This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder of GarysGuide, mentor at ER Accelerator and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.
End of an Era
So much has been written about Steve Jobs since he sadly passed away last week and so much more will be written over the days, weeks, months and years to come. Visionary. Genius. Perfectionist. Disruptor. The Crazy One. He’s mentioned in the same breath as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Walt Disney. Like so many of u, I loved his products, listened to his ‘stevenotes’, stood in line for (ok, pre-ordered) the latest Apple gadget and in general was mesmerized by the reality-distortion field. Heck, even my red tie owes a debt of inspirational gratitude to the infamous black mock turtleneck.
But to all of us startup folks, he was something more–an entrepreneurial role model who inspired ‘n taught us countless lessons that we took to heart as we went about building our startups. Real CEOs ship. Marketing is important. Think long term. Think different. Don’t compromise. ‘A’ players always hire ‘A’ players. Design matters. Pay attention to tiny details. But most importantly, don’t waste time living someone else’s life and always focus on building something “Insanely Great.” Cuz as Steve would say: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?”
Amit Gupta
Before there were all these amazing coworking and incubator spaces all over town, there was Jelly. It was founded by Amit Gupta, undoubtedly one of the nicest and most amazing people you’ll ever know and a big part of the NY tech community. Amit was recently diagnosed with leukemia and urgently needs to find someone who can donate bone marrow to help him in his fight. So help spread the word.
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Move over spa treatments, pole dancing classes and teeth whitening clinics. Here are 4 deals that you’ll actually find useful. BOOM!
Ok now, lets see what is going down this week in the amazing, amazing world of Nu Yawk Tek…
Ignite NYC 13 @ Web 2.0 Expo
There are presentations. And then there are “Ignite” presentations”–totally crazy-ass and highly entertaining (or host Tikva Morowati will give u ur money back. 😉 Alexis Ohanian (Make the World Suck Less), Amy E. Herman (How Picasso Helps to Solve a Murder Case), Caroline Drucker (How To Get More Women in Tech In Under A Minute), Corvida Raven (How To Unstale Your Cheerios), David Phillips (Los Angeles Survival Kit), Emma Persky (Karaoke Faces), Lucianne Walkowicz (Explosions in the Sky), Samhita Mukhopadhyay (Outdated: 5 Reasons Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life), Tereza Nemessanyi (I Digitized My Mom), Suraj Patel (The Social Media Echo Chamber) and more.
Monday, 6:30 p.m. @ Sheraton NY Metropolitan Ballroom, 811 7th Avenue 2nd Floor
Eric Ries speaks at NYU (Columbus Day)
You’ve read the stories. You’ve been practicing the moves. Now its time to come face to face with the myth and the legend himself. Thats right. Lean Startup Jedi Master, Eric Ries, is in town to help infuse some much needed lean goodness into ur bloated startup. Excited, we are.
Monday, 6:30 p.m. @ Paulson Auditorium, 40 W 4th Street
CTO School Session 1: Being the Tech Leader
Congratulations! You’re now the CTO of a spanking hot new startup. Oh-kaaay, so now what? Relax, don’t panic. I got u covered. Thats why u need to go to this event and learn the ropes from Ideeli CTO, Mark Uhrmacher.
Monday, 6:30 p.m. @ Skylabs, 1 State Street Plaza 29th Floor
Mediabistro.com Startups Party
Its drinks. Its startups. Its free. Whats not to like?!
Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Chelsea Manor, 138 West 25th Street
Hacks / Hackers Demo Day 3
Hack, hack, hack. Demo, demo, demo. Rinse ‘n repeat. With David Joerg (Data Collective), Erik Hinton (Baroque), Ray Wu (WhatFailed.Us), Michael Bernstein (PenPal News), Nicola Hughes (ScraperWiki) and Chris van der Walt (UN Global Pulse HunchWorks).
Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. @ New Work City, 412 Broadway 2nd Floor
October 2011 NY Tech Meetup
Scoring a ticket to this thing is a little bit like performing in the Cirque du Soleil. You have to jump thru a gazillion hoops but at the end u feel happy and accomplished even if a little light headed and woozy.
Tuesday, 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place
After-After-Party for NY Tech meetup
So the real question is: where is the after-after-AFTER party, no?
Tuesday, 10:30 p.m. @ Shade, 241 Sullivan St
Talk Forum NYC Presents: Tech Madison Avenue (2.0)
Where Madison Avenue runs into Silicon Valley on the street corner and they have a nice enlightening chat. In the house will be David Tisch (Managing Director, TechStars), Bonin Bough (Global Head of Digital, Pepsico), Marc DeBevoise (GM, CBS Interactive), Mike Wehrs (CEO, Scanbuy), Andrew Olson (COO, Comcast Convergent Products), Stephanie Bauer (Director, Verizon Mobile Advertising), Sonpreet Bhatia (Co-Founder, MyCityWay), Paul Gelb (VP Mobile, Razorfish) and more.
Wednesday, 3 p.m. @ Ney Center, 285 Madison Avenue
Web 2.0 Expo Startup Showcase
30 startup demos. 2 judges. 1 hour. With Joanne (Gotham Gal) Wilson and Mo Koyfman (Spark Capital).
Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. @ Central Park West
Privacy in Mobile and Location
Having nightmares about what facebook is doing right now with all those drunken naked college frat party photos of urs? Well, of course u are (or should be if u’re not). To find out more go check out this event with Albert Wenger (Union Square Ventures), Colin O’Malley (Evidon) and Bob Walczak (Bump Equity). Moderated by Marvin Ammori (Stanford Law School).
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Aol Ventures, 770 Broadway, 6th Floor
Learn How to Get your First Million Users
You know the bubble is in full swing when y’all start meeting up in a church to talk about how y’all gonna get ur first million users. Praise the lord!
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Metro Baptist Church, 410 W 40th Street
ER Accelerator Happy Hour
Drink and network with other startuppers. Applications now open for ERA January 2012 class.
Thursday, 6 p.m. @ Connolly’s NYC, 121 W 45th Street, 3rd Floor
Ultralight Startups: Investor Feedback Forum and Pitch Showdown
Graham Lawlor is back with another awesome edition of Ultralight. Panelists include John Ason (Angel Investor, Kewpie Associates), Paul Sciabica (Exec Director, NY Angels), Brian Cohen (NY Angels) and Jonathan Stillman (Half Moon Ventures, Assembla). Startup Pitches include Yuri Bakumenko (MobilizeToday), Sidhartha Shankar (Teer1), Ilya Zeldin (brandME), Kelsey Recht (InstEvent), Chaz Mee (Brouha), Aaron (Rudenstine CityMaps), Graham Clarke (Dealicio), Charles Holden (OnLock Digital Authentication), Pritesh Damani (Winito) and Alex Kombos (EventNow).
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 W 4th Street
TaskRabbit Celebrating Women-In-Tech Party
Everyone who is anyone in NY Tech is going to be there. What are u waiting for? Go signup pronto! And bring a friend (or three).
Thursday, 7 p.m. @ Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard Street
NYC Gaming October Meetup
Time to get ur game on with awesome demos and awesome peeps.
Thursday, 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor
How to Build a Mobile App
SKiNNiO CTO, Peter Bell will give u the inside skinny on how to build a mobile app without going crazy, pulling ur hair out and cursing loudly at the guy (or gal) who invented Objective C.
Thursday, 8 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor
Singularity Summit
So maybe u believe in the singularity. Or maybe u don’t. But u tell me, which other event is out there in this universe where u can rub shoulders with futurists (Ray Kurzweil), brain neuroscientists (Christof Koch), AI researchers (Eliezer Yudkowsky), startup founders (Jaan Tallinn, Skype), investors (Peter Thiel Facebook), MIT polymaths (Alexander Wissner-Gross), cosmologists (Max Tegmark), DARPA challenge winners (Riley Crane) and Jeopardy! champions (Ken Jennings).
Saturday, 9 a.m. @ 92 Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue
More on the horizon…
Pivot Conference on Oct 17 @ Crowne Plaza
Rocking Out in the Empire State Building on Oct 18 @ Empire State Building
Collecting, Interpreting and Leveraging Social Data on Oct 18 @ General Assembly
NetDay New York: Startups in the City on Oct 18 @ Instituto Cervantes
NY Beta::Launch Event on Oct 20 @ Studio 450
Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends!
