Ryan Born, CEO of AudioMicro, states:

We launched AudioMicro in 2008 with a heavy emphasis on the needs of independent video creators. To strike a second deal with Microsoft is really a dream come true and a tribute to all the hard work we’ve put into our library over the past four years. Over fifty percent of the entertainment value of a visual presentation comes from the music and sound. With one click access to our library, Windows Live Movie Maker users are able to create more compelling, attention grabbing videos to better engage their audience.

AudioMicro’s previous partnership with Microsoft was announced last year, whereby they supply Office.com with music and sound effects. Users were able to pick from a collection of over 1,500 royalty free music and sound effects tracks to use with any Microsoft Office project.

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Using Milyoni Social Cinema, Facebook fans can chat with friends, comment and share their favorite clips/quotes, answer trivia and participate in polls–all while watching the show. Facebook fans can also see exclusive footage and interviews with new content announced weekly.

‘A Chance To Dance’ is about what it takes to create a new American dance company. The series follows Michael Nunn and BIlly Trevitt, two of the UK’s most prominent dancers and contemporary choreographers, as they audition, select and train a new American dance company.

To watch the series on Facebook, click here.

Previously on lalawag:

• Stay Up-to-Date with @Lalawag #SXSW
• Lalawag’s Top Headline Recap
• “The Valley Girl Show” Kicks off Biggest Season To Date with 50 New Episodes

Read below to find out more about unscruff and the founders themselves!

1. Pitch us your service in three sentences or less.

unscruff is a simple and personalized shopping service for guys. We help guys buy great clothes and avoid the mall. Customers build an online profile in five minutes and then receive a personalized box of clothes at the start of every season – spring, summer, winter, and fall.

2. What made you decide to focus your company on that service?

J: A problem that both Bangaly and I have is finding great quality clothes that fit us well, and we realized that most guys have serious issues with some part of the shopping process. It’s just broken for a lot of guys. We started unscruff to address this pain point and provide a better way for guys to get great clothes.

3. How big is your team? Can you describe your company’s culture?

B: We’re a small but versatile group. Depending on what were doing, we are a team of 8-10 people including two founders, our Social Media Director, Creative Team, two developers, and a controller.

4. How did your company get its initial funding?  Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with funding?

B: We are still self-funded and bootstrapping our business, and we would like to stay independent for as long as we can. We’ve considered fundraising but think it’s in our best interest to stay lean and grow by ourselves. We would advise startups to find an anchor investor in the form of an advisor – someone with experience investing in their space – to shepherd them through the process.

5. Has your company ever had to pivot?  If so, what was that like?

J: We’ve actually pivoted several times in getting to where we are now, and each of those pivots has been moving us in the right direction towards a better, more compelling business model.

B: It’s hard to recognize when you need to pivot. What has helped us is being meticulous in keeping notes on what we’ve learned from our experiences in customer development. We try to be practical about where we are strategically and where we need to be to make our vision work.

6. How do you deal with competition? Do you keep tabs on other companies that are doing similar things?

J: We know our space really well and we know the players in the space. In many ways, competition is just validation for our business model and the market opportunity.

B: It’s hard to know where your competition is going relative to where they are now, but we do check up on their websites and read stories on them in major publications. We give 1% to keeping tabs, but we spend 99% of our time focused on what we’re doing and building value for our customers.

7. Tell us a little about your background? What made you want to start your own company?

J: I was a civil engineer turned operations analyst after business school. I learned the value of dressing well pretty early in my career, so I was drawn to starting my own business in part because I’m truly passionate about this space, but I’m here to build something of my own that I know I’ll be proud of.

B: My background isn’t in fashion or ecommerce, either. Prior to unscruff I worked in the education industry and then in financial services on Wall Street. I’d always been entrepreneurial in previous positions and in starting some other ventures. Building a company I believe in and am passionate about was a big reason I made the jump.

8. What are your thoughts on the LA entrepreneurial scene?

B: It is under-appreciated by people who aren’t in LA, but there are a lot of great things happening here and there’s a lot of excitement in the community. LA is finally starting to get some recognition for being a legitimate hub of great ideas, specifically around subscription commerce, marketing, and digital media. It’s going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.

9. Who are your three most influential entrepreneurs? Why?

J: I like the GILT Groupe story for what it says about the ability of a few really smart people and some innovative ideas to disrupt an established industry.

B: I’m a big fan of Ben Horrowitz, both for the companies he has built and for how he thinks about the entrepreneurial space. Also, Jack Dorsey because he’s an amazing dude who runs two incredibly disruptive and forward-thinking companies.

10. What’s the hardest/best thing about being an entrepreneur?

J: I think the hardest part is trying to find good work/life balance because you can literally work 24 hours a day and never feel caught up. The best part is waking up every day and actually being excited about going to work and facing a new set of challenges.

11. What’s one of your most successful decisions? Can you share something that’s worked really well for you that you think other entrepreneurs could learn from?

B: One of the most successful decisions we’ve made was in not overbuilding our site and service when we launched. As a founder of a business, there are a lot of things that you want to see your business do from day one, but rarely do you need every feature at the inception. It’s really hard to pare back to just the critical feature set and to be okay with it, knowing that your first customers are going to be early adopters no matter what. We were able to do this by getting a lot of feedback from early customers, seeking advice from more experienced entrepreneurs, and learning to manage our own expectations.

12. What are your next goals? (Either for the current venture or for the company as a whole)

J: We’re continuing to build our team and are rolling out a couple of great marketing partnerships. The main goal is to continue growing and to continue improving the experience for our customers.

B: We’re looking at bringing on a couple new hires that should really improve our technical team and we’re building out a new member platform for our customers.

Follow @unscruff on Twitter and Like them on Facebook for more updates.

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• Can Apple Face an iPhone 4 Recall?
• Are You Ready For 4G Cell Networks, LA?
• Startup Spotlight: Nyoombl Takes Conversations Public

CEO Taylor Peck and developer Nick Boutelier understands how chaotic this can be. They started the company iSideWith.com, an interactive, nonpartisan site that allows voters to see where they stand on the issues and which candidates they agree with most, based on their political beliefs.

iSideWith.com is centered on an interactive quiz that allows you to answer questions regarding big issues, and based on your answers, the site’s algorithm will tell you which candidate you align with the most, which candidate you agree with the least, and where you line up with candidates on each of the issues.

The site also launched a Live Results Map which shows, by percentage, which candidate and political party iSideWith users are siding with the most by state.

With the next election coming up soon, why not try the free quiz out today!

iSideWith recently passed 1 million users who have taken their Presidential quiz!

Previously on lalawag:

• Please Don’t Call it Twivia
• Inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Tubefilter Aquires Tilzy.TV

Postyourbook.com is free! And the best part is that the user gets to set the sell price of the book. Here’s how it works:

You simply select a school, register via email or through Facebook, enter the textbook ISBN number and done. To buy, search for a textbook and choose from an array of prices. A phone call or email will setup a meeting to exchange a book. Buying and selling text books has never been easier!

Postyourbook.com was created by Josh Hiekali and Phillip Kravtsov, who were both college students frustrated that they had to pay so much for textbooks. Today, their website is open to over 150 schools and there are over 150,000 registered members with approximately 500,000 books listed. By this coming fall, the site will be open for 250 schools nationwide.

Follow them on Twitter @Postyourbook_

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The freedom of the Internet now allows people to work where they want, when they want, how they want. Around the world new types of entrepreneurs are channeling their talents, passions, interests and skills to replace traditional 9-5 jobs. Fiverr makes it easier for you to make money doing what you love.

According to the survey, most Fiverr sellers are successfully able to increase their income by offering unique services not available anywhere else:

• More than half (57%) of sellers on Fiverr have earned more than $100 since joining the site.
• Over a quarter (27%) have made over $500, and 15% have earned more than $1,000.
• 14% report Fiverr is their primary income source, and 39% use their earnings to help with regular expenses.
• The top 5 sellers have each earned over $100,000.

Most micro-entrepreneurs are young (Avg. age 30), educated (47% have at least bachelor’s degree), and highly independent (45% are freelancers or self-employed).

To view the entire inforgraphic of the survey, click here.

Just in two years from launch, Fiverr is listing almost 1 Million gigs in 200+ countries and 1/3 of all orders are selling for more than the namesake $5

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• LA Block To Block: Hollywood & Vine
• This Weekend in Twits
• Facebook Introduces Open Compute Project – Now You Can Build The Same Servers That Facebook Has

Ora TV, the new digital TV network, accounted today that a deal has been signed to bring you the new show exclusively on Hulu. Today’s premiere of “Larry King Now” makes Larry King’s first news and entertainment show since he concluded a three-decade career at CNN.

New episodes of “Larry King Now” will be available every Monday through Thursday in the early evenings, EST on the free, ad-supported Hulu service, on the Hulu PLus subscription service, and at Ora TV. The shows will be 30 min long and available to watch on-demand.

Featuring the world’s most fascinating voices in entertainment and politics as well as produced segments on a variety of topics, “Larry King Now” will merge the best of TV with the flexibility and interaction of the Internet. The show’s premiere week will feature comedic powerhouse Seth MacFarlane, Meghan McCain, and Matthew McConaughey.

“I have always been driven to innovate, from my time on radio, to the first call-in show on national television, to being an early adopter of online columns and Twitter. I am thrilled about our partnership with Hulu—I love being able to interact directly with audiences, and digital TV allows me to do this in new and powerful ways.” -Larry King

Click here to watch episode 1.

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• Shira Lazar Hooks Up With CBS
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FEWDM was inspired by a young athlete who was doubted by many people throughout his life. Despite the obstacles and setbacks he encountered along the way, achieving success in sports was his goal. He proved his doubters wrong by making the varsity high school football team as a freshman. He used the idea of FEWDM to make it through his struggles.

The movement launched in early 2012 and continues to grow daily. FEWDM serves as a reminder for people young and old to always believe in themselves when everyone around them may not. The “F” is universal based on how you feel at the time of your journey or whatever season you are currently in at the time of your life.

Recently, FEWDM has partnered with KCTV CH5 news where they have committed to giving the movement a years worth of TV exposure and weekly featured FEWDM stories.

Here is a video that explains a little more about the movement:

Tony Temple, the man who started FEWDM says his “F” stands for “Forgive.” He hopes that you too will join this movement with him. You can do that by customizing your own FEWDM wrist band and by ‘Liking’ the movement’s Facebook page.

FEWDM Facebook

@FEWDM

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“The Fancy is an amazing shopping utility like nothing else. You discover things via people whose tastes you admire,” Einhorn said. “The key is that you can actually add these items to your cart and buy them instantly.”

The Fancy is gaining social momentum at an impressive pace. With celebrity backers like Kanye West and Ashton Kutcher, and business backers like Chris Hughes (of Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (of Twitter), it is easy to see why numerous brand-name companies are looking to The Fancy to promote and sell their products.  We think The Fancy will soon become a go-to site for shop-a-holics, and believe me, it’s pretty addicting.

Einhorn emphasized that The Fancy is a one-of-a-kind site for both the distributer and the consumer. “The product and the experience hasn’t really changed since the Internet started,” he said. “The Fancy is an platform for an opportunity-driven commerce model that could be a big part of this new user experience.”

The Fancy has an Android App, and the iPhone and iPad apps are being released soon. The app features color search, image recognition, and additional languages for their global audience.  We’ve included a few screenshots from the site below to give you a taste of its design and user experience.

What do you fancy? Sign up today, or check The Fancy out on Twitter.

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• 2011 Featured Fewer Venture-Backed Exits, But Much Bigger Deals
• Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari, Talks about the Future of Video Games
• HEADLINES: MobileMe’s New “Find My Friends” Feature, The New Translate App for Android, and Audrina’s New iPhone App

The new Bing is now a three-column design. The first column on the left is what all search engines have: “What the Web Knows.” This algorithmic search remains at the core of the Bing search experience. This is your fact finder that helps filter, sort, and bring more relevant information on the first page to make it easier than ever to find exactly what you’re looking for.

The second column that sits in the middle of the page is “What Bing Knows” called the Snapshot. This column is designed to help you take action and includes information such as maps and reviews, so booking a restaurant or checking hotel rates is quick and easy. Bing also partnered with OpenTable to help you make reservations without having to leave the page. For instance, Snapshot makes searching for restaurants, hotels, movies/events, and people easier than ever before.

• Restaurants: see summarized reviews from across the Web, location maps, one-click directions, interior panoramas, building shots, etc.
• Hotels: see a collection of hotels with easy access to pricing data with the check-in, check-out tool, photos, maps, easy access to pricing, etc.
• Movies/Events: see movie images, reviews, facts about the film, important links such as show times near your location, movie trailer, etc.
• People: see social networks to help narrow down your search to the correct person

The last column on the right is “What Your Friends May Know” known as the Sidebar. This new feature of Bing really helps you get things done with the help from friends, family, and experts. This is a unique way to start conversation and bring friends and experts into your search experience from the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Foursquare, and LinkedIn). There are four different features in the Sidebar:

• Friends who might know: Bing will bring up friends in the sidebar who have recently liked, shared or searched for content related to your query
• People who know: Beyond friends, Bing identifies experts with knowledge in areas related to your search
• Ask friends: Post a question to get help from your Facebook friends as you search. Bing suggests friends on Facebook who might know about the topic based on what they like or have shared. Friends can see and reply to your question on Facebook or Bing.
• Activity feed: You can see, in real time, posts you and your friends have shared from Bing. You can help answer friends’ questions or get inspired to discover and search new things that you see your friends searching for.

Overall, this new Bing experience connects search with reality. Search on it today!

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• Control An AR Drone With Your Kinect [video]
• Alexia Tsotsis: Blogging Hard
• Coloft Hackfest Hits Santa Monica This Sunday

RewardMe analyzes customer demographics, purchase patterns, and behaviors while providing tools that allow businesses to:

1. Drive lost customers back to the store
2. Provide targeted marketing messages to consumers through personalized emails and text messaging
3. Incentivize actions via gamification techniques

Based on recent data pulled from leading competitors, RewardMe’s numbers are beyond what any other customer loyalty platform has been able to accomplish to date. RewardMe has 31x the customer sign-up rate as competitor Belly. Currently, this platform serves businesses from the largest multinational franchises to small single-store and single-restaurant local businesses.

RewardMe was listed as AlwaysOn Global 250′s “Top 10 Private Companies to Watch” and was a Top 3 Finalist for Best Commercial App in the first LBS Awards (in the running against Groupon).

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HooplaHa is a website that provides a daily video that is meant to put a smile on your face. Rob and his partner, Rick Fernandes, wanted to create a site that was refreshing and positive that inspired its readers daily. The stories and videos involve real people in real circumstances that readers can relate to.

“Rick had the idea to have your daily cup of coffee with HooplaHa and just smile,” Rob said. “Our goal is simple – an easy to navigate website that is not overloaded with content.”

While there are other “good news” sites out there, and feel-good videos are readily available on YouTube, HooplaHa prides itself on delivering content in a simple one video per day.

“It comes down to the storytelling,” Rob said. “It is one thing to create a 2 minute viral video, but it’s another thing to create one that involves quality story telling.”

Rob noted that HooplaHa’s goals are to continue to create great content, to build a social media presence, and to get other people to understand how it is a great opportuinity for companies to pair with them.  HooplaHa can help build awareness in business community for the companies that need help promoting their brand or product.

Starting May 29, HooplaHa will began its 10 day event, titled, “Get Your HooplaHa”. It is 10 great stories for 10 straight days. Make sure to get your daily fix at HooplaHa, or check them out on Twitter and Facebook.

Previously on lalawag:

• Breeders’ Cup Tweet Up
• SXSW: Twitter Police Blotter
• Mike Tyson Is Now the Star of A Mobile Game

Just yesterday, a Los Angeles-based startup released its “instant business networking” app Here on Biz to the iOS App Store. The app adds location awareness and chat functionality to LinkedIn with the goal of better connecting business professionals for offline interactions.

Here on Biz allows users to see where others are located by general neighborhood. When users are on the go, they can check into events, airports or other destinations away from their home city. The app allows users to publish these checkins directly to LinkedIn. Based on these checkins, users can find local professionals, visiting professionals and event attendees. The app also has a chat feature that can quickly lead to offline meetings.

Below, Co-founder of Here on Biz Nick Smoot gives some more background info behind this startup and some other insight into his entrepreneurial experience.

Pitch us your app in three sentences or less.

We realized that your LinkedIn network is incredibly valuable to your social/business life if used right, so we built an app that takes your network and makes it location aware, real time, and chat enabled. Plus we are baking in some swanky services business professionals like.

What made you decide to focus your app on that service?

We were tired of doing travel for business and it sucking. We spent tons of time in airports and hotels for business travel and realized how cool it would be to have an app that showed us other business professionals around us that we could network with right then and there. So we built it.

How big is your team? Can you describe your company’s culture?

Team of 2 for now. We are lean, mean, and have fun. Our culture is best described as two friends who like to laugh and get shit done. We pride ourselves on excellence and being great beer connoisseurs. Twelve hour days are the norm, but so are ski trips to Whistler, weekend adventures to the Channel Islands, and hiking across the “Devil’s Backbone” with potential investors. The occasional pogo stick competition may break out as well.

How did your company get its initial funding?  Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with funding?

Our initial funding was our own money and a bit from a long time contact that has wanted to “do something” with the two of us. So it made sense to partner up on this one for a few reasons outside of the money component.

If you are going to go for funding, realize that you will give up more than you want. If you can bootstrap it at first… do it.

How will your app deal with competition? Do you keep tabs on other companies that are doing similar things?

Tell us a little about your background?  What made you want to start your own company/app?

Early on I started working with non-profits. My focus was developing programs and recruiting leaders. After a few excellent years in that, I shifted my focus to marketing and operations consulting for small businesses. This then lead to being picked up by a group of investors to “fix problems”. After a stint of that and meeting Allen, my business partner, we had this moment of realization… we could do something amazing together! We both had specific unique skill sets that complimented each other in a startup so we went after it.

What are your thoughts on the LA entrepreneurial scene?

We are so new to the scene here that it is hard to give a real answer of the scene, but from what we have seen and experienced in the last 6 months, I would describe it as welcoming and exciting. There is a definite “buzz” right now.

Who are your three most influential entrepreneurs? Why?

Steve Jobs- He made his dent in the universe.

Ben Franklin- The man was insatiably curious and solved REAL problems.

William Randolph Hearst- He had a better phone system than the white house during his time. He understood the freedom and impact of tech in a way that created a life of freedom and impact.

What’s the hardest/best thing about being an entrepreneur?

The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur has to be the emotional ups and downs. If they aren’t managed well, they will be your demise.

The best thing has to be the freedom to do exactly what you know needs to be done. You had just better be right.

What’s one of your most successful decisions? Can you share something that’s worked really well for you that you think other entrepreneurs could learn from?

One of the most successful decisions was to build key mentors into my life early on. When I say early on, I mean I was 17. I intentionally sought out influential mentors because someone I really respected told me I needed to. This shaped my path and to this day I think of and talk to them often.

One thing other entrepreneurs could do that has worked well for me is volunteer a bit of time. Find an amazing non-profit you believe in and give back some of the talent that drove you to strike out on your own. There is a lot to learn from giving back.

What are your next goals? (Either for the current venture or for the company/app as a whole)

To become the de-facto app for business networking.

Lastly, what are your three favorite apps? (Besides yours of course)

Uber

Expensify

Flip Board

Follow Here on Biz on Twitter @hereonbiz

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From June 10-14, 2012, in Jerusalem, the ROI Community Summit will gather 150 of the Jewish world’s outstanding young leaders. For the first time ROI Community will welcome members from Bolivia, Iceland, Peru and Uganda to its annual Summit. This gathering provides these future Jewish leaders with tools, support and the space they need to turn their ideas into innovative work that will change the face of Jewish life.

The group includes social and business entrepreneurs, social justice activists, artists, environmentalists, media and tech gurus, educators, intercultural dialoguers and others whose projects are already impacting and invigorating communities throughout the United States and the world and who are looking to take their work to the next step.

Each has a great story to tell about their challenges and success, and each prints a diverse skill set aimed at connecting with other social entrepreneurs around the globe. The 201 ROI Summit will provide them an opportunity to collaborate with others, skill-build, and move their projects forward to address the world’s challenges.

The ROI Community is a worldwide network of over 700 Jewish innovators from 50 countries crated and sponsored by American Jewish philanthropist Lynn Schusterman.

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Deemed “a device for your device”, you download Beam Browser, which is free app on your device that allows you to type in any URL and if the content on that webpage is “beamable”, you are ready click, view, and enjoy. PacketVideo also uses Twonky, which collects and stores your web-based media.

PacketVideo is a pioneer of cellphone multimedia – it was the first company to do video on a cell phone ten years ago. “At the time, people didn’t understand why you would even want to do that, and now it seems obvious to everyone,” Schwartz says.

Download the app today and beam away! Check out Jesse’s interview with Rick to hear PacketVideo’s story.

Previously on lalawag:

• The Answer Bitch: Myspace Is Like a Lebanese Disco
• SXSW: In One Word
• If Web Browsers Were Celebrities [infographic]

In February and March of 2012, Meebo interviewed around 1300 people about which summer movies they intend to watch in theaters. A high percentage of people intending to watch these movies also scored highly with certain personalities (or “Mindsets”). Based on the research done, Meebo drew these conclusions:

• The Optimist: People who intend to watch The Amazing Spider-Man and G.I. Joe 2 this summer are more likely to be optimistic. These people tend to be entertainment seekers in general. They are 52% more likely to be romantic comedy moviegoers as well. They are also over 70% more likely to purchase goods and services that support environmental sustainability.

• Life of the Party: Viewers intending to see Rock of Ages, Bourne Legacy and Men in Black III are more likely to be extroverted, take care of their appearance, and enjoy shopping. They are 42% more likely to be interested in using salon quality hair products. Brands like True Religion jeans and Paul Mitchell are preferred by extroverts.

• The Artist: Our research shows that Snow White and the Huntsman appeals strongly to highly creative types. Brands that appeal to people high in creativity include Burt’s Bees, Sephora, and Mac cosmetics. Creative people are significantly more likely to buy organic foods and seek out bold styles in fashion. They are less likely to drive trucks, watch ESPN, or go to sit-down chain restaurants.

• The Dare Devil: Those who intend to see The Dark Knight Rises and The Expendables 2 are more likely to be risk-seekers. People with a high risk preference are more likely to prioritize exercise and fitness. They’re 34% more likely to consider socializing with friends a top hobby and are 27% more likely to prioritize owning the most current tech products. But you won’t find them eating somewhere like Whole Foods – they stick to conventional foods.

• The Egotist: The Total Recall intenders are more likely to be spotlight-seekers. They are more likely to own sports cars as their primary vehicles, more likely to pursue investments as a top hobby, and like to save significant portions of their income as well. Brands that appeal to them include BMW and American Express.

A few important notes: 1. This is just a sampling 2. Not everyone watching these movies will have the Mindset indicated, but there is a greater likelihood that they would.

Which “Mindset” do you have??

Follow Meebo on Twitter @Meebo

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“Mark Cuban is down to earth, honest, real, intelligent and inspiring,” said Jesse Draper, host and producer of “The Valley Girl Show.” “He is willing to speak his mind and shows real passion in what he believes.”

Viewers can watch this interview with Mark Cuban on Mashable at http://mashable.com/follow/videos/1573532135001-jesse-draper-interviews or SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle’s website. To check out “The Valley Girl Show” column on SFGate.com, go to http://blog.sfgate.com/valleygirl/2012.

“The Valley Girl Show” is syndicated across a network of distribution partners and regularly receives over two million monthly views across multiple platforms. These platforms include multiple television boxes such as Roku and Boxee, iTunes, and downloadable mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. It can also be seen on screens at thousands of restaurants across the country including Taco Bell and Denny’s. The show is viewable online on ValleyGirl.com, Youtube and 25+ other distribution channels. The rapidly growing audience consists primarily of cosmopolitan, tech savvy 18-35 year-olds who are highly educated and have large social networks. Ms. Draper interviews the biggest names in business and technology including Mark Cuban, Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, Joe Saunders, Steve Wozniak and Tony Hsieh. The show is a balance of fun games and tough questions, and also provides educational takeaways.

“The Valley Girl Show” is filming interviews in May for release summer 2012. ‘

Check out the “The Valley Girl Show” at www.valleygirl.com.

Previously on lalawag:

• Google Attempts To Fix The ‘Mother’ Of All Android Exploits
• It’s Better to Give Than to Receive
• Pimp My Desk: Style Tips

Organizer/Matchmaker Aaron Abram runs the meetup group, which opening connects tech cofounders together and teaches them the skills to turn their startups into successful companies. The event the group is hosting in May will teach participants how to create less than 30 second pitches to investors on the fly without a laptop or pitch deck. The guests represent experts in pitching and mainly come from tech companies with some in other industries.

To find out more about this event, visit this page.

Fun fact: Tech Cofounder Dating LA has the highest % of Female tech entrepreneurs from any coed tech group on Meetup in Southern, CA!

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Botto and his team saw a great deal of talent around the world, yet knew that there needed to be a platform for all of this talent where it could be shared globally. That is where Stage 32 came into play. As its mission statement says, Stage 32 is “a place to gather, to discuss and develop projects, to join actors with directors, directors with producers, producers with cast and crew. Here, you can grow your contact list and build a pertinent network in rapid fashion. The more you participate, the greater the results. As the saying goes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Many users have used Stage 32 to not only educate and inform members, but to also benefit their own careers.

Botto stressed that “there needs to be a way to make the world a little bit smaller,” and he is using his social networking site as a successful tool to do it. He and his team want Stage 32 to raise awareness for the amount of talent around the world and expose people’s creative work.

Botto has previous experience with the arts – he is the CEO of Fair Warning Productions, an Associate Producer on Sam Levinson’s first feature, Another Happy Day, a screenwriter, and was previously the founder, publisher, and editor of Razor Magazine.

“We see success stories with Stage 32 all of the time,” Botto said. “It is happening every day, and it is unbelievable. People are connecting from all around the world to join in on one another’s projects.”

Sign up on Stage 32 today if you are a member of the arts community, or check them out on Twitter!

Previously on lalawag:

• The Babes of #Boobquake
• RewardMe Rewards Restaurants and Retail Industries
• Free Avatar Tickets and Food!

Recently, Alphabird opened their Beverly Hills offices and hired some amazing new talent. Alphabird has hired Mike Caruso, former VP of Entertainment at Viumbe LLC, who will be VP of Alphabird’s Music Production division. He is also a music producer for Lil Wayne and Drake, another other pop/hip-hop icons. Vincent Lambino, VP of Branded Entertainment and Sponsorships for A2Oproductions has also joined Alphabird as their VP of Branded Entertainment.

In addition, Alphabird announced that it has expanded its offerings as a vertically integrated global audience development company by launching an original content and development and branded video production unit run by the acclaimed programming team from worldwide entertainment leader Endemol. Edemol’s programming includes the reality television series “Wipeout”, “Big Brother” and “Deal or No Deal”.

Alphabird’s CEO, Chase Norlin, states:

By bringing aboard internationally renowned creative talent that has earned several industry awards, combined with the guaranteed viewership of millions of people around the world, we’re enhancing our capabilities to not only deliver the largest audiences to online video, we now have the firepower to develop and produce that content in-house. Furthermore, the integration of one of the most powerful production teams in branded entertainment enables us to provide brands direct access to the full lifecycle of a creative video content advertising campaign. This furthers our mission of having the broadest and deepest audience offering in the online video industry.

Follow Alphabird on Twitter to find out more information @Alphabirdvideo

Previously on lalawag:

• This Week In Events: October 26 – 30
• The Anatomy Of A Newborn Tech Startup [infographic]
• LA Startup Spotlight- Here on Biz “Instant Business Networking” App

We spoke with Robin Smith, co-founder of WeGoLook, who says her goal “was to create a company which would enable anyone with any budget to be able to safely purchase items online without becoming a victim of fraud.  That goal has grown to include a huge team of awesome persons working hard for our corporate clients and individuals to help them do anything they need done.”

WeGoLook gives buyers the peace of mind that the item they are about to bid on is what the seller claims it is, and proves that it actually exists. The company sends out a “Looker,” or someone in that area who can verify its authenticity. For a small fee, the Looker will travel to the item or property, give a detailed report, take photos, and answer any specific questions the buyer might have.

Smith says that WeGoLook beats the competing companies because it is located everywhere in the US, Australia, Canada (and soon the UK), it has customer service interaction readily available to ensure quality control of entire transaction from start to finish, and corporations utilize its services to perform occupancy verifications, cell tower site inspections, and verify collateral assets with the Lookers’ customizable reporting template.

Sign up on WeGoLook today, and check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

Previously on lalawag:

• Converdge on Park City
• Get Ready For ‘Tron Legacy’ By Putting Your Face In A Trailer
• How Much Profit Are Phone Makers Making?

LA CEOs is an education and support group for CEOs. They host monthly free events, and on May 3rd, LA CEOs presents: Achieving Home-Run M&A & Financing Outcomes. Investment Banking veteran Kevin Covert will share insights into achieving home-run M&A and financing outcomes for digital media and technology companies. He will discuss current M&A and VC financing market dynamics, acquisition and financing interests of the large media and tech buyers and how to get on their radar. He will also illustrate the “Art of M&A” based on actual transactions and highlight common mistakes.

This free event is for CEOs only, with at least a million dollars in sales or funding. To see more details about the event, click here.

Previously on lalawag:

• There’s an App for That
• The Art of the Retweet
• New App Lets You Order At The Bar…Code

LiveShare has introduced a paradigm shift in mobile communication by going beyond the basic utility of messaging apps. The new LiveShare combines the best of free messaging and fast photo sharing into one awesome app for iPhone and web! And it’s free!

Check out the LiveShare 2.0. Completely redesigned and built from the ground up. LiveShare now uniquely blends free text messaging, unlimited photo sharing, and location check-ins into one gorgeous app with loads of smart features.

Download the app today!

Previously on lalawag:

• Google’s New Cloud-based Music App Leaked
• The Official Relaunch Party Recap
• App Hands On: Friends for iPhone

How I made my low-budget short film, “Dumbleweed” into an interactive multi-platform brand

Around February of last year I became obsessed with tumbleweeds. Yes. Tumbleweeds. Those lifeless, scratchy shrub like creatures that invade lawns throughout America and careen at high speeds across roads and highways whichever way the wind blows. I became obsessed with them. And eventually, being that this is Los Angeles, together with a group of talented filmmakers, we made a short children’s film about a tumbleweed, called “Dumbleweed” which will see its premiere this week at The Sonoma International Film Festival.

But after making the film, and armed with lots of positive reinforcement about how cute our lead character Dumbleweed was, I became obsessed with another thought.

In today’s world, where most successful products, whether film or fashion line, are brought to our attention on a multi-platform level, what was stopping me, an indie filmmaker with no budget, from turning Dumbleweed into a multi-platform brand?

The short answer (the long answer is much too long for this article) is, really, nothing. Now-a-days major film studios will define a successful film not just by its box office records, but how much of a brand it can become. Does the name “Batman” mean anything to you? From an independent filmmaking perspective, it is impossible to match up to that sort of success, but sometimes it’s not impossible to spread the name of your product across multiple platforms. Especially when your film is for kids and about a tumbleweed.

“Dumbleweed” could have gone in several directions as a multi-platform product. It could have been a toy, a line of t-shirts, a fuzzy pillow. But really, the only thing that made sense from a monetary perspective, was to turn it into a Mobile App Game.

Creating a Mobile App, especially when it’s a small team and you’re all working for free on a concept you care about, will give you almost a full return on your investment. Even if your concept doesn’t hold up, all that you will have really lost is time. And money on coffee and bad pastries.  But you will have gained friends and experience in this wild west of multi-platform branding that we’re all still getting to understand. And, if you’re lucky, your film will have the chance of being seen by a wider audience.

After arriving at the decision that I should make a Mobile App game, the next step was finding someone who actually knew something about making a Mobile App. I personally knew nothing. So much like you have to call friends and friends of friends when making a short film, I called around until I found an amazingly talented App developer named Crossman Wilkins. Crossman cared about the concept, which was most important to me, and he was okay with getting paid on the back end.  And I could tell that he knew what he was talking about.

The next step was really a series of steps. Making sure that we set aside time every week for the next several months to meet and talk about the game and what it could be and what it should be. We discussed the essence of what it was to be a tumbleweed – to move about constantly – and how to translate that into a game. We also felt that the game had to be easy to play the way that Angry Birds is easy to play.  And that it would have to be bright and colorful and bold so that young kids would enjoy it. Next Crossman set out to actually do the work of creating the game using his Corona App developing software, which he already owned. We continued to meet each week  to discuss the progress of the game. Again. Much like making a film.

After months of hard work, the game became what was released on iTunes just earlier this week. A combination of Doodle Jump and Ski Free.  And (to my knowledge) the first Mobile App based on a short film.

Previously on lalawag:

• Top Questions Entrepreneurs Should Answer in Pitch Decks
• In LA Cloud Computing is Smog 2.0
• TechCrunch August Capital Photos

Maurya is the founder of Spark59 and has launched several start ups, including successful ventures such as WiredReach. His book encourages start ups, entrepreneurs and others to begin thinking about their business models.  He challenges the notion that start-ups should plan based on gut, intuition and luck. Instead he applies a systematic process for rigorously stress testing your “Plan A” until you achieve a plan that works.  Like many of us have heard before, it’s all about “iteration.”

Running Lean conveys techniques and exercises that shed understanding on:

. Testing if you have a problem worth solving before investing resources into building a solution
. Finding early customers through interviews
. Documenting your business model and communicating progress with internal and external stakeholders
. Setting price and getting your customers to want to pay
. Prioritizing customer feature requests
. Knowing if/when to raise your “big round” of funding
. Measuring what’s working and knowing when to change course
. “How To” Bonus Material for Startups

Running Lean is the first book in The Lean Series presented by Eric Ries, bestselling author of The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Subsequent Lean Series titles from O’Reilly Media give readers a solid footing in a new approach and proven methodology that will help entrepreneurs, leaders, small businesses, and anyone looking to be more effective to succeed,” according to the press release.

Ash holds mentor roles with startup accelerators around the world such as TechStars, Mozilla Foundation, Year One Labs, MaRS, and Capital Factory

Visit Maurya’s site or the book’s site for more information on the book.

You can follow Ash Maurya on Twitter @ashmaurya.

Previously on lalawag:

• A Small Cashflow Problem
• Entrepreneurial Event: “The UltraViolet Approach” at CalTech
• Tips For Getting A Non-Technical Job At A Startup

JuntoBox has merged the collaborative energy of a social platform with the more traditional in-house film development process. This includes green lighting, financing, marketing and distribution. Members simply rate and vote on projects that will be selected and green lit. Once a project is created, filmmakers rise up through the five levels of development by building their film’s profile through fan participation and completion of various tasks.

The company’s co-char is Forest Whitaker and they just green lit their first film, Passenger, and SXSW last month. Forest and JuntoBox will be green lighting 5 films this year with a total of $2.5 million in financing. Forest will play an active role in selecting, producing and marketing the chosen films with the aid of his production company, Significant Productions.

To find out more about this startup, check out their website and get updates from their Facebook page and Twitter account @juntoboxfilms

Related Articles:

• #SXSW: 4Chan Founder Christopher “moot” Poole Gives Keynote On Online Community Building
• The Five Highest Grossing Films of 2010
• The Raven: Low Budget, High Polish

In this quick Q&A, we chat with Visual.ly‘s Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer Lee Sherman.

1.) Pitch us your product/service in three sentences or less

Visual.ly is the world’s largest platform for exploring, sharing, and creating infographics.

2.) What made you decide to focus your company on that product/service?

Infographics are both extremely popular and traditionally hard to create. We make it simple to create beautiful infographics in seconds.

3.) How do you deal with competition and how does your company stand out from the competition?

We don’t know of another company that has such an activity community, powerful distribution platform, and fun tools. Visual.ly is an entire ecosystem built around data visualization.

4.) What are your next goals?

We will will continue to expand on the number of infographic designs, themes, and data feeds that are available within our tools. We will also open up the creation of infographic designs and themes to our community.

Previously on lalawag:

• This Is The Best iTunes App Store Review Ever [Color]
• LeWeb: MySpace & Twitter Offer Data For All
• Percival 2.0

Pitch us your product/service in three sentences or less.

ExTreme ReTrailers are fully equipped, fully functioning retail stores on wheels.  They can be positioned anywhere a crowd has gathered as long as the appropriate permits are in place.

What made you decide to focus your company on that product/service?

The recession and gas prices for the consumer.  We go to our target market instead of them coming to a brick and mortar store.

How big is your team?

We have 10 people on the team.

Can you describe your company’s culture?

It is a hard working, adventurous, off-beat, fun loving group.  We are out and about in the community and do some fundraising as way to “pay back.”

Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with fundraising?

Find a LOW OVERHEAD concept that doesn’t need too much start up capital.  Be prepared to get a second on your home loan, sell a car, so whatever it takes as long as it is ethical and legal.

” I know of no other retail outlets on wheels, that are not food oriented.”

Tell us a little about your background?

I am a successful entrepreneur.  An example is I founded Orca Communications, a world-class PR firm that is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year.

What made you want to start your own company?

I don’t like the limitations working for other people placed on me both financially and creatively.

What are your thoughts on the LA entrepreneurial scene?

It is just fabulous in my opinion.  So much creativity and fun.

What are your next goals?

I’d love to see more ReTrailers in more industries.  They are so fun and lucrative.

What one piece of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs just starting out?

Failure is not an option but get ready for the ride of your life.  You’ll have to hang on for dear life, usually.  No such thing as a 40 hour work week so you better absolutely LOVE what you are doing.

 

Make sure to visit ExTreme ReTrailers online or visit their Facebook page for more information.

Previously on lalawag:

• Tubefilter Web Television Week
• Tech Headlines For April 21st, 2011: Amazon Outages Take Down Foursquare and Reddit, Apple Rumored To Have Completed Cloud Music Service
• Scripped.com “Write for a Cause”

The WPP Group works with major companies such as Ford, P&G, Unilever, Johnson+Johnson, and Microsoft, and companies in India such as Tata, Infosys, and Smith Barney. Many of these companies are rapidly becoming some of the biggest in the world. For instance, Tata Motors post a 40.5% jump in net profit for the October-December quarter.  The WPP Group also took over JWT, which is the world’s best-known marketing communications brand, and a true global network, with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries employing nearly 10,000 marketing professionals.

How did Sir Martin Sorrell become a knight? Watch the interview to hear his story!

http://valleygirl.tv/shows.php?episode=Interview-with-Sir-Martin-Sorrell–CEO-of-The-WPP-Group

Previously on lalawag:

• ExpressPark To Make Finding Parking Less Like Hell
• Twitter: Not Just a Link Farm
• Google Enhances Movie Search Experience on iOS and Android

The new Hulu Plus app on Android introduces a clean, streamlined design that makes the interface more engaging.  The pages feature large thumbnails with visuals that show off your Android tablet’s graphics. In addition, Hulu Plus has already organized its content library so it’s easy to discover new shows and keep up with the shows you already love.

Hulu also just launched a newly edited Facebook Timeline. They have embraced Facebook’s new feature to share the entire history of television on Facebook’s platform.  It’s a fun way to browse through TV’s past, starting with the World’s Fair in Paris in 1900 when the word “television” was first uttered.  Be sure to check out the timeline around 1953 when color broadcasting was introduced or in 1975 when cable launched.

The new Hulu Plus app can be downloaded from Google Play and is compatible with: the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola Xoom, Motorola XYBoard 10.1, Toshiba Thrive, Acer Iconia and LG G-Slate.

Previously on lalawag:

• Top Headlines You Don’t Want to Miss
• Super Mario turns 25!
• For Tony Adam, Shrinkage is Good

Good thing there weren’t any actual parking violations stuck on those vehicles too, or else they would have had some pretty agro drivers to deal with. Personally, I’d probably just tip my hat at them for thinking of a clever form to “flyer’ my car. It certainly would grab my attention at least.

Would you guys be more pissed or amused if you got a fake parking violation on your car?

Related Articles:

• Find and Reserve Parking In Real Time For Free With Parking In Motion on iPhone

As part of a series of interviews in New York City’s emerging tech scene, Jesse Draper, creator and host of The Valley Girl Show, “checked-in” with the co-founder and CEO of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley.  Foursquare is a location based mobile app and API that allows you to connect with friends, read reviews, and earn points and badges by checking into places on your phone.  Foursquare currently has around 15 million users, and it works with around 750,000 businesses worldwide. Previously, Crowley founded Dodgeball which he sold to Google in 2005.

Crowley says Foursquare  “really helped people change how they experience the real world…We’re taking a lot of that ‘check-in’ data and using it to help push people to discover new restaurants, new bars, new parks, new places to shop, just really new things in either new areas or familiar cities.”

Explorer is a relatively new product that Foursquare launched about a year ago.  Think of it like like Amazon and Netflix’s “recommendation engine” but places and experiences instead of products or movies.

How did Crowley come up with this location-based service/app? What’s in the future for Foursquare? Watch to find out: http://valleygirl.tv/shows.php?episode=Interview-with-Dennis-Crowley–Founder-of-Foursquare

Previously on lalawag:

• Up For The Challenge?
• Event: Tubefilter Hollywood Web Television Meetup
• Digital Family Reunion Recap: You Can’t Hide

Brett “Mr. Eco” Edwards is an Environmental Rap Superhero that incorporates sustainable living tips into rap music. He is a third year Business Major, Entrepreneurship Concentration at Cal Poly. He is also a project intern for the Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program that promotes energy and water efficiency among students and faculty.

Check out this video of Mr. Eco: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrEcoCalPoly?feature=mhee

Most recently, Mr. Eco is set to launch his parody album “Get Green Or Die Trying” (for free) on Earth Day April 22nd. He needs funding to finish the album and go on an elementary/middle school tour this spring.

Mr. Eco claims, “I am not selling my album because I do not have the permission to do so. I do however have permission under the ‘Fair Use Copyright Laws’ to use the music for educational purposes.” Which is exactly what his new album will do; it will educate youth on how they can live sustainable lifestyles in the hopes of preserving Earth for generations to come.

Not only does he make “going green” cool and fun in a special way that nobody else can, but his passion for the environment stems from his love for wild animals and from the fact that climate change is the biggest problem facing humanity on Earth.

His superpowers are educating everyone, but this superhero will not be able to save the world by himself.

If you want to help out, or find out how you can, check out this link for school bookings and other information on how you can help fund this tour.

You can also follow Mr. Eco on Twitter @Mr__Eco

Previously on lalawag:

• Headlines You Might Have Missed
• Today’s Top Headlines: Galaxy Nexus, Facebook Spam Attack, Google Music
• The 1st Annual Streamy Awards

As part of the “Let’s Talk Education” series on the “The Valley Girl Show,” the interview starts off by asking Cope how he first got involved with the Children’s Health Council. Cope says, “I had worked in children’s health for awhile at the Lucille Packer Foundation. I was really interested in getting back with Children’s Health because it was some of the most fulfilling work I had done in my career.”

The Children’s Health Council has been around for 58 years. In 1953, Esther B. Clark, MC, Palo Alto pediatrician, founded Children’s Health Council to provide families access to multi-discipline, integrated care for their children.

There are four main areas of treatment that the Children’s Health Council works with: ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), autism, learning challenges, anxiety & depression. The council also has a grant that allows them to do free parent education, which is a huge help for parents and their children. Last year, they had 1,300 people come to the free parent education sessions that the council held. In addition, the organization owns and runs two schools.

Learn more about this amazing non-profit organization and how you can help fundraise for the non-profit.

Previously on lalawag:

• SXSW: The Video
• Southern California Is A Place Where IPOs Are Made
• Should Entrepreneurs Go to College?

Pitch us your product/service in three sentences or less.

Gidsy is a marketplace where anyone can offer and book things to do. We have retired cooks giving cooking classes at their homes, we have an ex-police officer showing people around the Red Light District in Amsterdam (where he worked) and we have a NYC technology investor showing you the best places to get dumplings in NYC China Town because he lived in China for 15 years.

What made you decide to focus your company on that product/service?

It’s incredibly difficult to find something interesting to do, especially when you are traveling. We thought one of the reasons is because it’s so difficult to organize something online. Giving tools to people to organize things to do gives travelers and locals access to unique experiences that were otherwise impossible to find.

How big is your team? Can you describe your company’s culture?

We’re not but 10 people and are based in Berlin. The two founders (my brother Floris and myself) are from the Netherlands, and the third co-founder and CTO, Philipp Wassibauer, is from Austria. We have an extremely talented team of people from Canada, Germany, The Netherlands and the States. Our company’s culture is really important to us. We have a very open decision-making process that anyone can participate in. The best argument always wins, and everyone breathes and lives the product that we’re building. Everyone here is booking, organizing and participating in activities happening on Gidsy.

Fun Fact about Gidsy: “Two of us actually found girlfriends through activities on Gidsy…”

How did your company get its initial funding?  Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with fundraising?

We built a prototype first. It really helps you to explain the product to VC’s and angel investors. A good strategy in the beginning is to say that you’re not raising any money (when talking with investors). When investors like your product, they will try very hard to get the deal. And that’s where you want to be as an entrepreneur.

Tell us a little about your background — what made you want to start your own company?

My brother and I had another company before – a design studio that was based in Berlin. After studying in Amsterdam, we moved to Berlin with two friends and started the company. We did it because we thought we thought we would be better than most other interactive design studios, and we wanted to prove that. For us, the reason to start a new company was always about being unhappy about something. In Gidsy’s case, we’re up against a huge classic industry (the travel industry) and wanted to change the way business is done here.

What are your thoughts on the LA entrepreneurial scene?

I have never been to LA, but the things I heard from the guys from GOOD Magazine and from Ashton [Kutcher] were great. Preparing for our LA launch, we found a lot of small businesses around DIY, crafting, urban gardening and a lot of other exciting things. The idea of sustainability and taking responsibility seems to really bloom in LA. It will be exciting to see what people will be organizing in the upcoming weeks.

Who are your three most influential entrepreneurs? Why?

I do not have any big idols except some people that are close to me and that I know very well. Here are a few, but there are more:

1. Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten – Founder of TheNextWeb and a lot of other things

When I was still studying, Boris always let me work at the office of TheNextWeb. We’d do some projects together, but the most inspiring things were cooking together. Every year, we’d spend the entire day cooking for the speakers dinner of The Next Web. Boris is probably one of the most creative and inspiring guys I ever met. He has an amazing way of dealing with problems, and sees many opportunities other people do not.

2. Ernst-Jan Pfauth – journalist and entrepreneur

When we first met through friends, we talked for hours about all sorts of things around technology. I rarely met someone else with higher aims then Ernst-Jan and he inspires a lot of people around him. Together, we organized the first blogging conference in The Netherlands. Ernst-Jan lives in Amsterdam and I live in Berlin, but we always see each other. He’s one of my closest friends, and always manages to push me to the next goal.

3. Floris Dekker – my brother and co-founder

Having a company with your brother is great. You can have very open conversations about things and you only need half of the words to come to a decision. Together with Phil (CTO and co-founder), Floris plays a hugely important role in the company and I could not think of anyone better to have a company with. He’s an extremely talented designer and has a great vision on what the company and product should be like. He’s determined and does not go for anything less than excellence.

What’s the hardest and/or best thing about being an entrepreneur?

Probably the hardest part is taking a break from thinking / working about the company. If you love the things you do so much, it’s hard to take a distance from it when you’re doing something else. The only things that help me to relax are surfing, cooking and working in my urban garden actually.

What are your next goals?

Our goal is to build a sustainable company that is here to last. It would be great if people could make money out of Gidsy that would help them quit their boring office jobs. Gidsy is only a few months old, and we already have people who’re creating very valuable extra income by doing things they love. Bringing people together, creating happiness and making sure it’s sustainable is what we are focused on. We have a long way to go, and Gidsy is just at its beginning.

What one piece of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs just starting out?

We learned that having the right people around you can make all the difference. Experienced advisers can help you out with contacts, product vision and will have many new point of views on the things you are doing. They’ll help you to crystallize the vision of your company and protect you from making the same mistakes they made, two really valuable things.

To see a handbook on how to create the “perfect listing” on Gidsy, click here

Follow Gidsy on Twitter @gidsynews or visit their Facebook page for more information.

Previously on lalawag:

• Pillow Talk
• Tuesday Morning Tech Roundup
• Get Green or Die Trying Tour by Brett “Mr. Eco”

Mike Townsend, the Biz Dev and co-founder of this recently launched startup has a degree in engineering and work experience in business development. Mike believes in making tools to help small business owners’ lives easier. Read below to see what else Mike has to say about Zing Checkout and being an entrepreneur!

Pitch us your service in three sentences or less.

ZingCheckout is a web based Point of Sale that aims to replace old, expensive, legacy POS software.  Business owners can now accept payments, see reports, and track inventory from any device with an internet browser instead of having local servers and installed software.

Our vision is to provide businesses impressive software that provides the opportunity to manage, promote and grow online and offline.

What made you decide to focus your company on that service?

The company was born from a repeated request in the market. Existing customers wanted to run their business on Mac, PC, and do it from anywhere so we developed a solution that worked and ran with it.

How big is your team? Can you describe your company’s culture?

We have a well balanced team of 4.  Each one of us is extremely motivated to have the opportunity to improve the work lives of business owners and the thus the economy.  We emphasize and focus on creativity in building tools (social network integration, geo location loyalty programs, etc.) to test the response from the market in hopes of finding solutions that resonate with business owners and encourage customers to buy and share.

We have a lot of fun doing what we do.

How did your company get its initial funding?  Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with funding?

We are self funded at this point and I would encourage startups not to raise money until you need it to grow.

Has your company ever had to pivot?  If so, what was that like?

We haven’t done any significant pivots away from the Point of Sale, but certainly with features we’ve built.  When we brainstorm new ideas and build prototypes we have high hopes of improving the way the world does business, but of course this isn’t always the case… When we built ZingPromote.com, we thought we could drastically simplify the SEO process for businesses and create an internal SEO employee contribution program, but the product never took off so we dropped it.

How do you deal with competition? Do you keep tabs on other companies that are doing similar things?

Web based Point of Sale is still an emerging trend and our web based competitors help us by promoting the advantages of using web based systems.  We don’t keep track of competitors because it never helps us.  Following competitor news will only hurt you.  Startups are a huge emotional roller coaster and competitors are very rarely the reason why they fail.

Tell us a little about your background?  What made you want to start your own company?

Nate Stewart had been doing web development for apparel retail companies who were going to events and looking for a web based Point of Sale.  They were extremely disappointed with the products on the market and asked Nate if he could build something better.  Nate quickly saw the opportunity and built a prototype which was a big success, found Mike Townsend at the Coloft coworking office in Santa Monica and partnered to build the ZingCheckout company.

It’s been said, but we truly live in an amazing time in which the internet provides business model opportunities that have never been available to people before, and once you see that it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to build something and make a difference in the world in a big way. 

What are your thoughts on the LA entrepreneurial scene?

LA is exciting for startups right now, and we are right in the middle of it.  This weekend Coloft is hosting Startup Weekend, which has produced a number of successful venture backed startups.  Startup incubators and accelerators are growing faster than any other city and Santa Monica is quickly becoming the hub for tech in L.A.

Who are your three most influential entrepreneurs? Why?

Ralph Spinnler, Avesta Rasouli, and Clark Benson have been very helpful and influential in providing the mentorship, introductions, and strategic advice that contributed to our success.

What’s the hardest/best thing about being an entrepreneur?

The ups and downs are mentally tough and before you do a startup it is important to be sure you’re ready for the rollercoaster. Not everyone can handle the ride, and the simple fact is that most startups don’t work out.  It’s essential to be focused on the most important thing which helps you fulfill your vision.

What’s one of your most successful decisions? Can you share something that’s worked really well for you that you think other entrepreneurs could learn from?

Going out and talking to customers, wherever they are, is just so so important.  You’ll learn to think like your customer, speak their language and be where they are.  If you learn what the typical customer goes through in a day and at what point they identify problems and decide to act on them then the  chance of being in the right place at the right time is drastically increased.

What are your next goals? (Either for the current venture or for the company as a whole)

Our goal is to help more and more business owners while continuing to build on the product that uses the emerging power of social networks online to promote local businesses.  Exploring new avenues and opportunities to make awesome software products for business owners is always the goal.

Find out more information about this startup by following them on Twitter @zingcheckout and Facebook.

You can also follow Mike on Twitter @mikettownsend.

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• On The Road

The IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Awards announced last week that the beta test various of Cookbook Cafe has been nominated as a finalist in the “Most Intriguing Use of Technology” category. The IACP Awards is akin to the Oscars for the culinary world.

BakeSpace.com founder Babette Pepaj said, “We’re using technology to democratize cookbook publishing. Why should only ‘big name’ culinary stars have an opportunity to publish and sell a cookbook to the world? Our goal is to make publishing and distributing a cookbook easy for every home chef, group, company and nonprofit organization with great recipes to share!”

How it works:

The Cookbook Cafe platform is built upon 3 core components:

1. A free Cookbook Cafe iPad app with the cookbook storefront and reader.
2. A web-based version of the storefront and reader accessible through any web browser.
3. A web-based cookbook builder that automatically creates both a native iPad app and a website version of each cookbook.

There are now so many opportunities for cookbook authors!

To get started, if you have an iPad, visit the App store and download the free Cookbook Cafe app. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bakespace.coms-cookbook-cafe/id467167455?mt=8

To check it out on the web, visit http://cookbookcafe.com for an overview, and to build your own cookbook go to http://bakespace.com/cookbooks

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Dexter Holland says, “We have the greatest fans in the world and we’re totally stoked for them to get their fingers on the frets and try this out.”

With over 2.5 hours of songs and lessons, the app includes “Come Out and Play,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright,”, and “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid.” ‘Micro Lessons’ are also available to get fans playing the songs faster than ever. Each lesson covers subjects like punk rock rhythms, power chords, and East Indian scales. The app even features a leader board to see how you stack up against other fans.

Click this link to join in on the special contest tied into the launch of the app. The winner will receive a signed guitar and iPad.

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Jesse Draper, host of The Valley Girl Show, just released her interview with founder of QwikTalk, Josh Breinlinger. Josh is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, and he founded QwikTalk when he realized how hard it was to get expert advice. QwikTalk is a tool that connects people with experts instantly on the phone.

Qwiktalk covers all different industries with a roster of diverse experts, and they’re adding more constantly. It’s as simple as typing in your question on the website, and an expert will call you in only a couple minutes.

As an investor Josh says, “I look for companies that really lower the customer effort. That’s what I’m trying to do with getting a doctor’s opinion, getting a legal opinion, talking to an expert. It shouldn’t be a process where you have to go ask all your friends. It takes a user 30 seconds now to enter their question, and two minutes later they’re talking to an expert.”

Find out what other entrepreneur advice Josh has (read “The Lean Startup”), and see how fast he can talk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R15uBc6qxoI&feature=player_embedded

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Customers will regularly receive an entire box of amazing kids clothes based on their child’s size, favorite colors and personal preferences. Family can now save time and money…AND avoid the stress that comes with in-store shopping with kids.

Wittlebee aims to keep up with growing children’s needs by providing families with unique products and a simple online shopping experience. Each member receives a beautifully wrapped box of children’s clothing essentials like shirts, pants, onuses, socks, legging and more! Every month, parents are prompted when their next shipment is ready, and given the ability to designate new clothing sizes to keep up with their growing children.

Wittlebee ranges in apparel for newborns to five years old. Parents can sign up for the service and set it and forget it, feeling confident that each month they’ll have the clothes they need to fit their children’s lifestyles!

The CEO of Wittlebee, Sean Percival, stated,

“As a parent and a technology entrepreneur, I appreciate any product or service that makes my

life easier and gives me more time to focus on my family. Parents today are already pulled in a

million different directions, I saw an opportunity to automate shopping for basics by giving families

access to a new way to keep up with their clothing needs. Any parent knows taking your children

into a store is a scary task, and trying on clothes for toddlers can be an impossible mission. By

updating children’s wardrobes regularly with the clothes they wear the most, we hope to free

parents up of the hassle of shopping so they can do want they want most, have fun with their

kids.”

To find out more information follow Wittlebee on Twitter @Wittlebee or check the company out on Facebook.

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There are currently more than 80,000 paying subscribers and 20 million members. Since it’s launch in November 2010, Docstoc’s premium subscription service has become a great success with small business owners.

Docstoc has also released a new iPad App focused on helping SMBs streamline their businesses, and its content can be found on websites such as  Yahoo Small Business, HP, BusinessWeek/Bloomberg, Inc., Entrepreneur, BusinessInsider, SCORE, and more. There are more than 5,000 websites that now feature Docstoc content.

This company does more than just documents. There are thousands of original expert articles and videos for SMBs too. Docstoc features these articles and videos, which are designed to enhance the Internet’s widest and best collection of exclusive documents, forms, agreements and templates needed to start, manage and grow a small business.

Docstoc is growing quickly. Follow the company on Twitter to find out more information and updates: @docstoc

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Zappos, the largest online shoe store, was acquired by Amazon in 2009.  It has grown from $1.6 million in revenue in 1999 to well over $1 billion today.  In the interview, Hsieh chats with Draper about Zappos’ unique culture, core values, and customer service. He also talks about how Zappos’ company culture is always evolving and how he encourages his 3,500 plus employees to continue to grow both professional and personally.

Hsieh iterates that, “We aimed to make the Zappos brand the very best in customer service and customer experience.” This success of this idea, along with his emphasis of establishing a positive company culture, ultimately led Tony to share his insights in his book.

Zappos will be moving its headquarters to the Las Vegas City Hall very soon, as part of Hsieh’s new project: re-developing downtown Las Vegas.  Hear more about Hsieh’s new initiatives and take a tour of the zany Zappos offices in the new episode of “The Valley Girl Show” below.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc4GlHYYekE&feature=player_embedded

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Wikipedia has now also expanded to other “wiki” sites such as Wiktionary, Wikinews, and Wikibooks.  Wales claims that, “The community is healthier the more we have people with a very diverse range of interests in their personal lives,” and he discusses the efforts that the non-profit organization is making to draw in new contributors.  Wales also talks about how Wikipedia is changing the world, and what he’s learned from the non-profit encyclopedia.

Check out the interview with Wales below to learn more from Wales about the future of Wikipedia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmqDo_AIMcI&feature=player_embedded

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The event is part of the LeanLA event series, which is dedicated to the “Lean Startup” movement.

Moderating the discussion will be Silicon Valley iconoclast and “PayPal Mafia” member Dave McClure of 500 Startups. Dave is one of the most disruptive guys in the startup business, and he promises to cut through the hype.

What: Learn about the new L.A. tech incubators

Who: Presenters include founders of L.A.’s leading incubators — Amplify, Idealab, K5, Launchpad LA, Mucker Labs, Originate, Start Engine and Upstart

When: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 7:00 PM

Where: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (1855 Main St, Santa Monica)

To find out more information about this event and RSVP, click here.

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During the interview with Draper, Cross showcases some of the Ariat products, describes the difference between Western and English riders, and gives advice for fellow entrepreneurs.

Watch Draper “lasso” Cross in the interview as well!

 

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In 2009, the Evil Plot to Destroy the World was revealed by Alec Baldwin (and later Seth MacFarlane, Eliza Dushku, and Denis Leary). Now in 2012, Hulu’s advertising campaign advances the notion that the entire TV industry is populated by aliens. These aliens are in disguise using TV to turn human brains into “mushy mush.” Hulu has been revealed as the secret weapon in their arsenal.

When watching the Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5th, “TV star” alien Will Arnett will step into the spotlight to tempt with humanity with details of the latest, slam-dunk, brain-rotting, alien-nourishing innovation…Hulu Plus.

Hulu is making sure that your TV will rot your brain with an Evil Plot to provide brain-rotting TV shows on numerous devices through Hulu PLus.

Want to join the Evil Plot? Use the #mushymush hashtag and follow @Hulu on Twitter.

Watch the teaser ad here: http://www.hulu.com/adzone/watch/324548/adzone-will-in-huluwood

#mushymush!

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The CEO of Little Black Bag, Dan Murillo, answered a few questions about himself as an entrepreneur and about his startup company. Learn more about Little Black Bag and Murillo by reading below:

Well they’re starting to roll out now! Check out Little Black Bag today. Don’t forget to also Like Little Black Bag on Facebook and follow the company on Twitter @lbbag!

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The “Rockin’ Women” series started off with COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg.  During the interview, Sandberg discusses her early career, her thoughts on time management, and her role at Facebook. She also gives great advice to women in business and talks about the impact that Facebook is having on people’s lives, including her own.  In addition to being the COO of Facebook, Sandberg currently sits on the boards of Starbucks and Disney.

When asked about what advice she would give women in businss, Sandberg said: “I think the number one thing we need to do is change the ‘Stalled Revolution’…women in corporate America are about 15-16% in the top jobs, and its stopped moving…If we keep making progress, but we don’t make progress at the top, that’s a stalled revolution. I think the most important thing we can do is get women to start out in their career assuming they want to stay in.”

Last week, Sandberg was a Keynote at the (pre-DAVOS) DLD Conference in Munich, Germany, where Jesse Draper also spoke.  Facebook is widely rumored to be filing for its IPO this week, making this interview especially timely.

Check it out below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzki5iUwF4w&list=UUhTjPLxm4TvI5LfaS4TiR8A&index=2&feature=plcp

The next guest in the “Rockin Women” series was Pooja Sankar, CEO and founder of Piazza. Piazza is an education startup that helps students communicate about courses online in an interactive, social, and engaging way. Before founding Piazza, Pooja worked at Facebook.

“The idea of giving women a better support group while their still in college was something I was very passionate about,” said Sankar.  “I started speaking to many students, and it turned out that Stanford undergraduate students were also telling me that they felt alone; they didn’t think that they had a support group. So that really inspired me to think about what a solution would look like.”

Hear more of this woman’s amazing entrepreneur story below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8oGX_6M4TY&feature=player_embedded

Jesse Draper also had the honor of interviewing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States of America, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.  In the interview, Justice Sandra day O’Connor talks about her life growing up, her struggle to find a job in the early part of her career, what it took to make it all the way to the Supreme Court, and her current project iCivics.org, a gaming platform designed to help teach kids lessons in civics.

One piece of advice from Justice O’Conner: “Work at work worth doing.”

Hear her great story below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjARDxv0FwA&list=UUhTjPLxm4TvI5LfaS4TiR8A&index=1&feature=plcp

“The Valley Girl Show” Rockin’ Women series continued with an interview with Lori Steele, CEO of Everyone Counts. Everyone Counts is a leading provider of software-as-a-service solutions for voting systems. Their goal is to create secure electronic voting systems worldwide, giving everyone access to ballots.

Steele came up with the idea for Everyone Counts when she was speaking at a UN Conference on technology:  “I was thinking back to other elections that seemed to matter…and thought, elections are important and people care, one of these companies here should do something to make this better. They should take the technology being used in the rest of the world and bring it to elections.”

Just last Wednesday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their partnership with Everyone Counts. The electronic voting system will handle ballots for the 2013 Oscars. Lori stated, “We are honored to have earned the trust of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in bringing online voting to the Oscars starting next year.”

Watch the 2011 nominee for Forbes Most Powerful women talk more about herself and her company with Draper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUdDqIDmkio&feature=player_embedded

Julia Allison is a journalist and media personality. She was one of the first bloggers to make the cover or WIRED magazine, but she’s also dealt with her fair share of negative press. Radar Magazine called her the #3 most hated person on the internet. Jesse talks with Allison about her career, her online haters, and how to deal with internet bullying.

Allison talks about her career and said, “I think there’s a new kind of entrepreneurial journalism that I’m really interested in, and I’m really interested in talking to young women entrepreneurs. Whether it’s speaking to them as a public figure, or whether it’s advising them on how to deal with the press, because I’ve made every mistake known to human kind with that.”

Currently, Allison is filming a reality show for a major network. Look out for that in the future! Until then, listen to what other advice Allison has below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfmWNX1ZRs&feature=player_embedded

The Rockin Women series concluded with Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia, a non-profit organization that helps propel women’s full participation as entrepreneurs in high growth companies.

“Fundamentally Astia is a community,” says Vosmek. “A global community that is committed to the success of women-led companies… Innovation = men + women!”

Vosmek explains how Astia is that safe place that allows you to learn and strive towards your goals and success as an entrepreneur.

Watch what else Vosmek has to say encouraging female entrepreneurship…and watch Jesse and her dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6dlWBdHFjw&feature=player_embedded

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