Andrew Hyde - Startups. Start Here.

Devver Announces Funding

Andrew Hyde — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:26:09 +0000

Techstars 08 team Devver has recently announced their funding from OATV. I’ve been a fan of Bryce Roberts for a while, great to see the deal finally public. OATV has an impressive list of investments, check it out (Tripit, Devver, Chumby, bit.ly, Grouply, Get Satisfaction among others) and are just plain solid guys.

I’m excited for everyone involved.

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SalaamGarage Trip To Vietnam

Andrew Hyde — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:29:08 +0000

So the big question to you, should I do this trip?

January 2010 Central Vietnam: January 11-23, 2010
This is the first time a group of American media makers and photographers have been cleared to enter the Quang Tri Province by the Vietnamese government since the war.

More at SalaamGarage.

If I did it, would you kick in a donation to fundraise for the experience? I will be bringing bringing back 2000-6000 frames plus some HD footage to help tell the story of the people and land.

Send me an email (andrew {at} endoze.com) or leave a comment. The trip is $5000 so some type of fundraising is in store. Any other ideas?

I’d bring back some kick ass media.

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Gothic to Crested Butte Run, Walk or Crawl 1/3 Marathon Race Report

Andrew Hyde — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:06:32 +0000

I spent the weekend in Crested Butte Colorado. I’ve lived in Boulder for five years now, and had never been.

Wow, what a place. Small town charm, big town activities. I will be back.

On the drive up Rich told me that our friend Amy would be running this 1/3 marathon starting at 11,000 feet or something.

Rich is also the guy I started training with during the first 120 day project. We got to camp and it took Amy about three words to convince me to do it with her. $35 and a 6am wake up and I was in.

The start was under Mt. Gothic, and impressive and massive peak. I really wish I had some sort of lightweight (ring sized) that takes smaller photos.

Anyway, early morning, and it was a cold one, start. I didn’t stretch much deciding that a nice easy two miles would be the perfect warmup. The start happened, with 500 or so on a dirt road. Crowded. They started the race and I just got really tired of going slow in a pack. I ditched Amy finding the perfect seam through the crowd to pass around 300 people in the first two miles.

When you do something like that, you feel like a million bucks.

Really, the best I have ever felt running.

Then the hills came and all those folks ‘pacing’ started to kick my ass. Miles 3-6 were slow, painful and only good because of the beautiful area around. Mile 6 is when Amy caught up to me, and that was enough for me to get out of my funk. If it was two miles of pain to finish with Amy, then that is what I was going to do. Her paced felt like 8 min miles (most likely slower, but that is damn fast at 10,000 feet.

I kept up with Amy until the last turn, in which I started to feel my stomach really turn. I had the acid taste in my mouth and slowed down quite a bit to avoid puking in front of the finish line crowd.

Really a strong race. 8.55 miles, 1:18:35 time (9:15 pace).

Bracken, Darcy and Rich took care of me after the race. I wasn’t thinking much in that post race zone of needing food and not being able to really walk in a straight line. We went to the gas station cafe for greasy sandwiches and coffee at Camp 4.

A great race, I will be back.

Next up is the Triple Bypass then the half iron.

I need some help with vehicle support for the Triple Bypass next weekend, anyone want to spend the day in the mountains?

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The TechStars Story

Andrew Hyde — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:49:12 +0000

This summer we are trying something different, a 5 minute video series released every Tuesday.

Here are the first four episodes:

The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 1 “The Selected Few”

The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 2 “Orientation”

The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 3 “A Community Party”

The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 4 “Skills & Persistence”

You can follow the series iTunes link or RSS feed or on the page on TechStars dedicated to the series.

We hope you enjoy!

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Ignite Boulder 5 Speakers Announced

Andrew Hyde — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:11:14 +0000

Ignite Boulder 5 is coming up July 2nd! Tickets are still available ($5) here but going fast.

Here are the speakers!

Joel Gratz- You don’t need a life coach! All the answers were in the 4th grade…

Larkin Carey- Surviving Free Fall from 30,000 ft without a Parachute: A DIY for the unfortunate airline passenger

Gregg Tobo- How a magician (and his magic trick) helped to advance the Industrial Revolution

Rick Bakas- Bacon and Timetravel

Erika Napoletano- How Victoria’s Secret is Single-Handedly Causing the Current Recession

Michael Tseng- Interaction Design (is not your father)

James Baber- US Culture – Through the lens of Top Grossing Movies & the DSM IV

Dr. Richard Han- Universities and communities that spark successful New Tech businesses

Corey Donohoe- Everything I know about being an awesome open source hacker was learned from indie rap artists

Bruce Wyman- Marine Mammal Biology

Elaine Ellis and Tara Anderson- Colorado: The Napa Valley of Beer

Garret Smith and John English- World War Corn

Terry Cabeen- Find Your Community. Or Build It.

Naomi Meredith- 15 things you didn’t know about the Founding Fathers

Plus, we will be giving away Adobe Creative Suite 4 AND an iPhone 16 GB GS!

Do you have your ticket yet? Invite all your friends!

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A Geek Meetup In Boulder?

Andrew Hyde — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:10:10 +0000

Tell me more.

Daniel Terdiman of CNET is hosting a meetup tomorrow the 23rd at 6pm at the Bside Lounge. He is on this big fat geek roadtrip, and wants to meet the locals in Boulder.

If you don’t know him, you should, one of the best writers out there.

So if you are into startups, CNET, like the chance of winning cool things, or just a 100% fanboy of Terdiman, show up and have a pint. Should be a great crew. And as a kicker some of the TechStars teams will be there after the mid TechStars demos.

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2009 5430 Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Andrew Hyde — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:46:07 +0000

I did my first triathlon today! The 5430 (elevation of Boulder) Sprint Triathlon at the Boulder Reservoir.

First off: that was fun. I’ve been training since January 1 so I felt strong and happy the entire way. Well, at least until the last half a mile when I said to myself ’sprint you bigass runner.’ I passed ten people in the last hundred yards and 100% without any second thoughts did the ‘I just won the race arm pump’ at the finish line.

Yep, one of those days.

A sprint triathlon is roughly a half mile swim, 18 mile bike ride and a 5k run. The swim is what everyone generally fears. This was my first one, didn’t really know what to expect.

If someone knows how I started to think this was a good idea, please let me know. Funny how randomly addicted I have become.

My splits were:

Swim: 17:47
Trans 1: 2:25
Bike: 52.23
Trans 2: 1:15
Run: 26:47
Total: 1:40:35
Rank: 18/58 in the Clydesdale division

The swim was slower, as it was my first open water swim and I zig zaged and ran into people a bit more than I would like to admit. I took all the corners really well. Wasn’t too tired after. Felt really good about it.

The bike was fun until about the halfway mark, when I heard a little ‘tink’ and then felt my left cleat on the bike go really loose. At the end of the race I found that two of the three screws holding it onto my shoe were missing. I was scared of this happening, and didn’t do any pulling on the upstroke. I was passed by a fair about of bikes worth more than my car, and was alright with that.

The run was steady. I passed Rich (who had passed me on the bike). He was taking it really slow after injuring himself in the 120 day challenge. I started kicking at half a mile and has a super fast finish. Kick ass for finishing the run Rich, pushing through injury is tough!

The user experience of the non race frankly sucked. My race time was 1:40, and my time waiting for things like getting marked, getting a drink and banana after the race and waiting for the restroom took 1:45.

Yeah, I spent more time waiting for logistics than it took me to race 22 miles. This drives me nuts. If you have 1600 athletes coming through a line, perhaps you should have more than one table and three staffers. Just sayin.

I also saw quite a few tech folks out there.

So now is gut check time. Half Ironman distance or not. I guess I will have to see how I feel tomorrow as I get in touch with some coaches.

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News From Devver and Occipital

Andrew Hyde — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:28:42 +0000

Devver and Occipital (both TechStars 2008 teams) had two big announcements today.

First Devver (which I did a super awesome ‘weekend logo’ for) announced a $500,000 Series A led by O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. I met the folks at O’Reilly at OSCON last year (hello Bryce). Two fantastic groups, excited to see them working together. Devver is tools for ruby hackers, allowing you to send you code up in the cloud to back up and run faster.

Occipital had their big improvement to their popular RedLaser application accepted into the app store. It does real time scanning via your iphone. Pretty slick, here is a video:

We had a drink on their rooftop deck downtown and watched this sunset go down.

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Twitter Search This

Andrew Hyde — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:39:29 +0000

I landed at DEN yesterday and did a search for “DEN” and “DIA” on twitter to see if any of my friends were hanging out waiting for a flight.

With those terms being used at a rate of 10x a minute in German and ~~Spanish~~ Portuguese, the results were pretty useless.

Language control or the ability to search my friends please!

Last year, this search worked quite well. Twitter is spreading around the world, hitting the mainstream in more than just our extended circles.

And this makes search a) harder b) less relevant and c) the start of mobs.

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Lunch On Me / betahouse Boston

Andrew Hyde — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:22:26 +0000

Hello everyone! I’m spending a few days in Boston. I’m here to say hello to the TechStars Boston office and see some old friends. Really a great group, am having a blast. I’m excited to see some familiar faces here: Shawn Broderick, Brad Feld, Ken Zolot, Howard Diamond and Bill Warner.

Oh yes, the northeast. This is where I went to college. Land of the Dunkin Donuts and slight depression. I know, and love it.

I had an amazing tour of MIT by Ken Zolot today. I would love to spend some time real time here. Here is the Stata Center, the most amazing building I have ever been in:

Spent the rest of the day at Cooley, Godward and Kronish as they met with the teams to discuss software patents, trademarks and the common mistakes of early stage entrepreneurs.

June 17th at noon there is a group meeting at betahouse and going out to lunch. betahouse is a kick ass coworking spot (the 14 I have visited) and is run by some outstanding guys. I have heard quite a bit, and am excited to see it in person.

If you are in the area, please join and talk TechStars, tech and perhaps a bit about Boulder or triathlons. So far it is @jonpierce, @zapnap, @hybernaut and a few other coworkers.

If it isn’t too large of a group, lunch is on me. Thanks for reading this blogity. I’m here until Thursday, and would love to catch the Red Sox game tomorrow night (anyone else want to go?).

Cheers.