I just had to post this one…a hilarious video created by Idiots of Ants:

“What would it be like if Facebook was actually played out in real life?”

Jason Calacanis’ most recent post to his email mailing list was a response to a recent 10-day stretch in which he sat through 200 company demos for the upcoming TechCrunch50 conference, which will take place September 8th–10th in San Francisco.

The TechCrunch conference was started last year by Jason and Michael Arrington as a launchpad for the most promising 50 startup companies to show off their products in front of VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press for absolutely no charge. Considering that DEMO (which takes places during the same dates) charges $18,500 for startups to launch their companies, it is no surprise that startups have been anxious to demonstrate their products for a chance to be a part of the TechCrunch50.

Jason recently sat through 2,500 minutes of demos in 10 days, in which 200 startup companies had approximately 10 minutes each to present their products, mostly over phone and web conferencing. After sitting through so many demos, Jason has decided to compile a list of tips to help entrepreneurs demo their startups.

The following 10 tips are guides to help you demo your product successfully. They are incredibly useful and I felt it was important to post them on my blog for anyone who hasn’t seen them yet. I also added some of my own feedback.

1. Show your product within the first 60 seconds

According to Jason, “Folks with killer products CAN’T WAIT to show you their product.” On the other hand, people who begin their presentation talking about the market, corporate bios, figures, and showing boring tables and charts generally give off the impression that their product isn’t very good. The truth of the matter is that if you’ve got a killer product then the figures aren’t the most important thing at this stage in the game.

When you begin your demo, jump right into presenting your product within the first minute. This will show that you are confident and that you believe in your product. If your product isn’t finished or ready to show then don’t do the demo. As Jason says, “If a picture tells a thousand stories, then a product demo tells a million.”

I would add to this that while this is all true, sometimes it is necessary to show market figures in order to clarify the need for your product in the market. However, you should save this information for a later time after you’ve made your pitch and proven that you’ve got a product that’s worth spending the extra time listening to statistics.

2. The best products take less than 5 minutes to demo

If you are presenting a product that is truly a killer product then you should be able to demo it in under 5 minutes. To back up this statement, Jason gives some examples:

a) Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google could surely demo their product in less than 5 minutes—Type a search term in the box and receive great results.

b) Steve Jobs could, without a doubt, demo the iPod in less than 5 minutes—Connect it to your computer, sync your music, use it on the go to listen to music by using the wheel to select songs.

c) Chris DeWolfe of MySpace could easily demonstrate the site in less than 5 minutes—Sign up, complete a profile and add friends, widgets and applications.

As Jason says, the better the product the Less time it takes to present.

It is also important to keep in mind that you don’t have to explain every little detail and feature of your product in your demo, as proud of it as you may be. For instance, Larry and Sergey wouldn’t show every single feature of Google in a demo—that could take days! Stick to the most important and simplistic features that will help you demo your product in the shortest amount of time. After that, if people would like to hear more, you could go into further detail.

3. Leave people wanting more

If you follow Jason’s advice and present your product in less than 5 minutes then the people you are presenting to should at least be intrigued, if not blown away, by your product. If they are not, then something is wrong with your product and you need to start rethinking and rebuilding.

Your goal should be to give just enough information so that the people you are presenting to know what your product is and leave room for questions. Jason related to his own experience when he pitched Mahalo to investors. He showed investors 5 pieces of paper with search results from different engines and asked which was the best. He writes: “Obviously I knew my result was the best, and that simple demonstration lead to MASSIVE discussion.”

Let your panel discover your products merits on their own. Simply provide a short but compelling demo to intrigue them enough to do it.

4. Talk about what you’ve done, not what you’re going to do

Strong startups usually talk about what they have already accomplished, something worthwhile—they have a killer product to show that is functional and unique. On the other hand, weak startups usually spend a lot of time talking about the future of their product because they don’t have anything impressive to show right now.

Any company can talk about what they will do next—add a mobile version, advertise, build a widget or application. However, your presentation should focus on what you have already done. Not what you will do. This is much more impressive.

Take Steve Jobs, for example. he doesn’t waste time talking about the future of Apple. He announces Apple’s current achievements. This is part of what has made Apple the success that it is.

5. Understand your competitive landscape—current and historical

When you are pitching your product it is incredibly important to know your competition, past and present. Do research about companies that have successfully or unsuccessfully pitched products that are similar to yours. Research their successes and failures, who they received funding from, whether they were sold and who bought them.

Jason writes that three companies presented group SMS messaging products this year and none of them knew about UPOC.com, an important group messaging service established in 1999, way ahead of its time. In Jason’s words, “If you don’t know the competitive landscape and the shoulders you’re standing on, folks are not going to be comfortable giving you their money, time or attention.”

I would also add that it is important to research previous and current competitors as this will help you evaluate your revenue model, business activities, and not repeat past mistakes that have been made. If you’re spending all this time and effort on your startup, you might as well take advantage of learning from other similar cases.

6. Short answers are best

When asked questions during your demo, answer them as shortly and concisely as possible. Because you have been with your company from day one you have thought a lot about every minute detail. When asked a question, many details may spin around in your head and if you try talking about all of them you could speak for ages. Keep focused and give a short and to the point answer.

Jason gives the following question as an example: “What happens if Google enters your market?” Here are a few examples of how to answer this question concisely and confidently:

a) “Google has entered many markets, but they are only #1 in search and search advertising. They trail in social networking to MySpace and Facebook, in classifieds to Craigslist, in news to Yahoo and AOL, in email to Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo, and in instant messaging to Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.”

b) “We’re not sure if Google will enter our market, but hopefully we’ll have developed our product enough that it will be a real sustainable business by that time.”

c) “We think Google might enter our market at some point, and if they do they and their competitors will certainly consider buying us—creating a bidding war for our entrenched position.”

d) “Google is a very big company right now with a very big cash machine that they have to focus on and protect—they will never do our business with our level of focus. We will out execute them on all fronts.”

You may have all of these ideas in your head, and each is an excellent response on its own. However, giving all of these responses will simply take too much time.

7. PowerPoint bullet slides are death

Anyone who has ever sat through a PowerPoint explaining anything in bullet points knows that bullet points are incredibly boring. Do your self a favor and don’t use bullets, unless you want to bore your panel to death.

According to Jason, bulleted PowerPoints show that “you don’t have the ability to create a compelling story with data” and that “you don’t think much of the person being presented the information.” Instead, include product shots, charts and tables to present your product.

Again, keep your presentation as short and to the point as possible. Don’t add extra slides to get laughs or unnecessary graphics that are just taking up space. Keep your presentation direct and to the point.

8. How to use this new device called the phone

When you are presenting your product over the phone use a landline with a handset—nothing else!

Mobile phones often cut out and have a horrible connection much of the time; speakerphones are terrible as well. Conducting your company demo on your mobile phone or speakerphone is simply disrespectful to the person you are pitching to, yet for some reason people continue to do it.

Take your presentation seriously. Use a landline and speak on a handset. This will ensure that you will be heard as accurately as possible. You have a limited amount of time to present and don’t want to deal with mobile or speakerphone or issues. Use speaker phones only for Q&A sessions.

If you are using a headset, make sure that it is high-fidelity and put the microphone as close to your mouth as possible. Don’t drink, eat, chew gum or breath loudly into the microphone. This can be distracting and just plain gross.

You’ve worked hard to prepare for your presentation. Don’t let mobile or speakphone issues detract from the end result.

9. How to handle questions you don’t know the answer to

If your presentation goes well then you will probably be receiving a log of questions and chances are they you won’t know the answer to every single one of these questions. The following tips will help you when you aren’t exactly sure how to answer a question:

a) Allow yourself a moment to think before answering the question. If you feel awkward with your pause, you may say: “That is a great question… Let me think about it for a second.”

b) Be honest. If you don’t know the answer to the question then don’t force it. You can say something like “I’m not exactly sure, I’ll think about it and get back to you.” Or you can pose the question back to the asker—“I’m not exactly sure, what do you think?”

c) Think out loud if you need to and ask for help in answering the question. For instance, “I hadn’t thought about that. Let’s explore the answer together.”

d) If you don’t know how to answer a question you can say that you don’t have enough information right now but that your company will deal with the answer when the issue arises, later down the road.

People can tell when you are answering a question with B.S. so it is always better to be just be honest. People appreciate that.

10. Always confirm the time of your meeting/call and always be 15 minutes early

Business people are busy and it’s common for meetings to get mixed up. Therefore, it is important to confirm all of your meetings. Jason writes that he confirms each of his meetings or phone calls twice—once in advance by email and once on the day before the meeting. Jason says that “reconfirming meetings makes you look like a true player and it costs you nothing.” Send a simple email that confirms the date, time and address of your meetings. Be sure to include your mobile number in case anything changes.

It is also important to arrive early. You are, after all, meeting with someone who may invest in your company or want to do a business deal. It’s respectful to sit in their lobby so that you will be ready to go as soon as they are. Even if you are doing a conference call you can call early and wait on hold.

However, don’t show up too early. Jason advises “don’t show up more than 15 minutes ahead of time or you’ll look like a stalker. If you get to your meeting 45 minutes ahead of time go to the Starbucks and buy yourself a treat for being so on top of things.”

These are all excellent tips and even though some may seem obvious, it is surprising how often people neglect to follow them. In addition, being a blogger located in Israel, I think it is important to add yet another tip to this list. If you are a foreign company, make sure that you pick the right person to present your startup. There’s nothing more aggravating than listening to a pitch by someone that you can’t understand. Make sure that your presenter speaks English fluently and coherently. It is even preferable that you pick a person who has had previous living experience in the US. Each country obviously has its own business culture and mannerisms and it is extremely important that you pick a person who knows how to ”sell” to the panel at hand. You can have the most amazing product in the world, but if your presenter does not know how to communicate your message properly, your demo will fail miserably.

Thanks to Joi for the pic.

There are different ways of optimizing your social application’s virality. Here are 8 great tips:

1) Create an application that gives value to the user. Ask yourself: “What would make me, as a user, add this application?” If you can’t come up with a good answer, you’re probably not thinking of the right application to make. As Tom Kincaid writes:

“Unfortunately, people will not flock to put something on their profiles just because YOU care about it. People will put something on their profile because it provides value to THEM.”

2) Give users incentives to share the application with their friends. You can use incentives such as ranking or virtual money which they can use to win prizes. Don’t require users to invite 20 of their friends to join the app before they can use it. This tactic is just annoying and many groups have already emerged on Facebook boycotting such applications.

3) Don’t create a one-time use application. These applications will be the first to be removed by users from their profiles since they render no continued added value to them.

4) Build an app which allows the user to increasingly enjoy it if his friends also join.

5) Make it easy to invite friends by providing a link in a visible spot and allow for different ways of sharing the application.  For example, if you created a quiz application, allow people to send their results to their friends.

6) Build an application which allows for various interactions with friends, thereby increasing its visibility and adding value.

7) Allow users to create their own content. Users will want to promote and share the content that they created.

8 ) Make sure people know about your application. Promote your application in the right channels. If you created a dating app, make sure you’re promoting it in dating groups and communities.

Hopefully these tips will help you create a more viral app, however, at the end of the day, these suggestions will only take you so far. Above all, In order for your app to be viral, it needs to be good. I know this is easier said then done, but I believe that with enough researching, brainstorming, and planning, you’ll be able to come up with something.  For more information, check out my post: What Does It Take To Become A Sustainable Facebook App?

Post written by guest author Megan O’Neill

Commily is a new Israeli startup with a drive to make life easier for all of the busy parents out there. The site is a social network for families that provides parents with the tools they need to easily deal with day-to-day issues with their kids such as scheduling play dates and carpools; find recommended services and products, from team uniforms and sports equipment to school supplies; and stay in touch with their children’s friends, classmates, teachers, coaches and administrators. Unlike other social networks, which are designed to connect people on a large scale, Commily is designed to bring together small communities to help simplify family and community life.

Commily was founded by three parents who are also experienced in the world of business and high tech—Gil Levonai, Micki Segal and Laura Waas. Gil, Micki and Laura saw the need for a simpler method of dealing with the day-to-day lives of their children and so they created Commily.

Ayelet and I met with Micki who vividly expressed the difficulties that working parents face in trying to organize the lives of their children. She hopes that Commily will simplify the lives of working parents by “Incorporating all of a child’s community into a single location.” Through the site, parents can coordinate carpool dates, as well as plan parties and events with other families from their children’s schools, day care, sports teams, religious communities or neighborhood. Commily users keep calendars and build profiles with pertinent information about each child, including likes, dislikes and hobbies, to keep the other parents in the community informed.

Aside from simplifying family life, I think that one of the most interesting things about Commily is its program called “Giving Back with Commily.” The site shares a percentage of its revenues with the communities that use the service. This money is donated to local charities, which are chosen by Commily users themselves. It is nice to see how committed Commily is to its goal of enhancing local community life.

Commily is currently looking for seed funding. The site has launched its pilot for Chicago-area residents and is looking for leaders to help launch Commily in other cities.

I think that the biggest challenge for this site will be recruiting community leaders and drawing users in local communities into it. However, if they can achieve this, Commily stands to be a great tool for simplifying the lives of working parents everywhere.

Megan O’Neill has worked with a number of Internet and media related companies both in the United States and in Israel in design, content and marketing positions. She currently works at Blonde 2.0 as a Social Media Marketing Assistant.

Company Name: Gemini
Founded in: 1992
Location: Herzliya Pituach, Israel

I had the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Cohen, General Partner at Gemini, an Israeli VC fund founded in 1992 by Ed Mlavsky, that invests in Israeli companies all over the world. Since 1992, Gemini has raised four funds and is currently in the middle of raising their fifth. Gemini began as a part of the Israeli Government program “Yozma” (”Initiative” in Hebrew), which offered to match funds for every Israeli VC that received investments outside of Israel. Gemini, the first and largest fund of the Yozma program, makes mostly seed and early stage investments.

Most recently the fund invested in Outbrain as part of its Internet Lab joint venture with Lightspeed, as well as XJet and Modu last year. The Internet Lab provides a great example of global Israeli reach. Through the lab, Gemini has backed six Israeli companies, with a true global presence (Israel, London, Silicon Valley, New York, Boston and Australia).

I asked Cohen what makes certain investments more attractive to Gemini than others. He replied: “At Gemini, we strongly believe that abnormal returns from venture capital can only come from large companies (even very large companies). Both XJet and Modu fall exactly in that category. We try to back great entrepreneurs that are going after unique market opportunities.”

I questioned Cohen about the advantages of being an Israeli startup. He replied that Israeli startups have the advantage of a global viewpoint, a much better understanding of mobile technology, and the ability to change and reposition themselves quickly and efficiently. Israeli startups are also cost effective. “Take for example mobile advertising,” said Cohen. “Israeli companies are dominating this space, with companies like Amobee, Pudding and others. We have backed an Israeli company called Massive Impact that is offering mobile advertising solutions in Asia. Massive provides a great example for a company that identifies global opportunities (beyond the US).”

In regards to the downsides of being an Israeli startup, Cohen mentioned that startups located in Israel often do not have as strong of an understanding of the average US consumer when compared to US-based startups. However, he believes that Israeli startups are only getting better. Israelis now have role models to look up to like Shy Agassi and Dov Moran, just as Mark Zuckerberg had role models like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Cohen also added that Israelis understand that in order to survive in the technology sector, they must create the “Facebooks” of the future. This gives Israeli startups the drive to succeed. He added; “I am confident that Israel can and will produce great companies in the next five to ten years.” I tend to agree with him and hope that after reading the Israel Media Tour series, most of you do as well.

This post was originally posted August 4th on Mashable.com

An amazing TED video featuring Psychologist Barry Schwartz who discusses The Paradox of Choice in Western Societies. According to Schwartz: “Choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.” Definitely a video that changed my outlook on life and the decision process.

Company Name: PredictAd
Founded in: 2007
Location: Raanana

PredictAd is an Israeli startup backed by Yossi Vardi that was launched in 2007. Based in Raanana, the company has created an autocomplete search box plug-in that refines the search query and helps site owners generate new search revenue by providing inline text and banner ads. PredictAd is not a search engine, but rather improves the search query.

The Company is led by Noam Fine, CEO, Yossi Marouani, CTO, and Tomer Molovinsky, VP of Business Development. The three met each other in the Israeli army and have remained close since, which has translated into a strong, cohesive leadership.

The concept of PredictAd was developed by Fine and Marouani as a way to monetize Joe’s Giveaway or Mehalek (“giving away” in Hebrew), a site they created that featured a counter where users were supposed to click until they reached a certain number of points that awarded them prizes. PredictAd decided to develop the concept further and offer the search plug-in as a service to Web publishers and site owners. See the one they created for me below:

PredictAd operated in closed beta until January 2008. During this phase the company partnered with major Israeli portals such as Walla, Ynet, Nana, and MSN Israel. Partnering with these portals gave PredictAd the opportunity to optimize and enhance the service’s capabilities before entering into its current open beta phase, which is available internationally.

Since PredictAd’s product went international, they have hit over 30 million searches monthly, largely because of recent partnerships with Bravenet, Perfspot, and most recently Lyrics.com. These companies are now using the PredictAd system in all of their site search fields. It is PredictAd’s goal to make its autocomplete menu as common as the search box itself, and to be recognized as an integral part of the search process.

This post was originally posted July 22nd on Mashable.com

Company: Outbrain
Founded: 2006
Located: Netanya

I had the opportunity to meet with John LoGioco, VP of Business Development at Outbrain, the free service that offers bloggers and publishers a ratings widget that can be used by visitors of their sites to rate their content. The service, which serves as a recommendation engine for readers allowing them to discover new content they might like based on the ratings they give, recently announced an analytics dashboard for bloggers and site publishers. Outbrain is signaling a trend towards offering higher quality, more personalized Web content based on reader response and giving readers more power over the content they are viewing.

In our interview below, I speak with John about Outbrain’s philosophy and goals.

This post was originally posted July 21st on Mashable.com

Company Name: Copenda
Founded in: 2007
Location: Tel Aviv

I had the chance to interview Gadi Reichman and Tal Cohen from Copenda, the Israeli startup that offers an online social people search that allows users to find new friends and dating partners across social networks and dating sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Match, Plentyoffish, and more. Gadi and Tal founded the company with David Kariv nearly a year ago when the trio noticed a trend that young people were searching social networks for dating partners rather than searching dating sites.

In our video interview below, I speak with Gadi and Tal about the birth of Copenda, the service’s features, and the various projects they have lined up for the future.

This post was originally posted July 18th on Mashable.com

Company Name: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Founded in Israel: 2006
Israel Location: Herzliya Pituach

I had the chance to interview Yoni Cheifetz, a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a global VC fund investing in Israeli startups. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Lightspeed has offices in China, India, Israel and the US. Recently Lightspeed raised an $800 million fund and introduced a new partner, David Gussarsky, to their team as a Managing director.

Two years ago Lightspeed partnered with Gemini to create the Internet Lab, a venture designed to give seed funding to early-stage Israeli startups. They have invested in six companies so far as part of the Lab. The first of these companies was Outbrain, creator of a content rating and recommendations widget. Through the Lab they have also backed StyleShake, a do-it-yourself fashion company headquartered in the UK that allows users to design their own clothing and have it sent to them; Vestopia, a resource for investors; and Bahu, a social network for people under 25.

In our interview below, Yoni and I discuss the Israeli startups Lightspeed has invested in as well as what he considers important for startups to be successful.

This post was originally posted July 16th on Mashable.com