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.

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.

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

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

3/12

3/13

3/14

3/15

3/16

3/17

3/18

3/19

3/20

3/21

3/22

3/23

3/24

3/25

3/26

3/27

3/28

3/29

3/30

3/31

Here is how it works:

* Apply to be a Seller on Docstoc

* Upload high quality professional documents

* Manage your content through your own personal reporting and analytic dashboard

* Docstoc splits the revenue with you 50/50, but for the first 60 days you keep 100% of all sales so there is no risk to you

* Embed documents you sell through Docstore on your own personal blog to make even more revenue

Click Here for a full list of FAQs on Docstore

Here are some screenshots and a document of mine own for sale:

Last Will and Testament –

And here was some of the press about this feature:

Los Angeles TImes:   http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/docstoc-docstore-buy-sell-documents.html

TechCrunch:                 http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/docstoc-debuts-marketplace-for-professional-documents/

GigaOm:                        http://gigaom.com/2010/02/23/docstoc-launches-online-document-store/

CNET:                             http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20000087-248.html?tag=mncol;title

VentureBeat:             http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/23/docstoc/

Marketing and Publicity for Startups –

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

We are joined this month by Sean Moriarty, the former CEO of TicketMaster.  During his time at Ticketmaster, Moriarty led the company through its multiple acquisitions and strategic investments.  And by Blake Irving, the (Former) Corporate Vice President, Windows Live Platform Group.  Blake led the effort to build and operate the most efficient, global Internet-scale services platform with the broadest and most profitable advertiser and developer ecosystem

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, January 19th 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

This month (in lieu of our normally scheduled Startups Uncensored Series, which will resume in Jan ‘10) we are hosting a very a mixer for Job Seekers and Los Angeles Tech Companies.  Docstoc is putting this event on with our friends at JobNob.

Come meet a group of cool new start ups and talented job seekers at this informal networking happy hour where you can find startup jobs.

To Register for the Event: http://www.jobnob.com/happy-hour/LosAngeles-dec-9-2009

Cost: FREE!
Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 4:30pm (Company pitches** start promptly at 5pm).
Location: Air Conditioned Supper Club – 625 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Host: Docstoc and Jobnob; contact Julie Greenberg, julie at jobnob.com
Who: Anyone interested in working with a startup; Any startup or tech company

If you or your company are interested in presenting your open rec or project contact Julie at jobnob or sign up at the link above.

We are joined this month by Jason Calacanis the CEO of Mahalo, co-founder of Weblogs Inc and publisher of Sillcon Alley Reporter.  Jason is one of the best known internet CEOs and hosts the popular show This Week in Startups.  You can follow Jason on twitter.  (maybe we should have a bet to let me take over that handle…)

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.

Thursday, October 29th 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

See a collection of JCal’s Presentations on Docstoc, here is one of our favorites:

Entrepreneurial Insanity – Why good Is the Enemy of the Great –

About Startups Uncensored

Startups Uncensored is a free monthly speaking series, townhall, and networking event for entrepreneurs and technology aficionados, hosted by Jason Nazar, CEO of Docstoc.com. These monthly meetups are centered around different topics meant to help startups build their businesses. The event, brought to you by DealMaker Media, contributes to the growing Los Angeles technology scene by bringing together various entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, social media experts, and professionals in the tech field. The format of the series typically includes a 45 minute presentation or panel followed by 45 minutes of questions and answers, and its co-hosted by notable CEOs and Investors.

The Awards Ceremony will be joined by a half day conference to be held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel on October 7th, 20009.  Personally I’m greatly looking forward to meeting one of my all time heros Jerry West.  To get tickets CLICK HERE

Los Angeles Business Journal 2009 Most Admired CEO Awards –