LaunchUp.org is excited to be added as a community sponsor for this Networking Luncheon featuring Steve Blank a week from today. It’s $15, and that includes a box lunch.

This event will combine networking, community information, and a lecture by Steve Blank, renowned entrepreneur and game-changing educator.

Thought leader in entrepreneurship, Steve Blank, author of “The Four Steps to the Epiphany,” will share his current thinking about startups through his “Why Accountants Don’t Run Startups” presentation, how and why they’re different than large companies, and a few thoughts about entrepreneurial education. You definitely don’t want to miss Steve Blank and his presentation!

AGENDA
11:30am – Welcome and Networking
11:45am – Special Announcements
12:00noon – Nathan Furr
12:15pm – Keynote: Steve Blank
1:00pm – Door Prize and Networking

Monday January 24, 2011
11:30am-1:30pm
Location: Noah’s
322 West 11000 South
South Jordan, UT 84095
Tickets: http://steveblanklunch.eventbrite.com

STEVE BLANK

Over the last 25 years, Steve has been part of, or co-founded eight Silicon Valley startups. These have run the gamut from semiconductors, video games, personal computers, and supercomputers. (MIPS, Zilog, Rocket Science, SuperMac, Convergent Technologies, Ardent, ESL) Steve’s last company was E.piphany, an enterprise software company. Steve is on the board of Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN), as well as two private companies; CafePress.com an on-line marketplace, and IMVU a 3D IM social network. Steve also serves on the California Coastal Commission and is on the board of Audubon National & is Chairman of Aubudon California. Steve currently teaches entrepreneurship at U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School, the joint Berkeley/Columbia MBA program, and at the Stanford University Graduate School of Engineering. Steve teaches a methodology of starting and managing marketing, sales and business development in high technology startups. (See the course text at www.cafepress.com/kandsranch) Steve Blank’s Specialties: Marketing, sales and business dev strategies for emerging startups.

Happy New Year!!

Holidays have put us a bit behind, LaunchUp is TMRW!!

First LaunchUp of 2011 is going to be great. Legal Clinic again, great companies, speakers, location, food.

Hope to see everyone there to support our community “barn raising” and energizing event for entrepreneurs.

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We’re also really excited to announce that yet again, you can come an hour early to LaunchUp #14 for a free legal clinic put on by business and intellectual property attorneys from Bennett Tueller Johnson & Deere, Dorsey & Whitney, Bateman IP, and Kunzler, Needham, Massey, & Thorpe.

These attorneys will be available from 5:30 to 6:30 to sit down around tables with entrepreneurs in a one on one setting to answer legal questions you might have about your business. These guys can give you their thoughts on issues relating to formation, angel and venture financings, employment, options, intellectual property, strategic partner relationships, customer contracts, exits and other issues that startups regularly face.

If you’re starting a company, or are thinking about it, you’d be extremely remiss to not take advantage of free legal advice!!!

Following the Legal Clinic, LaunchUp #13 will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. per usual.

RSVP on our Facebook Event page for LaunchUp #14.

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Specifics:

Promotion/RSVP: If attending in person, PLEASE tweet:

I’m going to #LaunchUp Jan 6 to see 3PointData, BizVision, MoreMarbles, are you? http://bit.ly/launchup14

And use our FB event page for LaunchUp #14 to RSVP and forward on to/invite your friends.

If not on Twitter, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com and let me know you’re coming. It helps us plan for food.

Date: Thursday Jan 6th

Time: 6:30 p.m. (Legal Clinic runs from 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.)

Location: One on One Marketing
2912 Executive Parkway, Ste 300, Lehi, UT, 84043

Driving Directions:
From I-15 take Exit 284 (Highland Alpine)
Turn East at UT-92 W
Continue on Club House Dr
Turn left at Executive Parkway
One on One building is last building on left side (next to soccer field)

Event URL: You can watch our live stream online at http://www.launchup.org/live/ if you can’t make it out.

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Agenda:

Welcome and LaunchUp Report: 5 minutes: Jeremy Hanks

Company Presentations: 45 Minutes

3PointData
Business owners use 3PointData to make better, faster decisions.

BizVision
Video-Powered Online Learning & Communication.

MoreMarbles
MoreMarbles is an online marketplace where businesses connect with university consulting teams to get help with marketing, strategy, finance and operations. Through a capstone course, student and professor teams will spend 12 weeks and up to 500 hours helping businesses solve their challenges. Post a project on MoreMarbles.com for free and tap into university consulting today.

Corner Dives around 8:00 p.m., we’ll break for food (Brick Oven Pizza AND dessert from Heaven Cupcake), and then each company heads to a corner, and anyone interested in learning more or helping dives right in with them. General networking in highly energized setting.

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Please help spread the word. Bring your friends!! (If you’re using Twitter, use hashtag #LaunchUp)

http://bit.ly/launchup14 Is the URL for all the event details.

RSVP on our FaceBook event page

Remember, we stream the event live at http://www.launchup.org/live and make it as inclusive as possible to anyone, even if you cannot attend in person.

We are also building a list of those that want to support first-time technology entrepreneurs in Utah. You can join our community. It will help us track those that want to help, and your name/link will be published real time on the community page.

————————————————————————————————————–

A special thanks to LaunchUp #14 supporters:

To One on One Marketing

for providing the location, and to

Doba for the perpetual LaunchUp fund.

Finally, LaunchUp #14 will be in February on Feb 3, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. at offices at location TBD. Mark your calendars!

Watch the site for more info. If your company, or one you know, would like to present, please fill out our application to present.

If you’d like to help out, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com

Subscribe to our RSS feed — Join our LaunchUp Linked Group — Follow us on Twitter: @launchup — Become a fan on Facebook: LaunchUp.org — Email Jeremy Hanks if you’d like to help/get move involved: jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com

To help you to get to know the companies presenting at LaunchUp #13 we asked each to respond to a few questions…

The following Q&A segment is with Readeo:

Q: What does your company do?
A: We make it possible for families to share storytime together whether they’re in the same room or thousands of miles apart.

Q: Why does that matter and how do you make the world a better place?
A: With families living farther apart than ever, we think technology has a great ability to bring them closer together. Readeo helps grandparents and grandchildren, long-distance parents and their kids, military families and more to build relationships despite the distance that sometimes separates them. Why does it matter? How does it make the world a better place? If we all took time to read a children’s book or spend a few minuted with a child once a week or so, I think we’d all have a lot healthier view of the world and our relationships.

Q: Why is your company cool?
A: We’re not necessarily cool, but what we’re trying to do it. We’re super small (and quick as a result), our customers love us, and we’re already making a big difference in people’s lives. Oh- and angel investors and big publishers have faith in us, so that might not make us cool either, but it’s pretty fun to work when those sorts of people are behind what you’re doing.

Q: What 3 lessons/observations would you tell other entrepreneurs?
A: 1. Dream big, but figure out how to do it small. 2. Find the right people fast. 3. Never stop trying new things

Q: Pick 5 people for your entrepreneur dream team (assuming you and your team were riding the bench)
A: Richard Branson, Tony Hsieh

Q: Which one pursuit? Golf, Basketball, Skiing/Snowboarding, Knitting, Mountaineering/Climbing, Bowling, Watching Grass Grow
A: Skiing

Q: Why are you an entrepreneur in Utah?
A: Honestly, because that’s where I live and I believe you can do just about anything from anywhere these days. Our CEO is from Utah but lives in Chicago right now because that’s where he got his MBA and hooked up with our largest investors. I live in Utah because its a great place to live, and so far as we know, a good place to do business.

We look forward to LaunchUp #13 and hearing more from Readeo!

Help us spread the word! And RSVP on our Facebook Page event page for LaunchUp #13.

To help you to get to know the companies presenting at LaunchUp #13 we asked each to respond to a few questions…

The following Q&A segment is with Qbillion:

Q: What does your company do?
A: Qbillion is the Web’s only open investment analysis platform. Visual. Contextual. Collaborative.

Q: Why does that matter and how do you make the world a better place?
A: Understanding companies and making good investment decisions is far to difficult. The Web has revolutionized stock trading. But it has barely made a dent in company analysis. We think technology–social media web technology in particular–is ready to address that. Qbillion’s community will make investors more profitable and markets more efficient.

Q: Why is your company cool?
A: Investment insight is too important to leave to Wall Street. Applying the open spirit of Linux and Wikipedia to investment insight, we have a Web social media path for bringing better data and tools than Wall Street now enjoys to everyone.

Q: What 3 lessons/observations would you tell other entrepreneurs?
A: 1. Work from you passion. 2. Start really simple. 3. Listen. Especially to your gut, your heart, and your customers.

Q: Pick 5 people for your entrepreneur dream team (assuming you and your team were riding the bench)
A: Abraham Lincoln (conviction, wisdom, humility . . . what better attributes could an entrepreneur have?); Charles Hoffman (‘founder’ of XBRL, the most important semantic web standard out there); Andy Grove (the semiconductor industry yields great managers and Grove was phenomenal); Eric Schmidt (no explanation needed); Marty Neumeier (brand genius)

Q: Which one pursuit? Golf, Basketball, Skiing/Snowboarding, Knitting, Mountaineering/Climbing, Bowling, Watching Grass Grow
A: Climbing

Q: Why are you an entrepreneur in Utah?
A: Actually I’m in Colorado until my house sells. But we’re leaning strong towards Utah (where Qbillion’s the development team is) based on the work force and entrepreneurial support community you have there . . . nowhere better exemplified than at LaunchUp I must add!

We look forward to LaunchUp #13 and hearing more from Qbillion!

Help us spread the word! And RSVP on our Facebook Page event page for LaunchUp #13.

Back to the North! And Legal Clinic round 2 to boot.

Hope to see everyone there to support our community “barn raising” and energizing event for entrepreneurs.

And of course, as always, we’re featuring 3 really awesome companies!

————————————————————————————————————–

Specifics:

Promotion/RSVP: If attending in person, PLEASE tweet:

I’m going to #LaunchUp Dec 2 to see The BBQ Dude, Qbillion, & Readeo, are you? http://bit.ly/launchup13

And use our FB event page for LaunchUp #13 to RSVP and forward on to/invite your friends.

If not on Twitter, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com and let me know you’re coming. It helps us plan for food.

Date: Thursday Dec 2nd

Time: 6:30 p.m. (Legal Clinic runs from 5:30-6:30)

Location: Karen Gail Miller Conference Center @ Salt Lake Community College — 9750 S 300 W Sandy, UT 84070

Karen Gail Miller Conference Center at SLCC in Sandy“>Location Map

Driving Directions:
From I-15 take the 9000 South/UT-209 exit #295
Head west on 9000 S
Turn south on Sandy Parkway
Turn east on 9120 South
Turn south on 300 West
The Larry H. Miller Campus is located at 9750 S 300 W
Karen Gail Miller Conference Center at SLCC in Sandy

Event URL: You can watch our live stream online at http://www.launchup.org/live/ if you can’t make it out.

————————————————————————————————————–

Agenda:

Welcome and LaunchUp Report: 5 minutes: Matt Smith

Company Presentations: 45 Minutes

The BBQ Dude
The BBQ Dude is a Truck that promotes “Street Q” Street Q is a combination of Slow and Low style cooking with modern spices and twist that I take and make things that make a taste explosion in your mouth….. Simple and affordable Scrumdiddlyumptous!!!!!

QBillion
Serving the Internet’s finance vertical, Qbillion is the only open web site creating an investment community in the direct context of financial data and analysis. Our goal is to be the information resource of choice for small to mid-size investors and business professionals nationally, based on more insightful investment content both from the site and from the community.

Readeo
Readeo offers an ever-growing library of online children’s books—with one fantastic twist: read them together whether you’re in the same room or thousands of miles apart.

Corner Dives and Nacho Bar around 8:00 p.m., we’ll break for food, and then each company heads to a corner, and anyone interested in learning more or helping dives right in with them. General networking in highly energized setting.

————————————————————————————————————–

Please help spread the word. Bring your friends!! (If you’re using Twitter, use hashtag #LaunchUp)

http://bit.ly/launchup13 Is the URL for all the event details.

Remember, we stream the event live at http://www.launchup.org/live and make it as inclusive as possible to anyone, even if you cannot attend in person.

We are also building a list of those that want to support first-time technology entrepreneurs in Utah. You can join our community. It will help us track those that want to help, and your name/link will be published real time on the community page.

————————————————————————————————————–

A special thanks to LaunchUp #13 supporters:

USTAR for helping with logistics,

To Salt Lake Community College

for providing the location, and to

Doba for the perpetual LaunchUp fund.

Finally, LaunchUp #14 will be in January on Jan 6, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at offices at Thanksgiving Point. Mark your calendars!

Watch the site for more info. If your company, or one you know, would like to present, please fill out our application to present.

If you’d like to help out, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com

Subscribe to our RSS feed — Join our LaunchUp Linked Group — Follow us on Twitter: @launchup — Become a fan on Facebook: LaunchUp.org — Email Jeremy Hanks if you’d like to help/get move involved: jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com

Hey Everyone!

First, the location has moved for LaunchUp #13 this next Thursday, Dec 2nd. We’re going to be at Karen Gail Miller Conference Center at SLCC in Sandy.

We’re also really excited to announce that yet again, you can come an hour early to LaunchUp #13 for a free legal clinic put on by business and intellectual property attorneys from Bennett Tueller Johnson & Deere, Dorsey & Whitney, Bateman IP, and Kunzler, Needham, Massey, & Thorpe.

These attorneys will be available from 5:30 to 6:30 to sit down with entrepreneurs in a one on one setting to answer legal questions you might have about your business. These guys can give you their thoughts on issues relating to formation, angel and venture financings, employment, options, intellectual property, strategic partner relationships, customer contracts, exits and other issues that startups regularly face.

If you’re starting a company, or are thinking about it, you’d be extremely remiss to not take advantage of free legal advice!!!

Following the Legal Clinic, LaunchUp #13 will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. per usual. (full agenda coming soon)

RSVP on our Facebook Event page for LaunchUp #13.

See everyone there!

—————————————————-

Location: Karen Gail Miller Conference Center @ Salt Lake Community College — 9750 S 300 W Sandy, UT 84070

Driving Directions:
From I-15 take the 9000 South/UT-209 exit #295
Head west on 9000 S
Turn south on Sandy Parkway
Turn east on 9120 South
Turn south on 300 West
The Larry H. Miller Campus is located at 9750 S 300 W
View Campus Map

To help you to get to know the companies presenting at LaunchUp #12 we asked each to respond to a few questions…

The following Q&A segment is with QR Code City:

Q: What does your company do?
A: QR Code City allows users to create, manage, share, and track custom QR codes through web and mobile apps.

Q: Why does that matter and how do you make the world a better place?
A: QR Codes are the link between the physical and digital worlds.

Q: Why is your company cool?
A: Our robust tools empower users to use QR codes in ways we could have never imagined.

Q: What 3 lessons/observations would you tell other entrepreneurs?
A: 1. Style/Design matters. 2. Be healthy. 3. Create value.

Q: Pick 5 people for your entrepreneur dream team (assuming you and your team were riding the bench)
A: Pharrell Williams, Matt Smith, Cameron Moll, Jack Dorsey, and the new MacBook Air.

Q: Which one pursuit? Golf, Basketball, Skiing/Snowboarding, Knitting, Mountaineering/Climbing, Bowling, Watching Grass Grow
A: BYU Soccer

Q: Why are you an entrepreneur in Utah?
A: This is the Place.

We look forward to LaunchUp #12 and hearing more from QR Code City!

Help us spread the word! And RSVP on our Facebook Page event page for LaunchUp #12.

To help you to get to know the companies presenting at LaunchUp #12 we asked each to respond to a few questions…

The following Q&A segment is with KarmaKey:

Q: What does your company do?
A: We provide virtual loyalty programs for restaurants.

Q: Why does that matter and how do you make the world a better place?
A: Loyalty cards suck. Nobody likes carrying them. We make getting recognition for your purchases simple.

Q: Why is your company cool?
A: The partners. They’re great people to work with. None one takes themselves too seriously. No one’s stuck on themselves. Each of them are inspiring in their own way.

Q: What 3 lessons/observations would you tell other entrepreneurs?
A: 1. Get a bigger horizon than just regionally. Travel…travel to silicon valley, travel to NYC, travel to Boston. Pitch the hell out of your business. 2. Persistence is powerful. You probably won’t nail it on your first pitch/product/client, etc. but just keep iterating, keep getting up, keep moving forward. 3. There are five powers in your business life, and your business–intelligence, time, connections, influence, and money–in that order. Build on those every day…

Q: Pick 5 people for your entrepreneur dream team (assuming you and your team were riding the bench)
A: Steve Wozniak, Dean Kamen and Bill Joy all running our Technical Operations Division, and Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great running our Marketing and Sales division. Oh, and a sixth…Bill Lumbergh…

Q: Which one pursuit? Golf, Basketball, Skiing/Snowboarding, Knitting, Mountaineering/Climbing, Bowling, Watching Grass Grow
A: Skiing/Snowboarding — last year I had a torn rotator cuff, three broken ribs, a cracked sternum and a concussion…and I plan on doing it again this year. Let’s you know you’re alive..

Q: Why are you an entrepreneur in Utah?
A: There’s a good mix of tech and adventure around. Where else could you go do outdoor activities–hiking, snowboarding, climbing, have the majority of the workforce not show up to work with a hangover, and have a great pool of technical talent from the other startups. It’s a good adventure environment with people still keeping a pioneering, DIY mentality.

We look forward to LaunchUp #12 and hearing more from KarmaKey!

Help us spread the word! And RSVP on our Facebook Page event page for LaunchUp #12.

To help you to get to know the companies presenting at LaunchUp #12 we asked each to respond to a few questions…

The following Q&A segment is with ClickLock:

Q: What does your company do?
A: Provides a secure B2C communication platform on top of user’s existing email.

The longer version: We allow you (whether an individual or a corporation) to encrypt messages and send them to a user’s existing email address. When the user receives the message, they install a simple browser extension and are immediately reading the message with no account creation process or other headaches.

While we are starting with email, our technology scales to other communications platforms, from chat to Facebook.

Q: Why does that matter and how do you make the world a better place?
A: Email is a mess. Whether it is somebody trying to phish for your account information, a company trying to send an important, pertinent piece of information, or a less-than-knowledgable individual scanning and emailing a mortgage application that gets sent in the clear, there are a ton of problems due to email’s lack of security.

Rebuilding the email system isn’t really an option, so we need ways to fix it it that can be applied on top of the current SMTP system. That’s where ClickLock comes in.

Q: Why is your company cool?
A: If we do this right, we have the potential to positively impact millions of people. Whether that impact is a simple “”one less place to remember my login for”" or “”you just saved me from $100,000 worth of fraud”", we can make that impact.

We focus on the customer first. We aren’t building a cool technology and hoping somebody will buy. We’ve talked to a lot of people and know where they pain is and who will buy to alleviate that pain.

Finally, we aren’t afraid of technology. The best startups to work at are willing to experiment with technology to get the right things done, whether it is Clojure, Python, Ruby, or Erlang.

Q: What 3 lessons/observations would you tell other entrepreneurs?
A: 1. Figure out your market. You may think you have a cool idea, but until you’ve bounced it off of real potential buyers, you know jack. 2. The smaller the company, the more important the networking. There are times when that is what will keep your sanity. 3. If you don’t really believe in what you are doing, do something different. It is supposed to be fun!

Q: Pick 5 people for your entrepreneur dream team (assuming you and your team were riding the bench)
A: 1. Alexis Ohanian
2. Eric Ries
3. Steve Yeggie
4. Randall Munroe
5. I don’t know the name of the 5th, but somewhere out there the software user experience designer equivalent to Jonathan Ive.

Q: Which one pursuit? Golf, Basketball, Skiing/Snowboarding, Knitting, Mountaineering/Climbing, Bowling, Watching Grass Grow
A: Canyon carving on 1000cc’s of adrenaline.

Q: Why are you an entrepreneur in Utah?
A: It’s a pretty, great state. Utah has a lot of amazing things going for it: a well-trained workforce, an incredible work ethic, strong interpersonal relationships, and great opportunities to blow off steam.

We look forward to LaunchUp #12 and hearing more from ClickLock!

Help us spread the word! And RSVP on our Facebook Page event page for LaunchUp #12.

Well after an attendance record setting LaunchUp last month (180 people!), we’re back and back to Utah County.

Hope to see everyone there to support our community “barn raising” and energizing event for entrepreneurs.

And of course, we’re featuring 3 really sweet companies!

————————————————————————————————————–

Specifics:

Promotion/RSVP: If attending in person, PLEASE tweet:

I’m going to #LaunchUp Nov 4 to see ClickLock, KarmaKey, & QR Code City, are you? http://bit.ly/launchup12

And use our FB event page for LaunchUp #12 to RSVP and forward on to/invite your friends.

If not on Twitter, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com and let me know you’re coming. It helps us plan for food.

Date: Thursday Nov 4th

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Location: Noah’s in Lindon — 644 N. 2000 W. Lindon, UT

Driving Directions:
East of I-15 at exit 275 (Pleasant Grove) on 2000 W (formerly Proctor Lane).

Event URL: You can watch our live stream online at http://www.launchup.org/live/ if you can’t make it out.

————————————————————————————————————–

Agenda:

Welcome and LaunchUp Report: 5 minutes: Jeremy Hanks

Company Presentations: 45 Minutes

ClickLock
ClickLock enables simple, secure, business-to-consumer communication. Using ClickLock, a bank, healthcare provider, or other sender can send encrypted, signed messages to their customer’s existing account, whether that is a web mail account like Gmail, a corporate account using Outlook, or (eventually) a Facebook account, all with no customer “setup” required before sending the message.

KarmaKey
We bring loyalty programs to mobile phones and replace traditional loyalty card with an app. Restaurant patrons can track, claim, and redeem rewards.

QR Code City
QR Code City allows users to create, manage, share, and track custom QR codes through web and mobile apps.

Corner Dives and Brick Oven Pizza around 8:00 p.m., we’ll break for food, and then each company heads to a corner, and anyone interesting in learning more or helping dives right in with them. General networking in highly energized setting.

————————————————————————————————————–

Please help spread the word. Bring your friends!! (If you’re using Twitter, use hashtag #LaunchUp)

http://bit.ly/launchup12 Is the URL for all the event details.

Remember, we stream the event live at http://www.launchup.org/live and make it as inclusive as possible to anyone, even if you cannot attend in person.

We are also building a list of those that want to support first-time technology entrepreneurs in Utah. You can join our community. It will help us track those that want to help, and your name/link will be published real time on the community page.

————————————————————————————————————–

A special thanks to LaunchUp #12 supporters:

Noah’s for providing the location, and to

Doba for the perpetual LaunchUp fund.

Finally, LaunchUp #13 will be in December on Dec 2, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at a location TBD. Mark your calendars!

Watch the site for more info. If your company, or one you know, would like to present, please fill out our application to present.

If you’d like to help out, email jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com

Subscribe to our RSS feed — Join our LaunchUp Linked Group — Follow us on Twitter: @launchup — Become a fan on Facebook: LaunchUp.org — Email Jeremy Hanks if you’d like to help/get move involved: jeremy . hanks @ gmail . com