UPSTART.LA PRESENTS ACCELERATORS & INCUBATORS: AN ENTREPRENEUR’S POINT OF VIEW November 10, 2011

UPSTART.LA PRESENTS ACCELERATORS & INCUBATORS: AN ENTREPRENEUR’S POINT OF VIEW

November 10th 7-9pm @ Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Hear From a Panel of Founders From TechStars, Y Combinator, 500
Startups, And Idealab About Their Experience

upStart.LA, the Santa Monica based startup accelerator, is inviting Los Angeles tech entrepreneurs for an evening of discussion highlighted by a panel of startup founders that have received funding from leading accelerators and incubators with “Accelerators & Incubators: An Entrepreneur’s Point of View” on Thursday, Nov. 10th from 7pm to 9pm at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (SMCA).

The event will feature a panel of some of SoCal’s brightest entrepreneurs who have received funding from TechStars, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Idealab, speaking to an expected 300 attendees and will be moderated by upStart.LA’s Co-Founder, Dan Dato. The SMCA is located at 1855 Main Street in Santa Monica. Tickets are $10 and available at http://upstartla-panel.eventbrite.com.

“During the past decade, we’ve seen an entrepreneurial boom in the United States, driven in part by economic conditions that have forced people to create a job rather than find a job,” says Dato. “In response to this trend, and especially during the past few years as angel investors and venture capitalists have shifted their focus to larger investments in more developed companies, a new breed of investor has emerged around the world to fill the gap and help startup tech companies succeed.”

“Our goal with the ‘Accelerators & Incubators’ event is to spread first-hand experiences to the SoCal entrepreneurial community about accelerators and incubators as these entities are becoming the new ‘university’ for entrepreneurial America,” says Dato. “We want to provide our local entrepreneurs with the information they need so they can find and land a spot with the accelerator or incubator that’s best for them.”

The panelists will share their experiences and insights about these programs and investors and offer a wide-range of information to the attendees before ending with a Q & A. Some of the topics covered at the event will be: What is each program/investor all about? What do they offer and how do they differ? How did they get accepted (or rejected) by these investors? What was the day-to-day experience like? What was the biggest value they got from the investment? What value is that investment providing today?

ABOUT UPSTART.LA
upStart.LA is a startup accelerator based in Santa Monica, CA that helps tech entrepreneurs get their business up and going. upStart.LA offers an intensive three-month program and provides up to $18,000 of seed capital, extensive mentorship and a shared work environment to help entrepreneurs go from idea to product to fundable business. They are currently accepting applications for their January program until November 12, 2011. To apply, please visit http://upStart.LA.

PANELISTS:
Joey Flores, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at Earbits (a Y Combinator Winter 2011 company)
Earbits is a marketing platform for music related products built around interactive radio experiences. Earbits works directly with labels, high quality artists and live music event promoters to create innovative internet radio-based promotions that turn listeners into loyal fans and consumers. They provide commercial-free streaming music on Earbits.com, Earbits Mobile Radio apps, and across a variety of affiliate website partners. (http://www.earbits.com/)

Alex Benzer, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder at FanMix, previously known as SocialEngine (a TechStars Boulder 2011 company)
FanMix is a recommendation engine for social media marketing. You give us a topic, and we’ll tell you who cares about it the most and how you can engage them. We give you simple, plain-English suggestions that help you become a dangerously powerful social media wizard with zero effort. (http://www.fanmix.com)

Mark Evans, VP of Engineering & Co-founder at NetPlenish (a 500 Startups funded company) NetPlenish is price comparison meets automatic replenishment for the things you buy over and over again. The basic necessities of life delivered to you from which ever merchant has the best deal each time. Kmart one time, WalMart the next. Store your shopping list in the cloud and select only the items you need each time. No order forms to fill out over and over, just one button to push to approve each order. A 45-minute weekly trip to the store is now a 45 second task on your phone! (http://www.netplenish.com)

Rafi Gordon, Co-founder at StyleSpot (an Idealab funded company)
StyleSpot is the fashion publisher of the future, combining high quality editorial content and personalization with a shopping engine of nearly 1,000,000 items from 300 retailers. Distributed and marketed across all platforms, StyleSpot helps consumers stay on trend, translate those trends to any budget, and find the best sales from their favorite stores and designers. StyleSpot recently merged with Kaboodle, the online social shopping site owned by Hearst Corp.
(http://www.stylespot.com)