Startup Poker 2.0

This month’s Poker 2.o event is Wednesday, November 30.  Invites are so if you didn’t receive yours, check your junk mail folder and ping me if you didn’t get it.  If you’re an entrepreneur or investor and are not yet on the invitee list but want to be, check out these two links and then ping me.

• http://startuppoker20.com/who-can-play/
• http://startuppoker20.com/code-of-conduct/

Shuffle up and deal!

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These two new events are close to my heart.  Both are organized by startup phenom and GeekWire community manager Red Russak.  If you are an entrepreneur or investor with a taste for either fine spirits or fine cigars then you should definitely check them out.  Poker 2.0 is a sponsor and will be supplying select consumables from time to time… and whenever my calendar permits it I’ll be there as well.

Check out the 411 for these great events here:

Cigars & Startups

Startup Spirits

If you want to keep up on announcements for these events, be sure to follow @redrussak.

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Don Dodge wrote a piece back in November on the analogies between the startup entrepreneur’s mentality and the poker player’s mentality.  I think it’s especially relevant when you consider that most successful entrepreneurs end up being serial entrepreneurs.  As I wrote for GeekWire last month, I believe it’s useful to think like a serial entrepreneur… even if you aren’t one yet.  In this light, each company and each decision in the career of an entrepreneur is akin to each poker hand and each poker game you play in.

The measure of success is not an individual poker hand or tournament a poker player plays, or even a series of them.  Rather, success in poker is only measurable when you consider the lifetime record of the player.  Similarly, the success of an entrepreneur cannot be measured by the outcome of any one decision or any one company.  And in both cases, best of the best learn something from each hand/decision and each company/tournament.

As participants in Poker 2.0 know, poker also turns out to be a powerful way to connect with other entrepreneurs in a way that builds deep and lasting relationships.

See you at the tables!

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June 2011 Winers

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May 2011 Winners

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I used to be in decent shape. I worked out… I ran 10K races ~five times a year… I even did a few triathlons. And then I became an startup entrepreneur… and I quickly got out of shape. Our days are filled with meetings, airplanes, whiteboards… and of course lots of computer screen time. I know a LOT of entrepreneurs who just don’t make the time any more to get active. Recently I started doing six-mile-ish walks on the weekends and it’s been great. Turns out that walking a mile and running a mile burns about the same number of calories and is amazing for reducing stress, lowering blood pressure and improving the cholesterol math… and it doesn’t beat up the joints like running does (which is really important for us big guys.) I’ve decided to expand my walks into the work week and will be inviting a bunch of startup founders to join in if they want to.

I admit that “Geeks on a Trail” is a rip off of one of my most favoritest tech event names ever, “Geeks on a Plane”.  I haven’t asked Dave McClure for permission to plagiarize (sorry Dave)… but I think he’d be cool with it.  You’re cool with it, right Dave??  And, Dave, if you’re ever in Seattle then I hope you’ll join us for a walk (I’m just sayin’).

If you’re interested in getting some solid activity built into your week then please feel free to join in. There’s no requirement to socialize… do whatever you want while you’re walking.  Listen to your iPod, make phone calls, hold an executive teem meeting, catchup on email… whatever justifies you making the two-hour investment in your health.  I’ll be trying to be as productive as I can; in fact, I’ve already decided that I’m getting a tablet computer just so I can be more productive while I walk.  Here’s the schedule:

Monday afternoons, 1pm, near the Seattle waterfront. The trail we’ll follow is about 1.25 miles each way, so back and forth is 2.5 miles. I’ll be doing two loops, i.e., 5 miles. If you only have an hour then you can drop off after the first loop. Sponsored free parking nearby is available if you need to drive to get there — thanks to Graham & Dunn!

Thursday mornings, 9am, at Greenlake. The inner trail is 2.8 miles. I’ll be doing two loops, i.e., 5.6 miles. Again, just do one loop if that’s all the time you have.

If you want to get added to the invite list and the calendar reminders, send an email to BOB [.dot.] CRIMMINS [at] GMAIL and I’ll add you on. I’ll also let you know the exact meeting places so you can hook up with the rest of the Geeks.

Hope your can join in.

Bob

PS. These are invite-only walks are for tech startup founders, execs and investors only… so please no service providers unless you are explicitly invited by one of the Startup Haven team.

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Every tech entrepreneur I know has a heap of domain names that have accreted over years and years of brain storms… followed by a bunch of $7.98 charges on the credit card.  Now what?  Most of them are probably relatively worthless… but maybe some aren’t!  How do you figure it out?  What do you do once you know?  If you want to sell them, should you set up hosting on each one?  What if someone else got the domain you want/need?  What are the best strategies for picking your next 20 domains?  What competitive advantages are to be had by understanding how the domain biz works?  Ok… you get the point.  We’re teaming up with Michael Cyger of DomainSherpa to answer these questions and any others you can think of in an interactive domain boot camp just for tech startup founders. So block your calendar for lunch on June 1st and watch your inbox for the invitation.

This will also be a coming out party of a kind for Startup Haven, which is the org I formed a couple of years ago to get Poker 2.0 ramped up.  This will be an invite-only event (tech founders, execs and investors only) and lunch will be on the house.   As usual, space will be limited — just a heads up.  If you are already on the Poker 2.0 invite list (soon to be the Startup Haven invite list) then you’ll receive the invite.  If you’re a tech startup founder, exec or investor and want to get on the list then send me your name, your startup company and your role (e.g., founder, CEO, CTO, COO, investor, etc.)  If you’re not sure if you’re ready to call yourself a founder, then have a look at this link first: http://startuppoker20.com/who-can-play/

Finally, if you have a domain-oriented question you’d like addressed at the event then please send it along and we’ll get it in.

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… and once I get the final table winner’s photos I’ll post the full recap. Until then, thanks to our terrific sponsors!

Christensen O’connor
Cannon Commercial
TechDwellers

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