How to Make $100,000 Beating Facebook

Are you a coder or startuper who thinks you can come up with a better social network than Facebook? If you do and you are successful, you can win $100,000.

Jason Calacanis, an angel investor and entrepreneur who is a leader in the startup world, has come up with a great offer, the "Openbook Challenge". 

Calacanis's organization, LAUNCH, will be funding seven teams that want to build a billion-user social network which will replace Facebook with a social network that is good for society.

Out of an estimated 100 teams that are expected to apply, 20 will be chosen as finalists, then seven teams will be chosen to receive $100,000 (for six percent, from the LAUNCH Incubator Fund) and join the LAUNCH incubator. 

If you want to know more details about how the competition works, how the finalists and winners will be chosen, and the timeline, check out the Calacanis web site. 

How to Get Free Tickets to the LAUNCH Festival on April 6-7

If you have never been to the Launch Festival, the world's largest startup event, you need to attend at least once. And if you have been before, you know that it is worth coming back to.

The latest festival will be held in San Francisco on April 6th and 7th at the Innovation Hangar & Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco.

Ten startups wil be features in each of various Summits, including:
AI
Cannabis
Drones
Education
Food
Health
Robotics
Smart Home
VR/AR

Free tickets are available to founders but only to the first 10,000 applicants, and they are almost at capacity. The tickets entitle you to all stages and the demo pit.

Last Day to Attend the Launch Festival in San Francisco

The Launch Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco has been running for a couple days, and today is the last day. If you haven't attended yet, you really need to get over there. Many speakers and hundreds of exhibitors.

The Demo Pit opened at 8 am this morning and the theater doors open at 9:30 am. You really need to check out all the exhibitors.

An example is CafeX, which has a large robot arm inside a cylindrical kiosk that will pour and serve you coffee that you order through an app on your phone.

Then there is Bolt Motorbikes, which creates electric bikes that look like motorcycles but legally qualifies as bicycles.

Then there is Meadow, which is an online service that allows you to order medical marijuana through their website, and have it delivered to you.

Don't forget to stop by the Jungle Bar table and taste the cricket bar.

The exhibitors are very diverse in terms of industry, so you really don't want to miss seeing them. More info can be found at:

 Launch Festival 

Hey Startupers: Don't Forget to Attend the Launch Festival

The world's largest startup event will be held in San Francisco, California on March 2 through March 4. There will be 250 speeches on three stages, with 15,000 attendees. The LAUNCH Festival is designed to help founders of startups build, scale, and raise money.

Some of the more interesting companies that will be featured include:
Hyperloop
Opendoor - the company that will provide liquidity for real estate
Udacity - the free college class company
Carbon3D - Star Trek type replicator
Houzz - connects homeowners with designers and architects
FanDuel - daily fantasy sports
Planet Labs - over 100 satellites

Founders of the above companies, and many others, will be speaking at the conference.

You still have a chance to get tickets. You have four options:
Founder
Festival
Festival Plus
Super VIP

The LAUNCH Festival is being held at Fort Mason at 2 Marina Boulevard, in San Francisco. Last years' conference was extremely successful, and I highly recommend that you attend. More info can be found at the LAUNCH website.

Quick Review of the Launch Mobile, Wearables & IoT Conference Day 1

If you signed up for the Launch Mobile, Wearables & IoT Conference at the Herbst Theatre, in Fort Mason in San Francisco, and you didn't attend Day One, you need to attend tomorrow. The speakers were great and the exhibitors were awesome.  The diverse group of startups had many unique products and services.

Here are just a few of them.

Getonlow.com "Totally Silent Video Chat"

Chüi getchui.com

First Derm by iDoc24 FirstDerm.com HÜD Smart Mole Scanner

VimoFit Fitness Tracking Beyond Pedometers vimofit.com

Serenneti "Think Keurig for Food using Robotics" serenity.com

Don't forget to check out all these exhibitors, along with all the other exhibitors at the show.

Don't Forget to Attend the Launch Mobile, Wearables & IoT Conference Next Week

Make sure that you attend the LAUNCH Mobile, Wearables & IoT Conference on Thursday, October 15 and Friday, October 16, held at Fort Mason in San Francisco, California. The actual show starts at 9:30 am but the exhibition opens at 8:00 am.

The agenda for the event can be found here:

http://www.launchmw.com/agenda

If you have a mobile, wearable or IoT startup, you may still be able to get a table for free.

If you are a founder or developer of a startup, there are still tickets left. Go to the following link:

https://launchevents.typeform.com/to/teIHVi

However, if you are an investor, you can buy your ticket at the following link:

http://www.launchmw.com/tickets

More info about LAUNCH can be found here:

http://www.launch.co

See you there!

Checkout SMARTCAMP 2015 for Startups and Win $25,000

Have you heard of SMARTCAMP 2015? If not, you should check it out. You could win $25,000 plus acceptance into the 12-week, LAUNCH Incubator.

This is a startup competition taking place in 30 cities, with IBM and LAUNCH as the hosts. The cities include:

Auckland

Austin

Bangalore

Boston

Cairo

Casablanca

Chicago

Istanbul

Johannesburg

London

Los Angeles

Melbourne

Mexico City

Montevideo

Mumbai

Nairobi

New Delhi

New York

Raleigh

Sao Paulo

San Francisco

Silicon Valley

Singapore

Tokyo

Toronto

The finalists will get to meet top Silicon Valley investors in San Francisco at the SCALE Conference which will be held on October 13th and 14th. They will return to the LAUNCH festival held March 2nd through the 4th, next year.

Need an application? Go to the following link:

smartcamp2015.com