words and pictures by Brian Solis

The dynamic team over at Dealmaker Media hosted Startonomics LA, a one-day workshop designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs on how to create simple, actionable metrics; and how to use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth and startup success.

Emceed by Jason Nazar of Docstoc (who is an amazing speaker), Startonomics literally sent startups back to school. The event was hosted at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business and attracted entrepreneurs from all over the country to learn and share experiences, strategies, and tactics to cultivate companies from conception to profitability to even acquisition.

“The difference between startups in San Francisco and LA is that we are driven by making money AND innovating,” exclaimed Nazar.  And the discussions throughout the day supported that definition. They were incredibly valuable.

I spent the the entire day in “my office.”

I was one of three service providers participating in “Office Hours,” a very special series of segments during the day-long conference. My job was to help startups understand the new world of marketing and PR to both determine strategies and tactics for DIY programs and also learn how to better manage, guide and measure internal and external resources as they grow.

The after party was hosted at The W Westwood by Media Temple.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Debbie Landa

Jason Nazar

Wm. Marc Salsberry, Debbie Landa, Kristen O’Brien

David Sacks, Yammer

Neil Patel

Shira Lazar

For more pictures from Startonomics, please visit my album on Flickr.

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by Brian Solis

One of the most inspiring aspects of the Social Economy is the widespread comradeship that is pervasive amongst thought leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers. Although we’re in the throes of a recession, the community is more vigilant than ever and ready to help and guide you to success.

My good friends at Dealmaker Media are certainly among the greatest connectors and resource providers and they’re hosting an incredible event just for you.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area on February 6th, you could only benefit from participating in Startonomics. Dealmaker Media has organized some of the most revered, networked and proven entrepreneurs and experts to share insight, strategies, successess, challenges, and mistakes to help you effectively navigate your startup through these opportune stages of economic possibilities.

Speakers include:

David Sacks, Yammer

Mike Jones, Tsavo Media

Mark Jeffrey, Mahalo

Jim Benedetto, MySpace

Jason Nazar, DocStoc

Sean Percival, Author of MySpace Marketing

Ted Rheingold, Dogster

Peter Pham, Billshrink

Frank Addante, Rubicon

Dan Gould, Fox Interactive

Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media

Startonomics is a one-day workshop designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs on how to create simple, actionable metrics; and how to use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth and startup success.s

There’s also an after party hosted by Media Temple…

If you’d like to attend, please click here. This link will reduce the ticket price by $100. Get it before they’re gone!

One more thing. I’m taking up residence for the day and will officially host a series of PR for Startup discussions during “office hours.” Stand by for more details! In the meantime, read this post on TechCrunch, “PR Secrets for Startups.”

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by Brian Solis

Microsoft Startup Zone, in partnership with Stephanie Agresta and yours truly of The TechSet, hosted a special event for tech innovators in Silicon Valley and San Francisco to celebrate the launch of BizSpark, a new program designed specifically for those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem that helps startups flourish.

While glamorous and absolutely one of the best stops on our four city tour, it was also bitter sweet. San Francisco was the last Ignition event of the current series that spotlighted and introduced us to amazing entrepreneurs, founders, leaders, and influencers in Austin, New York and Los Angeles.

Ignition-San Francisco was hosted 52 floors above San Francisco at The Carnelian Room. The view and the company was nothing less than incredible.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Transamerica Building

Stowe Boyd and Jeremiah Owyang

Krystal Ariel

Karl Long

Shobeir Shobeiri

Nick Starr

Carl Heiney and Scott Beale of Laughing Squid

Dan’l Lewin

Kedric Van De Carr

Scott Stanfield

Shaherose Charania

Anand Ayer

Daniel Riveong

Jackie Danicki

Cathy Brooks

Anthony Ha of VentureBeat

Oren Michels of Mashery

Chris Heuer

Karen Hartline

Tara Hunt

Arad Rostampour, Brian Solis, Rebecca Woodcock

Stephanie Agresta and Jacob Mullins

Christopher Peri

Adam Jackson and Marissa Louie

Kristin Kueter and Cathy Brooks

Arad Rostampour, Anand Iyer, Jacob Mullins

Dale Larson & Adam Jackson

Dave Mathews of Boxee

For more pictures from Ignition-San Francisco, visit my album on flickr.

If you’ve missed our previous events, you can relive the experiences below:

New York

Austin

Los Angeles

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by Brian Solis

Last week, the Microsoft BizSpark team, in partnership with The TechSet (Stephanie Agresta and yours truly), celebrated Southern California startups and the spirit of innovation at Ingnition-LA. Hosted at the beautiful Beso, owned by Eva Longoria, in Hollywood, 300 entrpreneurs converged to demo, network, and forge alliances that will carry them forward for years to come.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a tremendously successful event!

San Francisco, you’re next! See you on 12/16 at the beautiful Carnelian Room, 52 floor above the city!

RSVP for the San Francisco event here.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Shira Lazar and Geri Hirsch

Anand Iyer of BizSpark

Tyler Crowley of Mahalo

Efren Toscano and Linda Sherman

Kedric Van De Carr, Arad Rostampour, Jacob Mullins, Anand Iyer

Streamy.com

Girl Gamer

Dan Portnoy

Shira Lazar keeps people in line

Rock Band

Robert Yang, Lolita Carrico, Jim Lin, Matt Singley

Stephanie Agresta and Nina Bargiel

Kedric Van De Karr, Misty LaChance, Angela Costa Roque Baptista

Raj Chauhan of Rubicon Project

Hayden Black and Michael Pilla

Marc Russell Hustvedt, Jessica (need last name), Taryn O’Neill, Michael Davies

Jessica Wilzig Gottlieb and Erin Kotecki Vest (QueenofSpain)

Dragana Ognenovska & Wm. Marc Salsberry

Todd Sawacki

Frank Sinton of Meefeedia

Stephanie Agresta

Kurt Daradics and Heather Meeker

Linda Sherman and Amanda Coolong

Blackberry Storm

Jason Nazar of Docstoc and Shira Lazar

Jonathan Dingman

For more pictures from Ignition-Los Angeles, visit my album on flickr. Within the set, you’ll also be treated to a few pictures from the after party at Bao, Hollywood, where we also celebrated @queenofspain’s birthday!

Here are a couple of pics to get your started…

If you’ve missed our previous events, you can relive the experiences below:

New York

Austin

Connect with me on:
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by Brian Solis

Join us at Beso in Hollywood toight for free hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and also the opportunity to network with some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a “twitter raffle” to win an XBox 360 Elite.

Beso
6350 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028

Make sure to RSVP here.

Microsoft Startup Zone, in partnership with The TechSet (Stephanie Agresta and yours truly), is bringing together the tech innovators in Southern California to celebrate the launch of BizSpark, a new program for those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem that helps startups flourish.

San Francisco, you’re next! See you on 12/16 at the Carnelian Room, 52 floor above the city!

RSVP for the San Francisco event here.

If you’ve missed our previous events, you can relive the experiences below:

New York

Austin

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

By Larry Chiang and Marissa Louie

Holiday Party 2.0

Hosted by Bub.blicio.us, AD-Village.com, Zinette Magazine, and S1 Management

12/2 11:19pm: SPONSOR LIST IS NOW FULL
12/4 11:18am: SEE NOTES BELOW RE: AFTERPARTY

Fa-la-la-la-la, where’s the holiday moolah?? Show me the money.

In the old days, it was “Let’s set aside $50 grand of our $12mm b-round and effen host a holiday party.”

While we WILL miss the carving station, Cirque du Soleil ballet dancers and gift baskets, we are in a borderline depression. Chin up ol’ sport!, because we are architecting a party — a holiday party where we make money, build awareness of our start-up and wow our partners and sponsors with 10x ROI on their $100-200 sponsorship.

Remember, anything worth doing is worth doing for money. Why should holiday partying be any different= We fully expect surprises to be laced between now and FRIDAY (yes, four short days away).

The party is Dec 5th, 7-9pm at Roe Restaurant (651 Howard St.) in San Francisco.

Special Guests:

• Jackie Peters of Heavybag Media
• Sarah Lacy, Author of “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”

Co-Hosts:

• Larry Chiang
• Marissa Louie
• Brian Solis
• Krystel Ariel
• Adam Jackson
• Tyler Willis
• Barney Pell
• Waleed Abdulla
• Yo Yoshida
• Max Schulze
• Paul Schleicher
• Michael Moradzadeh
• Halle Tecco
• Ryan Merket

Spotlight Sponsor: Sun Startup Essentials

Sponsors:

• AD-Village .com
• Asse9 link
• Founders Fund .com (solicited)
• Zinette .com
• Yoono .com
• Involver .com
• JS-Kit .com
• S1 Management .com
• Blog Networks on Facebook
• Rimon Law Group
• WordPress .com
• Workstir .com
• Ninne .de
• Whole Foods Market

Media Sponsors:

• Bub.blicio.us
  
• Future-Works PR
• Heavybag Media

RSVP via text message under 140 characters to:

@malouie | (510) 375-1941 | marissa@ad-village.com

@larrychiang | (650) 283-8008 | chiang9@duck9.com

or check the Facebook group.

In the spirit of Holiday 2.0, it’s “Let’s make some money hosting a holiday party by inviting co-hosts like Brian Solis, Jackie Peters, Barney Pell, Sun Startup Essentials, Founders Fund, Involver.com, Yoono.com, and Rimon Law Group.

Because we are ZOMG monetizing , we will invite you to come celebrate Holiday 2.0.

** Chiang SURVEY QUESTIONS: **
Should we tip, bribe, comp and tip bloggers to come?
Should we charge a $5 cover?
Should we charge a $15-75 cover to VCs?

Should we have an AFTERPARTY?
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=25107055702&id=811315726&index=3

by Brian Solis

Microsoft StartupZone, The TechSet and Austin’s Startup District launched “Ignition” on Thursday night at Speakeasy. The event commemorated the launch of Microsoft BizSpark and celebrated the local spirit of entrepreneurialism and innovation.

Austin pulled out the stops with local tech leaders, enthusiasts, and champions packing the Speakeasy with rich and invigorating conversations, networking, product demos, and a refreshing diversion from the day-to-day aspirations of improving the world, one app at a time.  It was simply an incredible event, courtesy of the very people who participated.

SD|2020 kicked off the night with a showcase of the best early-stage startups in Texas.

Presenting companies included:
BizSpark
Piryx
Minggl
Gendai Games
QikCom
Ringlight
OtherInBox
RUWT? Sports
GAMEWAGER
TechRanchAustin

Microsoft BizSpark was recently launched at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco as a new program designed to support those founders and service providers who contribute to the dynamic ecosystem that help startups flourish.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

John Erik Metcalf

Joshua Baer

Tom Serres

Dewey Gaedcke of Minggl

Tan Tran

Christopher St. John, Nikhil Nilakantan, Blake Burris

Hugh Forrest of SXSW and Stephanie Agresta (TechSet, InternetGeekGirl)

Dusty Reagan of FriendorFollow

Kristine Gloria and Erica O’Grady

Cesar Torres

Jacob Mullins, Microsoft BizSpark

Clinton Schaff

Katie King of SXSW

Silona Bonewald, Bill Erickson

Anand Iyer, Microsoft BizSpark

Jacob Mullins, Anand Iyer, Josh Dillworth, Tammy Lynn Gilmore, Brian Solis, Silona Bonewald

Speakeasy

Michelle Greer, Archana Ramachandran, Whurley – William Hurley, Erica OGrady, Sara Dornsife, Tammy Lynn Gilmore, Stephanie Agresta, Anand Iyer, Giovanni Gallucci, Silona Bonewald

RockBand!

Cesar Torres, Dane Hurtubise, Kristine Gloria

Jacob Mullins and Tammy Lynn Gilmore

Next stop:

December 4, 2008 – Silicon Valley

December 10, 2008 – Los Angeles

For more pictures from the Microsoft BizSpark, TechSet, SD|2020 event in Austin, please visit my album on Flickr.

To see pictures from the Ignite New York, please visit my this album on flickr.

Connect with me on:
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Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

Young. Female. Entrepreneur.

by Marissa Louie

Darlings, throw your effen hands up. I’m proud of you. Not only are you a Silicon Valley Anomaly, you’re probably really hot too. And under 40.

Fotki

Shabooya sha sha shabooya ROLL CALL! Who here is a young female entrepreneur? My fearless darlings, wear your company logo on your chest. Comment on this post and I’m your new girlfriend for life. Or call me/text me at (510) 375-1941 to join the Girl Gang. The Girl Gangster Entrepreneurs.

You know you’re a young female entrepreneur in the Internet biz when:

-TEAM-

-1- You work for The Man The Woman. What could be better?!
-2- You have an office suite in a Milpitas office park, but you primarily spend time in your Nob Hill San Francisco office space with a kitchen, backyard, overhead projector, and wi-fi. No wait, you turn a hip local coffee shop like Sugar Cafe into your third office so you can do Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Office Hours with other cool people. Because you, honey, are VIRAL by nature.
-3- You’re the CEO but the rest of the team wants to take care of you. You might even be the youngest person on the team, but have no problem managing others who are twice your age. You have experience, balls, or both.
-4- Your venture has a 80-20 ratio of males to females. Out of your 16 core team members, only 3 are female. You make sure the females and males are treated by merit.
-5- Nobody can truly hurt you. But if somebody tries to hurt your team, it’s OVER for them.

PARTIES AND TIME MANAGEMENT-

-1- You sometimes get caught wearing full-on party gear by your Internet biz friends at non-tech events. And you get away with it. Just make sure your reputation is intact and that you have a healthy work-to-party ratio. Transition between being Plain Jane and Janet Jackson effortlessly.
-2- Angels and VCs – real or fake? You can tell a real Gucci purse from a fake, so you should differentiate the genuine investors from the fake. The genuine ones might be able to really help you. But if they really just want to waste your time fantasizing about you over dinner, Filter. Them. Out.

-REPUTATION-

-1- Your Woman Charm gives you home field advantage. Turn it on at the right times, because you are a rare specimen in the Valley. It helps you stand out in a crowd, at a party, at a press conference, during a video interview. It may even differentiate your blog. Advertise yourself and turn that into revenue.
-2- It’s 11pm and you’re at Safeway after the Digg party. You get introduced to a connector VIP like Sanford Barr of Stirr. He asks what you do. He has a puzzled look on his face when you tell him how your company got started, and you just know he’s seen everything in the Valley. Then he says he knows your company’s name. (You think he’s kiddin’ ya.) But then he even knows your last name. Nice!
-3- You are a rogue. A stubborn, fearless, rogue. You often do the stupid thing. It gets you in trouble at work, with family, with friends, and with love interests. If you channel it correctly and you get a little lucky, it can also propel you towards entrepreneurial success.

-LIFE HACKS-

-1- You no longer have to wear corporate raider gear but can wear lifehack gym clothes that pass as business casual all day long.
-2- On the Caltrain from San Francisco to Palo Alto, you ask an engineer from hi5 how old he thinks you are. He sneaks in a look at your website bio via wireless card. He says, “You can’t be older than 38. You’re definitely not 40. Are you 35?” ZOMG what a compliment.
-3- You’ve managed your own life so that you have no kids, no husband, and no responsibilities to run home to, giving you free reign of your time and energy. Ahh. If there is a male in your life, he is helping you take care of the responsibilities. You may want to consider a Massey Prenup if it’s not too late, though.
-4- You know you don’t need an MBA. Don’t waste the precious youth, vivacity, and money you could’ve spent on your startup on a tier-one B-school just to get contacts. If you really want to take the easy way out, work at a country club or SF Tennis Club for $8 an hour, lead gen, and become a trophy wife.

-HAPPINESS-

-1- Strangers, friends, and your family are proud of you. Except if you have rich a$$ relatives, they might not be so supportive (to which you pay no mind – just look at Paris Hilton versus the Hilton Hotel Family). Accept the good vibes, but don’t embrace it too much lest you get lazy. Don’t let it feed your short-term ego too much either. Because you might be future President of the Billionaire Girls Club and can give back to society for OPK (other people’s kids).
-2- You’ve come to love pain. Because you turn negative into positive like no other, and nobody can break you. You are fearless, fun, female, and you rock. The bounce in your step shows it.
-3- You could cast an entire Les Miserables play with your unhappy yuppie friends. A 5 year run, plus. But you, darling, are passionate and happy.
-4- You just do it. These are your dreams? D@mn the consequences. F**k the naysayers. Because you know that for every year that passes, your risk tolerance as well as your je ne sais quoi diminish. REVOLT! REBEL!

Young female entrepreneurs, if any of this rings a bell with you, JOIN THE GIRL GANG by texting me at (510) 375-1941 anytime because I don’t sleep.

Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO of AD Village (http://ad-village.com) which helps bloggers monetize and advertisers optimize. If you liked this post, you might also like 10+ Funniest Angel and VC Blog Posts and The Future Co-existence of PR and Advertising. She also announces Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur office hours via Twitter.