With 100 attendees, this SWLA managed to sell out in 10 minutes, faster than any previous Startup Weekend LA and possibly (we’ll need to check with SW Global) the fastest in history (yes, it could be a world record). Seems like it may have been just shy of selling out Radiohead at the Staples Center.

On Friday evening, the SWLA energy started to brew at the Coloft as participants began showing up around 5:00 PM. Social lubrication was provided by Sierra Nevada along with pizza. By 6:30 the house was packed and SWLA was underway. Following a quick ice-breaker game of “Half-baked” where anyone in the room throws out a word to then generate an entertaining pitch, the real pitches began. We had over 35 ideas pitched Friday night, certainly on the higher side than normal with some really killer ideas.

Attendees then cast their votes and 12 winning ideas were selected. At this point the feeling of the room changed into a scene that you might compare to dusk deep in a South American forest. Those with their ideas selected were out on the prowl, looking to recruit the top designer or developer in the room. By 10:00 PM, teams were working away into the night.

Teams reconvened Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and continued to code and build their startup throughout the day. The team’s to kick off this SWLA included:

PopSwap (popswap.com), The Lol Fx (thelolfx.com), Afterparty! (afterpartyhq.com), AppStoreTools (appstoretools.com), Social Takeout (socialtakeout.com), Work Habitats (workhabitats.com), MarkedUp (markedup.mobi), Tap Tap Maps! (tatptapmaps.com), Restaurant Rep (restaurantrep.com), SnazzyRoom (snazzyroom.com), dude.ly (dude.ly), Mogul Magnet (mogul-magnet.com), Dubeme.com (dubeme.com), Social Proof It (socialproofit.com).

While everyone developed their products throughout the day, SWLA teams briefly said hi to Marc Nager (StartupWeekend CEO) during a quick Skype call who was down in New Zealand facilitating Startup Weekend.

Saturday evening came to a “closing” with the Coloft tradition of the famous scene from Glengarry Glen Ross where Alec Baldwin defines the meaning of “closing” while he gives a nearly Oscar winning sales talk to motivate his staff. As Avesta Rasouli, SWLA Co-organizer and Founder of Coloft says, “Go sell something! Coffee is for closers!” After all, if you intend to keep your SWLA startup going, you certainly need to close — “You need to get them to sign on the dotted line” according to the character Blake played by Alec Baldwin.

Sunday morning rolled around and it was down to crunch-time. Tyler Crowley, of Sqweal, Launch, ThisWeekInStartups, Open Angel Forum, and Mahalo, stopped by to give a quick coaching session on pitch prep. Tyler has helped coach dozens of companies through pitching and presenting at Launch Conf and formerly TechCrunch 50. Definitely was a helpful talk and seemed to really made a huge difference — we’re very lucky to have Tyler here in the community and drop by. Thanks again Tyler Crowley!

It was Oscar night, well Startup Oscar night in LA. (Yes the real Oscars were also on this past Sunday but if you’re in LA or Hollywood, you wouldn’t be tuning into anything but Startup Weekend LA). As the final countdown neared, the counter to presentations ticked away with only 4 hours, then 1 hour and finally minutes until the cut-off.

Pitches kicked off with 13 teams in total presenting. We here honored to have an awesome group of judges put forth some great questions to our presenters. Our judges for this Startup Weekend LA included: Howard Marks (Start Engine), Paige Craig (BetterWorks), David Waxman (PeoplePC, Firefly Networks, SpotRunner) and Tyler Crowley (Sqweal, OAF, Launch, TWiST, Mahalo).

All attendees really did such an amazing job building out their products, talking to customers and putting on a great show of presentations. With the thousands that tuned in on the live stream we had Efren Toscano of TechZulu working the stream and dual cameras providing some great coverage.

During this past SWLA, there were Startup Weekends going on in parallel around the world from places including: Nairobi (Kenya), Iceland, Spain, New Zealand, Columbia as well as other cities throughout the U.S.

It was also a very special Startup Weekend LA as we were joined by Cameron Rasouli (SWLA Co-organizer and Founder of Coloft) and Avesta’s soon-due twins (8 weeks to go!) making this their first SWLA. Joey Pomerneke and Adam Steele also joined us from Startup Weekend Global in Seattle. We also attendees and visitors in from all over the country and in from Mexico.

Previous companies that have launched out of StartWeekend LA include: Look.io, Skillloop, Eventup, Zaarly, Healthy Surprise, Vol.ly, Foodme and Mingly.

Startup Weekend LA wouldn’t be possible without our amazing sponsors and supporters that include: Hulu, Spire.io, EdgeCast, Idealab, Originate, Factual, Cybercoders, Start Engine, Flow Tab, The Honest Co, Docstoc, Launchpad.la, Trinet, Fortis and Dan Wu along with the Kauffman Foundation and Coloft. We’d also like to thank the Startup Weekend Global Sponsors including Amazon, Twilio, Kloudmine, Open Tok (Talk Box), Sendgrid, Microsoft, and Google.

Also a big thank you goes to all the SWLA organizers and volunteers including: Cameron Rasouli, Avesta Rasouli, Chris Dumler, Bex Dumler, along with Joey Pomerenke and Adam Stelle.

If you missed this Startup Weekend LA, also check out SW in the OC on Mar 30 and the soon to be announced Startup Weekend Media edition. Also be sure to check out StartupNights.org if you’re interested in connecting with other SWLA alum and the LA Tech community.

Till then — keep the ideas flowing, the customer development at full-speed and your lean cycle and iterations spinning as fast you can! Feel free to reach out with questions about this Startup Weekend LA or future events by emailing me at Tyler@Ming.ly or the rest of the team: Cameron@Coloft.com, and Avesta@Coloft.com

The post Startup Weekend LA | Recap February 2012 appeared first on TechZulu.

For those who missed out, you really missed out!  However, you know we always bring a little something back just in case.  TechZulu captured the entire VC/Angle panel and we also had a chance to interview every StartupDemo startup company that participated.

Sit back and enjoy all the great content below and once again thank you all for making this possible :)

VC/Angel Panel

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Panel speakers:

• Paige Craig, aka. Adrenaline Fueled Angel
• Allen Morgan, Mayfield Ventures
• Stewart Roberts, President of Orange County of Tech Coast Angels
• Mark Suster, GRP Partners

Moderator:

• Giang Biscan, PhD., Producer of Mixergy & AsAble.com

Topic discussion:

• Impact of social media on startups and on funding leads for investors
• Investment trends in startups that are about or related to social media
• How startup can leverage social media to get investors attention

The Startups

CapLinked lets entrepreneurs focus on what they do best, while making sure their investors always stay in the loop. They make it easy to collect investment funds, track ownership, and provide targeted updates to investors.

Vokle is an embeddable Internet microsite application that allows speakers to broadcast their live video and audio to a virtual auditorium of viewers and take live video calls and text questions from the audience

Social Rewards helps leverage your existing loyalty program and turn it into a distribution platform via social media. Your loyalty program members are your most engaged consumer and chances are they have a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook etc.

Novimap is an online and mobile mapping platform. You can use it to quickly turn your location data into a complete mapping website and companion iPhone app. Import your content from a Google Maps Account, KML file, or create it from scratch using their content management system.

SimplyEvents is a social media website that enables a community of members to shout out location based events and stay connected by tracking fellow friends, family, public figures, organizers, bands, artists etc. Members not only can search for happening events around areas they are situated in, but they can create personalized online invitations, share their opinions about events and places they have attended and ultimately promote an immediate buzz among their community members, thereby increasing the exposure of their activities and places they go to creating a true social community that moves beyond status updates.

IngBoo is an online marketplace for information updates-where consumers receive timely updates on relevant topics and web publishers compete effectively for consumer attention. We facilitate the most productive business-to-consumer relationship with a pioneering solution that finally makes proactive information updates useful.

Appr.tv enables developers to sell cross-platform web-apps that optimize to your mobile device.  In addition, Appr’s web-based springboard launcher lets you access your web apps from multiple phones and operating systems.  You can now switch your phone and take your apps with you.

Neerg is an ecommerce store and community where consumers and merchants can “be and buy green” products and connect with like minded individuals.  Neerg puts the spotlight on all the great ecopreneurs and merchants creating products that will help us easily lesson the impact we have on our wold.

Bring your products to your Customers, their social network and their influencers with DoTogether Hosted Facebook Applications

InVenture has created a market for “micro venture capital,” whereby everyday investors can provide expansion capital to developing businesses. Free from debt and high interest payments, the business can operate independently and with an eye towards long-term growth.

Vol.ly is the easy, fun and social way to get together with friends.  Organizing a group of friends is hard! Current event planning tools (Facebook Events, Evite, Socializr) aren’t useful for casual events, and don’t let friends plan collaboratively. Organizing even simple events like dinner or drinks is a time consuming and frustrating experience. Most people facing this problem resort to mass text messages, and long, frustrating email chains.  By allowing friends to collaborate during the planning process using a mobile app or SMS, Volly takes the burden of organizing casual gatherings off of one person.

We also have some very exciting sponsors who really believe in the startup community and have jumped on board to show their support.  We give a hugeThank You to the following sponsors:

Venue Sponsor

The Wokcano Restaurant Group is a contemporary Asian Restaurant and Lounge venue with six locations currently operating throughout Southern California. Featuring fresh sushi and creative maki rolls as well as modern riffs on traditional fare, Wokcano offers guests a broad and savory tasting tour of popular Asian cuisines.

The Sponsors

Demand Media is a leading online media company that informs, entertains and connects millions of people every day. Through a portfolio of vertical web properties reaching more than 80 million monthly visitors, a global network of digital partners, and a breakthrough content studio, Demand Media publishes what the world wants to know and share. Founded in 2006, Demand Media is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK.

Tech Coast Angels is ever-mindful that some of the world’s greatest companies began with angel investments and we take our commitment to that tradition seriously. The nearly 300 members of TCA collaborate with each other on due diligence and then make individual decisions regarding potential investments. Not limited to the technology industry, our members invest in exciting companies in a wide range of industries including biotech, consumer products, Internet, IT, life sciences, media, software and environmental, among others. TCA is a not-for-profit organization.

Ruder Finn PR is paving the way for virtual and real-world technologies, products and services that serve to connect individuals, businesses and societies across networks, communities and borders.

A co-working space based out of Santa Monica, CA, Coloft feels that Entrepreneurs are of a different breed; put them in a room together, and they are just that much more effective. Together they do amazing things. Together they are even more brilliant than they are alone… and that’s saying a lot. They bounce ideas off one another, brainstorm, create, and prosper.

Coloft will also be giving away $1000 worth of co-working space!

Endeavor Ads is an invite / referral only Affiliate Ad Network with a unique offering for its trusted clients. Endeavor’s partners, advertisers, and publishers will reap the rewards of the company’s long-standing industry relationships. Standing out in this highly competitive field, Endeavor Ads seeks to revolutionize the Performance Marketing space by building unique lead-gen offers targeted at the rapidly growing baby-boomer niche. With exclusive properties and brands, Endeavor goes beyond traditional network services to provide strategic data-monetization plans for it’s clients.

Want to Sponsor?

We have very few spots left If you would like to be part of this amazing night and show your support. You may go to the Signup page and signup for sponsorship or for special arrangements contact sponsor@startupdemo.com

Event Details:

• When: Wednesday,  Sept 22nd, 2010 – 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
• Where: Wokcano, 1413 5th Street, Santa Monica, CA
• What: A Startup Demo event
• Price: FREE
• RSVP: http://startupdemo.eventbrite.com

The post StartupDemo Was a Huge Success! appeared first on TechZulu.

All that combined is what lead us to the amazing group of participating companies that follow:

CapLinked lets entrepreneurs focus on what they do best, while making sure their investors always stay in the loop. They make it easy to collect investment funds, track ownership, and provide targeted updates to investors.

Vokle is an embeddable Internet microsite application that allows speakers to broadcast their live video and audio to a virtual auditorium of viewers and take live video calls and text questions from the audience

Social Rewards helps leverage your existing loyalty program and turn it into a distribution platform via social media. Your loyalty program members are your most engaged consumer and chances are they have a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook etc.

Novimap is an online and mobile mapping platform. You can use it to quickly turn your location data into a complete mapping website and companion iPhone app. Import your content from a Google Maps Account, KML file, or create it from scratch using their content management system.

SimplyEvents is a social media website that enables a community of members to shout out location based events and stay connected by tracking fellow friends, family, public figures, organizers, bands, artists etc. Members not only can search for happening events around areas they are situated in, but they can create personalized online invitations, share their opinions about events and places they have attended and ultimately promote an immediate buzz among their community members, thereby increasing the exposure of their activities and places they go to creating a true social community that moves beyond status updates.

IngBoo is an online marketplace for information updates-where consumers receive timely updates on relevant topics and web publishers compete effectively for consumer attention. We facilitate the most productive business-to-consumer relationship with a pioneering solution that finally makes proactive information updates useful.

Appr.tv enables developers to sell cross-platform web-apps that optimize to your mobile device.  In addition, Appr’s web-based springboard launcher lets you access your web apps from multiple phones and operating systems.  You can now switch your phone and take your apps with you.

Neerg is an ecommerce store and community where consumers and merchants can “be and buy green” products and connect with like minded individuals.  Neerg puts the spotlight on all the great ecopreneurs and merchants creating products that will help us easily lesson the impact we have on our wold.

Bring your products to your Customers, their social network and their influencers with DoTogether Hosted Facebook Applications

InVenture has created a market for “micro venture capital,” whereby everyday investors can provide expansion capital to developing businesses. Free from debt and high interest payments, the business can operate independently and with an eye towards long-term growth.

Vol.ly is the easy, fun and social way to get together with friends.  Organizing a group of friends is hard! Current event planning tools (Facebook Events, Evite, Socializr) aren’t useful for casual events, and don’t let friends plan collaboratively. Organizing even simple events like dinner or drinks is a time consuming and frustrating experience. Most people facing this problem resort to mass text messages, and long, frustrating email chains.  By allowing friends to collaborate during the planning process using a mobile app or SMS, Volly takes the burden of organizing casual gatherings off of one person.

Congratulations to all the selected startup companies! You all can come check them out as well during the event.

Want to Sponsor?

We have very few spots left If you would like to be part of this amazing night and show your support. You may go to the Signup page and signup for sponsorship or for special arrangements contact  sponsor@startupdemo.com

Event Details:

• When: Wednesday,  Sept 22nd, 2010 – 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
• Where: Wokcano, 1413 5th Street, Santa Monica, CA
• What: A Startup Demo event
• Price: FREE
• RSVP: http://startupdemo.eventbrite.com

The post Congrats To The Presenting StartupDemo Companies! appeared first on TechZulu.