Today I’m attending the Start Conference in Fort Mason, San Francisco, hosted by Mssrs. answered questions about gender assumptions she’s seen during the growth of Six Apart.
The pre-lunch session featured a variety of beyond-the-web entrepreneurs— and a Hollywood screenwriter (Josh Cagan) talked about their entrepreneurial efforts. It also featured a foray into business how-to (the room really perked up for that) with various legal/finance experts about taking a side-project into a full-time gig and protecting your work via ‘chain of title’, corporate entity types, non-competes, employment definitions and more.
Post lunch featured the inimitable Merlin Mann, with followed up with a solid talk about motivation and priorities while being a startup CEO, courting (or avoiding) VCs. Which—post a beer ‘n ice cream and Om Malik’s counter-futurism—led up to the pitch round, which (to my mind) was a weird end to a conference strongly focusing on discounting startup/VC myths. Good conference, conflicting conclusions, but a lot of positive support by smart people…as expected. Were we trying to summarize the startup vibe, or evolve it?
On a final note, it was fantastic to attend a conference where there was almost a line for the women’s room.
