BOULDER, CO-

I just got back from a Denver event called DEMOgala, for which my little tech company that I helped found (get this) was chosen (you’ll never believe it) as one of Colorado’s top 18 (I swear I’m not making this up) most innovative companies (and no, I did not give any untoward favors) of 2008 (nope - not even first base).

Holy shit.

You may recall that about a month ago I was fretting that I need to raise money for my company and that this would necessarily involve dirty dancing with the investor equivalent to Patrick Swayze.   Well, as of this moment…I have moved from sweating over hurling myself onto celebrity chests and am on to the speed dating round.  

Hello dirty dancing!

"Gratuitous reuse of photo of me dancing with Pat"

But before I go into that, let me first say that I truly have no idea how we were chosen for this esteemed list.  We are deeply honored.  However it happened, we were given a 10×10 foot space in which to offer live demos of our beta (iounote.com) and evangelize our company to an esteemed group of 1100 of Colorado’s finest techies and investors for a solid 11 hours straight. 

“Hi.  We’re IOU Note.  We allow you to track and manage interpersonal loans using cool web tools.  We’re looking for money.  Wanna slip between the term sheets and see what happens?”

Over and over through the long hours, we repeated our basic mantra ‘til our voices were hoarse and our eyes were blurry from lack of blinking.  We talked to men and women of all ages and backgrounds.  We met some really great people.  Some people in the tech community just wanted to chat.  Others wanted to sell us on a service they could offer us.  And still others were genuinely interested.

The IOU Note Booth at DEMOgala 2008

And then suddenly, someone would drift in without fanfare and start asking the important questions:  long term plans, market size, revenue model.  If you leaned in close, they smelled of buttery leather and a germ-free environment and had pampered cuticles.  They would leave a business card, and then drift out like the fog. 

The silent, mysterious type. 

Where were they going?  What were they looking for?  We wanted to get to know them more.  Couldn’t get them out of our heads.

But even though we met some great people potentially interested in a satisfying, long-term, mutually beneficial relationship, my favorite part about the DEMOgala was meeting other entrepreneurs like us.  We weren’t looking for anything serious – more of a good time, really.  People who had already been where we are now.  People who get it.  Fun-loving people who are excited about life and want to exchange some fun stories.  People…like these guys:

They are: Kevin Owocki, Dan Osit, and Adam Sachs and they are the founders of a new Group Dating site called ignighter.com. Yes, that’s right - Group Dating - and Ignighter is taking this scene by storm.  It’s being marketed as “Safer.  Less awkward. More fun.”  And no, it has nothing to do with orgies. 

Kevin, Dan and Adam are funny, smart, full-of-life, cute – and if I were single, I would totally date them.

Group Dating: Same-sex or mixed groups post profiles, chat and flirt online in order to set up a meeting offline.  Drinks are had, pool is shot, and rugs are cut all within the safety of the group.  Forget the ridiculous algorithms of pairing up with “your perfect match” via other online dating sites.  Online group dating lets people meet and fall for each other more organically – within a more natural context of friends. 

Basically, it involves getting rid of the uncomfortable pauses of the one-on-one blind date and encouraging the natural flow of meeting in a group.  Sound fun?  It is.

We started our group date by sort of flirting across the aisle at each other.  They had a booth; we had a booth.  They’re farther along in the process.  Older and wiser.  We had seen them around before – demo’ing their cool site at various geeky meet-up type venues around town, so we actually knew who they were before we introduced ourselves.  It sort of gave us an edge up. 

My husband, Scott, encouraged me to go up and say hi, so I bridged the gap between our booths and offered a hand to Adam, their CEO.  He used to teach English in Madrid and Prague, so I considered something dorky like introducing myself in Spanish or Czech.  Remembering as I opened my mouth that I don’t speak Czech, I settled instead on a “Hey, I’ve been watching you guys.  Cool company,” approach. 

They were cool or whatever.  Said hey.  Had no idea who we were, but were friendly.  There was promise. 

As the hours ticked on, we made a point of wandering over there periodically to talk.  Shot the breeze.  One of my other partners – Ben – seemed to also be hitting it off with them.  I caught him doing the chin-up “Hey” nod a few times. 

We chatted.  Exchanged stories.  Got on friendly terms. 

About halfway through, I decided that we had crossed over to somewhat of a friendship, so we determined it was time to take it to the next level.  Kick it up a notch, if you know what I’m saying. 

“Hey,” I said, sauntering across the aisle after discussing the matter with my group.  Our Kevin – IOU Note’s CEO - was in the zone, so he stayed behind.  But Ben, Scott, and I were all in.

“Hey,” returned Dan.  He was cool.  Collected.  At the top of his game.  I raised my eyebrows meaningfully.  I was feeling frisky.

“What do you say we have a Rock Band-off?”

He smirked.  He could read between the lines.

“You want a Band-off, eh?”

“Yep.  We want a Band-off.  Your group against ours.”  I nodded my head toward the back of the demo showcase floor.  Another of the chosen companies (http://iggli.com) had brought in couches, complete with a drum set, guitar and mike for the interactive game, Rock Band.

“You’re on.”  He nodded his head at their Kevin.  Adam was busy talking with somebody, so he got left behind to man the booth and perhaps make occasional awkward eye contact with our Kevin.  

Ben took drums and I took electric lead.  We tried to get Scott to take vocals, but he sort of just choked like he had swallowed a gulp of seltzer water too fast.  We decided we would perform Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi.  We selected our avatars and clicked “easy.”  We didn’t want to show off too much when we were still just getting to know them.

I don’t mean to brag, but we rocked it. 

Then it was their turn.  Kevin took drums and Dan took lead.  They did awesome, too, but came in a little lower on overall score. 

We exploded.  Ben and I slapped high fives and fist bumped and w00ted to the Iggli people.  Ignighter congratulated us on our victory and we all shook hands and everything was cool.  When our little celebration died down, we made our way back to our booths. 

And then, I don’t know what happened.  We didn’t really talk for, like, half an hour.  It was weird, you know.  We weren’t really sure if we should go over and talk to them right away…give them some space.  I mean, Rock Band was so much fun and it was awesome to play them.  I wanted to ask them to go again, but I didn’t want them to think that we were just using them.  We valued their friendship.  Had we gone too far too soon?  We didn’t know.  We just didn’t know.

Finally, after awhile, their Kevin came over and made first contact after the big game.  He didn’t say much, but let me know by a subtle smile that everything was OK.  We relaxed and started up some small talk again.  I even got a photo with Dan with a crazy Ignighter card on my shoulder (and no, I don’t know why). 

We might see them at the next Tech Meetup.  Nothing too serious…just keeping it light.  Who knows, maybe one thing could lead to another and we might get to have another Band-off. 

As for the silent, mysterious types with pockets like wells, we’re doing what we can.  Making calls.  Emailing.  We’re looking for a pretty serious relationship, so neither of us wants to jump in too quickly.  We’ve got to do our due diligence.  Come up with some long-term strategies.  Talk about each other to our friends.  It’s important to take it slowly and get it right.  We’re not in a rush.   

We’ll just have to see what happens.    

Tags: DEMOgala, Denver, entrepreneurs, Group Dating, Iggli.com, Ignighter.com, IOUNote.com, patrick swayze, Peer-to-peer lending, Rock Band, Speed Dating, start-ups, Tech MeetUp, technology

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Friends, Games, Nightlife, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.