This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide 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.
Congrats to the Ravens for winning the Super Bowl! Best of the commercials? That’d be Chrysler’s So God Made A Farmer ad. Beyoncé rocked the half-time show (and flashed the Illuminati sign?). Yes, there was a brief blackout, enough to unleash a torrent of funny tweets. Oreos won the night, social-media wise. And finally, there was Shaq, lip-syncing to Beyoncé’s “Halo.”
R.I.P., Mayor Koch. You will be missed. New York is the greatest city in the world. But there was a time when the future looked bleak, and Mayor Koch deserves some of the credit for bringing the city back from the brink.
The NYC EDC is planning the 4th Annual BigApps competition. Help them out by completing this brief survey by Friday. Also, wanna help the city reinvent the payphone? Submit your prototype idea by February 18. Demo Day is March 5.
PILOT Health Tech NYC is an awesome new program that matches early-stage healthcare technology companies with key New York healthcare service organizations. It will provide funding of up to $100,000 each to 10 innovative pilot projects. Deadline is February 10. And GE and StartUp Health are announcing a three-year entrepreneurship program to provide expertise, resources and growth opportunities for consumer health companies. Deadline to apply is February 8.
Check out the New York State Collegiate Business Plan Competition. Current undergrad and grad students from New York City colleges are eligible. Deadline for applying is midnight of March 1. For more details, contact Lesley Stroll.
Love is in the air! And that means I’ve got a few Valentine’s Day-themed events for you this week: Startup Singles Happy Hour, The Chocolate Business at a Glance and Dating & Technology.
This Saturday is the much-anticipated Hearst Fashion Hackathon. Prizes include access to exclusive VIP Fashion Week shows, use of your hack in NYFW events, mentorship from Hearst, and $10,000-plus in cash prizes! And speaking of Fashion Week, hope to run into some of you there later this week.
Congrats to Alex, Sachin, Rameet, Alexis, Vipin, Carter and many other friends for getting selected to the NYC Venture Fellows program. And congrats to Eugene Chung, the new Managing Director of TechStars NYC!
More interesting events this week: PandoMonthly (with First Round’s Josh Kopelman), A Peek Into the World of Digital Art (with the New Museum’s Lauren Cornell) and The Impact of Digital on Movie Going (with NBC Universal’s Jon Gibs). And coming up: One of a Kind, where you can donate your old startup t-shirts, on February 13. And on February 16 comes HackInteractive (in partnership with CampInteractive), for hacking solutions to solve problems in student learning today.
And now let’s see what’s going down in the Alley this week…
The Impact of Digital on Movie Going: Jon Gibs SVP Research NBC Universal
AppNexus President Michael Rubenstein will host a fireside chat with Jon Gibs (SVP Research, NBC Universal).
Monday (Feb. 4), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street
Ultra Light Startups Investor Feedback Forum
Panelists include Arie Abecassis (DreamIt Ventures), Jordan Bettman (Bain Capital), Eliot Durbin (BOLDstart Ventures) and Mark Lodish (Solon Mack). Demos by MyBillRegistry, LienLog, Minteye, Merocrat, Epion Health, Threadmatcher, Standbuy and Handybook.
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Stern, 44 W. 4th Street, KMC 1-70
The Japan Society Presents: How to Create Your Own Humanoid
With Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro (director, Intelligent Robotics Lab at Osaka University), Erico Guizzo (senior editor, IEEE Spectrum) and Heather McKnight (founder, Marilyn Monrobot).
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 6:30 p.m. @ Japan Society, 333 E. 47th Street
February NY Tech Meetup
You know the drill. Five-minute demos. A bunch of amazing new startups. Now hopefully you’ve snagged one of those elusive tickets!
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 7 p.m. @ NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, 566 Laguardia Place
From Wall Street to Silicon Alley
With Charles Birnbaum (Foursquare), James Moran (Yipit), James Queen (Spotify) and Nihar Singhal (SeatGeek).
Tuesday (Feb. 5), 8 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.
Business Insider Presents: Social Commerce Summit
Rockstar list of speakers including John Caplan (OpenSky), Ben Fischman (Rue La La), Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Michelle Lam (True&Co), Doug Mack (One Kings Lane), Chris Bolte (WalmartLabs) and others.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 8 a.m. @ Pier 60, 23rd Street and 11th Avenue
Canadian Technology Accelerator Demo Night
Demos by I Think Security, Organimi, Ooka Island, Picatic, Sweet IQ and Wedding Republic.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street, 4th Fl.
Startup Singles Pre-Valentines Day Happy Hour
Is your Valentine this year your startup team members? That might be good for your startup, but not for your social life!
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6 p.m. @ Tom & Jerry, 288 Elizabeth Street
Projective Space Demo Night
Demos by Topi, Gander, Get Maid, Martini, Offmap, SeedInvest, DataNitro and Wun Wun.
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 6:30 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.
Wearable Computing Meetup
With Eric Migicovsky (creator of the $10M Kickstarter-funded Pebble Smart Watch)
Wednesday (Feb. 6), 7 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway, 8th Fl.
PandoMonthly Presents
With Josh Kopelman (founder & managing director, First Round Capital)
Thursday (Feb. 7), 6 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street, 3rd Fl.
Startup Funeral
All proceeds will go to HackNY, supporting the next generation of hackers.
Friday (Feb. 8), 8 p.m. @ New Work City Funeral Home, 412 Broadway, 2nd Fl.
Hearst Fashion Hackathon 2013
Prizes include access to exclusive VIP Fashion Week shows & events, use of your hack in NYFW events, mentorship from Hearst Corporation and $10k+ in cash prizes!
Saturday (Feb. 9), 9 a.m. @ Hearst, 300 W. 57th Street, 3rd Fl.
Science and the City
A hackfest dedicated to Citizen Science for Cities. Examples range from tracking your trash, studying the bacteria in your wallet, building social networks for cyclists or preparing for the next hurricane.
Saturday (Feb. 9), 9 a.m. @ NYU ITP Tisch School of Arts, 721 Broadway
Tech@NYU DemoDays
Hosting students from around the city to demo off cool projects they have been working on. Followed by a short talk from Greg Leppert (cofounder, Svpply).
Saturday (Feb. 9), 5 p.m. @ eBay NYC, 625 6th Avenue, 3rd Fl.
More events on the horizon…
Cocktails & Conversation with Joanne Wilson & Rohini Dey on Feb. 12 @ Vermilion
February 2013 NY Enterprise Technology Meetup on Feb. 12 @ Cooley
Mobile + Commerce Demo Night on Feb. 13 @ AOL Ventures
February Growth Hacker Meetup (with Cezary Pietrzak from Appboy) on Feb 13. @ NYU Stern School of Business
Electric Locomotive (with Dane Atkinson, CEO of SumAll) on Feb. 13 @ The Kraine Theater
One Of A Kind Party: Open Bar / Clothes Donation by StartupThreads, Amicus, AlleyNYC & Coalition for Queens on Feb. 13 @ 1OAK
Columbia Business School PE/VC Conference on Feb. 15 @ Alfred Lerner Hall at Columbia University
HackInteractive on Feb. 16 @ General Assembly
Social Media Week NY 2013 on Feb. 18 @ Metropolitan Pavilion
NYTECH Presents: Killer Strategies from the Worlds Greatest Innovators on Feb. 19 @ Morgan Stanley
Funding the Best in Global Innovation II on Feb. 20 @ SNR Denton
AIPAC Technology Division: Launch Event w/Dan Senor on Feb. 27 @ Bloomberg Tower
Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! 😉
