VGS 09 Draws to a Spectacular End (with a show down!)

I should be getting my Mary Lou Retton Halloween costume on right now, but instead, all I can think is — “Wow, I’ve never seen a conference end like that before.” Today marked the 3rd annual Virtual Goods Summit put on by Charles Hudson and David Sachs.  The last panel of the day was on the topic of Payments Infrastructure for Virtual Goods, and Anu Shukla, founder and CEO of Offerpal Media, was an obvious choice for the panel of experts.

Towards the end of the discussion, Charles Hudson, the panel’s moderator, opened up the floor for Q&A.  Michael Arrington of TechCrunch was the first person at the microphone.  He questioned the ethics of offer providers like Offerpal and game publishers like Zynga and accused them of 1.) Knowingly engaging kids who steal their parent’s credit cards to accept offers, 2.) Facilitating scammers who accept offers from Netflix and other advertisers with no real interest or intention to follow-through on the offer, and 3.) Taking advantage of an ecosystem where Facebook and everyone else is going along with the fraud since everyone benefits from it except for the advertiser.

Arrington’s question/accusation splashed water on the faces of the end-of-day crowd, and Anu Shukla jumped at the opportunity to address his points, which she referred to as “shit, double shit and triple shit”.  She stated that 1.) In her two years of managing customer service calls, she had received roughly five complaints from parents whose children accepted offers without their consent and were charged for an offer as a result. 2.) Netflix and other savvy advertisers have been using offer payment systems for years and continue to do so because it has shown to be an acquisition source with high retention rates.  She further stated that advertisers know their metrics better than a journalist would.  And, 3.) Anu defended Facebook and stated that Facebook is all about the user experience, and as recently as July, issued new advertising guidelines to clean up the companies who were clearly taking advantage of the system.

Anu received the biggest and most enthusiastic round of applause I saw in my two days at the event.  And that ladies and gentleman, was a very lively end to the VGS09 conference.   This will be a fun one to watch on YouTube when it’s up.

Virtual Goods Summit University Takes the Stage

Girls in Tech was on the scene yesterday as Virtual Goods Summit 2009 kicked off with VGS University.  Hundreds of people came out to the half day seminar to learn from case studies and presentations by Linden Lab, Mochi Media, IMVU, Gaia Online, Ning, Viximo, Shufflebrain and others.

The afternoon panel on the Payments Landscape featuring SuperRewards, TrialPay, BOKU, PlaySpan, and ORCAgarnered a packed ballroom.  Charles Hudson, host of VGS09, moderated the panel and asked whether it’s a good or bad thing that the payments space is so chockfull of players.  Not surprisingly, the panel thought it was a good thing – and that it speaks to the vast potential opportunity for virtual goods in games.  They also agreed that the need for payment solution providers is high since payments are complex, requiring relationships with often hundreds of banks and wireless carriers if you take into account the international landscape.  Then there’s the sticky issue of fraud and security.  Finally, there’s scale of economies, and the idea that a game producer should concentrate on making great games instead of getting caught up with building a payment solution.  Overall, more payment providers means more choice for game publishers, and more pressure for payment providers to deliver better products and customer service.

The panel shared the following statistics: For free to play games on social networks, virtual goods conversion for those who actually pay is 3-4%. This of course varies depending on the virality and engagement quality of the game.  Lex Bayer from PlaySpan suggested that for each daily active user associated with a game on a social network, there is ten dollars of annual revenue potential.  Therefore, if you have five million DAU’s your potential revenue is $50 million in annual revenue.  Not shabby.

Big revenue potential and a young market makes for great energy, an eagerness for learning, sharing, and collaborating, with a good measure of competition and creativity thrown in.  This is going to be one good summit.  Join us today for part two of the third annual Virtual Goods Summit taking place today at the Westin in downtown San Francisco.  And stick around for the after party that Girls in Tech is co-hosting with Offerpal at Harlot nightclub!

The Evolution of Online Dating

Online dating is a hot industry, one that’s known to generate recurring subscription revenue allowing companies like eHarmony and Match.com to make roughly a million dollars a day.  Together, eHarmony and Match.com claim responsibility for over 120,000 marriages since 1995.  Call me a cynic (or pragmatist), but how about publishing data on the number of couples who are still together?  A study of the endurance of relationships that started online versus offline, and on one site versus another, would be fascinating.

This week Girls in Tech delved into the virtual dating space with a panel on the evolution of online dating featuring three of the hottest online dating sites.  Brian Phillips, CEO of Thread, Simon Tisminezky, CEO of SpeedDate.com, and Alex Mehr, Co-CEO and co-founder of Zoosk, exchanged friendly fire as they talked up the advantages of their matchmaking sites.

While Thread is the first dating site built entirely on the Facebook Connect platform, Zoosk boasts the world’s largest social dating community with 40 million users.  The three dating sites use a mix of free, freemium, and subscription models, with Zoosk testing the popularity of virtual gifts as a second stream of revenue.  Sending a dozen roses for $10 might give users the extra edge they need to make a good impression.  Or it might come across as a semi-desperate attempt to buy affection.

Rachel Sarah, author & blogger for Single Mom Seeking and a Match.com contributor, rounded out the panel with her expertise on how to build the perfect Match.com profile.  Quick tip: Write a positive profile that leaves out negativity and details about your last relationship!

Throughout the evening it was clear that the big game changer in online dating is the use of social networks to help people find the right match with minimal work.  As Brian Phillips noted, two-thirds of all marriages happen between friends of friends, making social networks a natural platform for matchmaking.  Across the board, the new online dating sites attract more men than women, partially due to the “hunter” mindset of men.  With women as early adopters of social networking, the numbers might start evening out.

I’ll leave you with one final tip from Rachel Sarah, a Match.com profile consultant, who has logged over one hundred Match dates:  Don’t dismiss someone right off the bat!  A great tip overall, whether or not you’re in the market for a mate.

A big thanks to our panelists for opening up to us about the inner-workings of online dating.  And special thanks to Melinda Maximova, founder and matchmaker at Perfect Search, for moderating the event.

If you have online dating experiences or tips to share, feel free to add a comment.

Twitter Launches Wine Label with Crushpad and Room To Read

Today Twitter is announcing their foray into two things we love — wine and Room to Read .  As part of their Corporate Social Innovation initiative, Twitter has chosen Room To Read, an organization that promotes literacy in some of the poorest regions  of  the  world,  to be their first charity partner.  The creation of the Fledgling Initiative will produce a new wine label called Fledgling Wine in partnership with San Francisco Do-it-Yourself winery Crushpad, with proceeds going to Room To Read.

Twitter staff will participate in making a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay with Crushpad and the public is invited to pre-purchase bottles of the wine, follow the wine-making process on Twitter, and possibly even participate in its creation at Crushpad’s 50,000 square foot urban winery in the Dogpatch district of  San Francisco.

To kick off the Twitter-Room To Read-Crushpad first of its kind initiative, come join the proud partners and Girls in Tech at  Room To Read’s Annual Fundraiser and Gala taking place tonight at the SF War Memorial.  A few tickets are still available, inclusive of sumptuous food and wine, live music, and a live auction, which will include some very limited edition wines! Buy tickets here for $50, VIP $125, or at the door for $75.   See you all there!

Learnings from the First Annual Girls In Tech Retreat

This weekend, Girls in Tech held our first Annual Retreat in Santa Cruz.  The day was packed full of hands-on learning sessions, starting with a Social Media Boot Camp with JD Lasica, a leading expert on social media and founder of socialmedia.biz.  JD shared best practices for businesses engaging in social media and identified leading campaigns that have been successful.

Photo credit: Seana Norvell

Kristin Schaefer and Bronwyn Saglimbeni got us out of our chairs and led an interactive and powerful Public Speaking Workshop.  Here are a few of the tips and tactics they shared with us on being a good speaker

1. Be a great story-teller and keep it conversational (people love to hear stories!)
2. Pick a person or several people to talk to (engages the audience)
3. Fewer words are more powerful (avoid fillers i.e. um, like, you know, I think…)
4. Use the physical space you have (don’t be rooted to one spot)
5. Keep an open, active, pose and free your hands to express yourself as you talk
6. Be authentic (Who are you and what are you here to do?)

Our keynote speaker was Megan Smith, VP of New Business Development at Google and General Manager of Google.Org.  Megan talked about the power of data and interconnection to change the world.  She gave us several examples including how the connection of data has been used to:

1.)    Track public health issues – Using Google Health, Google is able to see the correlation between the number of searches on a particular health term such as “flu”, and reports from the CDC on flu numbers.
2.)    Power people’s ability to advance civil liberties. (by making information available in countries where the media is tightly controlled)
3.)    Help the environment.  Google .org’s PowerMeter is a free electricity usage monitoring tool that people can use to review their power usage.

In summarizing the trait that has allowed Megan to be amazingly successful in her career, her good friend, David Hoffman, volunteered that “When faced with challenges, she believes there has to be a way.”

After the keynote, Gina Bauman and Elizabeth Weil of Institutional Venture Partners gave us a quick overview of the venture capital space.  And to close out the day Priya Ganapati sat down with Plantronics’ VP of Innovation, Joyce Shimizu.  Joyce shared the following tips on being a successful leader:

1.)    Be responsive to Change
2.)    Learn how to fly the plane, as well as land it (be able to set the 30,000 ft vision)
3.)    For work life/balance: Keep a short list of priorities, and enjoy the journey, don’t just concentrate on the destination.

Big thanks to all of our amazing speakers and to Seana Norvell, Managing Director of our Santa Cruz chapter, for organizing an awesome first annual GIT retreat.

Join me at Room to Read’s Annual Fundraiser and Gala

Two-thirds of the 770 million illiterate people in the developing world are girls and women.  Room to Read has awarded long-term scholarships to nearly 7,000 girls.   Last year, 1.2 million books were checked out from 7,000 libraries established by Room to Read.

I’m proud to be on the planning committee for Room to Read’s SF Bay Area Chapter’s annual fundraiser and gala taking place at the beautiful San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center.  Come out for a great cause and join me for a fabulous evening filled with live music, a lively auction with John Wood, and sumptuous food and wine in a gorgeous setting. You can purchase tickets here!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, Green Room
401 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

VIP Tickets: $125
General Reception Tickets Advance Purchase: $50
Purchase at the Door: $75

The World of Microfinance and How You Can Get Involved

On Wednesday, Girls in Tech hosted a panel discussion on “How Microfinance is Changing the Way We Live” featuring an all-star group of women who are leading the charge in the world of microfinance today.  Emily Gasner, executive director of TMC Development Working Solutions, Ashwini Narayanan, general manager at MicroPlace, Casey Wilson co-founder of Wokai, Michelle Kreger, microfinance partnerships manager at Kiva, and Shubha Shankaran, co-founder of United Prosperity shared their personal stories about how they came to be involved with microfinance, and how their organizations are using microfinance loans to help the working poor build self-sustaining businesses to pull themselves out of poverty.

While some organizations mainly provide only microfinance loan support to the poor, TMC Working Solutions and Wokai also provide training and support to help borrowers be better entrepreneurs with technical and business plan development assistance.  This increases the likelihood that the business will be successful and the loan repaid.

Throughout the evening it was clear that the panelists all shared two traits: a deep passion for their work and a deep love of their jobs!  What lucky women!  To be sure, there were many of us in the audience who wanted to know how we could get involved in microfinance.  Michelle from Kiva suggested that people start by going to Kiva.org to view the stories of borrowers, and start lending to get a sense for what it feels like.  For those with language skills, she suggested volunteering translation services to Kiva by translating borrowers’ stories and profiles in their native language to English.  Finally, she stressed getting on-the-ground field experience as the best way to get your foot in the door.

Emily from TMC Working Solutions pointed the audience to MicroMentor.org and suggested people who are interested in microfinance join the group Women Advancing Microfinance, where members meet once a month to provide professional development and support to each other and discuss  opportunities and innovation in the industry.

A big thanks to all of wonderful panelists for sharing their personal stories with us and giving us a glimpse into the power of microfinance to greatly impact the lives of the working poor.  Also, special thanks to Sundeep Ahuja, co-founder and president of The Extraordinaries, for moderating the evening’s panel.

Eric Ries Rocks Startonomics Tokyo

Day two of The Geeks on a Plane tour had us at the offices of KDDI Web Communications for a full day of presentations on topics ranging from the state of venture capital in Asia and the US, to an overview of the Japanese online games and virtual goods market, to US platforms and social networking. Eric Ries closed out the day with a dynamic presentation about how to run a Lean Startup.

Eric has led two startups — the first startup failed fabulously, and the second startup, IMVU, is profitable and making millions in revenue. The difference? Startup #1 spent $40 million and employed 200 people before there was a launched product. Startup #2 launched a beta product quickly, and continuously released newer and better versions while engaging with customers early and often.

Take Away: The biggest source of waste in any startup is building something nobody wants.

Do yourself a huge favor and see Eric Ries present live if you get the chance.   In the meantime, you can view his presentation here.

Tina Tran, Mark Hendrickson, Eric Ries, Larry Chiang, Joyce Kim

See Jane Fly launches in San Francisco

Last week I attended the launch party for See Jane Fly, the ultimate online travel planning guide for today’s on-the-go woman.  With the launch of  See Jane Fly, founder Erica Dublin is addressing an opportunity in the marketplace for a travel website that provides fast, customized, in-the-know destination guides with just a few clicks of the mouse.  I think of See Jane Fly as a customizable mix of Daily Candy + Weekend Sherpa + CitySearch for the discerning female traveler.

The user experience is simple — after selecting a destination, you are prompted to answer a few questions about your trip.  What type of trip is it – business, pleasure, solo, girl’s weekend?  What’s your budget range, and what type of food, accommodations, workout style, nightlife, and activities are you into?  Presto!  The site creates a tailored 2-3 page list of recommendations that you can print out for your trip.

When I sat down with Erica, she shared with me the key lessons she learned from the experience of launching her first startup.

1.     Stick to what you know best; delegate what you don’t know to others.
2.     Start talking about your idea and people will help you.
3.     Don’t worry about funding. Start building, be resourceful, scrap and bootleg it.
4.     Make your startup an area or topic that you are personally passionate about.

See Jane Fly is launching six additional destinations in the next two months and will work with local writers in each city.  Experience the See Jane Fly personalized travel guide experience for yourself here.

Girls in Tech Presents: The World of Casual and Social Games

Original post: May 15, 2009

During this down economy, one of the few industries that have continued to grow is casual online games. Women are a dominant force in this industry, making up 75% of the population that pays to play. It’s no wonder that casual games have become so popular – they’re easy to play, provide a quick hit of fun, and are highly social and viral in nature.

Have you ever wanted to know how to get involved in the super-hot gaming space? Are you curious as to what the job opportunities are in games? Do you want to get a sense of who the big players are and how they make money? Or maybe you’re just asking yourself, what is the big deal with games – and why is everyone playing them and talking about them?! If any of these questions apply to you then Girls in Tech has the perfect forum for you.

Girls in Tech Presents: The World of Casual Games
An online casual games panel featuring
Zynga, Mochi Media, SGN, and Super Rewards

Event Details:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
6:30pm Networking & wine
7:00pm Panel start
Location: ngmoco:) Office — 118 King St. 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA