StartupSD

Entrepreneurship will be in overdrive when Startup Weekend comes to San Diego August 20th - 22nd, gathering area entrepreneurs for a weekend of collaboration and creation at downtown coworking space Hive Haus 770.

Startup Weekend San Diego brings together energetic developers, graphic artists, business-minded startup enthusiasts, and stellar marketing and PR creatives to bring an innovative new business ideas from inception to launch in 54 hours. Teams form on Friday and will present their business models and prototypes to a panel of experts on Sunday night.

Teams will have access to experienced entrepreneurs and angel investor mentors including Mike Afred, CEO of BrightScope, Inc., Frank Peters from TheFrankPetersShow.com, and Charlie Jackson, founder of co-founder FutureWave Software. On Sunday night teams will present their businesses and prototypes and the winning team will receive $2,000 in legal services from Platinum Sponsor Cooley Godward Kronish.

Registration is currently open and slots for development, marketing/PR/business, design & UI, attorney/legal and social media are available, as well as student tickets and demo night tickets. Other contributors are welcome to join as well.

Follow @sdtechscene on Twitter to get the latest updates on Startup Weekend San Diego, or visit the website at http://sandiego.startupweekend.org for new blog posts about speakers, attendees, and sponsorship.

When: August 20 - 22nd, 2010
Where: 770 11th Ave. San Diego, CA 92104
Contact: startupweekend@sdtechscene.org

About Startup Weekend: Startup Weekend is a non-profit based in Seattle, WA. Startup Weekend has traveled the world, hosting events in more than 100 cities in over 25 countries around the world. It has helped educate over 15,000 entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses. Website: www.startupweekend.org

Popularity: 5% [?]

San Diego based, Webceleb is a next generation social music store where everyone can get paid to download music.

Webceleb provides a platform for artists and fans to join forces and make money together. Music lovers are empowered to discover new artists, support professional musicians and get further involved in a musician’s career. “People make a choice to buy music. The beauty of Webceleb is that for the first time when they make that decision they will be given the chance to form partnerships with musicians and have a vested role in the marketing and discovery process,” said Scott Fetters, co-founder.

Prior to the site’s official launch, Webceleb already had more than 20,000 active users and featured more than 1,000 artists. This is how the site works: fans purchase songs for $1 and receive 1 Slice. Fifty percent goes to the musician; 40 percent goes back to the fans that own Slices from purchasing music; and 10 percent goes to Webceleb.

“Whenever you purchase a song from a musician you get to participate in that musician’s financial success.  This approach offers additional incentive for fans to discover new music and share their discoveries with others,” said Alex Rolek, co-founder.

People make money whenever others purchase any song by the same artist, and within just seven purchases, the first person makes their full dollar back. You then have the option of turning earnings into more cash by purchasing more songs – or you may cash out when you reach $20.

Visit www.webceleb.com to find out more.

Popularity: 27% [?]

SANDCamp 2010 is right around the corner!

SANDcamp is a free, community-powered gathering to share our experience and enthusiasm about Drupal, an open-source content management system that is powering more and more of the web every year.

SANDcamp is open to everyone, at any skill level, so sign up now.

SANDcamp takes place January 23 and 24, 2010 at the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park, San Diego. from 9am-6pm each day, and will feature two tracks and open community rooms for BoFs (birds of a feather) and small topic meetups.

Popularity: 35% [?]

The title of this post may not be factually accurate. But the only thing that prevented Mozart from using TakeLessons to find his music teacher is the 240 years between their respective births.

82% of Americans wish they had learned to play a musical instrument, and 67% expressed an interest in learning to play, according to a recent Gallup poll.

TakeLessons, a San Diego startup launched in 2004, aims to convert many of these latent musicians into practicing students with its national lesson-booking service. I was able to spend some time speaking with the founder, Steven Cox, recently and learned a lot about the company’s formation, product, and beliefs.

How It Works

TakeLessons extends beyond a simple referral service. It is definitely not just a “Craiglist for music lessons.” Certified instructors are hired as independent consultants, are paid by TakeLessons, and are held to high standards of teaching performance.

The company leverages two of the internet’s inherent strengths in its mission to change the way people find and consume music lessons.

The service incorporates increased efficiency and transparency to improve the music lesson experience and increase the odds of successful lessons for both parties, the students and the instructors.

In addition to increasing efficiency and transparency, TakeLessons adds beneficial discipline to a process that has classically occurred unpredictably and haphazardly.

TakeLessons keeps the best parts of freelance music instruction and fixes most of its problems.

Check out a short list of the benefits for students offered by TakeLessons:

FirstClass Guarantee: Promise of excellence including refund after first lesson, if student is not satisfied, and the ability to switch instructors at any time.

Certification Process: Quality-control process to ensure only the best instructors will teach TakeLessons students. Prospective instructors are interviewed, reference and background-checked, trained, and continually developed with anonymous feedback from their students on their teaching ability and character. Less than 15% of applicants are hired.

S.T.A.R. Program: Goal-tracking program customized for each student’s unique goals. Includes an individual Lesson Success Journal, completed after each lesson by the instructor with feedback and practice instructions.

Show What You Know Concerts: Putting an American Idol-like spin on stuffy recitals (minus Simon making people cry).

For instructors, TakeLessons provides marketing, billing, scheduling, logistics, and more. Essentially, its goal is to handle as much of the backroom business processes as possible and free up the music instructors to do what they love. Thereby, the instructors can spend more time on student work and less time on paper work.

In addition to its consumer services business, TakeLessons offers turnkey music programs for schools and community centers. For example, it currently runs music lessons for the Poway Unified School District, funded by a grant from the state after the district’s music program budgets were cut.

Making Money

Where does TakeLessons revenue come from? As you might imagine, a portion of each lesson fee is directed to TakeLessons before the balance is paid to the instructor. TakeLessons sets the lesson price based on its market research and individual instructor education. My search for piano instructors in San Diego returned 12 teachers with lessons starting at $35.

The Genesis of TakeLessons

TakeLessons was founded by Steven Cox in 2004 to help scratch his own itch and to help out a friend. Cox had experienced firsthand the difficulty in finding the right vocal instructor, ending several trials in frustration. Cox was playing in a band at the time, and the band’s drummer, with his master’s degree in music performance, was looking to drum up business as an instructor on the side. The challenge of running a business, acquiring students, and managing internet marketing tasks was excessive overhead for a person who, at the end of the day, just wanted to play music. Cox fused these two experiences and the idea TakeLessons was born.

The company now has 12 full-time employees in San Diego handling technology development, instructor recruiting, and sales and support.

Lessons for Success?

The market for private music lessons is a quiet giant with no national player prior to TakeLessons’s emergence. TakeLessons has the opportunity to build a nationally-recognized brand, providing students with a predictable, high-quality lesson experience and providing instructors with a steady stream of students and a premium reputation.

I believe the key to achieving that potential lies in attracting high numbers of ambitious students. Without large student demand, TakeLessons will lack a strong force to attract instructors. While the service offers many valuable benefits to instructors, the most compelling argument will always be colored green and baring a dead President. From an instructor’s point of view, the request, “Show me the money,” is directly accompanied with, “Show me the students.”

A quick Google search highlights a TakeLessons competitor in PrivateLessons.com. In contrast to the TakeLessons approach of providing certified instructors and offloading of administrative tasks, PrivateLessons offers a very simple service: essentially, it sells an internet instructor listing for $99/year. (Note: That fee does not apparently include a usable search feature. I see no way to separate the search for instructor location from instrument.) Although the two businesses are markedly different in scope of services, they both rely on a supply of students to drive success.

As a young business, TakeLessons looks like a music student with a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see what lessons it learns in the startup school of hard knocks and the resulting successes it can achieve.

Popularity: 92% [?]

Holiday Matinee, a San Diego-based cool-hunting blog, will be hosting San Diego’s second CAUSE FOR DRINKS which will benefit Tap Project and take place during World Water Week. Tap Project supports UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible drinking water to millions of children around the world. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.

This is event is being co-sponsored by StartupSD, Thread, Sezio, Subtext, Urbanist, Set&Drift and Alldaybuffet.

Cause For Drinks is a series of gatherings (happy hours) held across the country in which a percentage of all drink sales are directed towards a non-profit organization. 10% of bar sales will be donated to Tap Project. It’s a simple formula that combines doing GOOD with having FUN.

RSVP Here

Popularity: 97% [?]

In February of 2008, six guys in San Diego decided to fundamentally change the software community for the better.

You need only read the first sentence of OpenCandy’s About us page to learn a telling amount about the new company: one, they carry a grand vision for the impact their product will have on the software business, and two, there are a lot of dudes at this place.

Let’s tackle the latter characteristic first.

Who are all these guys?

Well, they’re ex-DivX employees, particular those who were building Stage6, a high-quality internet video sharing service that never escaped the gravitational pull of beta, despite its popularity.

What’s their grand vision?

Simply put, their goal is to improve the distribution and monetization of downloaded consumer software. They aim to do this by helping increase software distribution volumes, by monetizing this distribution through referrals, by providing marketing data to software creators, and by helping consumers find relevant applications. To fund their pursuit of this goal, they’ve raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and angel investors including Reid Hoffman (Chairman of LinkedIn, Board of Mozilla), and Jordan Greenhall (Former CEO and Co-Founder of DivX).

How’s this work?

The OpenCandy plug-in is bundled with an existing software installer. Let’s call this software Orange. While Orange is being installed, OpenCandy recommends to the user another application that is, in theory, relevant to the user. Let’s call this recommended software Banana.

Banana is picked from a fruit basket pool of applications chosen by the publishers of Orange. Orange Co. can hand-pick free recommendations (no charge to Banana for being recommended), can allow OpenCandy to select paid referrals (a “bounty” is paid to Orange if the user installs Banana), or a mix of the two.

The user can then choose to opt-in and install Banana. I emphasize opt-in because the recommended software will not be installed by default, an important distinction from annoying installers like RealPlayer that try to stick the user with 20 extra programs.

Another important note is that the Banana software is not included with the Orange installer, so the size of the installer is not noticeably increased (only by the negligible size the OpenCandy).

In fact, it is not determined what software will be recommended until the Orange installer runs. When it does run, OpenCandy analyzes the user’s registry for installed programs, operating system details, and chosen language. Conclusions from this analysis are sent to OpenCandy servers where some magic happens (including consideration of which recommendations are converting best), and a personalized recommendation is returned to the installer in response.

It is important to note that privacy is considered at every step of the process. OpenCandy takes user privacy seriously, designing to application to reflect this at every opportunity. In fact, one of their employees took the time to explain some of the finer points of their privacy model in detail.

Although OpenCandy does query the user’s registry, it does not transmit a list of all installed applications, but instead sends a “yes/no” verdict for specific applications. For example, OpenCandy will check to see if a user has Outlook installed. Knowing whether Outlook is installed determines whether OpenCandy might recommend an Outlook plug-in to the user. Personally identifiable information, including an IP address, is not transferred to or stored at OpenCandy’s servers.

(The details of these privacy protections have not always been easily accessible, and several blog comments on early posts reflected this misunderstanding. OpenCandy’s CEO, Darrius Thompson, answered some of the frequently asked privacy questions here, and OpenCandy says it is in the process of adding additional clarifying details of its privacy policies to its website.)

What other software suggestions might OpenCandy make? If a user has several already developer tools installed, OpenCandy might recommend Notepad++, a popular text editor. If a user is installing Miro, an open source video player, OpenCandy might recommend Audacity, an open source audio editor.

If the user opts to install Banana, or whatever juicy personalized software is recommended that day, OpenCandy will download the necessary installer and handle the installation process. Opting in will not interrupt the in-progress Orange installation.

You can see screenshots of the process here.

Let’s talk money

OpenCandy is aiming to charge between $1 and $2 each time an application is installed through a recommendation. It then splits these revenues with the publishers of the original software.

OpenCandy’s key advantage in making recommendations is its unprecedented ability to tailor the suggestion to an individual user. Although pay-per-click search ads reflect a searcher’s intent, they lack the ability to customize a recommendation beyond the details shared in the search terms. A search for “free open source sound recorder editor software Windows Vista” might return a valuable advertisement to the user and drive qualified targets to the advertiser.

However, a search for “audio software” is challengingly vague. Is the user running Windows, Mac, or Linux? Interested in open- or closed-source? Using professional tools or entry-level software? A diverse spectrum of users will be interested in “audio software” and they may all need a different application.

The top-placed search ad for this query will be chosen based on overall profitability for the search engine, essentially a combination of click-through rate and pay-per-click amount. While this works for the search engine, it doesn’t provide the best match for the user or the software publisher, who will often be paired with inappropriate leads.

The OpenCandy team learned a lot about sponsored recommendations at DivX, where the company was reportedly raking in around $20 million annually for bundling software like the Yahoo! Toolbar with the DivX player.

Trick or treat

So, what’s it going to take for OpenCandy to find success and change the software world?

Fundamentally, there needs to exist a strong, profitable market for downloadable consumer software, because OpenCandy’s business is built upon that ecosystem. Downloaded software hasn’t disappeared with the rise of internet applications, but the growth rate of downloads has undoubtedly been impacted. On the other hand, OpenCandy could stand to benefit as more internet-based content and applications escape the web browser and run separately on the desktop. For example, will OpenCandy integrate with Adobe Air installers in the future? (OpenCandy currently runs only on Windows in Inno Setup and NSIS installers, with InstallShield support coming soon.)

As discussed earlier, OpenCandy will need to continue its education efforts, assuring developers and consumers that adequate privacy policies are in place and showing transparency in the use of customer data.

OpenCandy brings innovation to the staid field of downloaded software. Will software publishers and consumers get a taste of their sweet offering and not be able to resist another bite?

[Updated 3/19/09 with additional details on privacy model.]

Popularity: 97% [?]

What’s a chumby? The quick answer is this: chumby is many things, and the list never stops growing.

We last wrote about chumby in April 2008, when they raised $12.5 million in a Series B round in order to “accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices such as LCD TVs and digital photo frames.”

Well, it looks like they are accomplishing their goal.

Chumby Industries, Inc. recently announced a new partnership with Broadcom to integrate the chumby network into devices, such as internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players, featuring Broadcom’s chipsets.

Chumbys of all shapes and sizes

So, that means chumby is:

• chumby, a huggable, Wi-Fi-connected clock/radio/widget-playing device
• the chumby network, freely providing over 1,000 widgets in more than 30 categories, such as weather, social networks, photos, sports, news, entertainment, videos and more
• chumby-enabled, internet-connected digital photo frames
• chumby-enabled portable media players and portable TVs
• now, chumby-enabled, internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players
• … and surely more to come

Video: Sneak peak of upcoming chumby integrations

What do all these different manifestations have in common? Answer: an open source, Linux-based platform and a cloud-based content network. The open source platform runs on a local device, chumby industries hosts the widgets, and the ‘net connects it all.

Not only does the chumby network provide live information to devices, but a user’s widgets are synchronized across various devices, providing a coherent experience from one screen to another. Many chumby widgets are social-enabled, allowing for sharing of content, photos, video clips, games or messages with friends who own a chumby-powered device.

Chumby Change

The chumby device. (Credit: chumby industries)

If the chumby network is free for users, then where is chumby making money? Selling chumby devices?

No, the iconic, padded chumby, currently selling for $200, is reportedly priced at a break-even point. (If you’d like to learn more about the manufacture of chumbys, and back-stories on Chinese society, read eye-opening accounts about setting up production in China from Andrew “bunnie” Huang, chumby’s VP of Hardware Engineering here.)

Instead, chumby aims to profit from the chumby content network, including:

• Sponsored advertisements, both interstitial (yes, they’re skippable) and embedded (like “this widget brought to you by Coca-Cola”)
• Service fees for subscription content
• Referral fees (pointing users to media, stores, products, etc)
• Payment fees (taking a cut from purchases)

Video: Preview of chumby on Broadcom-powered TV

What’s Next?

There’s no doubt that content previously confined to the internet is moving (finally) to other screens, particular TVs, but Chumby is facing serious competition for those eyeballs. It’s like there’s a piñata full of eyeballs, and chumby + Broadcom, Yahoo! + Intel, Sigma, Sony, and, without a doubt, Google and Microsoft, are all swinging sticks wildly in an attempt to crack that donkey open.

The battle has begun. But can chumby carry enough a big enough stick to the fight? They’ve made important partnerships and progress to date, but as they shift their focus away from their iconic chumby device (aka “iPod touch knocks up a hacky sack and has a baby”), can their brand compete with the mighty Yahoo!?

Chumby is the nimble lightweight in this fight. It’s small, nimble, and quick, and it can use its smaller size to take advantage of deals that companies like Yahoo! can’t afford because of it’s required rate of return.

It’s still early in this sage of convergence, probably just midway through Round 1, so sit back and enjoy the show.

Popularity: 96% [?]

Until someone creates a method for (legally) avoiding filing tax returns altogether, the next best thing would have to be applying for a filing extension.

Did you know that one can file for a tax extension, for any reason, delaying the corporate tax filing deadline from March 16 to September 15?

San Diego startup FileLater aims to make the process of obtaining a tax extension as easy as possible, and on March 9, for one day only, FileLater will be offering free online tax extension filings for businesses. FileLater claims to be the first company to offer online application for corporate tax extensions.

FileLater was founded by Ryan Thompson, formerly of Intel and Intuit (a major player in tax software), and Mark Faggiano, an entrepreneur with experience in operational management and web development. They are based out of La Jolla.

They offer tax extension applications for both individual and corporate returns. The tax extension for individual returns pushes the filing deadline from April 15 to October 15 and is priced at $17.95. The business tax extension normally costs $29.95. Both include free e-filing.

FileLater’s target market includes not only individuals and business owners, but CPAs as well, who can make use of FileLater for their clients and check the status of all clients’ extensions on a single page.

From FileLater:

Each year, five million businesses file tax extensions, extending their deadline to September 15. The extra time allows businesses to ensure that paperwork is completed correctly and that all possible deductions are found. Filing online makes this process quick and easy, and is the only way to receive a confirmation when the extension has been approved by the IRS. This confirmation will prevent business owners from having to pay substantial late fees if their extension is completed incorrectly and therefore rejected by the IRS or gets lost in the mail.

Business tax extensions are priced at $39.95. On March 9, businesses can use the coupon code freebiz to receive a free business tax extension. For more information on FileLater, please visit www.filelater.com.

Popularity: 98% [?]

CBS 8, 100.7 JACK FM and 760 KFMB AM have teamed up with MojoPages.com for the 2009 Mojo Awards. The Mojo Awards are an annual competition to find the best businesses in San Diego- as voted on by the people of San Diego on kfmbmojopages.com.

They are hosting a free workshop tomorrow at the Hotel Solomar and learn how to take advantage of the KFMB Mojo Awards to drive more customers to your business. 

The event will cover:

• How to use kfmbMojoPages?
• About the MojoAwards and how to compete
• How kfmbMojoPages can get you more business
• Overview of Internet Local Search
• Value of a top ranking
• Demonstrate how to claim and customize your Business listing
• Demonstrate how people review your business
• Best practices to market your business online

RSVP HERE

Popularity: 100% [?]

Last week’s event was a solid success.  We had around 250 attendees, which turned out to be just right for the space at Confidential.  Our in-person social networking game seemed to be a home run as we quickly ran of of shot tickets.  

The pictures from the event are posted here.  Let’s see if we can ID everyone in the picture below, I’ve given you a headstart.  Just add dt as a contact in Flickr so you can post a note if you see yourself or a friend.  Click on the image or here to view the current list of names.

We’ve learned our lesson on the live demos and crappy sound, so we will provide a much better way to showcase local startups without interrupting your chatting or drinking for future events.  

In case you missed the intro video for the ChrisChrisChris show - it details just how the band was able to play live from 3 different locations via satelitte and you can view it here.  It’s worth the 2 minutes.

I feel fortunate to have had so many people compliment the attendees (you guys) and the energy (magic sauce) of the event.  We are pretty certain that there will be another event taking place in the near future.  I welcome your comments on the following:

1. Would you attend another event?
2. What would you change or add to the next event?
3. What area of town/venue should the event be located?

Popularity: 99% [?]