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SF New Tech is a fun factory for serious entrepreneurs
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As a rule, most people don’t associate fun with high-tech startups. But there are exceptions. For example, if you are an iFart developer, your weekly deliverables should send you rolling, to say nothing of your research assignments. And unlike many technology startup events which can border on the boring, San Francisco New Tech is a group with a fun energy, even without gas-releasing sounds.
Myles Weissleder, SF New Tech ring leader, knows how to pull together an event which brings together hot startups, aspiring startups, and the groupies who love them. Add a little booze and an industrial-design bar venue, and you have a gathering which transcends a business event, and becomes a monthly destination for the hip in high-tech.
Five startups took the stage last night to pitch their companies and to field questions from a knowledgeable audience. Each company was given only five minutes to present, followed by a Q&A session. A real test for an event organizer or a presenter on stage is filling dead space. When your laptop’s battery dies in the first 30 seconds of a five-minute presentation, you need real entertainment talent to keep the audience engaged.
When technology failed him, David Barrett, founder of Expensify.com, drew on entertainment talent. He tried a couple of dance moves. He even brought a puppy on the stage.
Joel Passen, co-founder of Newton software, cracked jokes. Ordinarily this isn’t hard to do, unless your topic is applicant tracking systems. Once again, you need real talent, beyond programming, marketing or PR skills.
And when you manage to make a presentation about online bookkeeping appealing, my hat is really off to you. And Kevin Reeth, founder of OutRight.com, was outright engaging.
Beyond the fun event tone, there was a lot of good information at the SF New Tech. I expect we will hear more about Expensify, a company which transforms the tedious task of expense reporting into a series of quick online entries. Even more promising is the fact that some of these startups are bootstrapped, and have paying customers; which will hopefully keep their founders laughing, all the way to the bank.
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