Zelkova Ventures

This evening Facebook launched their Open Graph app platform with over 60 partners.  We are exited that two Zelkova companies were part of the launch, Fab.com and Foodspotting.  The Open Graph platform will allow for deep app integration into Facebook helping developers improve product functionality, usability and reach.

The Foodspotting Open Graph app will allow users to easily share with their friends all the foods they love and want. Now ill be able tocheck out the recommendations of my friends right within Facebook.

The Fab.com Open Graph app will expand on the social shopping experience the Fab team is building.  Now you will be able to share theproducts you buy on Fab with your Facebook friends.  Oh and as a kicker you will earn a $10/month credit on Fab when you enable social shopping.

Kudos to Facebook for taking privacy seriously and building easy to use tools to manage these apps.

Attorneys are vendors they are not investors, partners or employees and their interests are not aligned with your interests.  The interest of an attorney on an early stage deal (generally an associate) is not necessarily the interest of yours.  The interests of the entrepreneur should be to get the deal done correctly in a way that sets the business up for success.

I bring this up as lately we have seen many deals where they attorneys are dictating the terms / structure of the deal, not the founders.  This issue seems to be rampant in seed rounds with first time / young entrepreneurs.

Here are a few pointers for working attorneys:

• Leverage your attorneys for information and an understanding of both sides of any term / structure, than make a business decision and tell them what you want.
• Understand every term of the agreement and its application, this will allow you to determine what matters and what doesn’t for your company.
• Use senior members at firms for education and advice, use junior members for drafting and administrative work.
• Pay your attorneys; don’t ask them to defer to future rounds.  Negotiate a fixed fee ahead of time.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some incredible attorneys out there and from what we have found these are typically the attorneys that view their job as providing information rather than making decisions.

We are excited to announce our investment in RJ Metrics along side some other great investors, including SoftTech VC, BetaShop, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel and great angels like Gabe Weinberg of DuckDuckGo.

RJ Metrics is a SaaS analytics platform that is simple to install but incredibly powerful and nimble.   RJ Metrics customers range from startups to industry leaders with hundreds of millions in revenue. Companies and investors in eCommerce, software as a service, gaming, and community us the platform to make smarter decisions, drive growth, and enhance profitability.

We first met Robert and Jake a few years back when they were launching RJ Metrics, while they weren’t fundraising they wanted to socialize the product with the venture community as they thought it was a good fit.

It became apparent to us about six months ago that RJ Metrics was something we wanted to be involved with for a few reasons.  First off,  we started using the product at Fab and we were all addicted, secondly the team has done an incredible job of landing great clients who swear by the product and lastly it’s a team that gets it.  Robert and Jake come from the venture world and understand what needs to be done to make a company work for investors, founders and employees.

You can read more about the funding on TechCrunch or the RJ Metrics Blog.

Tonight, stilettos will dig their heels into the Silicon Alley scene at the Raise Cache fashion show presented by Rapture Ventures. The brainchild of Rebecca Zhou and Kane Sarhan, Raise Cache is a celebration of the existing/growing camaraderie in the NY Tech/fashion Startup Scene. The benefit fashion show aims to stimulate NYC entrepreneurship as well as encourage the next generation of innovators to stay in the big apple. Over 75 companies including tech startups, large corporations and venture firms (Zelkova), have joined forces in hopes to raise $100,000 for HackNY. A program organized by NYU and Columbia University faculty, HackNY strives to promote student technologists in NYC. In other words, HackNY promotes the NY tech scene as it “aims to federate the next generation of hackers for the New York innovation community.”

Rebecca and Kane might forgo sleep this week, which will result in an undoubtedly successful fashion show consisting of an open bar, dj, gift bags, raffles and prizes! The models and stylish garb strutting down the runway illustrate the merge between fashion and technology in NYC. Models gallivanting are mostly part of the tech scene, wearing garments lent by popular fashion sites such as Rent the Runway and Lux72. Cross your fingers I will not pull a Carrie Bradshaw and be labeled fashion road kill.

I interviewed Brian Malkerson, a member of Raise Cache’s Planning Committee, who exemplified the importance of Raise Cache. Brian reinstated the value proposition New York has over other cities: fashion and technology/innovation. He elucidated this point saying, “When the CFDA decided to launch an incubator program they chose NYC, not Silicon Valley, because all of the fashion/tech talent that NYC has to offer”. With proceeds from the show, Brian illustrated HackNY’s potential ability to “expand the pool of technical talent that is interested in startups in NYC.”

Please come celebrate creativity, brains and entrepreneurship today at the NYS Armory (Entrance on Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Street). To learn more about Raise Cache or to purchase tickets, click here: http://raisecache.eventbrite.com/

On a bleak Tuesday morning, Silicon Alley investors and entrepreneurs, threw back caffeine and prepared themselves for the TechStars NYC Summer 2011 class pitches. Ironically, a song from “foster the people,” played, re-emphasizing the core of Techstars. The TechStars incubator is all about supporting, executing and inspiring peoples’ ideas.

A special guest, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, charismatically shared his support for Techstars as well as petitioned for NYC to be a hub for startups.

With initial roots in Boulder, CO, Techstars is a “mentorship-driven seed stage accelerator program,” which lasts three months and boasts admission to be harder than Harvard.

The TechStars team, which includes Dave Tisch and Adam Rothenberg, did  another phenomenal job mentoring the companies.  Each entrepreneur elucidated his or her ideas with humor, poise and grace. As TechStars co-founder Brad Feld said, “entrepreneurs can struggle with presenting what they do, why it matters and why people should care” but today “the presentation dynamic and caliber were off the track across the board.” Here is a quick preview of the 12 companies who presented at Demo Day.

Contently enables brands/companies to become publishers without having to hire any in-house employees. Freelance writers set up profiles on the site where they can showcase their writing and be paired with the brands they are qualified to write for.

Ordr.in has taken the fragmented local industry of online food delivery and created an open national platform. It is a restaurant platform that connects any restaurants with any clients.

Urtak is a question and answer tool, which can be added to any piece of content in order to increase audience engagement. With yes, no or I don’t care, Urtak strives to replace comments with their Q and A’s, which in turn organizes the world’s opinion.

mobintent make it easier for businesses to manage and create mobile ad campaigns. Through their technology, mobintent breaks down the barriers for advertisers enabling them successfully and smoothly run mobile campaigns.

Spontaneously is a mobile service for sharing and finding out plans based on peoples’ availability. It is the evolution of the calendar, showing you what you can do and what your friends are currently engaging in.

Piictu is a visual network where interactions happen through the exchange of pictures. Piictu is building the first mobile platform for collaborative self-expression in a generation where pictures are no longer objects of memory but of interaction.

Sidetour is a peer-to-peer marketplace for experiences. Authentic experiences are sold to real people who can experience and discover explorative activities locally.

Ambassador is a social referral platform where brands can turn customers into their own brand ambassadors. It is a social customer acquisition platform for e-commerce.

ChatID is a SAS product that retailers, brands and publishers can use to connect with their consumers all over the web. Through one API, chatID is a universal chat platform enabling businesses to communicate with any customer on any device.

Wantworthy is a shopping utility that bridges the gap between browsing and buying. It enables women to save items they like and provides them with a neutral place to make purchase decisions.

Dispatch enables users to see and manage their cloud in one place. It also makes cloud file sharing simple.

Coursekit reshapes education for the Internet age with a social network for education. Classes, homework help and other channels of distribution are available for students all in one place.

Mayor Bloomberg further fueled my passion for Silicon Alley with his growing support for NYC as a place for startups. As an entrepreneur himself, he understands the emotions associated with creating one’s own job. He claims “being an entrepreneur was the most exciting time…the first year you are enthusiastic and you don’t listen to your friends and family…the last year you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the light wasn’t a train but it was the end of the tunnel.” One of Bloomberg’s aspirations is “when people talk about startups. I want them to talk about New York.”

After hearing the 12 companies pitch at Demo Day, I think Bloomberg’s dreams for New York are closer to reality than he may believe.