With A Talent War In The Valley, Perhaps Romania Has The Answers? http://t.co/EEaYTkt9 via @techcrunch
Blackbox Connect: Big Brother meets the Playboy Mansion, for startups
Blackbox Connect. I’ve been back home a week and am still catching up. A 2-week injection of people, ideas and inspiration like an adrenalin shot to the heart.
What is it? An intense ‘educational’ program held in a mansion in Atherton (near Palo Alto). A dozen startups from all corners of the globe. A-list speakers and workshops. A hot tub. And some really smart dogs.
It’s not an incubator. More like an accelerator; focused purely on international startups. A pretty great concept, and one that exceeded all my expectations. I shared a few posts on specific sessions. Here’s just a quick run of highlights:
Truly impressive speakers.
- VCs sharing what they look for, and how to get there - Dave McLure, Tim Draper, Forrest Basket, Sharon Weinbar, Steph Palmeri (SoftTechVC).
- Valley veterans like Keith Teare (cofounder of Techcrunch); and Robert Scoble.
- Founders who’d sold to Google; people now at Google; and others still working to make a dent.
Sydney Startup Weekend: From the trenches
The energy is palpable. 100+ sleep-deprived participants, with overworked laptops, have seriously raised the temperature in the new Fishburners events space. Extra fans were acquired. Lunch has been served, and pitching practice has begun.
Sydney Startup Weekend kicked off last night, and we’re right in the thick of it. A dozen ideas are being fleshed out, validated and developed. The goal for Sunday night is a compelling pitch, ideally with a working prototype. Bonus points for paying customers.
This is my first Startup Weekend. I’m not directly participating, but involved as a panelist/mentor. A few early observations:
Robert Scoble swung for a night at Blackbox Mansion.
RecruitLoop gets some airtime @ 12.30..
Growth hacking your startup with Dan Martell
Week 2 of Blackbox Connect. Off to a blazing start today with Dan Martell, on Social Marketing for Startups.
Dan was founder of Flowtown, acquired last year by Demandforce. He’s currently working on another startup, while advising and investing in others. He calls himself a growth hacker.
I like that title. It explains what pretty much every startup with lean marketing budget is trying to do.
His weapon of choice? Social media. Results kinda speak for themselves: ~22K Twitter followers; 17K Facebook fans; 15K email subscribers in the very early days.
He shared some killer insights into what worked at Flowtown. I managed to capture a few.
Forget The MBA: How About a Masters In Startup Awesomeness? - http://t.co/kcBBSQsL
The 10 principles of lean user experience
Everything you do is wrong. You just don’t know it yet.
It’s Day2 of Blackbox Connect. 12 startups from 10 countries, and an amazing lineup of speakers and sessions over 2 weeks.
The team is live blogging here (w/ photos).
Today saw the first of 3 sessions with Janice Fraser. She’s cofounder of LUXr (The Lean UX Company), after selling a previous company (Adaptive Path) to Google. Oh, and she coined the term Ajax.
She led an awesome session on 10 principles of lean UX for startups. Here they are:
The Market Curve: The Life Cycle Of New Technology Markets http://t.co/J6eeFWbp by @dougpepper
So this is why they IPO… Personalized keg pouring apps (Taken with Instagram at Yelp HQ)
Bay Area adventure: Day 1
I’ve just landed in San Francisco, after a long flight ex-Sydney. I’ll be in the Bay Area for a bit over 3 weeks, splitting time between StartupHouse and the ‘Blackbox Mansion’ (more on both of those soon).
It’s primarily a trip for learning and connecting. Learning about the environment for startups, launching, recruitment technology, and fundraising. Connecting with people across all those spaces.
I’m now a fresh sponge. All going to plan, I’ll write here more often, to free up some space for more absorption.
For now, just a quick reflection after my first full day:
It couldn’t be easier getting to San Francisco as an Australian startup.
My first day looked like:
- Fly Syd-LA-SFO (ok, this bit sucks)
- BART to downtown ($8)
- Walk to Startuphouse (soon-to-launch ‘B&D’ - bed and desk)
- Grab a feed at Wholefoods down the block ($7)
- Buy an AT&T simcard and data pack ($30). Now fully connected. Somehow my Australian phone wasn’t set to roaming, so the trip from the airport was ‘blind’. It’s unbelievable how critical it’s become to have the web in your pocket, always.
- Back to Startuphouse. Work. Sydney coming online - talk to clients and team. Setup meetings and schedule for the next few days. Smooth sailing so far.
Totally painless. I missed an afternoon of ‘work’, then fully back online, just in a new environment.
Ignore the distance for a minute (and yes, flights cost money). But it honestly couldn’t be easier for an Australian startup to just get over here, and spend some time. There is literally no roadblock.
Cost of living is no comparison. And the time zone is amazingly friendly. It’s midnight here and I’ve just seen out the full working day in Australia (with a few gaps).
We’ll see if that can last. But I’m feeling optimistic about living a double-work life the next few weeks, and seeing what comes of it.
Cofounder of RecruitLoop. Ex-corporate chasing the dream. Sharing notes on startups, tech and a few sounds keeping me inspired.
