#Launch2013 Fireside Chat w/ Evan Williams @ev (The Obvious Corporation)

The following are my rough notes from the #Launch2013 fireside chat between Jason Calacanis (@Jason) and Evan Williams (@ev).  Rough and raw points I found interesting to keep track of :)

- no 5 year roadmap
- his new product is "medium" with collections
- building cohorts of like minded ideas
- what matters to young entrepreneurs "do someting you really wnat to exist in the world and focus on it entirely, and something good will probably come of it."
- big companies are doomed to be slow, and we don't have to worry about them movnig into the space of a startup, so we can all build new things - based on experience working in google
- branch" better conversations
- lift" habit tracking app
- "beyond meat" alternative meat

VC Panel 2 Notes from #Launch201

VC Panel - Enterprise (@mamoon Hamid @mamoonha, Josh Stein @dfjjosh, Wesley Chan Google Ventures @weschan, Jay Levy @zelkovavc)
- how does mobile first disrupt CRM?
- mobile is the next dislocation in the enterprise
- "bring your own Device", "bring your own Service"
- in enterprise, you can sell the value => you save x, i charge x-y
- sugar crm > salesforce
** checkout sugar crm
- more expensive to start, to get to first customer, but once you get there, there is revenue, challenge then is hyper growth
- challenge is not making money, the challenge is scaling beyond $100 million
- like a "work day" (look into that product)
- a lot of commonalities between sales and marketing on saas companies
- in vc's find someone that can provide value over provide money
- when choosing vc's, ask them for the companies for which they didn't have their best experiences, and go talk to the ceo's, do your research

VC Panel Notes 1 from #Launch2013

VC Panel
- demonstrate knowledge in gaining traction, organic growth
- content is generally seen as "bad" investment, but platforms are generally "good" investment
- content is important, a la movie studioes, otherwise just empty screen
- interesting to see people pull in
- mobile phones have fast turn around time, more than pc's, more than tv's
- human to computer interaction huge opportunity for disruption
- lot of startups are not radical, big picture ideas, google is good at it
- has a "need" to succeed, not a awant
- vc's want to feel inspired, and might dropout even if it sounds like a good business
- needs vision but also great execution
- sending physical business plans to VC's is a very bad thing in this day and age, go digital
- "how do you build a monopoly doing this"

Prepping for Launch Festival #Launch2013

I've been to San Francisco many times, but have never dipped into the Silicon Valley scene during by visits.  This time though +Ben Miskie has given me a much needed push to experience the "infectious entrepreneurial energy" he has been raving about since +LAUNCH 2012.

I'm looking forward to attending the "startup launchpad that +Jason Calacanis built", meeting the cool kids, passing judgement on all the startups there ;) and hopefully establishing some long-lasting relationships in which I both contribute and receive value.

Most of all though, I am excited for a one-on-one coffee meeting with the #startup Hall of Fame entrepreneur +Steve Blank.  I've been reading his latest book, The Startup Owners Manual, and have been gaining some very valuable startup business insights.

Thanks to +Ben Miskie, +Jason Calacanis, and +Steve Blank for setting up an amazing Silicon Valley visit! :)

- Graeham :)