Women 2.0 Event (Startup and Financial Crisis)

I met some really cool people tonight at this startup event hosted by women 2.0 . Talked to Howard Hartenbaum of August Capital and similar to us he really dislikes pure advertising business model. Howard actually invested in Skype, Bebo etc. which are arguably some of the best startups in the past few years. He also talked about the example of Birthday Alarm which is not a fundable business but can earn much money (The founder earned about 1 million on it, the idea is about reminding people of their friends' birthdays).
So our mobile apps will most likely fall into the lifestyle business category.

Another take home message is that there's still money in Silicon Valley despite the economic downturn. As long as the product is really awesome, then there will be investors.

Betty Kayton, CFO of many startups throughout her career, repeated a famous quote that one must provide pills but not vitamins. The panelists also agree that the education, entertainment and media startups are likely to fare pretty well relative to their peers during this economic crisis.