Last night I attended my first Austin Tech Happy Hour event in downtown Austin. I heard from the organizer that typically 250 people attend the monthly event — a level that is similar to events in my former home of NYC. Even with the sub-freezing temps and the threat of snow (!), I estimate that about 175 people showed up. And it was a great event – one that I will be attending regularly going forward.

I had one of two demo stations for the evening where I demo’ed CloudContacts (including our new Contact Updater) to about 25 people and also met one of the PR people from Porter Novelli who I have been exchanging emails with for a long time.

The company at the other demo station was GuruStorms. I captured a short video interview with founder Edward Cruz and one of the gurus listed inside GuruStorms. You can watch the interview below. Sarah Perez from RWW wrote a review of GuruStorms from their launch at DEMO 2009.

The concept of GuruStorms is one of trying to help you find answers to your challenges. You post a request on the GuruStorms site, offer a “bounty” and pay a fee (10% of bounty + $295), and then if the gurus accept the assignment, you begin working with the gurus. It’s a team approach – so you get a virtual workspace (I think they call this a whiteboard) where you as the client plus the network of gurus post questions and answers to help you get to the right solution to your challenge. All of the discussions take place behind a login and aren’t public as on most other help services.

The bounty is split between the gurus -here’s the info direct from GuruStorms, “After 10 days, the questioner closes the brainstorm and decides who are the top 3 Gurus that provided the best ideas. These Gurus then earn a share of the reward: 40% for the top Guru, 20% for the second, and 10% for the third. For a $5000 GuruStorm, the top Guru earns $1500, for example.”

Their initial set of gurus are from the tech startup area. Cruz tells me that the next group of gurus will be social media related.

There are two challenges for GuruStorms that I can see. First will be getting enough trusted gurus in a vertical to get people/companies to want to pay for help (the typical supply and demand issue of any marketplace service). Second, in the tech space, the key will be making sure there is enough differentiation so there are no comparisons to Quora and other Q&A sites where so-called experts are already living. My suggestion to Cruz was to get away from the early-adopter tech segment as quickly as possible.

Driving home from the happy hour last night, I also thought that I’d prefer to be able to hire one guru – like a guru marketplace. Chris Shipley is one of the gurus in the startup guru team – it’d be great to hire her for a couple of hours to get feedback. And it does appear that they offer this type of one-on-one guru session with selected gurus.

Here’s the interview video – make sure you watch in HD:

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During my time in San Francisco this week for the Dreamforce conference, I had the chance to meet with TaskForceApp founder Niccolo Pantucci. If you read CN regularly, you know I like productivity apps – those apps that save time or save money or both. What I liked about my conversation with Niccolo was our focus on utility and not on the next Twitter fart app.

TaskForce provides a utility to take emails and convert them to tasks with one click. The service currently works with Gmail but Niccolo notes that other email tools and mobile tools will be coming soon. I asked Niccolo about a desktop app (see video below) and he said to stay tuned. Once you install TaskForce inside Gmail, a set of buttons will appear which you click when you want to turn an email into a task.

The service is social so you can share tasks with your colleagues. If the person you share a task with also has Taskforce, they (and/or you) will be notified when a task is complete.

Currently I use Thunderbird and color emails depending on what I need to do with them. I like the idea of Taskforce because it would easily get me into a daily task list. The service is currently in private beta but you can signup for access.

Here’s Niccolo’s overview of Taskforce:

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As with previous years, I met a ton of new people at the SXSW conference. I have to admit that I was very much looking to meet Dries Buytaert. Belgium-based Dries is the founder of the Drupal CMS. If you are a regular reader of CN, you know that all of our sites were in Drupal until a year ago when we shifted to WordPress. I always liked Drupal but the admin interface just isn’t as usable as the WordPress admin interface. Dries told me that the upcoming Drupal 7 release will have a redesigned admin interface.

Check out my video discussion with Dries below (make sure to watch in HD!). We talk about SXSW, the upcoming Drupal 7 release and the Drupal Gardens product. Drupal Gardens is a service provided by Acquia. Drupal Gardens is basically a hosted Drupal service similar to the WordPress.com hosted service.

Dries notes that the Drupal 7 release has a focus on usability (they hired usability experts to help make the product stronger). They are also making lots of improvements for developers – including better APIs and better database abstraction layers. The Drupal 7 release is in alpha and they are hoping to get it out in public within the next few months.

Find more stories about: drupal, Interviews, sxsw, SXSW 2010, Video, videos

This morning I met with NY-based Producteev CEO Ilan Abehassera and our video interview is below. Last week Producteev launched a variety of new features around social group task management. What makes Producteev unique is that it allows you to send tasks from nearly any social app and receive notifications via the same social app. For example, if you need to setup a task, you can send a direct message from Twitter, a chat message from Gtalk or submit the task via email. Your colleagues are notified via Producteev on the services they are using.

Another interesting feature of Producteev is the ability to collect responses to a question using any of the social services. You post your question or need on Producteev and then push it out to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and your followers/friends can click a link and leave a comment on your task or question. This feature is called “crowdsource your tasks”. The best part about this feature is that the responses are grouped together and removes the need to gather responses on each individual network.

The company is angel-funded, has 5 full-time employees and 1 intern and is based in the Chelsea area of Manhattan.

Find more stories about: Interviews, online video, Producteev, social media, Social Networking, startups, Video, videos

One of the first posts here on CN was a recap of a presentation at the Future of Web Apps conference with Kevin Rose. In that presentation (and many since), Kevin noted that the site was built with, “$2,000 to start, using a developer on elance for $10/hr.”

Found via Andrew Badera, below is an interview with Andrew Warner of Mixergy and Owen Byrne. Owen was the technical builder of the first version of Digg. In the interview, Owen speaks about what really took place as Digg was built. Andrew talks about the “celebrity” status that Kevin Rose has received for creating Digg. Some notes:

• Apparently Kevin was nervous that he might be losing his job and needed to find something else to move to
• The supposed $10/hr on Elance is not correct Owen says – it was more and he also received equity in the company
• Digg mainly came about because Kevin wanted to get to the frontpage of Slashdot and couldn’t
• Kevin had a lot of friends who blogged about Digg and the notes on the Screensavers show helped build massive inbound links
• Owen says luck and timing played a big part of the Digg success
• Interesting line from Owen regarding luck… “luck is just probability and the more times you try, the higher your probability”
• Apparently Paris Hilton losing her cell phone was a huge help with Digg growth in the early days
• Interesting discussion from Owen’s perspective about the human side of Digg’s growth

Check out the full video interview below and the associated notes on Mixergy. Andrew pushes Owen to give tips about entrepreneurship. You can just listen to this video while you are working – it’s a must listen/watch.

Find more stories about: Digg, Interviews

This morning I met with the SVP of Marketing and Sales for The FeedRoom, Matt DeLoca at the company’s headquarters in Manhattan. The FeedRoom provides a suite of SaaS-based online video tools. The company focuses on working with large enterprise customers with a complex set of needs. The company has raised over $60 million since their launch in 1999 although Matt told me that their Series A and B rounds have been removed from the books. The company raised $12 million last summer.

Matt noted that they have worked with companies including Playboy, GM, Intel and HP.

Check out our video interview below where we discuss a variety of items including:

• what is The FeedRoom
• comparisons to BrightCove
• and overview of their new 508-compliant video player which allows people with special needs to engage with online video
• how the acquisition of ClearStory Systems has helped The FeedRoom expand to provide a more rounded set of offerings in the enterprise video space

Find more stories about: FeedRoom, Interviews, nextNY, NYC, online video, Video, videos

We have covered a good number of event planning sites here on CN. Today I had a chance to catchup with the co-founder of NY-based Pingg Lorien Gabel to find out what’s going on with the event planning service.

Lorien noted that they decided to start Pingg because the space was underserved and most of the services were "bad looking or cheesy". He says that they have a strong artist community using Pingg and creating invitations for site users to utilize for their events.

I asked about the difference between Pingg and the other 8,001,141 event planning services. Lorien believes the biggest difference is their print service. Basically with Pingg you can choose to send your invites electronically or by postal mail. The postal mail invites provide a revenue stream for Pingg. The print pricing starts at $1.25/piece plus postage. The other big differentiator is that they focus on more formal events including weddings. He sees a time when weddings are using Pingg to send invites electronically instead of traditional paper invites. Another interesting stat…over 15% of the invites sent on Pingg are for business events.

Pingg raised $2.8 million in a Series A round of funding from Martha Stewart in late 2008. The biggest player in the event market is eVite, which even though it isn’t as sexy or as strong in services as Pingg (and a few others), still does 16 million invitations each month. I asked Lorien about how he plans to grow the service and he said they are working some deals to get more distribution via Martha’s networks.

Find more stories about: Interviews, NYC, Pingg, Quick News

This morning I met with Daniel Osit and Adam Sachs, founders of NY-based Ignighter. Ignighter is a group dating service we covered when they first launched back in December of 2007.

Check out our interview below where we discuss a variety of topics including: what is Ignighter, what type of people use the service, how does group dating work and any success stories. Apparently some people have reported "getting lucky" after going on a group date. Lastly we discuss what the Ignighter team learned by being part of the TechStars program.

Find more stories about: dating, Ignighter, Interviews, NYC, online dating, Quick News, startups

Earlier this week I sat down with Girl Ambition co-founder Hilary DeCesare. The service is launching to the public today and I was able to capture our interview on video below. Hilary describes the service as, “Girl Ambition includes an inspirational online show, games, contests and other activities that promote self-esteem and teach on-line safety”. The real goal is to help tween girls (ages 9-13) feel better about themselves.

The site also offers video hosting and chat/IM. In our discussion, we talk about what makes Girl Ambition different than Club Penguin, what about boys?, how the email service works and online safety. The site also offers information for parents. I wonder if they should explore creating a desktop/Adobe Air application that could make sure the child can’t get out to the full Internet and only live within the Girl Ambition service.

Hilary also noted that MySpace deletes 25,000 profiles a day due to underage use.

Girl Ambition is launching with a multi-faceted business model. Account access is $4.95/month and they also are partnering with a variety of companies on content and sponsorships. I think there’s also a great opportunity for brands to leverage the community for focus groups and product learnings. The company is looking to raise a round of funding currently.

We covered the launch of another niche community last summer named SavvyAuntie. Both SavvyAuntie and Girl Ambition have business models and communities that are supportive and encourage heavy usage. Perhaps Hilary and SavvyAuntie founder Melanie Notkin should partner as there could be some good crossover traffic.

apologies for the sound, the cafe was quiet before we started then the staff decided to prepare for lunch!

Find more stories about: community, Girl Ambition, Interviews, Quick News, SavvyAuntie, Video, women

This morning I met with TechStars Co-Founder David Cohen in Manhattan. David is in town for some meetings and also for a welcome session this evening for startups interested in TechStars. TechStars offers seed capital and mentorship for startups.

In the video interview below, we discuss a variety of topics including:

• What is TechStars?
• Can NYC companies apply?
• What’s the Boulder, Colorado tech scene like?
• Comparing TechStars to YCombinator
• Single person vs. team founders
• David’s views on business plans and revenue models
• and a variety of other topics…

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Before the holidays I was asked to be on a podcast with Kipp and Wayne of Talk Social News. Kipp and Wayne are located in North Carolina and it’s interesting to get their local perspective on the current hot topics.

The podcast starts out with a discussion of new news aggregator TechFuga. Kipp, Wayne and I discuss embargoes, my new startup, what makes CN different, overhyped technologies, tips on launching a new blog, what’s hot for 2009 and the Izea K-Mart campaign. We also discuss the importance of doing the right thing today to help the overall blogger movement for the coming years.

You can listen to the podcast online on the Talk Social News site or download the podcast. Thanks to Kipp and Wayne for including me on their show!

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Just a quick update for some upcoming happenings around these parts. Tomorrow morning I will be interviewing David Cohen from TechStars. Later in the week I will sit down with Darren Herman of the newly launched HermanFund.

Tomorrow is also the monthly NY Tech Meetup. Just as we have for nearly two years, we will cover the event. It appears that even though most of us are Twittered-out, the entire evening’s batch of startups will be Twitter applications.

If you have questions for either David or Darren, please leave them in the comments and I will get answers for ya’all.

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Earlier this year NY-based Buddy Media raised $6.5 million for their social application network. Today I spent some time at their office in Manhattan. Walking into the office I wasn’t sure I was in the right place as Don King welcomed me and all of the other employees were dressed up for the holiday.

Below is my discussion with CEO Mike Lazerow. You will note that Mike apparently also plays the role of Captain America but he took off his super powers suit for the interview. Buddy Media creates social applications for their corporate clients to reach end consumers online differently than the traditional banner ad. We discuss social metrics and the education needed to get consumer brands to buy into "non-traditional" online spending. Mike also discusses the Buddy Media "brain". At the end of the interview Mike speaks briefly about the economy and the differences you will see with startups moving forward.

Find more stories about: Buddy Media, Interviews, nextNY, NYC, Quick News, social media, Social Networking, Video

This morning I met with Phil Thomas Di Giulio, WellcomeMat co-founder. We met at a Starbucks which I’ve been using as an interview location for nearly two years. If Starbucks was a recession metric, the economy is clearly booming.

WellcomeMat is a video marketplace which allows you to hire help to create a video for you. Real estate is their most popular section. They also focus on local business videos.

There’s a production job board where you can post want ads for help with creating videos. Production help replies with quotes and you can view their ratings and rankings. WellcomeMat has a points system which helps to bubble the best quality talent to the top.

I asked about why a company would choose WellcomeMat over YouTube for video hosting. Phil explained that more of the consumer-focused video hosting sites are removing commercial content. He also explained that their video player has a variety of features that are not found with most consumer-focused video hosting services. They offer a chapter feature which allows you to jump to a specific portion of a video (e.g. Kitchen, Bath, etc.). I sure hope other video hosts add this feature.

WellcomeMat is bootstrapped and has offices in Brooklyn and Boulder, Colorado. There are 5 team members spread across both offices. They use Limelight for the video hosting. We spoke about their business plan which will be a subscription and freemium model. I stressed to Phil not to offer too much for free that users have no reason to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Then there’s MatMan which if you’ve been to any NYC tech events you have certainly interacted with him. He’s a space traveler that has a large video screen on his chest showing off the videos created using the WellcomeMat marketplace. While it’s partly a gimmick, it certainly gets your attention.

I tried to capture a video interview with Phil but the batteries died. Instead here’s Phil’s demo from the NextWeb meetup earlier this year:

Find more stories about: Interviews, nextNY, NYC, Quick News, WellcomeMat

This morning I headed over to the Thrillist office in NYC. They actually share space with The Huffington Post (co-founded by Ben’s father Kenneth Lerer) currently but I hear they are getting ready to move across the street into a larger space. Thrillist is a daily newsletter for men offering a nugget of information each day. The newsletters are short and to-the-point and are offered in a variety of cities including New York, Boston, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Ben noted that they are planning to launch a brand-new Web site next week which will be powered by the Drupal CMS (same as CN). I will leave the details about the Web site for when they launch – let’s just say that it should help them bring in a whole new set of subscribers.

I met with Thrillist co-founder Ben Lerer and we discussed a variety of topics including: why did they select email, how do they find their stories, who is the target for the Thrillist newsletter, funding/revenue models and local staffing. Towards the end of the interview we discuss the potential advertising slowdown and what tips Ben has for new content publishers who are looking to secure advertising and sponsorships.

Thanks to Ben for spending some time with us today.

Find more stories about: Ben Lerer, email, Interviews, NYC, Quick News, Thrillist