We are excited to announce the newest Dogpatch Labs class here in San Francisco. It includes entrepreneurs and companies that have been part of the lab over the last few months and those that just recently joined (new additions: AdCru, Animoto, Burbn, FanPop, JibJab, LearnBoost, Milennial Media, Recruly, StickyBits, Task Rabbit and Wild Pockets). As always, we look for great, exciting entrepreneurs who thrive in open and collaborative environments. And we aim to have a diverse collection of individuals, companies and verticals. The current batch of residents certainly represents that! You can view the TechCrunch write up here and rosters of all three Dogpatch Labs here.
Dogpatch Labs Video Tour on VentureBeat
Earlier this week, Dogpatch Labs was featured on VentureBeat. Assistant Editor Anthony Ha visited Dogpatch Labs San Francisco, met several of the entrepreneurs / teams, and sat down for an short tour and interview. In the video, I am joined by David Hegarty of Hollrr:
After the article went live, it managed to become a "Popular" article on Digg and reach the homepage:
Busy Two Weeks of Dogpatch Labs Launches
A very busy, productive week for Dogpatch Labs residents across the various locations. In the last few days, fivecompanies have gotten great coverage for their launching products: - Hollrr (San Francisco): Hollrr Takes Foursquare’s Badge Strategy, Pins It To Social Product Discovery - Cardpool (San Francisco): CardPool Wants To Buy And Sell Your Unused Gift Cards
- FanPulse (San Francisco): Trash Talk With Friends With FanPulse
- ScoopStreet (New York): Group Buying, Better Together
- GoodCrush (New York): Googlers Can Finally Find Their Parisian Love with GoogleCrush
Facebook Connect: It's More Than a Sign-On Tool
As Mike Hirshland wrote, "last night was a truly epic evening at Dogpatch Labs". Alongside Facebook, we hosted 150 people at Dogpatch Labs San Francisco to discuss Facebook Connect and demo their implementations and best practices. Over 50 companies were represented and we had teams fought the bad weather to arrive from New York, LA, DC, Montreal, Boston, etc. The event was epic in part because the demos were diverse and terrific - but it was also epic because ten minutes before the first presentation was slated to go - there was a major power outage across SOMA... leaving 150 of us standing in the dark. After maneuvering our way through the obstacles, we arrived at the Four Seasons conference room and dove right in.
Mike has several takeaways on his blog - and we will do our best to distribute attendee feedback as well, but here are my three major takeaways:
1. Facebook Connect is not a login system. It is much more.
The best Facebook Connect implementations go beyond the login. They must give the user a reason to interact and provide value after the login - and with Connect, the content and data go far beyond registration: photos, birthdays, social graph, etc. JibJab and Personera are terrific examples: by logging in through Facebook Connect, you are enabling a better, more social site experience. 2. Think about your users, not about pageviews or actions.
If you think about the value you are trying to deliver through Facebook Connect, you will construct an experience that encourages and fosters virality. If you think of Connect as a way to drive pageviews or feed posts, you can end up missing the most important factor: ongoing engagement.
3. Test. Iterate. Test. Iterate. Test. Iterate.
You would be amazed at how small tweaks in language, style, color, etc create very significant changes. KISSmetrics gave an outstanding presentation here and folks like Hollrr showed the impact of recent design changes.
Art Chang, a Dogpatch Labs resident and phenomenal photographer, has several great photos of the event. Two of which are below: