Wayne Kimmel Inspires Crowd at PHL Kick-Off Event

13
May
2013
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“IF YOU’RE NOT FAILING, YOU’RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!” ~ Wayne Kimmel (Artists & Instigators)

If there was a call to action at the conclusion of the event, 50+ inspired, Philly entrepreneurs would have done just that – acted!  And that’s half the battle right?  According to Wayne Kimmel, Founder and Managing Partner of Philly-based Venture Capital firm, Artists & Instigators, “If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough.”  He also unleashed his ‘Secret Tip’ – “Get off the couch and go do!”

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Startup Grind Seattle Hosts Ben Huh (CEO Cheezburger)

13
May
2013
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Wednesday, 28 August

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Ben Huh is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cheezburger (http://cheezburger.com).  The former journalist turned successful entrepreneur has been credited with pioneering Internet culture as entertainment, crowdsourcing, and bringing Internet memes to the mainstream.

Since first acquiring I Can Has Cheezburger? in 2007, Huh has grown the media company to now include more than 50 online humor sites that generate more than 400 million page views monthly.  His Internet culture empire includes popular sites such as FAIL Blog, The Daily What, Know Your Meme and Memebase.  Cheezburger has also released five books, two of which are New York Times bestsellers, and was the focus of the LOLwork reality television series, which aired on the Bravo network in 2012.

The Internet culture connoisseur has been featured in many high-profile media outlets including The New York Times, WIRED and TIME. He was named one of the “100 Most Creative People in the Business” by Fast Company, and was recognized as one of the “Top 10 Worst Dressed Men in Silicon Valley” by GQ.  In 2011, Huh received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

As a top industry expert, he has been tapped to speak on numerous panels at leading conferences including the Web 2.0 Summit and SXSW, where he was a featured speaker in 2013. He is also a Co-Founder and board member of Circa, on online journalism startup which re-imagines the way people will consume news.

Huh holds a BSJ from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and resides in Seattle with his wife Emily.

Startup Grind Seattle Hosts Kushal Chakrabarti (Founder and Co-Chair, Vittana)

13
May
2013
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Wednesday, 26 June

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Kushal Chakrabarti is the founder and board co-chair of Vittana, a non-profit that fights youth poverty in developing nations. It pioneered the Vittana Loan — a $750 student micro-loan that can triple a girl’s income. An award-winning organization, Vittana works in 13 countries,helps 1,000+ youth escape poverty every month and its impact is regularly highlighted in world press including the Economist, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many others.

Previously, Kushal ran technology for a $1 billion team at Amazon and is the author of 20+ patents and papers. He was recently named Social Innovator of the Year, one of Seattle’s Top 40 People Under 40 and voted the #1 Game-Changer in Philanthropy by 1.7 million readers on Huffington Post. Kushal is a frequent speaker on youth poverty, education and social entrepreneurship including SOCAP, Pop!Tech and TEDxBrussels.

In his free time, he races triathlons, takes pictures and works with dogs. Kushal lives in Seattle with his 2-year-old German Shepherd puppy.

The comScore Story: Farming Fruits in Lebanon to Farming the Entire Internet’s Activity.

10
May
2013
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In April, Startup Grind Washington DC had the privilege to speak with Dr. Magid Abraham, co-founder of comScore. This event marked Startup Grind DC’s first time hosting a speaker out of 1776, DC’s newest (and very promising) co-working space. The event was certainly an interesting and eventful occasion for all those involved: interesting due to Dr. Abraham’s remarks, and eventful due to an unexpected fire alarm that temporarily moved the event to the building’s lobby, stairwells, and sidewalk (not even kidding, on the street networking definitely happened). It was certainly a Startup Grind first, but in the end, we all came away with some insightful and powerful points provided by comScore’s legendary leader.

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Startup Grind Ottawa Hosts Paul Meek (Kichesippi Beer Co.)

10
May
2013
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Thursday, 30 May

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Paul Meek is an international beer agent and the co-owner/founder of Kichesippi Beer Co., an Ottawa-based microbrewery that has been gaining a very strong following since it’s founding in 2009 even scooping up local competitors Heritage Brewing in 2010 and Scotch Irish Brewing Co. in 2011. The brewery recently even launched an “olde fashioned” Soda product line Harvey & Vern’s. Join us on Thursday, May 30th as we learn about Paul’s journey starting and running a successful brewery in Ottawa and what they have planned for the Harvey & Vern’s soda line.

 

Startup Grind Philadelphia Hosts Gabriel Weinberg (DuckDuckGo)

08
May
2013
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Wednesday, 5 June

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Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO and Founder of DuckDuckGo, a search engine that does not track you and has better instant answers.  DuckDuckGo is gaining more and more market share every year and is widely considered a Top 5 search engine.

Previously, Gabriel founded NamesDatabase, which was sold to Classmates.com in 2006 for $10MM.  Gabriel was educated at MIT, with a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Technology and Policy.  He is an active angel investor and is currently the Chapter Director of Open Angel Forum Philadelphia.  He is also an active blogger on all things startup.

Recently, Gabriel launched Mentor Chats, a fireside chat program where he interviews startup veterans who are active in mentoring, a critically important part of growing an ecosystem.  Gabriel Weinberg is a quiet leader who leads by example and always available via Ohours.

Currently based in Paoli, a Philadelphia suburb about 30 miles outside of the city, Gabriel is married with two kids.

Stockholm Has Got That Startup Fire

08
May
2013
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There’s something about Sweden that is just so unique and special. I lived in Europe for 6-years growing up, but had never had the chance to get to Sweden until 2008 while working at Electronic Arts I was assigned to work on a game that was developed in Stockholm and spent some time there. It’s a beautiful county with beautiful people. It also has a rocking Startup Grind Chapter!

Chapter Director Per Bergström has done a fantastic job at giving voice to the successful startup scene that has created startups like Spotify and many others. See the awesome event held a few weeks ago with Hjalmar Winbladh who has a pretty amazing history you can read about here. Excited for more great things to happen in Sweden.

Startup Grind Stockholm Feat. Hjalmar Winbladh from StartupGrindSWE on Vimeo.

Startup Grind San Diego Hosts Nadav Wilf (Enlightened.org)

07
May
2013
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Thursday, 16 May

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Nadav Wilf is CEO and Founder of Enlightened.org, a marketplace that integrates philanthropy into everyday life through social shopping. Enlightened.org is one of the Los Angeles’ hottest tech startups, built with an incredible team of proven engineers, business development professionals, marketing personnel, and design thinkers…all under a bootstrap budget.

Previously, Nadav was the Founder of DiscoverSD, a luxury lifestyle guide that reached over 150,000 visitors a month, built on an incredible content engine, and sold that to San Diego Union Tribune. He also started and sold MatrixMT, an online marketing platform that differentiated with a strong link building competence which allowed it to win accounts across mid to enterprise level operations.

May 2013 Global Update

06
May
2013
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We had more entrepreneurs attend a Startup Grind in April, than in 2010 + 2011 combined. Thanks to everyone that helps make this community possible. Keep grinding everyone.

**Launch a Startup Grind Chapter today! Apply here. We welcome Philadelphia, Karachi Pakistan, San Antonio, and Las Vegas.
**Get $100 off a Global Pass! Save and attend any Startup Grind events worldwide including Startup Grind 2014 conference next February.
**Watch any Startup Grind. We recently relaunched our free video archives!!
**In the press. Read about us on Fred Wilson’s AVC, TechCrunch, and Fast Company.

Startup Grind Upcoming Events

1 May [Philadelphia] Wayne Kimmel, Artists & Instigators
2 May [Karachi] Farzal Ali Dojki, Next Generation Innovations
8 May [Los Angeles] Peter Samuelson, Revenge of the Nerds

13 May [Toronto] John Ruffolo, OMERS Ventures
14 May [Silicon Valley] Nolan Bushnell, Atari, Chuck E Cheese
14 May [Melbourne] Patrick Llewellyn, CEO of 99designs
14 May [Sydney] Tom Dawkins, Start Some Good
15 May [North Bay] Marinnovation
16 May [Washington, D.C.] Nigel Morris, Capital One

16 May [Lehi] Devin Graham, YouTube sensation devinsupertramp
21 May [Chicago] Howard Tullman, Tribeca Flashpoint
21 May [Dallas] Jere Thompson, Ambit Energy
21 May [Buenos Aires] Marcos Galperín, MercadoLibre, Inc
22 May [Seattle] Chris DeVore, Founders Co-op
28 May [San Antonio] David Spencer, Texas Intrepid Ventures

29 May [Austin] Hall T. Martin, Texas Entrepreneur Networks
29 May [New York City] Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed
29 May [Sao Paulo] Kimball Thomas, Baby.com.br (founder)
30 May [San Francisco] Ali Pincus, One King’s Lane (founder)
30 May [Kansas City] Danny O’Neill, The Roasterie, Inc.

31 May [Singapore] Shashank Dixit, Deskera Open Source

1 June [Karachi] Farhad Karamally, Fnckventures
6 June [Silicon Valley] Jessica Livingston, Y Combinator (founder)
10 June [Washington, D.C.] Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media
11 June [Dallas] Shridhar Mittal, CA Technologies / ITKO
12 June [Los Angeles] Mark Suster, GRP Partners

20 June [San Francisco] Mikkel Svane, Zendesk (founder)

25 June [San Antonio] Patrick Condon, Rackspace (founder)
24 June [Austin] Kevin Koym, TechRanch Austin

11 July [Dallas] Nina Vaca, Pinnacle
17 July [Los Angeles] Robert Tercek, Creative Visions / OWN
18 July [Silicon Valley] Vinod Kholsa, Khosla Ventures
24 July [San Francisco] Ali Partovi, Code.org (founder)
29 July [Austin] Mike Maples, Sr, Investor
31 July [Ottawa] David S. Rose, Gust Read more →

Startup Grind Karachi Hosts Farhad Karamally (Fnckventures)

03
May
2013
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Saturday, 1 June

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Farhad Karamally is Group Head and Managing Director, ‘fnckventures’. This is a group company that brings together entrepreneurial ventures like Navitus, Stimulus, Tangerine Media, AYDAN, FKSquared, Mission cre8ech and The Bottom Line Holidays Sri Lanka

By profession Farhad Karamally is an Organizational Development Consultant and Trainer with almost 2 decades of experience in the enriching organizations through his interventions. He has facilitated numerous strategic meetings and management development program for some of the leading companies in the region that includes names like Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan & Sri Lanka, Bayer CropScience, Novartis Consumer Healthcare Pakistan & Middle East Cluster, Procter & Gamble Pakistan & Kazakhstan, Nestlé Pakistan, Pepsi Cola International, Shell Pakistan, Holcim Cement Lanka, British America Tobacco (Pakistan and Sri Lanka Affiliates), Philip Morris International, Al Batha Group, World Food Program & many others.

He is also involved in driving and assisting organizations towards injecting ‘Compassion in Business’, and is a Founding Professional Member of the International Working Group on Compassionate Organizations.

Farhad is synonymous with progress & positive change. In testament to that, he has co-authored ‘Pukh Theory’ – Pakistan’s first business parable that explores an indigenous & unique solution to the global challenge of succession planning, which has led to a wider awakening of the concept within corporate Pakistan.

In brief, Farhad is a ‘Habitual Entrepreneur’ who believes that it is not about the business, but the belief in self and one’s own ideas, that lead to the creation of businesses.