Live from Finovate Startup 2009 – Introduction |
4 Comments |
Like last year's Live Blogging from Finovate, I'll be giving it another shot this year... and by "this year", I really mean today. For those not familiar with Finovate Startup, it's a convention of startup companies around banking and finance held in San Francisco.
Finovate Startup has always interested me. Other bloggers have asked me again and again why I'd want to cover it. I think the better question is why I wouldn't want to cover it. It's about 20 miles away from where I live. It has relevant personal finance companies presenting. Companies that you may have heard of like Lending Club, Mint, Prosper, Wesabe, Credit Karma, and a whole lot more. Lastly, they provide free food, free drinks, some smaller swag, and for blogger admission is essentially free. The only thing that I don't like is that you have to wake up at banker's hours - ugh.
The other thing that I really like about Finovate is the pace. If you snooze, you lose. Since there are over 50 companies presenting, each one is limited to 5 minutes. On top of that, there are booths outside where you can meet and greet all the companies that recently presented. To add to the chaos, over a dozen companies' PR firms have contacted me asking if I'd like to interview the CEO. As you might imagine there's very little time to do this. This puts me in the unusual situation of telling the CEO, "No, it's not going to happen." To be honest I get a strange pleasure out of this :-).
I'll also be trying to keep you updated via my Twitter account. This may be less formal... Expect to see comments like: "Company X looks impressive", "the lunch is pretty good here", or "I just met Ramit from I Will Teach You To Be Rich." As you might imagine, the most interesting Tweets are likely to be expected about 45-60 minutes into the open bar.
Arter that I'm off to a dinner sponsored by Thrive. Some other bloggers will be there: The Digerati Life, RateLadder.com, and Stop Buying Crap. Also at dinner will be Prosper - fresh from announcing they are back in business.
It will be an interesting exercise in multi-tasking for me. I'll have my laptop going without wifi (to save the battery for the whole day), my cellphone to Twitter (battery shouldn't be a problem), and my notebook for other notes (though I may pass that up and take notes directly with the laptop. I expect the Twitter to fall a little short and the live blogging to be closer to 10 Tweet-sized thoughts on companies grouped together.
I know I'll be biting a lot, we'll see how much I can chew.
This post deals with:Finovate, personal finance, start up
... and focuses on:Finovate
Stumble
Reddit
Digg
Del.icio.us
Tipd4 Responses to “Live from Finovate Startup 2009 – Introduction”
Leave a Reply
Next: Live from Finovate Startup – First Demo Session
i am committed to bringing you success.
recieve cash daily sent to your doorstep.
if you need proof i have it, if you want to see the thousands who have already joined and started their road to success come take a look.
I’m jealous, I wish I could participate but I’m just too far away. Tell everyone I said hello!
Finovate Startup interests me very much. unfortunately, its very far from where I live. if I have a chance I would cover it, no doubt. The pace is really good as I know, and companies which gather there – it is really a very interesting convention.
Apparently Prosper wasn’t quite ready to launch. Not even two weeks after opening back up they are closed again.