Incredible lineup for #NYTM tonight! Full lineup here. And incredible deal for “Tech and the City”: it’s free only today on Kindke in honor of New York Tech Meetup. Read what we wrote in our book (chapter 1) about this event:
<<What’s the hottest show in New York, consistently drawing a full house? It is not on Broadway but in a theater at New York University’s Skirball Center, steps from Washington Square Park. The show plays every month before an audience of 850 enthusiastic fans, who show up to admire and applaud some very special “actors”: entrepreneurs who founded technology startups in the Big Apple and who take the stage to demonstrate their ideas and reveal how they are translating them into businesses. It’s organized by NY Tech Meetup and every time about 10 startups present, each with a five minute “demo”: words and pictures prepared with great care, to capture the attention of potential investors who have come to hunt for new business opportunities. But the demos are also for all the other spectators—engineers, technologists, consultants, competitors— anyone interested in learning about new technologies, sometimes because they are looking for a job, or perhaps because they are looking to be inspired by these ideas to come up with an even better creation. Two intense hours, full of energy and excitement. At the event of June 5, 2012, the evening was opened by a video that immediately achieved cult status on the Internet. The protagonist was 37-years old Michael Lazerow, founder, with his wife, Kass, of Buddy Media. An amusing name for a serious and profitable business: software to manage a corporation’s presence on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Buddy Media had just been purchased by Salesforce.com for $689 million dollars: a killing for a five-year old New York startup. Lazerow wanted to celebrate by sharing a little known episode in his personal history, and launch a strong message to all other aspiring entrepreneurs. Suffering from heart disease from birth, he almost died at 19 when a valve stopped working. A miraculous operation saved him, and when he woke up, he remembered feeling a “deep calm” and, since then, having no fear of dying. “It’s not a coincidence that I started my first company at Northwestern later that year,” continued Lazerow. “13 years later, I started my fourth, Buddy Media. And 2 hours ago I signed a deal to sell it. Gandhi said that the true enemy is fear, not hatred. If you live without fear, anything is possible.” Then the pitch: “Is fear holding you back?”1 A roaring applause erupted in the hall. All in tune with that emotional vibration, that fearlessness and love for “impossible” challenges; the temerity, some might say, that holds together the New York high-tech community: animal spirits for the third millennium. And their point of reference is the NY Tech Meetup: with over 30,000 members (as of February 2013), it continues to grow and organize monthly events. Something like a debutante ball attended by all the successful startups such as Foursquare and Tumblr. And also an important opportunity for networking at the party that breaks out after the “demos”, in a lounge adjacent to the theatre, where the beer flows, graciously offered by many sponsors.>>