Go in alone or with a partner?  How do you find and recruit a partner?

Need a business person?  A developer?  Where?  Who?

How do you know if they're the right person?  What do you ask on an interview?

And what do you pay all these people??

I've covered some of these issues in the posts below, but if you'd like to discuss startup hiring issues with a great group of up and coming entrepreneurs, you should definitely come to nextNY's Building the Team Community Conversation.

We'll be discussing, with the help of some great conversation leaders (entrepreneurs, a recruiter, a VC), the ins and outs of startup hiring. 

Please join us!

Eran Hammer-Lahav has been a really active member of nextNY.  He recently pulled the plug on his startup midway through his friends and family funding for a host of reasons that touch on a lot of the issues talked about in that group:  hiring, competition, product development/management, etc.   He's moving on to become an Open Standards Evangelist at Yahoo!, but he's learned a lot of lessons and has agreed to talk about them at a small group event this Thursday night (5/1) at 6:30PM here at Path 101/Return Path.

There are a lot of people looking for partners, trying to figure out competition, or just thinking about starting companies here on this list.  Eran's advice could be invaluable.  There are 13 people signed up and we could squeeze up to 30 people in the room.  This is a must-show for anyone in the very early stages of their business as far as I'm concerned and want to encourage as many people as possible in that position to take advantage.

Here's the link to the event:

nouncer.eventbrite.com

Tonight, at Antarctica Bar, is nextNY's 2 Year Anniversary.  Yup, that's the place we first got together back in February of 2006.

Come and catch up with people you haven't seen in a while, people you've never met, or people you'll be hanging out with for the 4th time this week because of all the other tech parties going on in NYC this week.

Antarctica is located on Hudson Street, between Dominic and Spring.   The closest subway is the Spring St. C, E.   We'll start showing around 7PM.

Blogged with Flock

At first, we weren't sure if we were going to do a holiday party, because there were so many going on, but we had so much fun last year and it was such a great turnout that we decided to do one again.  The best part is that it coinsides with the ITP Winter Show, and so you can go to that, and then meet us for drinks at Apple Bar right around the corner.

Here's the RSVP list... you can show up anyway, but its always nice to let others know you're coming.

Monday, December 17th.  7PM - 10PM

Apple Restaurant and Bom Bar:
http://www.applerestaurant.com/
located at
17 Waverly Pl. Between Green and Mercer

Blogged with Flock

nextNY is helping BDI get the word out about its Convergence 2007 conference this Monday, and in return, all nextNY members are getting a discounted rate to the conference.  Check it out!

Present Convergence 2007 The Future of Advertising, Communications & Media

About The Event This full day conference will gather the best and brightest minds to explore how the communications industry is converging. The internet's impact on advertising, pr, and media continue to create major changes in the way organizations and individuals interact. Businesses and consumers are embracing social media, web video, and environmentalism. Communications professionals are challenged more than ever to measure ROI on their initiatives while embracing new and sometimes immature cutting edge tactics. We will explore case studies and provide a platform for highly regarded thought leaders to share their successes, failures and lessons learned. We will also invite the best of breed product and solution providers to share their perspectives on the changing face of communications. Case Study: Harnessing the Power of User Generated Media at Toyota Motor Company Bruce Ertmann, Corporate Manager, Consumer Generated Media, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. As a global leader, Toyota is on the forefront of innovative ways to support its brand and deepen relationships with consumers and dealers. Bruce Ertmann will share his case studies and lessons learned about how one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world embraces consumer generated media as an important part of its overall branding and communications strategy. Case Study: Results through Convergence: McDonald's Use of New Communication Vehicles to Engage Consumers Heather Oldani, Director of Communications, McDonald's As an industry leader, McDonald's continues to seek new ways to reach consumers in order to meaningfully engage them with the brand and to drive awareness and trial for new products and promotions. With the media landscape continually changing, as well as consumers' preferred channels for receiving information, the Communications Team at McDonald's USA has gone beyond traditional media relations to new communication vehicles to help launch new products and to help build brand trust, often times in close collaboration with marketing. The case study presentation will focus on the results delivered from this close collaboration combined with the use of vehicles for two product launches and the company's efforts to reach Moms with brand trust messaging. Case Study: Casio's Partnership with YouTube To Launch The "YouTube Camera" Melissa Keklak, PR Director, Casio Casio has teamed up with YouTube to help establish itself as an innovative company among younger consumers by equipping some of its newest digital cameras with a YouTube Capture mode. The electronics company secured an exclusive agreement with YouTube to provide software on four of its cameras. "We've always been a youthful-type, trendy company," Melissa Keklak, PR director, Casio told PR Week. However, some of Casio's innovations have been overlooked in the competitive digital camera market, she explained. But with this effort, Casio's PR goal is to be known as "the YouTube camera" and the first in the market to offer this technology, Keklak added.Outreach efforts include promoting the agreement to print, broadcast, online, and new-media outlets. The second phase of the campaign involves giving cameras to editors to review the YouTube mode. Later this year, Casio will launch a contest to raise awareness about the YouTube-enabled cameras. Case Study: Social Networking Meets Madison Avenue - Future Opportunities & Lessons Learned from myYearBook.com, the fastest growing social networking site on the internet Geoff Cook, CEO, myYearBook.com style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'" >www.myYearbook.com is the fastest growing social network on the Internet for 13 to 21 year olds and the only one started by 2 high school students.  They recently announced that the site logged a phenomenal 70 percent increase in traffic over the course of just one month from 2.8 million unique visitors to an astounding 4.6 million.   Geoff Cook will share the inside scoop on how to create and execute successful marketing partnerships between online social networks and brands.  He will focus on how to best work with social networking sites from both pr and advertising perspectives.

Details Monday, December 3, 2007 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. The Graduate Center/CUNY 365 Fifth Avenue; New York, NY 10016 Registration Fee: $395, to receive a discounted rate of $345 enter promo code CONCO when registering. http://www.bdionline.com/convergence2007 Additional Speakers Robert Aitken, Broadcast Product Manager, AP Online Video Daryl Battaglia, Vice President, Nielsen Tracking System Stephen Berkov, Director, Brand Innovation, Audi of America, Inc. Jack Berkowitz, Senior Vice President, ALM Media Karen Bloom, Principal, Bloom Gross & Assoicates,Inc. Gigi Carroll, VP Concept Director, DraftFCB Michael Clemente, Executive Producer, ABC News Paul Dunay, Director Marketing, BearingPoint and Author, Buzz Marketing for Technology Bart Feder, Chairman, The FeedRoom Adrienne Garland, Vice President Marketing, PR Newswire Association LLC Mindy Gikas, Managing Director, Human Resources, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Scott Goodson, Co-Founder, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, Strawberry Frog Dan Greenfield, Media Consultant and former Vice President, Corporate Communications, EarthLink James Gregory, CEO, Corebrand Monica A. Hand, Manager, New York Metro Area, Public Affairs & Communications, United States Postal Service Dena Helf , Executive Producer, Video, Vault.com Inc. Peter Himler, Flatiron Communications & President, PR Club of New York John Kaponi, Managing Director, Infocis Press Monitoring Meg Kinney, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning, Integer/TBWA Jessica Luterman, Managing Director, DeSilva and Phillips Russell Meyer, Chief Strategy Officer, San Francisco, Landor Dori Molitor, CEO, Womanwise Christine Nevin, Director, Business & Media Relations, ConEdison Solutions Stacey Prenner, Talent Management Director, DDB Jason Rissman, Google Stuart Schwartz, The NewsMarket Hank Stewart, VP, Strategic Messaging, Green Team Gus Warren, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Spot Runner, Inc. Alyssa Waxenberg,Senior Director of Westin and Element Interactive Marketing, Starwood Hotels Sponsors

Blogged with Flock

That's great, because New York entrepreneurs, developers, and designers need you.  Maybe you have an idea and need a developer or you're a contract developer looking to dive into your own thing, but need a business person to join you.  Contract work is great, but why settle for working on O.P.P. (other people's projects)? 

nextNY is doing an event all around getting people who want to join startups together.  Best part is, you won't get hounded by recruiters or "venture vultures" looking to sell things to you.  Here, you'll just meet other people thinking about the entrepreneurial path.

Here's the info:

MatchupCamp – matchmaking for startups – is all about startup networking, creating a place for ideas and talent to meet. There are many events matching professional services to startups – this one will focus on those looking to get their hands dirty and build something new. MatchupCamp has the sole objective of bringing together people looking to start, expend, or join a startup in New York (and the tri-state area).

MatchupCamp is for those looking for others to work together building exciting ventures in New York. There is no requirement for full time commitment – anyone who wants to take part is welcomed, even if they only have a few hours a week. The important thing is that you are interested in taking part. If you got ideas or skills, come find others to share them with:

• People with ideas looking for others to develop it into a real product
• Anyone with some free time thinking about jumping into the startup world looking to see what’s out there
• Developers looking for cool part-time or full-time projects
• Startup founders looking for employees or co-founders
• Students looking for internships

Details:

Wednesday, November 28 @ 7PM

For Your Imagination
22 West 27th Street
6th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Blogged with Flock

Seth Goldstein told CNN/Money that he, ""figured out a way to get companies started in New York." It was never easy, though. "People there are always dragging you down," he says. "They don't want to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.""

He added, "Because New York is so mercenary, I always overindexed toward the missionary," he explains. "Out here, I'm way more comfortable being mercenary. Hyperbole and philosophy don't go very far in the Valley."

Meanwhile, Steph, a graphic designer muses about the difference on her blog:

Blogged with Flock

Tags: nextNYgraphicdesign web2.0 nyc

Ever since we wound up at Return Path, I've been thinking a lot about the model of an incubator.  We heard at the recent city council hearing that incubators were tough to keep up from an economic perspective and required all sorts of subsidies, either from government or academic institution.

But my situation isn't like that.  Does having us use two empty desk cost Return Path real money?  Sure... but how much?  We use normal bandwidth for our regular office activities and hardly ever use the phone.  We borrow a conference room about twice a week and we probably take two sodas/juices a day each from the free machine.  I'd be surprised if our actual incremental cash cost was $150 a month.  That's because there's already an existing, revenue generating organization in place there.  When you try and create an incubator from scratch in an incubator-only space, you couldn't possibly get anywhere near that.

Think about the conference rooms alone.  We would have never rented a place on our own with conference rooms, because we'd never use them enough.  However, a mid-size company probably only use their own conference rooms, at most, half the time.

That's not to mention that RP could potentially get from us.  We do like to think of ourselves as two cutting edge startup guys that are "in the know" about things like social media, data (Alex's specialty), etc., and we're pretty well connected into the community of entrepreneurs.  I've already spoken some people here about doing some knowledge sharing sessions and we're happy to pitch in with some feedback where we can, because we're grateful for the space.

If we were social media consultants, what would that have cost the company?  Certainly a lot more than the desks did.   Seems to me that it could very well balance out if the exchange was a couple of desks for 5-10 hours of mindshare a month.  Now, Return Path may not need that from us, because they're pretty savvy themselves, but what about a big print media company looking to expand their web presence?  I'm sure Jeff Jarvis would agree that rather than move forward in an echo chamber, a media company like that might benefit from having a few startup folks around the office to help them out.  Perhaps they could be instilled as  VPs of Common Web Sense.

So here's the deal I propose that companies with 50 or more people think about:

Give:

• 1-3 desks per seed stage startup
• Internet connection for normal office usage
• Reasonable access to unused conference rooms (prob not more than 5-7 hours/wk, but could be more if they're usually pretty empty)
• Building security passes

Get:

• Goodwill in the startup community
• 5-10 hours of mindshare from people who are thinking out of the box (which is why it makes sense to find startups in your vertical, too)

Similar models have worked in the art world, where artists occupy unused commercial real estate spaces as studios and galleries. 

It's also a very green model, too, if you think about it.  It's about efficient use of existing space.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Questions?  Diggs?  Tags?  Any companies want to sign up?