Betaworks x Social Media Week

A chance to hear from and meet some of the betaworks companies and founders.

It’s February, it’s New York City, the snow is falling, that must mean one thing: Social Media Week. In it’s 7th year Social Media Week has grown into a really interesting gathering of tech, media and creative people from around the world. Pretty much the sweet spot for betaworks companies.

With the conference taking place at the High Line Stages, just one block from the betaworks office, we felt it was only natural to have a big presence at Social Media Week this year.

So here’s what we have going on. We’d love to see you there or even here at the office. Plus, we have a 20% discount on passes, so no excuses.

Poncho’s Got You Covered.

Howdy.

With all due respect to the organizers of conferences there is never enough hangout space. Rather than dueling for a power outlet, negotiating temperamental wifi and getting a wet bum from sitting on the floor why not come to the Poncho Parlor here in the betaworks office?

That’s right you can come to the betaworks event space at 29 Little West 12th from 11–4pm on Tuesday 24th through Thursday 27th. Get a cup of coffee, enjoy some free Wifi from our friends at Karma; recharge physically and spiritually. All you need to do is have a SMW badge and show a Poncho weather update.

Yes, you need to be signed up for Poncho. But seeing as Poncho is ‘the only weather app you will ever need’ according to Business Insider and both ‘chipper and Sassy’ according to the New York Times why would you not get your weather updates from Poncho? And lest you have been living under a rock for the last year Poncho also has your commuting info covered. We understand navigating the transport system in the ongoing snowpocalypse can be frightfully tiresome.

The betaworks Hackers in Residence

Angelina Jolie was in Hackers, remember?

We are very happy to spend a whole hour explaining just what the hell a Hacker in Residence is.

This panel is on Thursday 26th February from 12.30 to 1.30. It will feature Alex Chung, hacker and founder of Giphy, Kuan Huang, hacker and founder of Poncho, Josh Auerbach, partner and CFO of betaworks, Maya Prohovnik, Head of Community development at betaworks and me asking these guys some incredibly profound questions.

Our past Hackers have made products like Dots, Giphy, Poncho and Blend. We’ll try to explain why as a Start Up Studio betaworks is very different from an incubator; how the Hackers come up with ideas and turn prototypes into products. And how they then turn those prototypes into successful companies. You’ll hear from past hackers and the people in charge of our new class.

We hope this will be an interactive session so please come with questions for the Hackers and team. We are always looking for hackers so you could even pitch Maya and Josh. You never know….

Giphy — The Future of Communication

All the gifs.

$18M for Gifs! How is that even possible? Good question. I have no idea but I know some people who do. Team Giphy will take you through all their magic. How they went from a simple idea about searching for gifs one afternoon to raising $18M in funding. Why gifs are going to take over the world and why Kate Upton gifs always win.

Join Adam Liebsohn COO of Giphy and friends on Friday February 28th from 12.30–1.30.

Bring your best gifs.

Start Up Podcast and Digg

‘I’m taping this OK?’

Along with Serial the Start Up podcast has captured the imaginations of millions of listeners. Founder of Gimlet Media Alex Blumberg tells the story of his journey leaving This American Life to starting up his own podcasting company. Alex will be interviewed by self-proclaimed podcast nerd Andrew McGlaughlin, parter at betaworks and CEO of Digg.

This session takes place on Thursday February 26th 4.30–5.30.

Really Alex and Andrew could talk about anything. But I would imagine some of the topics they might touch upon would be the importance of long form content, the podcasting boom and starting a new company (with all the intricacies like pitching and raising money through the crowd).

Again there will be plenty of time for Q and A’s. So come with some good Q’s otherwise the A’s will be boring.

Dots.

And we are honored for Dots to be considered one of the top 10 start-ups to watch selected by Entrepreneur and Social Media Week. Dots CEO and betaworks partner Paul Murphy will be on deck to duke it out with the other nominees at this event on Tuesday February 24th from 5-7pm.

Oh, by the way. You like games right? You like Dots? So Dots are hiring. As is pretty much every other betaworks company.

We’ll see you at Social Media Week.

James.