startups | briangorbett.com

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startup america challenge + free mentoring

As I travel around, it is amazing to find out just how many startups still do not know about BizSpark. I spoke at the Startup Illinois 1st Anniversary event a couple days ago in Chicago and had so many emails after the event asking for more information on this “amazing program for tech startups called BizSpark”.

Well, there is a friendly regional competition going on with the Microsoft Regions and Startup America that will give all you tech startups access to BizSpark among other great benefits. If you are a tech startup, go sign up for Startup America with this link to show how the Central US has just as many high-quality, high-potential startups! You have until February 14th at 12pm ET until the competition ends.

Also, I am raising the ante a bit. For all those startups that sign-up, I will offer an hour (or so) of mentoring time that will enable you to learn more about BizSpark, how to scale your startup in the cloud, why Windows Phone rocks the party, or how to get access to other Microsoft resources to help you gain an advantage in the market. If you are in the Chicagoland area, this can be in person or we can take it virtually with a great little startup called Ohours. The challenge is on!

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Excelerate Labs Gets BizSpark Plus

In case you didn’t hear the big announcement yesterday about BizSpark Plus, check it out here. The bigger announcement is that our very own Excelerate Labs will be participating in the BizSpark Plus program just in time for applicants to start applying.

Also, today, Excelerate graduate and BizSpark company Buzz Referrals just announced their series a funding with investors including the first investment from the Invest Illinois Venture Fund.

Tech & Web Spotlight: LifeLens

There was one group of speakers at CIW’s Tech & Web MegaTalk that stood out a bit.

They weren’t media moguls, or designers, or founders of the next mobile marketplace.

But within two minutes of starting their speech, the soft-spoken and seemingly unknown speakers had the audience on the edge of their seats and their fellow speakers wide-eyed with amazement. Meet Lifelens, winners of Microsoft’s 2011 Imagine Cup challenge.
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3 Lessons That Startups Can Learn From Social Influencers

Last night, I attended CIW MEGTALK: Innovation & Influence – a discussion of idea innovation with five of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people. While the thought leaders were discussing social innovation, I found that some of their sage advice also rings true within the entrepreneurial world.

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Short Chat with Howard Tullman

I took a few moments out of Chicago Ideas Week’s busy days and sat down with Howard Tullman, President and founder of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy (TFA) to talk about what TFA is and what Chicago Ideas Week means to him.

Tribeca Flashpoint Academy is also a BizSpark Network Partner and is already producing amazing BizSpark startups.

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where do hackers hang in #chicago

where are all the tech founders hanging in chicago? i want to know. if you have a kick ass place to hang out, work, and build community where would that be?

interview with startup weekend

bizspark, windows phone 7, and cheerleaders

you have to love how bizspark rolls in chicago. at the windows phone 7 developer launch event held at the swiss hotel in chicago yesterday. if you are interested in building a startup to build windows phone 7 apps, check out the bizspark program.

why groupon is still one of my fav startups

ever since i interviewed founder and ceo andrew mason and cto ken pelletier from groupon last year, I knew that there was something special about that little startup. it wasn’t that they were based in chicago or they were so down to earth. it was that they knew exactly what they wanted to create and kept creating it.

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vote for me!

if you are interested in hearing about some crazy cool startup stories i have encountered throughout the central region of the united states, go vote for my sxsw panel.