Good time at Jason Calacanis's Founder University

Got a lot out of this mini accelerator experience from Jason Calacanis, the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter (a fellow dotcom industry pub to the one I was once an editor at!) among other things, like the LAUNCH startup conference, festival, podcast This Week In Startups and LAUNCH Incubator.

I was among the 60 founders chosen from 300 applicants, and I was representing Second Screen, Inc. where I've been COO since January (icymi!). Founder University is a three-day curriculum for founders who have launched their product but haven't raised Series A. 

The Wrap's Power Women Breakfast for Girls Who Code

Good morning at TheWrap’s #PowerWomen2018 breakfast benefit for #GirlsWhoCode at Dolby Laboratories. Heard from #femalefounders of entertainment and technology ventures as well as the mayors of Oakland and Compton. #enttech #startups #wrapwomen

Second Screen featured in Europe's leading magazine for media & entertainment industry

In January I took a cofounder & COO role in Second Screen, a mobile startup in LA's Silicon Beach that aims to become the Netflix of bite-size series. Europe's magazine for the media & entertainment industry interviewed us for their May issue when they took a look at the adoption of second screen technology and other rapidly growing areas of mobile content.

Today they made the Second Screen app their cover star. Thanks to TVB editor Jenny Priestley for the interview of Second Screen's founder & CEO Estella Gabriel.

"Wouldn't the clever idea be to create an app where viewers can watch content but also comment about it?" asks TVB Europe's editor in her note prefacing the magazine.

Estella talks about social discovery: "Instead of an algorithm like Netflix has, we use a referral system. You can see what your friends are watching."

You can read the whole issue here.

Tracking the real-time reaction to Beyonce's Lemonade, TBT

I'm a big fan of the second screen experience of major cultural events.

TBT, to the book launch of The Season Of The Witch

This was a fun night with Fast Company journalist EB Liza Boyd at the Elks Club for Salon founder David Talbot.

His book "chronicles the cultural history of San Francisco and from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when figures such as Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, and Bill Walsh helped usher it from backwater city to thriving metropolis."

Writing foreword to Expat Harem's natural successor, Expat Sofra

Meet the contributors to Expat Sofra and look for the book this spring!

TBT, speaking at Microsoft HQ Turkey to the inaugural meeting of Turkish Women's International Network

Watch the talk here, and all the talks by members of the network that aspires to become the most impactful network focusing on women in Turkey and abroad. TRWIN collaborates with companies, NGOs and individuals to amplify our collective impact and empower women to realize their potential.

I've been pleased to serve as a member of the Advisory Board of Turkish WIN since its inception.

TBT, panelist at Exceptional Women In Publishing Conference

Check out Exceptional Women In Publishing, a non-profit org to educate, empower and support women in publishing and to educate, empower and support women and girls through the power of publishing.

TBT, behind the scenes at Wisdom 2.0

Loved this mixed media participatory identity tapestry by Mary Corey March at Google Lounge, Wisdom 2.0 conference, Concourse Exhibition Center.

TBT, speaking at The Commonwealth Club & signing my book

This talk "The Rise of Turkey" was moved to a larger room (about 100 in the audience and live-streaming the podcast to Commonwealth Club members everywhere) and we ran out of books to sign right away. 

I was joined on the panel by:

• Steven West, Ph.D., Fulbright Scholar to Turkey; Professor of Turkish Studies and Cross Cultural Communication

• Bonnie Joy Kaslan, Honorary Consul General, Turkish Republic, S.F. Bay Area

• Joel Brinkley, Professor of Journalism, Stanford University; Foreign Affairs Columnist; Former Pulitzer Prize Winning Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times — Moderator

Amidst the turmoil of the Arab Spring, Turkey has arisen as a powerful force in the Middle East. The distinguished panel will discuss the nation's culture and its sometimes bitter past, the growing influence of religion in Turkey, and her frayed alliances. In addition, the panelists will discuss how Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's dynamic prime minister, is becoming one of the most powerful voices in the troubled region.
 

You can listen to the podcast here.

TBT, a podcast panel of global citizens

Another life, another networked world!

This came in the mail today. It's from the major faculty of my liberal arts college, an event for my professor of Bronze Age Archaeology, Jim Wright. He was a great teacher, as I recall!

Also, it's a reminder of the solidity of liberal arts education. This classically-based education was meant to turn out a person who was "virtuous and ethical, knowledgeable in many fields and highly articulate." It doesn't matter what you do with it, you're equipped as a well-rounded individual.

Today's email and its particular Bronze Age lens on power and place is so far from where I am right this minute, and yet I am back in class in an instant, to when civilizations around the Aegean first established a far-ranging trade network and all together moved out of the Stone Age.

Then I'm back again, to today, back to looking at the future of stories for millennial audiences as a business, tech, and entertainment issue. That's a focus of mine right now and based here in California's own power centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hope all my Bryn Mawr archaeology peers have a fun symposium! 

TBT, writing for a SMB blog on content marketing

Coaching at Startup Grind Global Program 2018 Pitch Bootcamp

I'm excited to serve as a Pitch Coach later this month for the Startup Grind Global Program 2018 Pitch Bootcamp hosted/mc'd by TD Lowe and her team at 42Phi Ventures. The event at Fox Forum in Redwood City is sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.

TD Lowe is the founder and CEO of EnovationNation and 42Phi Partners are a diverse set of individuals devoted to fixing Venture's opportunity pipeline, inclusivity, and mentorship deficit.

The day precedes the launch of Startup Grind's Global Conference, where TD is the team member in charge of StartupGrind startup program which filters the best performing startups coming to the conference for the investor community.

When the problem is taboo, the investment is taboo?

Congratulations to advertising veteran and entrepreneur Cindy Gallop for successfully raising $2M for her social-sex site Make Love Not Porn. Read the news at TechCrunch.

A year ago I told Cindy this story.

When I was an editor at Internet World magazine in dotcom NYC, I recall I was assigned a porn business story for the day's email newsletter. I was one of the very few women at this trade publication for Internet technology and e-business, and a newer hire. Clearly this wasn't a plum assignment.

It was hard to get any business and industry analysts to even discuss this foundational part of the internet. In the end I had to beg former Internet World staffers-turned-analysts to go on record so I could file the story.

I told Cindy that I often think about that when I see her posts about the struggles of raising funds to solve such a critical, obvious social problem with her service that was already generating $500k/year.