Archive for April, 2009
April 29th, 2009
If you have not registered for the Friday May 1st breakfast in Palo Alto please don’t drop in: we will have to turn you away.
We continue to experience a lot of interest and newcomers at the Bootstrapper Breakfasts: I encourage you to register early, especially for Palo Alto which is our smallest room. We are considering adding another venue and would welcome any suggestions. Our Milpitas space is much larger and still has opening available next week.
April 27th, 2009
James Tank attended last Friday and was kind enough to share the following list of co-working facilities that he had researched:
San Francisco
Peninsula
- Cubes & Crayons
152 East Dana Street, Mountain View
650 209 4846 (Note: they also offer childcare)
- Fiber High
989 Commercial Street, Palo Alto
Liza Loop 650 618 9920
- HackerDojo in formation
- Syntony Courtyard
235 Alma Street, Palo Alto
Genie Z. Laborde, Ph.D 650 322 2799
I contacted Genie to confirm she was still running a coworking facility and she e-mailed back:
I have seven desks rented and six more to fill with lots of extra room around each desk. We also have a big round table for discussions. One tenant only uses the Board Room. Free Board Room use is included in the rent ( up to 8 hours a week and possibly even more if not occupied by another lessee). The Board Room seats twenty. Also wi-fi is included in the rent. Part time use is $99.00. A dedicated desk is $350.00. Utilities are, of course, free.
Also free are: coffee, tea, an extra waiting room with French doors and lots of light, a patio, three redwoods and a eucalyptus tree, flowers, kitchen with refrigerator, microwave, and lots of good cheer from the other tenants. In an impromptu speech at a fund raiser for ” The Re-building Alliance” on Saturday one of these tenants announced, “I love our new space.” She works with a non profit that has four desks leased and occupied.
This building is a one story that is two blocks from University Ave. and near the train station. Right next door to North Face on Alma St. The ceilings are tall, the desks are new and modern, the light is great! The wall colors are vibrant and creative. One building is a Victorian cottage and the other was built by an architect for his additional office space. We have a publishing company, a seminar firm, entrepreneurs, engineers, a construction company, several non-profits, a psychologist and a psychiatrist to insure the mental health of all occupants in the two buildings. That’s a joke. Most of us are sane enough. We also have a twice a month meeting for all tenants as well as others produced by Don Hunter of CEO Space and free to all.
Note: there is also a Coworking Wiki and a Coworking Google Group.
Update May 1: I just discovered the Cubes & Crayon’s Blog, which has an April 15 announcement “Hello San Francisco!” they that are expanding their unique combination of co-working and childcare to a second location in San Francisco.
April 26th, 2009
Bill Hunt attended last Friday at Red Rock and mentioned a well received presentation he had made at the April 7 New Tech Meetup that may be of interest to some Bootstrapper Breakfast members. It’s called “Funding Your Startup” and the link provided will take you to a SlideShare presentation with embedded audio for his presentation.
He views bootstrappers as investors in their own startups, and suggests your business plan should comprehend when your business may deserve outside investment. It’s a good talk with some practical advice. One of his key points for your early presentations is to get feedback: make sure you understand what prospective investors liked and didn’t like and make adjustments accordingly.
April 25th, 2009
Today was the second Friday meeting at Red Rock Coffee that we ran two different tables to accommodate a group of more than 30 attendees. We did some more planning after last month and asked Lenny Greenberg of Assistyx and MB Dean of Douglas Partners to act as a facilitator at each table. We appreciate their support on this very much.
We feel that the promise of serious conversation is best supported by table sizes of no more than 16. In the Red Rock Coffee (Mountain View) and Omega Restaurant (Milpitas) venues we have the space to support two tables and will do so as advance registration indicates demand.
In Palo Alto we are going to limit the table size to 14 to allow for a comfortable fit in the room; we may try something different in Sunnyvale. The two table format seemed to work well, the informal networking after the formal conversation ended at 10:30 lasted another hour and there was good discussion–and some occasional laughter–at both tables.
We will continue to experiment and welcome any suggestions.
April 8th, 2009
We have been happy customers of 123Signup for several years both for the Bootstrappers Breakfast and for our own workshops, roundtables, and other events. The last week we have received many e-mails and phone calls from folks who were complaining that our link was incorrect. It turns out that Register.com has been experiencing difficulties in supplying DNS support for 123Signup. What follows is the text an e-mail that documents the situation from Ann Murphy (no relation to Sean Murphy of SKMurphy).
Dear 123Signup Customer,
As of now, all 123Signup systems are functioning without any issues. If you were previously using the static IP address to connect to our website, we HIGHLY recommend you revert to using URLs with
www.123signup.com ONLY.
Yesterday afternoon, Register.com issued the following statement on their website:
“As we previously communicated, Register.com has been experiencing intermittent service disruptions as a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
We want to update you on where things stand.
As of now, all web services are operational. If you are experiencing any issues please call 1-888-734-4783. We have support teams standing by to respond immediately.
Please note we are not discounting the possibility of an escalated DDoS attack. We are taking every possible precaution to protect our infrastructure and our customers. In response we have:
- Deployed counter-measures to mitigate the attack and added capacity across the company’s network
- Setup special channels with major ISPs to re-enable customers’ services
- Isolated the profile of the attack through forensic data analysis
- Engaged the FBI and The Department of Homeland Security
- We promise to update you if there is any change to the situation.
Throughout this attack we have received incredible support from our customers and want to thank you for your understanding and continued loyalty. We recognize these attacks create significant hardships for
our customers and will continue to work to maintain and earn your trust.”
Thank you for your patience during this attack. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Ann Murphy
Vice President / Client Services
Update April 8: Situation appears fully resolved
April 1st, 2009
As we mentioned on March 19:
April 3 Bootstrappers Breakfast 7:30AM Hobees in Palo Alto
Adam Bossy will lead a discussion about “The Paradox of Self-Education” Please RSVP: this will fill up.
We are now full and cannot accept walk-ins. Please join us in April at the Omega Restaurant in Milpitas on April 10, Cocos Bakery in Sunnyvale on April 21, or Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View on April 24.
