by SHANE SNOW | Guest Writer
Throngs of programmers, MBAs, and entrepreneurs in all varieties swarmed Fashion Institute of Technology’s Haft Auditorium last night to watch nine New York technology companies demonstrate their products; the Fire Marshall had to order a few dozen people standing in the back to bounce. (But geeks in the crowd squeezed in close so they could all fit.). With 70 previous such events under its belt, New York Tech Meetup, a monthly gathering of tech talent, kicked off the night with a set of five one-minute demos by new companies, and concluded with five five-minute demos. As usual, the crowd ate it up.
The night’s big hits included Venmo, an SMS-based money transfer system based on “friend trust,” and CrowdFusion, a powerful, customizable content management system built by the guys behind the custom CMSes employed by Engadget, TMZ, and Wow.com. Needakick.com’s demo drew the most laughs with its quirky goal reminder service that incentivizes people to fulfill their dreams by making them pay for an email reminder.
Other demos included PinkDingo (a microlending platform with one-click donations), Bellaga (a fashion marketplace), Filife (a finance Q&A site), Bundle (a finance visualization site to compare users’ habits against particular demographics), Surphace (related content plugins for blogs), and Qlipso (a crazy multi-media, multi-friend screen sharing platform that looks a lot like an MMO). NYC 3.0 plans to feature in-depth interviews and reviews of a few of the night’s big products in future coverage.
With around 800 people in attendance, fans and founders mobbed NYTM organizer, Nate Westheimer, after the event. Westheimer admitted that NYTM is becoming too big to be the first jump-off point for new startups on the scene anymore. “I’d encourage you to go to some of these smaller events,” he told one woman who seeking advice on where to get buzz and feedback for her new venture. A two-month-old student meetup group held at Rose Tech Ventures before the event (students in attendance there got in free to NYTM), is just one of a dozen related groups, such as Hackers and Founders and the Columbia Venture Community, that have stepped in to meet the early-stage needs of entrepreneurs in the area.
Guest author Shane Snow is a journalist and entrepreneur based in New York City.
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