Sprout Up March

Sprout Up is a monthly event for forward-thinking entrepreneurs to gather and mind-meld. A great chance for startups around the to get friendly, discuss current trends, and network in a casual, open, and focused setting. Sprout Up events have been held in cities around the world including Toronto, Montreal, NYC and London, and regularly have over 300 attendees.

We’re excited to announce the details of our next Sprout Up Toronto, taking place Tuesday, March 20th at The Courthouse. The guest speaker will be Tony Conrad, founder of About.me (https://about.me/) and partner at True Ventures (http://www.trueventures.com/). Tony is a serial entrepreneur and investor, and is no stranger to success, having sold his first company to AOL in 2008. But it was his second business that enjoyed almost immediate success – about.me (http://about.me/) was acquired by AOL a mere four days after it launched. Tony is also an expert on Sprouter - check out his previous Q/A session (http://sprouter.com/tonyconrad).

Tickets are $12 for this event - you must buy a ticket to attend and space is limited, so grab one while they're available! We will sell out, and we can't always accommodate everyone on the waiting list. We're also trying to relevantly recommend people to meet at Sprout Up, so when you register you'll be asked to answer a couple questions so we can make a relevant connection.

Event details:

Date: Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Cost: $12 per ticket (roughly $10 + HST)
Time: 6pm-9pm
Agenda:
6-6:45 - registration
6:45-7:15 - startup demos
7:15-8 - guest speaker & questions
8-10 - networking
Place: The Courthouse, 57 Adelaide St. E (see a map (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=the+courthouse+57+adelaide+st.+e&aq=&sll=43.651007,-79.375529&sspn=0.006956,0.018775&gl=ca&g=57+Adelaide+St+E,+Toronto,+ON&ie=UTF8&ll=43.652022,-79.375534&spn=0.006567,0.018775&z=16&iwloc=A), closest TTC station: King and Yonge)

Guest Speaker:

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/9/7/2/event_95939762.jpeg

Tony Conrad, founder, About.me. partner, True Ventures

Participating startups:

Flixel, FansFave (http://fansfave.com/), and SecondMenu (http://secondmenu.com/). If you'd like to apply to present at Sprout Up please email a description of your company to jon@sprouter.com.

RSVP details:

Make sure you RSVP to get your connection nametag at the event. For more information contact Jon at jon[at]sprouter.com.

Join us & be a part of our Sprout Up! It’s going to be a fabulous night of invaluable insights, new & old friends, & of course your lovely hosts from Sprouter(www.sprouter.com (http://sprouter.com/sproutupto)).

More about guest speaker Tony Conrad:

Tony is currently a partner, and member of the founding team at True Ventures.

He founded about.me in 2010, which was acquired by AOL only four days after launching. Conrad says the success is due to equipping users with the right product. They gave profile owners a set of tools to curate and manage their identity online, and provided them with data insights. Profile visitors were shown what someone looks like, how they view themselves, and were pointed to their social services online.

His previous startup, Sphere, was founded in 2004 and acquired by AOL in 2008. Tony is also on the Board of Directors for several notable startups, including CatchFree and KISSMetrics.

More about Sprout Up:

Sprout Up is made up of three main components:
Innovation Demo – Pre-selected entrepreneurs share their innovative business ideas to the audience
Guest Speaker – Fabulous new speakers will be brought in each month to spur new discussions on relevant trends and ideas
Networking – Network with peers: share knowledge, experiences and drink