Forge Louisville

Navigating the Angel Capital Maze Presentation

John Williamson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:25:25 +0000

Talk about insight!

What entrepreneurs are consistently missing is the first-hand knowledge of how to get things done. This is really a double-edged sword. The reason entrepreneurs are the risk takers is because they do things that they have never done and somehow make it work.

The downside is that a lot of learning takes place through trial and error. This can be extraordinarily painful during a funding process. One bad presentation, the lack of a “champion in the room”, or any number of missteps can mean the difference between getting the capital you need and closing up shop…

This fantastic informal presentation by Mark Crane and Tom McMahon allowed a room full of entrepreneurs to gather first-hand knowledge of the art and the science of the process.

We have made the Google Presentation available here for your browsing pleasure. This is the first in a new quarterly Startup Education Series, aimed at giving entrepreneurs the first-hand knowledge of critical components of the startup and growth processes.

Thanks again to bCatalyst for allowing us to have this event at their cool office space!

Feb 19th Event: Navigating the Angel Capital Maze

John Williamson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:30:26 +0000

Forge Louisville is proud to announce the launch of a quarterly educational event, entitled, Startup Education Series.

The first event in this series is right around the corner:

Event Subject: Navigating the Angel Capital Maze - The who, what and how of early stage investment

Panelists: Mark Crane & Tom McMahon, representing 2 Louisville Angel Investment Groups

Date: February 19th

Time: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location: 124 N 1st St, Louisville, KY

Cost: Free - we will be accepting donations to cover beverage costs

Event signup: forgelouisville.eventbrite.com

About Navigating the Angel Capital Maze:

Our first event in the Startup Education Series is targeted to new and existing businesses that are either in the process of raising capital or are thinking about raising money in the future. After this panel discussion, you will understand exactly what angel investors are looking for, how to present (and follow up) with them, and what a deal structure might look like.

About Startup Education Series:

This interactive learning opportunity is designed to give entrepreneurs the real-world knowledge they need to be successful in the short term and long term. These panel discussions will give entrepreneurs access to key players in startup industry that can directly impact the launch and growth of a young company.

Special thanks to bCatalyst for providing this meeting space. Check out their website to learn about their valuable services.

Sincerely,

John Williamson

johndwilliamson@gmail.com

Forge Louisville

Former Forge Blogger Hits the Airwaves

sabrina — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:44:30 +0000

Former Forge Louisville Blogger, Michelle Jones, made an appearance on WFPL’s State of Affairs today to discuss “Our Evolving Relationship with Technology.” Topics ranged from how different generations approach new technologies to what new gadgets are making the largest impact on communication and relationships. If you missed the show, click here to listen.

Social Media Club Louisville - October

Matt Winn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:37:45 +0000

Greetings all,

We are going to combine a healthy dose of networking and informal time together with a brief presentation via web conference for our October event. And the conference is with one of the world’s foremost experts on community management.Our gathering will be Tuesday, Oct. 21 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The Louisville Visual Art Association at the Water Tower. While no formal RSVP is needed, we’d love to know if you’re coming to plan for refreshments.

Patrick O’Keefe, author of “Managing Online Forums,” and owner and founder of the iFroggy Network, will discuss the niche communities of forums and message boards and how to approach them as a user, marketer or potential manager. The teleconference is scheduled to run from 7 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. The rest of the event will be informal networking for those in attendance. Several copies of O’Keefe’s book will be given away as door prizes. Refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

More information and the link to the Google Calendar item are on our blog now at:http://www.smclouisville.org/2008/10/01/forum-message-board-expert-to-present-at-october-social-media-club-event/

For more information, contact Jason Falls at (502) 815-3257 or respond to this email.

See you there!

Jason

——————–

Social Media Club - Louisville
Jason Falls/Todd Earwood Founders
smclouisville@gmail.com
blog: http://www.smclouisville.org

Social Media Club Breakfast is a Success

sabrina — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:32:46 +0000

If the turn out for the Social Media Club’s last event is any indication, the social media community is alive and well in Louisville. On Sept. 25, The Social Media Club Louisville had a great turn out for their breakfast event at the Jefferson Club. Nearly 100 people sent is their RSVP for the event, and a crowd of 80 people showed up for the morning gathering sponsored by Creative Alliance.

Michelle Jones, Nick Huhn, Aaron Marshall, Brendan Jackson and Jason Falls presented a social media 101 session to an audience of social media rookies with varied backgrounds and professions. The presentation covered a large amount of material in a short time, but laid the foundation for a better understanding of what social media actually is, how to use it and maybe most importantly, the session inspired a lot of great material for the Q&A session held afterwards. In case you didn’t get to make it out to the event, you can still catch the action via U-Stream at http://www.smclouisville.org/2008/09/25/live-streaming-of-smc-louisvilles-social-media-101-breakfast/

For those of you who don’t know, the Louisville chapter of the Social Media Club is a relatively new organization, founded in December of 2007 by Jason Falls and Todd Earwood. As the organization continues to grow and expand, so does the mission of the club. The breakfast event was a great step in the direction of helping more people understand and effectively use social media to expand their businesses and organizations.

For more information on the Social Media Club Louisville and links to upcoming events, check out their website: http://www.smclouisville.org/

Idea Festival 2008: If it can possibly go together, it comes together here

sabrina — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:52:59 +0000

Most of us have heard the expression, “great minds think alike” a few times in our lives for one reason or another. But really, if you think about it, if all great minds thought alike would we ever really get anywhere? Would there be any problem solving or merely just a bunch of problems? Just some food for thought….and a nice introduction into this….

It is that time of year again when thinkers, doers, and sayers come together to listen, teach, and learn: Idea Festival 2008. For those of you who don’t know, Idea Fest started in 2000 with the hope of promoting out-of-the box, diverse thinking and ideas, as well as bring a wide variety of people to the event. Now, eight years later, they have done just that. Each year people come together to open their eyes, expand their minds, and realize tomorrow. While that sound like some cheesy marketing ploy for a technology company, that actually happens during the 3 day event. This year’s Idea Festival will take place September 25-27.

Each year, the Idea Fest brings a multitude of interesting and interested people to the River City, both as presenters and as participants in the Idea Fest. This year the panel of presenters is quite diverse including, Filmmakers, Writers, Artists, and even an Illusionist. For those of you who haven’t signed up yet, there is still time. Online registration will close on Monday, September 22 at 12:00 noon. After that, on site registration will take place for all remaining event passes.

For more information on registration and other Idea Festival information, go to: http://www.ideafestival.com/

Vulcan was getting restless

Wes — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:39:21 +0000

Online introductions are pretty tough to do smoothly, so I might as well just throw this one out there and get it over with: I’m Wes Cobb and I’m the newest contributor to the Forge Louisville blog. About a month ago, I joined Chrysalis Ventures as an analyst, and Matt asked me if I’d be interested in getting involved with Forge. Since I’d spent the last year or so in the business of helping entrepreneurs at GLI’s Enterprise Corp, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. For most of my life, I’ve been privileged to a finger on Louisville’s entrepreneurial pulse, and I figured blogging about that pulse would be a fairly natural transition. Of course, agreeing to do it and actually doing it are very different; the biggest difficulty will be finding the time to actually write blog posts, but I’m hoping that will be more readily available as I continue to gather my wits here at Chrysalis.

All that aside, summer vacation is over, and Forge is gearing up for what we hope will be an exciting last few months of 2008. On the agenda:

- We’re in the process of recruiting a few other contributors for the Forge blog, so posts should start appearing more regularly (hooray for content!).

- A fall event is in the works for Forge. Just about everything’s up in the air right now, but we’re working on details and we should be able to tell you more sometime in September.

- In addition to the event, we’re working on some upgrades to the site that we hope will expand Forge’s web presence and impact in the community.

- Outside of Forge, the Idea festival will be here in less than a month, and should be a great chance for Louisville to show off its home-grown innovators and entrepreneurs.

I’m excited to be a part of Forge’s “rebirth” after a few months of hibernation – stay tuned for more information.

Vote For The Weekend

Todd Earwood — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:56:27 +0000

I saw on Twitter last night from D.E.A.N. Alert’s Matthew Beck that Startup Weekend is taking votes for the next cities they should try out. I’ve copied an excerpt from the official SW site below, but essentially a diverse group of folks get together and create a startup business in one weekend. The goal is to not only have a concept, but a real business model, product (or prototype), marketing plan and hopefully a start to a sustainable busines.

I know it sounds unrealistic to create a “real” business in a weekend, but I have a few friends who participated in Memphis and DC and both raved about the experience. If you feel so inclined, vote for Louisville to bring the “weekend” here.

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.

Founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde, the weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking, unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in Boulder, Toronto, New York, Hamburg, Houston, West Lafayette, Boston, DC and more.

Entrepreneurs Get Back On The Horse

Todd Earwood — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:32:16 +0000

An entrepreneur who has given investors a nice return has an obvious advantage for future ventures. Likewise, many individuals who continue to iterate, take chances and learn from previous startup mistakes become well positioned for future success. One of the most common characteristics of an entrepreneur is resilience. Some call startups an addiction, since so many don’t just have one venture and stop. Even when a startup fails, many of us decide to “get back on the horse.”

Yesterday’s post on the widely popular All Things Digital cited the return of Julie Wainwright, a veteran CEO from one of the most famous web 1.0 failures, Pets.com. Her company’s sock mascot became as identifiable with the bubble bursting as virtually any other dot-bomb. The millions spent (wasted) on TV commercials did reach mass audiences, but didn’t translate into sales.

Now, Julie is back with SmartNow.com a site targeting women 35 to 55 with articles, videos and a community covering numerous aspects of that demographic’s lives. To me, it seems the concept sounds like a mix between Vibrant Nation and First 30 Days, two of our Louisville startups.

However, it is Julie’s persistent creation of new ventures that should be noted. We entrepreneurs tenaciously (sometimes blindly) push through real or perceived obstacles in hopes of progressing our startups. It’s that very characteristic which over time allow us to get that much closer to success. See the video below for insights into Julie’s new venture and her startup journey.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow and All That

Michelle — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:45:51 +0000

This is my last post for Forge Louisville. It’s been great fun getting to know the startup community in Louisville a little bit better and writing about some great things happening with it. I’m not leaving Louisville or the startup community for that matter, I’ve just got some other projects that I need to devote more time and attention to right now.

Though I’m not sure who Forge Louisville will have another blogger soon and I’m sure he or she will do a great job keeping you up to date on the growth, progress and development of Louisville’s startup community.

If you find you’re missing my voice you can always, and I hope you do, swing by Consuming Louisville.

Best,
Michelle