HealthBeat 2013 — May 20-21 in San Francisco — is putting the long-established and respected giants of the health care world on stage with CEOs of Silicon Valley’s most disruptive health technology companies.

Together, they’ll debate how IT can drive out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. They’ll share insights, analyze trends, highlight solutions, and showcase breakthrough products that are transforming health care.

The program is packed with 60 plus industry leading speakers, high-level chats, breakout sessions, and a brand new startup competition.

Check out the full agenda here, and make sure to grab your tickets today. New participants include:

Ben Rattray, CEO, Change.org
Ben is the founder and CEO of Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform, and leads the company’s strategic vision. A graduate of Stanford University and the London School of Economics, Ben is a frequent public speaker about the intersection of technology, innovation, and social change at events like Google Zeitgeist and SXSW and on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2012, Ben was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and one of FORTUNE’s 40 Under 40 rising young business leaders.

Session: Grassroots Patient Empowerment

Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for HIT, U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services (ONC)
Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM serves as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Farzad joined ONC in July 2009. Previously, he served at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as Assistant Commissioner for the Primary Care Information Project, where he facilitated the adoption of prevention-oriented health information technology by over 1,500 providers in underserved communities. Dr. Mostashari also led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded NYC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics and an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded project focused on quality measurement at the point of care. Prior to this he established the Bureau of Epidemiology Services at the NYC Department of Health, charged with providing epidemiologic and statistical expertise and data for decision making to the health department.

Session: Get Your Data On

Bryan Sivak, Chief Technology Officer & EIR, HHS
Bryan joined HHS as the Chief Technology Officer in July 2011. In this role, he is responsible for helping HHS leadership harness the power of data, technology, and innovation to improve the health and welfare of the nation. Previously, Bryan served as the Chief Innovation Officer to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, where he has led Maryland’s efforts to embed concepts of innovation into the DNA of state government. He has distinguished himself in this role as someone who can work creatively across a large government organization to identify and implement the best opportunities for improving the way the government works. Prior to his time with Governor O’Malley, Bryan served as Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, where he created a technology infrastructure that enhanced communication between the District’s residents and their government, and implemented organizational reforms that improved efficiency, program controls, and customer service.

Kristin Baker, Dir. Business Development, Castlight Health
Kristin currently leads strategic partnerships with health insurance companies in her role as Director of Business Development for Castlight Health. Founded in 2008 by Dr. Giovanni Colella and Todd Park, Castlight Health works with self-insured employers and health plans to empower consumers to take control of health care costs and improve care. Prior to Castlight, Kristin was with Goldman Sachs, & Co. in the Healthcare Investment Banking Division, working with clients across various areas of the healthcare ecosystem—biotech, medical device, life sciences, and HCIT—on M&A and financing transactions. Kristin received her BA from Middlebury College and MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business where she was the President of the Healthcare Club and led deal management and due diligence processes for Life Science Angels investments. She lives in San Francisco, CA with her husband.

Session: The Death of the Personal Health Record (PHR): Rebirthing the SMART Patient

Chanin Wendling, Dir. eHealth Department, Geisinger Health System
Chanin is Director of the eHealth Department within the Division of Clinical Innovation at Geisinger Health System. Ms. Wendling is responsible for employing Internet and related technology to address digital patient engagement and community provider support. She has developed key strategies for digital patient engagement using the patient portal, patient-reported data and text messaging. She is in the process of developing a mobile app strategy. Her strategies employee technologies such as web portals, the Epic electronic medical record, questionnaire tools, smartphones, touch screens and iPads. Her projects have included expanding test results and offering provider notes in the patient portal, delivering medication reconciliation and asthma monitoring online, depression and pediatric obesity screening using iPads, and text messaging for appointments, medication adherence and weight management.

Session: How to Use Tools for Patient Activation/Patient Engagement: A Cross Generational Look

Mark Gehring, President & Co-Founder, Asthmapolis
Mark is co-founder and President of Asthmapolis, a company dedicated to improving asthma control and reducing cost using medication sensors and mobile apps. He has previously served as CEO of three companies: Geometrics, developer of the first commercial 3D radiation treatment planning system, now marketed by Philips and used to plan 25% of the radiation treatments worldwide since the mid-90’s, UltraVisual, a medical imaging (PACS) startup that merged with another startup, Emageon, reached $100M in sales, and went public in 2005, and Sharendipity, a software development environment for non-programmers.

Session: mHealth for the Underserved–Seeding a New Market

Amanda Goltz, Health Management Solutions Leader, Aetna
Amanda is the Health Management Solutions Leader at Aetna, advising large national plan sponsors on wellness and consumer health engagement strategies and solutions. Previously, Amanda managed the Innovation and Consumer Engagement portfolio at Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), a coalition of 60 employers who collectively provide self-funded health coverage to over 10 million employees and dependents at an annual cost of $12B. Prior to PBGH, Amanda was senior advisor to the national healthcare practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and its policy and business advisory unit, Manatt Health Solutions. From 2005 to 2009, Amanda served as Program Director at Partners Healthcare, the integrated delivery network founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, managing a system-wide quality improvement and transparency portfolio across the care delivery spectrum. Amanda also advises several start-up companies as a mentor at Rock Health, a San Francisco-based health IT incubator, and StartXMed, health and life sciences incubator for Stanford University’s top entrepreneurs through experiential education; as well as serving on the board of several companies with seed and Series A funding.

Session: Healthy Employees = Smart Patients

Register today for HealthBeat 2013.

Thanks to AARP, ArchPoint Partners, California Healthcare Foundation, Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Venrock, and Voalte for sponsoring HealthBeat 2013.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Over the past decade, the vast majority of conferences dedicated to health information technology have been about the theoretical and the problematic – what the future might be and what’s keeping us from getting there.

It’s time to trade in the what-might-be for the breakneck pace of change that is transforming and disrupting health care before our eyes.

Unlike other events, HealthBeat 2013 is putting the long-established and respected giants of the health care world (Geisinger Health, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, AARP) on stage with CEOs of disruptive health technology companies like Doximity, Scanadu, and Practice Fusion, to name a few.

Check out the full agenda here, and make sure to grab your tickets today. New participants include:

Aaron Levie, cofounder and CEO, Box
Aaron Levie is the CEO and cofounder of Box, which he originally created as a college business project with the goal of helping people easily access their information from any location. Levie launched Box from his dorm room in 2005 with the help of chief financial officer Dylan Smith. Levie is the visionary behind Box’s product and platform strategy, which is focused on incorporating the best of traditional content management with the most effective elements of social business software. He has spoken about content and collaboration tools at events such as Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Web 2.0, Dreamforce, Accenture Global Summit, South by Southwest, and Svase. Levie studied business at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California before taking a leave of absence.

Session: Thinking Inside the Box: Bringing Health Care into the Cloud

Yohan Vetteth, VP data and analytics, Stanford Hospital
Yohan Vetteth is the executive director of innovation and business Intelligence at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. On the Innovation front, Vetteth is responsible the technology innovation program in partnership with Stanford Hospital and Clinic’s corporate partners and other leading Silicon Valley technology companies. This program identifies and pilots emerging technologies in the health care space that are potentially applicable to the design and roll-out of the new Stanford Hospital (to open in 2018). On the business intelligence front, Vetteth leads the cross functional team that is responsible for the enterprise wide clinical, business, and financial information foundation to enable data driven clinical and process improvements for Stanford Hospital and Clinic’s patients and care providers.

Session: How Stanford is Using a Late Binding Data Warehousing Approach

Jeff Tangney, CEO, Doximity
Jeff Tangney is the founder and CEO of Doximity, and former cofounder, president, and chief operating officer at Epocrates (IPO’ed in 2009). Tangney’s 15-year career has focused on mobile software tools for physicians. The Epocrates drug guide is used by over 50 percent of U.S. physicians and helps avoid over 2 million adverse drug events per year. Founded in 2010, Doximity is simplifying the way physicians collaborate and already counts one in five U.S. physicians as active members. Before founding Epocrates, Jeff did stints as a health care consultant/banker at Goldman Sachs and ZS Associates. Tangney holds an MBA from Stanford and a B from the University of Wisconsin.

Session: The Smart Doctor: Using Technology to Stay Connected and Work More Efficiently

Faye Karnavy Sahai, VP, innovation, Kaiser Permanente
Faye Karnavy Sahai is the vice president, innovation and advanced technology, for Kaiser Permanente, where she leads the charge to identify and assess new and emerging technology and trends in the delivery of health care. Sahai has 20-plus years of experience in leading large-scale change across multiple companies such as Blue Shield, Charles Schwab, Disney, Deloitte, HP, Kaiser Permanente, and Toyota. Sahai also serves as the President of Kaiser Permanente’s women in technology steering committee for Kaiser Permanente Women Embracing Life and Leadership and is on the board of directors for Berger Research Institute.

Session: Creating a Formal Pathway from Innovation to Clinical Partnership

David Yakimishcak, SVP and general manager, Surescripts, E-Prescribing
David Yakimischak is the senior vice president and general manager for E-Prescribing. In this capacity, Yakimischak is responsible for the business strategy and P&L of the core e-prescribing businesses: routing, benefit, and history. He also has responsibility for additional pharmacy and PBM services such as prescription drug monitoring programs, electronic prior authorization, and adherence messaging. From 2009 to 2012, Yakimischak led the quality office at Surescripts. In that role, he ensured the quality of the end-to-end e-prescribing process – from the time a prescription is first considered by a prescriber to the time the medication is dispensed to the patient and all intermediate points.

Session: Medical Imaging in the Cloud

Stay tuned for our next batch of speakers on Friday. Register today for HealthBeat 2013. Seats are limited, and going fast!

Thanks to AARP, ArchPoint Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Venrock, and Voalte for sponsoring HealthBeat 2013.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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Health tech startups: Enter our upcoming Grand Rounds Innovation Showdown, and you could win a $250,000 bridge loan, two months of free PR support, advice and coaching from top VCs, and coverage in VentureBeat.

It’s one of the highlights of our inaugural HealthBeat conference (May 20-21) at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.

It’s clear that technological advancement is “disrupting” the $3 trillion health care market. We’re showcasing (on day two of HealthBeat) the 10 most interesting health care IT startups and companies that are driving this change.

Grand Rounds Innovation Showdown details

We’re looking for examples of innovation throughout health care. Do you have a product or service that will change how the industry works? Will your technology or solution transform the exchange, sharing, storing, or analyzing of health information? Will it engage patients and deliver tangible value to hospitals, medical practices, and health care systems?

If so, this is your opportunity to showcase your company, product, or solution to more than 400 health care executives, leaders, IT decision makers, and venture capitalists.

We’ll invite 10 finalists to present at HealthBeat 2013 in May. Each will have five minutes to present their business and showcase their innovative solution live onstage. Our team of judges will provide feedback on the products or services presented and ultimately determine a winner.

The Grand Rounds Innovation Showdown winner will be announced onstage at HealthBeat 2013 and will receive:

• One hour coaching sessions with investors and/or relevant potential customers in our network.
• VentureBeat editorial coverage
• Two months press relations support from health care specialist Amplify Public Affairs, based in Washington, D.C.
• Dinner with a Venrock partner
• $250,000 convertible bridge loan and six months in the Venrock Quarry

We’ll be announcing the 10 finalists on May 1. For full Showdown details and submission, go here.

Tickets for HealthBeat are selling fast, so don’t forget to register!

Special thanks to Norwest Venture Partners and the AARP for sponsoring the Grand Rounds Innovation Showdown.

[image credit: Scepticemia]

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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We are looking for an aggressive sales professional, successful in selling event sponsorships and online advertising/custom content.

The ideal candidate would have a secure understanding of cloud, social, and mobile technologies as they affect the consumer and enterprise. This sales driver is a fearless prospector and an instant value creator with established contacts who will drive VentureBeat, already at the epicenter of the startup ecosystem and mobile revolution, to further heights.

This job is at the heart of our organization: Advertising and sponsorship sales for VentureBeat’s website and events ensures our success and continued growth.

The position can be located in New York, San Francisco, or Chicago. Years of experience is less important than a proven history of success. Please contact Ken Beach, VentureBeat’s chief revenue officer (ken@venturebeat.com), for further information.

We’re bringing the health care decision makers to the same room. We’ve invited hospital chief information officers, clinicians, and payers, and we’re mixing them with executives from tech companies that are transforming health care. This includes “big data” companies like Health Catalyst that are pinpointing where care can be improved by analyzing results from across the U.S. medical system.

We just got back from the big HIMMS tech fest in New Orleans and are inviting the most disruptive technologies we found there, too, to HealthBeat. We stumbled upon a tablet project under development by the Cleveland Clinic that helps visualize health medical records in new, dynamic ways — based on help from vendors like Microsoft and Intel. We’ll also be unveiling new start ups that are reforming health care, Silicon Valley-style. And it wouldn’t be a health care conference if we didn’t include patients. We’re bringing in trendsetters in the patient activation sphere too.

• Want to get smart about health care and technology and how hospitals make purchasing decisions?
• Want to know what’s on the minds of the nation’s top hospital CIOs (what they’re in investing in now and what metrics they use to separate the hype from the help)?
• Want to get smart about what technologies are resonating with patients and consumers of all ages?

Then join us for HealthBeat 2013 on May 20-21. Early bird tickets expire at 5 p.m. Pacific this Friday (March 15).

Don’t miss the opportunity to hear from:

Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief, Health Affairs
Susan Dentzer is the editor-in-chief of the nation’s leading journal of health policy and is an on-air analyst on health issues with the PBS NewsHour. She previously led the NewsHour’s health unit, reporting extensively on-air about health care reform debates. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations; a fellow of the National Academy of Social Insurance; a fellow of the Hastings Center; and a member of Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Keith Figlioli, SVP, Healthcare Informatics, Premier Health Alliance
Premier Health Alliance has significant muscle in purchasing decisions, because it represents U.S. non-profit hospitals in making such decisions. Non profit hospitals make up a vast majority of hospitals in the nation. Keith Figlioli is Premier’s senior vice president of Healthcare Informatics. In this role, he oversees the company’s data and analytics initiatives that help hospitals make smarter decisions. His mandate spans strategy, development, delivery and operations. Since joining Premier, Figlioli has focused on integrating the company’s performance improvement informatics offerings across the continuum of care. He co-chairs Premier’s Quality Improvement Committee, a subcommittee of Premier’s board of directors that plays a vital role in setting direction for the alliance by collaborating with members to improve care delivery and the health of communities. 

Dr. David Levin, CMIO, The Cleveland Clinic
David Levin’s current focus includes information systems, knowledge management and strategic planning for long-term healthcare transformation. He has over 25 years of experience in diverse areas including quality improvement, patient safety, hospital and group practice operations, credentialing, and population management. He also brings to bear over 30 years of experience in Information Technology and has worked with a wide variety of clients in the development of clinical and educational IT applications.

Kapil Parakh, MD, Ph.D, Director of Heart Failure, Johns Hopkins Bayview
Kapil Parakh is the Director of Heart Failure at Johns Hopkins Bayview and has helped set up a program that integrates technology solutions to reduce readmissions and improve heart failure care. Parakh has authored over two dozen publications and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation.

Ben Rattray, CEO, Change.org
Ben Rattray is the founder and CEO of Change.org, the world’s largest petition platform, and leads the company’s strategic vision. A graduate of Stanford University and The London School of Economics, Rattray is a frequent public speaker about the intersection of technology, innovation, and social change at events like Google Zeitgeist and SXSW and on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2012, Ben was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40 rising young business leaders.

We’ll be announcing a bunch of speaker and program updates over the next few weeks. In the meantime, check out full event details here, and make sure to grab your tickets by Friday to save 20 percent!

Thanks to ArchPoint Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners for sponsoring HealthBeat 2013.

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HealthBeat 2013 is a new conference showcasing how technology is transforming health care. We'll explore how IT is driving out inefficiencies on the hospital, practice, and patient levels. Check out full event details here, and register here.

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We are working with UK Trade & Investment to showcase the United Kingdom's thriving start-up and investment scene through a series of posts and video interviews at SXSW. Check out all of the coverage here. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity.

AUSTIN, Tex. — UK Trade & Investment brought a score of companies from Great Britain to South by Southwest. We talked to every one (every one that was willing to stand in front of a camera, that is) to find out what they do, what the startup scene in the UK is like, and what they found the most inspiring about SXSW.

We’ll have more in-depth videos with a few of the companies soon, but in the meantime, here are some quick hits with a dozen founders.

If you couldn’t make it down to Austin this year, you can follow all of our SXSW coverage here. And make sure to join the Twitter conversation.

We are working with UK Trade & Investment to showcase the United Kingdom's thriving start-up and investment scene through a series of posts and video interviews at SXSW. Check out all of the coverage here. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity.

VentureBeat is excited to announce that we’ll be teaming up with UK Trade & Investment at SXSW to showcase the United Kingdom’s thriving start-up and investment scene — and to cover the madness and inspiration that is SXSW.

Over the next week, we’ll be churning out a series of video interviews with cool UK-based entrepreneurs and investors, as well as startups from other places around the world that have opened UK offices and recruited UK talent. We’ll go in-depth on how UK government initiatives and incentives, along with a growing startup culture, have turned the UK into a leading hotbed for technical innovation.

And we’ll bring you news from SXSW Interactive as long as it’s happening. Follow our news coverage here and continue the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #vbsxsw.

Want to find the VentureBeat crew at South By? Stop by UK Demo Day, one of three events that UKTI has planned at SXSW, where we’ll be interviewing a crop of UK companies.

Date: Saturday March 9ths
Time: 3:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Place: Salon D, Hilton Austin Downtown

Participating companies include BandApp, BandWagon, Carhoots, Future Ad Labs, Little Riot, Mainfesto, MuseMantik, nthWire, PowerLinks, present.me, ServaSport, Shareflow, siansplan, Speech Graphics, swarmly, We Are Pop Up, and zondle.

If you’ll be at SXSW, we hope to see you there! And whether you’re at South By or not, give us a shout out at #vbsxsw and let us know what you’re most excited about at this year’s SXSW.

We’re pleased to announce that GamesBeat 2013 will be a standalone conference to be held on Oct. 29-30 at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City, Calif.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve held GamesBeat alongside our MobileBeat conference. But our GamesBeat event has grown so much that the 2013 edition will be on its own and 100 percent dedicated to gaming. We believe our theme and our speakers will be compelling enough to create two of the most anticipated days in the business.

Last year, our theme was “The Crossover Era,” referring to companies attempting to crossover from one market to another, such as from the web to Facebook, from social to mobile, or from retail console to digital. Transitions like these create opportunity. They initiate a new cycle.

Our theme this year will be “The Battle Royal,” covering the coming conflict between the many different platforms that will soon be available. Like in a giant wrestling brawl, the major players want developers to fight on their behalf as they maneuver to elevate gaming and use it to become the premier entertainment gateway for consumers.

In this fight, companies will find that their allies are also their competitors. They will build an ecosystem consisting of development tools, first-party and third-party developers, new business models, payment systems, marketing and monetization schemes, and major hardware devices. The walls between different industries will collapse, bringing everyone into battle with everyone else.

We’ve entered an era where different companies are competing for gamers’ time in the same space. Apple, Amazon, and Google want to get in the living room and are waging war against Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft already has an edge in living room entertainment with its Xbox 360 platform, but it wants a piece of mobile as well. A host of console gaming alternatives are rising, and the PC is seeing a big resurgence.

Everyone is converging on mobile because of its potential multibillion-gamer audience. But market share has been fragmented to date. Developers can launch directly into the sector to win over consumers, but they can get lost in a sea of titles. How will they get noticed? Who will help them market their games on a higher level? And with free-to-play becoming dominant, what is the right way to make money from games?

Last year’s keynote speaker was Mark Pincus (pictured above), chief executive of Zynga.

It’s a shaky and confusing time in the game industry, and GamesBeat 2013 will help you navigate through it. You’ll meet executives and developers from big game companies and the startups that matter. They’ll share their 360-degree perspectives on the business of gaming and give you a glimpse of what’s to come. We’ll also have invaluable insight from venture capitalists, investors, support firms, marketers, and more.

You can get full event details here, and make sure to grab your early bird tickets now and save 20%!

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Startups are redefining the term “small business.”

A company may have only 5 employees or be based out of a garage, but it can still have a global audience and customer-base. Accessing supply chains and setting up shop in other countries has become so easy that small businesses no longer need to start local — they can go big right off the bat.

This runs counter to traditional business strategies. In the past, it was an accepted truth that companies were better off incubating in a domestic market. That way they could develop a loyal following, prove value, streamline processes an amass assets before testing the rough waters of international competition — especially without a crack legal squad ready to take on foreign regulations.

So what’s actually changed? Global distribution networks are better established to be true, and it’s easier than ever before to tailor marketing messages and customer service to customers via online channels, social media and the like. At the same time, the number of multi-national corporations has multiplied (especially in tech think Facebook, Google, even Angry Birds maker Rovio), breeding a new generation of managers and future executives skilled in conducting international business.

In essence, companies with unique offerings and nimble response times now have the tools and ability to beat out larger firms with proven track records.

We’ll profile three of these companies and examine why and how they decided to establish a global presence from the beginning. It’s clear that digital startups have an advantage in this arena, with products that can be delivered quickly and seamlessly and customers that are easy to communicate with online. But retail companies offering physical products aren’t being left behind either, delivering their goods around the world.

1. Pinterest
To get the easy ones out of the way, let’s talk about content sharing startup Pinterest. Why Pinterest? Well, aside from it growing its worldwide reach by more than 4,000% between 2011 and 2012, it’s representative of a whole host of startups that capitalize on social tools, virality and advances in mobility to go global fast. You might also find mobile photo app Instagram and even blogging platform Tumblr in this category.

Launched in March 2010, Pinterest grew by 5,124% in North America, 2,373% in Hong Kong, 1,489% in the UK, and 798% in Australia between 2011 and 2012. And Instagram is basically its twin, released even later in fall 2010. It grew a staggering 17,319% in North America, 8,121% in Singapore, 2,028% in the UK and 362% in Australia over the same period. Those don’t even sound like real numbers.

Very similarly, Tumblr, an older sibling founded in February 2007, also had a global presence immediately and has more than doubled in size in just the last year — boasting more than 50 million blogs around the world.

It’s clear that virality had a lot to do with the success of all three of these companies. Their brand names carried a lot of weight almost immediately after they were founded. But from a supply-chain and business conduct perspective, availability on mobile platforms — tablet, phone etc. — probably made the biggest difference.

Today, the Apple’s App Store exists in 155 countries (it added 32 new ones earlier this year, and its equivalent for Android has similar global reach. This has made it easy for startups based on applications to expand quickly across borders. While licensing issues to impact some of these companies, most of the hurdles are cleared by Apple automatically, including payment, terms of service, etc.

Because the App Store requires users to pay with prepaid cards or by charging the credit cards they have registered with iTunes already, app developers don’t have to worry about the legal red tape or piracy concerns that come with collecting money for goods and services overseas — it’s all taken care of already. This doesn’t affect free services like Pinterest and Tumblr, necessarily, but having them internationally available on the App Store and Android Market — which logged a combined 20 billion downloads last year — made a huge difference.

Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr also benefit very clearly from having computer and internet-savvy users that prefer to be reached and communicated with via online channels. This makes it easy to keep a multi-million person user base happy with minimal customer service infrastructure.

2. Kaltura
This fall, open-source video platform Kaltura announced a funding round of $25 million, earmarked for global expansion. Founded in 2006 to help people collaborate on video projects, its 300,000-organization roster now includes huge names like HBO, Zappos, Harvard and Wikipedia. It’s now valued at billions of dollars — and much of this success can be attributed to its founders never thinking small.

The startup launched with the goal to deliver video to any user no matter what kind of device they are using or where they are based. So the concept was global to begin with. Offering an open-source software package, Kaltura also benefited tremendously from making itself available for international web platforms like WordPress and Drupal (much like App Store apps). But the real keys for Kaltura are its global development community and commitment to global staff.

Today, the startup has over 40,000 developers who contribute code, new features and fix bugs in the software. These individuals are located all over the map. This has not only been a huge proof-point for the company in raising funds and gaining interest, it also gives it an international feel that couldn’t simply be replicated by a web or social media presence in other countries. The fact that people who live everywhere have a stake in the software’s performance and future is a huge a deal.

On top of that, the company has placed a lot of emphasis on building an international talent pool. While it’s headquarted in New York, it also has offices in Israel, Europe and now Asia. It’s also made a point of recruiting out-of-the-box thinkers from all walks of life, even if that means deviating from the usual pedigree of top-flight software engineers. Kaltura plans to use these toeholds around the world to launch new products and expand its mission.

A similar example is Fiverr, a sort of eBay-Task Rabbit hybrid where people offer services for bartered prices — like going grocery shopping, doing your laundry, writing a song, etc. As a social space online, it connects buyers and sellers from over 200 countries, allowing them to find and form their own business relationships. This means that Fiverr doesn’t have to worry about deal terms or language barriers, allowing it to expand into countries quickly and easily.

3. Gilt Groupe
It might seem like the companies mentioned above are cheating when you consider how simple digital supply chains and regulations can be. Things are completely different when you have to actually deliver a physical product to someone. But even retail has become easier to internationalize in recent years, and there’s no better example than luxury merchandise seller Gilt Groupe.

In order to comfortably afford a global strategy — including all the extra charges associated with shipping internationally — Gilt Groupe got creative with its supply chain. The company agrees to purchase leftover vendor inventory at extremely steep discounts. Then it adds its own margin on top of the discounted price in order to sell luxury products like clothing and accessories to his members at relatively low prices. By holding flash sales and cultivating brand loyalty and excitement via online marketing, it has built a very enthusiastic following.

Last year, four-year-old Gilt extended its flash sales to more than 100 countries. It did this essentially in response to incredible demand for overseas shipping. To make this possible, Gilt partnered with a company called FiftyOne to syndicate its website across international borders. Now when you go to Gilt, the checkout process, currency and other account information is all tailored to location. That way Gilt can customize the taxes, duties and shipping costs depending on user location, which covers a bulk of the costs the company could incur.

A major part of Gilt’s success is that it knows where it’s business will do well. As a luxury brands company with prestige, it prioritized expanding into Asia — particularly Hong Kong despite the high costs of delivery. The Asia-Pacific region has been identified as a hotbed for startup sales with a regional GDP of $16 trillion and millions of new people coming online every year.

This post is brought to you by UPS. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity.

When you hear people talk about going green, it’s easy to visualize these efforts on a small scale. You think about recycling, using paper instead of plastic, driving less and biking more. But going green has become a critical necessity for multi-national corporations with hundreds of billions of dollars hanging in the balance.

At this scale, greening operations is all about supply chain. Where things are sourced, where they go, and how they get there — all of these questions come into play, and more often than not need to be rethought entirely. Exactly how big and global is this trend?

Most recently, sustainable supply chains was influential in Apple’s decision to bring manufacturing back to the United States. British retail juggernaut Marks and Spencer said this year that 50% of its inventory — over 1 billion products — going forward will meet high ecological and ethical standards. And, perhaps most convincingly, Walmart announced this fall that it will save a whopping $150 million in 2013 from to its supply chain sustainability programs alone — this on top of the $231 million it saved this year from waste reduction.

So how are they doing it? What are the building blocks of a green supply chain and how are some of the biggest names in tech putting them in place to cut costs and boost their green image?

1. Reduce, reuse, recycle
In October, General Motors said that it actually made $1 billion by recycling and reusing 97% of the waste from its manufacturing processes. As a role model for not only auto manufacturers, but all major manufacturers around the globe, GM is sending a message that supply chains don’t end with waste. In fact, that’s where they should begin. This couldn’t be more relevant than now, with the prices of raw materials spiking everywhere.

Reducing is the number one way companies have started cutting costs and pumping up profits in this area. Five years ago, Hewlett Packard pared down its packaging practices significantly, slashing 30,000 cubic feet of polystyrene computer packaging and 6 million pounds of PVC packaging, allowing it to save money and reduce its carbon footprint by 20%. These efforts have made HP one of GreenPeace’s picks for top environmentally-conscious electronic companies.

How can supply chain managers get this going? They can start thinking about waste as a mini-supply chain within the larger system. It becomes vital to track all of the materials coming into, being used, and being generated by a company enterprise-wide. Determining what to do with byproducts is just as important as designing processes that create less of them.

And fostering recycling and reuse is just as much about culture as it is about process. In the case of GM, zero-waste standards came down from the top and were communicated as a core value throughout every branch of the company. Engagement was prioritized and feedback from all employees was encouraged. The company also made it a point to communicate this new strategy to its suppliers and to nurture closer, more sustainable relationships with suppliers who are also committed to zero-waste programs. Walmart and Procter and Gamble have even created scorecards for their vendors so they can get together and make sure that environmental and labor standards get met throughout.

2. Get smart about power
All of the processes involved in reducing, recycling and reusing materials require energy. Where this energy comes from is central to the green supply chain question — especially when greenhouse gas generation is involved. Every day it seems like there are more standards and regulations governing how companies use energy and manage emissions — all of which make it increasingly expensive for violators.

When it comes to energy use in tech, there’s no better case study than Facebook. This year, the social network giant actually shared its greenhouse gas emission data, including emissions attributed to electricity consumption. Naturally, there are a lot of eyes on Facebook — users, the government, other tech companies are all watching to see how green it’s willing to go.

With total emissions of 285,000 metric tons (the equivalent of 56,000 cars), Facebook is committed to greening its power mix. Right now, 27% of the energy it uses comes from coal while 23% is categorized as “clean and renewable.” 17% comes from natural gas, 13% is nuclear and 20% is uncategorized (purchased from utilities with an unknown source). The company has a goal to get to 25% renewable energy by 2015 — and it’s no doubt a role model for peer companies to do the same.

Switching to renewable power may sound like it will cost more than it will save, but with energy market fluctuations and dropping costs of solar and hydro energy, the companies that establish a strong base in using green energy may have a significant advantage in even the short-term.

3. Keep an eye on transport
The third area where great gains can be made is transport. Major companies move materials, product and supplies around millions of miles cumulatively every year by plane, ship, truck, etc. All of these conveyances require fuel, increase the collective carbon footprint. Right now, logistics and transport emissions account for up to 15% of a product’s lifecycle emissions.

It’s more important than ever to work with transport companies — most of which are contracted — to make sure carbon emissions comply with standards, slash fuel use (especially in this time of great fuel price volatility) and keep an eye on where customers are and how they can be most efficiently reached. The World Economic Forum found that adopting alternative fuels, like biofuels, could reduce transportation costs by as much as 30%.

To remain competitive, transport providers are adopting fuel-efficient vehicles and technologies. And the companies themselves need to start streamlining how they ship things — not only by eliminating packaging, but by identifying easier ways to move products where they need to go. Before now, many retail and tech companies weren’t paying attention to sourcing from efficient production locations or keeping track of the shortest distances possible to cover. Oftentimes freight transports are only 50% full. Fixing these issues not only saves time and costly energy, but also delivers a better customer experience.

Slashing carbon emissions isn’t just a matter of cutting costs, it’s also important to generating profits. A World Economic Forum survey showed that 85% of consumers said they were extremely or somewhat concerned about climate change, and 81% believe that it will directly impact their lives. With consumers making their decisions based on the green quotient, very public-facing brands can’t afford to ignore these demands.

And with information more publicly available than it has been in the past on the internet and in the form of consumer reports that highlight sustainability, making sure supply chains are green all the way through is mission critical.

You’ll assist in almost all major aspect of our business, from event sponsor coordination, communicating with clients, developing proposals, managing campaigns and reporting. There are significant growth opportunities in this position.

VentureBeat is a popular news site, with substantial traffic and industry-leading events. But behind the scenes, we’re still a small company that entrusts responsibility to all of our team members. VentureBeat’s media business deals with the Silicon Valley ecosystem, so working here is also an awesome way to get front-row access to how this this dynamic region works.

We provide a fun, energetic startup environment in downtown San Francisco, along with panoramic views from the 32nd floor of our 50 California St. offices in San Francisco.

This is a paid position, but no benefits — although there’s potentially a way to a full-time job later on if you show your stuff.

As for you: You’re a highly intelligent, efficient go-getter who likes to multi-task and communicate well in a team-environment. You have a general interest in sales, technology, and have mastery of productivity suites (such as Microsoft Office). Ideally, you’ll have had several years of experience working in a professional office environment at a publishing company in ad sales.

If interested, please contact Stacy Cohen at stacy@venturebeat.com, and write “Account Coordinator” in the subject line.

[image credit: tuesdaystrong.com]

This post is brought to you by Volvo. Volvo designs luxury cars around its Swedish heritage. Volvo designs around safety. And most of all, Volvo designs around you. Visit Volvocars.com/us to learn more and check out @VolvoCarsUS on Twitter.

Toca Boca makes hip and fun digital toys for the iPad that are hard to categorize.

They’re not games, because there’s no winning or losing, no start or end. They aren’t aimed at one gender or another — boys enjoy giving a lion a mohawk and dye job in Toca Boca Hair salon, girls can start a wicked rock group in Toca Band. And the apps, which range in price from free to $1.99, can keep a 2-year-old occupied as easily as a 32-year-old. Um, we hear.

The design studio, which is owned by Bonnier Group, has released 17 apps for for the iPad and iPhone, each filled with stunning graphic design and addictive, word-free entertainment. We sat down with CEO Björn Jeffery to find out more about his design philosophy, why getting rid of words and menus is a good idea, and the secret to throwing an exciting tea party.

We love lists, don’t we? The New York Times Bestsellers. Sexiest Man Alive. 30 Under 30. Clearly the lists mean something. They’re a compilation of success, be it companies, people or books. The 2012 Tech 200 list is certainly an indicator of success–of startups who have made it where few ever do.

Each year, information services company Lead411 compiles a list of the top revenue-producing startups in technology. This year’s list ranks companies with the highest percentage revenue growth from 2009 to 2011. The winners are all based in the United States, are private, and earned over $1M in revenues in the year 2011.

Why 200?
Tom Blue, founder of Lead411, initially assessed the top 500 tech companies, but realized there was a lot of disparity from the top of the list to the bottom. Last year, he decided to only honor the top 200 companies, and he hasn’t looked back since.

“What’s interesting about the top 200 on this list is that a handful of companies stay on the list, while the rest are newcomers,” said Blue.

Marketing companies rank high
The number one position on the Tech 200 list this year is held by MHD Enterprises, an electronics recycling and redistribution company, which experienced 4824% growth and had revenues of $7,015,234 in 2011.

This year, the list is peppered with inbound marketing and search engine optimization companies like Marketo, SEOMoz, InfusionSoft, Yodle, and Hubspot. It’s clear that this whole “Internet marketing thing” isn’t going anywhere, if the list is any indicator.

Other industries made multiple appearances on the list this year, like software companies MindBody, Tableau Software and MentorMate. Medical technology companies also made a splash, including GlobalMed, Education Management Solutions and Healthcare First.

Zillow, a second-year winner, made the list before it went public in the middle of 2011.

Imaging research and consulting firm Photizo Group and customer behavior services firm iGoDigital were among the first-timers to the Tech 200 list this year.

“Even more exciting than seeing the handful of companies who remain on the list is seeing who has ranked on it for the first time,” said Blue, “We love seeing the new up-and-comers each year.”

Slower growth, but steady
In conjunction with the annual Tech 200 list, Lead411 surveys the companies that apply in several areas, including growth, marketing, and economic outlook. This year, company growth was slightly less than it was last year: this year’s companies grew an average of 3.3x from 2009 to 2011. Last year that growth was 3.45x. But the companies at the top of the list (the top 50) grew an average of 5.5x, skyrocketing them faster than the rest of the list.

What’s also interesting is these companies’  economic outlooks, tied to their sales. The companies that said they thought the US economy would get better in the next 12 months showed an increase in sales by 64% more than those that thought it would get worse. It’s unclear if the positivity came from working for a company slated for tremendous growth, or if being optimistic about the economy helped them achieve better results.

Whatever the cause and effect, it’s clear that we are seeing slow but steady movement in the tech sector, which is helping spur the American economy.

What to expect in the startup world
Each year, the Tech 200 list gives us some insight into where technology is going, especially in particular industries. This year, the heavy number of medical tech companies indicates that electronic medical records won’t be the only innovations to hit healthcare in the next few years. Hospitals and physicians are investing in not only digital file systems, but also higher-tech hardware, training and customer service tools.

And while we know that Internet marketing really isn’t a fad, it’s interesting to see the companies that have survived the heavy competition over the years. Hubspot, one of the leading companies providing inbound marketing tools, has been on the list for the past two years, as have Yodle and SEOMoz. There are still plenty of smaller marketing startups, but it’s survival of the fittest at this point.

There seemed to be fewer mobile app development companies on this year’s list than last year’s, which might indicate that our insatiable thirst for ridiculous apps may be finally slowing. Instead, there was a greater concentration of engineering and design companies, which may indicate good things to come economically in the next few years.

One thing is clear: business is booming for folks in technology fields, and those that continue to innovate will continue to see success year after year. See the list of this year’s Tech 200 winners here.

Here are the top 50 finalists from the Tech 200:

MHD Enterprises
Innovolt
HasOffers
RateElert, Inc.
Rocket Fuel Inc.
Tempus Nova, Inc.
Strategic Communications
Datto
Integrity Engineering & Design Solutions
GlobalMed
VIRE Technologies, LLC
Day Online Solutions, LLC
Marketo
RepEquity
Motivity Solutions, Inc.
TubeMogul
Climber.com
ePropertySites, LLC
ActivEngage
Marakana Inc.
FastSpring
ZENOSYS LLC
Code 42 Software Inc.
Pod1
Sigmaways, Inc
GTN Technical Staffing
HubSpot
Zantech IT Services, Inc.
SoftLayer Technologies
Pinnacle Solutions, Inc.
Verengo Solar
InfoStretch
Curse, Inc.
Boston Technologies Inc
Zillow
SingleHop, LLC.
Netstairs.com
Varrow
FAVI Entertainment
Unified Payments, LLC
eGlobalTech
HEALTHCAREfirst Inc.
Tableau Software
VOSS Solutions
Position Logic
Gotham Cigars
MentorMate, LLC.
Quantum Networks, LLC
Buildium
Retail Radio

This post was written by Susan Payton, President of Egg Marketing & Communications. She also writes for Lead411′s blog.

On December 4th, over 1,000 MongoDB users and contributors will converge upon Santa Clara for MongoSV, a full-day conference dedicated to the leading open source, NoSQL database. 10gen co-founders and MongoDB core committers Eliot Horowitz and Dwight Merriman will present the latest enhancements to MongoDB and share the product roadmap for 2013.

This year’s conference includes dozens of sessions by MongoDB developers, production users, community members, and 10gen ecosystem partners across six tracks. AOL, Apollo Group (University of Phoenix), foursquare, Github, Sailthru and more will present on their experiences deploying MongoDB in real world applications. In addition to many great sessions for developers, the agenda also includes a full track dedicated to operations for those interested in learning best practices for running large-scale MongoDB clusters.

MongoDB is the open-source, document-oriented database that is quickly reshaping the overall database market due to the popularity of its agile and scalable approach among developers and IT professionals alike. 10gen leads MongoDB development, supports the global MongoDB community and provides commercial subscriptions, support, consulting and training plus a free, cloud-based MongoDB Monitoring Service (MMS).

Participating sponsors of MongoSV include Red Hat OpenShift, Microsoft, Softlayer, VMware, Joyent, Amazon Web Services, MongoLab, Fusion-io, MongoHQ, SwiftStack, Github, Mortar, Analytica, Zadara Storage, O’Reilly, and GigaOm.

Visit www.mongosv.com for full event details and to reserve your spot today.

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

CloudBeat 2012 is right around the corner, and we’re confident it’s going to be the cloud event of the year. Here’s why:

It’s unlikely that any single player will dominate the cloud computing market in the foreseeable future. So more and more enterprise IT leaders are taking a pragmatic, creative approach and adopting a wide range of solutions.

CloudBeat is unlike other cloud events because it puts those customers (the companies that are adopting cloud solutions) front and center to share their experiences and insights on what’s working and what’s not. Those customers are in the lineup right alongside the companies competing for their business. We’re talking two days packed with customer case studies, big-name fireside chats, and deep-dive breakouts, all aimed at helping a broader audience navigate through the rich, complex, and rapidly evolving cloud ecosystem.

Still not convinced? Check out the speaker list:

• Stephen Herrod, CTO, VMWare
• Sanjay Poonen, President & Corporate Officer, SAP
• Amit Singh, Vice President, Google Enterprise
• James Cuff, Chief Tech Architect, Harvard University
• Lew Tucker, VP & CTO, Cloud Computing, Cisco
• Frank Edwards, Director of IT Strategy, PepsiCo
• Sam Schillace, VP of Engineering, Box
• Peter Coffee, VP of Platform Research, Salesforce
• Rafal Los, Senior Security Strategist, HP
• Chris Kemp, Co-Founder & CEO, Nebula
• Dr. Amr Awadallah, CTO, Cloudera
• Oren Teich, COO, Heroku
• Aleksandr Yampolskiy, CTO, Cinchcast
• Dan Scholnick, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
• Gavin Blair, Director of Technology Ops, Patch.com
• Edward L. Hanapole, CIO, Kaplan
• Jay Simons, President, Atlassian
• Chris Pinkham, Co-Founder & CEO, Nimbula
• Darin Brannan, President & CEO, ClearDATA
• John Cowan, CEO & Co-Founder, 6fusion
• David Mortman, Chief Security Architect, enStratus
• Andy Vitus, Partner, Scale Ventures
• Randy Bias, Co-Founder & CTO, CloudScaling
• Benjamin Revcolevschi, SVP Cloud & Services, SFR
• John Dillon, CEO, Engine Yard
• Dan Rapp, VP Research, UX & Web Development, Family Search
• Elias Dayeh, Director of Business Operations, Axcient
• Glenn Solomon, Partner, GGV Capital
• Greg McAdoo, Partner, Sequoia Capital
• J. Christopher Wagner, CTO, SnapLogic
• Ruben Daniels, Co-Founder & CEO, Cloud9
• Joe Weinman, Senior Vice President, Telx
• Mat Ellis, Founder & CEO, Cloudability
• John Lee, Dir Entrepreneur Services Group, Silicon Valley Bank
• Juan Carlos Soto, SVP, Data Integration, Informatica
• Solomon Hykes, Founder & CEO, dotCloud
• Ken Stineman, Sr. Dir. Enterprise Architecture, Genomic Health
• Sinclair Schuller, CEO, Apprenda
• Lucas Carlson, Founder & CEO, AppFog
• Mark Cox, Founder & CEO, Appsecute
• Paul Miller, Consultant, Cloud of Data
• Michael Driscoll, Co-Founder & CEO, Metamarkets
• Tom Lounibos, Co-Founder & CEO, SOASTA
• Robert Abbott, General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
• Ben Kepes, Cloud Computing Analyst, Diversity Limited
• Philip Kromer, Co-Founder & CTO, Infochimps
• Scott Whyte, VP of IT Connectivity, Dignity Health
• Ashish Thusoo, Co-Founder & CEO, Qubole
• Adrian McDermott, SVP Product Development, Zendesk

Join us at CloudBeat 2012 and forge relationships with over 500 industry executives, with a mix of business and IT decision makers, analysts, investors, marketers, big brands/retailers, press, and more.

Tickets are very limited, so make sure to grab yours today!

Special thanks to the industry leaders who are supporting CloudBeat 2012: Ping Identity as Gold Sponsor; New Relic, dotCloud, Huddle, and Oxygen Cloud as Silver Sponsors; and CollabNet, Aria, Apprenda, Nasdaq OMX, Scality, Egnyte, Norwest Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, RingCentral, and Scale Venture Partners as Event Sponsors.

Star Trek fans and Web developers: Boy, have we got something for you.

VentureBeat and New Relic are giving away two full passes (including travel and accommodations) to Creation Entertainment’s Official Star Trek Convention in San Francisco, November 16-18.

All you have to do is sign up for New Relic and deploy their agent to start monitoring your app. Details are below. But first, more on the prize.

This is the mecca for Star Trek fans, and we’re hooking up winners with the Gold Weekend Package, which includes:

• Reserved seats in the main theater where all of the major guests appear.
• Complimentary in-person autographs from the likes of George Takei, Walter Koenig, Hallie Todd, Jeffrey Combs, Mark Alaimo, and David Gerrold.
• Access to an exclusive Friday night cocktail party with other Star Trek guests.
• Admission to the vendors room and more.

Entering the contest is easy.

All you have to do is sign up for New Relic and drop in their lightweight agent (deploy it) between now and Nov. 7 and start monitoring your app. No strings attached.

Even if you don’t win the Star Trek grand prize, you’ll get an awesome “Nerd Life” T-shirt just by deploying New Relic. Yes, it’s a red shirt. Don’t worry — it’s safe to wear. Enter today and let us beam you to one of the most fun and exciting events of the year!

[Image credit: creationent & startrek.com]

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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This is the mecca, and we’re hooking up the Gold Weekend Package which includes:

• Reserved seats in the main theatre where all of the major guests appear
• Complimentary in-person autographs from the likes of George Takei, Walter Koenig, Hallie Todd, Jeffrey Combs, Mark Alaimo, and David Gerrold
• Access to an exclusive Friday night cocktail party with other Star Trek guests
• Admission to the vendors room and more!

Entering the contest is easy.

All you have to do is sign up for New Relic and drop in their lightweight agent (deploy) between now and November 7, and start monitoring your app. No strings attached.

In just minutes, you’ll have deep, real-time vision inside your entire web app environment—from end-user experiences, to server resources, down to the app code. Even if you don’t win the Star Trek grand prize, you’ll get an awesome “Nerd Life” t-shirt just by deploying New Relic.

Enter today and let us beam you to one of the most fun and exciting events of the year!

[Image credit: creationent & startrek.com]

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Calling all cloud fanatics! You’ve only got a few weeks left to apply for the 2012 Innovation Showdown, one of the highlights of our annual cloud event (Nov. 28-29) at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City, Calif.

The Showdown is a lively competition in which we spotlight new companies that are using the cloud in revolutionary ways. We’ll vet over 100 applicants and invite 10 finalists to pitch live at front of an expert panel of judges and 500-plus CloudBeat attendees.

2011 Innovation Showdown winner Zadara Storage has since seen great success in the public cloud sector, recently completing a $7 million funding round.

Do you have a product or service that will change how businesses serve customers, make employees more produtive, and deliver tangible value to investors?

This is your opportunity to showcase that fresh idea, disruptive technology or product, with special consideration for those that haven’t been widely publicized yet. Whether you’re a tiny startup in a garage in Cupertino, Calif., or an established company, we’re looking for any example of innovation in the cloud.

The Showdown winner will be announced at CloudBeat 2012 and will receive a VentureBeat editorial profile, introductions to investors and/or relevant potential customers in our network, and other prizes yet to be announced.

Win or lose, all finalists will receive huge exposure as they present live onstage to top industry players, investors and press.

The submission deadline is 5 p.m. Pacific on Oct 26. For full details, rules and application form, go here.

Thanks to Norwest Venture Partners for sponsoring this year’s Innovation Showdown. Finally, seats for CloudBeat 2012 are filling up fast, so make sure to grab your ticket today.

Special thanks to the industry leaders who are supporting CloudBeat 2012: Ping Identity as Gold Sponsor; New Relic, dotCloud, Huddle, and Oxygen Cloud as Silver Sponsors; and CollabNet, Aria, Apprenda, Nasdaq OMX, Scality, Egnyte, Norwest Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, RingCentral, and Scale Venture Partners as Event Sponsors.

Join Appcelerator’s first-ever Mobile Developer Challenge!

They will be awarding over $25,000 in prizes and giving the top two apps the chance to present their app on stage at CODESTRONG 2012 in San Francisco…plus, the top two apps will have the opportunity to pitch their apps to Appcelerator’s “VC Panel” at CODESTRONG!

Top prizes include:

1st Place:

• $15,000 cash
• Trip to San Francisco to join Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie on stage to launch their app at CODESTRONG
• Meeting to pitch your business to Appcelerator’s VC’s

2nd Place:

• $5,000 cash
• Trip to San Francisco to join Appcelerator CEO Jeff Haynie on stage to launch their app at CODESTRONG
• Meeting to pitch your business to Appcelerator’s VC’s

Box Bonus Prize:

• $5,000 cash
• Any app that uses the Box API is eligible to win this prize
• Award will favor business-oriented apps
• This prize may be stand-alone ($5k only) or may be added to one of the other cash prizes

Top 10 Apps (10)

• Nexus 7 Tablet

What kind of apps are they looking for?
Create an app that will be beautiful, addictive, and useful.  Apps can be built for consumers, businesses, or for social good.  They’ll judge apps on the following criteria:

Depth of Integration with Appcelerator
Does the application take advantage of the unique functionality offered by the Titanium platform? Does it leverage Appcelerator Cloud Services? Is it integrated with modules from the Open Mobile Marketplace?

Utility
Is the application useful to a consumer or businessperson? Does it achieve one of the two objectives of mobile apps (to help people make money or waste time)?

User Experience
Is the application easy to use? Is it appealing? Is it addictive?

Originality of Concept
Is the application unique and innovative? Does it bring new functionality to mobile devices?

Any new mobile application that is developed on Appcelerator Titanium is eligible for the Mobile Developer Challenge. Here are the key dates:

• Now through September 30^th – Form a team (or go it alone!), come up with an idea, and build an app
• September 30^th – Submission deadline (5:00pm PT)
• October 12^th – 10 finalists announced
• October 23^rd – 1^st and 2^nd place winners launch their app on stage at CODESTRONG 2012
• October 23^rd – 1^st and 2^nd place winners pitch their app to our “VC Panel”

To help you get started, they’re holding a number of meetups around the world. These are a great place to brainstorm and discuss the feasibility of an idea with our developer relations staff, connect with others who are participating in the Mobile Developer Challange, and learn more about Appcelerator. They will also be holding webinars if you’re unable to attend in person. For a list of events, and to find all of the information that you need about the Mobile Developer Challenge, visit Appcelerator.challengepost.com.

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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While the San Francisco Bay Area — including Silicon Valley — has become an unofficial mecca for all things tech, S.F. isn’t the only place where startups thrive. Several other American cities are rising to compete with the Bay, offering budding companies room to play outside the shadows of giants like Google, Apple and Facebook, and at lower (read: lifestyle-friendly) prices.

Below, we’ve curated a list for you of surprising and not-so-surprising locales where you might consider putting down startup roots. Our method? Looking at city tax breaks for small businesses, government programs, talent pools, culture, and more.

If you happen to live in one of these cities already, you should be good to go. If not, then you might consider making the move. Even if you’re not a founder in the making, you couldn’t ask for a more vibrant, inspiring scene than the startup world. (Although we might be biased.)

Without further ado:

1. San Francisco. Let’s just get this one out of the way. Why? Because if it didn’t make the cut, people would question the rest of the list. As home to Silicon Valley forerunners Stanford Research Park, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox PARC, the Bay Area gets the legacy win here. The culture couldn’t be more fertile for startups.

Today, Google, Apple and Facebook employees wait on corners all over the city to have shuttles take them an hour south to work. And unsurprisingly, a healthy number of San Francisco-based startups claim one or more former Googlers as founders, including Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and so many more — most of which settled in the Bay Area. Given the prominence of tech in the local zeitgeist, it’s nearly impossible to sit in a bar in the city and not overhear a conversation about so-and-so’s startup or startup idea.

Also, while San Francisco’s legendary pricey-ness seems like it would deter burgeoning, young entrepreneurs, its proximity to the epicenter of the venture capital universe is beyond compare. About 30 miles south, Palo Alto’s Sand Hill Road is lined with VC firms that are constantly on the lookout for the “next big thing.” Being able to take a meeting in the middle of the day is invaluable when a seed round or first round of funding is on the line, making SF and the Peninsula just south of it a no-brainer choice for most startup world denizens.

2. Los Angeles. Not that many people think of startups in a city dominated by the entertainment business. It makes sense, though, that a large metro area brimming with creative professionals (28.8% of Santa Monicans identify this way) would support some innovative companies. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper to live in any number of neighborhoods and suburbs ringing LA than in the Bay. Across the board, the cost of living is lower (domestic beer is $.40 cents less in LA after all).

LA’s young startup scene brings new meaning to City of Angels, with more and more angel investors and VCs settling in SoCal. AngelList, an online community for startups, reports that Los Angeles is home to nearly 1,300 startups and 1,500 investors. And the National Venture Capital Association reports that, in 2011 alone, VCs made 208 deals worth close to $2 billion with startups in and around the city. These numbers are likely to grow in coming years as LA produces more startup stars to join Fandango, Ticketmaster and Legal Zoom (like maybe one of these).

And don’t forget, LA has Ashton Kutcher. Hey, that’s no laughing matter. SoCal techies should check out Socaltech.com, a growing community of startup folks swapping news, job listings, event announcements and more.

3. Denver. Heading east, our next stop is mountain country: Denver and its almost equally-attractive neighbor, Boulder. Like SF, Denver has its share of big names. Lower costs of real estate and doing business have made it a logical outpost for branches of Oracle, HP and SAP, all of which have nestled in the Denver Technological Center to the southwest of the city. This puts technology in the air, helped along by the DTC’s relatively new Innovation Pavilion, which match-makes startups with relevant companies, academic institutions and government firms to help them get off the ground.

Like LA, Denver and Boulder are also home to an impressive number of people identified as self-identified creatives (about 29.3% of the population). Education levels are also pretty high, with 69.1% having earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. It makes sense that Boulder is home to a small colony of government research organizations, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. That’s a lot of smart people close together.

While Denver has yet to produce a blockbuster startup success story, its roster of names isn’t too shabby: ReadyTalk, Mapquest, Photobucket, and more. There’s a reason Brightkite founders Brady Becker and Martin May chose Denver for their newest play Fork.ly, after pioneering the place check-in concept.

4. Washington, D.C. Landing on the east coast now, a trend is starting to emerge. Cities that concentrate brilliant, passionate people around certain ideas tend to be fertile ground for startups. Whether their interests are the movies or atmospheric pressure, these people tend to have the drive, skills and path-breaking ideas that could strike tech gold. In D.C., it’s politics. Every year, a deluge of kids from the best schools with diverse degrees pour into the D.C. metro area (46% of residents over 25 have a four-year degree; 25% have a graduate or professional degree). And, increasingly so, they’re looking for meatier opportunities than garden variety Congressional staffer jobs.

If you’re skeptical about the growing startup scene in and around the nation’s capital, look no further than Proudly Made in D.C., a website dedicated to the city’s robust community of entrepreneurs, engineers, designers and more. Given the site’s full calendar of events, it’s clear that D.C.’s penchant for networking and schmoozing isn’t lost on its tech crowd. Startups located close to the city include green-energy play Opower, Uber cab sibling Taxi Magic, GroupOn rival Living Social, and the list goes on.

Evidence has shown that nothing’s better for startups than a city that wants them. And D.C. and its surrounding cities want them badly. For example, just down the road in Baltimore, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation joined forces with the newly-minted Propel Baltimore Fund and the Abell Foundation to make angel investments ranging from $50,000 to $220,000 in startup companies locating in the city.. And, on the east coast, where most techies might think the choice is only between New York and Boston, D.C. offers a more relaxed (San Franciscan, shall we say), and much cheaper vibe.

5. New York, New York. Where better to end this list than the second-most obvious contender for best American tech city? Combine the smarts and flash-bang creativity of SF and LA with the frenetic pace and pedigree of the Northeast and you have a winning formula — despite the crushing cost of living that drives many techies to the outer boroughs. There’s a reason why Silicon Alley is a term, and why VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall recently relocated here. You can’t ignore the comet-like success of Foursquare and GroupMe (which was bought by Skype for an estimated $85 million).

Following the financial collapse in 2008, a lot of young bright things — including an army of software engineers, designers and others — found themselves unemployed, looking to do anything except finance. New York responded well to this trend, spinning startup-friendly policies to keep the cream of the crop in town. This has allowed capital to flow more freely for new businesses and support founders in their efforts. Among other things, Mayor Bloomberg has announced an initiative to create a council on technology and innovation, and is backing a series of public forums on immigration to help startups source and keep top talent.

If New York keeps it up, we might have to coin a term for techsters to replace Mad Men. Taking a gander at this cool heatmap of startup activity in New York, it looks like there might be an epicenter around Gramercy Park. Ideas anyone?

Runners-up

1. Austin. A clear choice, given that San Francisco takes a field trip there every year for SXSW. It also came in first on PayScale’s 2010 list of cities to find the best jobs — with a major nod toward the tech industry.

2. Seattle. Wedged between Amazon and Microsoft, startups that take root in this rainy city have precedents for success and a lot of roaming tech talent to draw from. Zillow and Jobster certainly have.

3. Raleigh/Durham. A dark horse candidate. At the start of this year, North Carolina and N.C. State University held an Innovation Summit designed to energize the city’s tech community. Now it plans to build an Innovation Center to house startups — and suck in VC dollars.

TechSparks is India’s largest startup discovery platform which is now in its third year. Organized by YourStory.in, an online media platform for startups and entrepreneurs, it spans over a period of 5 months across 6 cities in India and aims to showcase some of the most innovative and promising early stage ventures emerging out of India.

The event consists of 5 Regional Round Tables in various cities which are followed up by a Grand Finale in the Silicon Valley of India – Bangalore. The Roundtables are being held in all the major startup hubs of India. This year’s TechSparks edition has already been to Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai, where over 1100 established and aspiring entrepreneurs got together to network and exchange ideas. The next roundtable is scheduled at Hyderabad before the finale in Bangalore on September 8th.

India’s diversity is widely celebrated, and the roundtables that took place were a great meeting ground for people from different regions, sectors and backgrounds to come together and collaborate on ideas. Every roundtable has a keynote speech given by someone that made it big in the Indian startup ecosystem. In Delhi it was Kunal Bahl, the founder of one of India’s fastest growing e-commerce startups, who shared his experience of starting up and scaling Snapdeal.com.

There is also a panel discussion and an open house at the roundtables which encourages tough questions and brings to fore some of the key issues that entrepreneurs face. This year’s TechSparks theme is “How to Scale Up Smartly” which is particularly relevant in the big-picture of the Indian startup scene which has gained momentum of late. There are now a lot of ventures that have matured into the growth stage.

At the end of TechSparks, Yourstory.in comes up with a “TECH 30” report which identifies the top 30 promising startups that were discovered across India. Here are some numbers that bear testimony to the quality of startups that emerge from TechSparks: Of the 30 startups from last year, 14 of the companies have raised funding in the last 12 months. One of the 30 also got acquired and another one made an acquisition of a global startup. Sequoia Capital is the VC partner for the event, which is a major attraction for entrepreneurs who turn up in huge numbers at the roundtables. TechSparks is supported by Intel, Sequoia Capital, Amazon, Qualcomm and VentureBeat, along with CNBC-TV18.

With one more roundtable to go before the Grand finale, the hunt for the most promising Indian tech startups is on!

VentureBeat readers who want to attend and witness the unveiling of TechSparks 2012 of India, please use the following special discount code while registering your ticket: TS2012VB023

For more information regarding TechSparks 2012 , get in touch with Chandan Raj at chandan [at] yourstory.in.

Returning veterans are entering local job markets in droves. But getting hired can be a grueling process for former military personnel once they’re home — especially given the sluggish state of the economy. In many parts of the country, high unemployment rates make it nearly impossible to land a job with military experience, and the government provides little support.

Silicon Valley, however, is a rare oasis when it comes to employment. With thousands of young people employed by Google, Oracle, Apple, Facebook and more, stories of chronic unemployment in tech circles are hard to come by — or certainly not as visible in the media and local zeitgeist. That said, this doesn’t necessarily hold true for vets.

Across the board, the unemployment rate among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is staggering — nearly quadrupling over the last five years to nearly 15 percent, compared to the national average of 8 percent.

The organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) attributes this stat to several factors. For one, prospective employers tend to be wary of hiring veterans, concerned that their skill sets may not be a good fit, that they may come with emotional complications, or that they they may be re-deployed and need to leave. On top of that, veterans have a particularly hard time finding well-paid employment, with an average wage gap of $10,000 that follows them throughout most of their careers.

But Silicon Valley and the tech industry offer unique opportunities to break from these trends. And many organizations have either sprung up or added programs to help veterans with complementary skill sets find solid, well-paying jobs in tech to jumpstart their non-military careers.

Below are five tips for returning to vets to take advantage of resources and find a good job.

1. Know your orgs
So often we hear about how the government is failing to take care of vets once they return home. And there’s a lot of truth to these stories. But a lot less is written and generally known about the many support organizations that have started up and grown to help soldiers transition back to civilian life. You may have heard of Swords to Plowshares, for instance, but there’s also American Legion, and IAVA. These nexus organizations co-host events and promote programs through a host of smaller veteran support groups offering employment resources.

These groups go the extra mile for many vets, working to connect them with potential employers, job fairs and resources like resume workshops and career development trainings. These orgs tend to be well connected in local communities and have a good track record of encouraging local businesses to hire vets, and making sure vets find jobs that fit their skillsets and allow them to thrive. For vets returning to communities where they have few connections, these organizations provide a critical source of networking. There is even a new organization called VetsinTech, appealing to this particular interest group, which is hosting its official launch and networking event on July 31 in San Francisco.

2. Find companies looking for vets
To do their part, many companies — including hundreds of big brand names — have made an explicit point of hiring veterans. Electric car maker Tesla Motors, for example, was very vocal last year about hiring dozens of veterans to staff up its new automotive plant in Fremont, CA. It focused on recruiting veterans with mechanical engineering and automotive skills that they had applied while in the military. There was a lot of overlap in expertise, and the hiring initiative was a success — from a brand image perspective too.

There’s no brighter example of this than the 100,000 Jobs Mission, a joint effort between AT&T, Cisco, Verizon, EMC and seven other major corporations to hire 100,000 veterans and military personnel that end active duty by 2021. Led by JPMorgan Chase, the pledge is focused on hiring veterans with technical skills that they honed in the service.

First Lady Michelle Obama also challenged tech companies to hire 100,000 veterans and spouses by 2014. Companies heeding her call include Google, Microsoft, Bechtel and more. It helps that the government is providing employer tax credits of up to $5,600 for each returning veteran hired.

Veterans have a lot to offer tech companies, including refined practical skills, advanced teamwork experience, organization, and clear thinking in high-pressured situations. By singling out and applying to companies that have an appreciation for these attributes, veterans can enhance their chances of getting hired.

3. Re-brand your experience
Veterans looking for work may have more relevant tech experience than they might think. Given this, finding a well-paying job with mobility can be a matter of properly branding oneself. According to PayScale, many vets are well versed in computer security, security risk management, electronic troubleshooting, networking and program management. But because these skills may not be relevant to their core responsibilities, veterans may not leverage them on their resumes and in interviews to the extent they should.

Program managers at tech companies commonly make $91,000 a year, according to PayScale. IT managers can make up to $74,000 a year, while system analysts can take home $70,000. These are some of the top jobs filled by veterans, along with technical writing, network administration and field service engineering. Veterans can diversify the roles they apply for and strengthen their applications by examining their experiences in the service and making strong arguments for how they are relevant to in-demand positions. It’s all about personal branding — something Silicon Valley veterans know all too well.

4. Tap into old networks
Vets returning home to Silicon Valley can tap into old networks, including family and high school friends. Because tech is the overwhelming industry in this part of the world, chances are that you know someone who knows someone who works at a major tech company who may be able to put a word in our alert you to job openings.

The best way to do this is on networking sites like LinkedIn. While it may not have the prestige of Facebook or the connectivity of Twitter, LinkedIn is a great way to non-intrusively connect with old contacts after several years — and to determine who they know and where they work. It’s important not to underestimate others’ willingness to help. LinkedIn provides a forum for people to reach out to those they’ve met only a few times or in passing to ask for help. More often than not, people are happy to give others a hand, particularly a returning veteran.

LinkedIn even has a special landing page for veterans to learn more tips for finding satisfying employment and get started on a strategic job search.

5. Be entrepreneurial
For veterans who don’t want to return to school or immediately jump into a civilian job at another company, there’s another route: starting your own business. And there are resources out there to help give them a boost.

Earlier this year, for example, an organization called TechCentralSF held a Startup Veterans Weekend, a hackathon brainstorm event just for returning veterans. Sponsors included Adobe, Salesforce, AARP and Charles Schwab, with featured speakers like Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Esurance founder Chuck Wallace. More than 40 Bay Area veterans attended and swapped dozens of startup ideas.

According to the founders of Startup Veterans Weekend, many veterans have skills that natural translate into entrepreneurialism, including organization, discipline, the ability to work in stressful environments, and difficult decision making. With this context, it’s not surprising that veterans represent 14.5 percent of small business owners in the U.S.

Veterans looking to go into business for themselves can find resources and support through both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Administration, which provides financial or technical assistance to nearly 200,000 servicemembers a year. The SBA and VA have also teamed up with the International Franchise Association to launch the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, offering 30 percent off on franchising fees for veterans.

[image via The Military Wallet]

This sponsored post is produced by YetiZen.

YetiZen is having their “Get-In-The-Game pitch competition” at Casual Connect Seattle 2012!

On July 24th, YetiZen will be at Casual Connect Seattle 2012 hosting their third amazing Get-In-The-Game Pitch Competition! This is your chance to present to their incredible audience of investors, notable game industry CEOs, and entrepreneurs to jumpstart your fundraising and company building efforts. Showcase your creative juices to some of the most prolific people in the game industry!

YetiZen be choosing 5 finalists who will present live on stage at Benaroya Hall to a group of superstar judges.

Judges at past competitions have included Terence Fung (Corporate Development at Zynga), Michael Chang (Director of Corporate Development at Electronic Arts), Tim Chang (original VC rockstar and Managing Director at Mayfield Fund), Michael Klein (Canaan Partners), and Rob Coneybeer (Shasta Ventures)!

The most promising startup will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Innovation
• Clarity of Business Model
• Presentation Skills
• Businesses plan for an exit
• Potential for business success (revenue, installs, and acclaim!)

Entrants must be a startup company in the mobile or social game space. Publicly traded or large, well-known private companies are NOT eligible.

To apply please visit:
http://yetizen.com/competition/

Competition will begin on July 24th at 11:00am. The winner will be announced at 4:00pm and be invited to participate in our August Round for the YetiZen Accelerator Program, awarded OnLive consoles, and many many more prizes.

Deadline for submission is Friday, July 20th, 2012 at 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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VentureBeat has long been a supporter and facilitator of the “mobile” discussion. In fact, we’re holding our fifth annual MobileBeat event in just over two weeks, where we explore the enormous role that design is playing across the mobile ecosystem.

Outside of our own events, we’re always eager to help bring folks together to nurture the mobile development community.

So we’re giving away a limited number of passes to the hottest mobile developer party in town: #GenMobile at Google I/O (2012), which this Thursday (June 28), just south of Mission Sreet. on 4th Street.

Our friends at Appcelerator, Geoloqi, New Relic, and NOOK are hosting an action-packed evening of eating, drinking, gratuitous photoboothing, spontaneous dancing, and relentless networking with other market makers in mobile. The #GenMobile party is about individual mobile superheros coming together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s going to be a blast, and we’re inviting 50 VB readers to join us. It’s simple. The first 50 folks to RSVP here, will get in the door. We’ll also be giving out discounted MobileBeat 2012 tickets to the #GenMobile crowd.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday!

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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Two of these coveted spots are now available to TechStars companies; one for an unfunded company who qualifies to launch at DEMO, and one for a student-run company that qualifies for the Student Alpha Program. TechStars is a program that provides startups with seed funding from over 75 top venture capital firms and angel investors, as well as intense mentorship from hundreds of the best entrepreneurs in the world.

DEMO sets itself apart from all other launch options. DEMO’s track record of success, scholarship opportunities, turnkey services and exposure to the entire tech ecosystem of VCs, investors, IT buyers and the global IT press make DEMO the premier launch option.

If you have an amazing innovation currently in alpha stage, apply to pitch at DEMO to reach an audience of top investors and potential customers who can catapult you to the next development stage and beyond.

Our friends at Appcelerator, Box, InMobi, and uTest are hosting an action-packed evening of eating, drinking, gratuitous photoboothing, spontaneous dancing, and relentless networking with other market makers in mobile. The #GenMobile party is about individual mobile superheros coming together to create something truly greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s going to be a blast, and we’re inviting 50 VB readers to join us. It’s simple. The first 50 folks to RSVP here, will get in the door.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

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Big Data and Predictive/Real-time Analytics startups: Are you looking to jumpstart development & accelerate market traction? Sign up for the SAP Startup Focus program to receive technology, support, resources and community to help you develop new applications on SAP HANA, a cutting edge database platform. Get started here, and enter promo code “VB2013″ on the form.

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It’s happened to everyone who sells for a living: You meet with a prospective client to show them the goods. Then you meet with them again. And again. But they still won’t pull the trigger on the sale. Chances are, if they’ve asked for several meetings, they’re not going to pull that trigger any time soon.

Why does this happen? What’s missing? There’s one thing that all prospects need to feel before they put their money down: Trust. If they don’t trust that you or your company will deliver on promises — and on time — there’s no way they’ll sign.

So how can you establish trust so immediately that you save both sides of the table the time and trouble of multiple meetings?

It’s possible. There’s an endless number of self-help books devoted to the idea that you can win anyone over within 90 seconds of meeting them. And there’s a lot of truth to this — truth that can be parlayed into a sale. In this spirit, here are five no-brainer tactics to win a prospect’s trust in that initial interaction, so you can stop convincing and start impressing.

1. Know your stuff. Going into any meeting, you should be armed with research and background on the prospect. You should be able to predict the questions you’ll get and prepare the answers they’ll want to hear. But there’s more to appearing knowledgeable than doing your homework. You also have to persuade them that all of this know-how will go somewhere. When it comes to conveying this confidence, body language and tone are everything.

If you’re going to provide data (highly recommended), you should know it cold. Don’t search your memory or qualify with an “I think” or “I guess.” If you’re stating that your product does something, don’t check with your colleague across the table. Assert it. And when you’re talking, lean forward, indicating engagement and active listening. You want to appear to be ready for anything while also validating that they’ve asked good questions. You’re just happy to have the answers.

2. Be flexible. The hard sell doesn’t work anymore, and one size doesn’t fit all. Most prospects will want to know that you’ll work to meet their needs, especially now that brand consistency and customization have become so critical. There’s a happy medium here though. You don’t want to tell them that you can satisfy their every whim. That could come off as desperate or infeasible. At the same time, you want to make it clear that your team will do what it can to deliver high-quality, tailored service. No one wants to be just another client. They want to know someone is looking out for them and their businesses’ interests.

To convey flexibility in a single meeting, examples are vital. Part of doing your homework should be brainstorming features the prospect may ask for or be interested in. That way, you can illustrate for the kinds of things you have the ability and bandwidth (and willingness) to build in for them before they have a chance to ask for something that might not be quite as possible.

3. Preempt complaints. Without fail, every job interview includes a question about your greatest weaknesses. The best move is to bring them up before you’re even asked. That way the ball is in your court, and you have the ability to spin them in any direction. For example, you might not have a whole lot of experience in the field. If you bring that up yourself, you have the opportunity to talk about other relevant experiences or volunteer opportunities — opening the door to highlight some of your greatest strengths.

The same goes for sales meetings. If you know the product you’re talking about has some weaknesses — maybe it’s a little buggy, maybe there’s some functionality missing that you know they’ll ask about — you can anticipate and preempt. For instance, you can say that you know that there’s limited social sharing functionality at this time, but that your engineers are working hard to build tools that fit client needs. That gives you the chance to talk about how quick and nimble your developers are, and how you’re willing to customize.

4. Keep your enemies close. Minimizing or putting down your competitors in a sales meeting is a sign of insecurity. To sell a product or service in one meeting, you can’t just say that you’re better than alternatives on the market. You have to convince your prospect that your offering is the standalone best — so good, in fact, that you don’t have to worry at all about what others are doing in the field. Just like it’s unappealing to criticize or blame others on a first date or in a team environment, it’s uncouth to call out competitors’ shortcomings.

Instead, if asked how your product or service stacks up, be inclusive and positive. Maybe the problem your product solves requires a portfolio of solutions, especially in a large, fragmented market. When you admit to this, you come across as honest and cooperative. If your prospect asks about a feature they’ve seen in a different offering that yours lacks, you can talk about how much you admire your competitor’s execution but also explain why your team chose to go a different way. Negativity is a major turn-off, but so many people go that route that a friendlier approach is bound to stand out.

5. Be honest. No one trusts a silver bullet. Don’t promise to solve all of your prospective client’s problems. Vulnerability and honesty are key to convincing people to rely on you. If you’re willing to admit your product’s faults in an initial sales meeting, then you’ll probably alert clients to future problems that could impact their business. Everyone assumes new services will come with some bumps in the road. What matters is whether you see them coming and how you react when they happen.

How do you tip your hand to signal honesty without scaring someone off? Giving past examples of troubles encountered and how swiftly and and responsively they were addressed is one way. It’s also wise to not answer all their questions and concerns with absolute certainty. Instead of quipping “of course our product does that,” weigh their question in your mind, tell them they make a good point and explain your company’s approach to the issue. Done correctly, this stresses both your mindfulness and troubleshooting chops.

It’s that easy. Too often we assume that business deals require complex finesse when simple social savvy will do the trick. Next time you head into a conference room with a prospective client, don’t worry quite so much about hitting all the marks — especially if you’ve done your homework and put together a good presentation. Instead, focus on inspiring confidence. When you sell them on you, you sell them on your product.

The NextGen Conference takes place on May 19th at the Parc 55 Hotel in Downtown San Francisco. This conference brings together young aspiring entrepreneurs and young rock star entrepreneurs with more experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

Cory Levy, co-founder of One (http://bit.ly/pLyhvm) and the NextGen Conference, has previously planned three sold out events in Palo Alto, Stanford University and UCLA. This past conference in Palo Alto was sold out with 250 attendees and a 60+ person waiting list. Previous speakers and attendees at the NextGen Conference include: Peter Thiel (founder of PayPal and member of Facebook’s board of directors), Keith Rabois (COO of Square), Mark Suster (GRP Partners), Travis Kalanick (CEO of Uber), Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber’s manager), and more. Ashton Kutcher showed up as an attendee at the last NextGen Conference in July.

Speakers at this year’s event include: Tony Conrad (founder of About.me and True Ventures), Keith Rabois (COO of Square), Josh Elman (Greylock), Sahil Lavingia (founding team of Pinterest and founder of Gumroad), and more!

For 20% off, register now using promo code “VentureBeat”.

For the private sector, making money isn’t enough anymore.

It’s not enough for Walmart to have a market capitalization of $200 billion — more than the GDP of 147 countries worldwide. Or for Nokia to sell 420 million new phones in a year — increasingly to developing countries in Africa and Asia. People expect global brands to use their vast resources to make the world a better place. Now more than ever, consumers are making decisions based on companies’ social agendas — and market share hangs in the balance.

While Walmart supports everything from women’s empowerment to disaster relief through its foundation, the public is expecting even more from major tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Not only do they have some of the most visible wealth, they’re also intrinsically innovative — capable of solving some of the world’s hardest engineering problems and creating sustainable solutions.

As investment in social enterprise becomes more common, major brands and venture capitalists alike are learning how to make a difference without sacrificing their profit-driven missions.

Nokia is a prime example. With 51% of the mobile market share in Africa, it’s one of the continent’s most recognizable brands. Lacking televisions, computers — and, in some cases, electricity — many people throughout Africa access information and communicate solely through their mobile phones. Nokia has not squandered this opportunity — it’s using it to extend affordable, life-changing services and tools to African farmers.

Through its Ovi application store, Nokia offers Ovi Life Tools, an SMS-based app available on extremely cost-effective handsets that provides farmers with timely weather and agricultural information to optimize preparedness and crop yields. Nokia partners with organizations like the Kenya Meteorological Department, agriculture NGOs, and more to serve up tips, techniques and market stats that could help them prevent food shortages and get the best prices for their goods. Life Tools is also being used to deliver lesson plans to teachers, learning games to kids and accounting services for small businesses.

Facilitating connections between people and expanding access to global networks is one major way tech companies are doing their part for social good. Both Twitter and Facebook exploded last year during Arab Spring, becoming primary platforms for coordinating rallies, organizing protests and disseminating news and information quickly among millions of young people. Nine in 10 Egyptians and Tunisians surveyed by the Dubai School of Government said they organized or found out about protests on Facebook alone.

These social networks found themselves playing huge roles in historical democratic movements, and gaining users by the millions. The number of Facebook users in the region jumped by 30%, and tweets from Egypt jumped from 2,300 to 230,000 in the week before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. It might seem counter-intuitive for platforms essentially created for entertainment to be playing key roles in geopolitical events, but in this case, revolution was also good for business.

Like Twitter and Facebook, Google also provides tools that have helped people around the world communicate, organize, and be more productive. But its made a more concerted effort to not just promote social good, it’s investing in it too. In 2009, it created Google Ventures, a venture capital investment arm that funds for-profit tech startups. And while its investments are financially motivated, many of the companies it backs have strong social missions.

All six of Google Ventures’ energy-related portfolio companies are pursuing clean, efficient and renewable energy solutions. They include Nest, maker of the world’s first learning thermostat that helps users become more energy-efficient, and attracted a lot of buzz for its sleek, Apple-esque design. Its life science portfolio is stacked with companies pursuing innovative cancer therapies and genetic diagnostic systems to make medicine simpler, leaner and more affordable. And even some of its mobile picks have a social bent, like Miso Media, which creates entertaining educational software to make learning fun and easy.

Google may be more overtly philanthropic through Google.org — it gave away $115 million in grants and over $1 billion in in-kind support to nonprofit and educational orgs last year alone — but, in many ways, Google Ventures is more indicative of the future of tech brands and social enterprise. It combines doing good with doing well, a hard balance to strike.

That said, it’s a balance pursued not only by big names in tech, but also by the VCs trying to find and fund the next generation of big names. More and more, venture capital firms in Silicon Valley are seeking out socially-minded startups that have the potential to make money and a positive impact at the same time.

Marquee firms like Khosla and Kleiner Perkins are investing heavily in cleantech startups like Ecomotors, Stion, Sundrop Fuels, and Fisker Automotive. Kleiner even launched what it calls its Green Growth Fund to support later-stage greentech ventures that have gained traction and have the potential to slow climate change.

On the far end of the spectrum, you have firms like social enterprise incubator Hub Ventures and Omidyar Network, which exclusively seek out companies looking to do good in the world. The latter not only gives grants to a slew of nonprofits, it funds for-profit microfinance organizations and consumer tech companies focused on connection building and information sharing like Digg, Meetup and Wikia.

Across the board, Silicon Valley seems to be waking up to the reality that having resources and brainpower obligates them to do more for the rest of the world. With consumer eyes fixed on which brands do what — whether it’s Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg giving $100 million to Newark Public Schools, or Amazon launching an environmentally-friendly packaging initiative — it’s more important than ever for tech companies to do their part.

That said, if recent examples prove anything, it’s that making money and a difference don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Finding these ideas that sit at the intersection of impact and profitability is what the Grand Challenges Exploration program is all about. A grant program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the program is looking for bold, creative ideas to solve the biggest problems in global health. People from all disciplines, age groups and professions are encouraged to apply. In the past, the program has seen groundbreaking submissions come from unexpected sources, from astrophysicists to mechanical engineers to students.

The deadline for submissions to this year’s program is May 15. Successful projects will win support and have the chance to land $1 million in additional funding to bring their ideas to fruition — and maybe even change the world!