This Week in Startups #43 with Andy Smith

Jason’s guest this week was Andy Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of DailyBurn a social networking fitness site, that allows you to track what you eat, record your workout, join a challenge and find like minded people for support in your fitness goals.  Highlights this week include an in-depth discussion concerning TechStars and worst VC experiences and the winner of the Bing Perfect Pitch Contest.

Announcements:

• Jason will be taking the show on the road to SXSW, March 13th.


• We have a new CDN NetDNA to deliver the show to the iTunes feed, we think you’ll be happy.


• Microsoft Bing Map Augmented Reality TED talk.

00:19 Ask Jason: Sean O'Connor calls in to ask, how do I research market size in preparation for investment discussions?

00:28 Initial Interview with Andy:
Andy’s experience with TechStars
What it took to get in
An explanation of the program
How the TechStars community help each other
The TechStars program application is open.

00:37 Jason’s Shark Tank: Steven Schofield calls in to pitch Fidgetstick a social network site aimed at bringing like minded adventure sport enthusiast together.

00:51 Bing Perfect Pitch Contest, congratulations goes to Erick Arndt of Timeshare Juice.  Jason adds to the winnings in about 6 months Timeshare Juice and Propadoo (community choice) will come into studio to showcase their work.

00:56 Interview:

• What’s next for DailyBurn


• Fund Raising goals


• Bringing the team together


• Health issues in the US


• VC stories (Jason and Andy’s worst experience)

01:28 News with Lon Harris:

• Facebook Patent


• Palm in Trouble


• Shamu and Social Media


• Sexy App Ban by Apple


• Yammer Communities


• Yelp Lawsuit

---

TWiST is brought to you by our generous sponsors:

Comments

[David]

Very enjoyable show. It occurred to me while watching this episode that Jason has a real talent for choosing people with a high level of personal integrity as team members and guests (or he has a talent for grooming them to come across that way on the show....lol!). It's much more fulfilling and inspiring to see / hear the guests' personal stories when it feels like they are genuinely good people.....and the TWiST gang is exactly that. Cool!

Also.....a shout-out for Tyler and Lon....they really shine in this episode. This isn't to say that they "steal the show", just that they contributed high quality perspective whenever they chimed in.

Along those lines......are there other companies that followed Mahalo's lead (or blazed the trail before Mahalo did it).....where very early on......even pre-funding of any kind..... a founding CEO brought on board a "right hand man" whose original position was pretty much "Executive Assistant"? Tyler's presence / contribution to Mahalo sure supports the position that such a person is a critical early hire. Any other examples / names that we might have heard of?

CHEERS!

D