktail on all its adventures in helping to amplify the technology signal in under-served communities.

 

Songza Music Search Soon To Launch

Songza, a Chicago-based music startup, will soon launch to offer a new way to search, play and share music online. This free music search offers an extremely minimalist and slick interface to create and play playlists online. Songza's interface was designed by Chicago-based Humanized. Songza is so fresh, they have not even officially launched yet but if you are in the Chicago-land area this week you might want to attend the official Songza launch party on Thurday night.