SOMEWHAT FRANK

MAVA's Capital Connection Coming Soon To DC

You might want to get your Memorial Day weekend plans in order as it is coming on fast but first I would look at Capital Connection 2009 conference as Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) has assembled quite the cast of speakers. Capital Connection 2009 is taking place in Washington, DC on May 26th and 27th.

Speakers include Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra, Rosetta Stone CEO, Tom Adams, Blackboard CEO & President, Michael Chasen, GigaNetwork Founder, Om Malik & VentureBeat Founder, Matt Marshall among a number of others (full speaker list here).

To register & for more information about the the event visit: http://capitalconnection.org

Speaking at Bootstrap Maryland Conference

I am excited to be speaking at Bootstrap Maryland Conference today on the campus of University of Maryland. My panel session is at 11 a.m. EST (shown below) has a great cast of local thought leaders in the space and we will look to help start-ups and entrepreneurs understand what you can do to get your message about your product, brand or service out there.

How to market inexpensively with social media, events, and creative public relations Confirmed Panelists: Aaron Brazell, Peter Corbett, Frank Gruber, Kaitlyn Wilkins (moderated by Mario Armstrong)

I will be streaming some videos live from the event so stay tuned to SOMEWHAT FRANK on Qik (below):

Headed to Bootstrap Maryland

Getting Ready for Bootstrap Maryland Panel

Getting Technology Right Session at Bootstrap Maryland

Success Stories in Bootstrapping

Special thanks to Jared Goralnick for organizing the event, it takes a lot time and hard work and I appreciate it. Thanks for having me participate.

Talking Start-ups, Bootstrapping & Lifestreaming

It was a pleasure as always to get a chance to sync up with Greg "The Trend Junkie" Cangialosi the CEO of Baltimore-based Blue Sky Factory in San Francisco today. I had him swing by to do his Thursday afternoon live show BlueSkyFactory.tv from the Bebo office.

We discussed a number of topics including start-ups, shiny objects of the Web, bootstrapping, entrepreneurship, building community anywhere, TECH cocktail, SOMEWHAT FRANK and my recent work at AOL as part of the People Network group which includes AIM, Bebo, ICQ and Socialthing and life-streaming products. We are also were joined by Jean-Paul Cozzatti the Development / Product Engineering Lead at Bebo to talk about the updates for Bebo that went live this past December and February as well as a hint as to what is to come in the coming months.

Tune into the video above to watch episode #7 of Blue Sky Factory TV (above).

AngelSoft: Aggregates 400 Angel Investors

If you are an entrepreneur looking for a little funding to get your startup going there are a number of incubator programs that I have covered previously like Y Combinator, TechStars and LaunchBox Digital that could help get you started. But if you have already participated in an incubator or you are looking for a little more than what an incubator can offer you might want to look for an angel investor. If you do not know an angel investor you might be out of luck but there is a new company looking to help connect angel investors with startups and visa versa. Angelsoft, a New York-based company, looks to aggregate angel investors into one site that can then browsed by entreprenuers in need. With Angelsoft entrepreneurs are able to browse over 400 angel investment groups and early-stage venture capital funds and apply for financing using a single common application.

WooMe Attracts $3 Million More

WooMe, the online speed dating site that launched at TechCrunch40 and I previously reviewed, announced yesterday that they recieved another $3 million funding. The round was led by Mangrove Capital and included previous investor Atomico and a few others as well.

According to Stephen Stokols, founder and CEO:

“With this funding we can focus our efforts on improving the user experience, releasing key functionalities to our live introductions platform, and expanding our international presence where we are enjoying early success.”

There are a few things that are nearly guaranteed revenue generators on the Web and obviously online dating is one of them so I am not surprised to see WooMe attracting money like online daters.

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

Video: How to Start a Company with $25K

What's it take to start your own company these days? Everyone has their own opinion on this question. Recently the GigaOm network site FoundRead sat down to video interview Art of the Start author Guy Kawasaki. Guy is a known for his Silicon Valley "innovation evanglism" as well his books about startups. In the ten minute interview Guy talks about how to bootstrap and start a company with limited resources.

Facebook Web 2.0 Summit, iPhone Platform, Microsoft 100 Startups, Flickr Maps, Vimeo HD & Social Porn Law?

Photo of the Week: These colorful orbs were all over the SF MOMA on Wednesday evening as MySpace.com held an event to celebrate their invasion of San Francisco with the opening of an office in the area.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbit: 10.21.2007

You Be The VC: Could Get You Funding

Do you have a startup idea but are looking for funding? A couple of weeks ago YouBeTheVC.com launched to offer up a creative "reality funding" approach similar to that of American Idol. YouBeTheVC.com, created by New York-based VC firm Bang Ventures offers aspiring entrepreneurs to compete for a chance at some funding. The top 3 selected companies/product ideas will be given $15,000 living stipend and office space in the Boston area and additional guidance and services.

Microsoft Buying Yahoo?, Goodbye Yahoo Photos, YouTube RevShare, Small the New Big, Conference Success & Twittering

Photo of the Week: This was the view from Sweet View on Derby Day at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 05.06.07

Microsoft to Buy Yahoo? Nope.
Stung by the loss of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick to Google last month, Microsoft has intensified its pursuit of a deal with Yahoo!, asking the company to re-enter formal negotiations, The Post has learned. Opps, false alarm.

Breaking: Yahoo To Shut Down Yahoo Photos In Favor Of Flickr
The Yahoo Photos service will be shut down in favor of the newer and more social Flickr, which they acquired in March of 2005. Peanut butter clean-up?

YouTube Makes Some Members Content Partners
Participating user-partners will be treated as other content partners and will have the ability to control the monetization of the videos they create. Once they’ve selected a video to be monetized, we’ll place advertising adjacent to their content and share the revenue with the content producer.

Small is The New Big
Now that Web 2.0 is growing up, scale no longer matters. GigaOm explains how even tiny businesses—like transcription services—can go global.

eBay widgets
What a fantastic and easy way to promote your auctions or Ebay fund raisers on your blog! The set-up for this widget is very simple to figure out. There are no technical hurdles for newbies to worry about.

The (Re)Birth of Mobile Banking
While the upcoming iPhone launch is capturing the lion’s share of attention in the Wireless industry, the re-introduction of Mobile Banking has been at the core of a movement to make a cell phone your next wallet.

Calacanis’ latest, Project X, Kokua?
Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs Inc., and now an entrepreneur-in-action at Sequoia Capital is working on a new company called, Project X. Valleywag published some details about the company earlier this week, that has the apparent backing of Mark Cuban. I am hoping Mark also buys the Chicago Cubs at seasons end.

Most Profitable Web 2.0 Business: Conferences
The tech conference business continues to amaze me. They are true champion revenue generators of the web 2.0 area.

Rebrand & New Features: Google IG To Relaunch as iGoogle
Google’s personalized home page, Google IG, has been rebranded as iGoogle and launched at igoogle.com.

Twittering more than blogging
I sent 1,327 text messages last month, many of which were related to twitter so I have to say that I did not write anywhere near 1,327 blog posts in the same time. Marshall Kirkpatrick explains how he is has been twittering a lot more than blogging as well.

TECH cocktail Is Coming To DC

I am happy to announce that TECH cocktail is coming to DC in May! Coming off a great event in Chicago a couple of weeks ago we are excited to be co-hosting TECH cocktail DC 1 (TcDC1) on May 17, 2007 from 6 to 9:30pm at MCCXXII, a sweet venue in DC. Demo and sponsor details will be coming soon...as we still have a few demo & sponsor slots open, so if you are interested please contact me ASAP. 

The event is open and FREE to bloggers, technology enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and other business professionals interested in the technology arena in under served technology communities. Our goal is to help to amplify the technology and entrepreneurial signal in under served markets and have fun doing it.

Co-founders Eric Olson and I will be co-hosting TcDC1 with Nick O'Neill, a DC blogger, web developer and area native. Also special thanks to colleagues Jim Simmons & Omar Miskinyar for helping to coordinate securing the venue - that was huge!

If you are interested in attending please sign up now since you have to be on the guest list to be admitted to the event: http://techcocktaildc1.eventbrite.com
I hope to see you there! 

TechCrunch20 Conference Details

Looking for a fall conference to attend? Mike Arrington, editor of TechCrunch, has just announced the details of the TechCrunch20 conference at the VC 2.0 session he moderated at the Web 2.0 Expo. The conference is being co-organized by Jason Calacanis and Mike Arrington and sponsored by Sequoia Capital with the idea of highlighting 20 of the hottest startups at the event. GigaOm offers more details.The event will be held at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco September 17 thru€“ 18, 2007 with tickets ranging between $1,995 and $2,495 depending upon ticket purchase date. You can register now.

GigaOm offers some additional perspective on TechCrunch20.

If you are looking for other conferences to attend you might want to check out this roundup of 2007 conferences.

Google vs. Microsoft, Hollywood Disrupted, OpenID Explained, BitTorrent Video Store and the Feed Reader Market

Photo of the week: With the 79th Academy Awards tonight I felt this photo title Over Hollywood Sign by Jorge Mir offered a good point of perspective.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.25.07

Hollywood Disrupted By Social Media?
An opinion piece in the LA Times, titled “The Movie Magic is Gone”, explains how Hollywood is losing its place as the epicenter of cultural products and how movies are losing their relevance as the "barometers of the American psyche". Personally, social media has definitely pulled me away from more and more television and movies the last couple of years.

BitTorrent.com Launches Video Store
BitTorrent Inc, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing software, has released the final details of their long awaited video store. The store itself will go live this Monday, and will offer movie rentals at $2.99 - $3.99, and “download to own” TV shows.

It’s G-Day: Google Launches Apps Premier
Google has Microsoft squarely in its cross-hairs as it launched Google Apps Premier, its subscription package of premium, hosted business applications in direct competition with Microsoft. It does not surprise me. Interestingly, this past week I also heard a radio advertisement for "Breakfast with Google," an event setup to showcase Google @ Work for government organizations.

How does OpenID work?
Good question, this video post offers some perspective on just how OpenID works as explained by Simon Willison. Also Digg announced this past week that they are going OpenID.

How Many Founders Does A Startup Need?
Brad Feld looked at number of founders in successful Internet businesses. The average is 2.09 founders and Brad discusses this number and gives his input.

Netvibes2Go, Pretty Good Actually
GigaOm takes a look at Netvibes mobile experience and reports back on it. Basically, Netvibes setup is easy: create a tab in Netvibes called “Mobile,” and drop in some of these modules.

The State of the Web-based RSS Reader Market
FeedBurner released a great look into the feed market and Read/Write Web took it a step-further by examining the web-based feed reader market. The article also pulls in some numbers from another feed-based business called Pheedo.

Next Net: 25 startups to watch
Business 2.0 has once again listed 25 startups to watch in 2007. Here are last years 25 hottest startups.

Startup Dreams? Bootstrapper's Bible Could Help

The web 2.0 movement has shown that it is a great time to start an online business with limited funding. As a number of startups have emerged some have received funding while a large number of others that have turned to 'bootstrapping' to keep their startup dreams alive. Bootstrapping in financial terms is the idea of starting a business with little or no money (outside funding). There is not a right or wrong approach however bootstrapping does allows a startup to maintain more control of their product or any eventual returns as the startup does not have to answer to a bank, VC or other investor.

Seth Godin, a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change, has written several helpful and inspiring books including The Big Moo which I highlighted previously. The Bootstrapper's Bible, one of Seth's latest books, is focused on the concept of bootstrapping an idea he touched on briefly in Making Money On The Web. The Bootstrapper's Bible is currently available for free download. I would highly recommend taking a look at is as it has some helpful hints on that can be applied to startups and large corporations alike.

Quintura Gets Funded By Ex-Skype Backer

Quintura, a Russian hot search startup, has reported they have received funding from Mangrove Capital Partners of Luxembourg. Interestingly, Mangrove Capital Partners was also an early investor in Skype. I have highlighted Quintura a few times on Somewhat Frank but most recently due to the launch of Quintura as a web-based visual search engine application. The deal is the first Western VC investment made in an Internet company from Russia.

What does Quintura plan to do with the money? Yakov Sadchikov, co-founder and CEO of Quintura had this to say:

"We plan using the venture capital to take the Web by storm and reach millions of web users globally when launching the Quintura visual find engines for various user communities. We are also starting an affiliate program for most popular web-sites and blogs such as Digg, Netscape, and others where they can easily make their current tag clouds very interactive."

I cannot wait to see Quintura's unique interactive word cloud on these other social media communities. It should be rather intriguing. For other blogosphere perspectives check out Read/Write Web, Mashable and Go2Web2.