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:
Polaris is excited to be participating in this summers Seed Start program, alongside a crew of outstanding folks and leaders. If you are currently based in New York or interested in spending an accelerated summer there, I encourage you visit NYCSeed.com, learn more and apply:
Consider Applying for the Seed Start Accelerator Program in NYC
Apply today - and hurry, applications are due soon: February 28! Applications are due by February 28, 2010. We will notify finalists by March 15, 2010. We are accepting applications here.
What Is It?
NYC SeedStart is an 8-week summer program designed to provide seed funding for technology teams to build a product and launch their company. We will give up to 10 teams a small amount of funding, space, and mentorship in exchange for a small piece of equity in whatever they build. We do not expect companies, we expect entrepreneurs and hackers who are passionate about their product. If selected, you can spend a summer building your product, freed from thinking about office space or living expenses and with access to our network for help. At the end of the summer, groups will present their work to investors with the hope of finding additional funding.
SeedStart is a joint effort among:
Contour Venture Partners IA Ventures NYC Seed Polaris Venture Partners RRE Ventures Fish and Richardson Manatt, Phelps and Phillips SVB Financial Group
The Specifics
We offer $20,000 to up to 10 teams (minimum 2 people, maximum 4 people). In exchange for this, we will receive 5% equity stake in your company. At the end of every summer we will convene a panel of NYC-based investors and provide the opportunity for SeedStart companies to present their projects.
Why SeedStart?
Extremely early-stage money and guidance for young entrepreneurs and hackers is hard to find. NYC is an expensive place to live and we want to help smart entrepreneurs who live in NYC get going.
No Better Time
We believe there is no better time to start a company in NYC.
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
It's a busy week at Dogpatch Labs San Francisco. Below is the week's calendar - if you are interested in being part of any of the following events, please let me know and RSVP:
1. World Entrepreneurship Day Networking Event (Tuesday)
Join World Entrepreneurship Day (WED) for an exciting afternoon of networking & creativity at the Dog Patch Labs in Pier 38 Embarcadero. The purpose of this gathering is to unite & collaborate with the local entrepreneurial community to help craft a vision for WED in San Fran on April 16th, 2010. You can learn more here.
2. Dogpatch Labs Office Hours (Wednesday, 9am-11am)
Drop by Dogpatch Labs for a tour and open conversation with me and other attendees. Coffee and bagels are provided. Please RSVP if interested. 3. The Future of Funding Conference (Thursday)
On Thursday, I will be talking at the Future of Funding conference in San Mateo. The specific panel will be Innovative Fund Experiments:
Traditional Venture Capital firms have not been standing still. Many are experimenting with new models for early stage deals. This panel will explore how different venture groups have delivered innovative financing programs.
- Moderator: Adeo Ressi, CEO of the Founder Institute - George Zachary, Partner, Charles River Ventures - Dave McClure, Angel, Founders Fund, (FF Angel & fbREV) - Ryan Spoon, Sr. Associate, Polaris Ventures (Dog Patch Labs) - Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC - Kevin Dick, Managing Director, Right Side Capital Management
4. Stanford Events at Dogpatch (Friday)
Two great, informal networking events at Dogpatch on Friday. Please RSVP if interested in either: First, the winning team of Stanford’s Global Innovation Tournament spending the morning learning about Dogpatch Labs and meeting entrepreneurs... and that will be followed by the Stanford BASES Group doing the same!
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:
This picture is from Monday morning at 7am pst.... you might be able to make out one of the residents (to be held anonymous!) with his sleeping bag in the common area - which means that he was in Dogpatch Sunday evening working into the early hours of the next morning. I love the commitment and work ethic - its palpable and energizing!
On a related note: we are hosting a dinner and conversation with Bob Metcalfe at Dogpatch Labs San Francisco tonight. There is room for a few more attendees - if you are interested in joining, please write me!
Dogpatch Labs hosted an informal Duke Fuqua School of Business gathering with their EVCC group (Entrepreneurship and Venture Club). Leaders from Poken, Trazzler and Yardseller spoke to the Fuqua students about entrepreneurship, lean start-ups, hiring and product / market fit.
You can learn more about: - Duke MBA EVCC and their "Leadership" group - Dogpatch Labs
More on the Duke EVCC:
"The Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club (EVCC) is focused on facilitating interactions between our members, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and venture capitalists around the world. The EVCC also acts as a liaison between students seeking opportunities in these fields and the Career Management Center. The club is one of the most highly subscribed and most active organizations at Fuqua and across Duke. We have an incredible group of dedicated individuals on our cabinet that are available to assist you."
A couple updates on the new DogpatchLabs.com: - First, we have added headers for each of the three Dogpatch Labs locations: Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. You can access all Dogpatch posts directly on DogpatchLabs.com, or follow news from your specific locale. - You can see a list of all Dogpatch residents by location... its a large and impressive list. I encourage you to take a look at the 'roster' and their various companies / websites!
- We have added a 'sidebar' with quick links to follow Dogpatch on Facebook, Twitter and via RSS.
More updates are coming soon. Again, thanks to Wordpress and Egghaus (a Dogpatch Labs resident!)
We are very excited to announce the launch of the new DogpatchLabs.com. Thanks to Egghaus (a Dogpatch San Francisco resident) and Wordpress.com (a Polaris Ventures portfolio company) who helped design, implement and host the site, respectively.
DogpatchLabs.com contains information about Dogpatch Labs, our residents, upcoming events and so forth. You will also find information from the Dogpatch Labs Facebook page and Twitter account.
You can also follow Dogpatch Labs via RSS and via email: