Extreme Startups – the Incubator Up North
Do you want to take your company to an extreme? Well, we’ve found the incubator for you. Extreme Startups is extremely cold. At least for those of us living in sunny California. It’s way up in Ontario, Canada. But that shouldn’t stop you. First of all, they’re offering $200,000 in funding to each startup that enters their program. Nice! That can buy you plenty of long underwear.
They also have a nice roster of mentors and solid industry connections. Most importantly, they have a program that they put you through to make sure you’re prepared to spend their money wisely. Are you up for a trip to the great white north? If so, Extreme Startups is worth considering. And they have a sense of humor…
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Orrick
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP – A Global Law Firm
We think Orrick is one of the most forward-thinking and dynamic law firms in the world. They have a large support network for startups and have initiated some of the best programs in the industry.
With 22 offices in Asia, Europe and North America, Orrick offers clients a local understanding of business and the law combined with a global perspective.
In more than 100 countries, they advise financial institutions, public and private companies, emerging businesses and state and regulatory bodies on the largest and most complex corporate transactions, novel finance, litigation and tax matters. Visit Orrick’s Website.
ActSeed
ActSeed is a dynamic business community for new and emerging companies:
- Startups and early stage companies
- Not just high-tech, but ALL industries
- Throughout the US and even globally
The ActSeed community is an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, economic development agencies, educational institutions, incubators and all people who want to contribute to disciplined business-building and reduce the unacceptably high failure rate of small businesses.
San Diego Tech Founders: Lean Startup Group
SD Tech Founders hosts events for entrepreneurs to meet potential co-founders and discuss lean startups, customer and product development and business strategy.
StartupCause
StartupCause event is a collaborative effort started by Entrepreneur Commons, First Tuesday, Startup School and Startup Weekend that brings together the leaders of the many initiatives dedicated helping entrepreneurs around the world.
While there are many of these initiatives offering many various formats in many different locations, there is no one single place for individuals or large organizations to go to if they want to learn about what is being done where, or if they want to implement a menu of programs that would help expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem locally, regionally, nationally or globally.
WavePlay
WavePlay LLC (www.waveplayllc.com) is a San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley promotional and business development agency. If you want to raise your brand visibility, connect with business leaders and founders, and gain instant access to new ideas and opportunities, contact us. WavePlay’s Peter Seidel and Lyne Noella have teamed up with Steve Hoffman and Naomi Kokubo of Founders Space (www.foundersspace.com) to serve the needs of founders domestically and internationally. Founders Space is a social media website community supported by monthly in-person Founders Space Roundtables in multiple markets from the San Francisco Bay Area to New York and abroad—all serving the needs of founders.
WavePlay is also the producer and manager of multiple professional events, including Founders Space Roundtables (http://www.foundersspace.com/roundtable); WavePlay Ladies Happy Hour; San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley Innovation Tours; and WavePlay Private Business Development Clubs.
Wappow!
Wappow
Conferences, Workshops, and Networking Events
Wappow! is home to Woot! conferences, mini-Woot! networking events, and Huzzah! workshops. Events geared for professionals who are interested in connecting with customers digitally—whether via the web, mobile, gaming, and more. At Wappow! events, attendees learn about technologies that help them stay on the cutting edge of digital connection, interaction, communication, and relationship-building.
pariSoma
Welcome to the pariSoma Innovation loft!
pariSoma is a collaborative loftspace for coworking and events in the SoMa district of San Francisco. They host diverse and captivating events for entrepreneurs, startups and independent professionals, as well as providing an innovative coworking space with wifi, coffee, work stations and a conference room. They promote the growth of collective intelligence through five core values – community, collaboration, innovation, openness and sustainability.
Anyone is welcome to join the experience at pariSoma. Come in anytime for a free drop-in day or reserve the loft for your next event!
Digital Hollywood
Digital Hollywood
Digital Hollywood has from its start been among the leading trade conferences in its field with over 15,000 top executives in the film, television, music, home video, cable, telecommunications and computer industries attending the various events each year.
During the past two decades Victor Harwood has developed and produced over two hundred leading conferences and events for artists, professionals and top executives. Mr. Harwood is considered a leading authority on the convergence of the entertainment and technology industries, founding and organizing such conferences as Digital Hollywood, Politics 2008: The Media Conference on the Election of the President, Media Summit New York, Building Blocks, Advertising 2.0, Digital Hollywood Europe in London, the Entertainment Globalization Initiative, Multimedia Expo, Production East at Lincoln Center, the International Business in Space Conference and the New York Writers Conference. He coined the now ubiquitous expression “The Digital Revolution.”
Entrepreneur Commons
Entrepreneur Commons
Entrepreneur Commons is a not-for-profit providing peer-support to entrepreneurs through small chapters of 5 to 10 entrepreneurs who meet on a regular basis to help each other, sharing knowledge, experience and contacts. There are currently 17 chapters in 13 cities around the world, in Asia, Europe and the US. If you are interested in participating in the Entrepreneur Commons:
1.a - Find the chapter closest to you on our map of chapters or in the list in our community page
http://sites.google.com/site/entrepreneurcommons/entrecomap-1
1.b – Or contact the Entrepreneur Commons team to confirm which meeting attend,
http://sites.google.com/site/entrepreneurcommons/contact
Sandbox Suites
Founders Space has partnered with Sandbox Suites!
With locations in San Francisco and Berkeley, Sandbox Suites is Bay Area’s premier provider of affordable, flexible, on-demand shared office and meeting space for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. Sign up for any monthly desk membership in July and lock in a monthly $50 discount.
Book a tour or Free Trial on www.sandboxsuites.com
WebWallflower Events
WebWallflower Events is run by Cassie Phillipps, and it’s the place to go to if you want to know what’s up with the Bay Area tech scene. She covers it all. These events include meetups, tech sessions, entrepreneur networking, VC panels, launch parties and more!
Sign up for Cassie’s fantastic newsletter!
SVForum
We are members of SVForum and find it a wonderful resource for founders and developers. It’s a not-for-profit organization that has a long track record in helping entrepreneurs. Susan Lucas-Conwell, CEO of SVForum, has done a fantastic job at creating a support network for Silicon Valley startups. If you’re a founder in the Bay Area, we highly recommend you join.
About SVForum:
SVForum fosters innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership within the Silicon Valley ecosystem of individuals and businesses participating in emerging technologies. We do this by:
- creating connections and community
- providing education and access to resources
US Market Access Center
If you’re looking to enter the US market, the US Market Access Center is a great place to start. The US Market Access Center (US MAC), formerly the International Business Incubator (IBI), is the leading trade gateway into the United States for international businesses.
Located in Silicon Valley, US MAC is a fantastic resource for technology and life science companies planning to expand their market reach and enter the US market. They’ve helped numerous European, Asian and South American companies establish a US presence and navigate the often confusing US landscape.
iHollywood Forum
iHollywood Forum is a leading producer of conferences and forums on digital media and entertainment. Its mission is to educate executives about the future of Hollywood, entertainment and the media business; and to create forums where networking and dealmaking are done. Technology discussions span many businesses, including television, cinema, games, music, the Internet, marketing, mobile and home entertainment.
Also, check out iHollywood News!
SVASE
The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (a.k.a. SVASE) is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit association in Northern California dedicated exclusively to helping startup entrepreneurs across all technology sectors build robust business plans, and find Venture Capital investors to fund their growing startups.
Founded by a group of software engineers in 1995 and growing steadily ever since, SVASE hosts 10-12 events each month, attended by 400-600 entrepreneurs, technology executives and press. Our weekly newsletters reaches over 10,000 entrepreneurs and executives, making ours one of the largest opt-in lists in the Valley. And with our web based services, including “24 Hour Networking,” the online “SVASE Yellow Pages,” the unique, searchable “Startup Reference Guide,” and “VC Database”, SVASE is able to help entrepreneurs build their business solutions in Silicon Valley, and around the world.
New Leaders Council
New Leaders Council (NLC) trains young professional, progressive leaders to be political entrepreneurs. Through a combination of entrepreneurship, management, advocacy, and political management training, NLC churns out talented, committed progressive leaders yearly.
The mission of the NLC is to train and support the next generation of progressive political entrepreneurs – those who are leading industries, setting trends, and building institutions that support robust civic and political life in a global America.
NLC believes in recruiting emerging leaders from outside of the traditional power structures, engaging them on both local and national levels, and equipping them to be civic leaders – not only for elective office, but also in their communities and workplaces.
LOGIN
Each year in the game industry, there are conferences, summits, conventions, trade shows and more, all calling for your attendance and attention. Deciding which events are worth your time and investment can be complicated. The LOGIN Conference staff and Advisory Board members know there is only so much time in the year to set aside for conferences. Let us make the case why LOGIN 2010 is worth attending.
LOGIN features three and a half days of online game development sessions, renowned local and international industry speakers, complementary networking activities, parties, keynote lunches, special interest group meetings and an exhibition area. The conference has an attendee list of more than 500 professional game developers.
Iridescent
Iridescent is a young nonprofit working to foster curiosity, confidence, and a love for science and engineering in underprivileged and under-represented kids. We connect these kids to university student and industry professional volunteers that we have trained to be teachers/mentors/role models, and through our interactive, hands-on curricula work to create sustainable, long-term links between needs and resources of the community. Iridescent started in Los Angeles in 2007, and has expanded in the last year from Los Angeles to New York and the Bay Area, where we are conducting the pilot program of the Technovation Challenge (www.iridescentbayarea.org), an 8-week curriculum sponsored by Google, where 45 high school girls are learning to develop mobile apps on the Google Android platform, and the entrepreneurial skills necessary to make their ideas happen: the pilot program culminates with ‘pitch night’ on April 22nd at the Microsoft campus.
The Founder Institute
Adeo Ressi, who runs The Founder Institute, is a great guy. My husband knows him well. Adeo truly cares about founders and the issues they face. He has also done an excellent job with TheFunded.
The Founder Institute is a four month training program for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs. The Institute prepares founders to lead the next generation of world-class technology companies across a wide range of industries, from the biotech to the internet. Weekly company-building sessions are guided by experienced CEOs, and they are held in the evening to allow participants to keep their day job or develop their companies during business hours. All of the program stakeholders, from the participating founders to the experienced CEO Mentors, share in the upside generated by the companies formed during the program. Participants also enjoy services from three dozen Institute Partners, fundraising opportunities at fair market value, and a teamwork-oriented environment to build a company.
SF Beta
SF Beta has become a hub of founder activity in San Francisco. It is now San Francisco’s largest monthly startup mixer. Since launching in September, 2006, SF Beta has brought together thousands of people from hundreds of startups, creating innumerable connections along the way.
SF Beta is produced by the irrepressible Christain Perry, who is someone every founder should meet. In three years, he has become a central figure in the Bay Area startup world, and now he’s expanding to Boston… so watch out East Coasters!
I highly recommend you go to these events. They’re a ton of fun, and provide great insight into up-and-coming startups.
SF Media Drinkup
SF Media Drinkup is a group of marketing, advertising and entertainment professionals that meet monthly in SF for casual mingling. If you are a brand marketer or work at an ad agency, interactive agency or media company (online or offline) then this is your chance to come and hang out with your peers in a laid-back environment. You can also follow them on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/MediaDrinkup and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61980242500
Sandbox Suites
Sandbox Suites is a provider of affordable, flexible, on-demand shared office space for entrepreneurs, small businesses and independent professionals in San Francisco. They also put on some educational events and panels for startups. I recommend you check them out.
Room Full of People
Room Full of People has emerged as one of the leading companies covering social networks and social media. They are available to speak at both public and private events on topics related to the social web. If you don’t already know about them, you should check out their website: http://rfop.biz/
They’re involved in all sorts of great things, including:
Geek Sessions
- A high-end networking event that brings recognized experts to speak on hot topics in web technology
- A place with smart people and free beer.
SNAP Summit
Total Access
I highly recommend TOTAL ACCESS. It provides entrepreneurs business, tactical and legal education through complimentary breakfast panels and lunch seminars. Presented by experienced industry CEOs, venture capitalists and Orrick lawyers, TOTAL ACCESS offers insights on cutting-edge issues and an opportunity to network with leading professionals in Silicon Valley.
Hosted by Orrick at its Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices, TOTAL ACCESS events are available exclusively to entrepreneurs, start-up company executives and the investment community.
FountainBlue
FountainBlue’s High Tech Entrepreneurs’ Forum is a great resource for founders. If you’re starting up a company, getting involved with them may prove helpful.
They offer a number of valuable services, including high tech forums the second or third Mondays of the month from 5:30 until 7:30 p.m. Unfortunately, if you’re not in Silicon Valley, I don’t think you can attend. As far as I know, they haven’t expanded yet beyond the Bay Area.
Here are more details…
