Notes From a Skillshare Class: Introduction to Business Development and Partnerships

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 16, 2011

Tonight I attended Introduction to Business Development and Partnerships taught by Alex Taub. The class was taught as a fundraiser for Raise Cache, which is a fundraiser for hackNY. hackNY aims to federate the next generation of hackers for the New York innovation community.

Alex and I were chosen as part of the nextNY fellowship program last April, so I’ve known he’s a superstar for a while and was excited to take the class; especially because the money went to a good cause. Below are my notes. Enjoy, future partnership makers.

Business Development Consists of:

Skillshare Class

  • Developing strategies for your company
  • Networking with other companies and forming partnerships
  • Repeating occurrences that can be translated into sales

Types of Business Development:

  • Business to consumer…think Foursquare, Facebook, twitter
  • Business to business…think Salesforce, Basecamp, High Rise
  • Business to Business to Consumer…think Microsoft, Aviary, Twilio

The Importance of Networking

  • Find the right events
  • Research who will be there and focus on finding them at the events
  • Follow up with the folks you meet…even if there’s not a direct connection right away. You never know!
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CreativeMornings: An Event Series You Need to Check Out [This Month: Jessi Arrington + Rainbow Parade]

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 12, 2011

Creative Mornings Jessi Arrington Rainbow Parade Brooklyn
Photo by placenamehere

That’s me in the wig on the left. I was finally able to attend Creative Mornings, an event series created by Tina Roth Eisenberg (swissmiss) for the first time. This is an event you NEED to attend at some point. NY Creative Interns has the full scoop on the awesomeness that is CreativeMornings.

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Video from “Start Something Why Every Creative Needs to Be an Entrepreneur”

By Emily Miethner | Published: November 2, 2011

Check out the first of many videos from our panel at The New School, “Start Something: Why Every Creative Needs to be an Entrepreneur.”

Thanks to Nick Hoefly for his fantastic editing skills.

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Skillshare Class Recap: Intellectual Property 101

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 25, 2011

Tonight I attended a Skillshare Class: Basics of Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs: Learn the difference between Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents and how they affect startups.

RecordSetter hosted the class as part of our effort to give back to the tech community. It’s been a great experience so far and we were happy to host this class (our third one).

This was a really interesting class and great for anyone working…anywhere really. It’s important to learn about what you’re allowed to do online. As someone starting a business or as a creative person creating content…I highly recommend you take a class like this. Follow the teacher, William Finkel, to see if he adds a date for this class.

CLASS NOTES:

  • Copyright deals with artistic works (soft IP)
  • Trademarks differentiate brands from potential competitors (can last forever, as long as it’s in constant use) (soft IP)
  • Patents involved inventions and innovations (hard IP)
  • Utility – all patents not design
  • Design – ornamental creations that are functional
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How to Prepare to Find the Spring Internship of Your Dreams in New York City

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 24, 2011

PS: I did land my dream internship at Time Out New York Magazine as the Marketing and Events/Design intern. And I really think these four tips lead me to it.

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What It’s Like the First Time You Go to New York Tech Meetup

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 14, 2011

RecordSetter was given a free ticket to New York Tech Meetup for being a part of the Made in New York list and I went to represent; proudly donning my Go Set World Records sticker.

I was late, so the first pitch I heard was Artsicle, who I’d heard of. Very cool that my first demo was art related. Irony.

The next surprise guest speaker was Mayor Bloomberg. It was the first time I heard him speak, and I definitely enjoyed it.

Topics/Thoughts Covered

  • Let’s be better than Silicon Valley
  • We have double the fashion houses as Paris.
  • We’re the intellectual capital of the world (ie we’re smarter than you)
  • Let’s help immigrants work for us
  • NYC is developing / has all sorts of business incubators from the tech to food industry.

Folks shares news about Big Apps 3.0, a competition to get hackers making use of government data. Love it. RecordSetter is participating. NYU is hosting the NYU Entrepreneur Festival. It looks great and something NY Creative Interns can aspire to.

On to more demos

Goodsie – Create a custom store front

Layer vault – For sharing .psd versions and such for designers working in teams

Amicus – Nonprofit peer to peer fundraising via volunteers

Frame socket – Build your own custom video player to drive traffic to your site

Gust – Network for startups and entrepreneurs to navigate the fundraising/investment scene.

My Thoughts:

  • I was late, so I don’t know if they do this. But it wouldn’t hurt to incorporate a 5 minute ice breaker like ‘talk to someone by you who you don’t know.’ [edit: I was told they do normally do this]
  • Watching live coding is like watching a play. Sort of. Majorly nerve-wracking. Very cool though.
  • Send your funny person to demo. The light-hearted demos were the best.
  • Consider pre-screening questions. Some were obnoxious and a waste.
  • They ended the evening with a Catch 22 song. Rock.

Conclusion: For those who don’t find it easy to introduce themselves to folks at events, definitely bring a friend. But definitely go, because the space at NYU is awesome, and it’s great to see what the latest and greatest tech companies are up to.

Watch the full video of the event below:

NY Tech Meetup October 2011 from NY Tech Meetup on Vimeo.

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“Business Idea” Google Doc: What the Beginning of an Idea Looks Like

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 2, 2011

I was cleaning out my Google Docs (oh, what a fun Sunday) and found one that had been edited 398 days ago (google docs is annoying like that, why can’t it say the actual date?). The date was around the end of August, last year. I had no idea what it was going to be before I opened it. Here it is:

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Event Planning 101: A Check List for the Day of Your Meetup, Panel, or Networking Event

By Emily Miethner | Published: October 1, 2011

Organizing real life events is an extremely time consuming but hugely rewarding experience. There’s nothing more powerful than connecting people in real life through fun and thought-provoking gatherings. I’ve been an unofficial event planner since high school, was a little more official in college, and I’m now organizing events all over the place with NY Creative Interns. Below is our current “day of” check list we use to stream-line the process to make the “run of show” as stress free as possible.

NY Creative Interns Panel Event Planning

Photo by Jehangir Irani // www.jiniproductions.com

A smooth event makes a happy panel and a happy audience

These tips are based off our panel style events; but can certainly be applied to any type of event. Check back for more posts on the event planning process. I hope that sharing these tips will inspire people to start throwing events, throw events more awesomely, and leave comments on what I’m missing. Because who doesn’t love an awesome event?

The photos you see are from our last big NY Creative Interns event, “Start Something: Why Every Creative Needs to Be an Entrepreneur” with Lauren Leto, Co-Founder of Texts from Last Night, Leigh Ann Tucker, Co-Founder of The Way We See the World, Laurel Touby, Founder of Mediabistro, and Audacia Ray, Founder of The Red Umbrella Project.

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Hustle 101: Get More Clients & Close More Deals with @HeyLaurynBee: A @Skillshare Class Recap

By Emily Miethner | Published: September 26, 2011

Tonight we hosted a Skillshare class at RecordSetter: Hustle 101: Get More Clients & Close More Deals with Lauryn Ballesteros. Lauryn is a sales, marketing and entrepreneurial ninja and currently the VP of Sales at Seth Godin’s Squidoo.

In summary, this class was about taking the negative connotations out of selling. If you’re selling a solution and solving problems, why should you feel bad about that?

 

Takeaways:

  • You have to be ok with walking away from money if it’s not the right fit. Have enough confidence to tell people what they don’t want to hear; even if that results in the lost of a “sale.”
  • Another big selling fear? Failing. Don’t take rejection personally.
  • You have to be confident.
  • If you can have a conversation and ask the right questions, you can do sales.
  • Picking the right people to approach saves you a lot of trouble.
    • Have they spent money on something similar in the past? Does someone oversee what you’re selling (sponsorships, marketing, etc)?
    • Understand what people value so you can write great emails.
    • Would you sell a BMW to a Hipster? Nope. You’d sell them a bike.
  • Always write your emails knowing they’ll be forwarded.
  • Giving people dignity is huge; relate to the people you’re selling to.
When trying to get sponsorships:
  • Find 5 instances of the company participating in a similar sponsorship and what they provided.
Follow Lauryn on Twitter @heylaurynbee and read her blog.
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Do you have any sales tips? Leave them below in the comments.
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PS: Follow me and NY Creative Interns on Skillshare.
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TechiesGiveBack Says Thank You to the NYC Tech Community — In Fun Video Form

By Emily Miethner | Published: September 15, 2011

TechiesGiveBack, a non-profit that mobilizes the tech community to do good, recently called upon the community to ask for help. We needed to raise money to cover the legal costs of becoming a 501-3c. We’re happy to announce that we did it! Below is a thank you video to all who helped made by Co-Founder Simon Kirk. Enjoy.

 

TechiesGiveBack Says Thanks from Simon Kirk on Vimeo.

 

Want to get involved in TechiesGiveBack? We’re running a charity clothing drive … we will come to YOUR apartment to pick up your old clothes and give them to charity. Seriously, how easy is that. Sign up here.

Techies Give Back

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