StartupCamp5DiscussionIdeas
From StartupCamp
Startup Camp: An Unconference for you, by you
This page is where you should give people an idea of the session(s) that you may end up proposing at Startup Camp. But first, if you're not sure how things will work at Startup Camp and how to create and edit pages on this Web site, then read on. If you're an old hand at unconferences and are ready to offer some ideas for some discussions (and you know how to edit wiki pages), then click the edit tab above, scroll to the bottom, add some discussion * topics (along with brief descriptions to this page).
Open Space Basics
Startup Camp will be conducted Open Space style (more about Open Space and unconferences can be found here). Much the same way other camps like Mashup Camp have been run, at the beginning of each day, there will be a general assembly where attendees can propose the discussions that they're interested in leading. Attendees will line up for their turn at the microphone, propose a discussion and, on a whiteboard that lists all of the available rooms and time slots in grid fashion, slot their proposed discussion into one of the available room/times. We'll follow the same protocol as we did in Mashup Camp where the details about the proposed discussion are written in magic marker on a piece of paper and then taped into an available slot (this way, they're easily moved).
Startup Camp Logistics
To get an idea of what this looks like, check out the Discussion Grid from one of our previous Startup Camps, held in London in March 2008. There are always at least 5 different rooms and 4 or 5 different time slots which means there's plenty of opportunity for your discussion to take place. One or more blocks of time will be reserved for "speed geeking." Speed geeking is like speed dating and the purpose of it is to give all attendees the information they need to vote for their favorite startup in the Best Startup Contest. Startups will be given the opportunity to setup up stations where they can present their business idea, plan of execution, and demonstrate any tangibles. Attendees will spend five minutes at each station before moving to the next one at the sound of a buzzer. For more information about the Best Startup Contest, be sure to vist the Best Startup Contest page on this wiki.
Principles of Open Space
There are several principles of Open Space:
- Whoever comes are the right people.
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
- Whenever it starts is the right time.
- When it is over, it is over.
- Document your session.
The Law of Two Feet
There is also the Law of Two Feet: If during the course of the gathering, any person finds themselves in a situation where they are neither learning nor contributing, they must use their two feet and go to some more productive place.
And Be Prepared to Be Surprised.
And amazed.
The Un-job Board
There are probably a lot of companies here today looking for smart startup talent. This might be a better audience than your average Craig's List reader.
If you need talent, post your needs on the UnJobBoard and hopefully this camp can hook up some great people with great companies.
Discussion Proposals
Below is a list of probable/proposed discussions. At the end of each description is a link to a detail level page where you can get more information, indicate your interest in attending the discussion, and flesh out the topic in more detail with other attendees. However, in some cases, the proposed discussion is neither listed yet or the detail level pages are not setup yet. So, feel free to add to this wiki. If you click on a link for which a page hasn't been created, it will take you to a page that you can start to edit (if you are one of the people who proposed a topic, feel free to start the detail level page associated with that topic and get the conversation going!).
Note: We've had a few people use the discussion tab along the top of the wiki interface to enter a proposed discussion. Be sure to click the edit tab at the top of this page. This will put you into the edit mode for this page. Then, scroll to the bottom and enter your discussion idea.
Check out our help page for getting started when it comes to logging in and creating or editing pages on this wiki.
In no particular order, here are some proposed discussion topics. If you're adding a topic, please bracket the topic with four "=" signs to designate a new section heading (e.g., ====FirstnameLastname: MyTopic====). An example of this formating is below.
Waleed Abdulla: Are Digg and reddit as good as it gets for social news?
- How will the next generation of social news sites look like?
- With so many attempts to replicate or enhance the model, how come there are only very limited successes?
- What new (revolutionary) ideas are there to enhance the model? Not minor enhancements, but big changes?
- Add your name to Social News page if you're interested in the discussion.
RuthAnnBarrett: Social Networks for Social Change
- How to craft a network that delivers tools to ENABLE groups of people organized around a social (niche) movement to effect change in their lives, communities, countries, and globally. For example, prediction markets to take advantage of collective wisdom, handy widgits (GIS) to bring planning tools to activists, and incorporation of broadcasting technology (e.g. WebEx) to be part of the social network's dashboard.
- I am building a Website, EarthSayers.tv, the voices of sustainability, and want to define an EarthSayers Network that is an "Agent of Change" environment and very useful to the affluent baby boomers (45-55) and their adult children - sophisticated, early adopters, most professional and executive level.
- Mongo - count me in. People like to keep score. Change.com is a social do-gooder network that scores how much change you create in the world. Perhaps you could run their scorecard app on your web pages, similar to what Zillow and Trulia are doing now for the real estate space. Or you could develop a new app with different benchmarks for different client profiles. But the underlying message is that finding ways for people to appreciate their contributions, or have other people appreciate them, is critical to getting everyone involved. You can't just preach to the choir - our environment goes down in that scenario.
- I'm very interested in this topic. Social Networks technology including mobile devices are transforming everything we do and much more. One aspect to consider is how to take all of this relevant information and make it actionable. Looking forward to our discussion.
KeithSutton: Connecting with Angels
Connecting and pitching to Angels - are there any in the room :) Newbie in this game but enthusiastic to learn.
Subtopics: • What should your PowerPoint presentation look like? • What are Anglels looking for? • How should your business be structured? Corporation? LLC? ...does it matter?
• When to go after angel funding vs early stage VC fund? • Does your funding requirements have to be below a certain limit? Less than $1 million?
Danny McGowan: The Algorithim Vs. Strategic Multi-Channel Vertical Social Networks
- Is Search Dead?
- Will Strategic Vertical Social Networks kill the algorithim?
- What impact will open socical have on established leaders?
- Will consumers and businesses move there profile to a social site that is a more b2b, b2c, c2c. A location that is free from controversy and specific to there needs.
- Will Open Social be the achilles heel of Facebook and MySpace?
http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/Mylocatorcom---Vertical-Locator-Network
ChristianBaudry: Facebook applications: What works and what doesn't?
- The purpose of the discussion is to have Facebook application developers share their experience.
- How did they do to make their application viral?
- What metrics do they use to monitor the success of their application?
- What is their business model?
- If they failed: why?
- Question already received from attendees: see below.
Facebook developers and Facebook mobile application developers willing to share... ... are invited to contact me during the first day of the unconference. It will help us be better in terms of organization and timing of the session. Attendees will be encouraged to write their questions on a board prior to the session. We will do our best to have a session as interactive and fruitful as possible. We will try to have attendees know better each other for further productive interactions.
Related questions already received from attendees:
How does Facebook honor intellectual property rights to outsider apps? What's the process for getting an app approved? Will Facebook accept apps running on competing social networks?
Related readings: User:ChristianBaudry
Interest List: Mongo
Ishak Kang, Founder, dot UI: Is the Semantic Web Real?
- Suggested Topic: Let's define the Semantic Web, again!
At Startup Camp 1.0 or beta, the first session included a spirited talk about OWL, RDF, and SIOC. What killer app will emerge to justify the buzz of Web 3.0?
Chris Boudreaux: Best Practices for Interviewing and Hiring Engineers
For Internet companies, when you need to find your first engineers, or maybe find a co-founder who is an engineer, what are the top questions to determine (1) fit and (2) abilities? I'd like to end this session with a list of questions and examples of appropriate answers -- perhaps organized into (1) Behavioral and (2) Technical sections.
Information about my background can be found [here].
Craig Dalton: Mobile and Social Media
For social media entrepreneurs, how does mobile fit into your business and why is it interesting to pursue. What business models make sense (WAP, SMS, MMS, Downloadable Apps)? How do carriers fit into these models?
Information about my background can be found http://www.linkedin.com/in/craigdalton
Dmitry Leskov: Non-Web (2.0/3.0)/wireless startups
- Suggested Topic: Are tools/middleware startups of any interest to investors of any kind? My company is in the software development tools business. Our main product] is a tool Java developers use to optimize, protect, and deploy their applications. We would rather create a new programming language or a better Web server than a fancy Web 2.0 app... Can we get funded?
- I am responsible for marketing and business development at Excelsior LLC based in Novosibirsk, Russia. Here is my LinkedIn profile.
PURE GREEN or How to Use Websites to Fight Global Warming
- Suggested Topic: Are we doing enough to fight pollution, make our offices paperless and thus saves forests, etc.? I know, I know, generations have been talking about this and no one seems to be doing anything to achieve it. Al Gore, are you listening? But, there ARE ways we can put our mental resources together to save our worldly resources for our future generations. We have been working towards replacing FedEx, the USPS and UPS with Proof of Service - electronic (PoS-e) for those documents that "...must be there tomorrow". Maybe you've been working towards resource-savings, too. Let's get together and share ideas. Our profile can be found at PoS-e's StartupCamp entry.
- One hurdle you got with USPO is that over 15% of their revenues are generated by what one might consider junk mail and since the USPO is already being subsidized by the tax payer, who do you think will make up that difference? Can a politician who promotes a tax hike for nature get re-elected?
Interest List: Mongo,
- I'm very interested in this topic. One aspect to consider is how to process all of this relevant information on climate changes, its causes, impacts, etc. and make it actionable to anyone how wants to do something about it. Looking forward to our discussion.
Sanjeev Gautam: Enterprise 2.0 - Collaboration for the enterprise
- Discuss how Web 2.0 technology is playing into the enterprise application space.
- In large companies, each group working in a certain area generates knowledge (or information) stored in different types of application. How can this information be created and managed in a way that it can be converted into knowledge along with the appropriate context to empower the decision makers.
- How to share the same data with different groups of people in the context that is most appropriate for them - appropriate context + data = knowledge.
Sanjeev Gautam: Building the team to execute on the vision
- The growing pains of starting with a set of people you know to a team of 150 people spread across the globe.
- At what stage of the startup one should look at outsourcing and why?
- The pains and gains of outsourcing for a startup.
- Process - why is process so important for building a scalable company?
- What to build, Buy v/s use Open Source?
- What are the differences in building a "Web Site" based product compared to a customer deployable enterprise application?
Corey Oiesen: PR for Startups
I would like to lead a non-salesy, non-biased discussion on how startups can use PR effectively. I held a similar discussion last year and there were tons of questions such as:
- When should I start my PR program?
- Should I hire an agency or an in-house person?
- How do I best interface with journalists?
- How much is all of this going to cost me?
Interest List: Mongo,
My LinkedIn profile: [[1]]
Herbert Roitblat: The Fuzzy Semantic Web
The Semantic Web depends on well structured information and reasoning. It is pretty much a reincarnation of traditional artificial intelligence. Human reasoning and much of the content on the web resists formal categorization. If the notion of web as intelligent information manager is to succeed, it needs to be augmented to include human-like reasoning.
- Is the Semantic Web doomed to failure?
- Should we put all of our eggs in the Semantic Web basket?
- How can we overcome the limits of the Semantic Web to endow the network with true intelligence?
- What business opportunities can be created via the Fuzzy Semantic Web?
Meng-You Yang: Shopping 3.0
- I'd like to demonstrate some breakthrough Semantic Web technology we ShoppingNotes.com have developed that can automatically extract the product image and price out of any arbitrary product pages without custom-made templates or scripts for every web site.
- Introduce ShoppingNotes.com
- Discuss and brainstorm on new opportunities that this breakthrough technology can enable
ChristianBaudry: Web 2.0 and the advertising business model
- The discussion is about how websites can monetize their activity by placing advertisement on their pages.
- Google adsense seems to provide little money for sites not having a huge traffic. A lot of Web 2.0 applications or websites are too specialized to get huge traffic. What are the other options?
- How to get in touch with advertisers? How to catch their interest? How to contact them?
- Is it different for video ads?
- What role do intermediaries play?
- Hopefully advertisers and communication agencies will be there and will provide their perspective.
Members of advertising agencies or companies placing ads on Web 2.0 sites, Intermediaries, brokers willing to share... ... are invited to contact me during the first day of the unconference. It will help us be better in terms of organization and timing of the session. Attendees will be encouraged to write their questions on a board prior to the session. We will do our best to have a session as interactive and fruitful as possible. We will try to have attendees know better each other for further productive interactions.
Related readings: User:ChristianBaudry
ChristianBaudry: Web 2.0 as an enabler for non-profit activities
- Networking, sharing ideas, building on each other's ideas, having thousands of people in different countries or continents able to interact and create together, all this enables non-profits to accomplish their purpose differently.
- How can Web 2.0 be the foundation of eco-systems where "receivers" and "givers" go beyond these categories and where receivers give and givers receive? An ongoing example can be presented.
- The purpose of the discussion is to see how non-profits take - or could take - advantage of Web 2.0.
- But the crux is really: how do social media provide ways to involve constituents that were not existing before?
Members of non-profits using social media, or of advertising agencies or software companies having experience in non-profits and Web 2.0 willing to share... ... are invited to contact me during the first day of the unconference. It will help us be better in terms of organization and timing of the session. Attendees will be encouraged to write their questions on a board prior to the session. We will do our best to have a session as interactive and fruitful as possible. We will try to have attendees know better each other for further productive interactions.
Related readings: User:ChristianBaudry
Mark Thomas: Hiring Strategies as You Grow
Suggested Topic: Hiring considerations and strategies for the different phases of starting up
One of the most challenging aspects of growing a start-up company is determining when to hire new employees and when to stay pat with what you already have. In a start-up, every individual that is brought on carries a tremendous burden to add true ROI to the bottom line, otherwise their value to the company becomes meaningless. To that end, let’s discuss some answers to the following questions:
- How do you evaluate your company’s readiness for change?
- What is the growth potential of your business?
- How do you set expectations of who the company hires and measure their value?
- What are the key steps in the hiring process?
[Website]
Mark Thomas: Navigating the Financial Maze as a Start-Up
Suggested Topic: Start-up financing 101 – how finance factors into your start-up
Handling the financial part of the business – from recordkeeping and accounting to budgeting and forecasting – is generally one of the last skill sets to make it to the table in new business. Of course, venture-backed start-ups almost always have a CFO or other prominent financial guru in place, but what about start-ups with limited funding that need to hit the ground running if they hope to survive? Let’s cover the following general topics integral to start-up finance:
- The options that exist for non venture-backed start-ups to finance their new business
- Financial software tool (i.e. Quickbooks) that are imperative to accurate recordkeeping and accounting
- Also, considerations/logic for hiring a CPA
- Analyzing the P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, and other financials
- How to evaluate how your cash flow will fluctuate based on the industry and market you're in
- When it makes sense to re-invest your own profits back into the business, and when to seek outside funding/investors
[Website]
Johannes Bhakdi, CEO sophotec vc: Making the web2.0 profitable
Hottest topic in the webindustry over the last year: when will facebook, myspace and all the other guys EVER earn some real profits? And: how can startups and users today make their sites earn money? Let's discuss:
- the 3 basic paths to profit in the web2.0
- a set of 5 (or more, if you bring some on) new emerging profitability technologies for everyone
- a new approach of stakeholder-based Venture Capital
- how to get together and build a web3.0 community of authors, entrepreneurs and VC's that together build the infrastrucutre of user generated business.
Interest List: Mongo,
[[2]]
Tom Hicks: Online Video
Suggested Topic: Discuss the major issues facing online video businesses (streaming, download, ad vs. pay, etc).
I co-founded an pay-to-download indie film site, Caachi, but discussions should be broader than that. Some suggested topics to discuss include, but are not limited to:
- best practices for video businesses
- pitfalls & lessons learned
- build around a streaming and downloading infrastructure?
- differences between ad-based and pay-based revenue models
- DRM
- future of Internet video
- how important is content?
- how to market the content?
Interest List: Mongo, Sandeep
Steve Tennant, Tennant Consulting: Avoiding the Top 12 Mistakes in Growing Your Business
You have an idea and want to turn it into a software, SaaS, Web 2.0 or Internet company. How can you avoid the most common pitfalls in starting and growing your business? This presentation and discussion will summarize lessons learned and tips for success from my experience working with over 20 startups including:
- The 12 common mistakes in selecting and developing market opportunities, promoting products and building teams.
- An understanding of 12 factors that drive revenue growth.
- Tools to assess and grow your revenue operations.
- Time permitting (hey, depends on amount of discussion) specific action items to improve your company’s revenues.
I gave this talk at the Enthiosys product manager unconference held at Yahoo! and was invited to present it at Stanford, so it might not suck.
[Website & free newsletter] [Blog] [Twitter]
Brian Golbere: Software Licensing Models
How to license your software. Options and Trade-offs
- Dealing with the virtualized datacenter, cloud computing and multi-core processors
- SaaS
- SOA and consuming mashup resources
- Upgrades and release cycles
- Leasing Software
CindyAlvarez: Why should I use your product?
Most of your early-stage energy should be focused on technology and business model. But your consumers don't see those and don't care - what are you doing to keep their attention span?
* Landing pages * Registration and win-back emails * Q&D user experience and feedback strategies * Working with UE professionals
Interest List: Mongo,
JoelFan: Best launch strategies and metrics
As a founder of a pre-launch site, kickfly, we are dealing with some basic issues, like:
- is it better to call it an alpha, a beta, or something else?
- how long to keep the private beta running for, and when to open to the public, and how to handle private invites
- driving blogosphere interest - strategies and success stories - how to get Pete Cashmore ([Mashable ]) interested, and how *not* to reach out
- using search advertising to drive initial traffic
- how to get past the 'cold start problem', and how do you know when your 'cold start' is really a 'deep freeze'
- which metrics are the most important and what traction VCs are looking for
- any other secrets of 'launching optimally' that people want to share : )
I'm hardly an expert in these areas, but I think there will be many opinions that would be of interest to many pre-launch founders.
Interest List: Mongo,
User:JoelFan [blog] [website]
JasonLBaptiste: How and Why To Open Source Your Product As a Startup
Tons of entrepreneurs want to go open source with their product, but don't know why they should or how they can. Would love to just give a quick overview on some of the issues we're going through along with other startups:
- Is open source for you and why?
- Licensing- The different licenses and how to find the best one for you
- Building evangelism and the initial community of developers
- Setting up your repository, bug tracking, documentation, etc.
- Why commercial open source is a great business model- ie- sugarcrm, mysql, zend, auttomatic
EdwardMGoldberg: Topic: I have my head in the Clouds
Take a misty tour of the lofty new Cloud Computing Community Center. We offer a place to talk, listen, and learn about how to Deploy Scalable Applications in the Cloud. Do not forget your wings; it is a long way down if you miss a step when you deploy (we can help with that).
"We have been trapped in a cage too long. It is time to spread our wings and fly in the clouds." Edward M. Goldberg
User:EdwardMGoldberg [Blog] [Website] [LinkedIn Profile]
Mongo: Search Engine Optimization & Blogging
How does one blogger, or a network of bloggers, maximize their search engine rankings, without rankling the good folks at Google, Yahoo, et al.?
- Is it similar to off-line media who sometimes favor advertisers in their stories?
- How do you maximize your value when using AdWords, et al.?
- Blog techniques for maximizing SEO.
- Which tricks work and which gaurantee your site gets blackballed?
- What are the alternative methods of driving traffic ?
Let's share ideas.
Robert Enyedi: Java in the startup world
Internet startups are flourishing, yet they do not seem to build on the Java platform and technologies. I would like to know your experiences about this and what you think the obstacles are. The enterprise is the playground for Java, but technologies like PHP are gaining ground inside startups.
Dean Oliver & Jim Murphy: Technology Finance for your Start Up
One of the most difficult aspects of creating and managing a successful start-up company is managing cash flow. Technology expenditures can be a significant portion of early stage costs. This discussion is intended to help you get the most from your early stage cash and will include the following topics:
- How to make choices that scale with your companies growth
- How to minimize capital outlay on technology in the start-up phase
- How to establish credit when you're starting out
- How to show a solid financial picture or your second stage investors
User:DeanOliver [Website] [LinkedIn Profile]
John Petersen: Startup Stories
Not every startup becomes a great business, but all become great stories. Let's get together to share our startup war stories with each other.
Leonid S. Knyshov: Presentation skills for technical introverts
Presentation skills are absolutely essential to your success. I posted more information about my proposed discussion to avoid cluttering this page.
User:Wiseleo [My company HotClubDancers.com] [My personal brand (includes Linked In Profile)] [Presentation Skills Discussion]
Attendees, and those of you who wished to attend but found better use of your time, I recorded our session on audio and will post it on the linked page after I process it. Please stay tuned. I had fun and hope you learned something new and exciting!
Web 3D: Distributed Database Dashboards the Key to the Next Wave of Widget & Mobile Explosive Monetization
Proposal title
How do we solve the Problems of Exponential Data Growth, Server-Client Architecture Scaling Performance limits, and Users need not just For Data & ID Portability but for Security & Control of their Data. The reality is that most of the User from Platforms without direct File-system access (IPhone & 3G, Wii, Web-enabled TV's, Internet Kiosks...) has led to the slow Javascript Bloat of Web 2.0. This is the Key to the Next Wave of Widget & Mobile Explosive Monetization We were just invited to the A List YCombinator Startup School 2008 headlined by Mark Andreesen (Netscape Founder) & Jeff Bezos ([AMAZON.COM] founder) See 5:00 minute to go in the Video to see my Contribution to the Conference; The solution to the next wave of Web Widgets & Mobile Monetization [3]
A.-"Karriem" A. Khan= AK*2
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