Go To The Show

So I became a Startup Riot ambassador. Mainly because I believe that it is one of the most important events on the South technology scene. Startup Riot is growing and branching out. They have started MAKE which is essentially a startup weekend like experience and it is good to see someone picking up the ball there. But the big gathering is Startup Riot SHOW.

SHOW is an all-day pitch event that highlights 25 startups giving three minute pitches. If you want to see the latest early stage stuff this is the place to be. The prices are low, ranging from $30 to $70 for the day and it is free to present. 

This year SHOW takes place on February 22. Registration closes on February 8. The registration to pitch has passed but if you have it going on you still might be able to make the stage. Drop me a line.

Think Different

Correcting the Cat

Over on the Groupon blog Groupon the Cat is creating quite the ruckus. It seems like Mr. Cat wrote a little blog post about "The Groupon Guide to the "Quiet Period." In it Mr. Cats states:

The “Quiet Period” is the time right before a company “goes public,” during which it is legally prohibited from saying anything to the press that may make the company look “good,” “successful,” or “not currently on fire.”

Not that I get great joy pointing this out but Mr. Cat is wrong. During the quiet period a company is indeed not allowed to publicly say anything that might be considered as pumping the offering. However quiet periods are not restricted to the time before a company "goes public". They generally apply anytime a company issues a new public offering regardless of if that offering is the initial public offering or a subsequent offering.

In 2005 the Security and Exchange Commission modifed the quite period rules so that they did not fully apply to "well-known seasoned issuers". Well-known seasoned issuers must either have a publicly traded market capitalization of at least $700 million or have issued at least $1 billion in securites other than common equity over the past three years. These well-known issuers represent approximately 30% of listed issuers and accounted for about 95% of U.S. equity market capitalization. 

So regardless if it is your first public offering or your tenth, if you are in your registration period you are required to be quiet. Even if you pretending to be a cat.

Opening Up Social Networks

I have a social network management system that is somewhat well thought out and which I exercise diligently. You could call it discerning. On the big four it goes something like this:

• Join the professional networks of people I have conducted business with on LinkedIn
• Follow people on Twitter that I find interesting
• Friend people on Facebook in which I have had a meaningful social encounter
• Friend people on Foursquare where I would value a serendipitous encounter

This has led to what I consider to be a somewhat manageable social network structure for me. And for Lent I am going to throw it all out the window. During Lent I am going to take all comers and clean out the backlog on my social network invites.  They currently look like this:

• LinkedIn 892 contacts, 363 requests
• Twitter 2,774 followers, 331 following
• Facebook 386 friends, 83 requests
• Foursquare 88 followers, 120 requests

During Lent I am giving up my social network follower discretion. Accepting outstanding requests and taking all comers. Not sure it it going to stick come Easter but it will be an interesting experiment.

Tech Marketing Award Winners

Random Hacks of Kindness

Random Hacks of Kindness is a community of developers, geeks and tech-savvy do-gooders from around the world working to develop software for the challenges facing humanity today. RHoK brings geeks together with disaster relief gurus to identify critical global challenges and develop software to respond to them. They do this via RHoK Hackathon events that bring together the best and the brightest hackers from around the world, who volunteer their time to solve real-world problems. The founding partners include Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, three companies that don't always get along but have come together for the cause.

On December 4th and 5th  RHoK is hosting its third hackathon in many locations around the world. The Georgia Tech Research Institute is a RHoK partner and will be hosting RHoK in Atlanta.  

There are winners and prizes up for grabs. Each RHoK hackathon is structured as a code challenge where software developers have a set amount of time to solve the challenges they are given. At the end of the two-day marathon of hacking, a panel will review each hack, and the winners will walk away with prizes, as well as the right to call themselves “RHoKstars” ever after.

You can learn more about joining other hackers in hacking for humanity at RHoK  and register to participate.

Cross posted to atdc.org.

Facebook Social Graph

With a big pointer from Daniel Sims, I went to the SWAT Labs Facebook social app and created the graph below.

Not quite as interesting as the LinkedIn graph of yesterday. My Facebook network is purposely more limted than that of LinkedIn.  On the lower left are my high school friends and my family is right above them. The little cluster at the top is the Kelly School. The big cluster in the middle is MindSpring with the rest of my Atlanta connections clumped off to the right. Notable are the relative lack of connections between clusters and the number of folks within the network that are only connected to me.

LinkedIn Social Graph

So my friend Russell Jurney, who is an analytics architect at LinkedIn, sent me my LinkedIn social graph. It's pretty cool.

According to Russell the colors represent clusters of well-connected people.  Moving from lower left to upper right the clusters go something like this:

• Dark blue: Established Atlanta technology community
• Bondi blue: CipherTrust
• Green: Up and coming social/startup crowd
• Light orange: Kelley School of Business
• Baby blue: Indiana University
• Orange: EarthLink/MindSpring

It is interesting that there is no clear ATDC/Georgia Tech cluster.

The people between two of the various colors are the bridges between clusters. The up and coming startup gang is much more tightly networked with the established techies than one might expect.  For the most part the MindSpring team is less connected and those closer to the other clusters seem to be more entrepreneurial.

If you double click you will get a full size image with all 800 or so of my LinkedIn connections named. The size of a person's circle reflects many people they are are connected to within my network. It's fun to play with. Would love to hear thoughts on your graph location as well as those you are connected with on LinkedIn.

Tech Marketing Awards

On November 18 I will be playing master of ceremonies to the first ever, and hopefully annual, Tech Marketing Awards.

I am quite sure that the highlight of the evening will not be anything that I have to say about the chief marketing technologist meme in my opening comments. Nor will it be the spectacular views of downtown Atlanta and the lights of Centennial Olympic Park from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Roof Top Pavilion. The really good stuff will happen when some of the best and brightest marketers in Atlanta get together with a fine list of finalists to mingle and discuss the latest in marketing technology (easily confused by the non initiated with the marketing of technology.)

This will be fun. More details and tickets here.

Weekend Update

Every November since 2007 I have organized Atlanta Startup Weekend. After some deep thought on the matter I have decided to no longer led Atlanta Startup Weekend. The decision was both complex and difficult but it is the right thing to do. Atlanta Startup Weekend accomplished what I intended. It built a stronger technology startup community in Atlanta and beyond. It was one of the sparks to ignite a new generation of entrepreneurs across the South. People that met at Atlanta Startup Weekend are forming companies together. In a few weeks Twitpay, a company that came out of Atlanta Startup Weekend in 2008, will be on the stage at Venture Atlanta pitching for a $5 million Series A. 

I have gotten to know entrepreneurs across the country as a result of Startup Weekend. I really enjoy the excitement and pressure of the weekend. But it is time for me to move on. Jason Ardell and I have been having discussions and I believe he and other Atlanta Startup Weekend veterans will be moving forward with the concept. I love that some young smart folks have gotten enough value out of past weekends that they are stepping up to lead the effort going forward. The weekend always belonged to the participants and now a few of them are going to be running it. One of the magical parts of Startup Weekend is watching who steps up to be a leader and make things happen. It is great to see that happening in Atlanta with the event itself.