Why there aren?t 20 Nashville startups that you need to know

When I joined TNW, a bit over a year ago, I was tasked with finding the best local startups and putting a post together about them. It?s not uncommon. We?ve done the same thing with New York, Los Angeles, London and many other locations where TNW writers hang their proverbial hats. Not only would it give us some credibility that we?ve actually been in the trenches (at least somewhat) to find out what?s going on in our cities, it would enable us to shed some light on interesting things that are being done.

The problem is, over a year later, I still haven?t gotten my piece done. Not for lack of effort, mind you. I?ve met some great startups here in Nashville and I continue to dig up more. But if I had to write a post today, it would be titled ?The four Nashville startups you need to know?. In the time that I?ve spent here, I?ve heard some big dreams and ideas, but I?ve only met four startups (and I?ve written about 3 of them already) that are ready to let the world know about them.

The Problem at Hand

One could (somewhat rightly) argue that the reason that I haven?t had ones who are ready for the world to know about them yet is that things move a bit slower here in the South. Much like what I experienced in Omaha, Nebraska, we here in Tennessee take careful, calculated steps rather than placing so much risk on the line.

There are a couple of reasons for this, and both of those reasons serve to add to the greater problem. First off, there?s the matter of funding.

It?s been said that VC?s will travel anywhere, but that doesn?t always seem to be the case. Local funding (of anything higher than Angel level) in Nashville typically comes either from people who have made their money in healthcare (Nashville?s Wikipedia entry sheds some light as to precisely how much healthcare happens here) or it comes from people who have made money in the music industry.

Getting VC-level investment from the outside has been difficult, according to many of the people with whom I?ve spoken. The left coast wants consumer facing, the right coast wants huge B2B dollars and those of us here in the flyover states?well, we?re just left wanting.

So that goes back to the risk aversion. When you limit your pool of potential investors by not being in ?The Valley? or ?The Alley?, you string along your in-hand dollars as long as you possibly can. You don?t necessarily shoot for the moon, simply because you know where you live and you know that finding moon-landing investors is exponentially more difficult.

The other problem, as it was quite simply stated by the CEO of Help Scout, is that there is a wealth of opportunity in the Nashville technology scene for people who want to work on other people?s projects. That is to say that there isn?t nearly as much for those who want to do their own.

I hadn?t been able to nail down this fact myself, but after hearing it from someone else, it makes perfect sense. There is an extraordinary sense of collaboration in Nashville, but unlike Boulder, it?s people helping each other without having their own projects as well.

The Solutions

?What we?re doing now is reminiscent of the Valley when it first became the Valley,? says Jumpstart Foundry Managing Director Christopher ?Ferf? McIntyre. ?There are lots of shared ideas, a lot of things coming together at the same time.?

McIntyre brings up a number of good points, and he is part of the solution rather than simply being one to escalate the problem. Jumpstart Foundry has been around Nashville for a few years, helping entrepreneurs and budding businesses find their feet, but the Foundry?s recent network affiliation with TechStars means that Nashville finally has its first international accelerator.

In fact, from the overall description, Jumpstart Foundry is simply TechStars with a different name. It?s a 14-week, mentor-driven accelerator where the groups of accepted startups are given $15,000 to help form their business and acquire customers. Then, on Demo Day, they will have the opportunity to pitch to 4-500 people plus an audience of VC?s.

Nashville does have its drawing points, however. ?There is a strong university presence, sending in a stream of engineers, graphic designers and the like. There are also some fundamental changes that are happening in Nashville. The cost of services are going down.?

But McIntyre also points to the universal changes that we?re seeing ? ?Amazon, Twilio and other API?s are allowing people to build more and to do so without spending so much of their capital.?

?People in Nashville are just now starting to see these opportunities. You don?t need to raise hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that you might need to raise in the Valley. We have young, college kids who are willing to do things that they?re more passionate about. They?re starting to understand that you don?t have to work for someone else your whole life.?

This younger population also lends itself to Nashville?s benefit. The city as a whole is young. With a median age of only 34 years, its population is even younger than San Francisco. While the population might be somewhat risk-averse, these younger people (especially in tight financial times) are willing to take risky moves in order to find long-term success.

McIntyre says that he sees Nashville as ?moving from a community of resource to a community of entrepreneurs.? In his approximation, Nashville?s technology sector has 10 to 20 MBA?s who are ?hanging out to help people?. At any given time there are 5 to 15 companies who are offering the same, and the Angel community is developing quickly.

What?s Nashville doing right? Read on for the resources and the future.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/us/2011/06/25/why-there-arent-20-nashville-startups-you-need-to-know-about/

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Political Memo: Two G.O.P. Hopefuls Divide the Voters in Deep-Pocketed Utah

That has potentially significant implications for the national election, given the Mormon propensity to dig deep in supporting one of their own ? Mr. Romney and Mr. Huntsman are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based here. But it is already creating deep division and uncertainty among people who like both men and are now being forced to choose.

?My wife is a Mitt person, and I am a Jon person ? you?re going to see that in a lot of households,? said Lew Cramer, a business development executive here who contributed the maximum allowed to Mr. Romney?s presidential campaign in 2008 but has switched allegiances and is now serving on Mr. Huntsman?s national finance committee.

On Friday, Mr. Romney came to the state for private meetings and for one sun-baked afternoon appearance in the parking lot of a drive-in fast food restaurant.

His targets were President Obama and most everything Mr. Obama has done as president. Mr. Huntsman, who jumped into the race last week, was not on the menu for attack. A restaurant sign reading ?tips are appreciated? was covered with bunting just before Mr. Romney spoke.

?We have 20 million Americans that are out of work or have stopped looking for work or are in part-time jobs,? Mr. Romney said, standing tie-less on the back of a pickup truck with his wife, Ann, as he addressed a crowd of several hundred people.

The crowd was enthusiastic, but not uniformly so.

?I?m supporting our party,? said Jeff Haaga, 55, a marketing executive and chairman of his local Republican Party precinct who said he was undecided. ?Huntsman, if I had to choose today,? he added.

Utah, despite having only 2.8 million people, was Mr. Romney?s third biggest source of money in 2008 ? after Massachusetts, where he had been governor, and California ? contributing more than $5.5 million. Mr. Romney also raised significant money in heavily Mormon areas of the West outside Utah, particularly in Idaho and Arizona. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary in Utah, he got almost 90 percent of the vote.

Mr. Huntsman, on the other hand, succeeded where Mr. Romney never ventured. He got elected to office in Utah ? twice as governor, in 2004 and 2008. In the 2008 election, in particular, his popularity was overwhelming, winning with 78 percent of the vote. Indeed, 36 percent of Utah voters who identified themselves as Democrats voted for him that year, according to an Edison-Mitofsky exit poll.

The imprint and connection to Utah extends, for both men, partly through their fathers. Mr. Romney?s was George W. Romney, a businessman in Utah and later governor of Michigan in the 1960s. Mr. Huntsman?s father, Jon M. Huntsman Sr., is an economic and political patriarch ? a billionaire chemical-industry entrepreneur and philanthropist whose name is associated with the cancer research institute he financed at the University of Utah.

For better or worse ? and probably worse in overwhelmingly Republican Utah ? Mr. Huntsman is also linked to Mr. Obama, having served as ambassador to China from 2009 until this April. Mr. Obama got less than 35 percent of the vote here, one of his lowest rates in the nation.

Both men face potential trouble in Utah from Tea Party groups. They have attacked Mr. Romney for his role, as governor of Massachusetts, in helping pass a health care plan in 2006, considered a model for the federal overhaul passed last year. Mr. Huntsman has come under fire for, among other things, supporting a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when he was governor of Utah.

?I don?t know of any true-blue Tea Party activists who are supporting Huntsman or Romney,? said Darcy Van Orden, chairwoman of the Utah Republican Liberty Caucus, a group that declares itself ?the conscience of the Republican Party.?

But beyond the issues of money and popularity, the Huntsman-Romney divide seems likely to expose what could be an even trickier question for many people in Utah: Is one candidate more devoutly Mormon than the other? And should a conclusion about that bleed over into political support or opposition?

Mr. Huntsman, in some recent interviews, appears to have distanced himself a bit from his religion. ?I can?t say I am overly religious,? he said in an interview with Fortune magazine last year, a quote that many Utahans can recite from memory. ?I get satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies.?

The statement could prove to be positive on the national stage, but it sticks in at least few craws here at home.

?For those Mormons like myself that are more committed, I think that rubs us wrong,? said Steve Belnap, 53, an accountant who was on his way to work in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday morning. ?However, on the other side, Huntsman is going to pick up those who have lost the commitment. Who gets the most votes because of that, I don?t know.?

Kitty Bennett, Marjorie Connelly and Griffin Palmer contributed research.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=19b59a1a04369f37b0d0b3e9a53c1951

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Cheaper High-Efficiency Solar Panels

Chinese solar-panel manufacturer Suntech Power has developed a new process for making silicon wafers for solar cells that could cut the cost of solar power by 10 to 20 percent.

The most efficient silicon solar cells use wafers consisting of a single crystal of silicon. When made by the new process, these high-quality "monocrystalline" wafers cost about the same as  lower-quality multicrystalline wafers, or potentially half as much as monocrystalline wafers made by conventional processes. (Wafer cost is only part of the cost of solar power, which is why a process that may cost half as much only reduces the overall cost by 10 to 20 percent.)

The idea underlying the process was patented more than 20 years ago but never commercially developed by the patent owners. The patents expired about three years ago, and several companies?JA Solar, LDK Solar, and Renesola, in addition to Suntech?recently announced that they had succeeded in making the process work.

Stuart Wenham, Suntech's CTO, described the advance at a solar conference this week in Seattle, and said the company has already started selling solar panels made using the process.

This news may spell trouble for businesses in the United States and elsewhere hoping to commercialize new thin-film solar technologies. In theory, thin-film technology is cheaper per watt than silicon technology. But its makers have found it hard to compete with Chinese makers of conventional silicon solar panels, which have steadily cut costs in part by improving manufacturing techniques and in part because government support has allowed them to scale up production quickly.

Making high-quality monocrystalline wafers ordinarily involves heating silicon to over 1,400 ° C (higher than its melting point), and then dipping a seed crystal into the melt. An ingot from which the wafers will be cut is formed by gradually pulling the seed up as the silicon crystallizes around it. This happens over the course of one to two days, during which time the pool of silicon must be kept hot?which takes a lot of energy. Both the energy consumption and the slow rate of production make the process expensive. Making multicrystalline ingots is faster and less energy-intensive?the silicon is melted and then cooled. There is no need to keep the silicon hot, saving energy, but cells made from these materials are much less efficient.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=42b2b0365e59c982ff8b298fd098806b

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Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces

Over tuna and turkey sandwiches, the advisers explained that New York?s Democratic governor was determined to legalize same-sex marriage and would deliver every possible Senate vote from his own party.

Would the donors win over the deciding Senate Republicans? It sounded improbable: top Republican moneymen helping a Democratic rival with one of his biggest legislative goals.

But the donors in the room ? the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb ? had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.

Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board. Each of them cut six-figure checks to the lobbying campaign that eventually totaled more than $1 million.

Steve Cohen, the No. 2 in Mr. Cuomo?s office and a participant in the meeting, began to see a path to victory, telling a colleague, ?This might actually happen.?

The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed.

But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.

And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap.

?I can help you,? Mr. Cuomo assured them in dozens of telephone calls and meetings, at times pledging to deploy his record-high popularity across the state to protect them in their districts. ?I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.?

Over the last several weeks, dozens of lawmakers, strategists and advocates described the closed-door meetings and tactical decisions that led to approval of same-sex marriage in New York, about two years after it was rejected by the Legislature. This account is based on those interviews, most of which were granted on the condition of anonymity to describe conversations that were intended to be confidential.

?I Have to Do This?

Mr. Cuomo was diplomatic but candid with gay-rights advocates in early March when he summoned them to the Capitol?s Red Room, a ceremonial chamber with stained-glass windows and wood-paneled walls.

The advocates had contributed to the defeat of same-sex marriage in 2009, he told them, with their rampant infighting and disorganization. He had seen it firsthand, as attorney general, when organizers had given him wildly divergent advice about which senators to lobby and when, sometimes in bewildering back-to-back telephone calls. ?You can either focus on the goal, or we can spend a lot of time competing and destroying ourselves,? the governor said.

This time around, the lobbying had to be done the Cuomo way: with meticulous, top-down coordination. ?I will be personally involved,? he said.

The gay-rights advocates agreed, or at least acquiesced. Five groups pushing for same-sex marriage merged into a single coalition, hired a prominent consultant with ties to Mr. Cuomo?s office, Jennifer Cunningham, and gave themselves a new name: New Yorkers United for Marriage.

Those who veered from the script faced swift reprimand. When Assemblyman Daniel J. O?Donnell, an openly gay Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a same-sex marriage bill in May without first alerting the governor?s office, he was upbraided by Mr. Cohen. ?What do you think you?re doing?? the governor?s aide barked over the phone.

Danny Hakim contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9e356584eb155e5d27c5e25471b8bfef

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Why there aren?t 20 Nashville startups that you need to know

When I joined TNW, a bit over a year ago, I was tasked with finding the best local startups and putting a post together about them. It?s not uncommon. We?ve done the same thing with New York, Los Angeles, London and many other locations where TNW writers hang their proverbial hats. Not only would it give us some credibility that we?ve actually been in the trenches (at least somewhat) to find out what?s going on in our cities, it would enable us to shed some light on interesting things that are being done.

The problem is, over a year later, I still haven?t gotten my piece done. Not for lack of effort, mind you. I?ve met some great startups here in Nashville and I continue to dig up more. But if I had to write a post today, it would be titled ?The four Nashville startups you need to know?. In the time that I?ve spent here, I?ve heard some big dreams and ideas, but I?ve only met four startups (and I?ve written about 3 of them already) that are ready to let the world know about them.

The Problem at Hand

One could (somewhat rightly) argue that the reason that I haven?t had ones who are ready for the world to know about them yet is that things move a bit slower here in the South. Much like what I experienced in Omaha, Nebraska, we here in Tennessee take careful, calculated steps rather than placing so much risk on the line.

There are a couple of reasons for this, and both of those reasons serve to add to the greater problem. First off, there?s the matter of funding.

It?s been said that VC?s will travel anywhere, but that doesn?t always seem to be the case. Local funding (of anything higher than Angel level) in Nashville typically comes either from people who have made their money in healthcare (Nashville?s Wikipedia entry sheds some light as to precisely how much healthcare happens here) or it comes from people who have made money in the music industry.

Getting VC-level investment from the outside has been difficult, according to many of the people with whom I?ve spoken. The left coast wants consumer facing, the right coast wants huge B2B dollars and those of us here in the flyover states?well, we?re just left wanting.

So that goes back to the risk aversion. When you limit your pool of potential investors by not being in ?The Valley? or ?The Alley?, you string along your in-hand dollars as long as you possibly can. You don?t necessarily shoot for the moon, simply because you know where you live and you know that finding moon-landing investors is exponentially more difficult.

The other problem, as it was quite simply stated by the CEO of Help Scout, is that there is a wealth of opportunity in the Nashville technology scene for people who want to work on other people?s projects. That is to say that there isn?t nearly as much for those who want to do their own.

I hadn?t been able to nail down this fact myself, but after hearing it from someone else, it makes perfect sense. There is an extraordinary sense of collaboration in Nashville, but unlike Boulder, it?s people helping each other without having their own projects as well.

The Solutions

?What we?re doing now is reminiscent of the Valley when it first became the Valley,? says Jumpstart Foundry Managing Director Christopher ?Ferf? McIntyre. ?There are lots of shared ideas, a lot of things coming together at the same time.?

McIntyre brings up a number of good points, and he is part of the solution rather than simply being one to escalate the problem. Jumpstart Foundry has been around Nashville for a few years, helping entrepreneurs and budding businesses find their feet, but the Foundry?s recent network affiliation with TechStars means that Nashville finally has its first international accelerator.

In fact, from the overall description, Jumpstart Foundry is simply TechStars with a different name. It?s a 14-week, mentor-driven accelerator where the groups of accepted startups are given $15,000 to help form their business and acquire customers. Then, on Demo Day, they will have the opportunity to pitch to 4-500 people plus an audience of VC?s.

Nashville does have its drawing points, however. ?There is a strong university presence, sending in a stream of engineers, graphic designers and the like. There are also some fundamental changes that are happening in Nashville. The cost of services are going down.?

But McIntyre also points to the universal changes that we?re seeing ? ?Amazon, Twilio and other API?s are allowing people to build more and to do so without spending so much of their capital.?

?People in Nashville are just now starting to see these opportunities. You don?t need to raise hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that you might need to raise in the Valley. We have young, college kids who are willing to do things that they?re more passionate about. They?re starting to understand that you don?t have to work for someone else your whole life.?

This younger population also lends itself to Nashville?s benefit. The city as a whole is young. With a median age of only 34 years, its population is even younger than San Francisco. While the population might be somewhat risk-averse, these younger people (especially in tight financial times) are willing to take risky moves in order to find long-term success.

McIntyre says that he sees Nashville as ?moving from a community of resource to a community of entrepreneurs.? In his approximation, Nashville?s technology sector has 10 to 20 MBA?s who are ?hanging out to help people?. At any given time there are 5 to 15 companies who are offering the same, and the Angel community is developing quickly.

What?s Nashville doing right? Read on for the resources and the future.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://thenextweb.com/us/2011/06/25/why-there-arent-20-nashville-startups-you-need-to-know-about/

scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter

Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces

Over tuna and turkey sandwiches, the advisers explained that New York?s Democratic governor was determined to legalize same-sex marriage and would deliver every possible Senate vote from his own party.

Would the donors win over the deciding Senate Republicans? It sounded improbable: top Republican moneymen helping a Democratic rival with one of his biggest legislative goals.

But the donors in the room ? the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb ? had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.

Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board. Each of them cut six-figure checks to the lobbying campaign that eventually totaled more than $1 million.

Steve Cohen, the No. 2 in Mr. Cuomo?s office and a participant in the meeting, began to see a path to victory, telling a colleague, ?This might actually happen.?

The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed.

But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.

And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap.

?I can help you,? Mr. Cuomo assured them in dozens of telephone calls and meetings, at times pledging to deploy his record-high popularity across the state to protect them in their districts. ?I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.?

Over the last several weeks, dozens of lawmakers, strategists and advocates described the closed-door meetings and tactical decisions that led to approval of same-sex marriage in New York, about two years after it was rejected by the Legislature. This account is based on those interviews, most of which were granted on the condition of anonymity to describe conversations that were intended to be confidential.

?I Have to Do This?

Mr. Cuomo was diplomatic but candid with gay-rights advocates in early March when he summoned them to the Capitol?s Red Room, a ceremonial chamber with stained-glass windows and wood-paneled walls.

The advocates had contributed to the defeat of same-sex marriage in 2009, he told them, with their rampant infighting and disorganization. He had seen it firsthand, as attorney general, when organizers had given him wildly divergent advice about which senators to lobby and when, sometimes in bewildering back-to-back telephone calls. ?You can either focus on the goal, or we can spend a lot of time competing and destroying ourselves,? the governor said.

This time around, the lobbying had to be done the Cuomo way: with meticulous, top-down coordination. ?I will be personally involved,? he said.

The gay-rights advocates agreed, or at least acquiesced. Five groups pushing for same-sex marriage merged into a single coalition, hired a prominent consultant with ties to Mr. Cuomo?s office, Jennifer Cunningham, and gave themselves a new name: New Yorkers United for Marriage.

Those who veered from the script faced swift reprimand. When Assemblyman Daniel J. O?Donnell, an openly gay Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a same-sex marriage bill in May without first alerting the governor?s office, he was upbraided by Mr. Cohen. ?What do you think you?re doing?? the governor?s aide barked over the phone.

Danny Hakim contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9e356584eb155e5d27c5e25471b8bfef

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Why there aren?t 20 Nashville startups that you need to know

When I joined TNW, a bit over a year ago, I was tasked with finding the best local startups and putting a post together about them. It?s not uncommon. We?ve done the same thing with New York, Los Angeles, London and many other locations where TNW writers hang their proverbial hats. Not only would it give us some credibility that we?ve actually been in the trenches (at least somewhat) to find out what?s going on in our cities, it would enable us to shed some light on interesting things that are being done.

The problem is, over a year later, I still haven?t gotten my piece done. Not for lack of effort, mind you. I?ve met some great startups here in Nashville and I continue to dig up more. But if I had to write a post today, it would be titled ?The four Nashville startups you need to know?. In the time that I?ve spent here, I?ve heard some big dreams and ideas, but I?ve only met four startups (and I?ve written about 3 of them already) that are ready to let the world know about them.

The Problem at Hand

One could (somewhat rightly) argue that the reason that I haven?t had ones who are ready for the world to know about them yet is that things move a bit slower here in the South. Much like what I experienced in Omaha, Nebraska, we here in Tennessee take careful, calculated steps rather than placing so much risk on the line.

There are a couple of reasons for this, and both of those reasons serve to add to the greater problem. First off, there?s the matter of funding.

It?s been said that VC?s will travel anywhere, but that doesn?t always seem to be the case. Local funding (of anything higher than Angel level) in Nashville typically comes either from people who have made their money in healthcare (Nashville?s Wikipedia entry sheds some light as to precisely how much healthcare happens here) or it comes from people who have made money in the music industry.

Getting VC-level investment from the outside has been difficult, according to many of the people with whom I?ve spoken. The left coast wants consumer facing, the right coast wants huge B2B dollars and those of us here in the flyover states?well, we?re just left wanting.

So that goes back to the risk aversion. When you limit your pool of potential investors by not being in ?The Valley? or ?The Alley?, you string along your in-hand dollars as long as you possibly can. You don?t necessarily shoot for the moon, simply because you know where you live and you know that finding moon-landing investors is exponentially more difficult.

The other problem, as it was quite simply stated by the CEO of Help Scout, is that there is a wealth of opportunity in the Nashville technology scene for people who want to work on other people?s projects. That is to say that there isn?t nearly as much for those who want to do their own.

I hadn?t been able to nail down this fact myself, but after hearing it from someone else, it makes perfect sense. There is an extraordinary sense of collaboration in Nashville, but unlike Boulder, it?s people helping each other without having their own projects as well.

The Solutions

?What we?re doing now is reminiscent of the Valley when it first became the Valley,? says Jumpstart Foundry Managing Director Christopher ?Ferf? McIntyre. ?There are lots of shared ideas, a lot of things coming together at the same time.?

McIntyre brings up a number of good points, and he is part of the solution rather than simply being one to escalate the problem. Jumpstart Foundry has been around Nashville for a few years, helping entrepreneurs and budding businesses find their feet, but the Foundry?s recent network affiliation with TechStars means that Nashville finally has its first international accelerator.

In fact, from the overall description, Jumpstart Foundry is simply TechStars with a different name. It?s a 14-week, mentor-driven accelerator where the groups of accepted startups are given $15,000 to help form their business and acquire customers. Then, on Demo Day, they will have the opportunity to pitch to 4-500 people plus an audience of VC?s.

Nashville does have its drawing points, however. ?There is a strong university presence, sending in a stream of engineers, graphic designers and the like. There are also some fundamental changes that are happening in Nashville. The cost of services are going down.?

But McIntyre also points to the universal changes that we?re seeing ? ?Amazon, Twilio and other API?s are allowing people to build more and to do so without spending so much of their capital.?

?People in Nashville are just now starting to see these opportunities. You don?t need to raise hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars that you might need to raise in the Valley. We have young, college kids who are willing to do things that they?re more passionate about. They?re starting to understand that you don?t have to work for someone else your whole life.?

This younger population also lends itself to Nashville?s benefit. The city as a whole is young. With a median age of only 34 years, its population is even younger than San Francisco. While the population might be somewhat risk-averse, these younger people (especially in tight financial times) are willing to take risky moves in order to find long-term success.

McIntyre says that he sees Nashville as ?moving from a community of resource to a community of entrepreneurs.? In his approximation, Nashville?s technology sector has 10 to 20 MBA?s who are ?hanging out to help people?. At any given time there are 5 to 15 companies who are offering the same, and the Angel community is developing quickly.

What?s Nashville doing right? Read on for the resources and the future.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://thenextweb.com/us/2011/06/25/why-there-arent-20-nashville-startups-you-need-to-know-about/

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Political Memo: Two G.O.P. Hopefuls Divide the Voters in Deep-Pocketed Utah

That has potentially significant implications for the national election, given the Mormon propensity to dig deep in supporting one of their own ? Mr. Romney and Mr. Huntsman are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based here. But it is already creating deep division and uncertainty among people who like both men and are now being forced to choose.

?My wife is a Mitt person, and I am a Jon person ? you?re going to see that in a lot of households,? said Lew Cramer, a business development executive here who contributed the maximum allowed to Mr. Romney?s presidential campaign in 2008 but has switched allegiances and is now serving on Mr. Huntsman?s national finance committee.

On Friday, Mr. Romney came to the state for private meetings and for one sun-baked afternoon appearance in the parking lot of a drive-in fast food restaurant.

His targets were President Obama and most everything Mr. Obama has done as president. Mr. Huntsman, who jumped into the race last week, was not on the menu for attack. A restaurant sign reading ?tips are appreciated? was covered with bunting just before Mr. Romney spoke.

?We have 20 million Americans that are out of work or have stopped looking for work or are in part-time jobs,? Mr. Romney said, standing tie-less on the back of a pickup truck with his wife, Ann, as he addressed a crowd of several hundred people.

The crowd was enthusiastic, but not uniformly so.

?I?m supporting our party,? said Jeff Haaga, 55, a marketing executive and chairman of his local Republican Party precinct who said he was undecided. ?Huntsman, if I had to choose today,? he added.

Utah, despite having only 2.8 million people, was Mr. Romney?s third biggest source of money in 2008 ? after Massachusetts, where he had been governor, and California ? contributing more than $5.5 million. Mr. Romney also raised significant money in heavily Mormon areas of the West outside Utah, particularly in Idaho and Arizona. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary in Utah, he got almost 90 percent of the vote.

Mr. Huntsman, on the other hand, succeeded where Mr. Romney never ventured. He got elected to office in Utah ? twice as governor, in 2004 and 2008. In the 2008 election, in particular, his popularity was overwhelming, winning with 78 percent of the vote. Indeed, 36 percent of Utah voters who identified themselves as Democrats voted for him that year, according to an Edison-Mitofsky exit poll.

The imprint and connection to Utah extends, for both men, partly through their fathers. Mr. Romney?s was George W. Romney, a businessman in Utah and later governor of Michigan in the 1960s. Mr. Huntsman?s father, Jon M. Huntsman Sr., is an economic and political patriarch ? a billionaire chemical-industry entrepreneur and philanthropist whose name is associated with the cancer research institute he financed at the University of Utah.

For better or worse ? and probably worse in overwhelmingly Republican Utah ? Mr. Huntsman is also linked to Mr. Obama, having served as ambassador to China from 2009 until this April. Mr. Obama got less than 35 percent of the vote here, one of his lowest rates in the nation.

Both men face potential trouble in Utah from Tea Party groups. They have attacked Mr. Romney for his role, as governor of Massachusetts, in helping pass a health care plan in 2006, considered a model for the federal overhaul passed last year. Mr. Huntsman has come under fire for, among other things, supporting a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when he was governor of Utah.

?I don?t know of any true-blue Tea Party activists who are supporting Huntsman or Romney,? said Darcy Van Orden, chairwoman of the Utah Republican Liberty Caucus, a group that declares itself ?the conscience of the Republican Party.?

But beyond the issues of money and popularity, the Huntsman-Romney divide seems likely to expose what could be an even trickier question for many people in Utah: Is one candidate more devoutly Mormon than the other? And should a conclusion about that bleed over into political support or opposition?

Mr. Huntsman, in some recent interviews, appears to have distanced himself a bit from his religion. ?I can?t say I am overly religious,? he said in an interview with Fortune magazine last year, a quote that many Utahans can recite from memory. ?I get satisfaction from many different types of religions and philosophies.?

The statement could prove to be positive on the national stage, but it sticks in at least few craws here at home.

?For those Mormons like myself that are more committed, I think that rubs us wrong,? said Steve Belnap, 53, an accountant who was on his way to work in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday morning. ?However, on the other side, Huntsman is going to pick up those who have lost the commitment. Who gets the most votes because of that, I don?t know.?

Kitty Bennett, Marjorie Connelly and Griffin Palmer contributed research.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=19b59a1a04369f37b0d0b3e9a53c1951

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PCI-SIG proposes external PCIe cable standard

The PCI Special Interest Group has revealed plans to develop an external version of PCI Express to rival the likes of eSATA, USB 3.0, and Intel?s new Thunderbolt interconnect. The standard would be based on PCIe 3.0 technology, which will offer potential transfer speeds of up to 32Gbps, a significant boost from the PCIe 2.1 spec that's widely used today in PCs (internally) for connecting graphics cards, sound cards, and even solid-state drives.

Thunderbolt currently offers 10Gbps transfers, but Intel says it can scale up to 100Gbps in the future. With those speeds, USB 3.0 is already looking outdated, but then again it's the only standard gaining some traction.

Previously known as Light Peak, Thunderbolt was launched back in February using copper cabling instead of fiber optics as initially planned, and so far only Apple has adopted it for its latest MacBook Pro and iMac refreshes. Meanwhile, eSATA has seen a mild adoption in notebooks but its use is more limited compared both Thunderbolt and USB.

The initial proposal for external PCI Express 3.0 suggests using copper wires, with a maximum transfer distance of 3 meters, and the ability to support up to 20W of power delivery. That's double the 10W of power provided by Thunderbolt, and would be enough for external hard drives and other devices to run without the need for a separate power source -- though external graphics cards would certainly need one.

PCIe cables will be faster, cheaper, and thinner than Thunderbolt, but less functional, since the latter can be daisy-chained and carry DisplayPort data while external PCI Express cannot. The proposed standard is still in its early stages and won't be commercialized until at least mid-2013, so there's plenty of time for USB and Thunderbolt to battle it out.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44408-pci-sig-proposes-external-pcie-cable-standard.html

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Why Turntable.fm is the most exciting social service of the year

It?s emerged out of nowhere to become one of the coolest sites on the Web in a matter of weeks, but what?s the story behind Turntable.fm, what?s so great about it and where is it going?

A service amassing a reported 140,000 users in its first month is nothing to be sniffed at at any time. A service that hasn?t courted the press at all, growing entirely virally, hitting that figure in a month is something that demands closer inspection.

Where did Turntable.fm come from?

While it has seems to have come out of nowhere, Turntable.fm is actually the result of a startup that pivoted. On discussion site Quora, co-founder Seth Goldstein explains that the service ?is a project that evolved out of Stickybits, the social bar code scanning service, founded by Billy Chasen and myself. Our investors include First Round Capital, Polaris Ventures, and Chris Sacca.?

Dig around the Turntable.fm site and you?ll find references to Stickybits, which appears to still be the legal name of the company. This New York startup was based around the idea of the ?Internet of Things?, letting you stick barcodes on objects to trigger audio, video, photo, and text messages when they were scanned. It seems that earlier this year, the company changed direction to concentrate on Turntable.fm.

We reached out to Turntable.fm for an interview to discover more and we found out just how publicity-shy the startup is. Our initial request went unanswered and when we managed to make contact via an intermediary, we were told that the company isn?t talking to the press at all. In a way, this makes Turntable all the more interesting ? here?s a startup acting like a cool indie band, refusing interviews and growing by word of mouth.

How it works

That viral growth is deserved, too. Turntable.fm is arguably the most interesting social startup to emerge in a long time. Inventing a new subgenre, ?social listening?, the site revels in something humans have enjoyed for millennia: shared experiences around music.

If you haven?t tried it yet, here?s how it works: You can only sign up if a friend of yours on Facebook is already signed up. Once you?re in, the site lets you DJ, playing songs in an on-screen ?nightclub?. Others come to listen to you in your ?room? and can join you on the decks if they choose. Multiple DJs (up to five) play a song each in turn and everyone else in the room gets to vote on the current DJ?s choice. If your choice gets voted up, you get a point. If it gets voted down by too many people it?s ditched for the next DJ?s choice.

It?s a simple but addictive concept that combines the joy of music with a competitive element as DJs are forced to consider which songs will fit the audience in the room and its current vibe.

Why has it grown so fast?

There are a number of theories about just what has made Turntable.fm so successful so quickly about over on Quroa. Ryan Hoover, Product Manager at PlayHaven, suggests that ?The Turntable guys have done an excellent job at creating a natural loop to motivate and re-engage users.? This involves visible progress and rewards (through DJ points and the ability to gain ?fans? who are then alerted by email each time you start DJing); motivating emotion (it?s a great feeling when people?s avatars start ?nodding their heads? in time to your music), social calls to action (through the group chat function, and the ability to share your taste in music and judge other people?s), and user re-engagement (it?s such an enjoyable social experience that you want to get your friends on boards to share the fun).

However, Adrian Chan, a social interaction designer, goes further, believing that there?s a deeper social element to Turntable?s success:

There?s more to be said about the ?togetherness? factor. Whether it?s best described as collaboration (coordinating action with other DJs in choosing tracks, for example, that reinforce each other and build flow). Or as something more ineffable, such as sharing time (it?s hard to stop, and there?s some social commitment to remaining in a room).

This ?togetherness? isn?t directly produced by the ego-oriented social game features of Turntable. In fact it?s an attribute of the experience that exceeds or transcends what those features can offer in and of themselves. And it says something about the power (engagement) of the tacit, the implicit, and the unspoken aspects of synchronous mediated experiences.

For example, when DJs demonstrate that they?re listening to each other by playing off each others? track selections, there?s a commonality that transcends? individual achievements. Social games that offer the promise of individual success may be missing out on the uniqueness of shared experiences capable of creating shared surprise and pleasure. As when tracks flow well, as when it?s clear that DJs are not just picking their own favorites but show that they?re paying attention to each other, as when a ?good? stretch of DJing attracts newcomers to the room, and so on.

Chan?s definitely onto something. Sociologists would probably have a field day studying the social mechanics behind Turntable.fm, and it?s only been going a few weeks. That?s probably the most exciting thing about the service ? it connects deeply with users and is still just a mere sketch of what it could grow into.

Possible future directions

While it?s impossible to predict how the service might change as it grows and potentially goes mainstream, there are a number of directions the team behind it can go in.

Customisable and branded rooms: A no-brainer, really. At present every room in Turntable looks to same, no matter what music is playing. Customisation options for room administrators would be a logical addition, but lifestyle brands would no doubt pay good money to have specially branded rooms. Nightclubs could even have their own rooms so that clubbers could continue their Saturday night out whenever they like right from their web browser.

Celebrity guest appearances: Imagine taking to the decks alongside your favourite DJ or musician ? it?s an experience that most people can only dream of. On Turntable.fm it could be a reality. As with Twitter, it?s likely that celebrities will begin to adopt Turntable.fm without the direct input of the startup itself. This week saw rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot play a set on the service. Sure, he?s hardly the biggest celebrity, but it?s a start, and something Turntable.fm can build on.

A new way for media companies to interact with their audiences: Earlier this week, we experimented with setting up our own The Next Web room (you can often find TNW staff spinning tunes in there). One tweet brought in a crowded room and it was fun for us to be able to play music with our readers. Music is a brilliant bonding tool and being able to have direct group chat with readers can help media companies get to know their audience better, and vice versa. I even got teased with knowledge of a stealth startup over the chat function yesterday ? so maybe we?ll get a few news tips this way too!

Music discovery: Experiencing other people?s music taste is a great way of broadening your own. Turntable.fm already has links to add the currently playing song to Spotify and Last.fm or to buy it from iTunes. In the future, charts of the most popular songs across the service and specific genres would be valuable, as would data visualisations of songs? popularity over time. In fact, as the service is essentially a more social version of Pandora or Last.fm, deep statistics would make an interesting counterpoint to Last.fm?s own stats.  On an individual user basis, profiles could log the songs you?ve played in the past, letting others know more about your taste.

Where?s the API?

Perhaps the most interesting opportunity of all is for a full API, allowing third-party developers to create their own apps and plug-ins on top of the service. While that?s yet to materialise, add-ons are already beginning to appear. One example is Awesomes.fm, a browser plugin that, as we reported this week, tracks every song you mark as ?Awesome? on Turntable.fm and lists them all on a separate website. A script is also available for Chrome that promises to scrobble the songs you listen to right to your Last.fm account.

Turntable.fm?s big problem ahead: licensing

While Turntable.fm?s Facebook friends-based sign-up method has helped it grow organically, it?s also likely to have been designed to keep it growing slowing. This is probably not only to stem demand on servers, but because as it grows ever bigger, licensing is likely to become a big issue. As Peter Kafka at AllThingsD explained this week,

?A deal with MediaNet, a digital content provider, gives Turntable access to millions of songs, and if the song you want to play isn?t there, you can upload your own MP3 to the site and play that?

So how can any of that be legal without label deals? In short, (CEO, Billy) Chasen believes he?s able to run the service under the protection of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) ? the same law that lets Pandora operate without label deals ? as a ?non-interactive? Web radio service.?

So, in theory, it?s legal ? but the test will come when it becomes too big for music companies to ignore. Will they believe that a service of the depth Turntable.fm clearly has is just a ?non-interactive? radio service? It?s unlikely. UPDATE: Just two hours after this post was published, Turntable.fm locked the service down to the US only citing, yep, licensing.

Hopefully when that times comes, a deal can be cut that satisfies both sides. Turntable.fm is so unique and full of potential that, fingers crossed, it?s just ?too good to fail?.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/06/25/why-turntable-fm-is-the-most-exciting-social-service-of-the-year/

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