TEDx Berkeley Video Talks Are Now LIVE

This past February, I was co-curator of the TEDxBerkeley event, an independently organized TED event, where speakers, thought leaders, inventors, academics, creators, geeks and students gathered under the large roof of Berkeley's Zellerbach hall to have an open conversation and exchange.

The line-up was incredible and included some globally recognized and inspiring voices including: Chip Conely, Shore Slocum, Walter Hood, Robert Fuller, David Rose and many more.

Here's a link to all the talks of the day including speakers and performers. A great thanks and kudos to the team, speakers and supporters that made TEDxBerkeley happen (2011 marks its second event). Here's link to their Facebook page and Twitter to follow along, as it won't be its last. :-)

Nimble Outlines Vision For Social CRM

On the heals of their launch at DEMO, Nimble is getting some buzz on their new Social CRM service, the basic product of which is free. While there is a free version, Nimble's goal is to serve the SMB and Enterprise markets, both of which suffer from information overload, disparate systems that don't talk to each other and outdated contact management systems which are overpriced and act as silos.

Nimble Contacts unifies communications streams such as email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Calendar in a Web-based dashboard for sales and customer service people. InformationWeek's David F. Carr recently did an interview with CEO Jon Ferrara and I chose two questions to republish below. The interview in its entirety can be found here and it's definitely worth a read.

Carr: Where does this product fit in the market for enterprise social media?

Ferrara: It's hard to manage your communication by going to all the tabs in your browser. If I see an interesting tweet from someone, I need to be able to jump to the contact record and see who that person is. The idea of Nimble is give people the ability to listen and engage. Today, people use things like [Salesforce.com's] Chatter and Yammer to build internal collaboration.

Carr: What other sorts of applications do you want to integrate with?

Ferrara: We don't want to be all things to all people. I'd rather be the WordPress of CRM than the Microsoft Office of CRM. So we're going to invite in third-party developers and enable them to share and sell their extensions in our app store.

In my mind, in the perfect world, we would love to embrace the existing platforms people have invested in. That's why Gmail and your Google Calendar activities are integrated into Nimble. And you can see that if I've read a message here in Nimble, it's marked read in Gmail.

Disclosure: I helped the team with their launch and was a consultant to the company.

A Photo Diary of DEMO Spring 2011: #democon

Below are some visual highlights from last week's DEMO Spring Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

The VentureBeat team at DEMO Spring: Matthew Lynley, Owen Thomas, Anthony Ha and Matt Marshall (did you know that they can all sing?)

Matt Marshall with Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble who won DEMO God Award (also a client)

Renee Blodgett, Peter Sisson, Steve Wildstrom, Tim Reha, Ed Baig, Michael Miller (in the main hall)

The DEMO team in action on stage on the last day

JetStreamHD demo on stage: Nuvyyo CEO Grant Hall (client)

CVAC Systems - 20 minutes later at simulated higher altitudes, could you be healthier?

Facecake Swivel Demo on stage

The Nimble Team (the new owners of Social CRM)

Okay, so here's the singing part: Matthew, Owen and Matt do karaoke

Below, Jake Mintz, Co-Founder of BUMP with Anthony Ha of VentureBeat

Mashable's Jenn Van Grove, IDG's Pat Kenealy, The Next Web's Hermione Way and Mike Melanson from ReadWriteWeb can sing up a storm as well.

BUMP's Jake Mintz, Renee Blodgett, Angel Djambazov

Client JetStreamHD at the Booth (stream your digital media to your iPad)

Start-up America Scott Case with Matt Marshall

ABC News Camera Crew showed up

An interview with Salesforce's Executive VP of Platform & Marketing George Hu

VentureBeat's Owen Thomas was a stylin'

Rob Glaser tweeted out that he was playing Demo Monkey for a new gig he's involved in Socialeyes

Bob McCallum in demo mode

Trendspottr presents on stage

The Karaoke Favorite

CarWoo! Transforms New Car Buying Marketplace with New Version

CarWoo! officially announces the release of CarWoo! Version 2 today. Currently the leading online service and marketplace through which dealers are connected to anonymous buyers and are then able to extend offers and sell vehicles, but with CarWoo! Version 2, the platform adds lease negotiation, a "name your own price" feature, an "Out The Door Price" estimator, a "Reputation and Rating" system and the ability for buyers to shop or cross-shop for multiple vehicles simultaneously making it the most comprehensive online car buying platform available.

In response to overwhelming demand from both consumers and dealers, the CarWoo! lease negotiation feature allows dealers and buyers to communicate the complex details of automobile leasing in a straightforward, easy to understand format within the CarWoo! interface.

Other new features include:

• "Name Your Own Price" – Once a dealer has extended an offer, the buyer is able is able to name the price at which they would be willing to buy the offered vehicle.  Dealers are able to accept, reject or counter the buyer named price.  CarWoo! marketplace data demonstrates that CarWoo! buyers who choose to negotiate obtain significantly better prices.
• "Out The Door Estimator" – In addition to the sale price of the offered vehicle, with this feature buyers are able to obtain an accurate estimate of the taxes, title, license and registration fees allowing them to understand the actual purchase price before going to the dealership to accept delivery of the vehicle.
• "Dealer Reputation and Rating System" – Buyers are able to comment on and rank their experience with dealers from whom they have received offers or purchased vehicles.  Dealers are able to respond to these comments through CarWoo!.  Because the interaction with the dealer is the leading indicator of whether a buyer with purchase a car from he dealer, with 53% of vehicles sold using CarWoo! are not the lowest offers, this community based reputation system helps appropriately set buyer's expectation regarding the quality of the dealers from whom they are receiving offers.
• "Multiple Deal Support" – Buyers are able to search for multiple cars simultaneously.  This feature allows online shoppers to engage in the common practice of shopping for and comparing different vehicles at the same time.

Through the CarWoo! service buyers are able to interact with dealers through any computer, and are able to communicate comfortably and conveniently with their dealers before taking delivery of their new car.  

Buyers receive multiple offers and are able to converse with the actual dealers who have placed offers on existing inventory while retaining their privacy providing a huge leap forward from the stressful process car buyers face today.  CarWoo! provides dealers with referrals for buyers who often fall outside of the traditional automotive lead system. 

Check out the TechCrunch article yesterday which covers their new Version 2.

Also, CarWoo! will be hosting an event at the NADA 2011 Convention and Expo in San Francisco, CA on Saturday evening, February 5, 2011 at 5:30PM.  Details are available through Support at CarWoo! (http://www.carwoo.com). 

Disclosure: CarWoo is a client of Magic Sauce Media.

The Latest on Human Curation of the Web from LeWeb

Jonathan Marks has an excellent video talking about LeWeb as a center point in Europe for attracting the best of the best for all things "web 2.0 and beyond," and includes an extensive interview with the Pearltrees team on-site. It includes a demo so you can learn how easy it is to embed pearltrees (visual representation of web links you curate from the web) into your blog, Facebook or elsewhere. They have a new "team" feature out too which allows people to collaborate. Have a listen.

Profile of Pearltrees.com from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for Pearltrees.

Buying a New Car? Tune Into This Interview

Robert Scoble interviewed CarWoo! yesterday in CarWoo's Burlingame offices. Below is a 40 minute cinch on new car buying.

Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for CarWoo!

Bob Metcalfe, Bill Warner, Kiva, CarWoo, TerraPower All at 5x5

XConomy's “5×5” Forum in Boston this month attracted some of the best and the brightest in the technology industry. Below is a summary, largely taken from Greg Huang's excerpts on-site.

1. Bill Warner emphasized his more unconventional approach to startups. “I intend to help people follow their heart,” he said. “I believe people are pushed to follow their head.” A startup’s philosophy boils down to what he calls the “negotiated invention” model—what most entrepreneurs follow by leading with their idea or technology and making compromises based on the market and egos versus from their soul and heart.

2.Client CarWoo provided tips on how to become the next Groupon. Founder and CEO Tommy McClung, from the Bay Area, talked about targeting established business models in big markets, which are “usually ripe for disruption”; riding the emerging trend of “online to offline” and balancing incentives for customers. 

3. Kiva Systems is cash-flow positive and now gets business from 10 of the top 100 retailers, including Amazon (Zappos,Diapers.com), Staples, and Gilt Groupe.  

4.  TerraPower has a 20-year goal: cheap, safe, and plentiful energy for everyone, and the eradication of poverty.  For Greg's full write-up, click here.

Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for CarWoo.

My Recap of LeWeb 2010

2,500 entrepreneurs, leaders, investors, bloggers, journalists gathered together for 2 days in Paris on December 8-9, 2010 for an annual event those in the technology industry now know well - LeWeb.

The leading event in Europe for all things Web 2.0 and digital was held at a venue called The Docks, which is an area with more of a campus feel to it than anything else. Combine campus feel with urban and warehouse layout and you have 3 separate halls and tents that sponsors, vendors and speakers called "home" for two snowy days last week.

LeWeb brings together the most influential audience in the Internet ecosystem largely from Europe although I met entrepreneurs from Israel, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Canada and the states during the event itself as well as the after networking gatherings and private dinners, my more notable experiences from the event.

Some of the speakers from this year included Carlos Ghosn, Marissa Mayer, Dennis Crowley, Alexander Tamas, Sebastien de Halleux, and Michael Arrington to name a few.  The format on the main stage was not unlike last year - it combined Q&As, panel discussions and keynotes.  

Take a look at my posts and videos on Gary Vaynerchuck, Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, the Joe Green interview from Causes, Robert Scoble's interview with Mitchell Baker, and the two-part video clip on the start-up competition which includes winners Waze from Israel (traffic), Paper.ly (publishing) from Switzerland and Super Marmite from France (food). Here's a link to my interview with Azeem Azhar from PeerIndex.

Also take a look at the Pearltrees recap video that Tom Foremski took -- Patrice Lamothe and his team launched TEAM at LeWeb this year and their booth was by far, the most creative, interesting and compelling booth at the conference. (and yes, while I DO -- disclosure -- consult for them, it simply was the best. Enuf said).

Robert Scoble also interviewed Patrice Lamothe on TEAM's capabilities which you can read here including a video clip. Additional pieces worth reading are Alastair Goldfisher's piece on PE Hub, the ZDNET piece by Sam Diaz and Alexia Tsotsis post on TechCrunch.

Below is a Pearltree for the best of what happened at LeWeb and it includes video, blog posts, speakers, the schedule and more.

Below are some random shots I took on site with some contributions in the collection by Rodrigo as noted.

Mozilla's Mitchell Baker

The food at conferences in Paris is -- let's just say -- different

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, Renee Blodgett, Robin Wauters from Techcrunch Europe (yes, it snowed) -- taken on Ben Parr's iPhone

 
Judges who were largely investors give feedback to the three start-up competiton winners

Gary Vee, as passionate as ever, gives the closing keynote.

Start-up demos on the main stage

Fergus Burns and Daire Hickey over from Dublin

Loic Le Meur delivers an incredible set of entrepreneurs, investors and visionaries to the LeWeb audience

Present, present, present........

Pearltrees blogger lunch in the trendy Alcazar along Rue Mazarine not far from Odeon

F.ounders networking dinner

Renee Blodgett, Robert Scoble, Ben Parr

After hours networking dinner

Gabe Rivera and Patrice Lamothe explore Pearltrees TEAM, a new feature launched at LeWeb

Paddy Cosgrave and Frederic Lardinois

David Hornik moderated the start-up competition

Jeremiah Owyang - one for the panel......

Jon Fine and Laurel Touby

Networking

Julien Pot, a French TV producer shows those credentials

The Next Web team showed up from Amsterdam

360 Capital Partners Dinner

Trending after hours in The Marais

Priorities....

Nicole Simon and Anina

Tom Foremski, Francois Rocaboy

Yves Eudes from Le Monde too busy covering WikiLeaks and Julian Assange to attend LeWeb

Salim Ismail from Singularity University in the Pearltrees booth

Mike Butcher (photo taken by Rodrigo)

Below taken by Rodrigo

Thomson Crampton over from Hong Kong (taken by Rodrigo)

Massages in front of the blogger lounge

Rodrigo Sepulveda

Demo time

Foursquare's Dennis Crowley on the LeWeb stage telling his 'story'

Paul Papadimitriou 

Ben Parr for pre LeWeb cafe and all that......

 Disclosure Note: I am a consultant for Pearltrees.

The Latest on Stealth & Not-so-Stealth Start-ups

Below is an overview of the latest & hottest stealth (or perhaps not-so-stealth) start-ups in a recent TechCrunch post, which includes an in-depth Pearltree so you can learn more about each company. On the hot list includes Virve, RockMelt, Hearsay Labs, Pearltrees, Quora and others.

CarWoo Drives Vintage 78 Camaro to World Series to Raise Money for Breast Cancer

CarWoo!'s team drives a vintage ’78 Chevrolet Camaro, freshly signed by Giants fans, to Game 5 of the World Series to continue raising money for the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation.

By bridging two significant events together, San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers fans can show their support by giving to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to raise money for breast cancer.

The story: CarWoo! bought a 1978 Camaro and painted a pink stripe down the center.

Then, at the second World Series game at San Francisco's AT&T Park on Thursday, October 29, 2010, they asked Giants fans to donate to the Susan G. Koman foundation in exchange for being able to sign the Giants' side of the car in support of their team.  They are doing the same thing for Rangers fans at the fifth game of the series on November 1, 2010.

The fans who raise the most money will win the “competition”, and all of the funds raised will go towards the Susan G. Komen chapter in the team's respective city. The car, complete with all of the signatures, will be auctioned off, and the proceeds from this sale will also be donated to the foundation.

Specifics can be found on CarWoo’s World Series page and at CarWoo Cares on the Komen site.  Details of the car’s trip across the country and its ultimate exact location at the stadium in Arlington can be found here.