Startup Riot 2011 accepting apps to present/attend | Hacker News Reader

Startup Riot 2011 accepting apps to present/attend

startupriot.com

27 pointssanjayparekh22 comments

2011 is going to be even bigger and better than 2010. We're taking 50 startups again and we're anticipating 500+ attendees in 2010. As always, no cost to present and we even have a travel fund for selected presenters that need help paying their way. We also screen out service providers so everyone you meet will be someone useful. Initial deadline for apps to present is mid-December. I expect all 50 slots to be gone by the end of December.

What sort of service providers aren't allowed? Are you talking about SaaS providers? Do you mean EMT dispatchers aren't allowed? Maybe Comcast has to keep out?

This ad could do with a little more verbosity.

Incidentally, why isn't the "rockstar" fad dead yet?

Service providers in this context are people who are lawyers, accountants, headhunters, consultants, etc. Sorry for the lack of clarity. That said, these folks can come if they are sponsors but other than that - no entry for them. And this year we'll have an EMT on site. Not that I wanted it but the venue requires it - go figure.

Re: rockstar - we're at a venue that normally has shows for real rockstars so I kinda feel like it's justified. :-)

Also, just announced that Andrew Warner of Mixergy is the keynote speaker.

I want to get together for a drink with HN'ers at the conference. Email me if you'll be there. mail at awarner dot com

FYI - we'll likely be doing a pre-party on Tuesday which may be perfect for this and also an after-party on Wednesday.

Does Startup Riot offer any type of mentoring pre-show assistance? Also, the application states that presenting companies receive a table at the event. What materials are normally used at this event? I have a small startup and am not sure if I can afford a lot of professional sales materials at this time. The application also asks how many people from your company will be attending. Will they receive passes if we are accepted or do they have to apply to attend the event?

I'll try to go point by point.

* pre-show assistance may be available in 2011 for selected presenters. We're thinking of doing a bunch of practice sessions on Monday and Tuesday before the main event.

* re:tables, it really depends on the startup. The main purpose is so that people can easily find you when they want to talk to you. Some startups just show up with themselves and a laptop for demos. That's totally cool. Others bring a big shebang. That's fine too. It totally ranges and usually depends on where they are at in terms of lifecycle. Honestly, this is more about susbtance than style.

* Additional company reps are $30 each although I'm considering of waiving that for the 1st attendee after the presenter (presenter is ALWAYS free to attend of course). We might do more than that but it'll depend on what we can line up in terms of sponsor dollars. Even if we can't, it's only $30 per person. Compared to other so called "inexpensive" events, we're one or more orders of magnitude cheaper. And company reps have an easy time getting approved to attend - we've never barred startup personnel UNLESS they are consultants (like PR firm reps or something) in which case we have a discussion about it.

Hope that long winded answer helps. This stuff should go online in the near future via a FAQ page. You can find the FAQs for 2010 at http://2010.startupriot.com

Thanks for the questions!

Thanks for the info. I like the idea of the practice sessions - probably since I am new to this and more of a computer person than sales guy.

What types of companies are you looking for as presenters? Also, what does a typical presentation consist of - revenue forecasts, market size, product demos, management background, marketing strategy? With just 3 minutes, I'm wondering if we should just present our product and company background or if we should focus more on why you should invest in us.

The focus is Internet/software startups. We take startups of all stages from idea stage to post-funded/post-revenue.

There is no "typical" presentation - it should really be centered around what you're trying to get out of the presentation. But personally the most successful I've seen talk almost exclusively about the service/product being offered. The presentation isn't a time to convey everything about what you're doing - it's more about getting people to come and talk to you afterward to learn more.

Hope that helps.

It helps. In watching videos from previous years, it did appear to be more product oriented. When selecting companies, what else do you look at? Readiness to take on investors? size of the market? prototype of the product? or is simply based on how interesting the presentation is and how comfortable the speaker is in making it?

I don't have an exact formula. I mainly judge if the idea is interesting and if the presentation is compelling.

This is a great event and I would encourage entrepreneurs to attend. I presented at it last year and LOVED IT. I met tons of great entrepreneurs there. The 3 minutes deadline seemed crazy but I think I ended with 25 seconds to spare so I should have slowed down a little bit!

someone get ben chestnut from mailchimp there. they're based in ATL, have a startup integration (w/ mailchimp) fund currently going[1], and ben is one smart cookie[2].

[1]http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/mailchimp-launches-1-million-i...

[2]http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/going-freemium-one-year-later/

MailChimp seems to be pretty involved locally. So you just might see them there... Not that I'm confirming or denying anything. :-)

... Why is it called a riot?

Because the presentations are fast paced. Each presenter has 3 minutes, 4 slides. It's fast. And it's about changing things compared to "normal" events. To attend it's cheap ($30 to $70) and everyone is pre-screened so we can make sure the right people are in the room (not an army of lawyers, accountants, headhunters, consultants, etc.). It's all about helping entrepreneurs succeed. That shouldn't be different than "normal" events but unfortunately, it is.

Sounds like "Startup Races" to me. "Riot" connotes disorganized violence... or anarchy. =\

Yeah, it kind of is intentionally somewhat disorganized. That's what is part of the charm of the event I think.

Been every year and it's an extremely well organized and fast paced event. Loaded with a ton of smart and interesting people!

Yeah, by disorganized I really meant some parts that are supposed to be "riot"-like. We try to do a fairly well choreographed event so that people know what is going to happen but also have time for random chance meetings to occur that turn into gold for the participants.

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