Microsoft

Startup World @ Microsoft
February 19th 6:00-10pm

Hermione Way and I 

I crashed Startup World in this hidden Microsoft office that was located in Westfield Mall. Who knew this office even existed? Everyone I had asked at this event had no idea and I wonder if Microsoft even knew about this. What I did know though was that Hermione Way could have possibly been the only person there that was aware of this secret space. She was the host of Startup World, as well as one of the cast members of that show on Bravo "Start-Up: Silicon Valley." Hermione Way continued on to start a global competition to find the world's most innovative startups. She identified 36 tech hub cities around the world and was holding a regional pitching competition. With ten entrepreneurs from each city pitching to a panel of expert judges (and me), SF was their first stop.

Why is there such a big start-up scene here? Why are we like this? The panel brought up some explanations as to why the bay is such a big player in the start-up scene. SF keeps the geeks here, according to the panel.  Part of the reason being is that geeks change things, and people want to hang out with smart people which ends up drawing more smart people in. When Hermoine asked the panel where they thought the next Silicon Valley was going to be, an array of places were mentioned:  London,  Berlin,  Bejing  Moscow, Tel Aviv, amongst others. However, the truth is no other place will be just like Silicon Valley especially with Berlin's distinct rave scene (which apparently is the reason why the geeks stay there).  Of course it was a close competition to find the top start-up in SF, so I decided to feature the first and second place companies.

Leo's Pad

Winner: Kidaptive -Learn to change the world.  Co-Founder Dylan Arena was here to represent this media and technology company dedicated to smart storytelling on iPads with a curriculum developed in collaboration with Stanford University researchers to create entertaining and adaptive content that helps children learn. Their first product, Leo's Pad, engages preschool-aged children with games, puzzles and projects woven into an immersive story arc. Their technology uses embedded assessments to customize learning, support metacognitive development and provide parents with actionable intelligence and useful tips about how to further support their child's progress and interests.


2nd Place: GazeMetrix -Finally your brand can see. GazeMetrix was led by a modest team of geeks in hoodies that built an algorithm which breaks down the unique characteristics of a brand's logo, everything from the corners, shapes, lines, shadows, and colors, to create a brand signature. Using image-recognition software they let brands track where their logos are being photographed, helping brand marketers measure their brand's reach in people's lives by capturing these 'visual mentions'.  With 12 million public pictures being uploaded a day, GazeMetrix empowers brands with insight into when and where their brand was photographed across social media in real-time.

Startup World with Hermione Way and the geeks of SF... CRASHED IT!

Women 2.0

Women 2.0 Conference Reception @ Westin St. Francisco

Feb 14th 6:00-8:00pm 

I got myself a badge and crashed this Women 2.0 conference reception because for this Valentines Day I was going to surround myself with females. Exploring "The Next Billion: Consumers, Markets & Product" was the must attend conference for investors, engineers and designers focused on exploring up-and-coming trends in innovation. "The Next Billion" is the future that we see today with successful women entrepreneurs who've reached milestones of billions with some of the leading female executives in technology.

Amongst these female leaders were Selina Tobaccowala (Founder of Evite.com) and Jessica Scorpio (Co-Founder of Getaround), but still women start only 3% of tech firms. I crashed this conference to discuss innovation and learn from their start-up advice:

"Choose your partners wisely, in business and in life."

"People are everything; not just who share a vision but who execute it."

"Content is queen."

It only seemed appropriate on this V-Day to track down the woman whose partially responsible for bringing hundreds of couples together. Fran Maier co-founded one of the first and most successful online dating sites, Match.com. Back when most people thought the whole concept of internet dating was weird, Fran helped grow Match by changing the perceptions and building one of the most recognized online brands. Fran stepped away from the project in 1998 when it was sold by a board of directors who didn't believe in the potential of online dating. It was purchased for a few million dollars (pennies compared to its current $178 million revenues). Fran shared advice to VCs now around women advancements, "If she has traction, if she has customers, if she has sales -maybe you don't get it, but write the check anyway."

Thanks to these and the many other women nerd superheroes. You’ve truly helped make the world a better place... CRASHED IT!

Equinox

Cycle For Survival @ Equinox

Feb 2nd All day

This was an event for only the fearless, that's why Daniel Glover and I crashed it (although I think he may have been invited).  

Danny and I joined the battle to beat cancer as they closed down Equinox for the day. For the most of you that are a member of a gym, a foreign scene for me, but imagine the entire place transformed into a giant spinning class. Amongst all the cyclers was a man that started it all, Dave. Actually it was his wife Jennifer Goodman Linn who was diagnosed with Sarcoma back in 2004. Jen wanted to give back to others so with her husband she founded Cycle for Survival in 2007. Cycle for Survival is a high-energy indoor cycling event that brings people together to raise funds for rare cancer research; 50% of all diagnosed cancers are considered rare. What started out in New York has now expanded to Chicago, Long Island, SF, LA, and DC becoming one of the fastest growing fundraising events in the world.

Meet Dave (The Co-Founder)

Now once a year you can join the battle as well by cycling (no trainer is necessary). You can either start a team and be a captain, join a pre-existing team, or go extreme and ride the entire four hours yourself. Corporate teams seem to be a popular route to go. 



Even though it's too late to help Jen, Dave has chosen to do everything he could to help other rare cancer patients live every day to the fullest. This was also a special day for Dave though as it was his 40th Birthday. When it was Jen's 40th she made a video called the "Happy to be 40 Dance" in which she just let it all go to simply dance, so for this day the entire place stopped to dance -smile, laugh, and live life to the fullest. As Jen had once said, "If you take fear out of the equation people could could be much more satisfied and successful." 

Cycle for Survival makes a tangible impact on cancer patients and their loved ones, and you can too. Here a few more incredible statistics made possible by Cycle for Survival.
100% of the funds go directly to the cancer center and are allocated within six months of each event.
25 million dollars have been raised to this date, funding 53 clinical research studies. 

Some of us leave the world and make an everlasting impact.
Thank you Jennifer for being one of them. 

You Fearless -Jennifer Goodman Linn

 

CRASHED IT -to living fearlessly! 

WeWork Labs

WeWork Labs Startup Showcase & Party @ WeWork Labs SF 

Jan 14th 6:00-9:30pm 

This place looks interesting -especially when it's filled with CEO's!

WeWork Labs is home to dozens of start-ups and to celebrate the cool projects that their working on they were throwing a party and showcase -so of course I crashed it! An event filled with CEO's giving demos, WeWork Labs helps early state technology start-ups grow and accelerate their businesses. Whether it's about to launch next week or just went live these platforms will make your life easier, more convenient, and simply better. All these founders found a problem and utilized technology to solve it, so meet some of the newest CEO's.

Boubou Guiro: The happiest man there, he's the CEO and Founder of OnVedeo. Boubou had a smile on his face the entire time I was talking with him and I couldn't help but feel his excitement. OnVedeo is essentially a video platform for real estate and rental properties with a big focus on their mobile app.

Jenna Bilotta: Founder and Chief Product Gal of Avocado. The Avocado software is the best way to stay connected to your favorite person (assuming your favorite person doesn't change constantly). It's an application and platform designed for two people to build and share a life, as Jenna came up with the idea of Avocado with her husband. She set out to build the most advanced couples app in the world, but why name it Avocado? Jenna told me that avocados grow in pairs on the tree... and that it also makes a cute logo.


George Ludwig: Founder of 6Builder, a tool that drives new costumer acquisition via Twitter. 6Builder enables you to execute a highly effective Twitter marketing campaign in apparently less time than it takes to drink your morning latte. I'm a pretty fast drinker but 6Builder promises to grow, engage and optimize my Twitter for me while I can just sit back, enjoy my coffee and send a hug to my avocado.

It was nearly 8pm so I ditched the conversations with the CEO's for a comfy chair. 

Crashed it- For love of new technologies!

Groupon

Good Night Lamp @ Groupon

Jan 15th 7:00-10:00pm 

Everyone knows Groupon. This deal-of-the-day site was hosting a product demo by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino -and not everyone knows her. She's the Founder of Good Night Lamp and she came all the way from London, so I crashed this event to see what her new start-up is all about. Alexandra has been focused on the "internet of things" and it's implications in the design of everyday products. This has led her to create a space in people's homes for quirky, internet-connected objects.

The Good Night Lamp brings people together through a neighborhood of networked lamps -a family of internet connected lights. Turn the Big Lamp on and the Little Lamps turn on wherever they are. If you want to keep your eye on a loved one that lives alone, or if you live abroad and can't seem to call your family at the right time (or don't want to) or if you just want to connect home and work by signaling a subtle sign to tell people you're on the way -that's where Good Night Lamp comes into play. The Good Night Lamp creates a tangible reminder of the others presence and connects people around the world at a flick of a switch.

If you find Good Night Lamp interesting they recently jumped aboard the kickstarter train, so you can support it here.   

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/designswarm/good-night-lamp

CRASHED IT -a good night with lamps!

Covington

Covington's Cocktail Reception @ The Westin St. Francis

Jan 7th 5:00-8:30pm 

The clockbar was closed for this private event so I grabbed myself a name tag and crashed this cocktail reception. Covington was hosting this event in conjuction with the healthcare conference and I joined this crowd because I care about health too. Convington & Burling LLP is an international law firm representing clients in cutting edge technology, litigation, white collar defense, governmental affairs, and more -they pretty much cover everything when it deals with law. While crashing this event I noticed that I could essentially split all the attendees up into three categories: the people in healthcare services, the people in pharma companies, and the people that were crashing this event (which were two). What I also saw is that the percentage of men far outnumbered the amount of women.  I found myself with one of the few women attendees, Brianna Sandoval, from Covington & Burling and we both tried to figure out why J.P. Morgan's Health conference was dominated by men. 

Another question that's been on my mind is, what am I going to do with all of this company event crashing? Well, I plan on making a company coffee table book -which I don't think actually exists but I'm creating one that's meant for lobbies and waiting rooms of businesses and it's called, "Crashed it -50 Company Events in SF."  Not sure if this means I'm going to need permission from all these businesses because otherwise it may just turn into a book called "Sued -by 50 Companies in SF". I guess I could now ask this question to my lawyer friends at Covington.

Crashed it with the Covington Crew!  

Zappos

Lunch 2.0 @ Zappos Labs
Friday, Jan 4th 12:00pm-2:00pm 

If Zappos can "deliver happiness" then I can deliver pizza and that's how I snuck into Zappos' lunch event with the Escape From New York delivery man. When most people think of Zappos they think shoes, and lots of them. Zappos is the number one online shoe retailer with a major success in customer service. Zappos' call center is different, they don't follow any scripts and they're there for you 24/7... so if you ever need someone to talk to you can always call the Zappos' customer loyalty team -maybe that's how the new record for the longest phone conversation with them lasted 10 hours.  I've heard their voices, but who were these people that would stay on the phone with someone that long just to make them happy?  I went to meet this Zappos family.

I had no idea this little Zappos office even existed, and apparently some of the Zappos' employees in the Las Vegas headquarters don't either. This was their first event this office had ever hosted so when I asked about a presentation they replied, "should we have had one?" and Rian Schmidt, the engineering manager busted out a little dance for me.  Then we talked strategy, which led to me getting a personal presentation.

During this web-demo for one Nick Vincent, the Senior Web Developer, showed me some of the latest ways Zappos is leveraging social media like Pintrest and Twitter. Making sure to align with the bigger brand messaging, they've rolled out product lines beyond shoes like dresses and purses. Nick also showed me a map where I could see in real-time where people are buying which shoes. With that in mind the CEO Tony Hsieh wasn't there, although I spent a good portion of one afternoon thinking of the perfect question had I did run into him. I would definitely make sure to ask the CEO how possible it would be to hook me up with the Clarks desert boot oakwood suede shoe (size 8).





Crashed it with the Zappos Family -delivering a little extra happiness for everyone (even for my kitten that received a new toy box)

My favorite page of the book -the Core Values of Zappos