Featured Archives - Page 36 of 97

Everywhere Else Tennessee Speaker Josh Hix Debuts on Shark Tank Tonight

Everywhere Else Tennessee is coming up fast! 26 days and counting…

We already have an awesome speaker line up, and after tonight, we can add “TV star” to the list.

Speaker Josh Hix and his cofounder Nick Taranto will pitch their company Plated on ABC’s Shark Tank tonight at 9 PM EST. Go ahead and get ready for all the “will they bite?” comments.

Plated is a gourmet food delivery startup that graduated from Techstars New York last year. The company delivers fresh ingredients for chef-designed meals right to your door. They cover 80% of the US, sourcing local ingredients in each city. You can sign up for a subscription and get a slight discount on each meal shipped, or you can order whenever you want to.

And the meals are truly gourmet, too. Currently, in Nashville, you can order Lemongrass Pork with Vermicelli Noodles, Coffee-Rubbed Steak With Roasted Pepper Panzanella, or Poached Salmon with Red Quinoa, Kale, and Dill Yogurt Sauce.

The ingredients come ready to cook, with spices already measured out and everything.

In January, Plated announced a $5 million Series A led by ffVentures.

So, will the sharks “bite”? (See what I did there?)

With the graduation from Techstars and the recent series A, Plated is obviously a company to watch. Hix and Taranto are Harvard MBA graduates, and with such rapid expansion, they’re doing something right.

But, Shark Tank investors rarely go for typical startups. The sharks seem more interested in what we would consider “lifestyle” businesses. Of course, the show was filmed last year, before the Series A was announced. Plated could’ve looked like a different company at that point.

Regardless of how they walk away from the shark tank, Plated will almost certainly get the same boost in traffic other Shark Tank companies see during their episode.

And, hey, they raised $5 million.

After you watch Josh on TV, make sure you see him speak at Everywhere Else Tennessee, where he’ll talk about the number one thing every entrepreneur must have.

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

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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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32 Reasons Why You Should Attend Everywhere Else Tennessee

Starting up outside Silicon Valley has plenty of challenges. Without the density of a startup community, it can be hard to find the education, inspiration, and connections you need to get your idea off the ground.

From April 30 – May 2 in Memphis, TN, that starts to change.

Everywhere Else Tennessee is coming to Memphis with 3 action-packed days of speakers, startups, and parties. We’ve got 30+ nationally recognized keynotes on the schedule, 10 of the most promising startups in the country pitching in our Startup Showdown, and 3 truly unique parties that provide the relaxed environment you’re looking for to connect with the speakers, mentors, investors and potential partners that will be in the room.

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Still trying to figure out why you should join us in Memphis April 30 – May 2? I’m sure you’ll find more than one reason below.

And don’t forget to get your ticket below, too. You don’t want to be kicking yourself when the event is sold out and you missed your chance to get your ticket! There are just a hand full of tickets still available.

Startups

Meet & talk to investors
Apply for a booth to showcase and pitch your product
Find new talent
Learn from our amazing speakers
Close new deals & partnerships

Entrepreneurs

Learn from other top founders & investors
Find out about the latest trends
Meet the speakers & investors
Find a co-founder
Forge new partnerships

Investors

Find the hottest startups
Hangout with other investors
Meet awesome entrepreneurs
Enjoy great content
Learn from like minded investors

Developers & Designers

Meet cool startups
Learn from the best
Find new customers or jobs
Network and party
Improve your skills

Corporate Execs & Marketers

Find new partnerships
Top notch networking
Meet decision makers
Find news customers or jobs
Dip your toes into entrepreneurship
Discover the latest trends

Students

Boost your CV
Meet your next employer
Be amazed by our speakers
Learn about top startups
Make important contacts
Kickstart your career

Get more info on Everywhere Else Tennessee here.

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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.

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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.

Indiana’s Snappening Brings Event Planning to Your Phone

Three-year-old Indianapolis company Snappening has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $20,000. The company will use money from the flexible funding campaign to develop an app to go along with their current website.

In 2011, Crystal Grave agreed to help a friend plan her wedding. With plenty of experience in corporate event planning, she expected it to be no problem.

For Crystal, the process wasn’t too troubling, but she soon realized that an average consumer would find it impossibly hard to navigate. Without something as simple as a comprehensive database of venues, someone with no knowledge of the industry could waste days in research and still not find what they needed.

In answer to the problem, Crystal created Snappening.com. Focused mainly in Indiana (for now!) the site helps you find a venue and/or an event planner for any type of event.

As the company grows, a mobile app seems the next logical step. So, in coordination with Indiegogo’s International Women’s Day initiative, Crystal launched a crowdfunding campaign.

The mobile app will bring the same search engine users experience on the website. It will also help you locate venues nearby using the GPS on your phone and allow users to connect with several potential venues at once.

Through the mobile app, Snappening also wants to expand nationally and across vendor categories.

Event planning is a $6 billion/year industry, and that doesn’t really even cover the average party planner who is looking to plan a party or wedding. While there are tons of apps to help plan and prepare, nothing quite covers the niche Crystal and Snappening are shooting for. They’ve spent 3 years slowly building their presence in Indiana and gaining revenue through premium memberships and advertisements.

Now with a proven business model and lots of experience, they’ve put themselves in a good position to grow bigger and bigger. Check out their Indiegogo campaign and see what you think.

The Space & Wofford College Show Off How Education Should Be With the Impact + Launch Programs

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.

Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY I mean your purpose, cause or belief – WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?

People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it

Simon Sinek

It’s advice that’s almost cliche in the startup world now. We hear “tell your story” a lot, and we can all remember that perfect pitch we heard that really to the advice to heart.

I didn’t know what to expect on our trip to Wofford College and The Space this past weekend. We were going to be a part of a demo day event, where 10 students from would present the projects they had spent all year working on. Two programs were presenting their final projects. The Impact Program, run by Courtney Shelton included students who were working on social entrepreneurship projects. The Launch Program, run by Jeremy Boeh, helps students build for-profit businesses.

Okay, so let’s be honest. College project presentations? Not usually tops on the list of fun things to do.

About 2 seconds into Ashley O’Cain’s presentation of her nonprofit, I knew this was going to be in a whole other league. This was not the college presentations of my past, but it also wasn’t the average demo day populated by seasoned startup people.

As first Ashley, then 4 more teams, talked about the social impact programs they had implemented or were working on, you could feel the energy and excitement. They were all passionately engaged with what they were doing, but it was more than that. Each and every one of them had learned the power of telling a story.

“I have congenital heart disease, which means I’ve had two open heart surgeries in my life,” spunky Katherine Buchanan announced to the crowd as she presented the Purple Scarf Society. “And those experiences taught me that I can do anything I want to.”

The Purple Scarf Society is an organization that Katherine started to prepare women for the work force. She developed a curriculum to help fellow students learn the various skills needed to land a job and move up in their careers.

“Women hold 14.6% of executive positions in Fortune 500 companies,” she said. “And that is not okay.”

The winner of the Impact competition was a kids’ festival called Fantasyland. Organized by Kulsoom Haq, the festival aims to bring the magic of Disney to the underprivileged kids of Spartanburg, SC. Now in it’s 3rd year, the carnival draws almost 800 kids from the area.

“Just remember,” Kulsoom told the audience, “All you need is a little faith, hope, and pixie dust.”

After the 5 Impact projects presented, the event took a break for some catered tacos and mingling with the 33 other projects that exhibited in a nearby tent. I should have known better by now, but I admit I expected most of the students to fumble their way through talking to me.

Not a single stutter.

Every single table I approached greeted me with a smile and a handshake, then launched into their projects. Voter initiatives, jewelry making, campus recycling, the list goes on. Every student had a story, and they were more than happy and able to tell it. They all started with “why,” and even this somewhat cynical tech writer was sold on every project.

Back in the presentation room, the Launch part of the event started. This time we listened to pitches for 5 for-profit companies, but just like their Impact counterparts, every student told their story flawlessly.

1395513585915 “I’d hire you in a second,” one judge told Billy Moody, founder of Moody’s Wofford Wash. Because somehow, this 6 foot+ sophomore guy had convinced the audience that a laundry service was just the thing Wofford needed, and he was the guy to do it.

And that’s the magic of the whole program at Wofford. Most of the projects these students work on will be abandoned. As of yet, they aren’t building the next Facebook, Twitter, or Uber. But they are starting real companies and initiatives, getting experience in leadership that can’t be found in a book, and learning to present themselves and their stories with passion and clarity.

The Space at Wofford College, and all the programs they run, is the future of education. These aren’t business students going through a traditional business plan program. These are French and history majors (with a couple of “undeclareds” thrown in). They aren’t pursuing these projects because they have to. In fact, to guarantee they come with the right motivation, the programs don’t even offer credit. The students do a tremendous amount of work for no credit and a tiny scholarship.

They aren’t isolated in a classroom, learning the “theory” of entrepreneurship. They’re tackling real problems that arise when you try to create something from nothing.

And they’re learning to always, always tell their story.

Check out what’s going on at Wofford College and The Space. Trust me. It’s something special.

Packback Ramps Up Before Shark Tank Debut

Tomorrow Chicago-based Packback will face the sharks of ABC’s Shark Tank, looking for investment in their textbook rental company.

We talked about Packback last summer, after meeting them during Chicago Tech Week. The company–begun when the 3 founders were still in school at Illinois State–allows students to rent textbooks by the day, effectively cutting college costs by thousands of dollars.

What do the textbook publishers think about this? Because the system is effectively rent-to-own, the publishers are actually recouping revenue from the used textbook market, as all of Packback books are the newest version available.

The company is an active part of the Chicago tech scene. They incubated at 1871 before moving to new offices at Catapult Chicago with their growing team.

So, what does a tiny startup do to gear up for a big TV debut? In their own words:

The urgency of preparing for the episode has drawn our team closer than ever as we’ve taken our 2 month product roadmap and have condensed it into the next three weeks. We’ve launched our new site with new features as we’re hoping to empower students to make more informed decisions when buying or selling books. Our free sell tool allows students to compare textbook buy-back prices from popular online retailers to find the best offer and maximize their cashback. Students use our real-time price comparison engine while buying books to ensure they find the lowest prices across the web, and of course our digital inventory of $3 to $5 digital textbook rentals has been growing every month as we continuously sign on publishers.

The recent 16 hour-straight days at the office have been taxing but it’s been awesome to see what we’ve been able to accomplish. Our amazing cast of investors have been extremely supportive of our appearance and we’ve recently had the pleasure to have spent a lot of great time with our board of directors Mark Achler and Howard Tullman.

The frenzy is justified. According to some estimates, a spot on the show equals $4-5 million in free marketing. Products and apps on the show see a huge spike in traffic and interest any time their episode airs. It’s common for apps to hit the #1 spot in the app store within moments of their segment ending, especially if the sharks actually like the company.

And products the sharks don’t bite on? Even many of those go on to win big.

Either way, there’s no doubt Packback’s 16-hour days will be well worth it come tomorrow night.

Come Party With Nibletz & Centresource in Nashville Next Week

We’re heading to Nashville!

We’ve made some fantastic announcements in the last few days. Miss them? Check out here and here. And we’ve got even more to come!

So, with all this excitement happening, we figured it was the perfect time to take a break and throw a little party. Luckily our friends at Centresource agreed.

On March 27, Centresource is letting us crash their spring mixer. There’ll be beer, wine, and great conversation with entrepreneurs and creatives in Nashville.

Come hang out with me and Nick and let us know what you’re working on. We love startups and will be on hand to talk about your great idea. We’ll also be giving away a free ticket to Everywhere Else Tennessee, so you don’t want to miss that!

The mixer is from 5-8 at the Centresource offices. Click here to register.

If you’re in the Nashville area, we look forward to seeing you there!

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

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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.

Does Fundable + LaunchRock = Crowdfunding 2.0?

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Yesterday crowdfunding site Fundable announced the acquisition of LaunchRock, the online service that helps businesses build an audience before they launch. The deal was finalized in an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, and LaunchRock employees will join Fundable in their Columbus, OH, offices. All 42 investors in LaunchRock will now become investors in Fundable.

With 5 employees, 42 investors, and a free product, the acquisition smells like a LaunchRock bail out. Not saying that’s a bad thing, though. LaunchRock obviously did a great job at building an audience for themselves, with a reported 10 million signups for their service. If an acquisition bails them out and helps them monetize, all the better for the folks that love the product.

Fundable isn’t getting a bad deal, either. In a crowded crowdfunding space, the company has been chugging away at building campaigns specifically for businesses. While Indiegogo and Kickstarter excel at raising funds for projects or charity campaigns, Fundable has been trying to help fund actual businesses. You know, those things with payroll and profits?

“Crowdfunding 2.0” Fundable CEO Wil Shroter told me on the phone.

“The first version of crowdfunding was Indiegogo and Kickstarter,” he explained. “It worked great for projects like albums or for charity campaigns. Projects aren’t when you need to pay payroll. When you start to do it for a product it breaks down, because the more you sell the more you need to be a company.”

Shroter pointed to former Kickstarter successes like Ube, Cregle, and Uncharted Play, who all moved to Fundable to raise expansion capital after their initial crowdfunding ran out.

So how does LaunchRock fit into all this?

For now the 2 services will be completely separate, but eventually they will be streamlined into one user experience. Users will always have the option of using one or the other or both. Shroter sees the 2 services working perfectly together, though.

“LaunchRock builds an audience. People use LaunchRock for validation, which is awesome. Fundable works best for companies who already have an audience.”

The acquisition will also allow Fundable to have a bigger footprint in their market. Many LaunchRock users expressed a desire for crowdfunding, but the company had no way to meet their needs. Now they will be able to seamlessly move on to Fundable. At the moment, Fundable hosts a few hundred campaigns at a time. (The average raise amount is $175k, 12X that of Kickstarter.) Shroter estimates that with the addition of LaunchRock users, the number of campaigns will jump to the the 1000s quickly.

The Ultimate Guide to Bootstrapping Your Next Conference

Editor’s Note: Conference speaker and startup friend Jared Steffes has some great tips on making conferences more affordable. Thankfully, we’ve done a lot of the work for you with our Everywhere Else Tennessee conference. Grab your tickets before the super cheap early adopter discount expires!

I want to share some tips about how I make the “biggest bang for the buck” while traveling out of town for a conference.

Conference Pass

Free Expo Pass!

Most of the time you do not need a main conference pass for larger shows. I go to shows to meet new clients and network with people. Typically you can get all the main points talked about at a conference through Twitter or video feeds after the show.

Getting into the show is the most important part and scoring a free expo pass is usually pretty easy. Search Twitter for anyone giving away free expo passes for the show you are planning to attend. It is pretty common because many shows gives exhibitors a bunch of free passes for their employees, but most exhibitors are 2 person shows. Some exhibitors will give away their free passes as a marketing tactic on Twitter or their Facebook leading up to the date of the show! I have a lot of luck with this.

Networking at the conference hotel bar the night before the show is usually a good place to meet an exhibitor. Make friends and kindly tell your bootstrap story. Usually they are happy to find you a pass or give you one of theirs. Return the karma by bringing people you meet to their booths if there is a possible business relationship. This is a huge win for everyone and the exhibitors won’t forget you the next time you need some help.

The last way to get a pass only works if you have an “in” with a decent sized blog or news site. I go to a lot of shows each year and usually my big blog friends are happy to get me a press pass in return for some articles about the show.

No Free Pass?

That’s ok! Search for “promo code” or “discount code” on Twitter and the internet for the show you are going to attend. There are usually always promo codes floating around somewhere for big %’s off the main price.

Travel

Driving

There is a huge benefit driving to a show. Gas is cheaper than flying if you get decent MPG’s. My rule is if the show is 12 hours or less from my home to reach then I will drive to it. It is cost effective for traveling in a group, you don’t need to rent a car, no plane tickets, and you can save on taxi costs.

Flying

Southwest has been my bootstrap staple for years now. Their credit card used to require $1000 in spending to get a free flight but their points system changed and now it requires around $1200. Still not too bad. You also get enough points by signing up for a card to get a long round trip flight.

If you are going to either coast from the Midwest both JetBlue and Virgin America are great to purchase flights from.

It is pretty important to plan your conferences at least 2 months ahead to get the best prices on flights. It is easy to do and dumb not to. There were times at Tap.Me I would get a $200 round trip flight to the Silicon Valley just by planning ahead, while others were paying around $700 and I knew they were going to go. Procrastinating is an expensive date!

Using a low frequent flyer miles to get there and back for free is awesome! The key is to travel on the not popular days and times. Tuesday and Saturday are typically the cheapest. Early morning and late at night are also typically the cheapest times to fly.

Parking

It is important to know what parking costs you may have because parking in a large city may defeat the costs saved by driving. Hotels and conference halls often charge around $15 a day and I have seen hotel parking in San Francisco for around $40 a day. Crazy!

Jared’s Pro Tip #1 – Parking at a recent convention was $20 a day and I secretly found out you can have the ticket validated by any restaurant for the price of an entree. $20 for a meal got me free parking! I could have gotten away with a cheaper meal but I deserved something good for dinner since I skipped lunch!

Rental Cars

Do not rent from a location at the airport. It will typically cost double compared to a place off site. I was able to get a Mitsubishi Lancer for $50 for a 5 day rental through Fox Rental Cars. They have a free shuttle from the airport and it was a nice place with well kept cars. The big rental companies at the airport would have cost me $110 for a smaller car.

Skip the insurance! Check your credit cards to see what they cover. American Express provides some free coverage but it does not include the important collision. With just a little search I was able to sign up for a program that costs $24 a rental for good ‘covers all’ insurance for up to 41 days. Awesome savings to CYA (cover your ass). At the car rental the insurance is $18 a day.

Scam.

Places to Stay

Friend’s Place

Almost free! It is almost because you should definitely buy your pal a meal and a gift. Being grateful keeps the good karma going that all entrepreneurs need!

Hotels

Conference rates tend to be useful for expensive cities like San Fran, NY, Seattle, Chicago, and LA. It is important to book early because the blocks often fill up and pretty soon you can’t get a room a the conference rate.

You can often get a cheaper hotel further from the conference and just pay transportation costs. I like to take public transit during the day and save the taxi for night. Usually I am exhausted or sometimes intoxicated at night after networking and just need to get back to the room to rest up and shoot out emails.

Starwood Resorts like the W, Westin, and Sheraton are often good to stay at because the big industry players will be staying there. I have met some important allies in the elevator or at the bar in these resorts. I have a Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card which is great for free rooms, upgrades, and cheap rooms. I suggest signing up for one the next time you need to use a Starwood resort. Search online for promotions for the card. You can often get more sign up points!

Share a room!

Someone is thinking the same thing as you, “Damn this is going to be expensive!” Ask on your social networks who is going to the conference. Once you know you can privately talk about sharing a room. I don’t think it is smart to broadcast you are looking for someone to share a room with. It is a sign of desperation. Being frugal doesn’t mean you have to stop being classy.

Time Shares

These can come in handy and everyone knows someone with one. RCI is the biggest catalogue for units, but they can often require 8+ months to get a room near your conference.

I purchased a Wyndham Vacation Ownership in their Las Vegas location. It allows me to stay in the places I travel most which are San Fran and Las Vegas. I can also convert the points to RCI. I was able to get a Wyndham Room six minutes from a conference I attended in Orlando for hardly any points because I waited to book the room within a 30 day half points discount window. It is risky but I noticed there was a lot of rooms 3 months from when I was planning this trip so I felt comfortable with the risk.

Meals

Luckily the Wyndham rooms come with a kitchen. I have some strange food allergies so it is nice to be able to cool some meals. I also like to travel with Cliff Bars and oatmeal packets. Breakfast is my favorite meal but let’s face it, you are very unlikely to have a breakfast meeting at a conference. Save your money for dinner where business gets done!

This trip is 5 days long. A meal is $20 on average. That’s $200 spent eating out for breakfast and lunch. I often go to the supermarket and buy my allergy friendly food for $29. Cereal, almond milk, tortillas, lunch meat, OJ, and cookies. Huge savings!

Jared’s Pro Tip #2 – Get your coffee, water, or pop outside the conference. Most hotels have free Starbucks in the morning. The cost of anything is exaggerated once you step into the conference doors.

Marketing Materials

Why do a large order of marketing materials when you are not exhibiting at a conference or you don’t know how the message will resonate with your target market?

Don’t!

I once designed a 4×6 flyer for a company I started, Matador, and had it printed at a Walgreens ready for pickup 20 minutes later. Look for a promo code for prints online and place your order. I was able to get 50 prints for the price of 25 with a promo code I found online. The price: $5.09. Pretty awesome deal and great quality!

Internet

Hopefully Internet is free at your show. I recently discovered Freedompop.com which provides 500 mb a month at 4G speed for free a month. You just need to purchase the device.

The next plan is to ask someone staying at the hotel for the pass code. People are typically cool with it because paying for wifi is sort of ridiculous now a days. If that strategy doesn’t work I can always jailbreak my iPhone and share its Internet.

Gifts & Swag

I am a strong believer of making sure my loved ones, partners, and employees know you were thinking about them while traveling. The smallest gifts can make people really happy, especially software engineers.

I tend to put a duffle bag in one of the pockets of my luggage and fill it up with swag from shows for my team. I’ll also pick up some gifts that relate to their personalities. Treat people like you want them around and you can expect the best from them!

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.

StartupBus Builds Startup Community Everywhere Else

“You know what yous should do?” Nick said to me one Thursday night. “You should volunteer to be press on the Nashville StartupBus.”

2 days later I found myself up at 6:30 AM (for crying out loud!) and heading to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center to catch the bus. This bus, to be exact:

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67 hours later, 2 ice stops, and 1 almost-mental breakdown later, we pulled into the hotel in San Antonio. I may or may not have had some colorful things to call Nick at this point.

Still, riding the Nashville bus was awesome. I met some great people, learned a lot on the mentoring team, and got to see some pretty cool companies built. But none of that prepared me for the amazing experience the 2 days at Rackspace headquarters would be.

This is the second year Rackspace has hosted the competition at the end of the StartupBus ride. If you haven’t heard, Rackspace bought an old mall and turned it into office space. It’s pretty awesome.

The teams started preliminary pitches around 9 AM, even though many of the buses got in at 1 or later. Preliminary pitches were done in front of panel of StartupBus judges, while in another room teams prepped for their turn. Lots of pacing, lots of coffee, and lots of people randomly talking to themselves under their breath. Basically, it was startup heaven.

Sixteen teams went on to semifinals, and from there 8 more teams were chosen for the finals (Including Nashville’s On the List). Finals judges included Guy Kawasaki and Robert Scoble, among others, and they didn’t hold back in their criticisms and advice for the teams. Ultimately Mexico’s SmartHost came out on top.

The competition was fun, but the real story of StartupBus happened after the fact when several people migrated to SXSW. As the weekend wore on, the folks from various buses found themselves together again and again. The annual GroupMe chat had repeatedly have the limit raised because more and more people wanted to be involved.

“It’s like everywhere we go, it’s half StartupBus people,” Roxanne Spielvogel told me. “We just can’t get enough of hanging out!”

That kind of community is no accident or serendipity. The team at StartupBus see it as their number one goal, beyond the competition and the companies built on the buses.

StartupBus National Director Jon Gottfried put it to me this way:

Our community is actually the primary focus of StartupBus. In many ways, the competition is just the induction into that community. So the strength of our group at SxSW is truly our goal – and it has nothing to do with the conference. Those bonds and that support network are permanent. We frequently see Buspreneurs working together, founding companies together, and becoming great friends long after the competition ends. For me, the StartupBus community has had an immense impact on both my personal and professional life in New York tech.

Want to be involved in StartupBus? Check out the website and follow them on Twitter. You won’t regret it.

PS–I would be remiss if I didn’t say thanks to the amazing sponsors both of StartupBus national and of the Nashville bus. Rackspace was a great host, and companies like Elance, SendGrid, and Twilio made the whole thing a great time. For the Nashville bus, thanks to the Crunchfire team for riding along and being great mentors. JumpStart Foundry and LaunchTN were also huge sponsors that provided so much for the trip.

On The List Brings Exclusive Concert Experiences to Regular People

Startup Bus is rolling on along, and companies are talking, coding, and pitching fast.

On the Tennessee Startup Bus, On the List dominates the back seats. Even on little sleep, the team is hyped up and excited about their product.

Imagine you’ve gotten tickets to the hottest show coming to town this month. Most likely, you bought your ticket on a platform that charged outrageous fees, and you’ll be far from the stage or squashed in a crowd. That’s how concerts have always been, and it’s what we’ve come to expect.

Meanwhile, a brand–say Heineken–has spent $50,000 on sponsoring the event. That means their name is branded along the event and probably plastered all over the venue. Unfortunately, because we’re all used to branding at this point, you may not even notice the signs.

On the List solves both of these problems. As a fan, you pay the same amount for tickets, but brands sponsor add-ons that make your experience exponentially better. Forget signs or hats. What if Heineken sponsored your beer during the show? My guess is you’d remember Heineken fondly after that, and it’ll probably cost them as much or less than the “big” sponsorship.

The idea was originally pitched by Jack McCann. As a concert promoter in Nashville, McCann had first hand experience in the gap between brand sponsorship and audience engagement.

“When I was a kid I played a lot of Connect the Dots,” McCann told me when I asked about his initial inspiration. (Forgive him. We’ve been up for many, many hours.)

“The idea of throwing money at the big picture and hoping for a halo effect seems like that’s just not effective anymore,” he said once we got serious. “Brands needed a better value proposition. I thought it would be innovative and disruptive to allow them to directly connect with the fans. It gives brands an agile opportunity to curate the fan experience.”

A team of guys coalesced around it and got to work. And by got to work, I mean got to work. During our crazy trip, the team has validated their concept, built their service, and signed up users. One team member made 50 phone calls yesterday, pacing the bus and recruiting users. On the List is smoking through this Startup Bus thing.

You can go ahead and sign up on their website.