Startup Harbor

Your local knowledge safe harbor

Hey New York, it’s Internet Week

Leave a Comment Posted by on May 20, 2013

I’m charging my computer between speakers at Internet Week New York HQ, on 18th between 6th and 7th Avenues. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but now I know that no one else is wearing shorts and sandals. Oh and my Irish flag-styled backpack doesn’t appear to be in either. Whoops.

IWNY is a week-long celebration of all that is internet and New York in one big space. Someone on Twitter quipped it’s always internet week here, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to have a blast. There are tons of events happening on different stages, within a classroom, and outside the pavilion area as well as concurrent conferences happening around NYC. Tons of companies are presenting, have a booth, or doing some guerrilla marketing. It officially kicked off last week at a party and during Walkabout NYC. Brett and I got to visit 10gen, AppNexus (sweet sunglass swag giveaway), Knewton, and NewsCred. For the most part, it was a gigantic recruiting pitch to convince developers to come on board. That wasn’t exactly my intent, so I got to see some cool fun massive offices, 50 Cent’s former bathroom on 23rd Street, and free drinks. Thanks to everyone who hosted us.

Retouched version of Image:50-cent.jpg (croppe...

As for the IWNY events themselves, I already watched Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York  talk about viral growth and how he’s aiming for a New York art-focused non-profit. Check out his Tumblr. Over the next few days, I’ll be seeing Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, Joe Gebbia at Airbnb, a panel on innovators in education, conflict journalism in the Middle East, commerce and content distribution panel, a fireside chat with Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker, an innovative ad campaign discussion, a Made in NY panel, a keynote by Howard Lerner from Yext, Brian Singerman from Founders Fund on healthcare, someone from MLB Advanced Media on Advertising, and a Demo Day.

Pro tip: get here early for the classrooms. The lines are big and I already missed out on an engagement one.

And then we’re ready for Memorial Day Weekend! Dear Summer, I’ve missed you.

Seriously, those are just what I have on my schedule right now and I’m sure there’s going to be tons of other things I sit in on randomly. There’s so much going on, so if it can find your way here: do it.

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Remember, the enemy’s gate is down

Leave a Comment Posted by on May 13, 2013

If you can divine what the title of this post refers to, prepare to be excited. I just discovered that Orson Scott Card’s classic Ender’s Game is in post-production to become a major motion picture scheduled for release in 2013. Yes, I guess I’m a little late.

I first read Ender’s Game when I was 12. I’ve read it every year or two since then. It’s a timeless story  you’ll love even if you don’t like science fiction. It centers around Ender Wiggin, the last of three brilliant children in a society where you’re only allowed two. Born an outcast, he’s sent to Battle School in Earth’s orbit at a very young age to be groomed into a future star fleet commander. He will become humanity’s last hope against an alien invasion by the evil Buggers. He commands troops of fellow 7 and 12 year olds as the school continually isolates and tries to break him. Ender reviews each hostile situation and cooly calculates responses. He needs to beat the enemy at all costs, for himself if not for the human race. He challenges unwritten rules and surprises at every turn. He is an innovator.

The story is fantastic. It touches on growing pains and family, and serves just as well as a treatise on military tactics (it is recommended reading for officers in the USMC). It’s sad, violent, and sentimental.

Read it already and get ready for Han Solo in space again.

 

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The Schadenfreude is strong regarding Prenda Law

2 Comments Posted by on May 7, 2013

Judge Wright just issued an absolutely scathing judgment in the Prenda Law case last night. If you haven’t been keeping up with the most interesting case I’ve ever read, let me provide of a quick summary (if you want a complete summary, I suggest you read full details by Ken White at Popehat). My post will borrow heavily from his writing and the Ars Technica coverage.

Anyways, a bunch of people were “caught” downloading a porno on bittorrent. I use the term loosely, because all the plaintiff (Prenda Law) can really allege is certain IP addresses downloaded it. The copyright owners and Prenda Law filed numerous suits against all the offending criminals and offered to settled for $4,000 (or as the judge notes, slightly more than the cost of an effective defense). The defendant typically settles, for cost and humility reasons. I mean, who wants their names smeared in front of their family because they decided to download porn?

In the Prenda case, an unknown defendant hired representation who did some excellent detective work. It turns out that Prenda Law has deliberately obscured a lot of facts to obtain cash settlements. Prenda purchased  film rights through a shell company using the name Alan Cooper. Then, they established a bunch of other shell companies (run by their directors in all but name and often offshore). They hired a bevy of attorneys and outside counsel to prosecute these cases. The blanket prosecution, the defense vs. settlement costs, the hidden owners. Typical patent troll behavior. However, atypical judge.

The defendant discovered pending court cases in Illinois and Minnesota of a man named Alan Cooper alleging misuse of his name. The defendant brought the plaintiffs to court to answer some questions regarding the case. There were questions about copyright ownership obfuscation and whether the court has been defrauded and deliberately misled on multiple issues (see proposed ownership structure below). Essentially, if the court knew the prosecuting attorneys were also suit beneficiaries, they apply a different standard in conduct and are more attentive towards details. The plaintiffs all pleaded the 5th. In a criminal case, that precludes you from self-implication. However, this is a civil case and the judge is able to infer whatever nefarious things he wants.

Yesterday, Judge Wright issued the reply linked above. It opened with this quote:

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
—Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).

Yes. Star Trek was referenced throughout the entire thing. I won’t go into the legalese, but the judge makes very damning “findings of fact” against them. They created shell companies to shield Prenda Law from liability and establish false credibility. They directed third parties very explicitly on these actions. They defrauded this Alan Cooper gentleman by forging his signature on company documents. Investigation by plaintifs to prove that John Doe defendant was the guilty party? Complete BS. Judge Wright proved their facts wrong by using Google Maps! I love this guy!

So what penalties, after all this, does Judge Wright impose? To echo Ken White, they’re catastrophic.. (1) Attorneys fees to be paid to the defendant of about $40k. (2) Punitive damages equal to the attorneys fees. Okay, so far not THAT bad. How about this though? (3) Referring all lawyers affiliated with the plaintif case to their respective bar associations, i.e. they’re getting disbarred at least. (4) Referring them to the U.S. Attorney’s office for a RICO investigation!! Because the only type of enterprise this ressembles is a criminal extortion racket. And lastly, (5), referring them to the IRS Criminal Investigations Department to go after the millions (likely) in payments they’ve already collected tax-free.

Prenda Law is screwed. They’re getting disbarred. They’re getting investigated by relentless institutions, which could absolutely result in criminal prosecution in front of a grand jury.

It’s never been a good day to be a patent troll (seriously, how do you live with yourself?). But today, it’s probably a little worse. Let’s hope this sets a strong precedent and has very far reaching consequences in our justice system. That’ll have to do until any legislative fix is enacted.

Yes, I love it.

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Pivoting Startup Harbor

Leave a Comment Posted by on May 6, 2013

Startup Harbor was created with a specific purpose in mind. It served nearly 100% as an avenue for me to get in touch with members of the tech community, primarily through interviews (all thanks to the inspiration of Chris Yeh). I met some pretty great people, some whose words you read on this site and others who for one reason or another never made it on. I transitioned away from interviews in the last few months, and that’s likely permanent.

I want this to serve as a public record for my thoughts, opinions, and ideas. I will be wrong sometimes and maybe often. Posts will typically be about the tech space. But it could just as often could be about what’s happening in my life. It’s going to be honest. If I can foster some discussion here, great. If not, SH will merely have to serve as a place for me to organize my thoughts and opinons. My public diary and track record. I don’t like interviewing founders or other people in the community, as that could be read as an implicit approval by Pilot Mountain. This is me and me alone (adding that disclaimer to my About Me).

Today: I enjoy reading about bitcoin but don’t know that I want to invest in it (great Khan Academy track on it). I’m excited about localized services and love the immediate Uber-styled services that are popping up everywhere. I think education is an enormous opportunity, and I agree with pundits who think a very large number of $50k/year schools are going to fail. In the finance side of things, I believe there is increasingly democratization of products traditionally only available to private bank wealth management clients. They will be well positioned as global wealth continues to increase in the developing world. I have a difficult time with cleantech and straight biotech. I don’t understand them well and I don’t like their cost structures.

That’s just me though. I’m not building these companies and there are very persuasive founders who will steer my thinking going forward. Like I’ve said, I’ve been wrong before.

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Pilot Mountain & The Great Office Search

Leave a Comment Posted by on April 30, 2013

This post is about Pilot Mountain’s office space search and about where I’m sitting right now, The Lounge @ WeWork on Grand and Lafayette. Thanks to the friends who referred us to various locations, and specific thanks to Colin Meagher and Pat Arangio for their assistance.

For some time, Steve and I have been checking out different offices. He’s been doing it more in person, while I was browsing on the interwebs. It hasn’t been the most fun, but it could also have been a lot worse. We had to figure out a few things: where do we want to be located and what kind of space and culture do we want? What’s our cash outlay? And what are you getting for it? And what term is your rental? If you’ve never rented office space before (like me), then you should know that until you’re actually firmly established you’re probably not leasing a space. You’re probably not even subleasing a space, because landlords don’t want to take that kind of a risk on your business. So instead, you’re renting space from some other company. So who are those companies?

First, there were the executive suites. Maybe you’ve heard of Regus? They’re the global leader. Some other companies we’ve checked out included PowerSPACES, Jay Suites, and Virgo. They’ve purchased or leased floors on buildings across the city, from Bryant Park to Flatiron, down to the Financial District. They’ve typically got nice buildings with great reception areas. They’re also very quiet. And full of suits. And are fairly expensive.

Next, you’ve got companies that are similar in vein but have more of a tech/entrepreneurial feel. TechSpace has a few locations in the city (Chelsea/Union Square for example). And so does WeWork. They’re everywhere from SoHo to Madison Ave to West Village. Both of these companies encourage a little more mingling in the hallway. They’ve got events organized by their members and for the community. They’re also at different price points.

And lastly, you’ve got your co-working spaces. You’ve got the big guys like General Assembly. There’s New Work City, Greenspaces, and the WeWork Lounge and Labs. Here, you’ve got a chair, internet connectivity, community access, kitchen, etc. This is your most cost effective space. They’re  all over the city too.

Lastly, we could beg, borrow, and steal office spaces. We work with some great people at Silicon Valley Bank to handle our custody. We could call and impose on them (and still can if we’re between meetings by their offices). We have our lawyers or other service providers. We have friends who are trying to get rid of space. This tends to be cheaper, but often at the sacrifice of location, office culture, etc.

I would be remiss to not mention The Square Foot too. TSF presented at #ERANYC Demo Day this Friday and offers a pretty cool solution outside of the traditional spaces (maybe Foursquare has some unused space they want to lease?). Good presentation by them.

So with all these options, how did we land at WeWork’s The Lounge?

WeWork offers the shortest term and lowest cost options, but has all the upsides that we want. Many of the places we saw had 6-month leases, some 3. WeWork was 1. Many of those places are stuffy, quiet, and didn’t have the energy we wanted. A 4-person office might cost $4K/month, plus you need to pay for the right to drink coffee and tea in the kitchen and every other little tack on. WeWork just included that in their base prices, which are published and easily accessible, along with a kegerator (there’s your opposite of stuffy). Why the Lounge and not their other office spaces? When we spoke with their gang over the course of April, their 2-3 person offices had limited availability. The Lounge gave us low cost entry into the community. It’s a spot to get together that’s in the heart of SoHo, near a lot of startups and our homes. We don’t view this as our long term solution, but we’re now on the wait list for appropriately sized offices at all of WeWork’s locations (including their upcoming Bryant Park one, which I’m excited for). I do, however, love the idea of maintaining a seat at a co-working space.

We’re excited to be a part of the WeWork family. We’re also getting together with WeWork to create a community event too. So, at least until June 1st, now you know where to find us.

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I like Handybook’s customer service

Leave a Comment Posted by on April 24, 2013

I had a terrible landlord. Just horrible. I may go into specifics at a later date, but for now I’ll just say I don’t enjoy them. Because of that, Meg and I lugged all our belongings into a new building over the weekend and had movers come on Monday for the big stuff. My old building is very… unique. I lived on the 4th floor of a circular-staircase walkup. You can’t even make that up.

When we  moved in two years ago, the 3-person couch had some issues making it up. One Couch Doctor-knockoff phone call later, my beloved furniture was sawed into two pieces which made their way up the stairs and were reassembled to restore my couch to its former glory. To prepare for this move, I scoured the internet for couch doctors, couch MD’s, couch whatever’s. The quotes were $250-300 and up and I needed a cheaper/better solution.

In comes Handybook. Handybook bills itself as “Uber but for household services.” They’ve been handing out promotions at my subway, on my dry cleaning, and anywhere I looked. It was a big guerrilla effort and great timing for me. While it was tough to find an exact match for my service, couch assembly and disassembly was available. I selected the large-couch option, which gave me 2 hours of work  for $98. I scheduled it to coincide with my movers so they could get the pieces over.

Move day comes. 11:00am, I text my guy and let him know if he wants to get here early that lunch is on me (so we can get it out of the way). Noon, no response yet. 12:45 I call, no response. 1:20 I call Handybook, letting them know my guy is a complete no-show just when I needed him most. By 1:30, Handybook calls back and says they were unable to get a hold of him, but I was going to get a full refund. Plus, they were sending over their best guy in New York, Johnny, to take care of everything. Johnny’s their fixer. He came over, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work. Within 2 hours, the job was finished and everyone walked away satisfied. Especially me.

I had a very tight time frame and I’m happy to say Handybook had a very speedy and customer friendly response. My job got done and my credit card was left uncharged. Now I’ll gladly use them again. Bully on you Handybook, for really putting the customer first.

Oh – and check out Johnny’s project Bridge City Hustle. These guys rock.

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Clear eyes, full hearts

Leave a Comment Posted by on April 15, 2013

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Boston today. Sitting in the office, I saw the same videos and pictures of explosions and the wounded as everyone else. It is tragic, truly depressing, and simultaneously infuriating. Someone somewhere decided they needed to take this course of action. I don’t know what the death toll will be, or how many people lost arms or legs, and I can’t calculate the amount of people this has impacted. But it’s because a selfish decision was made. And that makes me angry.

Personally, besides immediate reactions of grief for everyone involved, I started wondering about friends I saw on Facebook. I remembered pictures of people in Boston, getting ready for the run. On Instagram, I saw one of those friends post a picture from the finish line very close in time and proximity to the blast. I finally saw a message on her wall that she was safe. I texted my brother, telling him our family friends were safe. Then he told me he just caught the 1:45 from Boston back to New York. I had to think too much about taking the subway from Grand Central to Times Square, through Penn Station and back to my stop. I hate feeling this way. I’m at a loss.

Every time something like this happens, I feel like whatever innocence I might have is lost anew. I’m afraid some day I’ll stop being surprised.

To those who ran towards the blast and the victims instead of away, thank you. To the first responders, police, hospital workers, everyone else trying to do good in the face of this: thank you too.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/15/how-to-locate-friends-and-donate-blood-in-boston/

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Live Blog from Ultra Light Startups

4 Comments Posted by on March 14, 2013

So it’s Thursday night, weather’s starting to get warm (even though today was… a tad chilly). What better way to start this up than by doing a live-style blog of the March Ultra Light Startups Investor Forum. It’s 6:50PM and we’re off and running already, sitting at Microsoft’s offices at 1290 6th (shoutout to MS BizSpark). Off we go!

6:50: And let’s introduce the judges. First up, David Aronoff from Flybridge Capital. He’s brought startups to Ultra Light multiple times and, as Graham Lawlor our host points out, the startups he’s brought to compete are undefeated. That’s called the whammy. Next, Gil Beyda at Genacast Ventures from Philly. Ed Sim at BOLDstart Ventures, a new seed fund, is doing enterprise in New York. Four exits within 2.5 years? Sounds good. Mark Wachen, of DreamIt Ventures and Upstage Ventures, just put money into high-tech vending machines in taxis. Why not? DreamIt’s May cycle deadline application is in May. Apply now.

6:58 Format discussion: 2 minutes startup pitch, 3 minutes Q&A from the panel, 3 minutes actionable advice from the panel. At the end, SurveyMonkey voting for your favorite panelist and startup. Startups, pizza, beers. That’s the day. Startup winner gets to pitch to NY Angels, DreamIt, ERA, $1,000 in AWS credits, and bootstrapping coaching. Panel award winner gets ego-boosting.

7:03 First up, Caleb at DegreeCast. You can search for education paths in different locations. All keyword searchable. They make money by sponsored results. Each sponsored click earns $16 from the company. So – panel asks: distribution? How? Similar strategies to Indeed where Caleb came from. Where’s the data from, how do you defend it? Content can be outdated and difficult to scrape. Aggregation infrastructure is their big advantage. Horizontal search engines, how do they compare? Evidently not well. It was compared to Noodle.

7:08 And the first advice comes. Figure out how to work the SEO so people get there organically. Check out the UI, why do your links take people off your site? Focus on lead generation. Healthcare is one of their big winner? Why not focus and build out specific industries? My take is there just wasn’t a big enough differentiation from any other search engine.

7:11 Hey Joe Regal from Zola Books, c’mon down! It’s a social network for eBooks. You can download anything from publishing houses and play them on any device. They make revenues from retailing. They’re also working on exclusive content (supposedly they have more then Amazon). They want 2mm on top of money they’ve already have, to get exclusive content. They’ve got trademarks and patent protection. Sounds like Amazon, GoodReads, and a few other things combined.

7:13 The reactions begin. You’re competing against goliaths, how do you even get on their radar when Amazon’s already winning? Retail 3.0 he says. Social seems to be pretty important. What about GoodReads? They partner with independent booksellers to bring people there too. A Spotify for books, borrowing them? He says good luck, traditional publishing companies won’t let their books sign up. I say, well, uh, what about non-traditional publishers? HAVE YOU HEARD OF HUGH HOWEY!?! C’MON! And the actionable advice: differentiate! What do customers cost? How would you do distribution? From an investor point of view, Gil’s terrified of Amazon. David’s confused on the messaging. Find one thing that REALLY separates them from competition. Focus.

7:21 Felix at Poutsch. Poutch is a German word, but the German woman next to me disavows all knowledge of it. It’s an opinion and question platform. Quora comes to mind immediately. You can ask a question then customize it and post it anywhere. You hold your own questions and opinions. See demographics on who answers what. They make money on promoted questions and premium accounts.

7:24. Right to the heart of it! What’s the problem you’re solving? Evidently people are reluctant survey takers, but they will answer a single question. At this stage, not only am I remembering Quora but also Facebook Questions. It’s pronounced “Pooch.” This is a confusing thing. It’s driving panelists crazy. Advice starts: change your name. Americans have limited vocabulary. Figure out the difference between a question and opinion. And Mark says don’t let it turn into a porno portal, or even worse, Chat Roulette.

7:28 Rohit is up to talk about Sverve. “Hello I’m Rohit I’m the CEO and co-founder of Sverve. My other co-founder is on the computer, where he should be.” Two points for you Glen CoCo (you go Glen CoCo). Sverve connects businesses with the right influencers to spread the word on the web. SaaS-based company. Sounds like Tidal off the bat. You start campaigns as a company, they have bloggers that apply to write about it. It’s specifically targeted at small biz.

7:31 Questions! What’s an influencer, how do you know? How do you get the bloggers and then customers? Influencers want to get more followers and money. Influencers are a community. Their actual influencer “ranking” if you will is based on followers, friends, and website rankings. How the hell is it priced? 50 bucks a month, huh? Brands end up paying bloggers seperately after that. Advice. Think about the name again. Prevent brands from going direct to bloggers. Think about how many people you need to get at 50/pop to be a big business.

7:38 Last pitch before the break, Domi Enders at Open Assembly. It’s digital learning source that everyone can afford. It lets you gather content as easily as an iTunes playlist. College students spent 20-40% of their college costs on textbooks? I think she means Taco Tuesdays. Many competitors but they have some real differentiating features that she doesn’t have time to get into. So how do students actually use it, asks the panel? It’s HTML based, can be used on any device. Are you guys a textbook company? What’s your one thing? A destination for teachers. A vertical strategy? Community colleges first, then a community of curators to get traction, and with librarians. I don’t know why librarians really matter nowadays, but yes, librarians.

7:43 Advice time. There’s supposed to be an interactive element? Emphasize it. Focus on one or two things. You’re making money on interactive textbooks? Get books, leverage other platforms, go. Some defensibility. She’s targeting community college, great start. Very intense competition though.

7:50 Sponsors! Sponsors are sponsors. But a sponsor totally unprepared for a pitch, that’s entertainment. Someone at Summit Service came up with nothing to say. Someone in the crowd yelled out “what do you do”  a few minutes in. It was never heard and railroaded over. Pure comedy.

8:00 and we’re back. Dwelleo is up with Noah Smith. “Connect with your neighbors online” they say. No one’s nailed how to connect neighbors with each other. It’s a totally open group platform. You can set up a public group for your building but private group for owners. This one ran fast. Next Door does private communities, Dwelleo does both. But could Next Door change? Why not? It’s a social network, how do you build critical mass? Private beta is only in a dozen buildings. What are the value added services? It’s just a discussion board. It’s not hyper-local news, or anything like that. Revenue model is local biz can advertise on it. Yellowpages for ad words. So the end-goal is the recently launched MyTime, without the immediate appointment making. It’s an extremely fragmented market, how the hell do you unite it? Sounds tricky. Panel is generally down on him. Sorry dude.

8:09 Bernard from KISIBOX. They just won 35k last night from Fred Wilson. So, tons of things are locked. How do you share access to them? “I lost my keys” Bernard says, and then someone from the audience finds them and throws it. Audience engagement! KISIBOX shares the housekey in the smartphone. Manage all your keys and access online, like keycards in your phone. It could work with AirBNB, delivery services, etc. Sounds pretty cool to me. Question: what’s the hardware solution? What’s the hardware cost? How do you install it? Are alarm companies doing it already? Sounds like actual security concerns exist to me but he never covers it. Why did he sideswipe the single family homes question earlier? He said it’s already being done and it’s easy. It’s tough to figure out things like apartment buildings. What about “practical hurdles” like wifi coverage, no battery? How do you scale maintenance and service? Hardware meets software, especially on the phone. Cool. Ran a little long, but I like. It’s getting a vote.

8:17. Dan O’Sullivan from Rock the Deadline says “Hello Sharks” when he walks in. Wrong TV show. RTD is a universal marketing solution. How do you create quality content at scale? SaaS product that… I’m still not sure what it does yet. It has studios that do “idea management and creation at a team level.”

8:20 Question 1: I heard buzzwords. What problem are you solving? Agreed. The marketing tech stack presumes content exists. RTD helps you start with a blank piece of paper. Subscribers go into an industry vertical and lets users see what everyone else is doing. What should they be writing about? Idea generation. So it sounds like you give people an ability to look at industry specific stuff?  I’ve been listening for 5 minutes and I still don’t know what’s going on. They look at gigantic RSS feeds and bubble up most relevant industry stuff to their clients. Gil said Dan needs a 30 second pitch to actually explain it. I’m not the only dumb one. Ed seconds the notion. I feel better.

8:26 David at MyHomePayge is up last. His website crashed 4 seconds into his demo. No good. Property managers are moving to online communication. These guys have relationships with them. They have some comprehensive free solution that everyone loves. Hyper-local advertising, financial tech, and lead gen. Now here’s one where I hate the name. He’s got some good energy though. It’s kinda similiar to Dwelleo as a communication model, but not amongst the neighbors but from property managers to their people. David has a portal his property manager uses and he loves them because they don’t spam and lead gen.

8:32 David just looked into this space! He’s informed! New York’s market is very different and how do you integrate with systems outside here? How do you drive utilization with renters when… they’re not going to want to go there and hang out? Figure out a way to defend it, if he’s successful people will rush in.

8:35 and It’s voting time. I voted for KISIBOX, Gil, and David. There were two other startups, but the only one I really liked was KISIBOX. I hope this isn’t Fred follower syndrome. There were some great people out there but I didn’t love their ideas. And now an introduction to BuzzTheBar. Richard Liang is helping you enter credit card info into your phone and order/pay for your drinks on it all night. Oh great, another way for me to spend money at bars. It was 30 seconds and I’m ready to vote this top 2 for startups tonight. Sponsors, bar locations, award recaps, annnnnnnnnd…

8:38 The Winners are. KISIBOX takes it home convincingly, Poutsch takes second, and and Joe at Zola Books wins 3rd. The Panel winner is David at FlyBridge. I guess he didn’t submit a startup but he at least takes the panel. That’s it. Goodnight.

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A cool toy I’d play with

Leave a Comment Posted by on January 30, 2013

I know toys aren’t businesses, but I have a toy I’d like some engineer to build. It started with a conversation with my buddy Adam. I told him that Meg (oh- by the way, we just got engaged last weekend, pretty awesome news) wanted a service where you could rent a dog for the day. It would be difficult to implement, especially with opposition from groups like PETA and the ASPCA. But I would still totally rent a dog for a day! Adam agreed. It turns out his girlfriend loves puppies too. She doesn’t want to build a dog-rental company though. She just wants to look at pictures of them all day long. Adam thought it’d be a cool idea to build an app that sources cute puppy pictures. Who doesn’t love puppies? People with no souls, that’s who. Also: people who love cats. These groups are not mutually exclusive. See diagram for further explanation.

A=”has no soul” B=”likes cats”

While I love puppies too, I thought it’d be cool to create something a little different from Adam’s idea. It reminded me of a service I love called This is New York now (also exists for other cities). Basically, it takes geo-tagged data from Instagram and creates a photographic news feed that allows you to click through on any photo tagged in NYC. It’s not the greatest interface but it’s an awesome idea. I can see what’s happening across my city at any time.

It needs to be something more dynamic than just dogs or cities, and I’m not sure it needs to be just visual. There should be canned news feeds you have the ability to switch between. It doesn’t need to rely on only geo-tagged data. It can also be hash-tag based, or whatever other filter you can think of. You feed could be about New York or puppies, or why not both. You should be able to turn on or off the different data pipes that feed into it. Don’t want text updates? Take off Twitter’s non-photo/Vine tweets. Or turn off Twitter altogether. You should be able to dynamically create any kind of news feed you want. Visually, it should look like Screenfeeder but with more than one post available in your feed.

I would totally play with that all day long. And besides, #PUPPIES!!!

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My twitter handle is dead; long live my twitter handle

Leave a Comment Posted by on January 9, 2013

After some serious deliberation, I’ve changed my Twitter handle. It’s been @wwtflansd since I originally joined, a derivative of the slightly more famous WWJD. I thought it was insanely clever, no one got it, and it was also a little too much. Not that the small level of arrogance doesn’t fit me, it just doesn’t work in a professional environment (however professional the startup environment gets at least). But, in the spirit of good taste, @wwtflansd has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can now follow me at my much more adult and mature handle @f1annery. That’s not Formula-1-annery, but Flannery with a 1 instead of an L. Glad we got that out of the way.

The king is dead; long live the king. I love that phrase.

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