STIRR Founder Hacks 2 - Wednesday, September 12 (San Francisco)

We are pleased to announce FounderHacks 2 - Wednesday September 12th, 6pm in San Francisco!

What are Founder Hacks? There is no single playbook for how to grow a startup. Come hear some of the current tricks of the startup trade from financing to hiring to managing to scaling up and more. Each of our presenters are bringing one of their favorite hacks to share in STIRR's short-form format.

The Presenting Founders will kick things off around 7:30pm:

• Patrick Koppula, Founder - Vadver
• Scott Rafer, Founder - Lookery
• To be announced...

Details

• When: Wednesday, September 12th. Gathering begins at 6:00pm, talks at 7:30pm.
• Where: Mighty, 113 Utah St, San Francisco
  
• Cost: Founding Teams of internet, enterprise, mobile or bio/cleantech companies: $10 pre-event/$20 at the door. All others (consulting, hr, pr, legal, accounting, design, etc): $20 pre-event/$30 at the door.
• Food: yes. Open bar from 6-7pm, no host bar after 7pm.
• Pre-printed nametags will be ready at the door for all pre-paid registrants.
• Register here
  

Bagged Half Dome again this past Saturday

Details:
* We woke at 4:05am
* Hit the trail (from Curry Village) at 4:55am
* Top of Vernal Falls at 7am
* Top of Half Dome at 10:10am
* 9.6 miles and ~5000' of elevation in 5.25 hours!
* We left the top at 11:00am
* Back to Curry Village at 3:30pm (blisters slowed us down)
* We came back down a quicker route ( 9.0) miles in 4.5 hours!
* 18.6 miles in 9.75 hours
* After an hour nap and then a shower (no line!), we had some dinner (no line!) and homemade sangria

Cammy...very happy!

Use Twitter (and/or RSS) for improving corporate and municipal communications

Seth Godin had a good post this morning about New York City's poor communication after yesterday morning's storm. His summary: "[in an emergency situation,] the first thing to rehearse is your communication strategy".

Earlier this year, I made a forecast that Twitter would mushroom as its commercial uses were adopted (see item #7). Several companies have began to use it. But it may prevail that the most useful uses for Twitter (and RSS feeds in general) will come from municipal groups (some quasi-) alerting citizens of fires, earthquakes, SF weather, Atlantic hurricanes, etc. Digging around, I found that there is a Bay Area Traffic Jam feed (though my bridge isn't covered) and a BART problem feed. Both are useful...but who knows about them?

The biggest problem isn't creating those feeds, it is educating consumers how to use them. My girlfriend's 15 year-old brother doesn't know what RSS or Twitter is. My mother doesn't know about them; nor does my brother or his kids. I would expect that 90% of America has no clue about them. So...the question...how do we educate people about using feeds?

What is up with Portfolio Magazine?

Today, I was reminded of my Portfolio Magazine subscription when Valleywag wrote about their not-up-to-snuff website.

I commented about the lack of delivered issues (nothing since May) and decided to give their subscriber services department a call. Apparently, the May issue was just a Premier issue and the monthly editions commence this month. If your September issue doesn't arrive by Aug 31, then it is late. My only problem with that...it's not mentioned anywhere on their subscription site. (Note...this is not a recommendation to subscribe, simply a way for you to easily fact-check my statement.)

BTW...there was a bonus gift provided for 2-year subscribers: an umbrella (see that snazzy red/green there in the picture?). Mine was shipped in paper-thin cardboard and arrived in two pieces...so off to the trashbin it went. Did anyone else receive a broken umbrella? Why would they even bother offering a piece of crap thing like that anyway? Conde Nast must have had an extra few thousand green umbrellas laying around from a golf promotion and didn't know what to do with them.

Thanks, Portfolio Magazine...thanks for sending me a cheap-ass broken umbrella. How about some focus on those monthly magazines!