Wednesday, June 6

The Hatchery - June event

At the June event for The Hatchery - attempting to build the technology community here in New York City. A number of companies are presenting their business model to the tech community. I was on a call for the first company, SmartMedicalConsumer, which I will get further information on it later.

The other companies - I liveblogged on each company. Also, as a member of the team behind the Hatchery, I would like to ask your opinion on the event. please make your comments and/or suggestions on the blog post so I can help incorporate them into the next event.

FlyUpload - Amir Shaikh
Allow users of any social media to share files online - any form of media they wish. The actual service providers on social networks are being ignored for other providers (e.g. YouTube on MySpace). FlyUpload wants to becomea "media company" - since the Web is destined to become a "media platform".

Team has built a Facebook widget, iGoogle widget, and others.
Competitors - YouSendIt (their previous company), MegaUpload/Rapidshare, Social Networking/Media Giants
They might become a CDN-type play since they have the IP from a previous company.
Current traffic: 1MM uniques on a monthly basis
Amir was somewhat aggressive/argumentative with the judges - but was adamant on FlyUpload providing a more ubiquous form of upload.

MatchMyPet - Ori
The basic concept: a website for matching breeders and owners of pets to trade pet material (e.g. semen) between breeders and enthusiasts.
  • Ori's line: P2P - pet to pet, B2B - breeder to breeder
  • Currently, most are using it as a playdate for their dogs, social networking, service directory.
  • New developments - Breeders MarketPlace, Vet911, Provider Portal, PriciPet (benchmark for pets and breeding material - how much does the puppy cost once you make one)
  • Multi-regional (Brasil market next)
Competitive players? We welcome the competition - no other sites are offering this service yet.

Due to other problems with my computer, I was unable to gather the live notes for the other company: LicencedSandbox.

Feedback from the MeetUp site:

At the moment, I grabbed the quotes from the MeetUp page, and would love to hear your feedback.
  • Nate Westheimer - "Very high quality companies relative to other events. I do wish there was an opportunity to submit questions from the crowd. Some important questions went unasked."
  • Jean - "Tonight's event was very high quality. The presenters were all well prepared, and all had compelling and interesting business ideas. "
  • Hermann Mazard - "The panelists were very prepared and knowledgeable and I would love for them to judge every session. They vetted the presentations with pin-point accuracy; this type of exposure will prove exceptional experience for first-time presenters. It seemed however that first-time presenters weren't treated fairly; perhaps I misunderstood the purpose of the event. I thought this was a venue young entrepreneurs could turn too to improve their business concepts and hone presentation skills. The tone of the judges often became more critical than constructive. It was a turn off when the panel/presenter relationship turned adversarial. I think the sessions can be most productive if the expert panel can offer suggestions on how the entrepreneur can improve her/his strategic positioning in addition to pointing out what s/he didn't do or didn't think of."
  • Marc Simony - "The panelists need microphones. Presenters should take advantage of the panelists. What's the point of just answering questions; how about asking some?"
  • Jon Thornton - "Some time should be given to audience questions."
  • naveed - "Perhaps fewer presentations (3 instead of 4) and some time for attendee questions would be nice."
  • Gregory P. Tarris - "Need to limit the time for questions since the audience started to get itchy after a while since the questioning period seemed to go on too long.Need to have a microphone for the panel since they could not be heard."
  • Arjun Ram - "It was well organized and was good to catch up with fellow entrpreneurs."
  • Ronald Bradford - "It was excellent. I've collated my comments, you can read them at http://blog.arabx... "
  • Shukriyyah - "I thought event was great. I would invite others to the group. I will submit my idea next time."
  • Craig - "I think the overall quality of the presenters was very high. But I thought the panel became adversarial and this was not constructive. There is never just one point of view and while they were each experts, they should have approached the presenters with more of an open mind. One final comment, audience participation... PLEASE. Keep up the good work! "
  • Andre Archimbaud - "I am still amazed at the ideas that abound from this group. The presentations are all well managed and VERY informative."

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