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.

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.

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.

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

We’re looking for speakers/panelists, audience members and sponsors. Surely you fit into one of those roles. Get involved, we’re growing the community here.

Peak 10, a local data center is considering opening up a coworking space in Louisville.  They’ve got ample room in their location and would strongly like to put it to use for the community. So they’re putting out feelers to see what kind of local interest in the concept there is. They want to know if you’re interested in using a coworking space and what kind of needs you’d want such a space to meet (conference space, white boards, copy machine, etc).

I would absolutely love to see this get off the ground so I hope you’ll send an email to dave.vrona AT peak1o dot com and let him know how interested you are (I’m not going to put the man’s email address here in an actually link, I’m confident you can figure out the syntax).

When’s the last time you offered help to another startup?  Even if it’s just sitting down and listening to someone’s pitch for them, or giving product advice, spending a few minutes with someone else’s big idea can reap tons of benefits, and not just for them.

First off all, being selfless generates goodwill.  Any time you spend on someone else’s project will be more than reciprocated when you need something in return.  So when you’re looking for people to invite their friends and spread the word about your app, don’t be surprised when your strongest supporters are the guys you went to lunch with last week to be an elevator pitch sounding board.  I think too many people bury themselves in their own work, and then when it comes down to needing a supportive community to grow their service, they find a lot of tumbleweed blowing through their social graph.  Don’t expect to disappear on your friends and fellow entrepreneurs for months on and and then expect the cavalry to arrive when you need a Digg.

Really, really good advice that all of us, in all kinds of communities, can take to heart.

The shows have accompanying blogs which bring you such gems as a five wearable bacon related items and baby rice bags. Jump start your food education people.

Disclaimer: I do some writing work for Vupal. 

If your idea starts with “We’re building a platform to…” and you don’t have a billion dollars in capital, find a new idea. Now.

The older posts are actually from when the startup was still active and there are posts full of hope, frustration and all the other emotions that come from working really hard on a startup. Interesting stuff and of course sad that the startup is now defunct but probably some good lessons in there for startup folks.