Yet Another Win for Geeks in Santa Cruz

Congratulations to Rich, Marcus, Emily and Scott @UserVoice!

UserVoice Raises Funding, White-Labels User Feedback Facilitator

Expect some more awesome things coming from UserVoice and a few other rock’in statups here in town…

My Morning on KUSP’s GeekSpeak

Had a great time this morning with GeekSpeak host Lyle Troxell and his fellow geeks Drew Meyer, Miles Elam, and Ben Jaffe at KUSP’s GeekSpeak.  Thank you Drew for setting this up, thank you Lyle for making it happen and thank you Santa Cruz Geeks for all your support pre/during/post the broadcast!

Check out the 12second.tv Vid I took Prior to the Show Starting

Listen to the Broadcast (meat of it starts @ half way through)

2008 Was a Great Year for Santa Cruz Geeks

At the dinner we had last week I sat down about 30 minutes before the event started and began writing down all the different and amazing things that took place in 2008 that either directly or indirectly spawned out of the Geek Dinners we had started only a little over a year prior. I also started listing some of the movers and shakers in the room specifically providing infrastructure to help the technology and entrepreneurial community in town. What I came up with is below, and I gotta say, I’m still freaking impressed and very much looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

MEMBERSHIP
-grew from Sol Lipman, Margaret Rosas, David Beach and Sean Tario to nearly 200 amazing members within a single year

EVENTS
-Numerous CoWorking Jellys at Quiddities’ former offices and at a stellar rental on the beach
-FreelanceCamp
-Public Media Camp
-Numerous Santa Cruz Design and Innovation Center Events
-Geeks on the Beach - Dinner and short lived bonfire
-Holiday and Halloween Parties
-Santa Cruz New Tech Alliance Meetup
-iPhone Application Meetup

COMPANIES MAKING HUGE STRIDES
-12seconds.tv (spawned from Beach and Sol connecting at a dinner)
-UserVoice.com (convinced founders to move from SF and Wisconsin to Santa Cruz because of the geek dinner!)
-RideSpring.com (look out for even bigger things from Paul and RideSpring in 2009!)
-RoomQuick.com (You’ll be hearing a lot about these folks in 2009, guaranteed!)
-ProductOps.com (Bob said, “why the heck not, done it before and I’ll do it again,” and thus, ProductOps was born in 2008)

INFRASTRUCTURE
-Marty Collins and The Digital Media Factory on the West Side (not new, but Marty did some serious growing last year!)
-Jeremy, Ryan and Veronica and NextSpace downtown
-Santa Cruz Geeks Google Group
-www.SantaCruzGeeks.com
-Local geek Peter Koht hired as the Economic Development Manager for the City, who was able to launch within the first month in the position www.CruzBusiness.com

OTHER STUFF
-Mike Brogan, Acting Director of Marketing for Cruzio Internet, elected as the Technology Director on the Board of Directors for Santa Cruz Next
-UCSC Baskin School of Engineering starting to spin off some interesting and viable companies such as www.pergamumsystems.com and putting plans in place for some engaging and entrepreneurial focused events coming up in 2009

So, that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head… what’s missing?

Podcast on Economic Transformation in Santa Cruz

This is a bit belated now, but my good friend Alex Lavidge hosted a Podcast last week with me and a few other movers and shakers here in Santa Cruz (@jjneuner and @pkoht), specifically speaking to the work we’re doing here in town to transform the old economic landscape and way of thinking from a grassroots level.

Episode Two – Learning from Santa Cruz, CA and nextspace.us

In all seriousness, if you’re interested in how government and the private sector can work together to make positive change happen, there are no better case studies than the ones Alex is working on in Knoxville, TN and we are actively living right now in Santa Cruz, CA.

Encourage you to give a listen if you’ve got the time.

12seconds.tv takes Runner-up at The Crunchies 2008

Had a freaking phenominal time at The Crunchies 2008 Award Ceremonies Friday night with Margaret Rosas, Mr. and Mrs. Beach, Shai Goldman, Brandon Peele (and his new wife!), Jacob Knobel, Mr. and Mrs. Lipman, ZTrip and many others.

Though 12seconds.tv did not win the trophy for Best Bootstrapped Startup of 2008, for a company that literally only started 7 months ago, in my opinion, to even be nominated and then place 2nd is simply awesome and something the whole team and community should be proud of.

Highlights for me were:

-Hanging with the crew pre/post event with our sweet 12second.tv trucker hats

-Seeing ZTrip live and then getting to talk to him toward the end of the after party

-Finally having the opportunity to sit down and play with the Microsoft Surface

-Watching MC Hammer get swarmed for pictures all night long

-Driving back with @mrosas and @jakey12 from SF to Santa Cruz via Hwy 1 with a full moon out

State of New Tech in Santa Cruz

Recently dropped a post into the Geeks Google Group addressing a question posted on LinkedIn.com. Question was about “the state of New Tech in Santa Cruz.” Specifically,

“What is the state of new technology developing in Santa Cruz County? Is Santa Cruz a good environment for tech? Is there the right support structure for startups? Does SC lean toward traditional tech or more innovative, consumer oriented solutions?”

Here is my reply and some thoughtful discussion.

I’m Sailing!!!! I’m Sailing!!!!

Went sailing on the Monterey Bay for the first time today with a bunch of Geeks and it freaking rocked my socks off.  Still can’t get over why it has taken me over 10 years living so close to the Bay to finally make this happen??!!

Raced a 42 foot yacht around the Bay and then had the opportunity to see 2 Humpback Whales feeding only 20-30 yard in front of us.  Thank you Lighthall Charters and Reesa Abrams for pulling it together!

If anyone has a boat in the Santa Cruz Harbor and needs/wants a deck hand for a race, please let me know!  Been thinking about making this happen for far too long… and may as well start now!  Seriously though, I’m game.