Netizen

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Nic Butterworth's Open Coffee MeetUp

You get off the 6 train on Astor Place, and you just can't miss the Starbucks. It's right there. Thursday 9.15 AM. So that totally weeds out those who are just out for beer. Jobholders and entrepreneurs are two different species. If you should be at work at 9.15 in the morning, you probably don't belong here.

Nic Butterworth has the relaxed ways of someone who has already proven himself before. You feel easy around him. He is talking, then at the same time he is taking one step back and being his creative self. Parts of him keep churning what he is good at churning out even when he is very much with you.

I met him first on Tuesday evening at Scott's Tech MeetUp. (Scott 2.0, MeetUp.com 2.0) Nic's thing basically was that on YouTube you get lost. If you are into snowboarding, and you want many super clips of one particular move, you can't do that on YouTube. You come to Nic. This kind of vertical niche search has enormous value. He is definitely adding some serious value, and that is where the riches are.

That is the key question entrepreneurs have to ask themselves. Am I adding value?

I was the second person to sign up for it: The New York Open Coffee Meetup. So I am thinking, will it be just him and me? My train had a 20 minute delay, and so I was about five minutes late. And the place was full. It was crowded. How did he do it? How do you go from two on Tuesday midnight to 22 on Thursday morning? I am thinking, maybe the guy is famous.

Apparently most people had already introduced themselves. I got up, said my name, and talked up the IC for 20 seconds. The IC is a doughnut. It is not Nobel Prize for Physics material. It is meant to be a commodity.

The group broke into three, finance, real estate, and something else. I stuck with finance. The lead person had been in the Silicon Valley for 20 years. He made it sound like the East Coast, West Coast thing in tech and venture capital was no different than it is with rap music. New York is more conservative. Here people are not used to taking chances. You already should be churning some profit for them to pump money into you. Whereas in California, the idea sells.

I am not going anywhere. My market is right here. NYC is my number one market. Got contact info for one angel investor.

Met Christine, hardware Korean, software American. Cheerful. She was adopted by a South Dakota family when she was five months old. ("I have been to South Dakota.") She has worked at Microsoft in its XBox division. She is multicultural. She has lived in Paris a few years, for example. ("I have been to Wisconsin. It is like another planet.") She has that entrepreneur DNA, it is so obvious. Her company is called Mao Networks. And I am thinking Chairman Mao. She says it is an island off of Spain. Well then, that island must have been named after Chairman Mao.

And there was this London lady just passing through town. And three ladies around a table staying late. "Men don't change. Inside they are the same. Outside it looks different." Summary: it is a sexist world, and you feel that inside corporations, inside relationships.

There were so many good ideas floating around. It was so educational to get inside peeps into many startups at different stages of their growth. Frankly, I could not have enough of this. It could have gone on a few more hours, and I would still stick around.

Good thing this will happen every Thursday morning. Now I know what rush hour train rides are like.

It is important not to lose focus though. These meetings should not be the sharpening pencils sessions as a way to postpone actually doing the homework.

On The Web

Nicholas Butterworth
echospin | Our Team
Diversion Media Weblog
COMEBACKS: Nicholas Butterworth's New New Thing - Valleywag the former MTVi CEO and Silicon Alley Reporter coverboy, who, like many from Alley 1.0, was suddenly back at the table, buying back in ...... 'Everything is cranking up,'' said Butterworth. ''There is definitely something in the air. It's not exactly the same as it was the first time around, but it's got some of that same spirit.'' ..... Sounding very 1995 ..... his new firm, Diversion Media, launched Travelistic in late October. The site is billed as a YouTube for travel videos .... compelling, engaging user experiences in robustly profitable niches ..... moving beyond the strict user-created model and nabbing professional video personalities for the site.
Nicholas Butterworth: See what people are saying right now on ...
Nicholas Butterworth
The music man - Salon
Nicholas Butterworth
Nicholas Butterworth - Filmography - Movies - New York Times
thinkd2c

In The News

Carter Defends Pelosi's Syria Trip Playfuls.com
EU Bashes Apple Over iTunes Price in Different Euro-Regions Playfuls.com
Toshiba Enhances Thermal Power Generation Service in North America TechWhack
Cisco eyes future Linksys strategy Computerworld
Acer Up, Dell Down In Latest Notebook Numbers CRN
Review: Apple appalls where Xbox excels Canada.com
Greenpeace Ranks Apple Last for Green Chicago Tribune
HP targets PC performance-seekers on a budget ZDNet UK
Gartner: Intel Still Number 1, Despite Revenue DeclinesCIO India
Cisco set to fight aftermarket sellers Computerworld
Getting Started with Google’s My Maps PC World
Google Embraces Web 2.0 Model in 'My Maps' Feature CIO Today
Google blurs line between advertising and content, again ZDNet
Google Expands into Television Advertising, through Deal with EchoStar Teleclick.ca
Experts say Microsoft should consider change in patching process SC Magazine US
EU may force Microsoft to license server protocols for free Ars Technica
Breaking News Microsoft Sues Student Software Sellers CIO Today
Yahoo Patches Instant Messaging Flaw BetaNews
Reality Check on The Yahoo/Facebook Story Seeking Alpha Yahoo! made attempts last year to purchase leading social networking site Facebook. ...... Facebook has recently surpassed 21 million registered users and generates 1.5 billion page views a day. May's argument is that Yahoo will rue the day it didn't pay $750 million to $1.6 billion for Facebook. ..... Yahoo failed to buy Google in its early days and blew Facebook too. .... Facebook.com ranked as the 36th most-visited site on the Web in February 2007 ..... the second-most “engaging” site .... the number one site for photos, ahead of Yahoo!’s Flickr ..... the most viewed site by females in the United States (69%) ages 17-25 ..... the second most "in" thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and after only the iPod. ..... bonus if Facebook goes public: Wall Street will finally be able to short Web 2.0 directly.
Yahoo Needs a Face-to-Face With Facebook Barron's (subscription)
IBM donates translation software to US military Washington Post
IBM Targets India with Autonomic Computing Center CIO India
BMW Oracle wins warm-up cup BoatsandOutboards
Sun Microsystems And Boeing Team Up To Solve Extreme Data ... WebWire
Sun Microsystems celebrates silver anniversary AME Info
Sun Microsystems launches new updated UltraSparc IV+ processors TechWhack
Wal-Mart says sorry, this time to shareholders CNNMoney.com
Wal-Mart expands personal well-being programs Reuters.uk
Ford’s CEO Made Over $28 Million. In His First Four Months. New York Times
CEO confirms talks on sale of Chrysler unit Seattle Times
Oil Prices Rise Forbes
Solar Radio Bursts Could Cripple GPS Space.com
Lifting restrictions on digital music is just one small step Chicago Tribune
Deal brings Wimax deployment a step closer Computeractive
Solid foundation now in place for WiMax in Asia Pacific: In-Stat Indiantelevision.com Last year was a good one for the development of WiMax in the Asia/Pacific region, as a solid foundation was laid by the joint efforts of market regulators, operators and eager equipment vendors .... From a lean base of 0.27 million in 2006, total WiMax subscribers in 16 Asia/Pacific countries are expected to reach 31.43 million by 2012 ..... Carrier spending of WiMax and WiMax-backhauled WiFi network equipment will escalate from $394.9 million in 2006 to $2908.9 million in 2012.
WiMAX: Where and Where Not? CIOL
WiMax to reach 31 million in Asia VNUNet.com
Pipex in Nokia wireless broadband deal Broadband Finder
Rural Eastern Cape to get wireless broadband Dataweek (press release)
Warwick to pilot WiMAX broadband services PublicTechnology.net
Intel plans Centrino Pro for business notebooks CNetNews
iStockphoto sees new rivals everywhere
Photo wars: A $2 billion business gets rough Business 2.0
Online real estate has become a virtual land grab Business 2.0
New OpenOffice version includes security upgrade
Thailand blocks YouTube for clip mocking king
Apple PCs coming to 200 Best Buy stores

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Scott 2.0, MeetUp.com 2.0

Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds

When I moved to NYC summer of 2005, one of the people I got to know was Scott. "Man, meeting you is like meeting a movie star!" I was a Deaniac from 2004, and MeetUp.com was all the rage. We clicked just like that, became friends. He invited me over to come see him at his office. I complimented on the color red. My cultural background is primary colors and loud voices. Americans wear drab and talk soft.

I came to NYC to cultivate my business idea but got sucked into the democracy movement in Nepal, best work I ever did. I mean, when your house is on fire, you don't go cultivate a business. But as of past week, I am back. And the place I started was at MeetUp.com. The first event listed was one I had started: NYC Aspiring Entrepreneurs. Someone Jessica was running it now. She turned out to be Jessica Mah, 16. I visited her blog when I went back home. She was complaining how she thought she ought to be made Organizer of the Month but her being 16 was being used against her.

When I met Scott today, I put in word for her. He wrote her name down. And he gets to read this blog entry also. She runs a terrific large group. And she is a Scott in the making herself. I think you are going to hear more of her. She is an entrepreneur. She has it. She dreams of creating "the eBay of services." Way to go.

At Jessica's MeetUp I met Ed, a veteran who has worked for companies like IBM, real tall guy, West Indies background, that accent. He might help me find investors, he said.

And Scott's NY Tech Meetup. This thing has gone so big. Watching the presentations felt like being in a movie theater. It was like having a front seat into the future of the web. The internet started out as a poster. Then it became a little more interactive. Today's slew of presentations blew me away. The interactions are going to a whole new level. Graphic, intuitive stuff are coming along.

Video Of The MeetUp Tonight
This event was covered on CNNMoney.com
Video Of The Event

The first guy allowed you to insert comments into a video clip. One guy Mark, who sat next to me at the exclusive dinner after the event at a Tibetan place (Momo anyone? I am addicted to momo from my days in Kathmandu, I had two servings), allowed you to connect the dots and make pictures, that which you did as a kid on paper. Mind blowing. And he is just doing it on the side, no business plan yet, he talked like he just had to get it out of his system. Another was offering vertical silos of high quality videos. You just can't get that on YouTube. Say you are into snowboarding, you perhaps want many clips of a particular move, high quality ones.

There is never going to be enough of two things on the web: content and search. The possibilities are as limitless as the human mind.

I wish there were a place at the Tech MeetUp page where you could find the links to all the websites that get presented. Mark, add your link in the comments section please. I did not have a pen on me.

http://www.diversionmedia.com
http://www.associatedcontent.com
http://www.daylife.com

The most mindblowing presentation was DayLife. It was out of this world. I got a glimpse of search the way it should be. The human mind does not think in terms of lists of links. It thinks the way of the DayLife presentation.

CEO Upendra. He was at the dinner. MIT guy. Came out of school in 1994. Sold his Firefly to Microsoft. Microsoft Passport is his thing. So Bill Gates bought Hotmail from Sabeer Bhatia and Passport from Upendra, what does he offer of his own? How smart is Bill Gates really? Powerful, yes, but smart? Maybe he started out smart, and just got powerful.

His namesake - Upendra Mahato in Moscow - is the richest Nepali on earth. Mahato just invested into my startup yesterday, a symbolic gesture. I have been flying high since. I emailed a pitch also to this local, Indian Upendra after I got back home. He speaks in the measured tones of someone who grew up in America, as he did.

Vineet Gupta also at DayLife. He is a UP guy. That state in India is like a galaxy. It is such a huge population and the politics is so rumbunctious.

Tips for Scott. MeetUp.com still has this huge edge on social networking sites that exist only online. Noone emphasizes facetime like MeetUp.com. But add more features in the "add friends" section so exchanging business cards becomes a thing of the past. I guess you "steal" more and more select features from places like MySpace and Facebook. Sorry if I sounded fuzzy. In short, MeetUp.com should compete on both facetime and screentime, and not just on facetime, which it already has an edge on.

Got to meet Scott's girlfriend Emily who works at the UN. Small world, go figure. Emily and I figured we both know someone in common, Julie! Julie has made documentaries on Nepal.

And there was this 13 year old daughter of an Assistant Organizer. She is the one who I gave my $5 for the event to. She was at the gate collecting. I kept reminding her about that - the money part - at dinner. "You are the one who took away my money!"

About 500 people at the MeetUp, 10 at the dinner afterwards. Thanks Scott for inviting.

And I am slated to go to this MeetUp Thursday morning: The New York Open Coffee Meetup. Others go to work, I go to a MeetUp. I am hungry for investors right now. Nicholas was the first to sign. I was number two. He just launched this MeetUp.

Parting ways for the evening, I exclaimed to Upendra, "I don't have the slightest clue where I am at right now!" He gave me gentle directions to the Union Square station.

In The News

How to Leave Past Relationships in the Past

Associated Content
Mexico City explores wireless Internet 2:29AM EST BusinessWeek

Visitors

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