Connecting the dots ...
There were two Golden Globes ceremonies this weekend: one for movies, and one for Technology. The latter, the Crunchies took place in San Francisco
At the first Crunchies I asked: whatever happened to business software?
This year the question is: whatever happened to startups?
Under the Radar is the Silicon Valley’s most established startup debut platform: a conference series organized by Dealmaker Media, covering business applications, social media, entertainment, mobility..etc.
The 11th Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, CA on April 24, 2009 will focus on Cloud Computing and Business Applications and the organizers have issued a CALL FOR COMPANIES to present.
The general criteria for all UTR events:
Typically 32 finalists are selected, who will present in a rapid-fire format – they are grouped in categories of 4 each, in two parallel tracks and each presenter has about 15 minutes. They get grilled by the judges and audience, and at the end of the conference the winners of each category are announced. Categories for the April event are:
If you’re building a startup, meet the criteria above, will have a real product / service out by April, don’t hesitate: APPLY.
See you in April!
(Cross-posted from CloudAve – to stay on top of Cloud Computing news, analysis and just our opinion, grab the CloudAve Feed here)
Now is a Great Time to Join or Found a Startup –says Bob Warfield, friend and fellow Enterprise Irregular. Now what? Who is right? And the debate does not stop here, it sparked a pretty good discussion in the Enterprise Irregulars group. I think both sides are correct. It’s a Great Time and It’s a Terrible Time… read my take on CloudAve.
Originally a little side-project for Atlassian’s FedEx Day, which is their version of the Hackathon, Hack Day, YouNameIt-Day, I bet this video on Atlassian’s Core Values becomes a perfect recruiting tool.
And boy, they have a bunch of openings… have they missed the end-of-the-world-fire-30% memo? 
Next week I’ll be in Denver, attending Defrag, a boutique, intellectual, intense, very participatory conference. I’m attending despite the fact that I’ve cut down on conference attendance, not because of the current economic turmoil, but largely due to burnout. After a while they just all feel the same: empty session rooms, bored exhibitors, people just enjoying ad-hoc hallway conversations. But there is something intriguing about Defrag: friends and smart minds I respect keep on tweeting about Defrag, and the agenda just looks exciting.
I could go on, but I’ve just realized I’d literally have to duplicate the entire Agenda here. Have I just discovered Defrag’s secret sauce? Conferences are never about sessions, it’s all about the ad-hoc networking, even lobbycon-ing – yet I find myself wanting to attend most sessions, in fact two of them in most of the breakouts. Defrag promises amazing intellectual content, and if I just follow Twitter, an extraordinary group of innovators plan to attend. From what I hear, this is the conference where the attendees participate just as much as the speakers.
Do yourself a favor, check out the Agenda, read Eric’s 10 reasons to come to Defrag and register. (Use discount code “zoli1” to receive $300 off).
Update: Microsoft’s PDC is in full force today, and guess what, the conference wi-fi is failing. This seems to be the fate of all conferences, including ironically Web 2.0 Expo. The only exception I’ve seen so far is the Office 2.0 Conference, which teamed up with Swisscom to build rock-solid wi-fi. What is less known though, that they got the tip and contacts from Defrag organizer Eric Norlin. Yes, Defrag, working with Swisscom was the first conference to provide industrial-strength, reliable wi-fi throughout the entire site, including rooms in the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency. So if you come to Defrag, you’ll be connected 24/7. (OK, just 24/2: Nov 3-4th)
The New York Times presents the perfect showcase for what I’ve been preaching in my recession / business models mini-series:
The showcase compares Twitter vs. Yammer and their categorically different approaches to business.
Twitter is the leading micro-blogging service – they have a strong brand with zero revenue.
Yammer , riding on Twitter’s coattails has followed the exact opposite model: focus on revenues from Day One.
Is one model better then the other? Are they both sustainable, especially in a downturn?
I’ve never particularly liked Uncov, the anti-web 2.0, anti-startup, anti-everything rug. Not that it was always wrong: it’s criticism was often well-deserved, just a bit too vitriolic for my taste. But vulgarity is popular, and titles like I’m Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass certainly grabbed attention.
Of course it’s always easier to criticise than actually build, and for Uncov editor Ted Dziuba the opportunity to put his money where his mouth was came when he finally launched his own startup, Persai – soon renamed Pressflip. To focus on the startup, Ted and his fellow authors shut down Uncov.
Will Pressflip make it? Too early to say, but TechCrunch wasn’t too positive about it a few months ago. (they can always rebrand it again, this time to Pressflop).
A few days ago Uncov came back to life, but with a twist: it opened up to guest bloggers. And here’s Dziuba’s Ars Poetica, which perfectly sums up why I still dislike Uncov:
If you want to blog at uncov.com, it should be in the style of Uncov. It doesn’t have to be technical or nerdy, and you should feel free to take shots at people, so long as you do it in the Uncov fuck-you-and-everyone-that-looks-like-you fashion.
The latest twist in the story: Ted Dziuba has just quit Pressflip.
I’m leaving for personal reasons: mostly because I’m going to be a father in March and need some stability, but also because I’m tired of the fight.
The announcement is on Ted’s personal blog, not Uncov. It probably does not meet Uncov standards. For the first time Ted Dziuba sounds perfectly normal. Family man. Human.
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Too bad I am not. Which is why I don’t qualify for this all expenses paid trip to Boulder:
And the pitch:
Boulder Needs More Kickass Developers
Want a FREE trip to beautiful Boulder, Colorado? The Boulder tech scene is growing like crazy. Twenty of our top tech startups (you can see a few in the sidebar) have banded together to fly in one hundred top software developers, programmers and engineers from across the country, all expenses paid. You can apply to be one of the hundred.
So here we go, getting our daily dose of layoff news, while Boulder startups are in shortage of talent. Good developers are still worth gold … somewhere. (They mine gold in Colorado)
Developers. Not Management, Marketing, Sales – not the MBA’s. And that’s the clue to understanding a lot of the differences between the startup world we have today and during the late 90’s bubble.
Back then startups got VC-funded and part of the deal was bringing in “pro” management teams: the MBA-types and former corporate Executives who flooded the Valley in the hope of IPO-riches. Founders found themselves in VP / Director positions, or got pushed out, if not, they were left wondering how their little baby got to hundreds of employees so fast and just what all these new managers were doing with their company. Then the bubble burst, and the imported Exec’s rushed back to the safety of the corporate world leaving the wreckage behind.
Today most Web 2.0 startups are run by the original Founder, often a developer him/herself. This is now the age of the technologist, not the business manager. The roles are reversed. These CEO’s, Founders, team members won’t jump ship – the ship is theirs, and there’s nowhere to run back anyway. One more reason to be optimistic about their survival.
In the meantime, here’s a preview of what it’s like to work in Colorado, also home of TechStars and Defrag (use discount code zoli1 to get $300 off @Defrag)
(Originally posted @ CloudAve. To stay up-to-date on SaaS, Cloud Computing and Business, grab the CloudAve Feed here)
Image via Wikipedia
TechCrunch Turns Into F**kedCompany 2.0 – says Dare Obasanjo.
Really? Tell me something I don’t already know. Have we all forgotten that TechCrunch acquired FuckedCompany.com over a year ago? OK, that was just an April Fool’ s Joke , but you can really say TC is unprepared for a downturn – after all, they own FuckedCrunch.
OK, on a more serious note: I also said, way back in January 2007 that TechCrunch Did Not Build it; It Can’t Knock it Down Either:
TechCrunch did not build this boom. Yes, a well-timed review helps a startup gain initial traction, but Mike does not make those companies successful: whether they make it or not, they do so on their own. And when they fail, they fail own their own merits, too. Failures are part of business reality, and reporting on them only makes TechCrunch balanced. Without it Mike would be just a biased cheerleader (something he was accused of in the past).
I still mean what I said there, except that in the downturn there will clearly be more failures, and it won’t always be on a startup’s “own merits”. Reporting on them is part of reality.
But what I really hope for is that TechCrunch and other influential blogs that are a strong part of the startup ecosystem will take a constructive approach, and instead of becoming doom-reporters they start discussing ways of survival – i.e. how to tweak one’s business model to establish a healthy revenue stream.
I’ll have more on this soon.
Update: I’m often amazed at the image selection Zemanta proposes. The word “train” does not once occur in my post, yet it recommended this image of a train-wreck.
Lot’s of noise today, RIP Good Times, IT’S OVER! POP GOES THE BUBBLE, Sorry, Startups: Party’s Over etc. I think the panic is overdone.
Sure, a lot of startups will fall – and some of them would have done so without a recession anyway. Times are officially tough, but the truly strong businesses will survive, and some of the Web 2.0 whiz-kid baby-CEOs will come out of this as battle-hardened Entrepreneurs.
Talk about Executives… some can wreck the business on their own, they don’t need a crisis: see Entellium wrecked by fraud.
Finally some startups think they can keep on re-architecting forever – see NetBooks, ViewPath (the latter just came out with a new product though.) Good luck to them… wonder if their market runs away…
These are some of the thoughts I’m discussing on CloudAve today – read more here. Even better, grab the feed here.
Update: Want to get off the “Sky is falling” treadmill? Need inspiration? Find it here.
Even better, get really inspired at Defrag. Use discount code zoli1 to get $300 off.
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Publisher / Editor of CloudAve and Enterprise Irregulars.
I do most of my business blogging there, with occasional asides here. More...
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