Startups And Communities @ Sun

James Caan and Azmat from UK Staff - Another Sun Startup Essentials Reference customer

2009-11-08T03:16:41-08:00

A big Hand for your business ideas

2009-11-05T02:21:53-08:00

Sun Startup Essentials - A big hand for your business ideas from stewart townsend on Vimeo.

How can Sun Startup Essentials help you ? Watch this and see how Sun can help your small business with it's Startup Essentials programme http://sun.com/startups

I so can't wait for this - Join us at #140conf London - 17 Nov at O2 Indigo

2009-11-03T15:02:44-08:00

Do you want to know where I will be on November 17th, Im going to be at the O2 Indigo, not hanging out trying to get signatures of the latest bands but at the #140conf London event, more details below but with Stephen Fry on the bill its going to be a fantastic day and if you want to attend as a Sun Startup Essential member you get 40% discount. Yep 40%....

The 140 Characters Conference: London will be taking place on 17 November at the O2 Indigo.

The schedule for #140conf: London offers 50+ speakers in 27 fast sessions during the course of just one day.

At the #140conf events, we look at twitter as a platform and as a language we speak. In London we will be exploring the effects of the real-time Internet on Business. Overall we will be exploring the systemic effects the worldwide adoption twitter is having on business.

Some of the topics we will cover at #140conf London include: Racism as a Resource; Sky News: Twitter, Reputation and #iranelection; twitter and Brands, twitter and Education, twitter and Media, twitter and Small Business, twitter and Sports, twitter and The Police, twitter and TV, twitter and Music.

Please review the videos from the NYC event to get a feel of the pace of the event and the content shared

It is our intention to provide a platform for as many people as possible to share their thoughts and engage in conversation with the attending delegates. You will find individual talks set to: 10 minutes; “Featured talks” 15 and 20 minutes and the various panel discussions are set for 15 and 20 minutes.

Speakers include special guest Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) together with:

Alex Bellinger (@alexbellinger) - Journalist; Founder, SmallBizPod
Andrew Davis (@andrew_davis)
Andrew Keen (@ajkeen) - Author, Cult of The Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture
Babs Rangaiah (@babs26) - Vice President, Global Comms Planning, Unilever
Becky McCray (@BeckyMcCray) - Founder, Small Biz Survival
Boyd Hilton (@boydhilton) - TV Editor for Heat Magazine
Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) - President, New Marketing Labs
Ciaran Norris (@ciaranj) - Director Invention/SocialMedia8
David White (@daveowhite) - Chair
Dean Landsman (@DeanLand)
Digital Maverick (@digitalmaverick) - Learning technologist, Moodle evangelist
Ebony Rhiney-James (@EbonyRJ) - Digital Marketing Manager at Warner Music Group
Federico Grosso (@federicogrosso)
Gerd Leonhard (@gleonhard) - Media Futurist, Author, Blogger
Heather Gorringe (@wiggled) - Founder, Wiggly Wigglers
James Poulter (@jamespoulter) - Digital Strategist for Ogilvy PR
Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver), twitter investor, creator of #140conf
Jeffrey Hayzlett (@JeffreyHayzlett) - CMO, Kodak
Jonathan Almond (@jonalmond)
Josie Fraser (@josiefraser) - Social & Educational Technologist
Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert) - CEO, Sports Media Challenge
Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D. (@kyraocity) - Associate Professor of Music and Anthropology, Baruch College-CUNY, writer, blogger
Lauri Stevens (@lawscomm)
Manny Norte (@mannynorte) - Kiss FM
Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier) - Author, Ebay for Dummies; Radio Host
Maz Nadjm (@Mazi) - Responsible for social networking at Sky Television, sky.com
Nick Halstead (@nickhalstead) - CEO, TweetMeme
Nick Keane (@nickkeane)
Pamela O'Hara (@pmohara) - Co-founder, Batch Blue
Peter Gregson (@petergregson) - Cellist and Co-founder of the Production Company Coffeeloop
Ray Paul (@raypaulbbc) - Executive Producer for Weekend Programs at BBC Radio 1
Roberto Bonanzinga (@Bonanzinga) - Balderton Capital
Saul Klein (@cape) - Index Ventures
Sean Seton-Rogers (@setonrog) - PROfounders Capital
Sherry J. Bitting (@SJBRules) - Co-founder and Marketing Director, Parlour Magazine
Shirley Williams (@shirleyearley)
Stephen Fry (@stephenfry)
Steve Saul (@stephensaul) - Social media/blogger for Simon Cowell's X-Factor
Sue Black (@Dr_Black)
Tal Givoly (@givoly) - Chief Scientist, Amdocs
Tim Bradshaw (@tim) - Digital media correspondent, Financial Times
Vikki Chowney (@vikkichowney) - Editor of Reputation Online, Centau Media

The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter and the real-tme internet will have on business.

As Sun Startup Essentials is a friend of Jeffs we have a lovely discount for you, save 40% on a Delegate Ticket up until 15 November or until tickets last.

Click here to register:

Get the tickets quickly as this will be a sell out shortly.

SmallBizPod - The untapped resource for Small Businesses Globally

2009-11-03T08:23:44-08:00

SmallBizPod is a podcast, blog, news and community site for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. This is how it all happened.

Back in March 2005, Alex Bellinger became one of only a handful of people in the UK to start podcasting.

Looking around for a subject he realised there were no British-based podcasts on business. Since he had just set up his own business and had spent many years focusing on the small business sector, a podcast on entrepreneurship seemed like a good way to go.

SmallBizPod was born. The podcast, blog and website now attract tens of thousands of listeners and readers a month from all over the world.

Inspire, Inform, Entertain

From the start SmallBizPod has been there to inspire, to inform, and to be fun to listen to and read as well. I think thanks to some wonderful contributors and interviewees, it's achieved just that.

Over time, the site has grown to become one of the most visited sites for SMEs in the UK. It's also developed into a wonderful free audio resource to provide inspiration and advice from business people with real experience and real insight.

Take the time to listen to some inspiring interviews from some renowned people on subjects such as marketing, business advice, funding and many more, the beauty is that these are free and really insighful and great to hear that not just you in that Startup boat alone.

Visit http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/ now and keep an update on the latest podcasts.

Sun Startup Essentials helps one of James Caan's small businesses reduce its carbon emissions by 85%

2009-11-03T08:00:05-08:00

Sun Startup Essentials helps small business reduce carbon emissions by 85%

Open Coffee et BarCamp à Sophia Antipolis

2009-11-03T05:36:34-08:00

La deuxième édition du BarCampSophiaAntipolis se tiendra le jeudi 5 novembre à l’Agora Einstein - Sophia Antipolis, de 16h30 à minuit. Les participants ont opté pour le thème du Ecommerce. L’OpenCoffee Club Sophia sera partenaire de cet événement majeur des nouvelles technologies de la Côte d’Azur, a tel point qu’il aura lieu au sein même du Barcamp spécialement à cette occasion.

Le thème du Ecommerce, présenté aujourd’hui comme le nouvel eldorado des commerçants, sera débattu sous plusieurs angles de réflexions, aussi bien techniques que commerciaux. Il y a d’ailleurs déjà plusieurs sujets très pragmatiques proposés par les futurs participants :

Le Ecommerce est-il toujours un eldorado ou une affaire de professionnels ?
Quelle solution pour se lancer dans la vente en ligne ?
Les différentes méthodes de communication et leurs retombées en terme d’audience.
La place du mobile dans le Ecommerce de demain.
Les outils communautaires : Facebook, Twitter, …
Les moyens de paiement et la difficulté de convaincre les banques.

L’entrée est gratuite, mais l’inscription est obligatoire afin de faciliter l’organisation de cet événement. Pour ce faire, il suffit simplement de se rendre sur le wiki et d’éditer la page pour rajouter son nom. Il est également possible de contacter Sandra Bayer par email (à sbayer@cari.fr) si vous rencontrez des difficultés pour vous enregistrer.

Vous pouvez commencer à discuter avec les autres participants ou suivre le déroulement du BarCampSophiaAntipolis grâce aux sites suivants :

Groupe Facebook (plus de 120 membres)
Groupe Google (pour les propositions de thèmes)
Twitter (pour être tenu au courant de tout)

Startup of the Day: Micello... You Did It Again!

2009-11-02T12:37:01-08:00

Congratulations Micello team for winning the Runner-up award at the AT&T Platinum Fast-Pitch contest!!! Wow!

The event took place at CTIA, held on October 7-8, 2009 in San Diego, CA where AT&T reviewed over 60 entries. The winners received a share in $40,000 of prize money and opportunities for inclusion in an AT&T distribution channel.

Micello has built a database of maps of places people go to shopping malls, college campuses, convention centers etc, and allows users to access, navigate and explore those places using their mobile phones. Unlike, its competitors, Micello keeps its own database of place of interest rather than relying on satellite-based map systems. In addition, by integrating social networking services into the application, Micello brings together all the activity happening inside a building where people gather.

Find out more at micello.com.

Startup Weekend Paris du 4 au 6 décembre 2009

2009-11-02T06:50:04-08:00

Sun Startup Essentials est l'un des partenaires mondiaux de Startup Weekend et s'associe à l'organisation de la première session à Paris, du 4 au 6 décembre 2009 à La Cantine.

Il s'agit d'une nouvelle formule venue tout droit des US : vous avez un week-end, c'est-à-dire 54h, pour monter votre startup, de l'idée initiale à la création de la société ou au développement du produit ! C'est possible ? On verra bien... En tous cas, ce sera l'occasion de rencontrer des gens intéressants, de former des équipes dynamiques, de partager des expériences, de s'amuser et de créer des liens pour l'avenir. On ne sait jamais ce qui peut se passer dans ces moments-là. La prochaine star française du web sortira peut-être de Startup Weekend Paris. Vous pouvez vous inscrire dès maintenant sur le site.

Wordle

2009-11-02T03:19:29-08:00

A rather lovely Wordle of the SSE blog - rather funky don't you think.

CMS - Startup in a Box ?

2009-11-02T03:10:29-08:00

Free and open source content management systems (CMS) like Drupal and Joomla have given entrepreneurs everywhere an opportunity to bootstrap their concepts quickly and effectively. What's the difference between them, and which one is right for you? Let's take a look.

Joomla - This CMS is very popular and freely available as an open source software package. It can be used to design Web sites, community portals, online magazines, corporate intranets, and even e-commerce sites. Out of the box, users can build data reporting tools, inventory control systems, product catalogs, business directories, and more. You don't need to be a technology whiz, however, to use Joomla. To get a feel for how easy it is, try this interactive online demo.

Mambo - Another open source option on the playing field is Mambo, a CMS with Web- and server-based installation options. Its template system means there's no complicated coding required but, because it's open source software, you can customize, tweak, and get as technical as you want. Mambo handles media content like images and video exceptionally well, and has a robust content publication scheduling feature to help keep your site fresh and updated around the clock.

Drupal - This open source content management system made headlines recently when it was announced that the White House uses Drupal to power WhiteHouse.gov. The basic package is loaded with tools to create all kinds of terrific Web sites and portals, but when you include the free add-on modules things really get interesting. Use Drupal to create e-commerce sites, podcasts, newsletters, picture galleries, forums, message boards, and more.

concrete5 - For many startups, an online presence is mainly about branding and selling your company's message. When that's the case, many entrepreneurs wish they could find a CMS that's meant for marketing. Concrete5 may be just the ticket. Designed for "regular people," not developers, concrete5 makes setting up a Web site as easy as sending an email. Down-to-earth editing tools make it possible for someone with no developer experience to build and edit a quality Web site in minutes. That's a terrific bonus, since most startups don't have extra cash lying around to spring for a professional Web designer.

Most open source content management systems have the same basic capabilities and features, and mainly vary in level of difficulty to set up and use. The easiest way to determine which CMS is best for you is to try their online demos and play around a little bit to get a feel for which one best matches your computer skill level. No matter which one you choose, each project has a healthy community of developers and users at the ready to help you get set up and troubleshoot along the way.

Flickr image courtesy of Marco Belluci.

Originally posted at http://blogs.sun.com/sun4startups/entry/cms_startup_in_a_box1

Sun Startup Essentials - Breakfast Briefing

2009-11-02T02:56:57-08:00

...The CRASH you haven't seen yet...

This time we go behind the scenes of the worst financial calamity that flooded our TV screens last Christmas...

What lessons have we learned?

What do you do when your whole world has SUDDENLY collapsed, the rug has been pulled out from under you, the regulators are circling and the media spotlight is focused on you?

We are doing business in unpredictable times - impacted by the collapse of the financial systems. And experts are predicting another down surge...

How do you lead your team, your employees, shareholders and family who are all looking to you for inspiration?

As we get closer to the 1st anniversary of one of the darkest winters the finance markets had ever seen, we bring to you our next breakfast...

Leading through a Catastrophe!

Mark Sismey-Durrant is the Chief Executive of Heritable Bank. He knows what he is talking about - having been at the heart of some of the most dramatic events before Christmas last year...(Iceland rings a bell?)

He has been there, done it - and is coming out on the other side. He has never spoken at an interactive public event - this is the first time Mark will share his insider secrets of leading in these uncertain times.

So, here is your invitation to a breakfast full of shock, surprises, inspiration and intrigue.

Insider Secrets - Behind the Scenes with Mark Sismey-Durrant

Date: Monday, November 23, 2009 at 8:00 AM (GMT)

Location: London Customer Briefing Centre Sun Microsystems Ltd. Regis House 45 King William Street London, London EC4R 9AN
United Kingdom

Click here to book: http://marksismeydurrant.eventbrite.com

Sun Startup Essential Members check your November newsletter for a Discount code and for 3 FREE PLACES to attend.

Free Webinar: Creating a Perfectly Tuned System

2009-10-30T14:26:45-07:00

A balance between processor performance, memory bandwidth, and IO performance all contribute to system performance. Applications like business intelligence and data warehousing (BIDW), and Rich Media are particularly sensitive to overall performance.

The Sun Fire X4275 is designed for the ground up for powering both rich media streaming applications, and business intelligence and data warehousing applications.

In this webinar, you'll find out:

The design principles of the Sun Fire X4275 (Intel Xeon 5500 series processors, 64 GB of memory, 12 TB of storage, 8xSSD or 12x15K drives for IOPS performance all in the same 2U chassis, and up to 24 GB of network bandwidth)

How flash technology can multiply IO performance offering significant savings in cost/stream, cost/IOPS and cost/GB as well as savings in energy and space

How the Sun Fire X4275 is the building block of the powerful Oracle Exadata V2 server recently announced by Oracle.

Date: November 4, 2009
Time: 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm UK / 5:00 pm Central Europe / 8:30 pm India (New Delhi) (check timezone)
Speakers: Tushar Katarki, Product Manager, Angelo Rajadurai, Sr. Technical Evangelist, Sun Startup Essentials

Archived Webinars

Helia a installé OpenSolaris sur une Dedibox. Témoignage

2009-10-30T05:39:49-07:00

Bonjour Séverin, peux-tu te présenter ?

Bonjour Laurent ! Entrepreneur du web depuis 2006, je m'appelle Séverin Benizri et je suis fondateur de la société Paris Labs qui édite des plateformes de réseaux sociaux, notamment le service Helia.fr. J'ai un parcours un peu hybride entre le commercial et la technique, comme beaucoup de monde dans ce secteur.

Que fait Helia ?

Helia est un réseau social professionnel qui encourage le partage d'expérience entre des internautes qui ont des affinités pour le même métier ou les mêmes entreprises. Helia propose également des outils de communication aux entreprises qui souhaitent maîtriser leur réputation sur le Web. D'ici à la fin de l'année, il y aura des informations à jour sur plus de 500.000 entreprises sur Helia, des actualités et des offres d'emploi.

Pourquoi as-tu adhéré au programme Sun Startup Essentials ?

Nous étions très impliqués dans le développement Java. Il nous a paru naturel de nous associer à la maison mère... Le programme présentait de belles opportunités aussi bien dans le domaine du conseil que dans l'acquisition de matériel informatique.

Quelles technologies Sun utilises-tu ?

Aujourd'hui, nous travaillons avec des ingénieurs Sun sur une migration vers OpenSolaris afin d'utiliser ZFS, la virtualisation avec les zones Solaris et GlassFish.

Pourquoi as-tu choisi d'installer OpenSolaris sur une Dedibox ?

Aujourd'hui, Dedibox propose un bon rapport qualité/prix qui correspond à nos besoins actuels d'hébergement. Nous voulions explorer les possibilités d'OpenSolaris sans pour autant changer de fournisseur de services dans un premier temps. En revanche, nous nous intéressons de près aux serveurs Sun, notamment aux processeurs SPARC.

Comment s'est passée l'installation ?

Après avoir envoyé le DVD d'OpenSolaris aux équipes Dedibox, nous avons obtenu un accès VNC (partage d'écran) sur notre serveur pour procéder à l'installation. L'installation s'est déroulée sans problème, tout le matériel ayant été reconnu avec des pilotes adaptés dans la distribution Sun !
Ensuite, avec l'aide d'un ingénieur de Sun, Amir Javanshir, nous avons pu configurer le serveur pour qu'il héberge notre service. Après quelques adaptations et configurations des principaux outils, notre service était dupliqué sur l'environnement OpenSolaris.

Quelles sont les prochaines étapes pour toi ?

Nous sommes en train de d'effectuer des tests fonctionnels et de performance sur les différentes architectures. Parallèlement, nous faisons évoluer notre technologie vers une architecture plus modulaire (OSGi). Notre objectif est d'héberger la nouvelle version de la technologie sur un serveur Sun avec l'environnement OpenSolaris à T1-2010.

Merci Séverin et bon courage pour la suite !

Pour en savoir plus, vous pouvez envoyer un email à severin.benizri@parislabs.net

Media140 - Guest Post write up from Sarah Blow

2009-10-30T03:33:03-07:00

The other day I was one of the lucky few with the opportunity to attend the Media140 Branding event over at RIBA in London. The event was aimed at media professionals and the majority of the audience were PR agencies and branding professionals.

Having spoken to a number of the attendees I would have to say there were as many experts in the audience with interesting things to say on Branding, building a brand and representing the brand on Twitter and related tools as there were on stage. The content that was provided on the stage was only a small part of what was actually shared and the #media140 twitter stream provided a raft of additional conversation and content.

So what came up at the event... And what did not... Here's a few of my notes:

Community

Rather than engaging directly with communities the general consensus for agencies represented by the speakers and panels was that you should seek out those that influence rather than those that look after, or run communities. This was an interesting perspective from my point of view as a community owner through Girl Geek Dinners and as a brand advocate with TweetMeme. I have to say that in some ways the community leaders are also to some degree influencers but not in the traditional agency approach. It's interesting to hear how the agencies see influencers in terms of followers and retweet reach rather than people who can direct a mass of people towards a brand. I'm sure I'll be writing more on this in the future!

Acceptance

The acceptance of a brand seems to be directly related to respecting the privacy of individuals and engaging at a relevant point, not at random or at a point suited to the brand owner. Brands don't seem to be accepted unless they are honest and open... Transparency is key. The issue of transparency came up many times across all the panel discussions.

Trust

Transparency of the conversation became really important+, who are you talking with if you are talking to a brand... Brands being personal came up a lot and the conversations flowed around being a brand on Twitter versus being an individual on twitter that happened to work for a brand. Consumers were less rude with individuals who worked for a company than they did with a company that was represented on twitter.

"richard baker of Virgin Trains gets fewer abusive comments than @virgintrains - are people rude to brands over people?"

Engagement

How do you converse or shout at people who you want to engage and purchase your brand products? After all that really is what you are after right? Is it all about conversation or is it about shouting out to get your brand heard and noticed. The Habitat example got a fair bit of time at today's event. Along with Ryanair. Both were seen as examples of brand failure today due to negative press but as the stats show negative press can result in the case of Ryanair as positive sales as people hear the brand name and recognize it. So does that still mean that all press is good press. It certainly suggested that TV and newspapers still have the greater traction and action as a result of them. But could over time Twitter, Facebook etc actually be better and provide a faster route to a sale... The answer still hangs in the air on that one at the moment with a lack of stats on conversion rates.

Identity

There was a lot of conversation around the brand identity getting lost on Twitter with too many Twitter accounts and people not knowing which account or even if they should be tweeting to an account to get a response or go through formal methods such as a call centre to get a response. Today's wifi and subsequent BT wireless failure was a classic example of this. The issue was tweeted and a promise of it being rectified was made via twitter but the Wifi never did come back up properly. The issue was said to be with BT for the whole of the local area. So would they have been better off calling in the issue... I guess we will never know and this is the same sort of experience most customers have with brands on Twitter. Then you have the situation where brands are represented by individuals such as @kerryfromDell compared to @innocentdrinks where lots of people are under one brand name. Personally I went looking for @innocentsmoothies and guess what... I probably wasn't the only one... Identifying the brand and finding them can be as hard as finding out their rules of engagement. These should be clear and concise... Do you just follow people back or only follow those that you engage with.

Values

One thing that came up today was that older brands struggle to find out what their true brand values actually are today. These were lost when the original founders left the company. They are also split and reduced as companies merge or are acquired. So then companies have to look deep within themselves to find their true brand values and show these through their brand and it's representations online. And for those companies where this is proving to be hard we are seeing individuals with personality within an organization being brought forward to represent the brand with their own personal flair.

Mission

What is the mission of the brand... Is it to make reading cool.... Or to provide healthy drinks to all! What is your mission and also what do you want to get out of your social media strategy!

Tools

There were a whole range of social media tools that were mentioned in the talks today, granted most were from just one talk but across the talks here's the tools that were recommended by the speakers at Media 140!

TweetMeme (analytics, custom channels, interesting content, retweet buttons & search)

TweetTabs (Multi tabbed real time search)

Cymfony

ViralTracker

Delicious

TweetDeck

TweetFunnel

TwitterFall

Trendistic

Startup Weekend - London Nov 20-22nd

2009-10-30T00:35:20-07:00

Startup Weekend London - Sun Startup Essential Members Discount Tickets 25% off - A special startup weekend, 54 hour startup event that provides the resourcs and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch. Find out more now and read up on all the aspects of the weekend HERE

But first please check out the exciting news :

Audience - NY09 - Nov 5th and 6th

2009-10-30T00:24:55-07:00

Audience is a conference aimed at those who recognise the need to reach engage and influence audiences of all kinds, an investigation into how this is changing, and a look at how technology has in the past and is now, through new media tools and the social web, changing audience participation and interaction.

The speakers range from large traditional media organisations with Dan Farber of CBS, though the recording industry with Warner Bros. Music CTO Ethan Kaplan, advertising with Crayon’s Joe Jaffe, HR and internal audiences with Frank Roche of iFractal and new media players like Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, not to mention Musicians like Adam & Mia and the inimitable Andrew Keen of “Cult of the Amateur” fame with more being added all the time.

Engaging on November 6th in the Hudson Theatre, one of New York’s oldest playhouses. We felt it was appropriate to hold a conference that was about Audience in a place that was specifically designed for one.

If you’re interested in meeting with a diverse and eclectic crowd and have a goal of understanding how the methods used to reach engage and influence audiences have changed and are changing as we speak and the possible future direction of these things then please do head along. They’d be delighted to have you.

More Details below and also a SPECIAL OFFER for SSE members - $50 discount - use the code sunstartup and go here to get your tickets now

Still time to vote on Techcrunch50 & Demo startups!

2009-10-28T18:31:20-07:00

Techcrunch50 and Demo are two of the most premier tech events out there, and they both had their share of startup talent. This edition of 'Spotlight your Startup' features 12 startups from each, and you have until Monday to vote.

The Sixty-Second Startup Digest

2009-10-28T02:34:10-07:00

Busy entrepreneurs need to stay on top of all the latest startup information, but who has the time? Here's a look at what went on around blogosphere and in the news last week, in case you missed it.

Are advisory boards a good or bad idea for startups? Entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster says that depends on your goals.

All the advice from startup industry analysts who recommend entrepreneurs consider starting new green-tech business aren't just spouting rhetoric. Finance mogul George Soros recently committed a whopping $1 billion to the clean-tech startup sector.

Do you have trouble balancing work and home life? Do you love the art of the deal? Are you addicted to pursuing the next big opportunity? You may be an entre-holic.

Some startups don't need barrels of money to get off the ground. If you're a U.S.-based business looking for a micro-loan, there's a good chance Kiva.org can help.

Startups looking to raise capital sometimes hire finders to help them out. If this is something you're considering, â€œWe canâ€™t find investors on our ownâ€� isn't a good enough reason to go this route.

Flickr image courtesy of angermann.

How to Pitch a Potential Investor

2009-10-28T02:32:28-07:00

Scary. Nerve-wracking. Exciting. Game changing. There are several ways to describe what it's like to pitch to a venture capitalist (VC) or angel investor, but boring typically isn't one of them. Considering the possibilities that go along with an large influx of cash, the experience of pitching a VC is both invigorating and anxiety-ridden at the same time. Here are six ways to make the job a little easier.

1. Research, research, research. Make absolutely sure you know your audience. At the very minimum, make sure you read up on the company, investor biographies, and some of the startups they've funded in the past. Another really great way to do due diligence on the people you're pitching to is to connect with someone they've funded in the past, or even an entrepreneur they turned down. You'll get the inside scoop on what to expect, what works, and what might not.

2. Rehearse. Don't think you can go into a pitch meeting with little or no preparation and expect to succeed. Even though you know your company better than anyone, you still need to get your ducks in a row and be prepared with answers to tough questions. If you're taking a slide deck with you, make sure to rehearse until the entire presentation is second nature to you.

3. Prepare a good elevator pitch. Ed Sim, Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures, recommends you go to your meeting armed with an elevator pitch. "If you can't explain to me succinctly what your product does, what problem it solves, and how you will make money then I wonder how you will explain it to your customers. Don't worry, I want to see your baby in action, but save the demo for later as I want to hear you articulate these points first."

4. Keep your emotions in check. Pitching to a potential investor can be exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. While you want to appear passionate about your startup, you don't want to be overly-confident to the point that you alienate the VC. Investors will be assessing the viability of a long-term relationship with your company so make sure you let them know you're a team player and easy to work with.

5. Listen to feedback. While you may know more than most anybody about your company and even your industry, VCs bring loads of experience and wisdom to the table. You can learn a lot from them by simply listening to their feedback an opinions. Even if the investors choose not to fund your startup, you can still use the pitch experience to learn about the process and what VCs are looking for so you're in better shape next time you try.

6. Be authentic. David Beisel, Vice President of the venture firm Venrock, advises, "Entrepreneurs should present themselves and their businesses genuinely as they are. Attempts to 'dress up' or 'massage' their own individual backgrounds or the current company situation which aren't a true reflection of reality will be either immediately recognized or discovered later in the due diligence process. Obviously, in any introductory meeting, one should put his/her best foot forward, but never at the expense of the truth."

Flickr image courtesy of artolog.

November Events Rocking Silicon Valley!

2009-10-27T10:51:16-07:00

Mark your calendars! There are a couple of super cool events in November you don't want to miss: SVASE & GABA BIGs Digital Media, and Startup Weekend.

SVASE & GABA Present the BIGs Digital Media, November 19

Social Financing - Using the Web to Mine Money for Your Venture

Raising money from VCs is increasingly difficult for early stage companies--even ones with a good product. Social networks have been great for generating awareness but how do you turn social equity into funds for your business? Social financing is working well for entrepreneurs in developing countries and those improving the well-being of society and the environment. Could that same model work here? New models are rapidly emerging that are changing the landscape for how businesses raise money.

Join this dynamic panel of experts as they discuss this timely topic!

What is social financing?
What is microfinancing?
What new tools are available today?
How companies facilitate sources of social funding
How social networks can become social financing engines

The Panel: Marc Dangeard, Founder, Entrepreneur Commons; Joshua Sams, Co-Founder & CEO, Sprowtt Marketplace; 2 additional panelists TBD

Moderator: Sumaya Kazi, Sr. Social Media Manager, Sun Microsystems

WHEN: Thursday, November 19

6:00 – 7:00 pm: Networking and hors d’oeuvres

7:00 – 8:15 pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A

8:15 – 8:30 pm: Additional Networking

LOCATION: Sun Microsystems, 12 Network Circle, Building 12 (make a left at the main entrance), Menlo Park, CA 94025. Map

Register now!

BAY AREA STARTUP WEEKEND

WHEN: November 20-22nd

WHERE: The Hacker Dojo

Register Before 10/30 for 20% off – Use code “swearlybird”

There are 10 Startup Weekend events going on for Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) this November! Last year they had over 25,000 events, 3 million participants, and over 1 billion media impressions.

Additional Locations:

November 13th-15th: Tulsa, OK – Boise, ID – London, UK

November 20th-22nd: New York – Bay Area (Silicon Valley) – Cleveland, OH – Dallas, TX – Los Angeles, CA – Lexington, KY – Atlanta, GA

December 4th-6th: (just a little later) Paris, France – Corvallis, OR – Boston, MA

What’s new:

Global visibility for your startup – GEW will have amazing exposure and follow-up with national coverage for Startup Weekend and startups in likes of The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, NYTimes, Forbes, and USA Today.
Meet more investors, vc’s, ceo’s, cto’s, lawyers, and successful entrepreneurs working one-on-one with teams.
Sunday night voting among your peers will allow one startup to win a grand prize.
Top teams will be invited to Startup Weekend exclusive spots at the top tech events.
Spotlight your startup via Startup Weekends global partners.
Coaching and mentoring for startups after the weekend.
Free web hosting for startups at the event
Free business plan guidance
Other Free software and discounts

Student Tickets are limited – Remember to bring your Student ID!

Startup Weekend is a now a non-profit out of Seattle, WA.

Richard Branson giving advice to startups

2009-10-26T10:01:02-07:00

The Perfect Pitch 2009 is going strong. Richard Branson on stage now with Dan Bliss discussing the Virgin experience, as well the lessons learned for entrepreneurs starting out now. Startups that will be presenting soon include Vubiq, Icon Aircraft, & Didrick Medical. Speakers to follow include Christian Audigier, Tim Draper, Jason Nazar, and many others.

Sun Startup Essentials Masterclass - 12 November

2009-10-20T12:00:54-07:00

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Brand strategy is one of the most fraught areas of marketing, though also one of the most important. As a Startup it's often the element that gets left behind and not really identified. But how can you tell an investor what business you are in, if you don't really know yourself? It's a vital step in creating the company identity.

The key point is you can’t have a strategy without a clear objective. Restating a goal is not strategy, execution is not strategy, and tactics are not strategy. This masterclass will demonstrate why a strategic approach to brand management can play a crucial role in defining a strong, winning identity for your company.

What does this mean ?

When you're talking to investors, you'll be able to clearly articulate who your market is, describe how talking and listening to your customers will better equip you to target your audience and take your message out, in these tough economic times.


Why should I attend this masterclass?
Because you will learn to define:
	what business are we REALLY in?
	in that context, what's our positioning?
	who are our key stakeholders? Which are most important at this stage?
	can we crisply define and communicate the compelling value we offer?
	what are our core and secondary value propositions?
	having established all the above, are we able - in plain language and briefly - to communicate our differentiated and powerful branding to clients, partners, media and investors?

Hear from Michael Bayler, a senior consultant and published author, specialising in consumer-led marketing and innovation. Mike has a wealth of experience speaking on current issues such as post-Internet brand strategy, consumer culture, digital marketing, and branded entertainment. Having advised some of the world’s leading brands, media companies and international stars, including Nokia, Diageo, Telefonica, Bacardi Global Brands, Sky, BT, Sony BMG, Sony ATV, Ogilvy & Mather, Robbie Williams, Dido and Simon Cowell, Mike know's his stuff!

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Social Media 09 - 12th November - Sun Startup Essential Members 20% discount

2009-10-20T11:51:59-07:00

Do you want to attend Social Media 09 ? - http://socialmedia09.com/

More details below, but with

6 speakers
14 case studies
8 demos & 1 tools overview

with Sarah Beeny and Chris Thorpe on the agenda its going to be an informative interesting discussion based event.

Make sure you are a Sun Startup Essential Member and get a 20% discount on this great event now - http://sun.com/startups

Webinar Startup Essentials

2009-10-20T07:00:25-07:00

Bonjour,

Sun Startup Essentials vous convie à un Webinar gratuit le jeudi 5 novembre à 11h00 (heure de Paris).

Venez découvrir les dernières évolutions de la gamme de serveurs Sun ainsi que les nouveaux systèmes de stockage à mémoire flash. Vous pourrez également comprendre comment l'utilisation de ZFS avec des disques SSD permet de multiplier par 4 les performances de votre base de données MySQL.

Inscrivez vous !

Congrats Global Geeks!

2009-10-19T16:01:43-07:00

Congratulations to the 4 winners of the North of England "stimulus package". Visuvi, LinkedNow, Chyngles, and Hear Planet will receive free airline tickets to the UK, marketing help, free office space for one year, and introduction to investors in Northern England. Way to go!!

Visuvi is an visual-based search engine with patent pending technology in content-based image recognition. Visuvi's search engine examines the content and patterns within an image, categorizes that information via mathematical indexing and delivers search results of images with similar characteristics. Visuvi's analysis is entirely machine generated examining the content of the image itself and does not rely on text. More

LinkedNow is a social networking platform for working professionals and has two main goals. First to help find, review and talk about what's great - and not so great - about current and past employers. Secondly, LinkedNow wants to enable best ways of looking for a new job online. Very handy! More

Chyngle is a B2B mobile application platform which enables any venue to create a branded, custom mobile application to enhance the customer experience during events, increase venue and vendor revenue and communicate directly to attendees through their own interactive in-pocket marketing channel. Chyngle works with stadiums, malls, airports, theme parks, schools, resorts, hotels, cruise ships, casinos, conferences, etc. More

HearPlanet is a mobile audio discovery guide - it's like having a professional tour guide providing coverage for hundreds of locations, with additional enhanced content added daily. It also offers a geolocation device to discover instant info on things that are nearby. More

Twitter Devnest 5

2009-10-17T01:34:37-07:00

Tuesday November 10th 6.00 PM till late

Sun CBC London

Tickets are free and are available here:

Tuesday 10th November at Sun Microsystems’ Customer Briefing Centre in London. 6pm for pizza and beer kindly provided by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials team. The event will be developer and startup-centric with the content best suited to people who are already developing applications on top of Twitter or who intend to start building a Twitter application in the near future. At 9pm we head down to the pub conveniently located directly underneath the briefing centre.

Nest Building

    * What next for devnest? What we can do in between meetings, to foster community, to lobby for governance, and to build great products and services (Angus Fox, Multizone Limited, @nuxnix)

140 second demo/presentation

Show and tell, 140 seconds countdown. Dont go over!

    *
    * @ollieparsley - Hootmonitor
    * @benoitx - Spotify.Chart.info
    * @rem - Snapbird

      Sign up on the night or DM @nuxnix to secure your slot

A special Guest industry luminary in person or via hi tech real time high definition conferencing

    * We could tell you who, but we’d be lying..

Changing the Way You Look at Storage - Free Startup Webinar

2009-10-16T12:40:23-07:00

Join our rock star, Angelo Rajadurai, in this free webinar that will focus on ZFS. ZFS is a new kind of file storage subsystem that provides simple administration, transactional semantics, end-to-end data integrity, and immense scalability. ZFS is not an incremental improvement to existing technology; it is a fundamentally new approach to data management. ZFS also combines, Disks, DRAM and Flash into one storage subsystem easily providing the best overall price performance for storage. Come learn about ZFS and its benefits. See a demo of how easy it is to use and administrate. Hear from a startup on their experience with ZFS.

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Time: 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm UK / 5:00 pm CEST / 8:30 pm India (New Delhi) (check timezone)
Speaker: Angelo Rajadurai, Sr. Technical Evangelist, Sun Startup Essentials

CodeSpace @ Digital Hollywood

2009-10-16T11:42:08-07:00

There's a new addition to Digital Hollywood this year, it's called CodeSpace and Sun Startup Essentials has helped put it together. In brief:

The Challenge:
To Build a New Media Product or Service in 36 Hours at Digital Hollywood
Real-Time -Real-Life Development of a Broadband-Mobile Entertainment-Media-Technology App

The Prizes: The winning team members will receive over $5000 in cash and prizes like the Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Flash Media Server, Sun Hosting Services, Cloud Hosting from Amazon, Creative Services from Blue Monitor, and CDN services from China Cache.

If you're going to be in the LA area next week, definitely come check it out!

Hatchery - 12th November NY - Are you Serious

2009-10-16T07:22:35-07:00

Hatchery opens its doors to a fast paced New York style pitch event.

Hatchery style honesty. In ways others may be too polite to share. It will be what you need to hear about your startup covering marketing, finance, technology, business, presentation.....

This has been the Hatchery Dry Run process initiated to all Hatchery companies chosen for the main event. We are opening to everyone.

Review committee:
David Blumenstein - Managing Partner, Hatchery
Jay Levy - Principal, Zelkova Ventures
Bill Reinisch - XIV River Consulting
Scott Gingold - CEO, Power Feedback

What's the point?
1. A chance to pitch at the main event
2. Pitching practice
3. Honest feedback about your company

Enternships the Launch and we have tickets for Sun Startup Essential Members (FREE ONES)

2009-10-16T05:10:31-07:00

Join us in celebrating the launch of Enternships.com during Global Entrepreneurship Week in style with the company of 900 entrepreneurs / SME's / investors / advisors / press / entrepreneurial students and graduates for a night of mingling with mojitos, speed networking, live entertainment (magicians, a cuban band, cocktail mixology lessons, Salsa lessons, Top DJs + more...) all until the early hours of the morning. You'll even leave with your very own Enternships goody bag!

The Sun Startup Essentials team and supporters will be running mini masterclasses on marketing, sales channels and brand strategy throughout the day, not as exciting as magicians but will help your business grow.

It's taking place from 7pm (until 2am) on Tuesday 17th November at Floridita, 100 Wardour Street, London W1F 0TN. Tickets are normally £20 (those magicians don't grow on trees, you know) but for the first 100 Sun Startup Essential members its FREE, yes I said FREE indeed.

If you would like to go then sign up here for a ticket - http://enternships.eventbrite.com/ , if you are a SSE member you will get your FREE code in the newsletter next week so wait till then and the whole Startup Essentials team will be there to greet you and say hi.