The next meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will
be Monday, January 12th. (NOTE: This is different than the "traditional"
second Tuesday schedule.)

We are rescheduling our canceled meeting from November, "Starting
an Internet/Software Company Today - Lessons from the Front Lines."
Despite the economy (or perhaps because of it) startups are
still charging along and some of them are even doing quite well. Sure,
money is harder to raise these days and deals are harder to land, but
that doesn't stop entrepreneurs from forging ahead with their ambitious
plans.

Our panel will cover the Internet/software startup environment today.
What are the current challenges? What's working and what's not? What
strategies are being used on the front lines to go after that sometimes
elusive successful technology startup?

Patricia Hursh (Patricia@...) is president and
founder of Boulder-based SmartSearch Marketing, a company which manages
paid search engine advertising campaigns and educates clients on
effective search marketing programs. Patricia will be discussing her
transition from full-time employee at a Boulder area tech company to
being her own boss in a fast-moving Internet startup. Earlier in her
career while at Qwest, she transformed the corporate intranet into a
source of interaction and communication for more than fifty thousand
employees located across thirteen states. Then she worked at Microsoft,
leading many of the company's earliest successes in the area of online
promotions and email marketing. As a marketing consultant, Patricia
started providing search engine promotion services nearly five years ago
when she realized that most of her clients were so focused on looking
for new customers, they were ignoring the people already looking for
them. Today, SmartSearch Marketing specializes in
performance-based advertising campaigns. Clients include businesses
selling products and services online as well as companies using the Web
to acquire leads, qualify prospects, educate people, or build a brand.

Julian Gallow (julian.gallow@...) is Investment Analyst with
Himmelblau Inc., a trading, consulting, and investment management
company. From his experience working with many technology startups, he
will share perspectives on startup issues such as raising investment
capital and the investor pitch, the role of a business plan and the
importance of the startup's management team. He recently served as
Executive Director of CTEK Angels, Colorado's largest angel investor
network, and is an active angel investor himself. Julian is the founder
of two technology companies, both of which he lead to profitability. In
addition, he holds an MS degree from the Graduate School of Business at
Stanford University.

Justin White (justin@...) is president and founder of
Wellness Business Systems which provides the wellness industry with
business management software to improve operations. He will be speaking
about the market factors he analyzed to come to the decision to build a
company. These are the same factors that anyone should probably
consider, whether starting their own entrepreneurial venture or joining
someone else's. Justin has been in the software industry since 1981, and
his experience covers a wide range of roles and responsibilities. He
served as President of his own consulting business building accounting
systems in New York City, as well as Chief Information Officer for a
major corporation serving the food industry.
In addition, he held a number of managerial positions at Microsoft
including General Manager in the MSN division working on Microsoft's
experimental website, Sidewalk.com.


URL's of interest:
-------------------

SmartSearch Marketing, http://www.smartsearchmarketing.com
Himmelblau Inc., http://himmelblau.biz
WellWorks, http://www.thewellworks.com

The meeting is Monday, January 12th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional
6:30 pm start for refreshments and informal networking).

The meeting will be held at The National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the
Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take Table Mesa Drive west
towards the mountains for approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills.
NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving directions, go
to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/ ), click on Driving Directions,
enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR
lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to meeting,
which is held in the main auditorium, right off the lobby. The meeting
is free and open to the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray
expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room
to accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how
many people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than
seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into the auditorium
after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our two sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
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MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical
Talent for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG
meetings.

ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company
that provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG
meeting minutes.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html You can also reach
the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is
at http://www.rmiug.org/

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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR
has security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use
the facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead read the
minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:
1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact
Josh Zapin (josh@...).

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