Investing in Human Capital at the Bowery Capital People and Talent Summit

People and Talent are hot topics for early stage companies growing quickly in this culture-focused workforce. How do you recruit the best talent? What tools can companies utilize to build diverse and powerful teams? How do you maintain culture and shape company values?

Leading up to the Bowery Capital People and Talent Summit, cred worked with speakers to create sessions built around answering these questions. Speakers and panelists included leaders from Rent The Runway, Button, WayUp, The Muse, Justworks, and others.

WeWork Bryant Park was packed on Thursday, June 7 as the morning started off with a tactical chat by Nikki Goldman of I/O Coaching and WayUp explaining how to build an effective Values Playbook for your company. Following her was a dynamic presentation by Jacqui Maguire of Greenhouse about structured hiring.

Kirsten Behncke Colyer of Justworks, Jordan Wan of CloserIQ, and John-Paul Sukkar of Rent The Runway rounded out a panel called The Company Glow-Up: Maintaining Culture as You Scale. They were followed by the panel: Tools of Engagement: Tools and Data in the People Space, featuring Ilya Usorov of day100, Jennifer Williams of Drive Change, Inc. and John Erban of Axiom. Panel discussions explored the data points that are worth focusing on and the resources that can be used to measure outcomes.

To finish off the summit, Stephanie Mardell of Button taught on how to put ideas into action to sustain diverse and inclusive company growth, then Toni Thompson from The Muse explained the importance of using storytelling to create an image of your company.

This was the second installment of Bowery Capital’s Quarterly Leadership Series this year. Join us in New York on October 11 for the Finance and Ops Summit! If you’re interested in updates on that event, or want to hear more about what we do at cred, email us: hello@credpr.com.

Event Spotlight: The Startup Conference 2018

The Startup Conference took place on May 17th in Redwood City. This event gave many startups and founders the opportunity to soak up knowledge that will give them the tools to succeed. The energy was electric and there were rarely any moments where people weren’t laughing, asking questions, or networking. Throughout the day, the audience sat at the edge of their seats, listening with hunger in their eyes. Three cred clients spoke at this event - Lattice, Venrock, and Sharethrough. They each shared insightful wisdom with the crowd.

Jack Altman from Lattice took the stage amongst the first set of speakers, offering insight on the true struggles founders face. He noted that fundraising isn’t very natural, but there are a lot of resources online available for people following the same path. He reminded the audience that although asking for funding is tedious, ultimately, it’s a funnel to find out which investors really align with your company’s vision. 

Ethan Batraski of Venrock took the stage with Soma Somasegar of Madrona Venture Group, Varun Jain of Qualcomm Ventures, and Martin Stroka of F50 for the panel of VCs talking about what makes a killer pitch that piques the interest of investors. Ethan, along with others, agreed that out of the four requisites - market, team, technology, and ability to execute (operational excellence) - investors would rather put their money in a startup that has the right team and market fit. Varun agreed that it would be ridiculous for investors to ever invest in a startup with a founder who has no business acumen. 

Sharethrough’s Rob Fan took on the Scaling & User Acquisition panel. He spoke with purpose, informing the crowd that who you hire depends on who your consumers are. Rob shared the reason why companies can scale quickly is because they invest in their customer support early on. He also noted that utilizing word-of-mouth is an early-stage company’s best friend.

The event ended with 3 startups, who were chosen by the audience, pitching in front of investors. The startups that pitch are likely to gain coverage for their ideas and meet influential decision-makers. If you are an early stage startup looking for investors, this event happens every May in Redwood City- see you there next year!
 

Cheers for Three Years of #cr3d!

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years! We started cred with a vision to connect passionate speakers to opportunities to build thought-leadership. To date, we have confirmed 1,800+ speaking opportunities for our clients to speak at events located all around the world! It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come at achieving that mission and so much more.

We’ve grown our team to a healthy 17 (and still growing). We've built a data-base of over 7,500 events from scratch, helped over 200 speakers connect with engaged audiences, and are launching our first official internship program this summer, too. In 2018, a huge focus has been to grow the Event Management side of the company and we are happy to report that we have been super busy working with multiple clients to coordinate and source speakers from one-day summits to multiple day conferences (with 27 under our belt to date).

cred works hard, but we also know how to party!

We celebrated our Third Birthday in style at Neyborly Union Square, a modern and chic art gallery here in San Francisco. The team shared stories of the company’s conception and spent time basking in nostalgia as we recalled memories from the past three years. It truly is something special to work at a successful company with such an accomplished group of individuals. Our three-year-old-selves would be proud!

MIT AI Looks to the Future of Industries

All Eyes on the Future: Three Days of Supreme Content at MIT AI 2018

This past weekend, MIT Club of Northern California (MITCNC) hosted its second annual MIT AI Conference in San Francisco. For two days, MIT Alumni and leading AI experts from various industries gathered at the InterContinental Hotel for a series of fireside chats moderated by VCs and journalists. Attendees were also given the chance to bring their families and experience Kids Day on the third day of the event.

cred worked with MITCNC for months to coordinate the speakers and content for this one-of-a-kind forum on “The Future of Industries.”

Shuja Keen, President-Elect of the MITCNC giving welcome remarks.
Photo by Maqsood Hakim

One of the most well-attended sessions of Day 1 of the event was  the “Applying AI Research to Production” session featuring Jeff Welser from IBM Research, Richard Socher from Salesforce, and Anima Anandkumar from Amazon AI. The 80-minute chat discussed where their work and research in data science has been taking these leading companies.

Another crowd favorite was the session “Spanning the AI Spectrum”, where our client, Joanne Chen of Foundation Capital, moderated thoughtful questions to Richard Rabbat of Gfycat, Jaime Teevan of Microsoft, Guy Satat of MIT, and Bruce Welty of Locus Robotics with Rory O’Driscoll of Scale VP.

Joanne Chen with Richard Rabbat, Photo Courtesy of Maqsood Hakim

The event wrapped its final day on Sunday with the true future of AI: Children, joining to show off their creativity and technical skills—using briefcases, laptops, python software and immeasurable excitement.

Here is a snapshot of activities:

• How to Build a Drone- Sponsored by Flybrix

• How to Build a Self-driving car- Hosted by Curiosity Machine

• AR & VR Immersion Class Hosted by Upload

• The Competition Robot of Cupertino Robotics Club on Exhibit

• The Competition Robot of Missfits All Girls Robotics Team on Exhibit

Check out these photos from Kids Day:

MIT AI was a thrilling conference that left attendees of all ages excited for the Future of AI. We can’t wait for next year!

If you want help coordinating events like this, contact: hello@credpr.com

Speaking 101: A Guide to Becoming a Better Writer

Ernest Hemingway called a blank sheet of paper the scariest thing he’d ever encountered in his life. Anyone can face writer’s block, and it’s especially difficult to get your creative, imaginative thoughts on paper. Whether you’re looking to write a speech, a novel, or anything in between, these five tips will help you get started on expressing your ideas in a unique way.

1. Collect stories from your surroundings

One of the simplest ways to improve your creative writing skills is to draw from your surroundings. By taking note of ideas from people you meet, conversations you overhear, places you visit, conferences you attend, speeches you watch, and beyond, the potential for creative thought expands. Become a sponge, and be incurably curious. Writer R. V. Cassill called notebooks “incubators” - carry a notebook and write down what you observe.

2. Read, read, and read more

Reading is scientifically proven to expand your vocabulary and increase intelligence - two traits that can both improve and differentiate your writing. Reading a variety of content also exposes you to new styles, genres, and cadences of writing.

3. Write, write, and write more

The more you write, the better a writer you’ll become. As with anything, writing more often can improve your practice. The hardest part is starting! Set aside 10 minutes every night to document your day, or do a writing exercise to challenge yourself, like the Pennebaker Writing Exercise. To begin, think of something - an upcoming event, a stress, etc. - that has been on your mind. For four days straight, write about it for 10 to 20 minutes nightly. Don’t think about style, spelling, grammar, or anything that may distract from your content. Simply write. Which leads to the next tip...

4. Break the rules

To unlock your creative juices, try stepping outside of the traditional approaches you currently know about writing. While understanding the fundamentals of writing and sentence structure can serve as an excellent base when getting started, breaking those rules will allow you to write more freely and uniquely. The outcome won't necessarily be stellar on first attempt, but keep trying to find your voice and utilize writing as an outlet.

5. Find your time of day

Pay attention to the time of day that free-thinking comes easiest to you. You may feel your most creative first thing in the morning, before your mind is pulled away by the hustle of the day. If you're a night owl, 11 pm may be the ideal time to get your creative juices flowing on paper. Take note of when you feel sharpest and play around with a time that works for you.

Want to learn more? Check out these resources for strengthening your creative writing skills.

• On Writing, by Stephen King

• The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr.

• The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle, by Steven Pressfield

• I Should Be Writing, by Mur Lafferty (podcast)

Bowery’s Marketing Summit Hits the Mark!

The Bowery Capital CXO Quarterly series made its way to San Francisco yesterday for its first Summit of the year with a focus on Marketing. cred worked with The Bowery Capital Team to coordinate a series of tactical chats and panels discussing Marketing for early stage SaaS Marketers. Eight speakers brought insight from their experiences in marketing roles at  Salesforce, Slack, Rubrik, SurveyMonkey, Oracle Data Cloud, and more.

The morning started with a captivating presentation by Bill Macaitis, former CMO of Slack, Zendesk, and Salesforce on “How to Grow Your Unicorn.” His talk was followed by Kara Wilson of Rubrik’s lively sermon about “How to Not F#@k it Up.” The audience was incredibly engaged as discussions around “What is Brand?” and “Scaling from 0 to 100M” brought panelists and the crowd into some spicy debating.  

Maria Pergolino, CMO of Anaplan ended the day with this message that was a crowd favorite:

“Marketing:
Everyone sees it.
Everyone knows how to do it.
It costs a lot.”

Click through the photos below to get a glimpse of the event! Keep your eye out for the next Bowery Capital Summit in June!

Speaking 101: 8 Steps to Building your Personal Brand

Branding with Brandi: 8 Steps to Building your Personal Brand

When we think of brands, we commonly think of recognizable names like Tiffany & Co., McDonalds, Nike, and Amazon, but have you ever thought of yourself as a brand? Start by asking yourself why is everyone drawn to those popular products or services over their competitors, and what qualities and characteristics set them apart. Using that same thought process, think about yourself and what qualities and characteristics distinguish you from everyone else.

Recognizable brands reveal the power of perception and the strategy of self definition. People are drawn to their perception of you and the reputation you leave behind— a unique combination of personal characteristics, values, strengths, and passions create value and separation from your peers. You’re just as much a brand as Nike, why not market yourself as one? If you’re looking to effectively market yourself, generate more leads, or establish yourself as a thought leader, developing a personal branding strategy is critical to your success.

The first and most important step in developing your personal brand strategy is defining your Personal Brand. Follow these 8 steps to begin defining your personal brand:

1. Define your target audience.
   Who do you want to receive your message?

2. Contemplate your vision and purpose.
   Think bigger picture here—in what areas of life would you like to see improvement, and what role will you play in making that happen?

3. Discover your values and passions.
   Values are your guiding principles (ex. collaboration, transparency, impact, integrity), and passions are the things that motivate you. By determining your values and passions you’ll naturally gravitate towards people and activities that best align with yours. Notice how these correlate with how you operate at your job, around others, etc.

4. Identify 3 - 4 of your best attributes.
   Some questions to ask yourself: What adjectives would others use to describe you? What words would you use to define your personality? What personality traits best showcase how you work towards your goals?

5. Identify 3 - 4 of your greatest strengths.
   What is your unique “super power” that has benefited others or your company? Your strengths are the skills that position your value above others.

6. Ask for feedback from those that know you best - family, friends, colleagues, managers, anyone.
   A true measure of your brand is others’ perception of you, which is a reflection of the reputation you curate. Ask what they think are your top qualities and strengths, and compare their response with what you’ve identified in numbers 4 and 5.

7. Know who your competitors are, and what differentiates you from them.
   Why should anyone choose you over your competitor? Remember your personal brand is the unique value you offer, so consider what qualities you contribute that no one else does.

8. Finally, select 3 words that best describe you.
   If you’ve completed the steps above, you’ve already highlighted your top attributes and have an idea of what qualifications distinguish you from others. Now zero-in further and describe yourself using only 3 words. These three words will reflect your personal brand!

Want to learn more about personal branding and building your personal brand? Check out this guide.

Brandi's Three Words to create her brand are: Tenacious, Diligent, and Charismatic

Driving the Data @ RampUp 2018

March 5th and 6th were filled with excitement as RampUp 2018 took over the Fairmont Hotel and the Masonic in San Francisco. We’ve been working with LiveRamp for months to secure close to 170 speakers for this rapidly growing convention of the brightest minds in Digital Marketing and data. We curated 48 sessions of panels, chats, and presentations all focused on the “future of marketing” for TV, brands, agencies, data owners, and publishers.

The first day kicked off with a great conversation between Wells Fargo CMO Jamie Moldafsky and LiveRamp’s Allison Metcalfe. One underlying theme of their conversation was how customers are at the center of everything.

Tuesday brought almost 2,500 attendees and a powerhouse panel of CMOs to kick things off, including former CMO of Airbnb - Jonathan Mildenhall, Cisco CMO - Karen Walker, TripAdvisor CMO - Barbara Messing, and Adobe CMO - Ann Lewnes. The five had an amazing chemistry onstage as they discussed the digital marketing ecosystem. 

Throughout the day, we loved seeing some of our clients show their expertise: Dan Greenberg of Sharethrough, Joanne Chen of Foundation Capital, Matt Keiser of LiveIntent, Thomas Walle of Unacast, Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan of Drawbridge, Omar Tawakol of Voicera and finally Eva of Voicera (a bot who took notes during Omar’s session).

Nate Silver, American statistician and Author of The Signal and the Noise, closed off the event with an engaging talk about Data and Predictions. 

We’ve loved being involved the past three years as RampUp becomes one of the go-to events in the data-driven ecosystem. We're looking forward to great things for RampUp 2019!

For more Insight on the event, check out the RampUp Blog:

RampUp Day 1
RampUp Day 2

cred team @ RampUp 2018!