I recently attended my 2nd Ultra Light Startups group and it was easily a success! I covered last months event in my article Ultra Light Startups(TM) a SUCCESS!!
The event was located at Gigapixel Creative downtown and started around 7pm. For those of you unaware of this event, the mission is simple: “Tech entrepreneurs, sharing techniques to launch faster and cheaper!” A room full of 45+ entrepreneuers with bootstrapped budgets discussing professional techniques on improving their businesses. A great source for networking and information. And more importantly, the panel at this event felt a lot more engaging than the big conferences, but the content and material was just as good, if not better!
Company Pitch!
At around 7pm, everybody attending presents their startup elevator-pitch in front of a projector displaying their website. You get 60 seconds on-the-dot, and they’re strict! It’s exciting to see what ideas people come up with and are equally as passionate about. I am always surprised by the pitches. May individuals really SUCK at pitching while others are great, but the idea is a flop. Here are a few interesting notes: There were 5 fashion related companies, 1 Domain Squater (SiliconAlley.com <-surprisingly Kevin Ryan isn’t interested), and one very impressive company which managed to have over $800k+ in funding – SaneBull – an online financial platform which provides live stock quotes, real-time news, investment tools and more in an easy to use interface. Roman Grinblat and his partner pitched the company very well, and to be honest, I was sold after 30 seconds.
Yao, Bala, Shishir, Taylor, Randy, Ronald
After the presentations…it was pizza+networking time! 15 minutes to make your rounds. This is 50% of the reason people come to this event. You have a chance to engage the panelists event before they speak. This is a good hint for all of you reading this – bring lots of business cards (though there is a list of all attendees and everybody gets a copy after the event!)
This months topic was “Outsourcing Your Startup”, and had a great panel panel. Ronald Bradford, Principal 42SQL, was a great Moderator (yet again) for the following panel:
- Shishir Danani President & CEO of Ideavate Solutions
- Yao-Hui Huang Co-founder of The Hatchery and Gigapixel Creative
- Bala Mulloth Operations Manager of Brooklyn Enterprise on Science & Technology incubator (B.E.S.T)
- Taylor Smith Co-founder of The Spirus Group
- Randy Wilburn Founder of Randy Wilburn & Co. Real Estate and featured Outsourcing Evangelist
The panel started off slow, but picked up momentum as the audience got involved. Outsourcing options were discussed and day-to-day issues were brought up. Ronald made a great point: When relating to someone you plan on outsourcing to, “remember – different societies and cultures impact!”
Another great point brought up by Shishir, “The #1 reason for choosing outsourcing was cost!” He continued to stress that unless you control your objectives and project time-line, it will end up costing you more. Because of this, when looking to build “scalable, larger sites you should use established outsourcing companies.” Other requirements to save time and money, according to Yao, are “Graphical sketches and specs!” Spec writing was an ongoing topic – good code vs. bad code. You may end up spending 10’s of 1,000’s of dollars on a project only to discover the code was weak and hard for anybody else to understand and build on.
At this point in the panel, everybody agreed that “Outsourcing is not only about saving money. It is about finding resources!” The resources necessary are driven by your NEEDS. So, before going ahead and drop all of your money in one hat, it may pay off to spend time with an outsourcing consultant to see whether or not it is the right option for you. Bala and Randy offered a service of “in-sourcing” as I like to put it. Local college students looking to work hard on your project for college credits, and with skill levels+quality equal to that which you will find from outsourcing to India or Russia.
This is a lot to packed into one quick blog-post, but hopefully by reading this you will see the true value of attending one the Ultra Light Startups. Check them out next month, November 6th with the topic of Ultra Light S.E.O.. I have no doubt it will have a great panel and a room full of valuable networking opportunities. To stay on top of their events and updates, check out the Ultra Light Facebook Group.
Original article by Joshua Russak
