A World After Venture
I've been going to several Entrepreneurial meetups where startups present their businesses to a crowd of folks standing around a fairly beat up bar in New York with drinks in hand listening to these brave new pioneers seeking impact in the Web 3.0 world.
Everything has to do with social media and networking in the virtual space. Actually I think these small companies I've listened to do have a round of financing and are in "late Alpha" or moving ahead to "early Beta." They might need another round soon some say, others have had offers to be acquired but are fighting to stay independent.
I'm not a VC, can't really make much sense of some of this eco-babble about venture capital. I'm all marketing, let's get those users to that site. I think in terms of marketing budgets, unique twists for a campaign hook. I talk more cpms, ctr, cpa, ROI not about bridge financing.
The meeting I went to tonight was particularly friendly and I met a lot of good people. I learned about Thrive, a site that helps people manage their money with more insight, another company has a product that backs up your cell phone. The group is run by Peter Verkooijen and you can find out more about future meetings at Web2NewYork.
I have to say that I found it quite stimulating to socialize with people with a focus on what is new and what is emerging and finding out what each person does. It's a creative crowd of people that comes to these gatherings and high energy. You couldn't meet and greet folks in this manner after spending 10 months online really. I'm a F2F person (face 2face) - still believe in human contact as primary ignitor of the spark that fires new relationships.
So maybe I should be more the voyeur for my blog reader and tell you more about who I meet in my wanderings and I search for my next best project.