David Weekly (founder of PBWorks) delivered a stellar and engaging presentation Wednesday night (12/02/09) at the latest StartUp SF (v2.2) to a crowded room. We were able to capture David’s presenting antics in video as well. In this post, there is a variety of information, including:

• Speaker Video & Presentation
• Charity
• Demo Companies
• Raffle Results

SPEAKER VIDEO & PRESENTATION

The full video of David giving his speech “Give Your Ideas Ex-Lax” is below:

David Weekly (PBWorks) Speaks at StartUp SF v2.2 from HighTechDad on Vimeo.

His presentation is available on SlideShare and is below:

CHARITY

Also, all of the ticket sales (over $400) has been donated to Toys For Tots!

DEMO COMPANIES

We also wish to thanks the various Demo Companies who introduced the audience to a variety of exciting products and services:

DoTogether – http://www.DoTogether.com

Do Together” is our mission. The web is growing and so are the choices we have. You can find lot of things only if you are good at searching with the right keywords or have the time to browse through endless search results. DoTogether lets you involve your friends to do things together, faster and better. Our collective wisdom at work. Deciding is much more than just finding something. There are design aspects to consider, convenience of a place or product, price/deals and most importantly our friend’s opinion about these things. All of that plays out in your DoTogether Showcase. Your Showcase presents your research to others so that they can benefit and arrive at quick decisions. So join us in this effort to make Social Recommendations more easy and creative.

Transactiv – http://www.transactiv.com

Transactiv is a new Cincinnati-based startup dedicated to enabling online commerce for businesses of all sizes. Founded by a team of experienced professionals from SAP, Microsoft, and i2, Transactiv addresses a fundamental need in online commerce to effectively connect millions of products and businesses online.

Klout – http://www.Klout.com

Klout is the standard for measuring online influence. We track over 5 million users across Twitter and other social sites to understand who the most influential people are. Our proprietary social analysis engine identifies key influencers for any topic. The Klout API is used by over 100 companies for targeting, customer service, filtering and engagement. Klout.com is the premier location for individuals to track and manage their personal influence.

GridDynamics – http://www.griddynamics.com

Grid Dynamics is the global leader in scaling mission-critical systems. We help customers architect, design and deliver business systems that handle peak loads, scale on demand and always stay up. Using the latest advances in grid and cloud computing, our customers turn monolithic applications into scalable services and static, underutilized server clusters into virtualized compute clouds. The results: better performance, higher availability, faster time-to-market and lower operational costs.

RAFFLE RESULTS

Everyone who left a business card not only will receive a $120 voucher (not a gift certificate) for the Microsoft Employee online store. This will allow you to buy Microsoft products at Employee prices! Look for information on that coming in a few weeks.

We also raffled off 2 Xbox 360 games! The winners are below:

• Gears of War = Thuy Pham from eNovalink
  
• PGR4 = Caitlin Taylor Gilmour
  

Congratulations to both of those winners!

Be sure to bookmark StartUp SF as we plan on having more exciting events in 2010!

As if hearing David Weekly of PBWorks and Hacker Dojo isn’t enough, we added 4 great Demo Companies (Klout, DoTogether, Transactive & GridDynamics).

Date: Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Time: 6-9pm
Location: Microsoft, 835 Market Street, Suite 700 in San Francisco
Price: $10 online in advance / $20 at the door
Note: Food & Drinks included – You must be 21 years or older to attend

Well to give you yet ANOTHER reason to attend, both of the sponsors of StartUp SF (Microsoft and GoGrid) are giving away some items at the event!

From GoGrid

Every startup is looking for ways to save money from the beginning. Buying IT infrastructure should not be one of those things that you spend money on. Using Cloud Infrastructure instead will eliminate your CapEx and help you spend just what you have to on your IT. If you are at this event and talk to a GoGrid representative, they will outfit you with a $100 Service Credit for a new GoGrid Account. With that credit, you can spin up a few GoGrid servers for a few weeks!

From Microsoft

First, there will be a raffle for some Microsoft Xbox Games. We will collect your contact info (Name, Address, email, etc.) and have a drawing on-site!

Second, Attendees who provide their business cards or contact information with: Full Name, Company Name, Physical and Email Addresses will receive a voucher* to purchase up to $120 in merchandise at the Microsoft eCompany store. This is a great opportunity to do some holiday shopping at Microsoft employee prices! For example, you can buy Windows 7 for the same price that a Microsoft Employee would get!

* The voucher is not a gift certificate.

Registration

Tickets are on sale now. $10 online and $20 at the door. You can register here or fill in the form below.

Hope to see you there!

Last week we announced the speaker (David Weekly from PBWorks & Hacker Dojo) for StartUp SF which is on December 2nd (Wednesday) from 6-9pm. Today, we have finalized the Demo Companies that will be showcasing their products or services at this event.

The companies that will be presenting are:

DoTogether – http://www.DoTogether.com

Do Together” is our mission. The web is growing and so are the choices we have. You can find lot of things only if you are good at searching with the right keywords or have the time to browse through endless search results. DoTogether lets you involve your friends to do things together, faster and better. Our collective wisdom at work. Deciding is much more than just finding something. There are design aspects to consider, convenience of a place or product, price/deals and most importantly our friend’s opinion about these things. All of that plays out in your DoTogether Showcase. Your Showcase presents your research to others so that they can benefit and arrive at quick decisions. So join us in this effort to make Social Recommendations more easy and creative.

Transactiv – http://www.transactiv.com

Transactiv is a new Cincinnati-based startup dedicated to enabling online commerce for businesses of all sizes. Founded by a team of experienced professionals from SAP, Microsoft, and i2, Transactiv addresses a fundamental need in online commerce to effectively connect millions of products and businesses online.

Klout – http://www.Klout.com

Klout is the standard for measuring online influence. We track over 5 million users across Twitter and other social sites to understand who the most influential people are. Our proprietary social analysis engine identifies key influencers for any topic. The Klout API is used by over 100 companies for targeting, customer service, filtering and engagement. Klout.com is the premier location for individuals to track and manage their personal influence.

GridDynamics – http://www.griddynamics.com

Grid Dynamics is the global leader in scaling mission-critical systems. We help customers architect, design and deliver business systems that handle peak loads, scale on demand and always stay up. Using the latest advances in grid and cloud computing, our customers turn monolithic applications into scalable services and static, underutilized server clusters into virtualized compute clouds. The results: better performance, higher availability, faster time-to-market and lower operational costs.

Ticket ordering can be done below or via the Eventbite page: http://startupsf1209.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you there!

It’s been a few months since our last Startup SF where Loic Le Meur was the guest speaker. I’m pleased to announce that we have a new StartUp SF (version 2.2) coming on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009. And for your learning pleasure we have none other than David Weekly, founder of PBWorks (“online collaboration that just works” – formerly PBWiki) and Founding Director of Hacker Dojo (a community center for hackers & thinkers to meet, discuss, learn and create).

David’s presentation is titled “Give Your Ideas Ex-Lax“. Just the title alone is intriguing! He describes the theme as “you should find an uncomfortably quick way to launch your idea and iterate on it instead of building grand designs.”

Ticket orders are now on-sale! Scroll down for info.

As with every StartUp SF, our goal is to help startups begin, grow and become successful. The format is simple, for an hour, you network with technology peers, entrepreneurs, VCs, and other like-minded professionals, then you hear short “elevator pitches” from a few select Demo Companies. After the pitches, a Guest Speaker gives you first-hand experience on the Do’s and Don’ts of kick-starting your startup. Once the speaker has finished, there is a Question & Answer session and then more time for networking. We provide food, drink and engaging conversation.

About David Weekly

David Weekly started PBwiki (now PBWorks) back in 2003. His background is in engineering with a BS in Computer Science from Stanford where he was a President Scholar and a finalist in the ACM International Programming Competition. He is also the Founding Director of Hacker Dojo which is a non-profit community center designed to provide programmers in the San Francisco Bay Area a place to collaborate and innovate. Hacker Dojo continues to gain success and traction.

David is particularly appropriate for being a speaker for StartUp SF, as is outlined in this ValleyWag article titled “Everybody’s stalking: Accidental entrepreneur David Weekly sets a new record for startup failure“. From development to launch to being “TechCrunched” to receiving a Cease & Desist, just 12 days!

How to Order Tickets

Tickets are now on sale. They are $10 online and $20 at the door.

You can also register online on Eventbrite here.

Demo Companies

Demo companies at StartUp SF get 5-10 minutes of “open mic” time to give their company’s elevator pitch, as well as demo tables where they can showcase their product or service.

This page will be updated shortly with Demo Company information so check back!

More About the Event

At the event, you will hear some tips and tricks from a successful startup, find a good crowd, demos of some thought-provoking leading-edge products and drinks and light snacks.

You will leave better connected and educated AND with the following gifts from us:

• $100 GoGrid service credit which enables you to deploy, scale and load balance Cloud server networks instantaneously – More info about GoGrid
• Microsoft BizSpark will be providing information on how startups can save $10,000 in licensing fees with their program. Info at BizSpark

Bring yourself and your technology friends to meet likeminded, future-looking folks who may become your next colleague, customer, vendor or competitor.

It’s been a couple of months since the last StartUp SF where we had Seesmic’s Loic Le Meur present on “How to Launch a Product with your Community”. Loic’s full presentation with audio can be found here. We are happy to say that we now have a date for the next StartUp SF.

Details are:

Date: Wednesday, December 2nd
Time: 6-9pm
Location: Microsoft, 835 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103
Cost: $10 (online – not available yet) or $20 (at the door)

We do have a speaker lined up for this event. Please check back in the next week or so for details. Similarly, we will have 3-4 Demo companies giving a 5 minute “elevator pitch” and available before and after the guest speaker’s presentation to showcase their product or service and answer any questions.

Food and drink will be provided, you simply need to bring the intelligent conversation, questions and ideas. The whole idea of StartUp SF is to bring together like-minded individuals in a casual yet educational forum to discuss how to jump start a startup. It’s important nowadays for entrepreneurs, developers, technologists, marketing professionals and others to meet and engage in an environment conducive to brainstorming. This is what StartUp SF brings to the table.

If you have any questions, ideas or comments, feel free to contact us via the Contact Form.

Thanks to all who attended our most recent StartUp SF v2.1 on 6/4/09. We had well over 100 attendees who heard Seesmic’s Loic Le Meur speak about “How to Launch a Product with your Community.” We also raised about $580 for GreenPeace which is fantastic!

Loic’s presentation is available on SlideShare but you can view it below as well. (Thanks to Dennis Mojado for recording and sharing the audio.)

Also, if you want to listen to just the audio, it is broken up into 3 sections:

• StartUp SF Introduction (Demo companies)

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Presentation (“How to Launch a Product with your Community”)

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Question & Answer session

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We hope to see you at future StartUp SF events. If you have suggestions for speakers, topics or demo companies, please feel free to leave a comment or fill out the Contact Form.

**Update 5/20/09** – We have added some demo companies!

It’s with great pleasure that we announce the guest speaker for the StartUp SF (version 2.1) event coming on June 4th, 2009. Loic Le Meur, Founder and CEO of Seesmic, has graciously agreed to do a presentation titled “How to Launch a Product with your Community.” Learn first hand how to use various community building techniques to build your product, service or brand from the ground up.

You may have seen Loic and Seesmic Desktop mentioned in the New York Times site.

Seesmic is Loic’s 5th business so he definitely has lots of experience under his belt. Some more information about Loic:

Loic is the Seesmic CEO. He founded the company in 2007 with the goal of turning online video into a powerful medium for threaded, interactive video conversations.

Loic is the founder and CEO of video conversation site Seesmic.com. Seesmic also makes one of the most popular Twitter and social software clients – Twhirl.org.

Loic also founded and hosts the #1 tech event in Europe, LeWeb.net, with his wife Geraldine. LeWeb gathers together 2000 entrepreneurs from 40 countries in December every year.

Prior to Seesmic and LeWeb, Loic started several other businesses such as Six Apart Europe, RapidSite, a web hosting service (acquired by France Telecom in 1999), as well as B2L, an interactive agency in 1999 (acquired by BBDO).

Loic has been blogging since 2003 at http://www.loiclemeur.com and can be also found online at http://www.seesmic.com/loic and http://www.twitter.com/loic

Recently, Business Week Magazine named Loic one of The 25 Most Influential People on the Web. He advises the World Economic Forum as well as covers the Annual Summit every year in Davos. Originally from the South of France, Loic lives in San Francisco, California and has three boys.

Be sure to mark your calendars. Here are the details:

Date: June 4th, 2009 (Thursday)
Time: 6-9pm
Location: Microsoft, 835 Market St, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103

DEMO COMPANIES

We are pleased to announce the following demo companies will be showcasing their products and services:

Tap In Systems, Inc

URL: http://www.tapinsystem.com
Presenting: Peter Loh (Founder/CEO)
Description:

Tap In Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of systems management services for cloud-based applications. Awarded the 2009 Under the Radar Conference Judges Choice Award as the top cloud management company, Tap In Systems has developed a cloud-based systems management service to respond to the unique needs of today’s increasingly heterogeneous and virtual IT infrastructures. Tap In Systems’ Cloud Management Service (CMS) is a cloud-based, scalable monitoring service which manages both cloud and on-premises systems, providing status and performance data, alerts and reporting to keep applications running smoothly. CMS is an affordable, on-demand solution that requires no hardware or proprietary expertise, and can scale up and down as a user’s needs change. For more information, visit www.tapinsystems.com.

IDNTITI

URL: http://www.idntiti.com
Presenting: Sree Unnamatla (Founder/CEO)
Description:

IDNTITI (pronounced “Identity”) believes in putting consumer research into the hands of consumers. IDNTITI is a Web 2.0 quantitative rating tool. It provides you the power to create polls and surveys and get the community voice gathered – QUANTITATIVELY. User can analyze rating data around demographic information of the raters. It’s a fun way of understanding community feedback, friends views etc. At core of the application, users build reputation of Organizations (companies, schools, colleges, hospitals, restaurants etc.) products or people they are associated with by rating them quantitatively. We are now available as facebook app at http://apps.facebook.com/idntiti/. Quantitative feedback matters!

Eduify

URL: http://www.eduify.com/beta
Presenting: Dan Merritts (VP of Marketing)
Description:

Eduify is a cloud-based writing platform that helps high school and college students learn to research faster and write better. Eduify is like a writing coach that is always by your side. The service provides web-based applications to edit and store documents; discover, use and automatically cite research; find writing tutorials and examples; safeguard against plagiarism; receive expert writing help. Eduify’s service integrates with existing social networks, giving students everywhere the community, applications and help to immediately improve their writing.

If you are interested in being a Demo Company, please be sure to fill out the Contact form and we will evaluate your submission.

MORE DETAILS

There will be food and drink provided as well as ample time to do networking and talk to the GoGrid and BizSpark folks about programs that can help you jump-start your startup.

Tickets are now on sale. To buy them online (for $10), please visit the EventBrite ordering page. Tickets may be available at the door (for $20), however there is no guarantee that there will still be any remaining.

It’s been a while since we had a StartUp SF. Much like a company that is in a start-up phase, sometimes you have to go into stealth mode for a bit to retool and come out with something even better. Well, we have done this and are announcing a new Co-Host, Microsoft BizSpark. Before I go into that, I would like to thank once again, our previous co-host, Orrick, who graciously provided the previous location, services and food & beverages at the past 3 events. We couldn’t have launched or done the first few events without them.

Our new co-host is Microsoft BizSpark, which is a perfect type of partner to have for any startup-related event. Here’s a brief description of BizSpark:

In November 2008, Microsoft launched BizSpark, a program whereby startups can get access to software, support and visibility. The most exciting part about BizSpark is the access you get to all kinds of Microsoft software for development, test and production. There is no cost to enroll and you pay just USD$100 when you exit the program. To get access to BizSpark, please email anand.iyer@microsoft.com For more details about what you get through the program, please visit “What Do I Get”.

The next StartUp SF is planned for Thursday June 4th in the evening so be sure to mark your calendars. We have a very exciting and popular speaker lined up for this meetup so check back here soon for the details on the event. But here is a hint of the speaker’s topic (subject to change): “Community Building for Start-ups”.

A quick recap of what StartUp SF is. It’s a meetup, co-hosted by GoGrid/ServePath and now Microsoft BizSpark, that is designed to help start-ups or those thinking about starting up a new business meet with like-minded individuals in a casual yet educational environment. The format allows for individuals to network, learn about other successful startups and get first hand tips & tricks from a guest speaker, specializing in a particular field.

We are also taking in submissions to be a Demo Company for this event. We limit the amount of companies to 4. Each Demo Company will get a table to showcase their product or service and 5 minutes to give an “elevator pitch.” If you are interested in being a Demo Company (or a Sponsor), please fill out the Contact Form. Ideally, we would like the Demo Companies to reflect the same theme as the Speaker.

We are very excited about this relaunch of StartUp SF and look forward to seeing you there.

Oh, and we are now on Twitter as well: http://twitter.com/startupsf .

Thanks to all who attended StartUp SF v1.3 on September 10th, 2008. This was by far the largest turnout that we have had to date. Over 100 people enjoyed the food, drink and engaging content coming from the attendees, demo companies and guest speaker. Also, all proceeds from this event are donated to a different non-profit charity. For SUSF v1.3, we raised around $600 for Doctors Without Borders so thanks to all who bought a ticket and attended.

To quickly recap, StartUp SF v1.3 had:

• Scott Nazarian, principal designer from frog design discuss how to understand, evaluate and choose designers
• Lee Diamond from StartUpAgents give an introduction to his matching service that helps companies and talent meet and engage
• Kord Campbell from <splunk> talk about taking the pain out of IT stat crunching
• Justin Thorp from ClearSpring show how to create, distribute, track and monetize widgets

Presentation Download >> Scott’s vibrant presentation is available for download here [pdf document].

The next StartUp SF will be within the next 2 months. If you are interested in being a demo company or a speaker, please fill out this form.

This event is hosted by:

• Orrick – a global law firm
• GoGrid – providing cloud hosting services with Windows/Linux/Load Balancing
• ServePath – managed hosting and colocation services

StartUp SF is back after a short summer vacation and raring to go with the THIRD meetup of the year. The Topic of v1.3 will be “Design for Startups” and the guest speaker is Scott Nazarian from frog design.

First the event details:

Date: Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Time: 6-9pm
Location: 8th Floor Cafe of Orrick, Herrinton & Sutcliffe (@ 405 Howard St in San Francisco)
Price: $10 online in advance / $20 at the door
Note: You must be 21 years or older to attend

Now, a bit more about StartUp SF v1.3.

ABOUT

StartUp SF brings together technologists, entrepreneurs, developers, technologies, services and solutions in an environment designed to further your learning, meet like-minded professionals and promote networking in order to make you successful.

StartUp SF is a not-for-profit event with all proceeds going to charity. All proceeds from this event will be going to Doctors without Borders. StartUp SF has raised $400 for Habitat for Humanity and $480 for Inveneo.

SPEAKER

StartUp SF is pleased to welcome Scott Nazarian, Principal Designer for frog design, inc., as this event’s guest speaker. A bit about Scott:

In his role as Principal Designer, Scott Nazarian meets projects with a blend of modal futurism and contemporary pragmatism, generating designs that are at once familiar and fantastic. Drawing upon a background that ranges from film, editing, and advertising to graphic and visual design, Scott works always to improve the human experience of digital technology. Recent clients include HP and OpenTV – a new paradigm in television watching.

Before coming to frog design, Scott served as a Principal Investigator for the User Experience Design Group of Sun Labs in Menlo Park, California, where he focused on the user experience within environmental, digital, and systems design. He has also worked as a creative director and designer for design firms in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. Throughout these positions, his designs have centered upon conceptual and brand-centric web-based media and interface environments.

Scott regularly teaches design courses at the graduate level, with past engagements at both Parsons and the Art Institute of Los Angeles. He received his MFA in Media Design from the Art Center College of Design in 2004.

DEMO COMPANIES

Demo companies at StartUp SF get 5 minutes of “open mic” time to give their company’s elevator pitch, as well as demo tables where they can showcase their product or service. Demo companies for this event are:

StartUpAgents – Lee Diamond, Founder & CEO
http://www.StartupAgents.com

About StartupAgents – StartupAgents is a matching service dedicated to helping startup companies worldwide find the talent they need to build next generation products and services. Our service provides both companies and individuals the ability to create detailed profiles that allow for a faster more successful matchmaking process.

<splunk> – Kord Campbell, Splunk Evangelist and Director, Splunk Developer’s Program
http://www.splunk.com

About <splunk> – Splunk is a Silicon Valley company inventing large-scale, high-speed indexing and search technology for IT infrastructures. The freely downloadable software indexes, searches and navigates data from any application, server or network device in real time. More than 750 enterprises, government organizations, and service providers and more than 200,000 users achieve higher availability, investigate security incidents in record time, and meet compliance requirements at lower costs.

Clearspring – Mike Harkey, Director of Business Development
http://www.clearspring.com

About Clearspring – Clearspring is the leading provider of widget creation, distribution, tracking and monetization services, used by the world’s largest media companies, advertisers, and widget developers. We help publishers and marketers extend their reach to the leading social networks, start pages and blogs and to respond to growing consumer demand for a more personalized desktop, Web, and mobile experience.

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT

At the event, you will hear some tips and tricks from a successful startup, find a good crowd, demos of some thought-provoking leading-edge products and drinks and light snacks.

You will leave better connected and educated AND with the following gifts from us:

• $100 GoGrid service credit which enables you to deploy, scale and load balance Cloud server networks instantaneously – More info about GoGrid
• Orrick’s Startup Kit CD which includes legal documents critical to every startup Venture – More info about Orrick

Bring yourself and your technology friends to meet likeminded, future-looking folks who may become your next colleague, customer, vendor or competitor.