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Social Matchbox - Open Mic & Speed Dating for Geeks - Back by Popular DemandThursday, November 4, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (ET)McLean, VA |
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Event Details
The event brings together members of the DC Startup community including startup founders, developers, marketers, designers, investors, and others who work for or aspire to work for startups. This is one event where it is safe to tell people you are looking for sweat equity and a great opportunity to get in on a startup as a co-founder.
The open format is fusion of startup job fair, networking event, and demo night. We give each startup a few minutes to talk about what they are doing, what they are looking for (sweat equity, employees, investors, feedback, etc.) and a projector to show anything they want as long as it relates to their software or web based product startup. Attendees include hiring teams and founders from the top startup companies from around the DC area. The last few times we had an event at TeqCorner in 2008 people including the founders of Living Social and early team members from Opower, *ClearSpring, and many other companies that have since risen to the top of the Washington area startup charts presented.
We have heard from a lot of our friends in the community who are cooking up new startups and looking for their next startup experience lately. Back in 2007, and early 2008, there were so many people looking to connect with each other that we held a Startup Job Fair at TeqCorner. That startup job fair evolved into Social Matchbox's Startup Launch Series. The startup ecosystem in DC has gone full circle and now we are staring at the beginning of an exciting new startup cycle for the greater Washington area. To help get things going we are holding mixers like this one in DC, VA, and MD. This time around we know a lot more interesting people and expect even greater startups to happen as a result of the Social Matchbox Speed Dating for Geeks sessions.
If you have not been to an event before, we usually have pizza, sodas, and color coded name badges to help you and everyone you will meet sort out whether you are a Co-Founder (vs. Looking for Co-Founders/Sweat Equity), Investor, Startup Person, Job Seeker, Socializer, Hiring Team (have paid jobs), or more. One thing that is not changing is the No Selling While Socializing rule. With that in mind, no staffing agencies or others who would otherwise have an incentive to show up and try to sell to startups are allowed. The exception to this rule is for the sponsors who help make the event possible - we invite a few people to do that each time. If you are a vendor who wants to gain exposure to startup people through this event drop us a note - contact@socialmatchbox.com (don't try to register - we verify every person is not a sales rep manually).
SCHEDULE
6:00-6:45 PM - Check-in, Networking, Presenters Test Presentations Out
6:45-8:15 PM - Startup Introductions (2-3 minutes each)
8:15-9:00 PM - Networking
IMPORTANT DETAILS
What is a startup for the purposes of Social Matchbox Open Mic Nitght events?
A startup company for the purpose of this event is an early stage company with fewer than 50 employees that is working on a web or software product. If you are not sure then ask.
Who can't come?
If you sell stuff to startups or might be tempted to then you should not come unless you are a sponsor. This includes: lawyers, staffing agencies/recruiters (corporate recruiters are ok as long as they work for a startup), insurance brokers, solutions providers, offshore/outsource development providers, interactive agencies (designers and developers are always welcome if they work for a larger agency, but not if they are aggressively selling their services - you must be someone who can be hired by a startup or who is legitimately in a position to talk about a startup you are founding - don't register if there is even a little bit of a gray area - just email us and get a ruling, etc. If you are not sure then ask.
What is sweat equity?
Please note that while many of the employers are filling positions that will pay a market salary, opportunities for equity-compensated positions will also be available. Some companies offer a combination of both. Equity means stock in the company that may require a vesting period or other terms.
What does the sponsor money go toward?
Money raised from sponsors helps pay for the cost of pizza, sodas, and operations costs associated with the SocialMatchox.com website and events. We put on some really fun events, but to do that we have real costs associated with them.
PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP BY
The SocialMatchbox.com team, Volunteers, TeqCorner, and others to be announced.
When & Where
TeqCorner
3rd Floor, 1616 Anderson Road
McLean,
VA 22102
Thursday, November 4, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (ET)
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Hosted By
Social Matchbox
SocialMatchbox.com is a trusted source of straight up information, news, and perspective related to the software and web product community here on the East Coast. SocialMatchbox.com is published by Robert Neelbauer, an active member of the Washington, DC-Baltimore, MD-Northern VA web and software product communities. Contributors include prominent venture capitalists, web developers and designers, attorneys, business community leaders, and most importantly: entrepreneurs.
Mission
Our objective is to provide some information that may be helpful to web and software product company founders and people. We are amateurs with expert ambitions who really appreciate it when readers provide feedback on the blog through comments and an occasional email to contact@socialmatchbox.com, show up to events, and pay for a job ad every now and then.
Readership & Community
Over 70% of SocialMatchbox.com’s 6,000+ member active reader community members are local to DC, MD, and VA with growing pockets of readers in GA, NY, PA, TX and CA. Several times a year since 2007, the SocialMatchbox.com team has hosted and co-hosted many of the region’s most talked about events by members of the community and the media. Some of these include the Social Matchbox Launch Event Series (past event video here), private events for founders and investors, and programming done in partnership with the region’s leading incubators and top universities including American University and The University of Maryland College Park.
Members include founders, developers, product managers, marketers, angel investors, venture capitalists, advisers, attorneys, accountants and others directly involved in product oriented business ventures. In direct contrast to most organizations that claim to serve the web and product startup community, we purposefully draw a line between service providers and product providers. Whether it is an event or a topic discussed on the website, Social Matchbox community members quickly realize that this is not a community for the service providers. The only exception to this is when it comes time for event sponsors. We do hand select a few service providers who are friends to web and software product providers and recognize them for their support of key events.
Monetization
SocialMatchbox.com is supported thanks to sponsors, free + (donation optional) job listings, proceeds from recommended book purchases, and advertising revenue generated through banner ads. Our annual revenue is around $20-25k which goes into events, web hosting, and miscellaneous operating costs. If we have money left over at the end of the year we buy dinner for the Startup Launch Series Events organizing team. One day we might make a profit off of the event or the blog, but that is not our objective.
Partners
SocialMatchbox.com’s academic partners include the American University Kogod School of Business, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Computer Science Department at the University of Maryland, College Park. Community Partners include Refresh DC, Refresh Baltimore, DCTechEvents, the DC Ruby on Rails User Group, the Business Alliance for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and many others that count emerging technology and startup people among their ranks. Incubator Partners include Affinity Lab, Launchbox Digital, and the Mtech Technology Accelerator Program.
History
SocialMatchbox.com began around 2001 as a list of jobs for friends. Before that it was an email list and a social dinner, for friends who needed help finding a job, hence the “Social” in “SocialMatchbox.com”. In 2007 the organization evolved with the introduction a startup job fair that quickly turned into what is now known as the Social Matchbox Startup Launch Event Series.
Advertising & Sponsorships
If you would like to Advertise on SocialMatchbox.com or Sponsor a Social Matchbox event send a note to contact@socialmatchbox.com with your name, organization, a quick summary of your objective and daytime contact information – if your there is a fit we will be in touch. We occasionally get a good write-up in the paper and by a few decent bloggers. A few people tell us that we put on the East Coast equivalent of Tech Crunch 50. While we are not that big of a deal, we do have a really solid following and can help you get in front of some really influential people here in DC, MD, and VA.
A few other places where you can find us online are: Facebook and LinkedIn.
For more information about Social Matchbox please call us at 202-330-3909