“Build it and they will come, right? Everybody is going to love this, won’t they? It is really about the core technology — that’s where our value is.”

Sound familiar?

Last year, Dealmaker Media put together Startonomics, a great conference focusing on what really matters: how to define the metrics for your business, and where those numbers should fall to ensure you are on the right path. While fundamental, these are the hard questions, and many web and technology businesses tend to put them on the backburner. The good news is that after 2.5 generations of the web, many bright folks have been able to recognize the best practices for such metrics. As a bonus, the boom-and-bust history of the web provides valuable lean startup lessons for any business.

Now Dealmaker has brought this conference to UCLA, and the SoCal Tech Group is proud to be their marketing partner for this event. We encourage anyone currently in — or just thinking about — growing a business to check it out.

When: Friday February 6, 2009. This is an all day affair.
Where: The Anderson School of Management at UCLA (but open to the general public).
Cost: Normally $295, but there are a few left at $195. Register here.

The sessions:

• Morning Keynote Address by David O. Sacks, Yammer
  
• Building on the Cheap: Starting Up When the Economy is Down, Mike Jones, Tsavo Media
  
• Product Development 101: The DNA of Market Disruption, Mark Jeffrey, Mahalo
  
• Scaling for Startups: Planning for the Masses Without Losing Your Head, Jim Benedetto, MySpace
  
• Just Like the 405: Seven Ways to Drive Bumper-to-Bumper Traffic, Jason Nazar, DocStoc
  
• Finding Users: The Metrics of SEO for Customer Acquisition, Neil Patel, ACS
  
• Afternoon Keynote Address by Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media
  
• Social Media is Dead, Long Live Social Media, Sean Percival, Tsavo Media
  
• How to Create a Website that Users Eat Up & Beg for More, Ted Rheingold, Dogster, Inc.
  
• Pitching & Packaging for Partnerships: How to Land Amazing Deals & Tell If They’re Working, Peter Pham, BillShrink
  
• Revenue, What a Concept! - Monetizing by Numbers, Jay Weintraub, LeadsCon
  
• The A-Team: The Dynamics of Olympic Startups, Frank Addante, Rubicon Project
  
• From A- Z: Idea to Advisors to Angel Funding to Series A, Dan Gould, Fox Interactive
  
• A Fly on the Wall: Understanding the Metrics of Early Stage Funding, Mark Suster, GRP Partners, David Travers, Rustic Canon Ventures, Brian Garrett, Crosscut Ventures