Startup Drinks, a movement that is held in cities across Canada and the US. The goal, to connect people in startups with each other over drinks in a casual atmosphere.  This kind of event provides the startup community a chance to discuss what they’re working on, what kind of problems they may need help with and what they can do for one another.
Justin Cumby had the pleasure of attending Startup Drinks recently in Toronto at C’est What?.

Greeted by the sounds of chatter, laughter and glasses coming together, it was evident the cozy venue was providing a comfortable atmosphere for startups to talk with one another over drinks. Some familiar faces in attendance were: Bryan Watson (NACO and CEO Fusion), Richard Reiner (Enomoly and Angel Investor with the Ryerson Angel Network), and Mike McDerment (FreshBooks) among others. Also in attendance were many leading edge Toronto startups.  Plenty of conversations were had. Some notable discussions for me included one about accelerator programs that are available for startups here in Canada and how new businesses can take on a university intern through the MITACS Accelerate Program and only pay half the cost. Another discussion was how those in the industry are undervaluing social media. James Standen from Datamartist and I talked about how the social media movement is yet to be used to its full potential. That consumer information that was never available to businesses (or was but for a high cost) is now available for free on networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

I remember thinking “what a fantastic opportunity for startups to get connected and stay that way.”
My thanks to the organizers for creating chances like this for people in the startup culture to connect with each other. I would recommend Startup Drinks for anybody who wants to get more involved in this community and network! 

I came across this interesting article recently, comparing Sesame Street and blogging and I found the comparisons compelling and interesting indeed, so much so I would like to share it with you. In fact this site has some amazingly quick but interesting articles that may help you grow your prescence out on the internet and build a strong brand for your organisation.

They taught us about sharing and the letter Q. They taught us to jump rope in Spanish and how to count to 10. They taught us about life in the city, diversity, and the true love of a rubber ducky.

But did you know that Sesame Street actually has lots of lessons about how to be a better blogger?

There’s a reason Sesame Street is the longest-running children’s show in history. Actually, there are (at least) five reasons. And you can apply each of these to your blog, to create something that’s memorable, effective, and maybe even loved.

To read the full article go HERE

Feeds and commenting aggregator fav.or.it has closed a new round of funding totaling nearly £500,000. The bulk of that has come from angel investors but £125,000 came from the Finance South East fund, a government-backed fund set up to support startup businesses. The funds will be used to expand the development team and also hire a dedicated marketing and sales force.

fav.or.it has thus far been designed to simplify interaction with news sites and blogs. But it’s now adding a new string to its business model: making it easier for companies to track what people are saying about them on blogs, social networks and Twitter. However, this won’t be brand tracking. Instead, brands would be able to pay for channels that aggregate the conversation around their brand/product and use it to engage with customers.

Launched in beta in October 2007 and public from June last year, fav.or.it - founded by CEO Nick Halstead - aggregates content from thousands of blogs and websites and streams them into a network of vertical channels,  having been a Startup Essential member since then, startup essentials worked together to help grow fav.or.it  gaining PR on sun.com and in the FT as well as many public quotes in other mainstream press. Nick has recently moved to MySQL Enterprise to make certain he is ready for the growth and scaling the business will need over the coming months, and is prepared for that now.

Halstead has also launched a new property, FeedBroker. This separates some of the functionality into a new site which would allow for licensing feeds external to fav.or.it. Feedbroker lets content owners specify terms under which their content may be used and allows them to take payments on a pay-per-post basis, for instance. In other words, fav.or.it wil share ad revenues with publishers, so it’s not just taking the content and re-publishing it.

Come join us for breakfast at the Klaus K Ahjo club in Helsinki on Thursday, 5th February, as part of ArcticStartup.

“five out of the five fastest growing social networking sites are running on Sun technology.” A bold claim to which the breakfast seminar is going to shed some light on and elaborate on the possibilities and customized solutions that Sun offers for companies that work around the area.

Hope you can join us!  Please find more information here  

Bebo's Streisan Chapman joined us at the Sun sponsored Facebook Garage London earlier in November to discuss Bebo's developer and social opportunities.  Missed it? You can catch the video here:

Adding to the valued partnerships and great offers to the community, we are happy to announce yet another FREE hosting offering, this time for Bebo's developers.  Go here for more information.  

If that was not enough, Sun is also happy to provide the prizes for the best new engaging Bebo application. The judges are high profile bloggers and entrepreneurs, Frank Gruber, Dave McClure, and Jesse Stay!

Click the image for all the information - but a particular highlight is:

"The Contest is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (including the District of Columbia), Canada (excluding Quebec) and the United Kingdom who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry and are registered members of Bebo.com. "

Good Luck!

Matt 

zzizzl films – a startup’s journey

Starting a new online business is a real challenge. At the same time it is also liberating. It enables small companies and individuals to connect to a worldwide audience, in ways never possible before.

“Startup” is a word that has different meanings, depending on who is saying it. There are VC funded startups, angel funded startups and bootstrapped startups. All say they have no money – but we know which one really means it.

Bootstrapped companies are started because someone or a group of individuals have a passion and a vision about something – it could be a gap in the market, a product, a tool, a service - but know the energy they will have to expend to get any angel or VC funding is the same as or even more than getting their business off the ground.

With the current economic climate, things are going to get tougher for everybody. One of the biggest challenges for startups is getting noticed and attracting new visitors to their site. There is so much noise and activity online, with consumers being bombarded left, right and centre, it is a real challenge to get noticed. Yet without customers and users, companies will disappear. You soon realise that you need to find a way to get the word out there that you exist – beyond your own network of connections.

Suddenly the pain and challenge of getting your site live – yes, we could be talking 2-3 years to get to this point - is transformed to how do I get noticed. Without the luxury of a PR firm by your side, entrepreneurs have to become PR, marketing and run a business all at the same time.

At zzizzl.com we have created a way to encourage new customers to spread the word. When anyone joins zzizzl, they can invite their friends through their personal ‘spread the word’ page, by sending an email with a personal invite code. When their friends join and buy credits for films on their first purchase, we give them 5 credits as a thank you gift. If two friends do this, they have 10 credits for a free film. We have also added a free film download on the home page, so anyone can test out the zzizzl experience. We know that our very survival is in those who come and support, join, spread the word and buy the films and videos on our site, which they can download and watch on any portable player.

Times are changing here in the UK and it is not such a lonely place for an entrepreneur. There are some great groups here in London, where you can meet other startups and entrepreneurs who understand your journey, your pain, your joy and your passion, who want to help by connecting you with others who can help and assist. Why? What do they want from you? Nothing!! They want to see you grow, as you want to see them grow and when they see this honesty, drive, determination and passion seeping through your veins, they want to help. It’s not ‘what can you do for me’, it has become ‘what can I do for you’!! Entrepreneurialism is no longer a dirty word in the UK. More great talent is being attracted to London and the UK from around the world, but you know what is really interesting – there was already great talent here. We are now connecting and creating this support eco-system. We are fast learning that to help someone else is to help ourselves at the same time. This can be as little as an introduction, which can transform someone’s business or life.

Why focus on the doom and gloom when we can keep our heads up and be optimistic. With our last day always potentially round the corner, we should not worry about tomorrow, but focus on the present and live each day as if it is our last. By living truly in the present, everything is possible.


About zzizzl films
zzizzl is portable entertainment that fits in your pocket. zzizzl showcases talented filmmakers, independent bands and media creators to a worldwide audience and shares the profits 50/50 with the rights holder. For less than the price of a latte people can download short films and videos, transfer to their phone or media player and watch anytime anywhere. zzizzl is focused on established and emerging talent and is where creativity meets commerce.

http://www.zzizzl.com

written by
Dennis Morrison
zzizzl founder 

Three things got me annoyed yesterday:

1) Not being at Web2expo - i'll get over that, i'm trying to get to Berlin
2) Preparing for a practical workshop on blogging only to realise that 75% of the time is going to be spent explaining what tags are and rss is rather than discussing how they can be of benefit to a business.
3) Control freaks - people who think that a little bit of knowledge think they know it all (won't go into that one!)

In particular, number two got me thinking that as a country, we are woefully under-educated when it comes to social media. Why are we still having conversations about what these tools are rather than what they can do for you?

I'd like to throw a few thoughts into the hat and see what people like Neville, Stephen, Steve, Becky, Will, Dave, Robin, Hugh, Jas, Stuart and maybe even Chris, Brian, Geoff and Pete have to say:

Concept
Is online social interaction (the principle of people/customers meeting online to share things and meet each other) SO far beyond people's grasp they just do not get what happens and what people do?

Prejudice
The idea that without your work hat on, "I don't use the internet like that , so why would my customers?"

Growth/Choice
Does the rate of change/growth of new social media tools scare IT departments or marketing/pr teams that anything they may decide to adopt may be obsolete in a few months? What about the sheer number of tools they could use? Is it realistic to expect a marketeer to keep track of everything that goes on?

Technology

Are we  our own worst enemies? Do we like to talk XML, php, css and other jargon too much that we actually alienate the very people we are hoping to adopt the tools we talk about?

Control

This relates nicely in fact, to point number three. People who have traditionally been in total control of their customers (when their customers didn't know any better) are now petrified that they can't control what their customers are saying. Burying their heads in the sand won't work.

Previous tools such as websites, direct mail, press ads and email were great at telling customers what the brand wanted them to hear but now marketeers have to get their heads around the fact that those same recipients are talking back – just that they are telling other customers not them!

Tone of Voice

After decades of talking AT customers, brands are now having to talk TO customers. How do you talk to people you have spent years ignoring what they say? How should you speak to them? Learning THAT takes either a lot of listening, training or plenty of both.

Social Media Tools are "a phase" of internet growth

Several years ago (early 90's), when working for a large mail order company, the whole business began gearing up for this "internet" thing that was coming.

HR were booking training sessions for people like there was no tomorrow , business-wide email was starting to roll-out and you could sense that people knew something big and important was going to happen. 15 years and 1 billion online users later - they were right.

The impression I get of what many of us might call the proverbial "sea-change" in the internet is that social media and its associated tools are nothing more than evolution rather than revolution.

I'll end with some links to a couple of great posts, (from Suw who is organising the blogger outreach for the Berlin Web2 Expo and the legendary BL Ochman)all around exactly what I am talking about above as well as the Chris's 12 reasons why he thinks the UK isn't blogging or adopting social media tools:

1 - You don't understand why you'd want a business blog. Neither does your CEO.

2 - You are the CEO. And you're not going to allow your minions to blog.

3 - You think it is too risky to allow your colleagues to write blog posts.

4 - Your PR agency thinks blogging is a bad move.

5 - You mentioned something to the techies. It is in their development schedule.

6 - You haven't figured out who will contribute to the blog, or what you will write about.

7 - You can't see any benefits whatsoever. It would be a waste of time.

8 - You don't see any return on investment. It would be a loss leader. We don't do loss leaders.

9 - You have no clue about how to set up a blog.

10 - You think blogging is all hype / a passing fad / for kids.

11 - You are happy to ignore blog activity in the US. The US is a totally different environment for this sort of thing.

12 - You think blogging isn't right for your business.

This is a guest post taken from Paul's Blog  Blending the mix, Paul is a Client Services Manager at Digital Marketing Agency KMP. Part of his role is  to understand how best our clients can embrace social networks and blogging.

So we have had the Manchester police using Facebook as a means to get updates on local crimes and people to contribute updates, a facebook app for the community.  

Now Ever wish your laptop could do more than just crash and cause you pain and headaches? How about using it to fight crime? Victims of crimes in Brazil
can now log onto Wikicrimes and pinpoint the exact intersection of the criminal attack.

Created by a Brazilian professor, the site asks contributors to provide details such as whether the perpetrator was armed or whether a third party can confirm the incident.

So next we have this interlinked with the facebook app and we have a Crime mashup.

Oh how technology is evolving and changing. 

So blognation was launched yesterday, Sam Sethi is bringing together a collection of editors globally, to present a true global picture of the Start Up community, this is an amazing achievement, and a blog to watch over the coming months, to see what is happening and where.

Good luck and I hope to see this one grow in audience reach very quickly indeed. 

What’s blognation’s goal?

We want to become one of the first sites that technology-enthusiasts,
bloggers, early adopters, fellow entrepreneurs and investors visit to
find daily updates on Web 2.0 technology, mobile and enterprise news
from all over the world. The English-speaking part of the world is
language-challenged: there are many excellent blogs in Spanish or
German about Web 2.0 start-ups, but if you don’t read these languages,
you’re stuck. We believe blognation solves that problem by offering
news about those start-ups only in English.

 

Extract

Online social networks already allow users to share
photos, videos and update friends on everything they do. Now a new
generation of sites is going a step further, using satellite
positioning to track users' whereabouts.
Ian Walker is making his way across the car park outside of his office
on Liverpool's Edge Lane.
His friends can watch his journey into work because he's connected to Bliin, one of the new generation of social networking sites that is using satellite positioning technology.

Users with Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile phones log-on using a small application loaded onto the handset.