EEConference Archives - Serious Startups

Missed Everywhere Else Tennessee? Check Out Some Highlights

There’s nothing quite as exhausting as a conference. Adrenaline, people, music, advice…everything goes by in a blur and suddenly it’s over. It can kinda leave you wondering what exactly happened.

(Psst: it’s that way for the organizers, times a million.)

Everywhere Else Tennessee is in the books, and it was a great one. Nick and I want to thank all of our sponsors, speakers, startups, volunteers, and attendees. You all made it an awesome show, and the two of us were really just along for the ride.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, you missed an awesome conference. From the opening party through the closing happy hour, the speakers kept dishing great advice on starting up everywhere else.

Little tidbits like:

It turns out size doesn’t matter. (Who knew?!)

Joel Andren’s talk on startup PR had every reporter nodding along. We want to talk to founders, y’all!

Jim McKelvey lied to the audience (repeatedly), and Paul Singh suggested we stop calling ourselves “startups.” And while we’re at it, we’ve got to figure out how to communicate our worth to people, because for every tech job created come 4.6 jobs in other industries. That’s powerful job growth.

Techstars Patriot Boot Camp hosted a panel consisting of 4 veterans, all who founded companies after they came home.

“Veterans are generally overeducated and underemployed,” Taylor McLemore, founder of the Patriot Boot Camp, told the crowd.

Nicole Glaros popped onstage with a beer, after a long flight in from Boulder.

“It’s 5:00 somewhere, right,” she quipped to the crowd.

Glaros then spent 40 minutes giving 12 practical tips on starting up.

A common theme throughout the show was handling failure. We all have failures big and small that are paving our way to success, and the #EETN speakers were no different. But, turning your failure into your strategy can help you push through anyway.

Nait Jones and Chris Lyons finished things off with a great fireside chat on the realities of starting up and the trends they’re both seeing in startup world.

Throughout the conference, our 10 startups in the Startup Avenue competed for votes from the attendees. The top 3 presented onstage to the crowd and a panel of 3 judges.

Wannado, Wedding Worthy, and Overdog all pitched their startups, giving impressive stats, plans, and growth.

In the end, Nashville-based Overdog walked away as the Heavyweight Champion of Everywhere Else.

Oh, but there was so much more! You can catch some of the talks over on Ustream, and Ryan Hoover has an awesome podcast with fellow speakers Josh Miller and Ben Yoskovitz you should definitely check out.

Join Us for The Everywhere Else Tennessee Opening Party!

Silky O'Sullivan's

We’re Beale Street Bar Hoppin’ tonight, starting at Silky O’Sullivan’s at 8PM. Then we’re hitting a few more Beale Street hot spots before the night’s over. Find out more here.

The Bar Hop is open to the public, no badge required. But, if you still want to join us for the whole conference, we’ve released just a few more tickets. Register now and don’t miss out on our awesome lineup of speakers and 2 more killer parties.

Check out the 3 awesome parties happening at Everywhere Else TN

The Everywhere Else conference series is about inspiration, education, and connection. We especially love getting you connected with each other and with our speakers.

And, with that in mind, we’ve got some awesome parties planned next week.

GlimpulseEE2013

Beale Street Pub Crawl with Centresource & Grasshopper–April 30th, 8 PM

A trip to Memphis wouldn’t be complete without spending some time on the historic Beale Street. And great news! You don’t have to have a badge to attend the bar hop.

We’re starting the party at Silky O’Sullivan’s. Join us on the patio for drinks and soak up the Memphis atmosphere. Later, we’ll take over the top floor of Club 152 for a glos stick-lit dance party.

Raifords

Dance Party at the Rumba Room, presented by Baker Donelson

The Grizzlies will be battling it out in the playoffs, and royalty will be heading into town, but the best party in town will always be Everywhere Else TN.

Thursday night we’re heading to the Rumba Room on South Main Street. The party is closed to the public, but conference badge holders will dance the night away with an awesome DJ and Baker Donelson.

Photo Apr 25, 2 35 09 AM

Last Call Happy Hour

Nothing closes out a conference like a happy hour.

After the conference, badge holders can mingle at 409 South Main. We’ll provide wine and local craft beer, and you’ll provide the great conversations and connections.

Bonus: Beale Street Music Festival

Everywhere Else TN may wind down, but the annual Beale Street Music Festival will just be kicking off Friday night. Join conference organizers and speakers as we unwind and check out some awesome bands. You can find more details and get tickets here.

Don’t miss out on these great parties and all the other great things happening at Everywhere Else TN. Grab a ticket before they’re gone.

24% Off 24 Everywhere Else TN Tickets For the Next 24 Hours

3 Bonus Speakers + Your Startup Avenue Fan Favorite

T-minus 15 days until the kickoff of Everywhere Else Tennessee.

And, like all great events, we have a few surprises in store!

First, we’ve added 3 new speakers to the lineup.

Danny Boice, CTO/Cofounder Speek

danny-boice Danny Boice is the Co-Founder & President of Speek. Speek lets users do conference calls with a simple link (speek.com/YourName) rather than using phone numbers and PINs. Danny attended Harvard, is a Forbes columnist, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown and was recently named a Tech Titan by Washingtonian Magazine. You can find Danny on Twitter @DannyBoice or LinkedIn here.

Steve Repetti, Managing Partner Crunch Fire Ventures

steve-repetti Steve has more than 25 years’ experience as an executive, inventor, investor, software developer, and technologist in the computer industry. On top of being the author of several award-winning programs, he is also the managing partner of the startup fund RadWeb Technology Partners, investor member of New World Angels, board member of the Miami Innovation Fund, and sits on the board of the Silicon Valley-based non-profit International Data Portability organization. He is also a member of the OpenAjax Alliance and the OpenWeb Foundation and frequently speaks on topics related to startups, crowd-funding, financing, advanced technology, Web 2.0, open source, data portability, and the real-time web. He also rode, and made the first investment in, the very first Startup Bus.

Jon Carnage

Startup Avenue Fan Favorite

There are some amazing startups in the Startup Avenue at Everywhere Else Tennessee. You met them last week, and spent the week voting on your favorite.

And, man, did y’all vote! 24,000 votes were cast, and it was a tight race. Congratulations to Wannado for being chosen as the Startup Avenue Fan Favorite. Wannado will join 3 other startups in a Pitch Competition on Friday, May 2.

We’ve also added one last startup to the Avenue.

Musistic is a Memphis-based music technology company whose product allows musicians to record with anyone, anywhere, anytime regardless of which recording software is being used. And the forthcoming Co-Lab, will allow musicians to expand their musical network by creating a global market place for musical talent and collaboration.

Meet all of our speakers and startups in just 2 short weeks. Grab your tickets here, if you haven’t already.

Wanted: A Few Good Volunteers for Everywhere Else Tennessee

Have you been watching all the coverage of the upcoming Everywhere Else Tennessee?

Then you’ve probably seen all the killer speakers, started hearing buzz about the parties, and–of course–gotten excited about the BBQ. Memphis is a special place, and Everywhere Else Tennessee is set to be a one-of-a-kind event.

I’d love for you to be a part of it!

The Everywhere Else team needs help with registration, taking care of our startups, setting up, breaking down, and so much more!

As a volunteer, you’ll get an all-access pass to the premier national conference focused entirely on startups outside Silicon Valley. You’ll also have entry to all 3 parties and plenty of time to do some networking of your own.

Wanna help? There are only 10 spots left, so don’t wait to let me know!

Give me a shout at monica@nibletz.com.

Everywhere Else TN Startup Avenue–Who’s Your Favorite?

startupavenue

Polling closed. Thanks so much for all your support! We’ll announce the Everywhere Else Fan Favorite soon!

There are some great companies populating the Startup Avenue this year. They’re coming from all over the country, from awesome startup cities like Boulder and Dallas and Charlotte. (And across Tennessee, of course!)

They also span all kinds of industries, healthcare to publishing to video games.

During Everywhere Else Tennessee, these 10 startups will show off their products to attendees and investors. They will be competing for a chance to pitch onstage in front founders and investors–as well as an angel & VC-stocked judging panel. The winner will be crowned the Heavyweight Champion of Everywhere Else.

But first…

They’re competing to win YOUR vote.

Check out the companies below, then let us know your favorite. The winner of the Fan Favorite Poll will get one of the spots in the live pitch contest.

So, let us know, who’s your favorite?

Bourbon and Boots–We are a great, new resource for finding stylish and unique handmade gifts to make you just a little bit cooler than all your friends. You won’t find any commercialized, big box store products on our site — we only offer the best, high-quality “small batch” creations from small business owners and artisans.
Brandfolder–Brandfolder is your convenient source to visually organize, quickly find and easily share all your final brand assets.
Cariloop–Cariloop helps people answer the questions they didn’t know to ask and connects them with the best senior care and service providers for their loved ones.
Kindful–Kindful’s simplistic yet powerful nature isn’t typical. Kindful has taken the pressure off of the nonprofit and allowed that effort to flow through to their relationships. We’ve made donor management fun again, and we have created the tools that allow you to engage your donors and further your cause.
MentorMe–MentorMe has taken the process of online dating and applied it to mentoring. We’re the only available technology solution that not only helps mentoring programs better manage day-to-day operations, but also helps them to better engage mentors and mentees.
OverDog–OverDog is a mobile app that enables athletes to challenge their fans to play video games on Xbox and Playstation. Launched in August 2013, OverDog has signed on hundreds of athletes across all of the major sports – football, baseball, soccer, even a few Olympians! – and has helped forge thousands of dream connections between its roster of athletes and OverDog fans. Looking ahead in 2014, the company is excited to launch the next version of its app with an expanded vision that connects gamers of all profiles and personas based on their shared passion for sports.
Screwpulp–Screwpulp is an eBook market that helps you discover new books you’ll love according to your tastes. Our mission is to make it easy for authors and readers to find each other in meaningful way. We promote a community of sharing and honest feedback between readers and authors.
The SoGood–The SoGood helps you discover the best local businesses through recommendations from friends and SoGood tastemakers. We’ve found that word-of-mouth recommendations drive local discovery, but access to these trusted recommendations is fairly limited. Our new iPhone app allows you to easily see which fitness studio a friend loves or which floral designer a top event planner recommends.
Wannado–From concerts to causes to cultural events, every day is packed with opportunities. Wannado® lets you find the events you want, and tune out the ones you don’t.
WeddingWorthy—WeddingWorthy.com is a group shopping platform that lets brides and their bridesmaids shop together from anywhere. We’ve partnered with top wedding photographers to create a curated catalog of beautiful wedding photos that are merchandised with products from top wedding designers. On WeddingWorthy.com, brides can finally tap into wedding inspiration that is shoppable. No more endless searches through dead-end photo sites.

Don’t Miss Your Chance to Start Where You Are–The Clock’s Ticking

memphissky1

Sshh.

Do you hear that?

The clock is ticking down!

TODAY is the last day to grab tickets at the early bird price of $150.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably an entrepreneur outside Silicon Valley. “Everywhere else.”

Feeling a little lonely?
Like you can’t find quality education?
Like there’s never enough capital?
And no one understands you?

Imagine being able to solve these issues in just 3 days.

How?

Silicon Valley-level mentorship…

You don’t have to go to a tech hub to find startup experts. They’re coming to Everywhere Else Tennessee!
Jim McKelvey cofounded Square and changed the way we do payments.
Josh Miller sold Branch to Facebook in January. At age 22.
Paul Singh has mentored hundreds (thousands?) of founders through 500 Startups and Disruption Corporation.
Nicole Glaros is part of building Techstars, arguably the best accelerator outside Silicon Valley.

And they’re all coming to Memphis in 30 days! (Btw, so. are. these folks.)

…No pretension allowed

Sure, listen to the kick ass speakers.
But you can also track them down in the halls or at the after parties. Attendance is capped at 400 people, so you’ll be able to find them easily.
EETN speakers and presenters are there for YOU, to help YOUR company grow.

Hunt down capital

Have your elevator pitch ready.
Investors are coming in from around the country. And they’re looking for great companies like yours.

Find your tribe

Looking for a cofounder? A mentor? Maybe just a friend to walk the road with?
EETN is THE place to meet founders and entrepreneurs just like you.
Talk startup shop during the day. Then see their true colors at 3 memorable parties after hours.

It’s all happening in Memphis April 30-May 2.

And, today, you can still do it for only $150.

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a16z Deputy Chief of Staff, Techstars, & YEC Join the #EETN Lineup

We’re coming down to the wire with the Everywhere Else Tennessee Conference. We have some great new panelists to announce tonight, including members of the Techstars Patriot Boot Camp and the Young Entrepreneur Council.

Tickets are going fast. Make sure to get yours by Monday, March 31 to guarantee the early adopter price of $150.

Now, for a few announcements we’re super excited about:

Andreessen Horowitz Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Lyons will be joining us in Memphis this year. Naithan Jones will be interviewed by Chris, discussing the decision to move from the Midwest to Silicon Valley. During the discussion Nait will talk about the decision to make such a big move, the challenges he faced, and what benefits he’s seen from the move. Nait will also talk about lesssons he learned building an online marketplace.

taylor-mclemore

Taylor McLemore is the Founder and Director of Techstars Patriot Boot Camp, a 3 day program designed to help veterans get mentoring and coaching in starting a company. Previously, he was the CEO & Founder of Prediculous, which was acquired by Sporting News. Taylor will lead a panel of veterans-turned-entrepreneurs as they discuss what it’s like to be in the military and start up. He’ll be joined by

Tameesha Desangles is a Memphis entrepreneur and the founder of WeddingWorthy.com. She has a background in ecommerce marketing, but is passionate about entrepreneurship. She was chosen as 1 of 20 women to represent female military entrepreneurs at the 2013 Inc5000 conference. She’s currently completing the Risingstars program while building WeddingWorthy.com.

Mark Morris is a veteran dedicated to continuing to serve our country through web and mobile technology. Currently, he’s the founder of MyGigline, which aims to solve the problem of communicating available resources for the military community.

scott-gerber

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founder Scott Gerber will lead a panel discussing the “Everyday Entrepreneur.” Panelists include

Sumi Krishnan is the Founder & CEO of K4 Solutions, which she started while still in school at Virginia Tech. Now the company has 220 employees and works with customers like the USDA and the US Army.

Jake Stutzman is the Owner and Chief Creative Officer at Elevate LLC, a digital design agency in Omaha, NE. (Check out eetennessee.com for a sample of the awesome work he does.) Jake has been doing brand design for 14 years, working with both startups and established, global brands. Last year, Jake won the Silicon Prairie News Designer of the Year award.

John Hall is the CEO of Influence & Co, which helps companies position their key figures as thought leaders in the industry. Influence & Co was recently named to Forbes Most Promising Companies of 2014. John loves speaking and writing, sharing his experiences with other entrepreneurs.

Derek Weber is the President of goBRANDgo! Based in St. Louis, they are a strategic branding and marketing firm for $2M-$50M companies. They specifically combine the quality of an expensive agency with the convenience and price of contractors, perfect for growth-stage companies.

How I Got Started in Tech: 8 Successful Founders Tell All

Have you ever wondered how some of the most successful entrepreneurs got their start? We all know Mark Zuckerburg’s story, of course, but what about other founders?

We asked some of our conference speakers how they got started, and the answers are as full of personality as they are. From following a boy into startups to literally being promoted from the mail room of Sprint, these entrepreneurs have some great stories.

Paul Singh-@paulsingh

If it wasn’t for an entry-level job at AOL ~15 years ago, I wouldn’t have realized that building companies on the Internet was possible for me.

Jim McKelvey-@2000F

I got my start by writing a programming textbook when I was a freshman at Washington University. The book got published and they asked me to write a second book, which became a bestseller. By the time I was a sophomore, I had an undeservedly good reputation in the Engineering school, so I added a computer science degree to my studies. Upon graduation, I worked briefly for IBM and then started a software company, Mira.

Nicole Glaros-@nglaros

I come from a long line of entrepreneurs, so I had the bug when I was a kid! Started my first ‘REAL’ company when I was in college with my dad.

Gabriella Draney-@gabdraney

I got my start in tech purely by accident. I was working as an executive assistant when I was 18 and figured out that I enjoyed going to lunch with the programmers rather than the other office girls. They talked about more interesting things and usually took a longer lunch (I never got in trouble because no one wants to make the IT team mad). When my boss, the VP of Operations, announced he was leaving the company to run an upstart competitor, the lead developer, who I had started dating, said he wanted to start a company that would build the scheduling software for him. So at 19, I quit and jumped on the roller coaster ride. I was in school at the time and switched majors because we didn’t need another technical person (originally wanted to study astrophysics), so I moved to finance.

Funny how these things happen.

Naithan Jones

I got started in tech pretty serendipitously. In my early 20’s I was working in the mailroom at Sprints world headquarters in the late nineties, and this was right before they sold all of their legacy fiber business and became wireless only.

Delivering mail I got to know some of the sales managers for the enterprise 500 group. They liked me and offered me a chance to sell large data pipes to global company CIO’s. I did well selling over the phone and the rest was history.

This led to stints at small SEO companies, small App Sec firms as a business guy, then finally at Gartner and then the Kauffman Foundation in more senior roles.

I left my manager role at Kauffman to start AgLocal

Ryan Hoover

Since childhood, I’ve created things and built businesses (in the loosest definition of the word). I managed gum ball machines, sold handmade video game cheat books for 50 cents a piece, created a joke website, and resold merchandise on eBay. My motivation came from a desire to create something from nothing, largely influenced by my entrepreneurial father.

Ultimately, those experiences and my passion for tech and startups, led me to an internship at a video game company during my senior year in college. My unpaid marketing role transitioned to a full-time paid position and soon I moved into product management. Serendipitously, I landed in San Francisco, surrounded by startups and amazing talent, to join an early stage startup that grew from 10 to over 100 before I left to pursue something new.

As my friend Nathan Bashaw says, “When you look back at yourself six months from today and don’t feel embarrassed by your naiveté, there’s a problem. That means you’re not learning, growing.” I’ve learned a ton and have infinite room to grow. Passion to create and learn, and guidance from many generous mentors/friends, is what got me here. I’m not sure I would call myself a success but I’m happy with where I’m heading.

Scott Gerber

Scott got started in entrepreneurship by running a production company in New York City in college. He soon made lots of money, landing gigs on huge budget productions. With little experience, though, he also quickly lost all that money.

With graduation on the horizon and his last $700, Scott started Sizzle It, a much simpler business than the one he’d run in college. After plenty of hard knocks, Scott wanted to help other young entrepreneurs ignore some of the pitfalls he’d encountered. YEC was born from there.

John Hall

I started my first real estate company because I hated typical student housing arrangements and wanted to live in a house rather than the typical crammed student housing. I went to 33 banks and the 34 bank gave a loan mostly because of a friends personal connection. I flipped that house and bought two more than built a small real estate company from there. Influence & Co. started because Brent Beshore, Kelsey Meyer, and myself saw a need for entrepreneurs and small businesses to build their influence by getting authentically engaging with their audience. We started by doing it for ourselves. Once we saw some traction, it really picked up and we had a company on our hands.

Brian Wong, Gabriella Draney, Josh Miller, Ryan Hoover & Mike Muhney Speaking at #EETN

memphissky1

We have some great announcements coming this week. The Everywhere Else Tennessee speaker lineup is growing, and we’re lining up some amazing startups for the Avenue (there’s still time to apply!) Tickets are going fast. Don’t miss out on the early adopter discount, ending on March 31st.

On to the new speakers. Check out who will be in Memphis April 30-May 2.

Brian Wong

brianwong Brian Wong is the co-founder and CEO of Kiip (pronounced “keep”), a category-creating mobile rewards network that is redefining mobile advertising through an innovative platform that leverages “moments of achievement” in games and apps to simultaneously benefit users, developers and advertisers. Backed by IPG, Hummer Winblad, Relay Ventures, True Ventures, Digital Garage and others, the company has raised $15.4 million in funding to date.

Gabriella Draney

gabrielladraney Gabriella Draney is Cofounder and Managing Partner of Tech Wildcatters. Most recently she was with HP Growth Partners, an early stage venture fund in Dallas. She co-founded an aircraft scheduling software company in 1998 that ended in a profitable exit. She went on to work for Morgan Stanley in private wealth management. True to her entrepreneurial roots, she left to follow her passion for nutrition by opening a specialty foods retail store, and simultaneously spent three years consulting with numerous Dallas-based startups on strategic planning and finance. Ms. Draney received her MBA in Strategy & Entrepreneurship from Southern Methodist University as a Cox Distinguished Merit Scholar, during which she interned for Silver Creek Ventures. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of North Texas with a BBA in Finance.

Josh Miller

joshmiller Just before his senior year, Josh Miller left Princeton University to build Branch, which Facebook bought in January 2014. Currently, he oversees the development of new products for Facebook, and do early-stage investing as a Venture Partner at Betaworks. Originally from Santa Monica, CA, he lives in New York City’s East Village. He’s twenty-three years old and a proud donor to KCRW.

Ryan Hoover

ryanhoover Ryan is a product guy with a passion for startups, product design, and personal growth. He grew up in the beautifully green northwest, in a college town named Eugene. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he lived in Portland for a year before making the jump to San Francisco. He’s the Co-Creator of Product Hunt, Creator of Startup Edition, an EIR at Tradecraft, and former Director of Product at PlayHaven.

Mike Muhney

Mike is a recognized relationship management expert, speaker, and author. He’s the co-inventor of ACT!, which is acknowledged as the catalyst of the multi-billion dollar Customer Relationship Management Industry. His co-authored book, Who’s In Your Orbit? Beyond Facebook—Creating Relationships That Matter (2011) includes practical relationship-building techniques and offers a balanced view on social and personal networks for today’s professionals. Today, Mike is the CEO and Co-Founder of VIPorbit Software, creators of VIPorbit Contact Management apps designed for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Your Complete Guide to Working the Conference Scene

I have been going to conferences for startups, technology, and video games for the past 10 years. There are some subtle and massive differences between them that can give an edge depending on your situation and personality.

People attend conferences for three reasons:

Learn
Network/Meetings
Show off their company/product

Knowing why you are going is key. This will help shape your “presence” at the conference. In this case lets define presence as: The way you act, look, dress, and when you take your meetings. Next week I am attending GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco. It is the most important video game development conference and I have a certain presence for the show.

How to Dress

Video game conferences are not much different from tech & startup conferences. There is plenty of time and room for the top three reasons I listed above but the video game conference trumps all conferences in ability to look dress and act like a rock star.

Next week for GDC I will wear interesting dresses and clothing that I would wear on stage while playing with a band, I used to play keyboard in a couple of bands. I am a big fan of modcloth.com. My husband, Jared, will also wear clothes that make him stand out. The ability to make an impression is important. With a whole week of drinking, meetings, networking, and learning it is very important to be remembered at the end of the conference. Looking and acting like everyone else may help you in a corporation, but in the startup world I feel you need to have a different presence.

I believe this also works for tech and startup conferences but with a more subtle approach. Tone down on the bright colors and look a bit more professionally dressed. Potential investors and partners want you to be interesting, but they also want to make sure you can fit in at a corporate meeting to close deals.

Perfect Your “Meeting Attitude”

Do your homework before you get there. Find out who is going by searching Twitter and LinkedIn updates. People love to schedule meetings before a conference because it provides a schedule to plan their life arround. Before and after meetings prepare for the possibility of serendipitous meetings. These are meetings that could happen through the introduction to a new person from the meeting you have scheduled or through watching twitter while at the conference. It can easily get overwhelming but just keep a cool composure and take a couple of deep breaths. You can do it!

The attitude I try to take to meetings is the same I try to have throughout the entire conference. Be positive, polite, and open. Act like you own the place and care about everything. These actions and feelings help people open up and you can get your agenda accomplished easier while meeting new people. Most of the true deals will wrap up after the conference, allowing you to be more aggressive with terms. I find this is true for both video game and startup conferences.

Manage Your Meetings

The main difference between a videogame conference and a startup conference is when you schedule your meetings. Rule of thumb is at a videogame conference like GDC you never schedule a meeting before 11:30 AM. Video game development is a long hours profession with most workers getting up later in the day and working long into the night. The conference is a place for people to escape the grind by going to parties, concerts, and sometimes doing a lot of drinking. It is important to be courteous to this rule and it also allows you to send out emails in the morning to your team.

A startup conference is all about hustle. Packing in as many important things at one time has its benefits. Most meetings kick off at breakfast and continue through lunch. Making sure you get a good night sleep is important for all conferences, but you really need to be sharp and well rested for startup conferences. If you have any tips regarding other types of conferences please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Shannon Steffes is the Founder and Art Director for Furywing. She has been involved in tech and video game startups since 2005. Follow her at @shayozzy

Jim McKelvey, Paul Singh + 6 More New Speakers Added to #EETN Lineup

Everywhere Else Tennessee is right around the corner, y’all. We’re measuring the venue, scheduling the parties, and ordering the BBQ.

With tickets already on sale, we’re also signing up some exciting new speakers. Tickets are $150 right now, but the early adopter discount is ending very, very soon. This will be a can’t-miss event for entrepreneurs, investors, and creatives outside Silicon Valley.

Jim McKelvey

Jim is a General Partner at Cultivation Capital. In 2009, Jim co-founded Square, one of the fastest growing technology companies in the US, which enables anyone to take credit card payments anywhere using their mobile device. Jim now sits on the board of directors of Square. Jim’s first venture was co-founding Mira Digital Publishing in 1990, which is a leader in electronic publishing for scientific conferences. Jim is an advisor to several startups including Kabbage and LockerDome.

In addition to his business ventures, Jim is a published author and glassblowing artist, and has published several books. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.

Paul Singh

Paul is the founder of Disruption Corporation which provides tools, research and advisory services to corporations, angel investors and venture capital firms.

Previously, he was a Partner at 500 Startups, a 4 year old “super angel” fund headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has overseen the investments in 500+ companies across 35+ countries. He is currently serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and DHS/USCIS.

Prior to Disruption Corporation and 500, Paul was the founder of a few other startups (two successful exits and a number of failures in between) and spent some time at PBworks, AOL and Symantec. He can be reached at twitter.com/paulsingh

Nicole Glaros

Nicole got her entrepreneurial start in the 4th grade, orchestrating cousins into theatrical plays and charging neighbors admission. From there, she founded three startups which resulted in one win and 2 losses. Since then, she’s spent over a decade mentoring and funding early-stage web software companies. Most recently, Nicole is a Managing Director at Techstars, a startup accelerator based out of Boulder, Colorado.

She’s been with Techstars since it’s early days in 2009, has run 6 programs and has close to 70 companies in her portfolio.

She was named one of the “Coolest People in New York Tech” and an Extraordinary Woman in New York Tech by Business Insider in 2013, Marie Claire named her one of the “NewGuard”, and Entrepreneur Magazine named her One of the Most 7 Powerful Women to Watch.

Nait Jones

Naithan “Nait” Jones created the AgLocal in late 2011. His dream: to match independent and family meat farms to the wholesale and retail buyers who want to buy their meat directly. Because he is from a family of chefs and farmers, he understands the trials of raising and cooking delicious food. Nait’s professional career is in enterprise technology and technology start-ups including successful stints at Sprint Corporate, Gartner Research and the well- regarded Kauffman Foundation.

We’re also excited to welcome these speakers:

Josh Hix, Cofounder, Plated
Kevin Lavelle–CEO/Cofounder, Mizzen and Main
Tony Montleone–Manager at PERQ
Kevin Chick-Dockery–CEO/Founder, Yoddlem

You can see the full list of speakers here, and there are still more to come.

4 New Speakers Announced for #EETN

We’re counting down the days (and watching the tickets go!) for Everywhere Else Tennessee. We’re planning some awesome parties, a few amazing panels, and I have mentioned how spectacular the venue is? Seriously, y’all, old wood, open spaces in downtown Memphis. It’s so beautiful I’m hoping they let me live there.

In the meantime, we have a few more speakers to announce. We’re so excited about these guys and what they’ll bring to the #EETN attendees. Angel investors, developers, and entrepreneurs, they all have unique insights and advice for founders everywhere else. Check ’em out:

benyoskovitz Ben Yoskovitz is the author of the popular Instigator Blog. He’s also a founding partner at Year One Labs, VP of Product at GoInstant, and co-author of the book Lean Analytics. He sold his first company Standout Jobs in 2010.

Jared Steffes is a lifetime entrepreneur living in Chicago. His current startup, Furywing, is creating electronic gambling entertainment for people who grew up with video games. (No more slot machines!) Jared’s talk at Everywhere Else Cincinnati was so loved, we knew we had to bring him back. And, we hear he has a few surprises up his sleeve…

Nicholas Holland is the CEO of Populr.me, a recent 500 Startups graduate. Before Populr.me he founded CentreSource Interactive Agency in Nashville, TN, and has spent most of his life in the Nashville area. Besides building companies, he’s passionate about building the Nashville ecosystem. I wonder what words he picked up from Dave McClure during 500 Startups.

Kuty Shalev has spent the last twelve years as CEO & Founder of Clevertech. Headquartered in NYC with a global team, Clevertech is a lean startup design and development organization that works with entrepreneurs and enterprises to help launch minimum viable products (MVP) in 30-90 days. Client projects have been featured in the New York Times, VentureBeat, Bloomberg News, Mashable and many other media outlets.

We’re just getting started, y’all. We’ll have more speaker announcements coming soon. Buy your tickets before they sell out!

If you’re a startup that has raised less than $2 million, apply to win a booth at our Startup Avenue. Selected startups will also get 2 free tickets to the conference. The best companies will get a chance to pitch our investor panel and win the title of Heavyweight Champion of Everywhere Else.

And, we still have a few sponsorship opportunities available. Get in touch and let us help you be involved in the everywhere else movement.

Beale Street Pub Crawl with Centresource & Grasshopper–April 30th, 8 PM

Dance Party at the Rumba Room, presented by Baker Donelson

Last Call Happy Hour

Bonus: Beale Street Music Festival

Danny Boice, CTO/Cofounder Speek

Steve Repetti, Managing Partner Crunch Fire Ventures

Jon Carnage

Startup Avenue Fan Favorite

*Polling closed. Thanks so much for all your support! We’ll announce the Everywhere Else Fan Favorite soon!*

Silicon Valley-level mentorship…

…No pretension allowed

Hunt down capital

Find your tribe

Paul Singh-@paulsingh

Jim McKelvey-@2000F

Nicole Glaros-@nglaros

Gabriella Draney-@gabdraney

Naithan Jones

Ryan Hoover

Scott Gerber

John Hall

Brian Wong

Gabriella Draney

Josh Miller

Ryan Hoover

Mike Muhney

­How to Dress

Perfect Your “Meeting Attitude”

Manage Your Meetings

Jim McKelvey

Paul Singh

Nicole Glaros

Nait Jones

Polling closed. Thanks so much for all your support! We’ll announce the Everywhere Else Fan Favorite soon!

How to Dress