New “Venture Friday” Meetup Group Draws a Diverse Entrepreneurial Crowd from Kansas City area

May 25, 2011 - PRLog -- Evidently, Kansas City “entreprenerds” can play as hard as they work.

That was one of the many nuggets Red Nova Labs’ organizers took away from their first “Venture Friday” meetup on May 20. The company opened its doors for a casual meet-and-greet of fellow web, app and game technology entrepreneurs in the Kansas City area.

The meetup lasted quite a bit longer than the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. planned window and Red Nova Labs’ Chief Marketing Officer Carrie Royce said she was thrilled with the turnout – in fact, she said, it was the first time she has ever seen the company’s parking lot full.

“Put fifty entrepreneurs together in a casual spot with food, drinks and the simple agenda to mingle, and you get an awesome vibe,” Royce said. “It was motivating to see such a diverse group come through the doors—developers, gamers, marketers, and really out-of-the-box innovators. Naturally, people with similar interests gravitated toward each other, but I was happy to see that the crowd remained pretty fluid. It was a cool group who talked about games, apps, web platforms, SEO challenges and more.”

Royce advertised the first “Venture Friday” via Meetup, LinkedIn and Twitter, which drew a good mix of entrepreneurs from several age groups and company sizes.

“I think they are a great idea, a good way to get like-minded people to share their ideas and bounce them off others,” Jessica Leffler wrote on the group’s review page.

Kory Dillman, a local entrepreneur, wrote: “Definitely will go back! Great crowd, ample refreshments, and interesting conversations.”

Red Nova Labs had planned to hold the Friday gathering every week during the summer, but company executives decided to readjust their plan. The next meetup will be next Friday, May 27, but after that, Venture Fridays will be held every other week.

“We organizers were exhausted,” Royce said. “That’s why we’ve decided to change the weekly schedule to every other week. We’re hoping word will spread among entrepreneurs in the Kansas City metro and we’ll continue to see a mix of faces and minds.”

For the next meetup on May 27, doors will open at 4 p.m. and refreshments will be available as always. Red Nova Lab’s “Discovery Lounge” offers guests access to a projector in case they want to show off their developments and/or ask for advice. If anyone wants to present formally or sponsor the event, they can contact Royce directly (croyce@rednovalabs.com).

Existing or aspiring entrepreneurs in the web/app tech industry of all types and ages are encouraged to attend. RSPV at http://www.meetup.com/VentureFridays/.


About Red Nova Labs

Red Nova Labs was founded and self-funded in 2009 as a web technology and marketing think-tank. The company is divided into two business models: services and products. On the service side Red Nova Labs support clients and partners, much like a SaaS development agency. On the product side the firm invents and run its own platforms. To support both business models, development engineers think up resourceful code generators that add practical ease to complex programming. That way, they can get to market fast with vibrant, multidimensional sites and apps. Once a product is launched, each business operates autonomously as a division, with full engineering and marketing support from Red Nova Labs on the back end. The company is open to collaborative opportunities.

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Red Nova Labs was founded and self-funded in 2009 as a web technology and marketing think-tank. The company is divided into two business models: services and products. On the service side Red Nova Labs support clients and partners, much like a SaaS development agency. On the product side the firm invents and run its own platforms. To support both business models, development engineers think up resourceful code generators that add practical ease to complex programming. That way, they can get to market fast with vibrant, multidimensional sites and apps. Once a product is launched, each business operates autonomously as a division, with full engineering and marketing support from Red Nova Labs on the back end. The company is open to collaborative opportunities.