Hang out with @Micah Baldwin & Tony Adam @tonyadam

When I found out that Micah Baldwin is in town (LA), I “ambushed” him and asked for a coffee time for a small group of LA early-stage startup entrepreneurs. @Micah is a serial entrepreneur, sold his first company Current Wisdom in 2007, and is currently founder/CEO of Graphic.ly. He is also an angel investor/adviser of TechStars, a startup incubator program in Boulder. I have been following Micah on his blog and knew he would be a great person for everyone to meet and learn from.

Micah was very generous and agreed to spend some time with a group of us yesterday. So we hung out in the back courtyard of the Urth Caffe in Santa Monica. It was a nice ambience to be outdoor and chat. We were very fortunate that Tony Adam, a legendary SEO guru, joined us.

It was a very enjoyable & interesting conversation. It went from tech trend, to abitrage opportunity in lead gen & SEO service, to startup incubator programs, to a discussion on a werewolf game. I also got to see the burned scar on Micah, something I knew reminded him about the willingness to take risk and explore. Micah also talked about how he woke up one day (April 1st 2006) and got sober. What I am impressed the most were how open both Micah and Tony were and how they consistently said through the evening “How can I help?”, followed by generous offers to make introductions or other types of support for each of us there.

Here are some quotes from the night – thanks to Dan Wu:

• “As a startup, you need both a hustler and a hacker; a Tom Sawyer and a Huck Finn … then things will happen.”
• “The most interesting businesses on the web these days are ones that involve curation, communication and data collection. Twitter combines all three, which is why it’s so successful and has hit such a critical mass.”
• “VCs like to see how much fire you can create with a little kerosene. Then they’ll give you money to pour more kerosene on that fire.”

I have also asked a few people who attended the event to give a review of the event. Here they are:

“Operational insights into the cutthroat worlds of SEO, SEM and lead-gen from seasoned entrepreneurs is exactly the type of mentoring that most novice founders never get. Big ideas are great and will power your startup, but having a fundamental understanding of the mechanics that drive acquisition online is what made the insights from Micah and Tony positively invaluable” – Matthias Galica (ShareSquare)

“It’s a rare treat to hang out with an approachable yet seasoned entrepreneur/angel investor who listens carefully and is willing to offer practical advice to startups.” – Dan Wu (Fortis General Council)

“With 6 startups under his belt, Micah was a fountain of knowledge and provided straight forward insight. The group was fun, casual, and was there to help each other with advice. Another awesome get together hosted by Giang!” – Edward Dekeratry (Vokle)

“It was great to see some strong businesses taking off the ground in LA. Did you know that some cool start-up founders like Vokle and etikcetmap.com came out of the filming industry? I also liked that during our casual chat Mikah reinforced the importance of building a smart business model: “There is nothing wrong with charging your consumers. Investors like to see additional revenue streams.” – Anna Islamova (OceanList)

“It was great to hear his perspective on running his startup, in particular on selecting and managing board members, as well as his strategies for raising additional funding. Also, it was great to have an in-depth conversation with Matthias Galica, Tony Adam, and other local entrepreneurs. I am looking forward to future events.” – Mark Geller (Klickfu)

As you probably know, I like to organize small get together with interesting people like Micah and Tony for LA startup entrepreneurs. I think smaller events are more intimate. It allows you to get to know each other better.