This last week I guest hosted TWIST for Jason Calacanis.  I did two shows with Brian Lee the Co-founder of LegalZoom and founder of ShoeDazzle, and the first episode with J.R. Johnson founder of Lunch.com and VirtualTourist.  Check out the video interviews below and the great network of This Week In shows.

Interview with Brian Lee

Interview with J.R. Johnson

Ten Tips on How to Make it in the Meet-up Scene

The technology meet-up scene is an odd co-mingling of entrepreneurs, engineers, social media mavens, service providers, and up and comers.  Here are ten actionable tips to make the most of your meet-ups.

• Meet More – the key to any meet-up is first to meet others.  Seems like that would be rather self explanatory.   But inevitably most meet-ups end up resembling a junior high playground where the 3 people that know each other stay huddled in a corner, wondering why the other kids are having more fun.  The biggest mistake most folks make is that they don’t meet more new people. Make it your goal at every meet-up to approach 10 people you don’t already know.

• Get Business Cards, Don’t Give Them – when you meet new important contacts don’t bother giving them your business card unsolicited, they’ll just end up in business card purgatory.  Do make sure to get their contact information and right then and there send them a follow up email, facebook/linkedin request, twitter shout out and you’ll meaningfully increase your odds of staying in touch.

• Be the Connector – there is great value in positioning yourself as the person that can connect people at networking events and meet-ups. Take the time to introduce people that might be able to work together, are looking for jobs, or could be co-founders.   By positioning yourself as a connector at meet-ups you’ll find your professional/social credibility climbing steadily.

• Do Favors for Others: the law of reciprocity dictates that people want to help other who help them. Most folks at meet-ups spend most of their time talking about themselves or seeing what they can get out of the situation. By being the person that focuses on helping others you’ll instantly stand out among the crowd and will build a bank account full of goodwill that you’ll be able to repeatedly withdraw from in the future.  For more on this watch my video on How to Persuade People

• Make Sure Others Know What You Do – how many times have you left a conversation with a long winded person, still having no idea what they really do.   Make sure everyone you talk to knows what you do, and could easily explain it to anyone else at the meet-up.  Your goal is to have lots of people talking about you, and it starts by having others easily be able to communicate what you’re all about.

• Social Proof is Key – don’t make the mistake of telling others how great you are, get other people to do it for you.   Having someone else at the meet-up point you out or suggest that you’re an important person to get to know, is infinitely more valuable than anything you could do to talk yourself up.

• Don’t Talk to Anyone for Too Long – the purpose of a meet-up is to meet as many people as you can, and likely no meaningful business will get accomplished there. Your goal is not to have a very thorough conversation with one person, it’s to identify as many people as possible that you might be able to work or connect with in the future. Have lots of short, to the point, relevant conversations and you’ll open up the most opportunity.

• Set Up Meetings Outside of Meetups – you can do everything right at the meet-up but if the connections end there, it’s all for not. Make sure to set up follow up 1 on 1 meetings where you can really sit down and get to know someone and build more meaningful relationships.

• Be the Organizer – there is a lot more value being the organizer than the attendee, mostly because everyone knows the organizer.  It may be more work up front, but the professional dividends that pay out over time make it well worth it.

• Don’t Spend Too Much Time in the Meet-up Scene – even a good thing can be taken too far.  Some folks seem to be at every meet-up and are always the last to leave, but don’t necessarily seem to be getting anywhere in their professional career.   If you find yourself associating with the same people at meet-ups time and time again, none of whom are making meaningful progress on a new venture or job, it might be time to do more doing and less meeting.

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How to Make it In the MeetUp Scene –

I often get asked for advice on Business Development.  I’ve spent most of my career in sales (or some sales like function), and here are my thoughts on how to be better with your BD.  This post is geared toward folks looking to do BD deals in the online world.

10 Tips for Better BD

1.) Get Warm Introductions – Typically 1 out of 10 people will email or call you back from a cold outreach.  So spend the extra time up front a find someone who knows the contact you want to get to know.  Who knows, you may find yourself getting a LOT less NOs.

2.) Deal with Decision Makers – Are you dealing with El Jeffe?  If not you could be wasting your time.  Make sure your contact has the authority to make your business deal go through.

3.) Only Pansy’s are Not Prepared – Once you get the contact on the phone, make sure you know everything about them.  Knowing the school, former jobs, current projects of your BD counterparts just makes you and your company look like that much more of an all star.

4.) ASK don’t TALK – Are you committing the Cardinal Sin of BD, I bet you are…  Don’t offer or sell your value proposition before you know what the other side wants to accomplish.  ASK lots of questions first; then start your pitch.

5.) Provide as LITTLE Information as Possible – How often have you heard “sounds interesting, send me more information”.  Information, a deal does not close.  Until you have buy-in from the other side, don’t waste your time on intricate pitch materials, you’re spinning your wheel and no one’s offering you any cheese.

6.) A Picture is Worth…  – When you do send information over, make sure you visually show the benefit to your potential partner.  Seeing how you might work together is infinitely more impactful that trying to describe in text, even if you did write the best 6^th grade book reports.

7.) Manage the Follow Up Process – Treat you potential BD partners like kids in a summer camp, tell them exactly what you want them to do.  Why?  Because the other side is busy, and if you leave the follow up to them, it may not get done – schedule follow up meetings, get their phone numbers, be the first to send the contract over, and take the lead on managing all aspects of moving the deal forward.

8.) Please, Persistence and Pressure – In business, the squeaky wheel gets the deal.  Your counterparts are busy, so busy in fact that they’re going to forget to do the things needed to get the deal done.  Putting pressure on them with follow up emails and calls, & being politely persistent will make sure that they pay attention.  And they’ll even thank you for it.

9.) Keep Excitement Up Until the Deal Closes- The idea of doing something together is much more exciting, than actually have to do the work to do something together.  The same excitement and enthusiasm that helps open up a new prospect, is needed just as much to see the deal through to the finish line. 

10.) The Sale Begins After the Deal is Done – You closed the deal, so what!  Now the real work begins.  You spent a lot of time and effort making sure this deal went through.  Now you need to spend a lot more adding value and making sure you build on that relationship, otherwise it was all for not.  The tenth tip makes your better BD last.  

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10 Tips for Better BD

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Become an Entrepreneur Superhero”. It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation with some of the most successful tech leaders talking about the qualities that make for great entrepreneurs.

This month’s session will be hosted by Jason Nazar (CEO, Docstoc.com), and we will be joined by Mark Suster partner at GRP Venture Capital, Ben Smith CEO/founder Merchant Circle, and J.R. Johnson CEO/founder Lunch.com. More panelists may be added and there will be a large showing of the Los Angeles venture and angel community in attendance.

We are also going to be offering 2 companies the opportunity to give a 5 min pitch on their business to the investors and startups uncensored crowd. If you are interested in applying to pitch your company at this month’s event email jason [at] docstoc with your business plan deck and information about your company, stage, and current status. Applicants should send their business plan decks as private files using Docstoc: http://www.docstoc.com/Private-Documents/.

These events are put on in conjunction with our friends at DealMaker Media. TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

This month’s event will be held at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica by the 3rd street promenade. The venue holds up to 275 attendees, we expect a full house, but there will be room for all attendees. The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade.

Wednesday, July 14th 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Milken Institute

1250 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1418

We would also like to welcome our sponsor Microsoft Bizspark, please take a moment and check out their amazing resources of free software for startups and entrepreneurs: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark .

And check out this presentation on “10 Lessons Startups Can Learn from Superheros” or read the original blog post

Ten Lessons Startups Can Learn From Superheroes

Advice on Raising Money

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Raise Venture Capital”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation where we bring in venture capitalists from the top firms across the country to talk about the process and requirements entrepreneurs need to go through to successfully raise money from venture capitalists.

This month’s session will be hosted by Jason Nazar (CEO, Docstoc.com), and we will be joined by Nate Redmond of Rustic Canyon, Josh Stein of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Thomas Ball of Austin Ventures, Jim Tybur of Trinity Ventures, and Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital.  More panelists may be added and there will be a large showing of the los angeles venture and angel community in attendance.

We are also going to be offering 3 companies the opportunity to give a 5 min pitch on their business to the investors and startups uncensored crowd.  If you are interested in applying to pitch your company at this month’s event email jason [at] docstoc with your business plan deck and information about your company, stage, and current status.  Applicants should send their business plan decks as private files using Docstoc: http://www.docstoc.com/Private-Documents/.

These events are put on in conjunction with our friends at DealMaker Media. TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

THIS MONTH’S EVENT WILL BE HELD AT A NEW LOCATION: please come join us at the prestigious Milken Institute in Santa Monica by the 3rd street promenade.  The venue holds up to 350 attendees, we expect a full house, but there will be room for all attendees.  The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade.

Wednesday, May 26th 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Milken Institute

1250 4th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1418

We would also like to welcome our new sponsor Microsoft Bizspark, please take a moment and check out their amazing resources of free software for startups and entrepreneurs: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/ .

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Build a Great Technology Team”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation talking about the experience, process and skills need to build an all-star caliber technology team.

We’ll be welcoming as our speakers: Alon Shwartz the Co-Founder/CTO of Docstoc,  Nick Wilson the EVP/CTO of Break.com, Allen Hurff the former Senior Vice President of Engineering at MySpace, Travlin McCormack the CTO of Internships.com and former CTO of Slingshot Labs, and Nitu Gulati-Pauly Director of Recruiting at Cybercoders.

These events are put on in conjunction with our friends at DealMaker Media. TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade. The venue holds about 140 folks, ALL PREVIOUS EVENTS WERE FULL WITH STANDING ROOM ONLY. If you are not one of the first 140 to RSVP and confirm, we will have a waiting list.

Wednesday, April 21st 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
This event is capped at 140 attendees.
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Santa Monica Public Library (Auditorium) 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

We would also like to welcome our new sponsor Microsoft Bizspark, please take a moment and check out their amazing resources of free software for startups and entrepreneurs: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/ .  We’re going to be making some BIG announcements at our April session including a new venue we’ll start using for our May session and a new and improved format where 3 startups will have the opportunity to present to a group of investors during each Startups Uncensored.  Stay tuned…

How to Persuade People – 21 Golden Rules –

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “How to Persuade People”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation talking about the skills and techniques leaders use to influence others .

This month the session will be run by Jason Nazar, in a presentation format.  The  “How to Persuade People” presentation will be geared towards startups and entrepreneurs to learn and review the skills that will help them raise money, hire great talent, and land partnerships.

The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade. The venue holds about 140 folks, ALL PREVIOUS EVENTS WERE FULL WITH STANDING ROOM ONLY. If you are not one of the first 140 to RSVP and confirm, we will have a waiting list.

Thursday, March 18th 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
This event is capped at 140 attendees.
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Santa Monica Public Library (Auditorium) 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

Because of Diet Coke and Matt Cutts I’m going to give to charity every day for the next 30 days…

A month and a half ago I made a bet with Sanaz that I’d stay off diet coke for a week if she refrained from coffee for the same period of time.  I’ve probably averaged 1-2 diet cokes a day since I was a teenager (for the taste people, clearly not the reduction of calories).  Its been a month and I still haven’t had any any soda.

This got me thinking, “What should be my next 30 day challenge?”  I’m not however the only, or first, techie leading the 30 day challenge charge.  The impetus came from my friend Matt Cutts at Google who kicked started his own set of 30 day challenges last year.

I thought about doing something around my health/family (which I’ve written about at length) or maybe something related to Docstoc and our new Docstore.  But those are the things I think about all the time anyway.  What I don’t spend enough time thinking about are all the problems other people face every single day that so many of us are blessed to never have to think about.

I’m guilty of using how busy I am as a reason not to do more for others.  I also justify it by rationalizing that that when I become really successful and rich, I’ll have all this time and money to give to others.  But that’s bullshit, I can and should be doing more now.  Up through my early 20′s I was volunteering 10 hours a week in various organizations to help with literacy and homeless shelters.  And 2 of the most important years of my life were spent volunteering as a suicide hot-line crisis counselor.

SO, for the next 30 days I’m going to do something each day to give to others.  Its not always going to be a large amount of money and some days it won’t be money I’m giving away; I may make a donation online to various charities, give clothes to goodwill, buy a homeless person by my office a meal – I think what’s important is that I make myself think about the struggles other people are going through everyday.  AND, I’ll follow up with a post at the end of the month detailing what I did each day, at the end of this post.

I started off the process by giving a donation to to help combat Autism, you can learn more here if that’s an issue that touches your life.

And now I have a favor to ask of you:

1.) Please leave comments with organizations or charities that you think I should pay attention to or help out in the next month

2.) JOIN MY CHALLENGE – or do any 30 day challenge that is right and meaningful for you

Other People Joining Me in the Challenge:

J. Mike Smith – http://life.backwest.com/ (thanks for being the first!)

David Travers, Rustic Canyon Partners – http://www.rusticcanyon.com (you know you have great VCs when they join you in a giving challenge!)

Shira Lazar, www.shiralazar.com @shiralazar – called me to say she wanted to take up the challenge

Dave and Leslie Moldavon – dear friends who wanted to help give back how they could

My 30 Day Challenge Log

3/1 – ICDL (combatting autism) – $200

3/2 – American Red Cross Disaster Relief – $30

3/3 – Boarding House Mentors in Santa Monica- $30  (thanks Tim Golden for the rec in the comments below) http://www.boardinghousementors.org/

3/4 – Disabled American Verterans – $50 http://www.dav.org/ (i saw a serviceman in the airport on the way home today, and thought how much I take for granted that so many risk their lives each day to keep us safe)

3/5 – Food Donation to Haiti through www.CARE.org – $25

3/6 – First Book www.firstbook.org- $50 (books for kids who don’t have access to them, thanks Bernadette W for the tip)

3/7 – Room to Read $50 – www.roomtoread.org (thanks for the tip John Madigan and good luck with the marathon)

3/8 -  Jolkona  www.jolkona.org – $50 (an amazing organization to give to various small projects around the globe, thanks for the tip Laura Kimball)

3/9 – Project Echo - www.projectecho.org – $50 (thanks Julie for the heads up in the comments, seems like a great org, def will stop by)

3/10 – Soles4Souls  www.soles4souls.org/- $50 (Taryn why am I not surprised that your charity is around shoes…. the better surprise is connecting with old high school friends who are amazing at PR )

3/11 – 826LA www.826la.org – $25 (thanks to Serena Brahney for the tip)

3/12 – 3/31 – Need to update this all, missed some days, not really proud of myself, goal is do do better on the next 30 day challenge

Last evening I gave a presentation on Marketing and Publicity for Startups at the Founders Institute at their 2010 San Diego session.  Included below is the presentation I wrote and gave.  If you’re in the internet startup space and want to learn from the masters of Marketing and Publicity you should be following folks like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Peter Pham of BillShrink, and Philip Kaplan of Blippy and Mark Suster of GRP Venture Capital.

Marketing and Publicity for Startups –

This month’s Startups Uncensored will be on “Google Adsense for Websites”.  It will be an open and frank town-hall conversation talking about how to best optimize and monetize your website with Google Adsense.

We are joined this month by two senior members of the Google Adsense team from Mountain View, California who have worked with hundreds of publishers to maximize the revenue they’re able to make with Google Adsense.  

These events are put on in conjunction with our friends at DealMaker Media. TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE

The event is free and is followed by a reception and mixer at the Docstoc Offices in Santa Monica by the 3rd Street Promenade. The venue holds about 140 folks, ALL PREVIOUS EVENTS WERE FULL WITH STANDING ROOM ONLY. If you are not one of the first 140 to RSVP and confirm, we will have a waiting list.

Tuesday, February 9th 6:30pm – 8:00pm (Townhall)…. 8:00pm on, Reception
Cost: FREE
This event is capped at 140 attendees.
Confirmation will be required or your spot will be given up for our waiting list.

Santa Monica Public Library (Auditorium) 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE