LEAN STARTUP MACHINE / Weekend bootcamp for Entrepreneurs, Co-Founder

I co-founded Lean Startup Machine, a weekend bootcamp that teaches Lean Startup methodologies, a valuable framework of tools, techniques and resources designed to help early-stage companies identify key customers and quickly evolve their product. It's a single weekend that will change the way you approach building a startup.

LSM now operates in more than 30 cities, across 5 continents, and has more than 1,000 alumni. I departed in March, 2011 to start Alchemy.

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http://leanstartupmachine.com

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Key stats:
• Idea to first event in 3 weeks
• Expanded to 4 cities within first six months (NYC -> Chicago -> SF -> Boston)
• Events capped at 50 people; average waiting list is 20.
• Sponsors include Dave McClure + 500 Startups, Microsoft Biz Spark, Unbounce, Profounder

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Featured in:
• NY Times: "Why Facebook Moved Out West"
• Forbes.com: "Tech Startup Communities, NYC On The Rise"
• Startup Lessons Learned: "A month is fifteen weekends"

ADOPT A HACKER / AirBnB for startup talent interested in NYC, Co-Founder

Effort to draw more entrepreneurial out-of-town technical talent to New York City by offering a firsthand glimpse of the city's tech scene. We pair hackers with friendly ambassadors from the NYC Tech Scene who serve as "instant best friends" and offer them a couch for the weekend, bring them to tech events and/or grab coffee to chat.

We built a system that intelligently pairs potential hackers and hosts by degree-of-separation through analysis of their social graph (Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, hometown, alma mater, etc).

Watch out Silicon Valley!

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http://www.adoptahacker.com/

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Key stats:
• Idea to execution in a single weekend
• 154 hackers and 110 NYC ambassadors signed up within 1st month
• Hackers have visited NYC through the program from New Zealand, Portugal, Canada, Sweden, India, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Virginia, Oregon, San Francisco, and others.

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Featured in:
• Mashable: "Forget a puppy, Adopt a Hacker?"
• Harvard Nieman Lab: "Adopt a Hacker wants to find couches for coders"
• ReadWriteWeb: "Hackers Invited to Crash on the Couches of the NY Tech Scene"
• Business Insider: "Adopt A Hacker Gives Out-of-Town Techies A Place to Stay in NYC"
• and others

URBAN PRE-GAME / Pre-buy bar drinks in bulk with friends, Co-Founder

Urban Pre-game was the first online service to let you pre-buy drinks in bulk from the bar with your friends. The more your group pre-buys, the deeper your discount—in realtime.

What began as an experiment in a karaoke bar in NYC's Upper Eastside expanded to 7 bars within six months.

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http://www.urbanpregame.com

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Key stats:
• Idea to live e-commerce site & first bar event: 1 month
• Expanded to 7 NYC bars within six months
• Average event: ~40 pre-gamers
• Built first mobile app enabling someone to start & manage their bar tab
• Bootstrapped the business

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Featured on:
• Mashable: "Tech Entrepreneurs Discuss 'The Social Network'"
• Nerd Stalker: "Expensive Bar Drinks No More"

COFFEE SPY / Mobile app

I'm a caffiene addict and sometimes locating a full coffee pot @ Ogilvy on any of its 12 floors was tough.

I created the Ogilvy Coffee Spy™ so office addicts could pool their collective knowledge of the building's coffee-pot statuses in realtime. Accessed from a mobile phone, it automatically loads a light, iPhone-friendly version. It was used more than 1000 times on its first day. That's a lot of coffee.

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See it in action