Great PR is about developing great stories of influence that journalists, bloggers, etc. want to write about and your market wants to read/view/listen to. Bring your questions on:

• How to approach journalists & bloggers
• Crafting your story

Location: CoCo Restaurant 1206 Oakmead Parkway Sunnyvale, CA
Time: 7.30 am
Date: June 19, 2012

Come prepared to tell us a story about your fledgling idea; product; solution to a problem; or new service. Rather than simply describe your new business venture; tell us a story. Remember composition 101? Every story has these basic elements:

• Theme
• Setting
• Plot
• Conflict
• Character
• Point of View

Example: Once upon a time people could only call people from a phone connected to a jack and an outlet in the wall (theme: plain old telephones). One day Bob (character) was driving to a meeting with a new client. It was a multi-million dollar deal (plot). Suddenly his trip down 101N came to a screeching halt due to a triple car pile-up 4 miles down the road (conflict/drama). Bob was reduced to a weeping pile of protoplasm. During the 3 hrs he was trapped in his car, Bob got out his notepad and said, this has got to change. I need to be able to reach clients, especially during an emergency, when I’m away from my phone (point of view/new idea out of the conflict). That’s when Bob created the idea for a car phone… and the rest is history (happy ending!).

See if you can turn your problem solving idea into a story and come to the next Bootstrappers Breakfast meeting and share it with us.

About Shelly Gordon, G2 Communications Inc

Public relations leader Shelly Gordon creates innovative PR and social media programs for health care organizations and small to mid-sized B2B companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the U.S. Going beyond launching products or writing press releases, Gordon generates media coverage and builds trust in the marketplace for her clients by positioning them as credible leaders in the forefront of social media conversations that make a difference in people’s lives – and the bottom line. On top of her 20+ years of PR experience, Gordon also brings to her work a warm sense of humor honed as a solo performer and leader of laughter workshops.

Here are some things we have tried to do cultivate a geographically diverse learning community for entrepreneurs.

• Encourage a scientific approach to entrepreneurship where founders are clear on what they have observed, hypotheses they have formed, and ways that they plan to test these hypotheses.
• Share lessons learned from success and failure (the latter may be much easier in small group conversation).
• Foster collaborative problem solving by soliciting diverse points of view, resist the temptation to treat any one book or set of books as scripture or static best practices. Instead search for better practices on an ongoing basis that recognize new technologies, new demographics, new attitudes/zeitgeist.
• Recognize that the substantial success of a startup may represent the closing of an opportunity window for identical or even similar startups, consider how the lessons learned from a major success can be repurposed to new situations instead of used as a blueprint or treasure map. Look for new opportunities that success of a major startup enables in the business/ and technology ecosystem enables.
• Recognize and reflect the unique strengths and opportunities that exist in each local geography/region. Don’t try and clone Silicon Valley’s model but develop on that leverages the local business ecosystem. For more on this see “Federated Entrepreneurship: Play Your Own Game“

It turns out that 8-16 people having one conversation for 90 minutes can make stronger connections than 60 or 120 sitting in classroom or theater seating listening to a single speaker. These smaller group interactions are much more introvert friendly and tend to do more to foster team formation and development than pitch fests, speed dating, or cocktail party networking models. I have found the network weaving model developed by June Holley and Valdis Krebs offers a number of useful models and metrics for fostering a healthy regional community. See the list of papers at http://www.networkweaving.com/june.html

I welcome questions, suggestions, and observations in the comments or us the contact form for a private reply.

Attendees, all with an enterpreneureal streak,  discuss innovative ways to operate more efficiently, gain revenue and reach company goals for their businesses. Attendees range from serial entrepreneurs to innovative professionals looking for co-founders.

The roundtable meetings are moderated by Mark Fitchmun, founding partner principal of Somatek who is excited to foster technology entrepreneurship and to facilitate serious discussions of  ideas and resources. Under Mark’s leadership, the group has attracted a large number of members from startups in the biotechnology and life sciences industries.

Past attendees have said:

• “This is one networking event that I try to never miss. It is relaxed and fun and I always learn something.”
• “Good mix of business experience with technical know-how and eager new entrepreneurs.”

Bootstrappers Breakfast is excited to be apart of the thriving San Diego startup scene. Bootstrappers Breakfast with roots in Silicon Valley since 2005 and has since expanded nationwide. The cost for attending is $5 in advance or $10 at the door. For more information about Bootstrappers Breakfast visit www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com.

Griffin Caprio is stepping back from month-to-month operations of the Chicago’s Bootstrappers Breakfast meeting. Under his founding leadership the Chicago chapter of Bootstrappers Breakfast has attracted an incredible group of entrepreneurs. He plans to continue attending breakfasts and be involved in the group.

Starting with this month’s breakfast Sarah Gray will be taking over as the organizer & head moderator for the Chicago Bootstrappers Breakfast.  We are honored that she’s taking over the group and have no doubt that she’s going to continue to do a fantastic job.

You can download the app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bootstrappers-breakfast/id507768994?mt=8 if you would like to take part in the experiment between now and the July breakfast. We welcome any feedback on whether it improved the experience and/or the quality of the conversation.

Check it out at our next Minneapolis breakfast on Thursday, April 26.  Signup at http://www.meetup.com/Bootstrappers-Breakfast-Minneapolis/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahggray Twitter: @fablednet

Sarah Gray is the co-founder of MercuryApp.com
She is a technical co-founder and entrepreneur with a background in theater directing. Sarah has been developing software professionally for 10 years and worked for a number of early-stage startups before dropping out to build her own products. She is currently working on MercuryApp.com, a life-tracking journal; and has co-founded Technical Advocates, a consulting practice that gives advice to non-technical startup founders.

Sarah is bootstrapping a life where she can dream up and prototype projects then set them loose in the world. She lives in Chicago with her partner in crime, Corey Haines, and her cat, Zak. Sarah is a long-time member of the Chicago Bootstrapper Breakfast group.

Chuck is a marketing professional with more than 25 years of management and leadership experience in advertising, public relations, marketing and organizational communications. He offers pragmatic perspectives developed while growing up in a family business, managing in large, unforgiving bureaucracies (like GE and Prudential), struggling to operationalize a startup (only to have its founder pull the plug before launch), and consulting for interesting organizations (ranging from sandwich shops to venture-funded startups to an ivy-league institution to emerging technology firms).

He is the marketing director at Novotorium and also founded and runs Your Marketing Exec, a consultancy that aligns marketing strategies to business goals. Chuck holds a Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania – a multi-disciplinary field that enables practitioners to understand and manage the forces and motions that affect organizations. This unique combination of experience and education allows him to blend practical marketing needs with the latest marketing thinking to mobilize the entire organization to execute brand and marketing strategies.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mkrupit
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/mkrupit
email: mike@novotorium.com

Mike is a strategic leader, innovator, and entrepreneurial operator in business and technology. He has provided organizational and technical leadership in dynamic environments, including early stage, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, high growth, and efficiency management. Michael has achieved significant goals through his strong leadership, fiscal awareness, technological advancement, and partnerships and relationships. Some of the companies that Mike helped build were Verity (a pioneer in search), Infonautics (a pioneer in online information services), and CDNOW (a pioneer in music e-commerce). NYC-born Mike has innovated on both coasts – spending nearly a decade in Silicon Valley and over 18 years in the Philadelphia area.

Mike has a passion for the new and different. He recently started an incubator, Novotorium, as a way to bring together his desire to grow profitable businesses while staying immersed in the startup and emerging company space. Novotorium provides the environment, advice, services, and funding that are needed to accelerate an emerging company, with a novel approach focusing on the mid to long term.