Sunday, January 28, 2001

Starting up the iStartupFever

Monday was also the start of the iStartupFever conference, held at Baruch College. There were teams of entrepreneurs, handfuls of VCs and lots of speakers at the opening night reception. Dara Tyson showed me her new cards -- presenting her own company, which showcases serial entrepreneurs to interested investors ESocrates.com's President Paul Shrivastava and Regional Sales Manager Jeff Varkonyi told me about some of their e-learning products. 1MinuteWebcasts.com were there taping interviews with speakers, and EpartTimeJobs' CEO Jayne Woolf and VC Malcolm Elvey of The Elvey Partnership were among the networkers busy passing cards throughout the night.
Ruby Tuesday had me prancing around Manhattan in my ruby slippers, as I traipsed from event to event. Having just spoken on a panel at the iStartupFever conference, I met up with some of the attendees at the Accenture-sponsored reception. McAdory Lipscomb, coordinating event manager and Accenture associate partner in the firm's marketing and communications, media & entertainment group, was the charming MC for the two-day conference. We chatted for a bit afterwards and exchanged thoughts on the business. YourResponse's Kiva Kolstein and Marcus Kline, PointMedia's Seamus Carroll, USCyberCoupons' Gary Moss, and XpressMD's Pankaj Talwar were among the contestants in the Speed Pitching session. VCs who endured the rounds of pitches were The Grimaldi Group's debonaire Vincent Grimaldi, Access Capital's President Miles Stuchin and Tech Crossover Ventures' Marc Teslar. Norwegian Trade Council's Hans Erik Karsten told me about developments in Norway, while Reuterspace' Diana El-Azar gave me the rundown on Paris. LawyerAccess.com's Josh Margulies and Kris Zdyb were out and about, schmoozing with the best of 'em, as were BreakfastNetwork.com's E Bogen and Bernardo of Bernardo's List.