Sun reaches to the Emerging Web Industry at the STIRR event
(Left: Scott McNealy, Co-founder of Sun shares with web startups the secrets to his success)
Sun continues to aims for Web Startups
As someone focused on the Enterprise Web Space, I’ve been watching this market, in fact I was on point for this on behalf of Hitachi Data Systems before I came to PodTech. I helped to coordinate a dinner with the CEO and CTO of Hitachi and some local Web 2.0 companies, and I saw what Sun was doing, they’re moving fast.
Wed night Scott McNealy the former CEO and co-founder of Sun gave his insight, tips, and advice to a few hundreds folks at STIRR in Palo Alto. (Here’s coverage the last time I attended) There was also a drawing for one of the SunFire servers. Sun’s got a full blown marketing program call Sun’s Startup Essentials –brilliant!
Scott insisted how their OS is open, free, and there is no lock down or lock in. They want the emerging web marketing to grow into their systems. Although Scott’s time was limited he was very engaging, warm and human in his presentation. One of this first lines was “wow everyone looks so young”. Perhaps in response to Valleywag’s thrashing of chains.
I remember when Sun launched the Thumper server (part web and storage server) and did some creative marketing, but I don’t think it took off.
STIRR Event and Demos
Thanks to the STIRR (The Emerging Technology Network) folks for putting on such a great event. There were demos from Attendio’s Gerardo Capiel, Collaborative Drug Discovery’s Barry Bunin, Confabb, Salim Ismail, (who promised to buy drinks for the next event, yup we’re holding you to it dude) and JobCoin’s Keith Schacht. It was pretty funny, if you weren’t on the invite or RSVP list, you had to pay $200 dollars to get in (picture is proof), I suspect that’s more of “scarecrow” than anything.
As a speaker and panelist, Confabb was interesting to me, as the audience can rate me and provide me with feedback on how I did. I’m not in the systems yet, but I see that 1/1 rating has given Marc Canter (one of my favorite speakers) a 5 star rating. (Marc, now show that to the SXSW organizers!)
JobCoin looks like a widget play for job listings. They’re not the only ones as SimplyHired also has a widget.
For additional coverage, check out bub.blicio.us’s videos and pics. (Update: As usual, they’ve done the comprehensive wrap up of the event, Rafe shares his experience, including some interesting discussion between him and Salim) Learn more about the STIRR event on their about page.
Update March 2nd: Colleague Scoble interviews Sun’s VP of Market Development about their approach to helping startups.
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[…] At PodTech we love videobloggers. We love them so much that we even created an awards show called the Vloggies. This week at STIRR, I saw Justin, who had a camera in his hat. I immediately approached him and wanted to find out more. He let me interview him, in which I learned that he’s creating a 24/7 reality show in SF where he’s going to live cast his life to the web. His site is not quite live, but the premise is sure interesting. […]
Good callout, J! I have talked to Sanford and we ARE going to sponsor drinks at the next STIRR.
I would never pass up a drink from the great Salim, thanks bud!
[…] I was hesitant to even blog about this, but I was so struck when I saw this, as it’s a unique form of Web Marketing. Has the internet really become so invasive that it follows us everywhere? I saw this web based advertising system at restroom at Illusions Superclub in Palo Alto in Silicon Valley at the STIRR event this week. Although there were no ads in rotation, apparently this advertising system pulls content from the internet, and I’m sure it could be easily customized for the crowd of any given event. […]
[…] For more coverage from the event, visit Jeremiah Owyang’s place. […]
[…] Just last week, I was documenting how the emerging Web industry is being sought after by Enterprise IT companies, now this latest ploy is starting to flip over as Social Media features integrate into existing enterprise environments. […]
[…] Web Strategy Courtesy Jeremiah Owyang To keep STIRR events free for the entrepreneurs and the presenters, STIRR relies on generous sponsors. This month’s sponsor was . […]
[…] Well, the first round anyhow–tonight, at Stirr 2.3. It’s on Salim, who’s holding to his word to buy everyone a drink for voting Confabb the winner at Stirr 2.2. […]
[…] I gently prodded via my blog but kudos to Rafe of WebWare full on gave a nice public rubbing, “Field Report Stirr wrap-up, part 1: Sun, slogans, and how to cheat your audience”. Ouch! Salim immediately left comments on our blogs telling us he will make good, as well as confirmation from his company. Yesterday, while walking up to the event, I see Salim, who’s made good on his promise. He told me “that wasn’t my best public speaking” and was eager to restore his reputation. […]
[…] It’s hard to keep track of influx I’m having an increasingly hard time keeping track of all the start-ups being launched. I go to STIRR events (and here, and here) Startup Launch events, read Techcrunch, Techmeme, Digg, etc. One of the markets that I think is interesting are the do it yourself Social Networking applications (build your own myspace) and I started a list. At first there were 8 companies on it, now there are over 50! Low, low barriers to entry With startups being so cheap to create (see this video interview of Guy Kawasaki and his $12,000 dollar success/failure) we’ve got to believe that the barriers to entry are low, maybe too low. As technology matures, open source infrastructures are a commodity, and grabbing piece meal of parts is so easily found, how will a Web 2.0 company differentiate? It’s also interesting to see which companies are getting funded. Differentiation There’s a few things they can do of course, 1) Niche into a different market, or focus on a vertical. 2) Have kick-ass marketing, know the right people, learn how to be louder that the rest, or get the ‘influentials’ (like the 400 on my Twitter follow list) to check the product out 3) Build a disruptive technology that no one else has done yet. […]
[…] Sun reaches to startups at STIRR […]