NY Enterprise Technology Meetup

Next tuesday evening, I am giving at talk at the NY Enterprise Technology Meetup. I will talk about networks in the enteprise. I plan to use USV investments like WorkMarket and Pollenware to discuss how entrepreneurs can use networks to build powerful enterprise oriented businesses.

If you plan to attend that meetup or if you are interested in networks and enterprises, I have created a hackpad where you can introduce suggested topics for me to touch on in my talk. This hackpad is totally open and anyone can contribute to it.

I know that the meetup is almost completely sold out and that many of you who might want to attend will not be able to. I hope the meetup organizers will record the talk so I can post it here for everyone to see after the fact.

#enterprise#VC & Technology#Web/Tech

Comments (Archived):

  1. Tom Labus

    There are 2 or 3 spots open as of this morning.

  2. William Mougayar

    It’s good to revisit this topic every once in a while, and it’ll be interesting to see how/if you update your thoughts on it in light of the pent-up demand by upstream VCs for enterprise apps. I recently got a call from one of those VCs who asked “is there a B2B strategy for your service”, after I told them that it’s a consumer app.Has anything changed in your thinking since August?Building networks that totally infiltrate the enterprise is one thing, but having your network-based app used by enterprise users is another thing. I think we’re seeing a lot more of the latter where the enterprise is “part” of the story, but not the entire story, especially that these “networks of users” could be across users from various enterprises, i.e. inter-enterprise.The topic of Networks in the Enterprise will continue to be plagued by the consumerization of the enterprise, SaaS models, private-cloud issues, longer buying cycles, and higher support costs. Any startup company wanting to enter the enterprise market will need to face these issues.

    1. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

      enterprise using an app as add-on Vs only one App serving the enterprise?

      1. William Mougayar

        No. The distinction I was trying to make is: 1) wide use of the app where someone at the enterprise has made a group buying decision for other users, VS. 2) a handful or several enterprise users buying it on their own without enterprise co-ordination. Typically, #2 doesn’t go too far before #1 gets involved, but there is a trend for more “hands-off” approaches by IT and central buying groups when #2 starts happening.

        1. fendien

          William, check out this recent post by Peter Levine of a16z which is relevant to your point. Here’s a quote from it http://allthingsd.com/20121…”For those of you old enough to remember, there was a time when enterprise computing was almost exclusively dominated by Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco. It was a time when on-premise, Windows-based applications were the de facto standard and there was no alternative. The enterprise was so entrenched that challenging the status quo was viewed as suicidal and very stupid. So hardened was the thinking that most innovation in the enterprise was relegated to mere feature extensions of existing solutions.Fast-forward to today and the world of enterprise computing has done a 180. Traditional IT is being blown to bits as cloud infrastructure, Software-as-a-Service and mobile computing become the new standards. We are experiencing innovation and usage as never seen before. It is truly a renaissance of massive scale. Hundreds of billions of dollars are up for grabs as buyers shift to new architectures and away from old, as new users and new markets embrace the availability and ease by which they can consume technology.”

          1. Abdallah Al-Hakim

            There was good quote in a recent post by @chrisdixon “Anyone who has had the misfortune to use enterprise technology lately will tell you that the hardware and software they use at home (iPhone, Gmail, etc) is far and away more sophisticated and elegant than the software they use at work. It feels like the enterprise tech is way behind in the product upgrade cycle.” The services and the apps developed for the consumer market are in many cases more elegant and innovative than the traditional enterprise one! Here is the link to the Chris Dixon article http://cdixon.org/2012/12/0

          2. William Mougayar

            I vaguely remember the original article. Thanks.

        2. Abdallah Al-Hakim

          I remember reading that SalesForce success was due to number #2 scenario. An app becomes popular with the a number of workers and then the management or IT takes notice. I am sure there are other examples as well.

    2. JimHirshfield

      “Consumer app”? Hmm, I see the Engagio inbox as hitting power-users right in the sweet spot. And power-users are crossover between consumer and enterprise, IMHO. Perhaps your distinction is just in how your positioning it in the market?

      1. falicon

        Agree (and thanks for wording my thoughts better than I could have myself) 😉

        1. JimHirshfield

          No problem. I’m here for ya.

        2. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

          new avatar .. good one

          1. falicon

            heh thanks…Disqus wiped my old one for some reason so I just uploaded this one (was from a few weeks ago – have shaved since because the Atlanta Falcons finally lost a game…now two sadly)

      2. awaldstein

        Hi Jim….Power users as a crossover to the enterprise? Curious how come…

        1. JimHirshfield

          So, to clarify, I don’t mean crossover as in upsell (ie I don’t mean that consumer is upselled to enterprise, altho possible). I mean that the usage characteristics, and hence needs, are similar if you look at volume of conversations (# of convos, # of replies, # of communities involved in). And with this increased usage, the expectation of uptime, service responsiveness (both system and support). So, user profiles are similar in many respects.

          1. awaldstein

            Thanks…very clear.Of course then it is not simply positioning it is value you are talking about. That’s the interesting part and something William is I’m sure listening to

      3. William Mougayar

        True for the Inbox usage (re: power users), but we are moving into Discovery/Search as another entry point for the casual consumer that wants to consume, but not necessarily engage. Have you tried the new discovery page that has browsable conversations? More to come.

        1. JimHirshfield

          I’m afraid I haven’t. Will endeavor to be a better user. :-/

          1. William Mougayar

            You get a pass because you work at Disqus 🙂

    3. ShanaC

      I think of it as more of a b2b app…

      1. William Mougayar

        Can you elaborate?

  3. takingpitches

    The Networks and Enterprise post was one of my favorites ever.The wonderful thing about the Internet on the consumer/individual side is that it made things more INCLUSIVE from a creator/participating standpoint. This turned out to provide consumers/individuals with better experiences as networks are constantly RENEWING themselves.Big parts of the world are run in large part through the interfaces of traditional institutions such as enterprises in industries that lack that inclusion. I believe this is a big reason for undeserved market power.Traditional institutions become stagnant because they have gatekeepers that keep disruptive forces and people out; networks, without gatekeepers, can more easily be constantly disrupted and renewed by individual passion, drive, and thought.In that sense, networks have the capacity to transform whole areas of enterprise stagnated by institutions by dis-aggregating them into networks and bringing in those forces of INCLUSION and RENEWAL.

    1. takingpitches

      Just read one of Seth Godin’s posts from today.Another idealistic way to frame the “enterprise” of network-izing areas that are the domain of enterprise today is “regaining agency”http://sethgodin.typepad.co…

  4. Mark Birch

    Look forward to seeing you there. It is one of my favorite meetups.Regarding recording the meetup, the organizers have been recording the meetups and posting the video, so others in this community should be able to see it.

    1. fredwilson

      Fantastic!

    2. jason wright

      super

    3. ShanaC

      thank you!

  5. AlexBangash

    Yes please record the meetup. It will be so great to hear your insights, but it is sold out. It’s now flavor of the month to invest in enterprise startups.

  6. JimHirshfield

    Bummed I’ll miss it. Out of town. But thanks for raising awareness of this meetup.

  7. FAKE GRIMLOCK

    NOT ALMOST SOLD OUT, IS.

    1. fendien

      I wish we had more physical space to accommodate more people but unfortunately we don’t at the moment. I’m going to ask people who RSVPed last week but may not be able to make it to update their rsvp status to make room for others

      1. William Mougayar

        You could organize a remote viewing location at the General Assembly for e.g. . They do that all the times for the NYTM. (that’s if you have the streaming capabilities). I can put you in touch with the GA if you need it.

        1. fendien

          Thanks for the offer to help but unfortunately we don’t livestream events (yet). We’re recording the keynote though and will have it up shortly after the event. We launched in January 2012 and are regularly trying to expand our offerings so livestreaming is certainly on our to do list.

          1. William Mougayar

            Looking forward to the replay. I’ll try to attend a future meetup if it intersects with my next trips to NYC.

          2. AbbeyPost

            Speaking of which, when are you coming back? Haven’t seen you in a while!

          3. William Mougayar

            Next year 😉

      2. Kasi Viswanathan Agilandam

        physical space … R u talking about a football ground to accommodate the Dino 🙂

        1. FAKE GRIMLOCK

          AT LEAST.

    2. AbbeyPost

      Me take good notes for you if want.

      1. ShanaC

        thank you!

    3. fredwilson

      that’s the read/write lag at work

  8. William Mougayar

    And how about Networks and the “Inter-Enterprise”? i.e. Networked/Engaged users across various enterprises.The walls of the enterprise are thinning out. Progressive enterprise users have more in common with other users outside their enterprise than inside.

    1. takingpitches

      Nice point. In many professions, there is a very common use case where you have a problem you look for knowledge both inside your organization and outside your organization, among friends, professional colleagues, organizations, etc.Network that organize that knowledge can be very sticky by providing both real-time connections and stored value to help in that knowledge transfer.

      1. William Mougayar

        True. Are there good examples of peer to peer networks across enterprises?

        1. takingpitches

          Not too many great ones. Maybe something like stack exchange where coders can go to exchange knowledge on common issues,In the real world, in some professions, you have good subsets of professional organizations, e.g., within the AMA or ABA, where professional knowledge is distributed through conferences, publications, web sites, email discussion groups, etc.That is the type of helpful knowledge transfer behavior you would want to replicate in a more efficient functioning network.

          1. fendien

            William Mougayar takingpitches yes they exist. i don’t know many off the top of my head, but an example i’m familiar with is The Data Warehousing Institute (http://tdwi.org/) for business intelligence professionals.From their website, their mission is to “foster a community of learning where business and technical professionals come together to gain knowledge and skills, network with peers, and advance their careers. Through education and research programs, TDWI enables individuals, teams, and organizations to leverage information to improve decision-making, optimize performance, and achieve business objectives.”They host educational events which bring participants from various industries together to learn about new trends.

      2. fendien

        @takingpitches:disqus great points. that’s a large part of why i started the NY Enterprise Technology Meetup: to help build out NYC’s enterprise technology ecosystem, and provide a venue where people can learn about new technology and network with peers. Connecting individuals in the city’s various enterprise verticals (financial services, media, advertising, tech, fashion, etc) benefits them a lot because it enables sharing of best practices, thoughts on emerging vendors, etc.

        1. takingpitches

          Great example and good work on the meetup. And another example for William’s question on examples below.

    2. ShanaC

      how about also thickening in terms of high security?

      1. takingpitches

        good point. enterprises put up the walls in the name of security (a legitimate concern); actual employees find a way through them to be more productive. it happened with iphones and ipads, for example.

  9. AbbeyPost

    Really looking forward to this! RSVP’d the minute I saw the email, weeks ago.

    1. fendien

      woot!

  10. RapidCloudSolutions.info

    There’s only one thing you need to focus on Fred and it’s ABS !!!

  11. Myles Fuchs

    Wish I could attend Fred but Cathy + I are headed to her place in Palm Beach for a few weeks of Holiday R+R. Best to all for a Happy + Healthy Holiday! Myles

  12. Jeff

    Enterprises may be able to benefit more than any other consumer of a network model based on volume and the added liquidity and activity from a large business to the network ecosystem will have many powerful positive effects. In order for this to happen the network must be sensitive to the legal, procurement, accounting and other processes deeply embedded in a business that are unlikely to change anytime soon.We saw much of this “movie” in the early ebay days. Many business sprouted around ebay to build better tools so that a business could leverage its marketplace.

  13. SightseeingMuangnarak

    just Next year