Here’s RideAmigos in Jeff’s own words — Congrats Jeff!

RideAmigos is a patent-pending, ride-matching technology provider that connects people going the same way at the same time so rides are shared.  RideAmigos offers:

• car/taxi reservation and booking system integrations, saving companies and/or individuals significant dollar amounts on ground travel
• features for event and ticketing websites
• sharing-enabled car reservation systems for hotels and car services
• environmentally-friendly transportation services through partners

Jeff has been able to utilize his fearless approach to corporate prospecting, attaining a client list that includes several of the most well know organizations across the United States. He has led his team to establish RideAmigos as a leader in ride-sharing services, as well as align his company with an invaluable set of strategic partners.

Dealmaker has been putting together conferences and roundtables in LA of consistently high quality for the past two years.  These are the folks that put on the Startonomics conference this past February at UCLA, which was a great primer for web entrepreneurs and provides a level of networking and education that is needed in SoCal.  Well, Dealmaker has recently announced a new workshop that goes beyond an introductory level to something hands-on and actionable.  The workshop is one day, but split into two simultaneous tracks so that you can choose what is most important to you.  The conference details are listed below.

Since SoCal Tech Group is all about empowering entrepreneurs in the LA area, we’d like to give away ONE ticket to this fantastic event to a deserving entrepreneur (a $200 value!).  The IP law firm KPPB has generously donated a ticket to us, and we want to give it to the entrepreneur who wants to learn from the best.  In order to win, you must do the following:

1. Join our LinkedIn group if you haven’t already.
2. Send us an email, and tell us about:
3. Your background
4. Your startup (or startup aspirations!).  This must be your first startup in order to win.
5. What you want to learn from this event

The winner will be chosen by the SoCal Tech Group based on who has the most compelling email.  Winners will be contacted before the event by email.  Big thanks to KPPB to being a part of this event and donating the ticket.  Charles Hollaran from KPPB will be present, as will I, so please hunt us down and say hi!

Here’s the details:

When: October 6, 2009 1-6pm
Where: Microsoft in Downtown LA (map here)
Pricing and Details: See Dealmaker

Opening Keynote: Funding Facts from A-Z

Speaker: Dan Gould, VP Technology, Fox Interactive Media & Founder of Newroo

Romancing the Deal: Getting to “I do” And Getting What You Want
Only fools rush in to venture money, and for good reason – underestimate the bargaining power of your target investor, and you may just end up with a broken heart. Before you jump in, you need to understand the strategies and tactics of negotiating a funding round and it starts with the first date.

· Room 1 (VC Perspective): Mark Suster, Partner, GRP Partners

· Room 2 (Founder and Legal Perspective): Charles Halloran, KPPB & Seth Sternberg, CEO, meebo

Determining Need vs. Greed
We’ve all heard the horror stories of taking too much funding and diluting your value. This session will help you determine how much financing you actually need, explore alternative financing options every entrepreneur should consider, understand the investor’s math, and protect your (ass)ets along the way.

· Room 1 (VC and Legal Perspective): Neal Hansch, Rustic Canyon Partners & Scott Alderton, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles

· Room 2 (Founder and Legal Perspective): Charles Halloran, KPPB & Dan Gould, VP Tech, Fox Interactive Media

Equity Structure
Equity structure is one of the most important and most misunderstood factors of starting a company. How should you divide equity among employees, and even more importantly, how can your equity structure affect your legal rights, venture outlook and exit?

· Room 1 (VC and Perspective): Dave McClure, Founders Fund

· Room 2 (Founder and Legal Perspective): Dan Burnham, Strategic Law Partners & John Suh, CEO, Legal Zoom

Team, Board, & Advisor Compensation
How can you determine the right combination and levels of compensation plans for your team, board and advisers? What are the legal landmines and loopholes you should know about? We’ll help you understand the ins and outs of incentive plans and choose the right mix for your start-up.

· Room 1 (VC and Legal Perspective): Charles Halloran, KPPB & Kent Goldman, Principal, First Round Capital

· Room 2 (Founder Perspective): Jeff Tinsley, CEO, Mylife

Term Sheet Negotiation
Think you’ve mastered the term sheet? Think again. In this session you’ll get to walk through an actual term sheet with a VC,  entrepreneur, and lawyer to find the quick sand and learn how to get around it.

· Room 1 (VC Perspective): Richard Wolpert,Partner, The Mailroom Fund & Christian Scognamillo, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles

· Room 2 (Founder & Legal Perspective): Dan Burnham, Strategic Law Partners & Frank Addante, CEO, Rubicon Project

Working with Investors, Advisors & your Board: What to Watch Out For
In the beginning, everything is happy-go-lucky…until something goes wrong. Now that you have investors, you have more responsibilities and managing this relation is much like a marriage - learn what’s expected by investors and advisors - and in turn what you can and should expect from them.

· Room 1 (VC & Legal Perspective): Dan Burnham, Strategic Law Partners & William Quigley, Partner, Clearstone Ventures

· Room 2 (Founder & Legal Perspective): Jason Nazar, CEO, DocStoc

Learn and trade stories of how to build a successful, lean startup, including customer development strategies and agile methodologies.  Since this is being done in conjunction with the SoCal Tech Group, this is also a great time to meet potential technical partners.

This is a no-host event, and everyone is invited. You can park for free in the “Fanista” lot next to 9916 Santa Monica (across the street, space permitting).

Please RSVP on this event’s upcoming page: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4240676

For more information on Lean Startups, see http://leanstartup.pbworks.com

When: Wednesday August 26, 2009 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Roni’s Diner
9911 Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills California 90212

Get Directions

This year, the topics and panelists are top notch — here’s a brief rundown:

THURSDAY July 30^th

9:45 -10:45 Showoffs (BakeSpace, BantamLive, Diddit, Educator, EQAL, ExpenseBay) pitches and Q&A on stage (with Showoff Judges)

10:45 – 11:30 Incubators and new trends in early stage investing (Dave McClure, Andy Sack and Brad Feld)

11:45 – 12:45 Showoffs (JamLegend, Mobophiles, PeopleBrowsr, Streamy, Uservoice, Blip.fm) pitches and Q&A on stage (with Showoff Judges)

12:45 – 1:15 Getting your Startup Noticed (Brian Solis)

2:35 – 3:15 Future Trends in Online Video (Dmitry Shapiro, Justin Kan and Taryn Southern)

3:15– 4:00 Crossing the Mainstream/Online Divide (Brooke Burke w/ Lisa Rosenblatt) (moderated by Adam Weinroth of Demand Media)

4:00 – 5:00 Music and Technology (Chamillionaire, Ian Rogers, and QD3)

7:00 – MIDNIGHT The Twiistup Evening Open Bar party 80s Tech Prom

FRIDAY July 31^st

9:45 – 10:30 Leveraging the Social Web (Chris Brogan, Ben Huh and Micah Baldwin) (moderated by Sean Percival)

10:30 – 11:15 The (LA) Startup ecosystem - money, talent, benefits and challenges outside of Silicon Valley (Mark Suster, David O. Sacks, Michael Jones and James Montgomery)

11:15 – 11:45 Investing and marketing based on the 7 Deadly Sins (Cyan Banister - early investor in Facebook, Paypal, Slide etc)

12:30 – 2:00 Jason Calacanis and guest – This Week in Startups Live

In a addition to a few LA “regulars”, this conference features a large number of speakers are coming in from other tech centers throughout the world, so be sure to expect a good current of new ideas and fresh thinking. In addition, its a great opportunity for LA companies to show off their stuff.  I’ll be at the party this evening, so please look me up via http://twitter.com/dbenyamin

See you all there!

Photo Credit: adamjackson1984

In addition to a downtown LA warehouse-style venue, showcased artists, intense networking  and great talks, something special about Mindshare is the Mindshare Lab. A group of fun visionary technologists and programmers create their own games and leverage multiple online applications to enable on-site interactive installation placing “Mindsharians” at the heart of the event.

Inspired by the TED conference, Mindshare brings the discussion to the next level in our LA community, and soon in NYC. Started at the Top Loft of a smoke stack brick building  in an artsy section of downtown LA — The Brewery — the event is now gathering 400+ bright Minds that Share ideas and solutions without inhibitions.

The base-of-pyramid social entrepreneur I am cannot wait to hear tonight Jessica Jackley, founder of Kiva, the online micro-loan platform changing life of entrepreneurs in the developing world.

Mingling starts tonight Thursday June 18th at 7PM, at the Firehouse in downtown LA and will be reiterated every 3rd Thursday of the Month.

If you’ll be there, write a shout out via your own personal tools, or just say so in the comments below!

There is no cost, and this is open to everyone — just show up (but you gotta pick up your own tab!).

When: Tuesday, March 10 2009 8pm onwards
Where: The Westwood Brew Co. (map)

More info on upcoming.  Hope to see you there!

The 8 by 8 dinner sold out quickly as usual, and featured a really diverse set of smart folks: venture capital, CMOs, startup founders, social media execs, and the mandatory student.  We plan on doing a dinner once a quarter, so please check back for updates on the next dinner date.

Lastly, we definitely need to increase the number of tech geeks since no one correctly answered our geek question: what does 8 by 8 refer to?

Well, 8×8 is the size of the transform matrix used in most image and MPEG video compression techniques.  The is because the 8×8 discrete cosine transform has many symmetric properties, making for efficient computation.  Check out here and here for more insight and info.  It is also the name of an IC company that (used) to focus on multimedia processing.

Yeah this is one that would be hard to google for…

We are pleased to announce that Brian Garret of Crosscut Ventures will be our guest at the next 8 by 8 dinner.  Crosscut is part of a new generation of venture funds, specializing in earlier stage opportunities and smaller deal sizes.  Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut, has been very active in the Southern California venture community either as an adviser (to GumGum and Verve Wireless), or previously as partner in Palomar Ventures.  Brian brings years of startup mentoring to his portfolio companies, and will also be a speaker and the upcoming Startonomics conference.

We are looking for six smart LA technologists to join us. Just like our first dinner, anticipate a rich discussion of entrepreneurship, the state of venture capital, and what it takes to grow in this economy.  The total capacity is just eight people, ensuring a deep level of discussion.

When: Wednesday, February 11, 8pm
Where: Tanino’s Restaurant in Westwood Village (map)
Cost: $75 (by check, please make out to “SoCal Tech Group LLC”)

The dinner is invite only — interested in joining?  You gotta do the following:

• Join the SoCal Tech Group if you haven’t already (on LinkedIn or Facebook)
• Email us and let us know why you are the perfect attendee of the next 8 by 8 event — you must provide for us:

1. Your name and full contact information
2. If you would be interested in becoming a consulting member
3. Your background (if you have a bio or CV, that’s fine as well)
4. What are your entrepreneurial goals? What do you want out of the dinner?
5. Answer our geek question: What does “8 by 8″ refer to?

In order to give lots of people a chance, folks who have been to the previous dinner are not eligible.

Here’s looking forward to a great night!

Image attribution