For our fourth Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup, the topic of the night will be about Branding.

Discussion will cover general questions about strategic branding, partnerships and more.

The format will consist of three parts, introduction of guests and
short discussion; question and answer session with the audience; then
reception. We will be joined by two distinguished guests.

Sasha Strauss, Managing Director and Chief Strategist of Innovation Protocol, a brand strategy consulting
firm that exclusively serves innovators by evolving industry defining
ideas into brands. With over 16 years in strategic brand development, he
has led international programs for companies such as Microsoft, TiVo,
Thermos, Electronic Arts, Yahoo!, eBay and Adobe.

Roy Rubin, CEO of MagentoCommerce.com, founded Varien (the original company behind Magento) in
2001 as a consultancy and has since transformed the eCommerce platform
market with the release of the Magento platform. In a period of 18
months, Magento surpassed the 1 million downloads milestone and now
records billions of dollars of transactions worldwide by tens of
thousands of merchants. It is the fastest growing eCommerce platform in
the world.

A results-oriented executive with over 10 years of
experience founding and building products and organizations, Roy is
deeply entrenched in the eCommerce and open source markets and grew
Magento to be a disruptive, global player.

Where: coloft.com, 920 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca 90401, 310-395-3366

When: September 15, 6:00PM – 10:30PM

What should you expect…

• Be among like minded people
• Introduce yourself and your startup
• Ask questions and return the favor
• Network with bright entrepreneurs
• Give & gain valuable insight on business skills
• Relax and enjoy your time

Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM CHAPTER) is not your typical get
together. It is a meetup of a closed knit community of
Mixergy/FoundersMix peers. There is no membership and everyone is
welcome. You get the chance to mingle with friends, startup
entrepreneurs, Angel investors, web programmers, marketers and social
media aficionados.

Our sponsors are Coloft and Magento, Inc., who are
generously contributing for food, drink and location. Thank you Avesta
Rasouli and Cameron Kashani of coloft.com and Roy Rubin of Magento for your generosity. Thanks to Giang Biscan, producer of Mixergy.com and Media Sponsor for her assistance. Especial thanks to Andrew Warner for his support and encouragement.

Media Sponsor

Disclaimer: This is not an official Mixergy event. It’s an
event organized by Mosses Akizian and supported by Andrew Warner of
Mixergy.com

Direct link to ticket page: http://lamm4.eventbrite.com

Partial List of Attendees

Download audio file (lamm3-working-with-cofounders.mp3)
“Right click” here to download the MP3 format.

More photos on Flickr. Photos by Oszie Tarula (@oszie5)

The above is a recording of Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM #3) with Michael Khalili of PartyCamera.com, Scott Edward Walker of Walker Corporate Law Group, and Robert Kiraz and Ed Dekartery of Vokle.com as guest panelists. Sponsored by coloft.com and Scott Edward Walker. Assisted by Giang Biscan, producer of Mixergy.com and AsAble.com. Hosted and organized by Mosses Akizian. Supported by Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com.

I will be adding transcript of the event. Check again in few days for updates.

UPDATE: Video/Audio/Pics available in Co-Founders. The How? The Where? The What?

For our third Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup, the topic of the night will be about Co-founders.

Discussion will cover general questions about co-founder working relations; Equity divisions; Partnership forming; And more.

The format will consist of three parts, introduction of guests and short discussion; question and answer session with the audience; then reception. We will be joined by three distinguished guests. Two are co-founders and the third an attorney who specializes in partnership forming.

• Robert kiraz, CEO of Vokle.com
• Ed Dekartery, CMO of Vokle.com
• Scott Edward Walker, Founder of Walker Corporate Law Group
• Michael Khalili, Founder of PartyCamera, MyContestSite. Former CTO of Bradford and Reed.

Where: coloft.com, 920 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca 90401, 310-395-3366

When: July 7th, 6:30PM – 10:30PM

What should you expect…

• Be among like minded people
• Introduce yourself and your startup
• Ask questions and return the favor
• Network with bright entrepreneurs
• Give & gain valuable insight on business skills
• Relax and enjoy your time

Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM CHAPTER) is not your typical get together. It is a meetup of a closed knit community of Mixergy/FoundersMix peers. There is no membership and everyone is welcome. You get the chance to mingle with friends, startup entrepreneurs, Angel investors, web programmers, marketers and social media aficionados.

Our sponsors are Coloft and Walker Corporate Law Group, PLLC, who are generously contributing for food, drink and location. Thank you Avesta Rasouli and Cameron Kashani of coloft.com and Scott Edward Walker of Walker Corporate Law Group for your generosity. Thanks to Giang Biscan, producer of Mixergy.com for her assistance. Especial thanks to Andrew Warner for his support and encouragement.

Disclaimer: This is not an official Mixergy event. It’s an event organized by Mosses Akizian and supported by Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com

Direct link to ticket page: http://lamm3.eventbrite.com

Partial List of Attendees

Download audio file (lamm2-how-to-use-seo-effectively.mp3)

The above is a recording of Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM #2) with Tony Adam, Michael Dorausch, and Constanine Roussos as guest panelists. The event was sponsored by coloft.com and picclick.com. Yours truly hosted and organized the event. Supported by Andrew Warner of Mixergy.

I will be adding transcript of the event within few days along some pictures taken at the event. Sorry for the delay. I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to take care of this.

This post will be edited. Check again in few days for updates.

For our second Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup, we’ll be changing the format and the topic of the night will be “How to Use SEO Effectively”. The format will consist of three parts, introduction of guests and short discussion; question and answer session with the audience; then mixer.

We will be joined by three distinguished guests. They are all past Mixergy interviewees who have mastered the SEO craft respectively.

• Constantine Roussos of .music TLD. Listen to his Mixergy interview.
• Michael Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic. Listen to his Mixergy interview.
• Tony Adam on myspace. Listen to his Mixergy interview.

Where: coloft.com, 920 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca 90401, 310-395-3366

When: May 13th, 6:30PM – 10:30PM

What should you expect…

• Be among like minded people
• Introduce yourself and your startup
• Ask questions and return the favor
• Network with bright entrepreneurs
• Give & gain valuable insight on business skills
• Relax and enjoy your time

Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM CHAPTER) is not your typical get together. It is a meetup of a closed knit community of Mixergy/FoundersMix peers. There is no membership and everyone is welcome. You get the chance to mingle with friends, startup entrepreneurs, Angel investors, web programmers, marketers and social media aficionados.

Unlike our first meetup, this will a sponsored event. Our sponsors are coloft.com and PicClick.com, who are generously contributing for food, drink and location. Thank you Avesta Rasouli and Cameron Kashani of coloft.com and Ryan Sit of PicClick.com for your generosity. Thanks to Espree Devora for referring coloft.com, Giang Biscan, producer of Mixergy, and especial thanks to Andrew Warner for his support and encouragement.

Disclaimer: This is not an official Mixergy event. It’s an event organized by Mosses Akizian and supported by Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com

Direct link to ticket page: http://lamm2.eventbrite.com

Partial List of Attendees

BizBreak is essentially a “beat-up your boss” game. Think Michael from The Office. Surely you have or had come across bosses that you wanted to take a jab at. This little fun game will do that do that for you.

In order to push the game, Michael is running a contest where he’s willing to give 50% of the apps profits with minimum payment of $3000 (sponsored by Under30CEO) and a chance to have a one hour consultation with top entrepreneurs, such Andrew Warner, Mike Michalowicz, Ross Kimbarovsky, Cameron Johnson, and Yanik Silver.

Sounds good. So here’s my quick quirky idea of a video submission. Enjoy.

P.S. Don’t forget to cast your vote for me.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I was pleasantly surprised to the turnout for the first Los Angeles Mixergy Meetup (LAMM). The night went smoother than I had hoped (minus the live flamenco- sorry wasn’t warned about it) at Ole Tapas Bar. All who attended seemed to be enjoying their time. We even had a trooper among us, Giang Biscan, producer of Mixergy.com, who wasn’t feeling well but came regardless to support us. Thanks Giang. Hope you’re feeling better already.

Around eight, after few people had tweeted that they’re not going to be able to make it for the night, I had everyone gather around and do a quick “round-robin” introduction of ourselves and our startups. This gave a chance for everyone to hear each other out and be more comfortable mingling later.

Among the friends we had some musicians, Brendan Miranda (founder of MusicTrainer), Constantine Roussos (founder of music.us), and Rufus Philpot (bass player and instructor). Web developers included Oszie Tarula (AmericanBrand is a client), Michael Bell (who recently sold DealHack.com), Patrict Cheung of methink. Thanks Espree Devora for the hugs and your support. Thank you also Azra Panjwani of Hangout Industries, Narek Khachatryan (up-and-coming entrepreneur), Peter Akizian (my little bro), Rohit Jain of Ingboo and few others.

Conversations ranged from music to ecommerce, some SEO tips from Constantine, book reviews of Linchpin and REWORK, about web development, programming, startups, co-founder partnership ideas, vc and angel investing and more.

Giang surprised me with a Yerba Mate kit, courtesy to Andrew Warner of Mixergy. In case you’re wondering what a Yerba Mate is, watch Andrew’s interviews based from Argentina. He drinks it on the show excessively. I think he forgot that there is such a thing as plain water.

Jason Fried honored us with a signed copy of REWORK. Again, thanks to Andrew. The winner was Patrick. Alas, the book didn’t come in time. Pat- I’ll send it to you after I read it. Just kidding. Azra got the second Yerba Mate kit. Hope you’re enjoying it. I am.

Few of us stayed late in the night and went home pass eleven.

Thanks for the good times guys. Hope to see you at the next one.

Yerba!

Disclaimer: This was not an official Mixergy event. It was a Mixergy fans/friends meetup organized by me and supported by Andrew. Thanks Giang, Brendan, Oszie, Peter and Espree for helping out.

Giang posted on her blog, “we had a blast…”, and yes it was. As much as it was a blast hanging out with Josh Fraser (a TechStars alum), Jeremy Przygode (founder of Impingo), Brendan Miranda (founder of MusicTrainer), and Giang Biscan, the better interpretation is whether internet entrepreneurs are forging a new frontier.

Having morning breakfast with “strangers” in IHOP, discussing programming, ecommerce, Google’s stance on Chinese censorship policy, family and more, I felt very comfortable among my new-found friends. Which duly brings out the question? Is internet paving the road to a better society?

I might be just fooling myself that humanity’s last hope relies on access to internet and specifically on net neutrality. I believe the sooner governments of various nations adopt this new technology, the closer we as species will bond better. After all, humans are supposed to be social species. It’s about time we embrace that and expand it to all who are willing to partake in the internet.

If you believe in net neutrality, then support @freepress by signing up with Save The Internet.

After breakfast, we followed Giang to a “geek-exclusive” tour of CrashSpace LA by Carlyn Maw & Sean Bonner. CrashSpace is Office Space meet Fax Machine, but the difference is the parts of a dissambled machines are not left behind on a remote field, but are reused to make new fun little gadgets. Come to find out, Sean also runs metroblogging – a site that caters city-specific blogs that has now expanded to 50+ cities around the world with content contributed by more than 1000+ volunteer bloggers. Yes! You read that correctly. Volunteer bloggers.

If you are in LA, make sure you check out CrashSpace. Don’t forget your old fax machine.

I’ll post a proper essay of my observations of internet entrepreneur relationships in the near future.

Simple words. Strong message.

On 22nd of February of 2010, Andrew Warner of Mixergy posted his decisions for wanting to charge for his interviews. This Is Why I Want To Have A Paid, Premium Section Of Mixergy. What Do You Think? He was also kind enough for asking the community’s feedback.

As expected, the sentiment was full of mixed opinions filled with emotions of anger, joy and insurgence. As one blogger posted: “…the whiners have come out in force”. This strange phenomena takes me back to Magento’s upheaval battle with the community when they introduced the Enterprise version of their open source ecommerce platform.

What is Magento Commerce?

It is a feature-rich eCommerce platform built on open-source technology that provides online merchants with unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their eCommerce store. Magento’s intuitive administration interface features powerful marketing, search engine optimization and catalog-management tools to give merchants the power to create sites that are tailored to their unique business needs. Designed to be completely scalable and backed by Varien’s support network, Magento offers companies the ultimate eCommerce solution.

How is it relevant to Mixergy?

The first public beta version was released on August 2007. Two years after it’s initial launch, Varien, the company behind Magento, is now enjoying the number one spot as the world’s best open source ecommerce platform. See latest statistics below.

As a new platform, not only did it become the new darling of open source ecommerce platform, it also knocked off the long standing king, osCommerce, off the number one spot that it was enjoying for many years. This amazing feat was achieved within short period of fifteen months.

The wonderful Snow White story didn’t come without facing its own wicked witch; the “whining” community. On May of 2009, Varien introduced the Magento Enterprise Edition with a hefty price of $8,900. That was the starting price and was also based on annual subscription. As you can see below in the illustrated graph, Magento lost almost 20% of it’s community as a result. And they did not leave quietly. The “whiners” didn’t only expect free access to the software, but also demanded that certain updates and extensions be added so that their ecommerce shops become successful. This without acknowledging the man-power and finances needed to keep up a software that its ultimate goal is becoming the best open source ecommerce platform in the world.

Some of them even went out of their way rating 3rd-party extensions with low scores and adding derogatory reviews all across the forums. Varien couldn’t keep up with them fast enough with deleting their accounts. Once an account was deleted, the user would open a new one. I remember one user specifically, and I’m very certain it was the same individual. He would pop up one day as LargeBalls, then BlueBalls, and yet again, RedBalls, it was almost very amusing watching this individual spending his/her time degrading someone else’s work instead of putting that effort into his/her own endeavor. At the end, Varien closed the rating and review sections of the 3rd-parties’ extensions. As an avid user of Magento, this action deprived me of reviews for my own personal needs. Varien’s actions were very understandable.

How does Mixergy compare to Magento?

Short answer; it is yet to be seen. The following graph illustrates the latest reporting of Mixergy’s visitors. Many followers who are unwilling to pay for a subscription, have stated that they are only willing and able when they see a bigger community. I believe sixty thousand (60,000) unique visitors is a large enough community for a site whose purpose it educating entrepreneurs or individuals who have the desire and ambition to becoming an entrepreneur.

An analogy of comparing the ratio of Employers vs Employees would illustrate this better. It is comprehensible for a company having One Employer (entrepreneur) to 99 Employees, not 99 Employers to 1 Employee.

Is Mixergy’s community large enough?

To answer this question would require access to better analytics, but the following graph illustrates that not only is Mixergy community healthy enough, it even surpasses certain popular entrepreneur sites. Startups.com and Answers.Onstartups.com are two popular Q&A forums for entrerpreneurs. The Alexa reporting clearly shows that Mixergy’s pageviews have been steadily rising and as of the latest available reporting, it also surpassed both sites. Therefore, the short answer would be; Mixergy’s community is large enough for Andrew request of subscription fees.

But is it fair?

Interesting question. That is what the “whiners” are asking. Why should they pay when they can get free content all across the web. They don’t have too. They are correct. As an ecommerce developer, would you rather use osCommerce that comprises the work of dozens of programmers or Magento that has the solid backing of a reputable company, Varien? Would you rather spend your valuable time scouring the web for good content or you rather visit a centralized site that is specifically dedicated to helping entrepreneurs by providing content that is relevant to their endeavors? I say the latter.

But is is fair? Yes it is. Unlike Magento, Andrew repeatedly had reminded the followers of Mixergy of his impending subscription plan. As a matter of fact, he had sought out many times live on video chats for feedback. Magento did not. The announcement of the Enterprise was a shock and very unexpected.

What do I propose?

Per Andrew’s request for feedback, I have emailed and even discussed my views of a subscription plan during the testing of Vokle platform; a new up-and-coming and very promising video and chatting platform.

After much thought, I personally propose three (3) tier pricing with an additional private and personal access to business professionals.

Beginner: $99 Flat Lifetime Fee

• Access to all interviews (archived and new) with a flat lifetime fee of $99

Experienced: $99/month

• Access to all interviews (archived and new)
• Access to dedicated entrepreneur community
• One (1) Group Consultation per month plus access to archived pre-recorded group consultations

Serial: $249/month

• Access to all interviews (archived and new)
• Access to dedicated entrepreneur community
• Three (3) Group Consultation per month plus access to archived pre-recorded group consultations
• Special Discount on All Products

Personal: $249-$499 per consultation

• One hour dedicated one-on-one expert consultation with an attorney, brand manager, social media expert, and more.

What are the tiers?

It is understandable that certain individuals have the ambition and desire to becoming an entrepreneur and would benefit accessing content related to the expertise and experiences of battled entrepreneurs. These same individuals would also understandably might not have the means to pay a monthly subscription. A beginners level would suit best for an individual such as this.

Experienced plan would also give an entrepreneur access to a community of entrepreneurs. It is true that startups.com and asnwers.startups.com offer a free community, but a subscription based community would have better answers and content since all subscribers are on same par and eager to share experiences and advice.

An added benefit to this plan would be the introduction of group consultation. Consultations can range from filing of a corporation presented by an attorney to a social media expert educating the latest trends in social media and best steps to succeeding in the market. The plan also includes access to archived recorded group consultations.

Serial plan would offer all features of above with addition of two (2) more participation in group consultation and access to discount to all products, such as books and personal consultations.

Personal Consultation would offer one-hour consultation with an expert such as an attorney; brand manager; social media expert and more.

Can Mixergy offer more?

I believe it can.

Mixergy is the vision of a successful entrepreneur, Andrew Warner. Since Mixergy is dedicated to internet entrepreneurs, I believe it can also go one step further and become an incubator. Dedicating funds to promising early stage startups would benefit both Mixergy and community in large.

A recent comment from a “whiner” brought up a good point. Why would a person go from $30MM+ revenue per year to Mixergy. Starting an incubator in conjunction with the stated plans above would attract more ambitious and willing entrepreneurs with visions of the next best thing and yet without the means or resources. Mixergy would be a good stop to offering services to well researched and potential individuals the path for a fruitful success.

Los Angeles could use a small incubator. We wait for Andrew’s return.

Conclusion

These are my own opinions. As an avid follower, this is how I envision Mixergy. If you are ambitious and willing to learn and want to advance your entrepreneurial dreams, Mixergy would be and should be the place to visit. Having the ability to learn from the experiences of successful and occasional teachings of a failed entrepreneur is a golden nugget in long abandoned mine.

Would this replace a MBA program? Seth Godin tried his hands on creating an alternate MBA program, maybe Mixergy could become that. An alternative to a MBA program.

One can dream. Can’t he or can’t she?

I’ll let Thomas Edison close this post. “I failed my way to success.”

Being an active fan and strong supporter of Andrew, you wouldn’t have found any comments or suggestion from me under his post or on Twitter. The reason; I wanted to be able to convey my message appropriately so that newcomers understand the value of what Andrew Warner is providing. Do I believe that the current pricing structure is fair? Well, on many occasions I have emailed and discussed online about my views of what Mixergy ought to be. I will write them in a more detailed post within a day or two.

For now, I wrote and edited a parody of how I see Mixergy. I’m not a comedian or qualified political pundit, but hopefully the message comes through clear enough. I apologize for the scanty humor. I do not mean to insult anyone or any institution. This is just a parody.

Enjoy.

If you enjoyed this parody and would like to see more, I have few more of Hitler vs Mixergy under my sleeve. Let me know.