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11/03/10 | Uncategorized

Founder Labs: Mobile Edition (Men+Women)

Call for applications for Founder Labs: Mobile Edition this January 2011 in Menlo Park, California.
Founder Labs is a 5-week pre-incubator for developers, engineers, designers, business and marketing mavens to begin to develop high-growth mobile ventures in Menlo Park, California.

***Founder Labs is open to men and women.***

EXTENDED – Deadline to apply for your spot at Founder Labs: December 5, 2010.

While applications are closed, we are still accepting referrals to women2.0@gmail.com

Through a highly selective process, 20 participants work together in teams for 5 days a week to produce 5 viable mobile products over the 5 week period. Participants consist of 10 developers/engineers, 5 designers and 5 business/marketing people.

Global mobile phone penetration will reach 4.5 billion in 2012 and we want YOU to be a part of it with a new startup venture through Founder Labs. Open innovation in mobile is at it’s peak — mobile apps, networking technologies, access to global markets and devices are fueling global change and rise to new business opportunities.

Teams work in parallel while cycling through idea validation, customer development and rapid prototypes, Labs participants build “founder history” and for 5 weeks live a fast-paced entrepreneurial life.

Check out previous Labs advisors.

NOTE: In the application process, you should apply for the functional role that you have the most experience for as the selection process is based on skill. For example, if you are an experienced engineer but want to develop your product or design skills, apply for the engineer spot. In a 4-person startup, you can wear many hats but your functional role should be the one you have the most experience for.

Keep your day job, join us afterward in Menlo Park!
The program starts January 8 and ends February 10, 2011.
Hosted by:

Who should attend Women 2.0 Labs?

  • Future founders seeking co-founders
  • Future founders with an idea they want to validate and rapidly prototype
  • Future founders without an idea to join others who have ideas

How is Founder Labs different?

  • We are focused on rapid prototyping.
  • You work hands-on with potential team members.
  • You don’t have to quit your day job or drop out of school. Come with enough energy to burn the midnight oil after work/school hours.
  • There is no formal curriculum.

Schedule for Founder Labs

Women 2.0 Labs participants will meet almost every night 6:30-9:30pm from January 8th through February 10th, 2011. Wednesdays and Thursdays are mandatory advisor nights and on Thursdays, teams share lessons learned from customer development and demo their latest product releases. Teams are encouraged to use the Menlo Park space to work on their startups on weeknights from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.

Press on Women 2.0 Founder Labs

Women 2.0 Founder Labs was featured on TechCrunch for “Breaking Up The Boys Club: Inside Women 2.0 Labs “ and on ReadWriteWeb: “Incubating Women Entrepreneurs” and “Women 2.0 Labs Graduates Its First Class of Founders”.

Founder Labs – Required Reading

  • “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steve Blank
  • “Lean Startup Lessons Learned” by Eric Ries
  • “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

Blog posts from Founder Labs participants

  • Madhavi learns from Eric Ries
  • Jen contemplates the hardware vs. software dilemma
  • Ryan finds his team and business idea quickly
  • Rebecca works on a health startup
  • Kimberly ponders her MBA
  • Vida quits her engineering day job to live the dream
  • Anna expounds on gut feelings vs. testing and communicating
  • Tiem expresses great appreciation for his team
  • Beatriz flies in from Barcelona for a summer in SF

Invest in a future female founder

Women 2.0 gives companies, organizations, and individuals the opportunity to invest in future female startup founders. Email shaherose@women2.org to become a sponsor of Women 2.0 Labs in 2011.

Do the math:   5 front end engineers (mobile)
+ 5 back-end engineers (mobile)
+ 5 designers
+ 5 business / marketing mavens
+ 5 week program
+ 5 days a week (M-F after work)
+ 555 dollars to join the race
—————————————
= 5 startups will emerge

The $555 fee is per person, regardless of the role they take on the team.

Why $555? Two reasons:

  1. If you rent a co-working space, it would cost $500 per person a month. Not only are we providing a co-working space, we are creating a hyper-smart environment for you to build, and we are giving you access to investors and entrepreneurs for advice. We want you to build authentic relationships and great products.
  2. We do not take equity.

Add up your “eating out” money each month, it’s about the same. Save it by investing in your startup!
Refund Policy: Due to the up front costs we incur and the structure of the program agenda, a 50% refund will be allowable until the end of the first week of the program. Refunds for emergency situations will be considered with proper documentation. Email us to discuss obtaining a refund.


Women 2.0 Labs (Winter 2011) Visiting Advisors (more to be announced shortly):


Lars Kamp (Organizer, SF Mobile)
Lars is a Senior Manager in Accenture’s Growth Strategy Practice, focusing on the mobile web and digital services at the intersection of consumers, media and technology. Lars has been with Accenture since 2001 and worked for Accenture’s offices in Vienna (‘01-‘03), Rome (‘03-‘05) and since 2006, in San Francisco. Lars completed over 40 projects in the U.S., Europe and Asia with Accenture global blue chip clients, and is Accenture’s Global Consumer Technology Segment Co-Lead. He serves on the IAB Mobile Advertising Committee.
Mike Rowehl (Entrepreneur, Hacker, Investor) – Saturday, Jan. 8, 2010
Mike is a programmer, entrepreneur, and investor based in San Francisco, CA. He’s been on the initial team for a number of high growth startups such as Ning, AdMob, Skyfire, and Chomp. In 2003 he helped to start the Silicon Valley chapter of Mobile Monday (a global group that organizes free monthly meetups for mobile enthusiasts in more than 100 cities around the world) and in 2006 he was on the founding team of the Mobile 2.0 conference series. In 2008 he started a mobile content adaption and directory service called Mowser which sold to dotMobi.
Jenny Fielding (Advisor, SFMobile) – Saturday, Jan. 8, 2010
Jenny has a background in law and banking and went on to found Switch-Mobile, a leading VoIP mobile software company in 2005 (acquired by Via One Corporation in 2007). Since the sale of Switch-Mobile, Jenny advises venture capitalists firms, investment banks and private investors on global investment opportunities within mobile, digital media, gaming and software technology. In addition, she provides advisory services to early stage emerging growth technology companies, focusing on business development, strategic partnerships and strategy.
Eric Ries (Creator, Lean Startup) – Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011
Eric is an author, speaker, and consultant for The Lean Startup. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He is the co-author of several books including The Black Art of Java Game Programming (Waite Group Press, 1996). In 2007, BusinessWeek named Eric one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups and venture capital firms. In 2008, he served as a venture advisor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Steve Blank (Creator, Customer Development) – Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2010
Steve moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship to undergraduate and graduate students at UC Berkeley, Stanford University and Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. The “Customer Development” model he developed in his book is one of the core themes in these classes. In 2009, Steve was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science & Engineering. In 2010, Steve was awarded the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Carol Realini (Founder & CEO, Obopay) – Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011
Carol founded Obopay to meet the need for an industry leader in mobile payments technology. In only a few business quarters, Carol secured $29 million in funding and finalized deals with every major cellular network in the United States. Today, Obopay is at the forefront of an emerging industry and quickly gathering the market share essential to ensuring longevity. Carol holds a B.A with Honors in Mathematics from the University of California and a Masters of Science in Computer Science from California State University.

Christina Brodbeck (Co-Founder & CEO, TheIceBreak) – Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011
Christina is an active angel investor with investments in inDinero, Greplin, HeyZap, Gamecrush, Enole, and ReplyBuy. Prior to TheIceBreak, Christina joined YouTube as a founding team member in 2005 as the first UI Designer and led UI design for YouTube Mobile, bringing YouTube to cell phones. Prior to YouTube, Christina worked at MRL Ventures, NASA Ames Research Center, and Keynote Systems. Christina holds a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technologies from SFSU, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

John Malloy (Founding Partner, Blue Run Ventures) – Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
John is a General Partner and co-founder of BlueRun Ventures. John’s investment focus includes internet services, digital media and mobile broadband services. He has 20+ years’ experience as an executive, entrepreneur, investor, and director of venture-backed start-ups, and has served on the boards of over 20 companies. He was the first venture investor in Paypal, for which he was named on Forbes’ Midas List of Top VCs. John was also an early investor in Slide (GOOG) and WiderThan (RNWK). Current investments include Chomp, Slide, Topsy, and 140 Proof. John holds a B.A. from Boston College and a J.D. from George Mason University.

Jeff Clavier (Managing Partner, SoftTech VC) – Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
Based in Palo Alto, California, Jeff is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested in more than 80 consumer Internet companies in areas like social media, monetization, search, gaming or B2B/B2C web services. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and VC experience, Jeff adds relevant perspective and value to his companies as they grow from inception to maturity, and hopefully, success. Jeff holds a MS in Computer Science and a research degree in Distributed Computing.

Alexander Osterwalder (Author, Business Model Generation)
Alex Osterwalder is the author of the bestselling book Business Model Generation together with Yves Pigneur. He is a sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator and adviser on the topic of business model design and innovation. Alex is a global thought leader in this area, based on a systematic and practical methodology to achieve business model innovation. Executives and entrepreneurs all over the world apply his approach to strengthen their business model and achieve a competitive advantage through business model innovation.

Hiten Shah (Co-Founder & CEO, KISSMetrics)
Hiten started on the Internet by founding a Internet marketing consultancy, ACS. He than went on to create Crazy Egg, an analytics tool that visualizes the user experience on a website. Now with KISSmetrics he is working on helping web-based businesses understand their customers better starting with making tracking of business metrics and conversion funnels much simpler and easier to understand. Hiten is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs and startup people. He enjoys advising startups about metrics, product and marketing. Hiten holds a B.S. in Organizational Behavior from UC Berkeley.

Cindy Alvarez (Product, KISSMetrics)
Cindy runs product management and customer development for KISSmetrics, a web analytics and customer feedback company. She specializes in the pragmatic, tactical methods that help startups learn, design, and iterate quickly. Prior to KISSmetrics, Cindy was Director of Product Management at at Loomia, and Senior Director of Product Management and Director of Product Design at Yodlee. Cindy blogs on Thursdays at The Experience Is The Product. Cindy holds a B.A. in Psychology from Harvard University.

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