I heard some of the entrepreneurs at this month's beGLOBAL 2013 conference drop hints about the network of information sources they leverage. I checked some of them out to see if they're useful for me as a blogger.
The Korean government maintains KOTRA Silicon Valley to help its native startups launch here. That is brilliant and it makes me wonder whether the US government funds its own satellite locations in hot foreign markets. The US Commercial Service supports periodic trade missions but I'm not aware of any permanent presence other than the commercial sections they staff at US embassies.
The Plug and Play Center is an accelerator one startup mentioned as something worth doing. I missed their Fall EXPO so I can't judge their results first-hand. They don't make equity investments in participants, unlike Y Combinator.
One guy mentioned Black Hat and its DEFCON event. I won't link them here because the spirit of that organization lends itself to elements I would not want in my circles. Suffice it to say that the leading edge of network security is always ripe for disruption. Security pros like Bruce Schneier would have a field day at DEFCON.
Angel Launch is a platform I've never seen before, produced by iHollywood Forum. Connecting pitch competitions from different sectors and regions is valuable to angel investors. Their Startup Venture Summit attracts the right kinds of investors but I'm too cheap to attend. Maybe they'll invite me to show up for free, just because I'm so awesome.
The participants got their market data from a plethora of research firms and apps. They threw around names like Localytics, Circa, Kantar, Ipsos, GfK, and IRI Worldwide. I can't vouch for any of their services but I like some of the articles on Circa's blog. I suspect that hiring an outside market research agency doesn't come cheap. I further suspect that the cost of obtaining market data from open sources is near or at zero. The US government's Data.gov initiative puts everything except classified stuff online. I think sharp DevOps people can build Data.gov's APIs into their apps and get all of the size-of-market data they ever dreamed of having from the US Census.
Have at it, techies. I'm not a hacker or DevOps dude so fielding this tech is up to you. I just want to invest in something that uses Big Data to disrupt my favorite sectors - finance, logistics, defense, and natural resources.
The Korean government maintains KOTRA Silicon Valley to help its native startups launch here. That is brilliant and it makes me wonder whether the US government funds its own satellite locations in hot foreign markets. The US Commercial Service supports periodic trade missions but I'm not aware of any permanent presence other than the commercial sections they staff at US embassies.
The Plug and Play Center is an accelerator one startup mentioned as something worth doing. I missed their Fall EXPO so I can't judge their results first-hand. They don't make equity investments in participants, unlike Y Combinator.
One guy mentioned Black Hat and its DEFCON event. I won't link them here because the spirit of that organization lends itself to elements I would not want in my circles. Suffice it to say that the leading edge of network security is always ripe for disruption. Security pros like Bruce Schneier would have a field day at DEFCON.
Angel Launch is a platform I've never seen before, produced by iHollywood Forum. Connecting pitch competitions from different sectors and regions is valuable to angel investors. Their Startup Venture Summit attracts the right kinds of investors but I'm too cheap to attend. Maybe they'll invite me to show up for free, just because I'm so awesome.
The participants got their market data from a plethora of research firms and apps. They threw around names like Localytics, Circa, Kantar, Ipsos, GfK, and IRI Worldwide. I can't vouch for any of their services but I like some of the articles on Circa's blog. I suspect that hiring an outside market research agency doesn't come cheap. I further suspect that the cost of obtaining market data from open sources is near or at zero. The US government's Data.gov initiative puts everything except classified stuff online. I think sharp DevOps people can build Data.gov's APIs into their apps and get all of the size-of-market data they ever dreamed of having from the US Census.
Have at it, techies. I'm not a hacker or DevOps dude so fielding this tech is up to you. I just want to invest in something that uses Big Data to disrupt my favorite sectors - finance, logistics, defense, and natural resources.
