Blog Posts by:
Jennifer Cabala Jennifer is the Editor of Seattle 2.0. She also sits on the board of Social Media Club Seattle.
September 8
 The co-founder of Posterous, Garry Tan, is a builder. He started as a teenager in high school, when he worked on web application development. Since then, he hasn't slowed down. He worked as a program manager for Microsoft, co-founded Posterous.com, and co-founded the engineering team for Palantir Technologies. He will be speaking at StartupDay 2010 about “Building your Product.” We chatted with Tan about his pitch, the simplicity of Posterous, and the piece of advice that helped him transition from corporate life to startups.
When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? “I went to Stanford. It's in the air. I think it's one of the few colleges where everyone coming out knows they want to run their own thing someday.”
What was your last corporate job? “It was Microsoft's Windows Mobile division on ActiveSync. I've worked at startups ever since.”
What was your first startup? “Posterous. We're pretty thrilled that we've been able to build it as our first project, and we haven't ever really deviated from the initial goal.”
What is your company pitch? “Posterous is the easiest way to
post everything online. We focus on email as being the best way to post
from any computer and any mobile device. Photos, music, video, and
documents are all hosted and automatically converted to the most web
friendly format. From there, we broadcast it out to your friends and
family by email and also autopost to all the major social networks and
even blogs you might already have. Because it's email, everyone already
knows how to use it. No setup or new accounts to remember. When you have
such an easy way to post, you'll do it way more often. You'll share
with your family and friends and all your online communities that much
more.”
How did you come up with the idea for Posterous? “Sachin (Agarwal) came up with the idea and built an initial prototype. I was blown away. Email had a certain elegance to it, and nobody had really looked at it as THE way to post.”
What will you be talking about at StartupDay? “What I will be talking about at StartupDay is ‘Building the Product.’ Building the right product requires a mix of very conflicting motivations. On the one hand, it requires incredible creativity. You must be able to break new ground and transcend the status quo. It requires you to be a contrarian who evaluates and rejects things that everyone accepts as true but makes no sense. On the other hand, it requires great restraint. You can't boil the ocean, and the only way you can get meaningful feedback is by shipping real software.”
What is the best piece of advice you received? “If you want to be able to create and run your own show, never allow yourself to be boxed into one particular silo. You are not JUST an engineer, or JUST a PM or JUST a sales guy or JUST a designer. You must be willing to wear all hats and realize that you can excel or at least try to excel at all of them.”
To hear more about building a product from Garry Tan, and kick-starting your company from experienced entrepreneurs register today for StartupDay 2010. Tickets are limited.
September 1
We
are excited to announce we are launching our new job board today!
While there are plenty of job boards out there, if you are looking for a
local tech job, particularly at a startup, you have to weed through a
lot of irrelevant posts. Seattle 2.0’s job board focuses exclusively on
jobs at startups and technology companies in the Seattle metro area.
There is an extra benefit for employers and recruiters as well. People
who read Seattle 2.0 love technology and have an entrepreneurial spirit,
so employers can reach a higher percentage of qualified applicants.
We’ve
also teamed up with local startup InternMatch to include internships at
tech startup companies. So if you are interested in startups, whether
it’s at the entry level or the executive level you can find it on the job board.
Job seekers and people keeping their options open can find the latest jobs at www.seattle20.com/jobs, on our brand new twitter feed @seattle20jobs, by subscribing to our jobs RSS feed, in our daily email or in our weekly jobs post here on Seattle20.com.
Employers
and recruiters will be able to get their posting in front of tens of
thousands of local tech savvy readers either through a standard or
premium posting. Job posts for non-profits are free and a 30-day posting
for a startup is just $55, while general tech companies pay $85. We
also offer a lead guarantee. If you don’t get at least two leads from
your post on Seattle 2.0 we will extend the post another 30 days for
free.
But
that’s not all, we also have a category for “Co-founders”, which is
free. If you are looking for a co-founder match to get your startup off
the ground, you can use the job board at no charge. We believe this is a
long term investment in the startup community.
Looking
for a job or looking for your next hire? Check out the new Seattle
2.0 Job Board. We’re still in beta so we would appreciate your feedback
to make this new board better! Please email us at
editors-at-seattle20-dot-com.
August 31
 Tony Wright has founded three successful companies, sold two of them, and after recently leaving his CEO position at RescueTime, he is now looking for his next startup. Tony is a Y Combinator grad, a TechStars Mentor and has sorted through hundreds of startup ideas. He's using that wisdom to speak on "Picking an Idea" at StartupDay 2010 on September 25th. We chatted with him to learn more about how he got started, the best advice he received, and the startup myth that needs to die.
When did you know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? "I'm still not sure I want to be an entrepreneur. Seriously, I just sort of fell into it when a potential employer offered me a contracting gig instead of a job."
How did you come up with the idea for RescueTime? "We were laughing over lunch one day about how hard it was
to build any software with all of the emails and meetings we had to endure."
What's RescueTime's elevator pitch? "Helping individuals and businesses understand how they spend their time and spend it more productively."
What was the best moment in your entrepreneurial career? "Getting accepted into Y Combinator. Or maybe selling my first company."
What was your toughest moment? "Having to fire someone is really hard. Probably the first time I ever had to do that."
Any startup myth you want to bust? "About a zillion. Biggest is probably the order of progress. 'Have an idea, get funding, build prototype, get traction' is WRONG. It's more 'Have an idea, build prototype, get traction, get funding'. Investors want an opportunity to extrapolate success rather than make a leap of faith-- unless you truly have a world changing invention -- or a helluva pitch."
What I will be talking about at StartupDay?
"I'll be talking about how to find an idea if you don't have any and how to pick through 'em if you have too many."
What's the best piece of advice you ever received? "Make something people want. (Paul Graham)"
What piece of advice do you wish you had received? "Start thinking about sales and marketing sooner. Don't invent a product that no one has ever used-- reinvent a product that everyone uses but hates."
What's next for you? "I've stepped down as RescueTime's CEO, but their next step is to continue their (accelerating) growth. My next step is to continue to relax this summer and ponder my next step (which could be a product/marketing leadership role at a small startup or spinning up my 4th company (2 have sold, 1 is still going strong!)."
August 25
The new Seattle Startup Index is officially out for July. While there wasn't much movement in the top 10 we did have some significant movers in the index. AppStore HQ was the biggest mover in the top 25. The mobile application ranking and curating site jumped up four spots to #19.
150 spots really
The biggest mover of the month was adometry. The online advertising verification site jumped a whopping 150 slots to #47.
Double-digit movers in the top 100 include Meteor Solutions an online analytics system. They moved up 10 spots to #91. While Figure Prints a company that makes small statues out of your World of Warcraft character, moved up 32 spots to #92.
New to the index:
We had fewer additions this month because of June's late release, but we still want to welcome new startups Track the Bet and FutureAdvisor.
August 24
If you provide services to startups you won't want to miss being a part of the Seattle Startup Guide 2011. 
The Guide is given to each of the hundreds of attendees of StartupDay. It's a resource to help them find attorneys, accountants, marketers, designers, and web hosting services that specialize in helping startups.
It's free get your listing in the Guide, just fill out the form. But do it today. We won't accept any more listings after 5pm this Friday, August 27th.
The Seattle Startup Guide and our online directories are the only Seattle area service provider
directories specifically for tech startups.
So let new entrepreneurs know about your services and submit your business listing today.
August 16
Who better to teach about building a successful startup than people who've actually done it themselves? For StartupDay 2010, we pulled together founders of some of the hottest tech startups to inspire you and teach you about building and growing your business. When you register today, you not only get the early bird price but you will learn:
- Why Do a Startup? by Dave McClure
-
Pick an Idea by Tony Wright, Founder of RescueTime
-
Co-Founders & Advisors by Shayan Zadeh, Co-Founder of Zoosk
-
Partnerships & Networking by Konstantin Guericke, Co-Founder of LinkedIn
-
Funding Through Bootstrapping by Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder/CEO of Survey Analytics
-
Funding Through Angels & VCs by Ben Elowitz Co-Founder/CEO of Wetpaint, Co-Founder of Blue Nile
-
Building the Product by Garry Tan, Co-Founder of Posterous
-
User Experience & Metrics by Jan Miksovsky, Co-Founder of Cozi
-
Acquiring Customers & Retention by Todd Hooper, Co-Founder of Napera Networks
-
Naming & Branding by Monica Harrington, Chief Marketing Officer of Intersect
-
Making money through Advertising by Rashmi Sinha, Co-Founder/CEO of SlideShare
-
Making Money Through SaaS by Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder/CEO of Twilio
-
When It All Fails by Keith Smith, Co-Founder/CEO of BigDoor Media
-
Exit Strategies by Hadi Partovi, Co-Founder of iLike
StartupDay includes a gourmet lunch, cocktail reception, unlimited coffee soda and snacks, a copy of the Seattle Startup Guide 2011, raffle prizes entries, meetings with expert advisors like attorneys, venture capitalists and more (first-come, first-serve) and the opportunity to network with like-minded people. (A great place to meet your next co-founder/hire, strategic partner, investor or mentor.)
Early bird prices end Friday
August 13
With some of our data providers running a little behind, I know a lot of you have been asking about the index. The wait is over. The June Seattle Startup Index is published!
The biggest changes came from a huge gain for Kashless, Inc. -- maker of coupon distributor Tippr and the haven of free stuff kashless.com. Kashless jumped up a whopping 25 slots to rank 19!
Also a big mover in the top 20, personal dining guide Menuism went up eight points to the 17th spot.
SEOmoz was not so lucky in June. It's SSI reach dropped 75% moving the SEO software maker down13 spots to number 18. It's not clear what brought the change for the SEO software maker so it will be interesting to see what happens next month.
Cheezburger reigns supreme at number one followed by Zillow, Feedjit, and Survey Analytics with no changes since May.
August 11
StartupDay 2010 is fast approaching with great speakers you rarely see in Seattle, such as co-founders of LinkedIn, Posterous, Twilio and SlideShare. At StartupDay 2010 entrepreneurs will be sharing their secrets to success in a step-by-step format that takes you from picking an idea to exit strategies and everything in between -- all in a one-day all-inclusive conference.
But to get the best price on StartupDay 2010, you have to register now. Early bird prices end next Friday, August 20th. We also have just a few tickets left for people who want priority registration for our popular advisory room. In the advisory room you can have one-on-one meetings with attorneys, marketing specialists, angel investors, VCs, experienced entrepreneurs and more.
StartupDay will be Saturday, September 25th at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue (just 15 minutes from downtown Seattle). We believe the most inspiring speakers are people who’ve been there and done that. In that spirit all of our speakers have helped found or build companies including:
- Konstantin Guericke, Co-Founder of LinkedIn
- Garry Tan, Co-Founder of Posterous
- Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio
- Rashmi Sinha, Co-Founder and CEO of SlideShare
- Jan Mikosovsky, Co-Founder and VP of User Experience of Cozi
- Dave McClure, Founder, Investor and Startup Advisor
- Hadi Partovi, Co-Founder of iLike
- Vivek Bhaskran, Founder and CEO of Survey Analytics
- Tony Wright, Founder of RescueTime
- Monica Harrington, Chief Marketing Officer at Intersect, ex-Picnik
- Keith Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of BigDoor Media
- Todd Hooper, Co-Founder of Napera Networks
- Ben Elowitz, Founder and CEO of WetPaint, ex-BlueNile
- And more!
StartupDay 2010 is the only conference in the U.S. that gives you the tools to help you build a successful startup from the ground up. If you want to be a better entrepreneur today, someday, or just want to be part of an entrepreneurial team, you won’t want to miss it!
This is going to be a great event. Save your spot at the early-bird rate before it's too late:
Know a friend or co-worker who’s been talking about starting their own company but hasn’t pulled the trigger, or their startup has hit a bump in the road? Invite them to StartupDay 2010 using our tell-a-friend page. Better yet, bring them with you!
August 10
It seems like every week there is a major gaffe in privacy, either a security leak ( blippy.com) or a company makes a feature change that ticks off users (Facebook).
Topics that could be interesting to entrepreneurs include: effective approaches for building online trust with users, the latest developments in user-centric identity management, and how emerging technologies & business models are impacting the way data is created, shared and aggregated.
On August 17th, pii2010 is hosting pitchslam, an event for startups. And on the 19th, they are hosting a special afternoon program called pii Labs. There startups can receive legal and technical advice on how to deal with data privacy and security issues. The lab is included in the price of pii2010, but if you are only interested in the lab pii2010 is offering a special deal for Seattle 2.0 readers to just attend that bootcamp.
Registration for pii2010 is open now. Seattle 2.0 readers get a 20% discount by using the code 4SEA2. We're also giving away an all-access pass to the conference to two different people. To qualify just put a note in the comments on what you hope to learn, or send out a tweet "I want to check out pii2010 during geek week, courtesy of @seattle20". We'll do a drawing on Wednesday.
August 3
Think you have a rocking startup that deserves attention? Apply for Innovate 2010 Pitch Slam. The pitch slam is August 17th and is part of pii2010 – privacy identity innovation conference and Seattle Geek Week,
The Seattle Pitch Slam will feature eight entrepreneurs who will
deliver rapid-fire pitches to attendees and the panel of guest judges.
The Pitch Slam will also feature a special CEO panel hosted by pii2010
conference emcee Larry Magid, a technology analyst with CBS News.
Startups interested in a chance to present at the Seattle Pitch Slam are encouraged to submit an application — the deadline is next Monday, August 9th and there’s no cost to apply! Admission to the Seattle Pitch Slam is free for all pii2010 conference attendees. Other guests can purchase a ticket
to the Pitch Slam, which includes the opening reception and CEO
panel, for $40.
|
|
|