Red Nova Labs hosts “Venture Fridays” for Web/App/Game Entrepreneurs in KC area all Summer 2011

May 15, 2011 - PRLog -- On May 20, Red Nova Labs will open its doors for its first “Venture Friday,” a meetup for fellow web, app and game technology entrepreneurs in the Kansas City area.

“Venture Fridays” is a straightforward concept: The tech startup culture of Kansas City and surrounding areas is invited from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Fridays to gather at Red Nova Labs’ private office lounge for a casual meet-and-greet. On Meetup.com, the agenda is described as, “To discuss what we’re all thinking about, working on, needing help with and might do for each other.” Existing or aspiring entrepreneurs in the web/app tech industry of all types and ages are encouraged by Red Nova Labs’ organizers to attend the meetup.

“Our staff has started a tradition where we get together Friday afternoons to relax and toss around ideas,” said Carrie Royce, Chief Marketing Officer at Red Nova Labs. “We thought: Why not invite other ‘entreprenerds’? We believe entrepreneurship is largely about helping others achieve mutual goals—as fellow ‘against-odds creators’ we’ve met can tell you. Successful entrepreneurs focus on others—customers, partners, shareholders... and yes, peers.”

Red Nova Labs is a web tech and marketing company that started in 2009 and has grown to employ more than 20 people in the last year. The company’s business model is divided into two distinct parts – services and products – that both fit under the umbrella of software as a service (SaaS). On the service side the company supports interface design, backend programming and online marketing. On the product side it invents, builds and launches its own web-based platforms for various applications and vertical markets.

“We’re what you might call ‘serial entrepreneurs’ or ‘polypreneurs’ – back around 2000 the term was ‘metacompany’,” said Daniel Miller, Red Nova Labs CEO. “I guess we’re kind of an incubator— but we prefer to sit on our own eggs, so to speak. We aggregate the features of an incubator, a VC firm, and a diversified company all under the roof of our ‘Venture Labs’ department. Once a product is launched, each business operates as an independent unit, with engineering and marketing support. It makes for an electrifying work environment, to say the least.”

“We just passed our two-year mark as a startup,” Royce said. “Speaking from experience, anyone here at Red Nova Labs can tell you: The entrepreneurs who make it are the ones who aren’t in it just for the money. Fortune-seekers can’t keep up their passion through the hard times—and there are hard times, believe me. That’s one big reason that it’s nice to have a social circle of like-minds in the area – people who ‘get it’ – they empathize with desire to take risks and work mad hours in pursuit of a dream.

“That’s what they have out in Silicon Valley, and even in Seattle and Austin, you know?—A giant happenstance social circle of people with common goals in comm tech industries. We’ve lamented that we don’t have that in the Midwest—no real mindset symbiosis. That makes it so hard to take the ‘big step’ here. A few good groups are making a concerted effort to build up that camaraderie – area incubators and ‘percolators’ and Silicon Prairie News’ recent reach into KC. But it’s a huge mission to modernize a region’s frame of mind. That’s why we’re joining the fray.”

On occasion, Venture Fridays meetups may be co-located with other small groups/presentations from the web world, including SEO, SEM, social network marketing, and programming/development. The company plans to share its space with collaborative groups in the industry who are seeking something more conducive to industry meetups than bars and restaurants.

“The way we work, all of those things are closely intertwined with entrepreneurship—and besides, there are only so many Fridays in the week,” Royce said. “Our motto is: Rank globally, connect locally... With people who face the same challenges we do.”

Venture Fridays at Red Nova Labs will be a weekly event from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. every Friday throughout the summer. Red Nova Labs is located at 4830 Rainbow Boulevard in Westwood, Kan. Existing or aspiring entrepreneurs interested in attending can learn more at http://www.meetup.com/VentureFridays.

# # #

Red Nova Labs is a web tech and marketing company that started in 2009 and has grown to employ more than 20 people in the last year. The company’s business model is divided into two distinct parts – services and products – that both fit under the umbrella of software as a service (SaaS). On the service side the company supports interface design, backend programming and online marketing. On the product side it invents, builds and launches its own web-based platforms for various applications and vertical markets.