As the Startup Grind team returns to our Redwood City office, energized after catching up on the sleep we lost during 16 hour days, we're feeling really grateful to have been hosts for the worldwide Startup Grind community at the 2016 Startup Grind Global Conference. By the numbers, more than 100 Directors from 45 countries joined over 100 successful founders and investors, who mentored 3,000 attendees during two days of nonstop connections, lessons, and hustle.
But it's more than numbers. It has been inspiring to hear your feedback, including many who have said it was the best event Startup Grind has ever done - and we do a lot of events. We need that energy, because plans for the 2017 Startup Grind Global Conference are already underway. Hope to see you there.
In the meantime, we're collecting all the stories about the event not just from our own live event bloggers, but from across the entire web. Wrote something and don't see it here? Let us know.
Reporting from Startup Grind
Startup Grind Expands Past 185 Chapters, Welcomes 3,000 To Global Conference
Meeting the Family: This is the Director's Retreat at Startup Grind
Day 1 Reporting
How to Make Investors Swipe Right: 10 Startup Lessons from Guy Kawasaki
Slack's Stewart Butterfield Now Employs 369, Internally Trading 130,000 Messages Per Day
23andME's FDA Cease & Desist Order "Sign of Success," Says Anne Wojcicki
Culture fit is a luxury, says Thumbtack's Marco Zappacosta, Now +150 Employees and $1.25B Valuation
Venture Capital is "Liquidity Ponzi Scheme," Says Steve Blank
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield: "It Sucks To Be the CEO of a Startup That's Doing Super Well"
Anyone but Bernie Sanders For President, Poses Tim Draper of DFJ Ventures
Gig Economy Opportunity Huge, with 97% of Freelance Happening Offline, says Fiverr Founder
Technology won't Destroy the Gig Economy - Yet, say Investors & Professors
90,000 Neighborhoods and Counting: How Nextdoor Hacked Growth with the USPS
Leading South American Investor Launches Big Idea Challenge at Startup Grind
Big Money in Small Business: Arvind Purushotham on Citi Ventures' Startup Investing
Day 2 Reporting
Marc Andreessen & Clayton Christensen: "Venture capital is abundant, opportunity is scarce"
Vinod Khosla: "You don't need a CEO," You Need a Founder to Lead & Innovate
Why Mark Zuckerberg & Ron Conway are Attracting Immigrants to Silicon Valley
Funded on Credit Card Debt, Acquired in a Denny’s: Steve Chen on YouTube’s Founding Story
How to Get Acquired by Google, According to VP of Corporate Development Don Harrison
Dustin Moskovitz of Asana & Facebook: Nurture these Two Things to Craft a Great Work Culture
Don't Sell Your Soul: "Valuation Has No Effect on Your Company," insists Jason Fried of Basecamp
Udacity Founder Sebastian Thurn: We can double the world's GDP
With $2 Billion Raised, GoFundMe wants to "Disrupt Giving" By Putting Philanthropy in Our Hands
"We're only a couple degrees removed from any given company," says Christine Tsai of 500 Startups
Tracy Young of Plangrid: Why Watching Animal Videos Will Make You a Better Founder
Why Go Global? 86% of Usage from Outside USA for Top Web COs, says SurveyMonkey CTO
The Founder's Playbook for Selling Into Enterprise, with Ayasdi CEO Gurjeet Singh & Citi Ventures
Reporting from Across the Web
CNN Money: Anne Wojcicki: FDA shutdown was 'a transformative moment'
CNN Money: Marc Andreessen: There aren't enough unicorns
CNN Money: Ron Conway: I hope tech founders have political aspirations
CNN Money: Postmates cofounder: If I'd listened to investors, my company wouldn't be here
Nikkei: Creating a startup ecosystem means making business easier for every one
Bloomberg: Never Faster, Easier to Start a Company: Google for Entrepreneurs
CCTV: Tech startups vie for billion-dollar deals while stressing balance
Univision: 12 consejos para startups de un multimillonario polémico de Silicon Valley
Univision: Un emprendedor lucha por llevar latinos de los campos de fresas a la industria tecno
Forbes: Guy Kawasaki: The Top 10 Mistakes Of Entrepreneurs
TechInAsia: The most memorable quotes from Startup Grind 2016
Huffington Post: An Afternoon With Vinod Khosla
Huffington Post: Five Things I Learned at Startup Grind Global
Inc: This Is the 1 Thing That Worries Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield the Most
Times of India: Kerala start-up wins global recognition
Tech Insider: Marc Andreessen: This is not a business to be passive — it's a business to be aggressive
Business Insider: The billionaire who wanted to split California into 6 states now has a crazy plan to give everyone $15,000
Business Insider: Postmates CEO: If we had listened to the advice of VCs in the past two years, we wouldn't be here today
Business Insider: Here’s how Silicon Valley’s startup guru can instantly tell if you should start a company
Business Insider: There's one decision founders make that legendary VC Vinod Khosla says never gets enough thought
Business Insider: Q&A: Why Facebook and Asana's cofounder thinks startups should invest in culture in a downturn, and why Slack isn't a threat
Business Insider: Slack grew from 80 to 385 employees in 14 months. Why that worries its CEO
The Business Journal: National Startup Grind will showcase two Tampa firms
BizJournals: Disruption guru Christensen, VC Andreessen talk about winning by breaking things
BizJournals: 15 things I learned about entrepreneurship at Startup Grind
Medium: The Power of Core Values by Bastian Lehmann
Medium: Doing It Differently in Silicon Valley: A Conversation with Basecamp’s Jason Fried
Medium: The top 5 quotes from Startup Grind 2016 & how I’m going to use them this year
Black Enterprise: ShearShare Founders ‘Kill It’ at Startup Grind in Silicon Valley
Business2Community: Think About It Before You Look For VC Funding Read
IT Business: What are Vinod Khosla’s personal KPIs?
Daily News: Here’s how Silicon Valley’s startup guru can instantly tell if you should start a company
TechZulu: Startup Grind 2016 – “Make Friends, Not Contacts”
BoostInsider: Our Experience at Startup Grind 2016
StartupJoJo: Covering Startup Grind's Annual Global Conference
Now It's Your Turn: Give Us Feedback!
Hery came in from Madagascar and said the talks were "genuine, gloves off discussions of the highest level with interviewers who listened to understand not just to fire off their response," while Yale student Pianpian found the fireside chats "insightful and engaging, with great speakers" on topics like "immigration and the relationship between investors and entrepreneurs." It seems like you all loved the food, too!
It's not all high fives, of course: from your feedback, we also know we have to kick up the Internet access a few notches, ramp up the pace of check-in to support all of you early, and maybe extend that after-party of ours.
We love hearing all your feedback - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let us know about your experience by emailing us here.