I'm here at the Computer History Museum as a participant in StartUp Camp, a production by David Berlind and Doug Gold.
Here are a couple of notes worth mentioning.
Jeff Clavier did his usual good job talking about the VC process/Angels, etc, along with me as back up for some commentary.
Note on Jeff: He claims to have stopped writing and reading blogs so if you wanted to make fun of him, his clothes, french accent or Dogster, now would be a good time to do it.
The excitement about starting companies is strong. The notion of what it costs continues to be less today than before so why do I need you. Charles River's announcement about the quick start program had some buzz around it although I did mention that I didn't believe Charles River was going to be installing a drive through window at their offices.
Women! I have business cards from 5 women doing start ups! Excellent! There's hope for this testosterone world we live in.
As I type this "Speed Geeking" is going on. You think VCs ask tough questions? Take a room full of start up people and move them table to table having them beat up other start up people. Watching this process, you can get a good sense of who knows their collective stuff, who is almost immune from getting rattled and who probably need a bit more cooking.
I'll have a round up of more information shortly but I have to head into another session where I'm going to use that immortal phrase: Dilution is the Solution.
If I'm not back shortly, send help.
I enjoyed "drive through" analogy. In fact, I love it more you shake it with the sexy magician! It was a fun experiences today!
Posted by: grant | November 02, 2006 at 23:20
Are there any Canadian startups attending the camp?
Posted by: Trevor Stafford | November 03, 2006 at 14:18
Trevor,
Unfortunately, none that I could find.
Posted by: Rick Segal | November 03, 2006 at 16:55
Rick mentioned 5 women, the problem was it was a total of 5 women out of 300 people...still room for improvement ...
How about a social network surrounding cheese? There are millions of people that eat and love cheese, why not a site dedicated to it where people can share recipes, network, have cheese parties and sell fancy cheeses? If it works for dogs, why not cheese? Someone back me up here....
Richie Hecker
The BootStrapper
www.BootStrapper.com
Posted by: Rich Hecker | November 03, 2006 at 17:51
I would love to hear a synopsis of your 'Dilution Is The Solution' argument. When you get a chance a post like that could be interesting. I probably won't do it on my blog...But I know you can get away with it.
Posted by: Gerald Joseph | November 04, 2006 at 13:58
Gerald,
I actually was making a joke about that rather famous comment. Although, it might make for a good discussion point. Good idea.
Posted by: Rick Segal | November 04, 2006 at 14:02
Definitely feel free to make fun of me, but don't get indexed by search engine if you want to do it behind my back. I still read my ego feeds every now and then :-).
Posted by: Jeff Clavier | November 04, 2006 at 14:16
Rick it was great to hear from you at Startup Camp and I've really enjoyed other presentations by you and Jeff at Mashup Camp.
5 cards? I think they just saw what a smooth guy you were up on stage during the magic show.
Posted by: Joseph Hunkins | November 05, 2006 at 13:23