By Gary Sharma 12/03/12 9:00am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (ThinkCommerce, Xconomy, TimesOpen Hack Day, NY Tech Meetup, TEDxSiliconAlley, AlleyNYC Holiday Party, Hack/Meat, Pitchcrawl 2.0)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

Winter is coming.

No, I’m not talking about the weather (though it has been getting chilly lately). Nor Game of Thrones (FYI, season 3 begins on March 31 for those keeping track!). I’m talking about the growing perception in Startupland that the good times might really be coming to an end (for now). Following last week’s post by Fred Wilson was this one by PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy, talking about the Series A crunch and how as many as thousand companies who’ve received seed rounds won’t be around in six months. Then there’s this one by TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis, arguing that the Series A crunch actually extended to Series B, C and D. So what should entrepreneurs make of all this? Do what ya should be doing anyway–focus on building an insanely great product that customers really want and start thinking about monetization early. Personally, I think this is the best time to build a company. Read More

By Gary Sharma 9/04/12 9:00am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (Jeff Weiner Discussion, Comedy Hack Day, Tech Does Fashion Week Party, Women 2.0, NY Games Conference)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

I’m a big fan of organizations and groups that encourage more women to get involved in the traditionally male-dominated worlds of tech and entrepreneurship, by creating community and providing guidance and support. And this week, we have a ton of these women-focused events.

There is the Ladies Who Code hacknight, where they encourage you to bring your brilliant self, your laptop,  and your beloved text-editor of choice! There is Celebrating Extraordinary Female Founders at Levo League (a site for Gen Y female professionals), as well as the launch party for PlumAlley (a new site supporting female-founded companies). There is the Go Connect – Ignite Your Ambition event organized by NY Tech Women and The White House Project. There is JumpStart Your Dreams, organized by She Creates Change (a community supporting women as they make their professional dreams a reality). And finally there’s Women 2.0 Founder Friday, with guest hosts Alexis Tryon (cofounder, Artsicle) and Anagha Nadkarni (cofounder, AppGuppy). Read More

By Gary Sharma 6/11/12 7:00am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (PDF, Venture for America, Northside Festival, Fashion Hack Day, Investor Feedback Forum)

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

A few months ago, Marc Andreessen wrote a now-famous essay in the Wall Street Journal about “Why Software Is Eating the World.” If you haven’t read it, I’d highly recommend you do so. Marc’s thesis was that more and more industries are being run on software and delivered as online services–from movies to agriculture to national defense–and tech startups will increasingly invade, disrupt and overturn established structures in these industries.

Right up there in the list of important sectors vulnerable to disruption are government and politics (and about time, I say!). To learn more and dive deeper into the nitty-gritty of technology’s impact on politics and government today and where it’s headed, go check out the Personal Democracy Forum conference (organized by our very own New York Tech Meetup chairman Andrew Rasiej) today and tomorrow at the Skirball Center.

For all ye Ruby afficionados out there, the annual Gotham Ruby Conference (aka GoRuCo) is back on June 23. More details here.

And now let’s see what crazy shenanigans the NY tech gang is up to this week… Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 1/17/11 10:12am

Foursquare

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First Foursquare Hack Day Announced

Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announced on Friday that the company will host its first official hack day where programmers will get together to work, marathon style, for a day or a weekend on an application that uses Foursquare data.

“I’m incredibly excited to announce something I’ve been dreaming about for so long: Read More