Kawasaki, Moritz and Graham – Fireside Chat

Fireside Chat in Silicon Valley

At Garage.com’s Revenue Bootcamp this year, Guy Kawasaki (Garage.com), Mike Moritz (Sequoia Capital) and Paul Graham (Y-Combinator) frankly discuss what it takes to make it in a Silicon Valley startup. Required watching for all aspiring entrepreneurs!

From Building 43 website: ”

Two of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists say even the best ideas can be worthless without passion.

In the concluding session of Revenue Bootcamp, two money men – Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital and Paul Graham, Y Combinator – sat down with Guy Kawasaki, managing director, Garage Technology Ventures to discuss the realities of venture capital funding in the technology industry – and the passion needed to succeed.

The day-long Revenue Bootcamp held July 10, 2009, on the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, Calif., brought together some top-notch experts to share tips, hints, lessons and advice about how to increase traffic with Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and face-to-face meetings.

This video, “Fireside chat,” is the last in a series recorded during the one-day conference organized by Kawasaki.

InOneWeekend 2009 Ready to Launch!

The second InOneWeekend will be launched at the University of Cincinnati’s Tangemann Center, where 100 people will gather for a total entrepreneurial immersion weekend. The keynote session will kickoff with Ali Rowghani, the CFO and VP of Strategic Planning for Pixar Studios on Friday afternoon. Following the Pixar keynote, the group will begin to ideate and create the next InOneWeekend company! More than 100 people participated last year with a waiting list that was longer than the participant list.

Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the entire lifecycle of a startup in one weekend! Register here!

Garage.com hosts Revenue Bootcamp Conference

Guy Kawasaki, Founder of Garage.com

Garage Technology Ventures presents Revenue Bootcamp, a conference for entrepreneurs to energize their strategies for generating revenue. While venture and angel investment appears harder and harder to get, bootstrapping and generating revenue are ideal solutions for young companies.

The conference covers maximizing traffic, generating leads, online advertising, non-traditional monetization strategies, and raising capital. Attendees will hear from industry experts and from entrepreneurs in the trenches, including Chris Anderson, author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Charlene Li, author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital, and Garage’s own Guy Kawasaki.

Check out the conference at http://revenuebootcamp.garage.com/

Cincinnati Innovates!

Put on your thinking caps and start creating ideas. If you have an idea that you think might just fly — submit it online to Cincinnati Innovates and you could win money to get your idea launched. CincyTech, The Haile Foundation and TaftLaw along with a host of supporting organizations have created the Greater Cincinnati Regional Innovation Competition that will start on May 1. The deadline for all entries is September 1 — so get started and start thinking!

Cincinnati Innovates

Welcome to 2009!

Happy New Year! 2008 is history, and many are happy to have it become history! The economy and the election dominated the news in the last quarter — but now we are off to a fresh start. Here’s a few newsworthy items to consider!

There are plenty of lists to consider in the New Year. Guy Kawasaki suggests Ten Tiny Things Every Small Business Owner Should Do in 2009. Click here and scroll down in the American Express OPEN Forum!

If your venture-backed company went public this year, you were part of a very small group of seven. These seven comapnies generated $551 Million in liquidity — the lowest in 5 years. Here’s a summary from the Yahoo Finance!. Read more…

The National Venture Capital Association published their Q4 2009 survey with over 400 members participating. Needless to say, the outlook is very conservative at best. Read more at NVCA Annual Survey Forecasts Challenges for Venture Industry in 2009!

The Blog “Small Business Labs” generated the list of Top Ten Small Business Trends for 2009 featuring economic, demographic and tecnology trends. Read more here!

2009 will challenge us in many ways. As Richard Currier, marketing guru at the Park City Marketing Institute,  has always said, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness!” Start innovating your way out of this recession and into success!

Due Diligence – Your Personality is Showing

Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital

Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners writes “Seeing Both Sides: VC Perspectives from a Former Entrepreneur.” In this blog on due diligence, he highlights what is truly learned during the phases of due diligence — not just the facts — but the way the entrepreneurs provide information, how they react and the essence of their true entrepreneur personality.

Entrepreneurs need to know that it is the whole package — the diligence and the interactions during due diligence that reveal all to the VC.

Click here to read the full blog…

ShareThis Makes it to Round 1 of Mashable Open Web Awards

Thanks to all ShareThis fans who nominated them for two categories in Mashable’s Open Web Awards this year.  They have been entered in the Blog Plugin category as well as the Social Bookmarking category. Today the voting starts and continues until December 15. And just like Chicago, you can vote early and ofter — at least once per day!

To make it easy to vote, just click here to use ShareThis voting widgets on their blog!

GK to Speak Live Today Nov 18 5pm EST

Guy Kawasaki will speak LIVE today on his new book! Whether or not you believe in shameless self-promotion, the conversation is always valuable — and to the point.

To register, click here!

Guy's new book!

Cincinnati Companies Nominated for Open Web Award

The Mashable 2nd Annual Open Web Awards is accepting nominations for awards in various categories! ShareThis, PimpMyNews.com, and ZipScene have all been nominated, but we need your votes to put Cincinnati on Mashable’s web map!

Nominate ShareThis by going to the ShareThis blog and completing the ballot.

Nominate PimpMyNews by going to the PimpMyNews blog and completing the ballot.

For ZipScene, go to Mashable.com and complete the ballots there!

Let’s bring home some winners and show the world that Ohio is indeed a critical voting state!

GCVA Rocks Oakley!

The GCVA broke new ground with a very entrepreneurial event at the 20th Century Theatre in Oakley. The meeting delivered two startup company presentations, 249Smiles.com and AHL-TECH that are on the trail of their initial funding. Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis, keynoted on the magic that entrepreneurs must master to create a successful venture funded company.

Then – the Red Herrings took the stage — 9 Cincinnati entrepreneurs put on a great show with the crowd crying for more. Most importantly, there was a buzz in the air. Venture capitalist actually loosened their ties and entrepreneurs soaked it up. A number of InOneWeekend alumni gathered to celebrate.

“Conversation crystallizes genius!” and the crowd really connected and talked it up. The entertainment is tough to beat – but the GCVA is truly focusing on engaging entrepreneurs and investors to create a more vibrant startup community in the region.