Seattle 2.0

Must-Read Blog Posts of the Week

Seattle 2.0 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:43:00 GMT

List of interesting blog posts from the Seattle Startup community on the last week:

TechFlash

LOLcats, Michael Arrington and the iPhone in a crazy summer day

Thursday is shaping up to be a big -- a very big -- night for Seattle tech events. So big in fact, that we're still not sure how were going to cover all of...

TheDarkKnight/Matt Hulett (WidgetBucks)

$300 Million Marc Andreessen Fund Is Old School Cool

I talked to journalist extraordinaire Renay San Miguel this morning concerning the new Marc Andreessen fund. They just announced that they closed a $300...

Hillel/Jackson Fish Market

Small and Special Recap

Last Tuesday, our little tech startup put on our own small business conference - Small and Special. You may wonder, why is a web startup still in its early...

Gregory T. Huang/Xconomy Seattle by Gregory Huang

Evri Gets New CEO, Will Hunsinger

Seattle-based Evri, an Internet startup backed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, announced a new chief executive today, Will Hunsinger, the former CEO of San...

Technology Alliance/Alliance of Angels

Jon Jacobson: 2008-2009 AoA William H. Gates, Sr. Fellow in Innovation and En...

My position as the William H. Gates, Sr. Fellow in Innovation and Entrepreneurship is structured as a 1-year endowed fellowship through a partnership between...

Techwag

Is the VC Model Broken

Image via Wikipedia In a world of 12,000 dollar startups, is the VC Model that we currently have broken or it just time for a change in when companies...

Brad Hefta-Gaub/Brad Hefta-Gaub

Who’s Got Your Back?

Hey, small business person! Yeah, you… the Startup CEO with less than 100 employees. You and I both know you’re paying the worst possible health insurance...

William Carleton/William Carleton, Counsellor @ Law

Because contracts matter, Web 2.0 entrepreneurs will want to publish "terms of use" or "terms of service" (I'll call them "TOS"...

kevin lisota/findwell blog

findwell statistics for June 2009

It is time to update our blog readers with our market statistics for the month of June 2009. We had a record month at findwell for buyer and seller activity...

Courtney/Kashless blog

Best Of Kashless - Weird and/or Wonderful Posts This Week

FREE Mannequin HeadsWell used and handed down heads. Must have base access, I will not meet for these, pick up at my door. Thanks, Tasha Fish sticksDo you...

Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle

Seattle 2.0 Events — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:43:00 GMT

Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle:

7/16/2009 - Seattle
Hops & Chops Happy Hour
7/20/2009 - Bellevue
COMPSAC 2009 - 33rd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications
7/23/2009 - Seattle
TechFlash Summer BBQ & Ping-Pong Tournament
7/30/2009 - Seattle
WTIA Annual Summer Celebration Featuring Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands
8/13/2009 - Bellevue
Show Me Your Money: Setting & Raising Your Fees With Value as a Guide
8/20/2009 - Seattle
Gnomedex 9.0
9/22/2009 - Seattle
nPost Networking & Startup Demo Event
10/13/2009 - TBD
IT Roadmap 2009 Conference & Expo Seattle

More Startup Events in Seattle...

Announcing Seattle 2.0 TV: A channel for startups & entrepreneurs

Marcelo Calbucci — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:22:00 GMT

I remember as if it was yesterday, when me, Danielle Morrill and Brian M. Westbrook were sitting at Top Pot in Belltown about 3 months ago discussing a new “channel” to cover topics about tech startups, entrepreneurship, local events and more. One of us suggested “Seattle 2.0 TV”. Today, we are happy to announce that idea is becoming a reality with our new Channel: Seattle 2.0 TV.

The channel kick-start will be with nothing less than an amazing event: The Naked Truth at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle’s waterfront. Tune in at 5:30PM today to see Glenn Kelman (Redfin), Michael Arrington (TechCrunch), Fred Wilson (A VC), Damon Darlin (NYT), Jonathan Sposato (Picnic), Brad Jefferson (Animoto) and Ethan Lowry (UrbanSpoon).

The hosts of the broadcast will be our own amazing team: Danielle Morrill, Brian M. Westbrook and Shauna Causey.

Seattle 2.0 TV will have three types of content: Live events broadcast, in-house produced content and video aggregation.

On the video aggregation front, we are building a platform to gather in a single place videos from multiple providers that relate to Seattle Startups or tech entrepreneurship in general. Our goal is to make it easy for you to find an inspiring video, a great entrepreneur interview, or tips on how to improve conversion on your homepage, all in a single place.

Our produced content is in-progress and this week we started recording a new series called “Startup Builders” with Shauna Causey. I can’t say much about it now, but the title is revealing enough you’ll know what it is. We’ll be adding more productions by Danielle and Brian over the coming months. Maybe even more people that would like to be part of this.

Once again, we are doing what we do best by creating *and* aggregating great content from the tech startup scene.

To keep yourself up-to-date on Seattle 2.0 TV, follow us on Twitter @seattle20 and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Submit Your High-Tech Startup To Our Startup List

Marcelo Calbucci — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:16:00 GMT

For quite some time the Seattle 2.0 has been keeping a list of high-tech startups in Seattle, and every month we publish the Seattle Startup Index, the list of startups ranked by their website traffic. The Startup Index is publishing on the second week of each month, which should be this week.

If you have a high-tech startup that is not on our list yet, please submit it. We have only 4 basic criteria: 1) It must be head-quartered in Western Washington; 2) It must be a Software, Hardware, Mobile or Web Service product; 3) It's 5 years-old or less; 4) Has a working Beta or launched product (or VC-funded).

Submitting is easy. Just go to this page and fill the form.

If you know someone that has a Startup, please forward this information to him or her.

Recent Startup Job Posts in Seattle

Seattle 2.0 Job Board — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:43:00 GMT

Most Recent Startup Job Posts on the Seattle 2.0 Job Board:

WhatCounts, Inc.: Account Executive
Seattle
POP Multimedia, Inc.: VP of Engineering
Seattle
Limeade: Life–Altering Gig as Full–TIme UI/UX Developer
Bellevue/Redmond
Northwest Computer Support: Linux Administrator
Bellevue/Redmond
Northwest Computer Support: Postgresql Database Developer
Seattle
TrackSimple Inc.: Data Visualization & User Experience Engineer
Seattle
Marketfish: Sr. Java Developer
Seattle
TrackSimple Inc.: Senior Software Engineer, Distributed Systems
Seattle
Twenty20, Inc.: Senior Developer Desktop Software
Seattle
Zooppa: New Business Account Manager
Seattle

More Startup Jobs in Seattle...

Add Your Job Post through nPost.

#FollowFriday: Seattle 2.0 recommends @scottporad, @brady & @BMW.

Seattle 2.0 Follow Friday — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Follow Friday (known as #FollowFriday) is a Twitter meme where a Twitter user recommends other Twitter users for his friends to follow. The Seattle 2.0 automatically generates suggestions from our Twitter Directory every Friday based on the number of entrepreneurs and startup people following that person.

Today we recommend:

	Scott Porad (@scottporad) scottporad.com CTO for Cheezburger Network -- I Can Has Cheezburger?, Failblog.org and more...
	brady forrest (@brady) radar.oreilly.com/brady I chair the Web 2.0 Expos, ETech, Where 2.0 and co-started Ignite.
	Brian M. Westbrook (@BMW) tech.brianwestbrook.com Sleepng Bear+Pointy Stick=@BMW: http://bit.ly/UelN thinner twittering Al Roker: http://bit.ly/1Uwf tv/radio broadcast tech reporter, guru, phtgrphr SEA&PDX

Find more Entrepreneurs, CEOs and Investors of Technology Startups on our Twitter Directory.

Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle

Seattle 2.0 Events — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:43:00 GMT

Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle:

7/7/2009 - Seattle
10-Minute Pitch Clinic for Entrepreneurs
7/9/2009 - Seattle
The Naked Truth: Show Me The Money
7/9/2009 - Bellevue
Making money in the mobile ecosystem
7/9/2009 - Seattle
Hops & Chops Happy Hour
7/20/2009 - Bellevue
COMPSAC 2009 - 33rd Annual IEEE International Computer Software and Applications
7/23/2009 - Seattle
TechFlash Summer BBQ & Ping-Pong Tournament
7/30/2009 - Seattle
WTIA Annual Summer Celebration Featuring Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands
8/13/2009 - Bellevue
Show Me Your Money: Setting & Raising Your Fees With Value as a Guide
8/20/2009 - Seattle
Gnomedex 9.0
9/22/2009 - Seattle
nPost Networking & Startup Demo Event

More Startup Events in Seattle...

Must-Read Blog Posts of the Week

Seattle 2.0 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:43:00 GMT

List of interesting blog posts from the Seattle Startup community on the last week:

TechFlash

AdmitOne; Zillow's iPhone app; networked VCs; and more

Former Microsoft executive Scott Oki and former AskMe Chief Technology Officer Digvijay Chauhan have created a new non profit called SeeYourImpact...

Brad Hefta-Gaub/Brad Hefta-Gaub

If the VC Model Is Broken, Then What? How About: Be Special!

I can’t help but shake my head a little when I read that 52.9% of VCs think that their own approach is broken. Why are VC’s so concerned, you ask? Well, we...

Nathan Kaiser/nPost Blog

Wither The VC Model

This question has been going around and around for quite some time… Essentially, will the VC model wither and die? This pertains to early stage tech...

Gregory T. Huang/Xconomy Seattle by Gregory Huang

Stealthy Ground Truth Gets $2.6M

Seattle-based Ground Truth, a stealthy startup led by Sterling Wilson and Michael Libes, has raised $2.6 million in equity funding, according to a regulatory...

Courtney/Kashless blog

Best Of Kashless - Weird and/or Wonderful Posts This Week

Looking for someone rich and generouseJust wondering if there is someone out there that has to much money. I could use a helping hand. Looking for free money...

Jeff Pecor/Yapta

Electronic Boarding Passes Being Tested by 5 U.S. Airlines

The Chicago Tribune reports that 17 airlines - including 5 U.S.-based carriers - are testing an electronic boarding pass system where all you need is a cell...

mishkin/Limeade Blog

Self-Tracking and Living By Numbers

The headline for this month's Wired Magazine is "Living By Numbers," and brings together some great articles about efforts by individuals and...

Rebekah Bastian/Zillow

Zillow iPhone App Passes ½ Million Downloads

Over the weekend we hit another exciting milestone with our Zillow iPhone app: over 1/2 million downloads — 513,213 as of this morning. And it’s not just...

GoTime.com

GoTime Giveaway: And THIS Week’s Winner Is…

First of all we have to give a HUGE thanks to our twitter followers and friends, you guys rock and have made this giveaway so much fun to do. Believe us...

Anil Batra/Web Analysis, Online Advertising and Behavioral

Social Media Analytics Part I

What is Social Media?There are so many ways people define social media and some even argue that it is not really media. According to Wikipedia, Social media...

New Features: Recurring Events & Community Added Events

Danielle Morrill — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:47:00 GMT

Last night I got an email from Marcelo, telling me he had two presents for me. There has been a lot of discussion at Seattle 2.0 about around how we can make the events calendar more maintainable, and the introduction of the Seattle Tech Calendar by Roy Leban was a healthy catalyst for re-thinking how important this is to our readers.

New Features

1. You can now add events to the Seattle 2.0 events calendar

2. Recurring events can now be specified (they used to be manually added for each week, for those of you wondering why Hops and Chops kept disappearing from the calendar)

Why Don't We List Every Tech Event in Seattle?

A lot of thought goes into what content we put on Seattle 2.0, and what we selectively leave out. Our goal is not to be the Seattle tech source (try TechFlash) or social media source (try Social Media Club Seattle). It's to be the tech startup and entrepreneurship destination, which is why we come up as the first result when you search Google for "seattle startup" (just checked and we're 6th on Bing, hrmm).

Guidelines for Events We Will List

We only list events that:

Are targeted at Technology Startups in Washington;
The venue is located on Seattle or the Eastside;
Are a valuable use of an entrepreneur's time;
Are available to anyone, either for free or for a price.

We don't list:

Pure technology events ("Learning CSS", "Ruby on Rails Meetup", "Developing on Google Apps", etc.)
Social Media events like Tweetups, bloggers gathering, etc. (unless they are startup relevant)
Events that are more than 20 miles from Seattle. Boundaries are Tacoma (South), Bremerton (West), Redmond (East), and Everett (North).
Events not valuable to technology startups or technology entrepreneurs;
Invitation-only events (unless it's "to entrepreneurs only")

We understand some of these criteria are subjective, so feel free to contact us asking if it's ok or not to add an event.

THANK YOU MARCELO - for adding these features!

THANK YOU EVERYONE ELSE - for sticking around and putting up with our less-than-optimal calendar!

The Only Conference Worth Attending: "Made for Me"

Marcelo Calbucci — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:49:00 GMT

I got out of the habit of writing about the events I attended, but I should go back at doing that so event organizers can learn from my honest (at times hurtful) feedback. So, yesterday I attended Small & Special, the conference put together by Jackson Fish Market (Hillel Cooperman, Jenny Lam, Walter Smith, Donald DeSantis et al). The one-word review is: extraordinary!

And when I saw “extraordinary” I mean “extra”-“ordinary” as in different, as in good different. I don’t want to bring back the success of the Seattle 2.0 Awards every time I write about an event, but there was a lot similarities why the Awards was successful and why Small & Special was as well. Hillel opening speech said it all: “We wanted a conference for ourselves”. When you do something thinking “I’d like this” or “I don’t like that” you are building it for you. If people are like you, they will enjoy it. If they are not, they won’t. Simple and obvious, I know. And the people on the audience were more like them, than not.

Small & Special was intense, as in just one-break of 15 minutes and non-stop talking for 4+ hours. Primarily, it was like watching an “E! True Hollywood Story” of entrepreneurs. One after the other telling how they got into business, how they funded it, why they love it, how they make a living, etc. I just love to hear entrepreneurs tell their stories. Success stories, failure stories, good stories, ~~bad stories~~.

And since we are talking about stories… As I got in, I went to register at the front-desk and a person I knew was there and they couldn’t find my name on the list for a few seconds. Then he asked, “Did you pay?”, and I said yes. He thought I’d be on the “special list” for press and “VIPs”. I would never go to a conference put up by a friend (or not) that’s bootstrapping and ask for a free ticket. For me it was only $25, but for them it could mean thousands of dollars if everyone they know and feel are their friends ask for a free pass. It comes out of their pocket, directly.

What worked well on Small & Special:

· The diversity of speakers was critical. I usually learn a lot from people that are on completely different line of business than I am. I guess others do to.

· Hillel did a tremendous job of MC’ing it. Kept it on pace, making jokes, asking questions, etc.

· Food was great.

· I could hear the presenters! Seriously, I’ve been to some many conferences that you can’t hear people on stage, either because the audio was bad or because of the chatter on the room.

· Sponsors were given 2 minutes and they did just two minutes of talking. Yep, I get it, we need the sponsors to pay for the event and they expect some level of exposure, but I also seen people overdoing and presenters just babbling for 5 or 10 minutes on something no one there cared about. Not at S&S.

· Venue was great, but far.

What didn’t work so well:

· I think the conference was underpriced. Ticket was $25. It should have been at least $50 or more (I’d be happy at $75). I actually think the $25 made it look a “cheap” and “low value” event. Yes, people associate price with value, go figure. I honestly believe if it was $50 it would have sold out faster. The biggest problem with under-pricing (or over-pricing) an event is attracting the wrong kind of people. They didn’t have a problem this year, since I think 80% of the attendees were on target, but might next year.

· The website didn’t have enough info. This one is from a person I was talking to, but it’s also something I felt to be true. There was no mention of this being the first instance of this conference. There was very little information why this conference exist or who the organizers were. It’s too easy to assume people are reading our blogs, seeing our tweets or reading our direct messages.

· The food was good, but they didn’t serve anything before the event started, so I was very thirsty and no coffee was served before 4pm (break time) and then on the break there were about 200 people rushing to 3 tables with foods and drinks and you had only 15 minutes to grab something, eat it, drink it, talk with a few people and go to the restroom and back to your chair. I know this kind of feedback might be just picky, but it’s part of the experience. It didn’t work.

· The after-party was an after-thought. Although I met a few interesting folks at the bar next door, there were only about 12 people there. No sign of the organizers and I think just about 3 of the presenters and one sponsor.

About the presentations themselves… Two stories didn’t work for me: Nisha Kelen, a florist and Oliver Chin, a children’s book publisher. Yes, they were passionate and very good people, but I didn’t feel their stories were inspiring to me. Not as much as Rachel Venning from Babeland, Eric Levine from Cellar Tracker, or the awesome story of Jon Rimmerman from Garagiste. These are people not only doing something they love, but being very successful and changing the world. That’s inspiring to me.

No question in my mind I’ll be there next year and recommend to all my entrepreneur friends.

Thank You Sponsors: nPost, Rocketman Creative, Eye Level Interaction Desgin and Fenwick West

Seattle 2.0 Sponsors — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:01:00 GMT

We'd like to thank our sponsors who support the Seattle 2.0 and, like us, are passionate about tech startups and want to make Seattle an even better place for them.

nPost

nPost.com is a site devoted to entrepreneurship and startups. The nPost.com Tech Startup Job Board features opportunities with Internet and Software startups. By focusing on the tech startup space, nPost brings together startups with people that are specifically interested in and familiar with the dynamic and high growth nature of startups.

Rocketman Creative

We're driven to inspire others by helping them develop and visually communicate their most powerful identity. For the past ten years, Rocketman Creative has helped organizations create distinctive identity designs that engage and excite their customers and supporters.

Eye Level Interaction Design

Eye Level is an interaction design studio performing at the intersection of design and technology. They create satisfying user experiences from the bones out, strengthening relationships between you and your customers. They’re experts at designing complex websites and interactive media from early concepts, through user testing, to graphic design, to launch.

Fenwick West LLP

Emerging technology companies partner with Fenwick & West for a broad range of services, through all stages of growth. We represent venture-backed private companies from formation and initial funding through IPOs and mergers. Through 30 years of partnering with leading technology start-up companies, we have obtained a deep understanding of how companies are formed, financed, grown and taken public or merged and earned the role of key trusted advisor. Fenwick is ranked by Dow Jones as the fourth most active U.S. law firm in helping IT clients raise venture capital and by MergerMarket and as one of the top five technology M&A practices in the U.S.

Want to become a sponsor of Seattle 2.0? Learn more

The Summer Events Are Here

Marcelo Calbucci — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:01:00 GMT

In the tech-startup world there are cycles of events. I can think of three different clusters. The “learning” season, which is very hot in October/November. The “traditional” events mostly between March-May and the summer season. This summer there will be 3 very good events coming over the next few weeks. We’ll try to be at all of them.

July 9 (Thursday) – 6pm

Glenn Kelman from Redfin managed to get some pretty famous people (at least on the tech world) at the Naked Truth: Show Me the Money to talk about different ways to make models on the consumer online space. The event will have a panel with Michael Arrington (TechCrunch), Damon Darlin (New York Times), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and a few of our home-grown entrepreneurs: Jonathan Sposato (Picnik), Brad Jefferson (Animoto) and Ethan Lowry (Urbanspoon). The event is free and you can check more info here.

July 23 (Thursday) – 4pm

John Cook and Todd Bishop from TechFlash are putting together the Summer BBQ & Ping-Pong tournament. I’ve talked with a bunch of people (entrepreneurs, investors, service providers) last week and it seems this event will be a success. The event is $45 and you can learn more here.

July 30 (Thursday) – 5pm

The WTIA and XConomy have partnered to bring you “Summer Celebration” with “Battle of the Tech Bands”. I have no idea how this Battle will turn out, but it seems they got a good number of bands signed up and any event at the Pyramid Alehouse seems like worth checking out. The price is $35 and you can learn more here.

It looks like the only two Thursdays open in July are the 2^nd, which you certainly can go to Hops & Chops and the 16 which has no event yet (Hops & Chops again?)

The Seattle 2.0 might also be sponsoring an event in August. Stay tuned to learn more.

Nominate the Top Innovators & Entrepreneurs in Seattle

Marcelo Calbucci — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:31:00 GMT

If there is one thing people yearn is to be recognized by their efforts and accomplishments. We put the Seattle 2.0 Awards this year because we felt there was a need to better recognize the people doing high-tech startups. Seattle Business Monthly is putting together for the second time the “Top 25 Innovators & Entrepreneurs” award.

I attended the event last year at the Space Needle and some great people from the tech industry were awarded, including Andy Liu and David Niu (founders BuddyTV), Vanessa Fox (at Ignition at that time), Rich Barton (Zillow and Glassdoor), Mike Harrington, Darrin Massena and Jonathan Sposato (Picnik), Henry Albrecht (Limeade), Dan McComb and Lara Eve Feltin (Biznik). You can see them all here.

If you know someone that is a great technology or business innovator, or an entrepreneur that deserves to be recognized by his or her accomplishments, go ahead and nominate them by July 20.

The winners will be recognized on an event in October and they will be featured on the November issue of Seattle Business Monthly.

Recent Startup Job Posts in Seattle

Seattle 2.0 Job Board — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:42:00 GMT

Most Recent Startup Job Posts on the Seattle 2.0 Job Board:

WhatCounts, Inc.: Account Executive
Seattle
POP Multimedia, Inc.: VP of Engineering
Seattle
Limeade: Life–Altering Gig as Full–TIme UI/UX Developer
Bellevue/Redmond
Northwest Computer Support: Linux Administrator
Bellevue/Redmond
Northwest Computer Support: Postgresql Database Developer
Seattle
TrackSimple Inc.: Data Visualization & User Experience Engineer
Seattle
Marketfish: Sr. Java Developer
Seattle
TrackSimple Inc.: Senior Software Engineer, Distributed Systems
Seattle
Twenty20, Inc.: Senior Developer Desktop Software
Seattle
Zooppa: New Business Account Manager
Seattle

More Startup Jobs in Seattle...

Add Your Job Post through nPost.

#FollowFriday: Seattle 2.0 recommends @webwright, @lilipip & @chrispirillo.

Seattle 2.0 Follow Friday — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:07:00 GMT

Today we recommend:

	Tony Wright (@webwright) www.tonywright.com CEO of RescueTime, 2nd time founder, designer, light coder, marketeer.
	Ksenia Oustiougova (@lilipip) www.lilipip.com Founder and CEO of www.lilipip.com, mom, entrepreneur, animation lover. Follow our team @Lilipip_Team
	chrispirillo (@chrispirillo) chris.pirillo.com/ I've been making things happen online since 1992 - a media-friendly geek who produces content and catalyzes communities. Tech Expert for CNN.com.

Find more Entrepreneurs, CEOs and Investors of Technology Startups on our Twitter Directory.