Myles Weissleder, Founder of SFNewTech
After the latest SFNewTech event featuring rising tech stars such as gliider, Lazyfeed, Archivd, cc:Betty, Lunch., and Zannel, I chatted with its founder Myles Weissleder. SFNewTech started out over 3 years ago in February of 2006 and it’s still going strong. Held once a month on Wednesday’s at the Mighty in SOMA of San Francisco, it tends to draw a crowd of over 230 plus attendees. Those showing up include anyone interested in start-ups and c0vers anything from web 2.0, Nanotech, Digital content to video games. Those attending include the usual suspects; self-employed developers, CEO’s, VC’s, Marketing, PR, Biz Dev and the list goes on. Over 5,000 members have learned about SFNewTech from numerous platforms available. Most members come to SFNewTech through Eventbrite, who manages their ticket and event registrations followed by MeetUp, Twitter, Facebook and Justin.TV.
Myles, who runs his PR firm Mylermedia for his day job, may not be the main act, but he is responsible for keeping the show going strong. When he first started SFNewTech, he held a happy hour for folks to network, but they complained that he was not there. Now he is sure to always be present at all his events. Recently Myles has taken on help from Matthew Gonzales who he considers his right hand man, helping him with everything from logistics, partnerships to advertising. When asked what keeps SFNewTech at capacity time after time, Myles response was, “It’s a moving target as to who comes. They come for the topics that are of interest to them and thus the numbers shift constantly. About 40% are new attendees and 60% are coming back. I am not sure exactly what is bringing them back but they have been coming back for over 3 years now.”
Quiang Sun, Founder of Woya
One of the reasons that folks do come back is to see the demos of companies getting off the ground, possibly the next Google. There are 5 to 7 demos an event. If anyone is interested in participating, they can apply here. As to who is chosen to demo for a particular night, it all comes down to Myles’ Gut feeling. If he feels the content will be cool and interesting to the audience, then he will include them in the lineup. He feels it never gets stale as there is always new stuff coming up. He is not willing to be specific about who presents as he wings it, based on that gut instinct telling him what demos will be interesting. He pretty much is on target. At times he can be swayed by someone’s eagerness to get on stage such as when Qiang Sun, Founder, CEO, Chief Code Monkey and Sweeper of Woya, the site that analyzes pricing information from online retailers, auctions and classifieds. Qiang met Myles in Sausalito for lunch to lobby his case to demo and Myles was swayed enough to give him a shot. It turns out he did a great job and the audience expressed great interest in what his company had to offer.
SFNewTech does not run on Myles good looks alone, it depends on sponsorships of which FutureWorks is a sponsor, and membership fees. As Myles pointed out, “Recently a new policy was implemented – a $300 fee to demo. This past evening was the first to put it to the test and as you can see there were over 5 great high-level presenters.” Other favorable new policies include Annual Membership dues for $150 allowing a one-time payment for the year – a regular ticket price is just $15. New corporate pricing allows an organization to provide additional tickets to give away to their partners. In a new partnership with GeekSessions, they are co-producing the BizSessions series that will consist of an all-star panel representing multiple perspectives on the business end of the technology landscape.
The Added Value - Tacos!
Besides all the networking, 60 Second Spots, a business card raffle for cool tech gadgets and free tacos; the real added-value of SFNewTech is the people. People have found their dream jobs at SFNewTech such as the time the presenter ended up with a job at Apple. Funding has been known to be awarded after presentations. PR from the Wall Street Journal has been written up the next day. Attendees have even been known to start dating.
Come on down and check out SFNewTech’s next event, BizSessions 1.0: VC FTW or WTF? Tuesday, July 14th.
Photos of Past SFNewTech events