Google is trying to help build up the NY tech scene, so nextNY-ers dont have to fantasize about working out west, with their monthly Speaker Series. Last night they kicked it off with a talk given by Adam Bosworth, entitled "Physics, Speed, and Imprecision: What Works and What Doesn't in Software, and Why". Adam discussed how back when he was working at Microsoft [read: evil] in 1997 AJAX was developed, but it didnt take off because it was hideously slow. Now it has been given a second life thanks to broadband technology. Adam tried to stress that when creating web applications one must stick to the KISS rule. (Keep It Simple & Stupid) If you are creating anything on the web today you should be implementing the KISS model. I usually describe it as building apps that are so simple that your grandma can use (I'll give KISS a try). All in all the speaker (intentionally) kept his talk simple and stupid but here are some points I think are worth noting:

• Products fail because of [lack of] human psychology not poor engineering
• Top 3 keypoints of UI:
1. Speed
2. Speed
3. Speed
• Your app should be a tool, it shouldn't leave the user feeling like one
• Search isn't perfect but it is far better than any human can do so it is tolerable.
• Analyze the frequency of use of feature and implement those first
  
• If your app takes more than 2 seconds to load - forget about it
  
• The Motorola RAZR was cool enough so the poor UI (narrow keypad) didnt matter
  

At the end of the event Google was handing out free schwag that would make Kathy Sierra proud. (they had women sized t-shirts). I thought I was being nice and got one for my girlfriend, but I forgot she HATES technology. So I'm left with a Women's Google NYC t-shirt (size small), if you want it, leave me a comment of why you want/need it.





They were also taking names down for potential future employees. Speaking of which, if you put your name down on that list and want to work in a Google-like environment (we have a lounge with a ping pong table and a Nintendo Wii), I'm always looking to hire great talent. Feel free to drop me a line. (Requirements: Passion)

On my way out I noticed this posted near the elevator

Is Google trying to save the planet? Or did Camelbak buy the adspace?

My adventure didn't end there, when I was leaving the parking garage I noticed a row of MiniCoopers they were 5 in total all different colors with a designated area called ME. I wonder if they were zipcars, Google company cars, or if they were just parked there to maximize storage space. I would also like to know who was clever enough to tag ME on the wall?

More of my photos from last night's Google Speaker Series event.

Lastly, to those waiting for the Google Unbound recap please be patient Caroline and I have been busy, but we are almost done with it.

I’ve posted some thoughts on fostering a better culture for startups and entrepreneurs in NYC on the nextNY blog, click on over if you’d like to read…

nextny nyc startup

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A conversation about New York City’s startup culture, or lack thereof, has repeatedly bubbled up on the nextNY listserv over the past few months. Specifically, the focus returns again and again to the difficulties in attracting NYC tech/developer talent willing to work long hours on pipedream visions for non-existent-to-laughable wages, plus equity.

The challenge peculiar to the five boroughs is the same challenge faced in any profitable organization, be it a single corporation or a complex socio-economic organism, aka the New York Metro Area GDP. That challenge is how to siphon resources from the cash cow, in this case Wall Street, and use them to create Question Marks (aka startups) that will become the thought and business leaders of the future.

Here’s my reply, verbatim from the discussion, and taking my own advice, a concrete proposal that I believe would positively impact the “culture” for web2.0 entrepreneurs in New York City:

Business incubators came out of bubblicious web1.0 somewhat tarnished. But, as smart people have already observed, the economics for the first three years of a viable startup have changed, with the most dramatic change in the first year of operation, and in that first year, the cost of a startup’s first three months has fallen into the range of effectively anyone (or at least the pooled resources of 2-4 anyones). The cost of building most web applications is now on par with the capital any committed hobbyist, say an audiophile or an integrated circuit enthusiast ca. 1980, devotes to their moonlight-and-weekends obsession. And it is in these earliest periods of affordable access to new tools (think Jobs and Wozniak) that world-changing (and stupendous wealth-generating) ideas can take flight.

Web1.0 incubators lacked this low-cost environment for development, and further lacked any foundation of successful business models to key off of, and so their portfolio “diversity” was more a reflection of the sector’s massive overcapitalization than a systematic approach for generating wealth.

But web2.0 gives us scalable and non-stigmatized (eg. non-pornographic) ways to make money online, and an abundance of free-to-cheap platform technologies to build on. In response, business incubators are springing up which employ true portfolio theory — microcapital investments spread across a diverse array of web applications — as well as ancillary support in the form of “startup bootcamps,” which seek to transfer knowledge and values correlating highly with startup success to selected entrepreneurs. The bootcamps are roughly modeled on the two “knowledge economies” which have had the greatest impact on tech startups in the US, the universities of Stanford and MIT and their tech-tranfer/startup ecologies. Big surprise then, that these are also (roughly) where the premier example, Y Combinator, hosts its two bootcamps each year (I believe the east coast session uses resources from both Harvard and MIT). Now TechStars, with backing from successful web entrepreneur Jared Polis and VC digeratus Brad Feld, has copied the formula and transplanted it to Boulder, CO. Their About page lays out a simple mission: “TechStars was founded by a collective of Colorado-based entrepreneurs as a way of promoting entrepreneurial activity in their home state.”

All of this is to say “Why not here? Why not now?” We, the membership of nextNY, have access to resources at NYU, Columbia, Fordham and Cooper Union, as well as the NYC offices of numerous tech and net colossi. Further, we have contacts, if not members, involved in the New York Angels organization and the city’s prominent A-round VC firms: Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital. It’s likely too late for summer 2007, but how about assembling a leadership team for AppleSeeds 2008? I’ll wager the amount of money involved (My guess? $225K investment capital using the TechStars model, plus the ~$100K or so for accommodations and StartupCamp overhead) would not prove to be the chief obstacle in making this happen. If this was to demonstrate traction, there are more than enough funds and/or individuals for whom a 1/10th or 1/12th share in a venture of this sort would be a rounding error. Companies and financiers contribute to Chambers of Commerce and other business-oriented civic institutions every year, the AppleSeeds StartupCamp could be yet another recursive investment for the NYC business community, and go miles towards building and evangelizing a “startup culture” born and bred in the Big Apple.

So, call to action, who likes the idea? Who wants to talk about it some more? Who has alternative proposals? Sign up for nextNY’s Feb 28 Community Conversation and let’s help make this happen!

 

Jonah Keegan is an entrepreneur with a business, a blog and a few other things.

 

Last night I went to the January edition of the Social Media Club , a for profit ("but not a lot of," as co-founder Howard Greenstein noted) event that took place at Fleishman-Hillard. The night was recorded -- no link at this time -- but for now you can check out my pics. I think it has improved since the last of their monthly events I attended, albeit I came late to that one. I liked that after a few of the topics that were discussed we broke into small groups and discussed various issues -- fake blogs, transparency, and authenticity (see: all i want for xmas is a psp and walmart edelman scandal). Howard rightly predicted that all four groups would approached these topics differently.

The notable quote of the night was from Eric Skiff, "moo cards are the social media secret handshake". I actually have a personal limited edition set (that I got for free from skype), and once photogami picks a logo, I will order a batch of 100. I received one last night from Brett who is working on a new site called, Esprsso which is trying to be a Flickr for news. It's a social and collaborative twist on the ol' web-based feed reader with an emphasis on simple sharing, filtering, and conversational features. I'm going to test it out and give my two cents in the future. If you want an invitation, you can send me an email or leave a comment here.

Final thoughts: Howard and Chris have created a solid startup that will educate the masses on social media. But will the masses engage in social media? Only time will tell.

For a more detailed write up check out Monetizing the conversation: Social Media Club goes pro by ZDNet's Donna Bogatin -- Social Media Club's entrepreneurial venture.

David was kind enough to answer a few questions by e-mail for us.  He is already a veteran of nextNY events, participating in our Community Conversation on “Startup 101” and PitchCamp.  Yet, still, he probably remains one of the most under the radar angel investors out there.  We’re glad that he has given our members several opportunities to get to know him better.

1) I’ve heard the 10 minute version of a brief 2 minute description of yourself and your background in person… but here I can hold you to a word count. Think you can tell us who you are in 100 words or less?

A serial entrepreneur turned serial angel investor, David S. Rose is passionately convinced that entrepreneurship is the core of a successful society. Having started half a dozen businesses and making it to the Inc. 500, he founded New York Angels and has been described by Crain’s as the “father of angel investing in New York”. His current portfolio includes over three dozen cool startups of which he’s Chairman of three, and as an entrepreneur himself he’s CEO of Angelsoft, which currently back-ends over 90 angel groups on three continents. He also runs the #1 Google-ranked web site on letterpress printing.

2) If there were two or three key problems that you would like to see every single startup out there that thought they had a solution for, what would those problems be?

Effective spam filtering, usable universal remote control for consumer electronics, web-based personal assistant service

3) If you had to invest every penny that you had in a company based on their answers to just three questions, what questions would you ask?

Would the last three people you fired work for you again?
What do you see as the role of an angel investor in your company?
Are you prepared to invest every penny that YOU have in your own company?

4) What are the best and worst things about trying to build a startup in New York?

Best: unbelievable talent pool, lots of synergistic companies, great energy and dynamism
Worst: high cost of talent, easy to get lost in the shuffle, not as many VCs as the West Coast

5) Who are the three wisest people in the NYC technology scene that you know?

Really, really tough call! There are many wise ones, but I’ll give you six, in no particular order:

Howard Morgan
Scott Kurnit
Esther Dyson
Stuart Ellman
Jon Whelan
Henry Kressel

 

Sorry no pictures this time, I didn’t arrive early enough for a front row seat.

Scott welcomed everyone to the first tech meetup of 2007 in New York. He said with evident pride that there are now about twenty tech meetups in various cities, following in the spirit of the original here in New York. And with that it was off to the demos:

One of the original tech meetup participants, Robert Tolmach, was up first. His company is WellGood LLC and their current project is Changing the Present, a non-profit, philanthropreneur play to shift some of the reported $250 billion in annual US gift expenditures into charitable donations rather than Movado watches, socks and sweaters, or bottles of bubbly. He threw out the hefty (but accurate) tagline “Do something to make the world a better place in your friend’s name.”

The site presents you with the main focus points at the top of its homepage. You can choose a cause, check out what celebrities and experts are endorsing, and get viral flare for your blog. You can favorite the nonprofits and/or causes where you would like to see contributions, and create registries for weddings, baby showers, etc. I like the wedding registry idea, although I’m sure it would rub some guests the wrong way. Concentrating material acquisition around a celebration of a couple’s commitment has always seemed a bit odd to me, and I like the idea of putting guests’ obligatory gifts to work for people who really need stuff.

Changing the Present is itself run by a non-profit, for-profit WellGood is the steward, but legal ownership seems to lie with the non-profit. All donations are tax deductible for the donor, and the site takes a 3% + $0.30 commission, which Robert said is just the credit card processing fee. The non-profit’s operations are supported entirely by foundation grants. Donations transfer to the target agencies/organizations at the end of the month following the donation, however, so Changing the Present must be getting something off the float. Robert said they plan to shorten that time period going forward. Listings on the site for charitable agencies or organizations are free through 2007.

Asked about plans for social-networking/community apps on the site, Robert said “It’s coming.” He also told us the site was built with Ruby on Rails, to which he received applause from 3 people in the room. Oh and Robert also related that the Great Hall had seen a speech from Abraham Lincoln back in 1860, and the proceeded to demo a donation for his “friend” using an Abe Lincoln dummy account, complete with a wedding registry for Mary Todd… nice touch.

Alon Cohen was up next with BitWine, an answers service that’s tightly integrated with Skype and has a very full featureset. He positioned BitWine as a “knowledge market,” where users can search for experts and buy advice on a per minute, or per deliverable rate.

Experts and users each have profiles, and Alon demoed a typical interaction with a search on the keyword for “running.” He selected a user, showed us his profile — which included a “presence” indicator — and initiated a skype call with one click. He got a live video chat going in-demo, showing off the site’s tight integration with Skype.

When the expert answers the call he is not automatically on the clock, you can make an introduction and get a sense of whether or not this person has the goods. Once the buyer is sold on the expert, he can introduce a “start payment” interrupt prior to dispensing his wisdom. It comes up like a file transfer request you see with instant messaging clients. If you are not buying timed advice, for example you are getting an email or a digital document, you (the buyer) can initiate a lump-sum payment for the service. In this case, the site takes you through a Paypal interface and then transmits funds to the expert with your approval.

After the presentation Alon was asked how long he thought it would take for his service be used for porn? To which he noted that unfortunately it wasn’t his business model. Alon was also asked what tools experts have to prevent “spam”, requests that are just sales pitches. He said that you can block users, it was unclear whether or not this merely entailed blocking their skype account or if it was a site-wide block. Either way, it seems Bitwine’s spam will likely scale with its traction. He also positioned Bitwine relative to his chief competitor Ingenio . The Bitwine advantages according to Alon are:

• Skype-based rich media interface
• No pre-pay from buyers
• Advisors paid instantly

He said the site is free for all involved parties at the moment, but that eventually there will be a commision of “ten to twenty percent.” He also gave usage stats: the site was launched eight weeks ago and has over 10,000 users and over 3,000 advisors. He disclosed future plans to sell the platform as a white label which can be branded and implemented by other companies.

Di-Ann Eisnor of Platial, launched about 1 year ago, came all the way from Portland to demo her site. (Not really, she was in town for a real estate convention.) The People’s Atlas allows you to put stuff (photos, video, comments, stories) onto a map. Users can use their custom API know as MAPKIT (Which is based off of the Google Maps API) to embed custom themed maps into their own websites. Typepad users can get a widget to embed the MAPKIT in their blog. The idea is to be connected anywhere.  Diane mentioned that Platial has been very popular with independent store owners as well as activists. Diane showed a map where she charted the specific dress habits of Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East, for reference as a travel guide or internet research. To date Platial has survived on funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Platial’s short term revenue stream is based on building mapkits for companies, and their long term goal is based on a direct advertising model towards localized places on a map.

Platial has over 15,000 user-generated maps. When asked if she felt that Google or Yahoo would just implement the same business model, Diane didnt hesitate to answer no.  She began to  explain herself when Scott interjected and said that Google hasn’t done anything right except search and advertising so there is no need to worry.  Diane concurred, saying that she wasn’t worried about Google and thought that Yahoo had other things to deal with at the moment.

Michael Galpert coauthored this post. Jonah Keegan is an entrepreneur with a business, a blog and a few other things.