STIRR

One of the great benefits of moderating FoundersTable is getting to see some terrific veteran entrepreneurs in action solving startup challenges of the attendees on the fly. Munjal Shah (Like.com) is one of those sharp thinkers that’s a pleasure to watch in action helping entrepreneurs around the table. The conversations at FoundersTable are private, but we had the pleasure of having Munjal speak publicly at our first FounderHacks event.

If you haven’t heard Munjal’s great story about losing $2 million dollars in five days, check out the YouTube video from his talk: Munjal Shah on Loosing $2 million in 5 days. (note: Video quality improves significantly halfway through).

Congrats to Munjal and the Like.com team on the acquisition!

Back in November 2006 Kongregate took the stage at STIRR 1.8 to tell the world about the coming casual games revolution.  After launch, I think we all blamed Kongregate for hours of lost time playing games like Desktop Tower Defense and the Fancy Pants Adventures.  Our congrats to Jim and Emily on Kongregate’s acquisition by GameStop.

A big note of thanks to our first FoundersTable sponsor of 2010.  FirstRound Capital was gracious enough to help sponsor STIRR in 2010.  As soon as we get everyone’s schedule worked out we’ll have a special announcement for the first FoundersTable of 2010.

We’re honored to have a huge influx of new applications, wow.  If you’ve signed up, we’ve got you on the list.  We’re not going to be able to have everyone attend the first event, but we will have multiple events through the year.

In the meantime, if you’re a first time entrepreneur, the FoundersInstitute is accepting applications for their next  Bay Area session.  We’re not affiliated with Founders Institute, but we are fans of Adeo’s work with TheFunded and like what he’s doing with the new incubator model.  Let us know what you think.

Wishing everyone a terrific Holiday Season and looking forward to seeing all of you in 2010.

Hats off to Aaron, Matt, Poornima, the entire Mint team and all the investors (FirstRound, Felicis Ventures, SoftTech VC, Shasta Ventures, et all).  Aaron and Sanford crossed paths back when Mint was still a prototype on Aaron’s laptop.  Aaron asked coyly, “Do you think this is fundable?” Sanford replied, “Are you kidding?  Cancel your plans, you’re coming to dinner with us tomorrow”.  We invited Arron to FoundersTable to meet Josh Koppleman (FirstRound) and  FirstRound ended up investing shortly afterwards (along with a few A+ angels we tipped off early on  - nods to Aydin Senkut/Felicis Ventures and Jeff Clavier/SofttecVC).   We take no credit except for knowing a winner when we saw it.  A well deserved exit for team Mint and a huge win for Intuit.  We wish everyone continued success.

That makes the 3rd 4th 5th FoundersTable attendee with a healthy exit post-event (PowerSet, StumbleUpon, Mint, Slide, Like.com) and we look forward to having them back to future dinners as veteran entrepreneurs.

If you’d like to apply for a spot at the table, please fill out the form here: FoundersTable Application and we hope to see you at a future dinner. [note: we're not running any additonal FoundersTable events for now.  We'll post an announcement when we start again]

Our friends over at Women2 asked us to put in the good word about their Pitch Night event featuring a meeting with Michael Moritz of Sequoia.  We’ll let the Women2 team put it in their own words:

==PITCH 2009: Napkin startup competition==

Michael Moritz of SEQUOIA Capital is listening.
http://pitch.women2.org
DEADLINE: April 10, 2009 (firm deadline)
Do you have the world’s next big idea? Here’s your chance to PITCH.
Michael Moritz (Sequoia) is listening! Put it on a paper napkin!

Women 2.0′s third-annual Startup Competition will provide your alpha,
beta, or prototype-stage startup with exposure to early stage
investors. Our judging panel includes investors and experienced
startup executives who will provide valuable written feedback on your
business.

NOTE: *only ONE of the founding members needs to be female to qualify.

Continue reading →

Andrew Chen writes a great blog and recently posted a good list of some bay area entrepreneurs to follow on twitter.

The list includes our friends and some fomer STIRR speakers: David Weekly (pbwiki), Scott Rafer (lookery), Ted Rheingold (dogster) and more.

You can find the full list here [Futuristic Play by Andrew Chen]

And you can find the US STIRR team on twitter here: @heysanford, @danarkind, @seanness

After 2 years of producing multiple monthly events, the Bay Area STIRR team has been taking a long deserved break.  FoundersTable is still ongoing and we are accepting PitchLab applications so please feel free to apply for both. [update: we may resume FoundersTable but for now we're not running events]

In the meantime there are two other events you may wish to check out.  The first is TheFunded‘s CEO unconference and VC/Founder events.  If you’re not already a member of TheFunded don’t hesitate, sign-up now.  Adeo and his team have been running high quality events where only the highest rated VCs from TheFunded are invited.   The second organization is Startup2Startup.  The Startup2Startup dinner is a speaker series run by Dave McClure with a brief time dedicated to Q&A around the table.  Dave picks a good crowd and many of the talks are insightful.  We’re expecting Dave to have bigger things in store, keep an eye out for his next move.

Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto's COO

University of Calgary Computing Science alumni and students joined with STIRR Canada members on January 21st to exchange start-up stories, advice, and ideas at the most recent TechMixer. Calgary-based  iStockphoto’s global success in the microstock photography industry was the topic of the evening.

Kelly Thompson (iStockphoto COO) and Patrick Lor (iStockphoto founding team) shared stories about their early years as entrepreneurs, highlighted the company’s peaks and valleys, and fielded questions from the audience of aspiring tech entrepreneurs.

Thanks to Macleod Dixon for their continued sponsorship of Calgary’s tech entrepreneur community!

Brad Sewall welcomes the audience

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WOMEN 2.0 “MUSIC MAKERS AND TECHNOLOGY SHAKERS”

Event details – http://www.women2.org/october-2008-music-and-tech/
Eventbrite registration – http://musicandtech.eventbrite.com/
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Women 2.0 proudly showcases an impressive lineup of artists and entrepreneurs in the music space. Join us for “Music Makers and Technology Shakers” on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 from 6pm to 9pm at Slide in San Francisco.

Our esteemed panelists will discuss current trends in music and alternative business models.

» Elise Nordling – Panel moderator – (Music Director and DJ for SOMA FM)
» Angelina Moysov (Singer / Songerwriter for Persephones Bees)
» Lucia Iman (top-selling artist on SellaBand)
» Pim Beist (Founder and Creative Director of SellaBand)
» Celia Hirschman (KCRW Commentator “On the Beat”)
» Cecily Mak (Senior Counsel at RealNetworks and Rhapsody)
» Jay Durgan (President of Raiden Holdings and former Head of Bus. Dev. at Warner Music)

Join the discussion with artists, seasoned executives and music industry disrupters who will join us from KCRW to Real Networks to Sellaband.com (all the way from the Netherlands). Hear influential technology and music leaders talk about the changes in the music industry, new business models, current trends and how the startup community can empower change for artists around the globe.