by Victor Karamalis
Scott Lane and his group have an interesting session for us next October 2nd. The Innovation Forum: Art of Focus will be hosted at the law office of Fenwick and West in Mountain View. These events are catered for startup founders. As mentioned on the site, topics include “lessons learned, techniques and insider perspectives of what it takes to build a successful startup firm.”
As a special to Bubblicious readers, they are offering a ‘half-off’ discount. The link for this is here. The event begins next Tuesday at 5:30pm and runs through 9pm. Their events are extremely personable. Many of the speakers are entrepreneurs that have gone through the growing pains and struggles of startups. These events are focused for entrepreneurs to avoid the many pitfalls. The Startup Epicenter is an ongoing survival guide essential for fledgling entrepreneurs.
**BREAKING NEWS**
With DEMOfall 07 in full swing, you may be wondering why we would jump back to last week’s TechCrunch40 event, but incase you haven’t heard, some of the loudest buzz coming out of San Diego this week isn’t coming from those inside the conference, instead, it’s coming from the web 2.0 startup company mEgo after they were pulled from the event for launching their company at TechCrunch40 (which violated their DEMOfall contract).
We here at Bub.blicio.us never really understood the phrase “the proof is in the pudding”, well, ok, we understand it, we just prefer the proof to be on tape. Luckily, our very own Alison “Big Deal” McNeill was one of the few video reporters on hand at the event, and she was able to score an interview with Julia Johnston and Ariel McNichol of the controversial startup (est. value $18,000).
(Oh, Alison also chats with a little list-maker some of you may have heard of…Craig Newmark of the one-and-only Craigslist.com.)
Connect on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or Facebook.
techcrunch40 tech+crunch+40 tc40 techcrunch tech+crunch tc20 techcrunch20 tech+crunch+20 bub bub.blicio.us alison+mcneill craigslist craig+newmark julia+johnston ariel+mcnichol mego mego.com web2.0 web+2.0 demofall demofall+07 demo
by Brian Solis
TechCrunch and Valleywag are reporting that mEgo and wixi were booted from DEMOfall 2007.
Their crime?
dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnn
The perpetrators previewed their technology at TechCrunch40 even though they were held under strict embargo with the event that they were “supposed” to officially launch at, DEMOfall 2007.
Not only are they removed from the prestigious conference, but they will also forfeit their $18,000 participation fee.
Michael Arrington stated in his post, “Frankly, this is probably good news for mEgo, who’ll now get far more attention than they would have if they had actually gotten on stage. But it’s also a warning to other startups: Don’t screw with DEMO – they hit back.”
The moral of the story is, don’t mess with contracts that are pretty explicit about what not to do. Make sure that whatever decision you make is the most beneficial for your company, investors, and ultimately, customers. Ignorance is not an excuse or a defense.
As Arrington says, both companies will get more than their fair share of coverage outside of the event, but I bet almost 100% of the articles will leave out what each company is launching this week.
UPDATE: Wixi wasn’t booted, they chose to withdraw from DEMOfall after being selected as one of the TC40.
mego wixi techcrunch valleywag demo demofall2007 demofall 2007 fall tc40 techcrunch40 tc20 techcrunch20 bub.blicio.us bubblicious
By Victor Karamalis
Facebook is looking to get even more cash from Microsoft according to the Wall Street Journal. The Redmond based company is in talks with Facebook to buy a five percent stake in Facebook as reported in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters earlier today. This is already in addition to the 200 to 300 million dollars that Microsoft committed through 2011 from last month’s advertising deal.
The deal is worth to be about 300 to 500 million dollars. This roughly brings Facebook’s valuation nearing $15 Billion dollars. The reason for Microsoft to buy a stake in Facebook is the 39 million user base (up from 24 million in May). They want access to the youth demographic actively using Facebook. Its founder Mark Zuckerberg has always said that he wants to keep it independent before it goes to the market for a seemingly realistic IPO.
The problems that both Microsoft and Facebook face in courts worldwide seem to be more of nuisance issues than blocks. Facebook’s problems stem from a 50 state investigation on web sexual predators. Earlier today, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office subpoenaed Facebook and “accused it of not keeping young users safe”. Last week, Microsoft had its share of problems when European Union courts upheld a lower court’s decision on embedding the Windows Media Player with its operating system. These judicial issues validate the actual reach that the social networking site and the software maker have on the U.S. and the world respectively.
Facebook Microsoft Andrew+Cuomo Mark+Zuckerberg billion
by Brian Solis
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) closed up $7.10 to hit an all time high of $560.10 per share, breaking its previous 52-week high of $558.58. At a new market cap of $175 billion, this puts Google just a few billion behind Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
I guess Sergey Brin and Larry Page were having their best week ever – someone contact VH1.
The duo was also pegged at no. 5 with $18.5 billion on Forbes Wealth List, just behind Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Microsoft’s Bill Gates still tops that last with $59 billion.
google goog nyse nasdaq wmt larry+page sergey+brin oracle larry+ellison bill+gates
