Dogpatch Labs SF Gets a Remodel, Taking Applications

This week Dogpatch Labs San Francisco underwent a slight remodeling. In addition to new residents joining (and a handful 'graduating'), we rearranged the layout to better accommodate teams and add some more space.

Apply to Dogpatch!

On a different note: Dogpatch Labs San Francisco currently taking 'applications' for new residents as some space will come available in the next 30-60 days. If you are interested in applying, please email me at rspoon _at_ polarisventures.com with:

- company / concept description - bio(s) and links to online activity (ie Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Quora) - interest level and number of requested desks

Thanks!

A Week of Dogpatch Labs Updates

A handful of various updates from Dogpatch Labs companies across our three locations: Boston, New York and San Francisco. This is by no means a complete list - but it is includes links from TechCrunch articles within the last week:

YCombinator Demo Day Includes Dogpatch-ers

Congratulations to the 36 companies that launched at the most recent YCombinator Demo Day. Three of the companies are of Dogpatch Labs: FanVibe, Rapportive and one that is 'off the record'

Zozi Funding

Local-Activity Site Zozi Lands $3 Million Series A From 500 Startups And Zig Capital

WiseStamp Launches Its Platform

WiseStamp Signs Your Emails With Tweets, Stumbles And Plans

Dogpatch Labs' Grows: Our Newest Dogpatchers

I am excited to announce the newest members of Dogpatch Labs San Francisco. Residents are here for approximately six month rotations - so each month, folks move in and others graduate. You can see the entire roster of Dogpatchers at Dogpatchlabs.com, but here are the newest additions to San Francisco... and they join a collection of other terrific Dogpatchers (both present and past).

In total, this brings San Francisco to over 25 companies:

AllTrails is a member driven outdoor enthusiast community that gives you unlimited access to trails, maps, reviews, and photos for 22 different activities including hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing.

Bitlev is a personal search application for users to find files across different devices and services.

GroupStor is currently in stealth mode.

ChompOn is an open platform for businesses to run their own social flash sales. (TechCrunch coverage)

Health Central’s mission is to empower millions of people to improve and take control of their health and well-being.

Movity: Search geo-data, local comments, conversations, safety stats, demographics, noise … visualized on maps.

Social Times is a blog and content site featuring news and media regarding the social web.

Throwdown Hero is currently in stealth mode and coming soon.

WiseStamp empowers your email signature: easily customize Google Chrome html email signatures, Include IM & Social profiles, Automatically share your Blog posts, Quotes, News, Bookmarks and more. (Mashable coverage)

7 Search Engine Marketing Best Practices

At Dogpatch Labs, we try to host at least one event a week - whether it be formal or informal, social or academic, large or small. Last week we hosted a session on search engine marketing best practices. It was led by David Rodnitzky of PPC Associates. The session was called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Search Engine Marketing" and David's slideshow is included below. When able and appropriate, we try to include presentations from Dogpatch Labs events and post them both on DogpatchLabs.com and on this blog (such as Facebook Connect Best Practices)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Search Engine Marketing

View more presentations from dogpatchlabs.

Dogpatch Labs Covered in Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal's Venture Capital Dispatch blog recently covered Dogpatch Labs: At Dogpatch, Polaris Unleashes Its Inner Angel.

"Venture investors who want to get close to young Internet entrepreneurs are trying a variety of strategies, aiming to get an early look at start-ups that might one day need a significant amount of venture capital.

Polaris Venture Partners, a well-known Boston-area venture firm, entered the fray with Dogpatch Labs, which it bills as “a frat house for geeks.” Launched in San Francisco about a year and a half ago, the labs have expanded to New York and Cambridge, Mass., providing a temporary home for entrepreneurs, many of the working on social media projects.

Polaris, a multi-stage venture investor that historically has made a significant number of seed-stage investments, so far has backed six companies from the labs." ... read entire piece here...

Dogpatch Labs Featured in SF Chronicle Piece on 'Tech Incubators'

In their weekend article "San Francisco sees influx of tech incubators", The San Francisco Chronicle's Carlyn Said visited Pier 38 (home of Dogpatch Labs San Francisco) to study these emerging workspaces and communities. In her exploration of San Francisco workspaces and incubators, Said arrives at a premise similar to our core tenet of open source entrepreneurship: "[Entrepreneurs] do it for the cross-fertilization with other entrepreneurs."

Now with three locations (San Francisco, New York and Cambridge), Dogpatch has roughly 150 active residents (and an even larger list of graduates). We believe that 'cross fertilization' is important both within each space and across the three locations. And as we host events and have new residents join the lab, the key ingredient with search for is collaboration.

Is NYC The Next Silicon Valley? CNN Looks to Dogpatch Labs

As Internet Week New York kicks off next week, CNN visited Dogpatch Labs New York to understand how New York's growing tech scene compares to Silicon Valley's. For the piece ("The next Silicon Valley? It may be New York"), CNN spoke to several of the Dogpatch Labs residents and Polaris partner Peter Flint about New York entrepreneurship, networking and culture. While opinions varied (see the video below), it is clear that:

1. The New York tech scene is growing rapidly, and 2. It has its own unique culture and community

As Peter Flint says in the below video, "I don't know if New York will ever become Silicon Valley. In some ways, do you want it to become Silicon Valley? The culture here is very different than the culture there."

With Dogpatch Labs hosting entrepreneurs in New York, Cambridge and San Francisco - we are excited to take part in each of the communities and hopefully add to the unique cultures.

You can watch the video on CNN.com:

Quick Hits: Dogpatch Labs, Living Proof, JibJab & StickyBits

A few Dogpatch Labs / Polaris related updates - which I typically try to bundle together!

1. Dogpatch Labs New York featured on CNN

CNN's recent piece "The next Silicon Valley? It may be New York" looks at the growing tech scene in New York and features Dogpatch Labs and our focus on "open-source entrepreneurship."

2. Living Proof unveils unique referral program

Living Proof, who just won three CEW Beauty Awards, launched a referral program that: 1. rewards recipients 20% of their purchase 2. and gives successful referrers a $48 gift card

3. StickBits 1.5 Launches

StickyBits has released a new version of their application and it features "official bits", threading, voting and more. iPhone users can download the newest app here and Android users can go here.

4. JibJab Launches World Cup themed videos

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event @ Dogpatch Labs Tomorrow Night

I am very excited to be part of a great evening at Dogpatch Labs tomorrow evening for the Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network ("DukeGEN") Angel Pitch Night. We have eight companies backed by Duke graduates and founders who are pitching to a judges panel.... also comprised of fellow Duke alums: - Jim Scheinman ’88, Bebo - Josh Felser ’86, B ’90, Freestyle Capital - Aaron Patzer '02, Mint - and myself ’03, Polaris Ventures

The event will be held on Wednesday, May 12th from 6-8:30pm in San Francisco at Dogpatch Labs (Pier 38, The Embarcadero). RSVP for this event on LinkedIn HERE. Space is limited. Attendees will be allowed into the venue on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Numerous companies applied and eight were named as finalists:

- BizeeBee - Small business messaging and scheduling. Founder and CEO Poornima Vijayashanker E '04. - Canvert - Pay per ring lead generation. Founder and CEO Scott Thomas T '96. - CoverHound - Better way to find insurance. Founder and CEO Basil Enan T '03. - FitNet - Empowering healthy living. Founder and CEO Dr. Jason Langheier M '09. - RefYo - Referrals on the social Internet. Co-founder and CEO Ed Spiegel E '99 and co-founder and Director of Technology Kevin Lochner E '99. - Social Stir - Dating for social media interactions. Founder and CEO Allen Vance B '07. - Stinky Teddy - Search engine optimized for now. Founder and CEO David Hardtke T '94. - YouRock - Sponsorship of events and individuals. Founder and CEO Jeremy Cotter T '02.

Starts: Wednesday May 12, 2010, 06:00PM Ends: Wednesday May 12, 2010, 08:30PM Location: Dogpatch Labs 38 The Embarcadero (Pier 38) San Francisco, CA 94111 US

Website: http://www.dukegen.com/angel-pitch-event Industry: information technology and services

Intended For: Duke students, Duke alumni, Duke staff, Duke parents, founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, CEOs

Organization: The Duke Global Entrepreneurship Network ("DukeGEN")

DukeGEN is hosting an event for the entire Duke community during which Duke founders of non-enterprise Internet businesses or consumer mobile application services, platforms, or applications will present their business concepts to a distinguished panel of Duke angel investors and early stage venture capitalists. Our panelists include Jim Scheinman T ’88, Josh Felser T ’86, B ’90, Aaron Patzer T '02, and Ryan Spoon T ’03