StartPad Countdown Series

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I Can Has Cheezburger? has really taken off over the last two years as LOLcats and FAILs have tapped into a cultural phenomena.  Scott will share the some of the ways they've approached technology to our advantage in running a content publishing website.  Mainly, these fit into three categories: embracing a user-driven content model, accepting the tradeoffs of working with strategic partners and adapting some Agile like practices to suit the needs of our business.

Who: Scott Porad, Pet Holdings, Inc.
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday June 2nd, 2009
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free! (Pizza and drinks will be served)

About the presenter: Scott Porad is the Cheezburger Technology Officer of Pet Holdings, Inc., the company behind the popular websites I Can Has Cheezburger? and Failblog.org. The Cheezburger Network is a collection of web sites where millions of people share moments of joy through the humor and wonder of LOL.

Before focusing on user-generated content, Scott focused on e-commerce and online retail as part of the initial launch team at drugstore.com, and online publishing and content management at ESPN.com.  And, prior to that, he worked for Seth Godin’s Yoyodyne Entertainment and Small World Software.

Scott's personal blog is http://scottporad.com and he tweets @scottporad.

This Startpad Countdown event is sponsored by:

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You’ve arrived at the point where you want/need to add to your team. You’ve got way more to do than you can possibly get done with who you have on board now. What questions should you ask yourself before starting the process? Where do you start? What resources are out there to smooth the process? Come learn this and more about what you need to do to build a stellar team.

What: StartPad Countdown 9 -- How to Wrangle a Team to Build Your Company
Who: Kirsten Roth, The Laurel Group
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday May 5th, 2009
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Kirsten Roth, Principal at the Laurel Group, has been in executive search for 3 years and brings 20 years in management and strategic marketing with companies like Hughes Electronics, PanAmSat, Directv, AEI Music. Immediately prior to entering the search profession she ran a successful management consulting practice with clients such as National Public Broadcasting (NPR), Boeing, Fisher Communications and start-ups like MoodLogic (acquired by Macrovision). Her corporate experience allows her to understand client needs better so she is able to help them find just the right candidate for their positions.

Kirsten has worked with entrepreneurial ventures for many years and has been actively involved with the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest where she is a Past President, Chair Emeritus and a member of the Board of Directors.

She has a keen interest in helping young companies be successful so is pleased to have this opportunity to provide guidance on building teams.

The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

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You've got a website with a fair amount of traffic.  You're also using Google Analytics to measure that traffic, but you don't feel like you're using it to its full potential.  Well, help is here.  Loren Bast, self-proclaimed "Google Analytics Junkie", will take you beyond the basics.  He'll show you how to make sure your setup is correct (it often is not), how to tweak your profiles to get a more canonical view of your data, and show you hacks to give you insight into your new channels of traffic (your twitter feed, your blog) and how GA can help you in the SEO front.

Loren will be showing examples from Seattle area startup, Faves.com, which has historical traffic of over 1 million monthly visitors.

What: StartPad Countdown 10 -- Confessions of a Google Analytics Junkie
Who: Loren Bast
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday April 7th, 2009
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

We streamed the presentation live. See the recorded stream below:

About the presenter: Loren Bast has held a variety of positions in local companies, ranging from development manager at drugstore.com to the Director of Product Management at HouseValues.  As the founder of Bellusi, he's currently consulting for a variety of Seattle companies, including Allrecipes.com.

The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

LIFT-OFF!

Mike Mathieu, Founder and Chairman of Front Seat, a civic software company in Seattle describes the emerging civic software movement where tech-savvy heroes leverage rapid development and improving web infrastructure to build projects and services focused on social impact. You'll come away with a new understanding of some key players in the space, as well as some specific ideas for actions you might take with your professional skills. If you're looking for some brights spots amidst the economic storm clouds, this talk is for you.

Come join us for the final Countdown for this series! In celebration of the end of a successful Countdown series and the 1 year anniversary of StartPad's opening, we will be holding a donation drive for the Technology Access Foundation -- donate $20 and receive a free StartPad anniversary shirt!

What: StartPad Countdown 0 -- Save the Programmer. Save the Planet.
Who: Mike Mathieu, FrontSeat.org
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday February 24th, 2009
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Mike Mathieu is the Founder and Chairman of FrontSeat.org. Mike founded Front Seat following the successful sale of his Internet publishing company to a private equity firm.

The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

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*Note: There is NO December Countdown*

It's easy (and perhaps necessary) for a new entrepreneur to be very optimistic about the business opportunity before them.  But not every great idea translates to business success.

Mohit Srivastava and Mikhail Seregine, previously of Faves.com and ClayValet.com respectively, discuss the rise and fall of tech startups. We will hear from these two experienced entrepreneurs who have learned the hard way how difficult it can be to achieve a successful outcome.

The goal of this talk is to arm you with knowledge of potential pitfalls and to help you recognize realistic and achievable goals for your own project.

What: StartPad Countdown 1 -- The best laid plans of startups...
Who: Mohit Srivastava (Faves.com) and Mikhail Seregine (ClayValet.com)
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday January 27th, 2009
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenters: Mohit Srivastava helped found Bluedot (Faves) in 2004 and worked with the company until late 2008, when it was placed in "low-burn mode." He currently works on the Azure team at Microsoft. Mikhail Seregine founded ClayValet in January 2007 and closed the doors in October 2008. He currently works for Jambool.

The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

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The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

This month Damon Cortesi of Alchemy Security presents the most effective ways to plug the most common holes found in web services. Learn about XSS, SQL injection, and why you should care about these things now instead of later.

What: StartPad Countdown 2 -- Startup Security: Hacking and Compliance in a Web 2.0 World
Who: Damon Cortesi, Alchemy Security
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday November 25th, 2008
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Damon Cortesi has been a professional security consultant for the past six years. Prior to that, he had fun as a Systems and Security Admin on a network with absolutely no firewalls. At the present time, he is currently busy building his own security startup as well as a couple of side projects.

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The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

It all starts with an idea.  Many successful startups begin when a passionate entrepreneur conceives of a brilliant idea.  Many unsuccessful startups fail when the entrepreneur does not succeed at converting that idea into a profitable business.  Successfully turning that brilliant idea into a profitable business is the art of entrepreneurship.
 
This month Adam Philipp of Axios Law Group will deal with the process of protecting an idea for your business.  In particular how to protect your idea with intellectual property tools (patent/trade secret options).

What: StartPad Countdown 3 -- (Patent Pending)
Who: Adam Philipp, Axios Law Group
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday October 28th, 2008
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Mr. Philipp has been involved in the prosecution of patent applications in the computer science, electrical devices and related fields since 1998 and with Internet and technology related law since 1995. He also counsels clients on patent portfolio strategy, patentability and infringement matters. His varied practical experiences range from distributed object oriented programming to kernel-level memory management. His area of emphasis covers a wide variety of patent, trademark and trade secret issues, with particular focus on network and security related technologies. Typical clients of Mr. Philipp's are software and technology companies as well as related inventors.

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The Startpad Countdown series is sponsored by:

This month, StartPad presents a talk by Parag Gheewala of Wilson Sonsini. Parag addresses the most common issues he encounters when representing entrepreneurs. Follow along as the fictional "Andre" forms an idea, quits his job, and hires people in to his new company. It's like a top 10 list of traps to avoid.

What: StartPad Countdown 4 -- Challenges In Forming A New Venture
Who: Parag Gheewala
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday September 23rd, 2008
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Parag Gheewala chairs the technology transactions practice in the Seattle office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The technology transactions practice specializes in domestic and international business transactions driven by the use or acquisition of rights in technology and intellectual property.

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This Startpad Countdown is sponsored by:

This month, StartPad presents a talk by Mano Marks, a Developer Programs Engineer at Google. Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users. In this talk, Mano Marks will go over the basics of Google App Engine, and walk through creating a sample application.

What: StartPad Countdown 5 -- The App Engine That Google Built
Who: Mano Marks
When: 6:00 pm, Tuesday August 26th, 2008
Where: StartPad offices -- 811 First Avenue, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98104
Cost: Free!

Pizza and drinks will be served.

About the presenter: Mano Marks is a Developer Programs Engineer at Google, where he helps developers work with Google Geo products, particularly KML. Mano has a MIMS degree from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, and has a history of working in social service non-profits.