Jello wrote:

Who Wants Seed Money?
Aug 03, 08 in Angels, Entrepreneurship, Startups 4 Comments

The comment stream generated by the word "discuss" in my quote of the week Friday is simply amazing. The quotes are not that important. Read the comments. Some really good stuff in there.

Several of the comments pointed out the need for a seed stage investment company like Y Combinator in the Southeast. I was a bit surprised that no one mentioned the previous efforts to create such entities in Atlanta. There are two. Boostphase, which Stephen Fleming, Wayt King, Keith McGreggor, myself, and others attempted to form last fall. And Profounder (that has a slightly different model) which was put together by Merrick Furst this year and in which I am involved.

So the comments got me thinking. Is it time to try and wind up Boostphase again from an angel perspective and do we have enough entrepreneurs in the Southeast, to quote Wei, to take a shotgun approach. So I am interested in knowing how many of you entrepreneurs out there believe you can answer the following questions, pulled straight from the YC application, in a compelling way.

What is your company going to make?

Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.

How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?

What's new about what you're doing? What are people forced to do now because what you plan to make doesn't exist yet?

What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?

How will you make money?

How long will it take before you have a prototype? A beta? A version you can charge for?

If we fund you, which of the founders will commit to working exclusively (no school, no other jobs) on this project for the next year?

And if you can answer the questions in a compelling way, would you accept a deal where you got $25K and some expertise on how to get your concept to the angel/VC/buyout stage for 5 - 10% of your company?

I am going to try this one more time.null

Lance Weatherby steps up to the plate and tries to relaunch Boostphase, a YCombinator style fund that failed to launch last year. If you have a startup, step up ATLiens.

RE: Force of Good: a blog by Lance Weatherby

Charles Leadbeater:

We Think explores how the web is changing our world, creating a culture in which more people than ever can participate, share and collaborate, ideas and information.

Ideas take life when they are shared. That is why the web is such a potent platform for creativity and innovation.

It's also at the heart of why the web should be good for : democracy, by giving more people a voice and the ability to organise themselves; freedom, by giving more people the opportunity to be creative and equality, by allowing knowledge to be set free.

But sharing also brings with it dilemmas.

It leaves us more open to abuse and invasions of privacy.

Participation is not always a good thing: it can just create a cacophony.

Collaboration is sustained and reliable only under conditions which allow for self organisation.

Everywhere we turn there will be struggles between people who want to freely share - music, films, ideas, information - and those who want to control this activity, either corporations who want to make money or governments who fear debate and democracy. This conflict between the rising surge of mass collaboration and attempts to retain top down control will be one of the defining battles of our time, from Communist China, to Microsoft's battle with open source and the music industry's desperate rearguard action against the web.

See also:

We-think is about what the rise of these phenomena (not all to do with the internet) means for the way we organise ourselves – not just in digital businesses but in schools and hospitals, cities and mainstream corporations. For the point of the industrial era economy was mass production for mass consumption, the formula created by Henry Ford; but these new forms of mass, creative collaboration announce the arrival of a new kind of society, in which people want to be players, not spectators.

This is a huge cultural shift, for in this new economy people want not services and goods, delivered to them, but tools so they can take part. In We-think Charles Leadbeater analyses not only these changes, but how they will affect us and how we can make the most of them. Just as, in the 1980s, his In Search of Work predicted the rise of more flexible employment, here he outlines a crucial shift that is already affecting all of us.

We-think: The power of mass creativity

My girlfriend's service group is organizizng a Toys for Tots benefit concert (an admission is free, $/gift donations accepted kind of deal). There's going to be somewhere between 4 and 6 of the vocal groups from Georgia Tech performing there and it should be a really good show.

Content will be high on seasonal songs with each group doing 1 or 2 of their normal songs (I think).

Sunday Dec 2nd, 4:30 - 6:30
LeCraw Auditorium, GT College of Management
800 West Peachtree Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30308-0520

I can't really get the audience and sources thing. Is it when someone adds a link or post a comment on one of my posts here she is added to my audience, and vice versa or what ?

Audience and Sources

logickal wrote:
I Love Graffiti

It is decided... my house will have a large brick wall on which graffiti will reside.

RE: Pictures of Walls

This is a cross between a social networking site and music suggestion. It makes recommendations based on what you listen to. If I understand the system though you don't have to rate, it figures out your tastes in music via a winamp plugin.

That's all I know, I haven't had a chance to play too much with it but the 'Search for a band' is giving me lots of things that have been recommened to me, as well as things I lke. At the very least this looks promising as a place to find new artists.

Social (Music) Networking

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding very early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company.

We invest mostly in software and Web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your idea than whether you have a formal business plan.

Very cool concept, the deadline for their second batch of funding is past but there's always next time. Basically they provide you all the money you need to survive for a few months during which you do nothing but work on developing a prototype and business plan -- in return they have an investment in your company should it succeed.

Put on your thinking caps

This fellow has created a small, simple DIY synth that you can build (provided you have a little experience with electronics) at home.

DIY Small Synth

It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn't have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. And here are 11 of them.

Cool article about staving off dementia. Hopefully grad school won't drive me to using modafinil any time soon...that shit's hardcore.

-janelane, mind-expanding

New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain

An all around amazing show. Anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should make a point of making it to one in the coming years.

Most of the bands they schedule have never played (and may never play again) in the States so this is pretty much going to be the only chance to see them live. The venue is tiny, roughly 1100 people (900 + 250 VIP tickets)and it sells out pretty quickly so tickets need to be bought about 4 months in advance.

ProgPower USA