Upcoming Venture & Social Media Events

Starting with today, the next two weeks for me will be a whirlwind of good venture capital and social media events -- some small, some large, some near, some far. If you haven't considered them, do so. If you're planning to attend, let's try to connect while there.

Today, noon, UF McKnight Brain Institute, Gainesville, FL
Seminar 4 of 4 discussing university research startups
Presenter: me

Tonight, 6:30pm, 28th Floor, 200 South Orange Ave, Orlando, FL
TiE Florida Presents "What Will it Take to Get Funded in 2007"
Panel: me (Inflexion), Ravi Ugale (Crossbow), John Hill (Hyde Park), Mike Slawson (ATV)

January 29-31, New York, NY
AlwaysOn Media conference
Congrats to portfolio company PayPerPost, selected as one of the AO Media 100 Top Private Media Companies

February 5-7, Boca Raton, FL
2007 Florida Venture Capital Conference
Congrats to portfolio companies WiDeFi and PayPerPost, selected as FVCC presenters

February 7-9, Miami, FL
We Media Miami
Great program of social media topics, including a "Funding We" roundtable you won't want to miss (me, Clavier, Calacanis and others)

After all these, I finish up on February 10th with the most important event of all: Family Love Day at my daughter's school. I'll understand if you don't join me at that one... ;-)

What is the Meaning of Life? Ask Yahoo!

When Yahoo and Google each launched their Answers platforms I was cautiously optimistic. I mean, where better to ask "What is the meaning of Life?" in hopes of distilling insight from a world of perspectives.

Since those launches, Yahoo has done better than I expected, while Google has done worse (AKA, dead). This post isn't about comparing the two services, but I will note that Yahoo Answers benefited from a more social atmosphere (helping instead of consulting) and recently launched even more social aspects.

Although I've watched, I never actually asked or answered a Yahoo Answers question until today. In learning more about the service, I provided answers to a couple softball questions:
1) What is Venture Capital?
2) What advice would you give a start-up company?

In exchange for doing so I received 2 "points" for each answer, with the potential for more points if my answers are chosen as the best. I haven't used the service enough to know why I should be excited about these points, but the potential for focused knowledge sharing is exciting enough.

If you haven't tried Yahoo Answers you might want to, particularly if you can share some insights on the Meaning of Life, only 3 days left!

Yahoo Buys the Future of the Internet, er MyBlogLog

Eric and the MyBlogLog guys made it official last week -- Yahoo has acquired MyBlogLog. I couldn't be happier for the whole crew over there including Eric, Todd, Scott, John, Steve and even the CloudSpace cheering squad. I'm especially proud of these Florida natives making such a loud and successful blogosphere impact.

Yahoo now has a powerful blog community/analytics platform in their quiver, but there's a fork in the road. They can continue to grow organically in the blogosphere while the world catches up to face-aware browsing, or they can chart a bolder course that extends well beyond blogs.

I touched on this back in June when I first uncovered MyBlogLog because I was proactively looking for the uber-social network, that travels with you. MySpace, FaceBook, and the 1,000 dwarves are all domain-specific social networks that are powerful, but handicapped. The full potential of social networks exists across domains -- allowing you to see/connect others in your network who researched the same vacation you're researching, who bought the same camera you're considering, friends to chat with about the video you're streaming or friends who want to leverage group buying power for the latest FJ Cruiser.

At least three tweaks are needed to make this possible:
1) aggressive expansion of MBL/widgets beyond the blogosphere to research, commerce and entertainment sites;
2) social intelligence beyond just contacts and site visitors, allowing you to see who, specifically from your network, recently visited a site you're at; and
3) a solid API to enable sites to build upon that awareness to unlock group buying, group research or other social network value that is absent from today's domain-centric approaches.

This will take money and manpower, in parallel to letting MBL grow organically in the blogosphere. If Yahoo pulls it off aggressively instead of passively, however, it could be the social paradigm for all future surfing, media consumption and online commerce. Sound crazy? Maybe so, but if Yahoo/MyBlogLog doesn't do it I'm looking for the entrepreneurs who will...

Gators, Buckeyes, Oh My...

Although I've kept my Gator support pretty low-key here at FVB, I'd be remiss if I didn't give my Old Boys of Florida a vote of support and good luck tonight against OSU. I expect UF's toughest game of the season and hope Meyer's toughness training in the preseason pays off...

It wouldn't be a big game if there wasn't plenty of YouTube trash talk involved, so here's one of my favorite Gator/Buckeye videos based on the Mac-guy theme (search and you'll find plenty more).

In the spirit of the Gator Nation ads: Go start a technology company that changes the world and allows you to reach your dreams. Go Gators!


UPDATE: My beloved Gators are the 2006 College Football National Champions, dismantling the Buckeyes 41-14 last night. Combine that with UF's 2006 Basketball National Championship and you have a feat that has never been accomplished in the history of college sports. Congratulations to the whole team, especially Chris Leak for a fantastic career, and thank you Jeremy (not Foley) for stopping by last night to comment on this post -- something about OSU bleeding, how prophetic ;-) GO GATORS!!

Selections Announced for 2007 Florida Venture Capital Conference

Congrats to all of the entrepreneurs selected to present at this year's Florida Venture Capital Conference. The announcement press release is here (list with descriptions included below). Given how many entrepreneurial hotspots exist in the state, it was interesting to see the list broken down by geographies. Many of these names won't be new to FVB members -- we have a talented crop of startups making an impact at home and afar.

Central Florida

• Avant Healthcare Professionals, LLC (www.avanthealthcare.com), Winter Park: Provider of international nurse and allied health professional recruitment, placement and transitioning services to healthcare systems throughout the U.S.
• ClearSky Mobile Media, Inc. (www.csky.com), Orlando: Provider of relevant, market-specific mobile data offerings including downloadable content, mobile web browsing, MMS services and managed data services across all wireless technologies
• Controlled Semiconductor, Inc. (www.consemi.com), Orlando: Manufacturer of lased-based LCD, PDP and semiconductor process equipment
• Informa Software (www.informasoftware.com), Maitland: provider of specialist information to the global academic and scientific, professional and commercial communities via publishing, events and performance improvement
• Nanotherapeutics (www.nanotherapeutics.com), Alachua: Biopharmaceutical company that employs its proprietary nanotechnology platform to create innovative delivery methods for new and existing pharmaceuticals
• Pasteuria Bioscience, LLC (www.pasteuriabio.com), Alachua: Developers of a fermentation process that allows commercial-scale production of naturally-occurring bacteria to prevent crop damage
• PayPerPost, Inc. (www.payperpost.com), Orlando: The first marketplace for consumer-generated advertising, with a platform that connects advertisers and consumer content creators to deliver marketing messages
• PlusOne Solutions, Inc. (www.plusonesolutions.net), Oviedo: Provider of software and disruptive business process solutions to manage service networks for retailers, manufacturers and service fulfillment companies
• PowerPad, Inc., Orlando: The winner of the Florida Collegiate Business Plan Competition, the principal has developed a technology that will unlock the multi-billion dollar wireless power industry with a patent-pending wireless power transmission system designed to power virtually all consumer electronic devices.
• Quality Assured Services, Inc. (www.ptinr.com), Orlando: Provides fast, accurate, easy to use and cost-effective technology to link consumers with disease conditions that require regular diagnostic monitoring with their physicians, resulting in changing and responsive therapies
• XOS Technologies, (www.xostech.com), Sanford: Product lines that maximize the value of content, commerce and services for sports organizations and fans by integrating video, data and fan management technologies
• WiDeFi (www.widefi.com), Melbourne: Fabless wireless communications semiconductor company that develops technology, integrated circuits and reference design products to improve the coverage and performance of wireless systems

Northern Florida and Panhandle

• Datamaxx Group (www.datamaxx.com), Tallahassee: Designs, delivers and maintains advanced communications and applications technology to the law enforcement, criminal justice, public safety and homeland security markets.

South Florida

• Blue Frog Solutions (www.bluefrogsolutions.com), Pompano Beach: Provider of software technology and business process outsourcing to the insurance industry
• BroadBand National, Inc. (www.broadbandnational.com), Vero Beach: Operator of e-commerce platform for comparative shopping by residential and business consumers of digital services
• DailyMe, Inc. (www.dailyme.com), Hollywood: Allows subscribers to build completely personalized, free, print newspapers, focusing on taking online content to print
• DayJet Corporation (www.dayjet.com), Delray Beach: Developer of on-demand short-haul jet service of less than 600 miles, designed for regional business travelers, offering reserved individual seats as well as entire planes according to customer schedules
• Latin3 (www.latin3.com), Hollywood: Provider of “exponential marketing” services in Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic markets, using unique approaches across an array of channels and formats
• Multiply, Inc. (www.multiply.com), Boca Raton: Distinctive message board that not only allows users to share media and discussions, but also alerts users to everything being shared by people in their network
• SAF-T-PAY (www.saftpay.com), Miami Beach: Global Internet payment system company catering to the untapped market of non-credit card users around the world who want to use their local currency and also do not choose to reveal personal financial data
• STS Telecom (www.ststelecom.com), Cooper City: Next generation facilities-based provider of traditional IP and TDM-based voice and data communications services, primarily through T-1 connections

West Central Florida

• Creative Loafing (www.creativeloafing.com), Tampa: The nation’s second largest publisher of alternative newspapers and websites, reaching 750,000 young, educated readers in the Southeast each week
• DTI-NanoTech (www.dti-nanotech.com), Sarasota: Division of Discovery Technology International that specializes in the design, manufacture and distribution of novel motorized nano-robotic and nanopositioning systems
• RedVector.com (www.redvector.com), Tampa: Online education for professionals in the engineering, architectural, interior design, construction, land surveying, building inspection and landscape architecture industries
• Network Liquidators (www.networkliquidators.com), Tampa: A leading source for buyers and sellers of used networking equipment and accessories that serves more than 8,000 end-user and reseller customers nationwide with top-name manufacturer products that have been rigorously inspected and quality tested by knowledgeable industry-certified technicians
• Ultramatics, Inc. (www.ultramatics.com), Oldsmar: Sells and delivers highly effective solutions from the position of “best practices through real life implementations” that require complex system integration

Break a leg and check back afterwards to see who garnered a "Best of Show" KangaRua!

My Birthday Zune Haikus

Gotta birthday Zune
wifi synching, could it be?
No, nO, NO...that sux!



Zune, iPod, Treo
Not one does it all for me
Maybe PSP?



Do I ask too much?
Probably, but I'm hoping
for that one device!