Wow, what a rush. We had a great time the other night at our latest StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event.  It is absolutely amazing how the community has embraced this grassroots movement. We had 250-300 entrepreneurs and investors there at the peak of things. I’m still waiting to get the pics from the photographer, and as soon as I do, we’ll get a full recap posted.

Thanks to everyone who helps to make this a great event for early-stagers in the Southeast!

Cheers.

I know that many of you (including me) have been trying to enjoy the holidays and relax a bit. However, I wanted to interrupt your holiday programming to let you know that for the past couple of months we’ve been heads down working on the next version of the StartupLounge.com site.

In short, we are putting the finishing touches on what will be an unbelievable online social platform and community. I don’t want to get into too many details right now, but it will go far beyond the simple blog and podcast that we have running currently. We’re really taking the whole thing to a completely different model.

Stay tuned …

Cheers.

We just wrapped up a great podcast with Wright Steenrod over at Chrysalis Ventures. We had a great time digging into their model and gleaning his insights.

As an added bonus, we provide a double dose of “Under the Bus”: Mike tosses some alcoholic StartupLounge haters under the bus, and I pile on and “gently nudge” some regional VCs into oncoming traffic. We also have a nice batch of your emails and a great Thanksgiving comedy bit to round out a lengthy, but great show!

Cheers.

We are now at three weeks until the next StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event, and we have sailed past the number of RSVPs for the previous event. Right now there are over 200 people registered to attend, and we expect that it will climb to at least 250-300 before the event date arrives.

I’d like to take a moment to thank the folks who’ve stepped up to sponsor our non-profit efforts:

• Chrysalis Ventures
• Southern Capitol Ventures
• Web.com
• Adams Capital
• Clements-Walker
• Slingshot
• Angus McRae
• ATDC
• Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)

Without their substantial sponsor dollars and influence behind what we do, we’d have to pay for all of this ourselves (again), and let’s face it, that would suck. Each of these sponsors is behind our efforts because they truly believe in what we are doing - and that makes our relationship with them even sweeter.

Cheers.

Sooner or later, every startup struggles with the issue of how best to offer healthcare benefits to their employees. In a recent StartupLounge.com podcast, we were joined by Angus Mcrae, a guy who does a ton of consulting and brokering for healthcare benefits for Atlanta-area high-tech startups (for companies like N2 Broadband/Tandberg, ViTrue, etc.)

As an added bonus we toss (under the bus) the knuckleheads holding up SB80 (the legislative bill that would allow the Georgia teacher’s pension fund to be invested in private equity). We also provide an update on our upcoming Capital Connections and PitchCamp events (as well as TAG & ATDC’s upcoming CapVenture program) here in Atlanta.

This was another solid show with some great nuts and bolts content for entrepreneurs. How do healthcare benefit brokers work? What are the warning signs of unethical brokers? What about PEOs? How expensive are healthcare benefits for startups? Can they afford to do it? Should they? How big does a company have to be to offer benefits to employees? What are the key considerations in selecting a benefits program for your company?

Enjoy!

Cheers.

The next quarterly StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event will be held on August 29th here in Atlanta.

If you are a fast-growth entrepreneur in the Southeast U.S., or an investor who’d like to network among such innovators to scout for new deals, head on over to StartupLounge.com and sign up. If you missed the last event, you can read the wrap up and check out the photo gallery over here. We had about 180 folks last time - we’re estimating 250-300 this go around.

For this next event, there will be some changes to the format:

1. First and foremost, we are opening it up to entrepreneurs across the Southeast United States (not just those located in Georgia). We are doing this because Atlanta really, truly should be the hub of entrepreneurship in the region. Several investors that attended the first event also made this suggestion, and we think this move will benefit investors (more deal flow) and entrepreneurs (more regional connections).
2. We are going to cap attendance at some point, so if you have an interest in attending, it would probably be wise to sign up sooner rather than later.
3. As before, companies will be limited to sending no more than two (2) representatives (investors may send as many representatives as they’d like, though).
4. We’re encouraging more entrepreneurs to bring demos, laptops, etc. (especially on the technology side)
5. We’ll be providing some free coaching for entrepreneurs prior to the event (See “PitchCamp“)
6. We’ve expanded our RSVP form to capture additional information that will help us better serve attendees.
7. If you attended the first event, don’t apply again - you’ll receive the event code in your email very soon.

The cost is still free, of course, and the room will be free of job-seekers and service-providers. However, we are seeking a few more sponsors to augment the sponsors we currently have. If your firm (or someone you know) is interested in helping us sponsor this event each quarter, please have them get in contact with us. Service-providers are welcome sponsors – in fact, it is the only way they can get in the room.

Cheers.

For a great sneak peek at Vendormate, check out the latest installment of the StartupLounge.com podcast. Vendormate’s CEO Andy Monin stopped by and shared a great overview of the company, as well as his thoughts on creating high-performance teams in a startup.

We also had some great emails (including a particularly good question on raising angel money for a non-technology company), an update/wrapup of our recent Capital Connections event, and threw the state of Georgia under the bus. Wheee!

Cheers.