September 15th, 2009 by Dave
We woke up to the awesome Groupon Seattle newsletter in our inboxes, and lo and behold, it featured one of our awesome TeachStreet Cooking teachers, Alyssa Fritts, and, if you act quick, you can get one of her Mozelle’s Creations cooking classes for half-price!
Just click this link to visit the Groupon offer page, or click the image below — congrats Alyssa!
Or, find other great cooking classes near you.
August 31st, 2009 by Dave
Have you always wanted to learn how welding works? Me too! So, last weekend, 5 of us (including Twitters Courtney Johnston (@c_johnston), Jason Vonnieda (@vonnieda), and Jeff Smith (@JeffreySmith), plus my wife and I) took a Seattle Welding Intensive class to learn about welding, and to get get hands-on experience and practice with several different types of welding equipment. In three words, “it was awesome!”.
Class was held at the Hazard Factory, in South Park (a neighborhood south of Seattle, near the Georgetown neighborhood), and it was amazing how fast the 5 hours flew by — we learned about the different types of welding (MIG, TIG and Stick) and got to practice with different machines — we were actually welding things together in the first 1-2 hours, and I’m actually feeling competent enough to do some work around the house — really, I highly recommend it.
The teacher, Rusty Oliver, has been welding for the last 13 years, and is also a sculptural artist — he was a fantastic instructor (he said that his mom was a teacher, so he learned the skills from her), and made it a fun day that I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget.
This video was from early in the day, as he explained the differences between MIG and TIG welding:
And, here are a few photos of us decked out in our gear:
August 26th, 2009 by Dave
I have the benefit (or curse) of having been a CPA in a prior working life, having started out my career with Arthur Andersen after I graduated from college. I quickly (it only took me 7 short years) figured out that the life of debits and credits wasn’t for me, but now that I’m working as an entrepreneur, I’m thrilled that I have that background under my belt.
For many other entrepreneurs with backgrounds in engineering or marketing, it isn’t so easy to quickly digest financial statements and projections — for those who live in Seattle, help is here — I met Diane Renihan last year, and she has awesome financial experience working with Avelle (formerly known as Bag Borrow or Steal), and many Seattle startups, and she’s now offering Financial and Accounting Boot Camp classes to Seattle entrepreneurs.
August 9th, 2009 by Dave
Many people who work at larger companies think about starting companies of their own, especially those who work at larger technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon.com, Real Networks, and more. I was one of those individuals, having worked at Amazon.com for more than six years, and then at a smaller internet company, JibJab. I had many personal opinions about how people should run their organizations, and I had a lot of exposure to small companies and their problems, but I admit that there were many unanswered questions, and many things that I thought I knew a lot more about than I actually did.
Before starting TeachStreet, I threw around terms and concepts such as pre- and post-money valuations, best practices in naming of companies and products, how to conduct product development sessions, and more. But, most of my ideas weren’t fully thought through, nor had I carried them out from start-to-finish on my own. I learn now that I wasn’t alone — most startup founders just leap in at some point, and we shared many of the same questions.
It’s because of this that Marcelo Calbucci (host of the popular Seattle20.com blog) has planned the first ever conference focused on pre-entrepreneurs, those who have yet to join or found a startup. And, what I like about it is that all of the speakers are current and past founders of companies who once harbored these same questions and concerns. You’ll hear from successful, and not-yet-extremely-successful founders, on topics ranging from How to Pick an Idea, How to Identify Co-Founders, Raising Money, What to Do When You Fail, What It’s Like to be Acquired, and more.
I’m personally excited, and humbled, to be talking about ‘Building the Product‘ — it’s a topic that I have a lot of experience with, but feel like I’m still learning a massive amount about every month (and day) — I look forward to hearing what the audience thinks about our process.
So, if you’ve ever thought about starting your own company, I highly encourage that you attend StartupDay 2009 — it’s an affordable and highly-concentrated introduction to startup life, from those who are living it!
July 24th, 2009 by Dave
Our friends at Biznik are creating a movie called SHINE, that’s all about entrepreneurs — what fuels their passions and gets them out of bed every day — it’s pretty awesome. Here’s the trailer for it, and if you’re interested in getting involved, more information is below:
SHINE Official Trailer 1 from Dan McComb on Vimeo.
SHINE is the untold story of entrepreneurs struggling to build the businesses of their dreams in the depths of recession. Based on 250 interviews with mostly small entrepreneurs conducted on May 6, 2009, SHINE introduces us to a wide spectrum of entrepreneurship. From a toothless cowboy poet to a Stanford engineer who sold his business for $500 million, we learn that growing a business is more often about passion than it is money, and why entrepreneurs work long hours for low pay, few benefits, facing great uncertainty. Dozens of interviews, including a rare conversation with iStockphoto founder Bruce Livingstone, reveal the high personal price that some entrepreneurs are willing to pay for success in this sober yet inspiring look at the brave thinkers and creative doers at the heart of the economy.
Where is SHINE headed?
When complete, they’ll be entering SHINE into film festivals, and winning awards will help get them distribution for the film. That’s why they need your help to make SHINE the extraordinary film it has the potential to be.
How can I help?
They’ve created 3 great incentives for you to help raise the remaining $ they need to complete the film:
1. $40 gets your photo in the SHINE title slide, on the SHINE website and and unsigned copy of the SHINE poster.
2. $100 gets you all the above plus a signed copy of poster and invitation to exclusive screening wth the filmmakers.
3. $250 gets you all the above plus a limited-edition signed copy of the DVD with festival packaging designed by Anvil.
June 16th, 2009 by Jenn
We are pleased to announce the first Summer of Learning Contest winner! Drum roll, please…
For his post to the article, Ever wonder where to take an art class in chicago?, art teacher Darrell Roberts has won a $25 gift certificate to Amazon. Congratulations, Darrell!
All you other TeachStreeters, never fear, we have a long summer ahead of us full of prizes galore! Our next winner will be selected next Tuesday, June, 23. What’s up for grabs next, you ask? An excellent TeachStreet Gift-Pak ($35 value). For rules and information view our Contest page: http://www.teachstreet.com/contest
June 10th, 2009 by Natala
There is a lot going on at TeachStreet. Here in our office in South Lake Union a normal day consists of a series of lively conversations about new and exciting ideas we have to make the site awesome and awesomely beneficial to the active teachers and learners in our community. But, we also know that we can’t work in isolation — in order to build awesome products for you — we need your feedback!
So, we’re kicking off a summer series: Tea Time with TeachStreet. On select Wednesday’s in June, July & August, between 4:00 and 6:00 we’ll be demoing new ideas for the site, changes we’re considering and fixes we’re making.We’d love it if you would join us for an informal feedback session — with Tea and Crumpets!
May 30th, 2009 by Dave
Find local contractors plumbers electricians
We don’t post many of these notices for other startups, but I’m making an exception in this case, because summer’s upon us, and I’ve been “learning” a bunch of new things, such as how to lay carpet in my basement, how to deal with insurance companies after a pipe breaking, and how to plant bushes in the front yard (OK, I admit it, I hired people to do all of these things!).
I also happen to advise a local Seattle startup called HelpHive — they work to help you find recommended Seattle plumbers, landscapers, cleaners, contractor, handyman and more — the site works much like TeachStreet, in that you can invite your friends, and share your reviews and ratings of your favorite contractors, plumbers, landscapers and more.
Why HelpHive is interesting to TeachStreeters:
And, if you happen to learn some new home improvement tips, write an article on TeachStreet and let us know!
March 11th, 2009 by Joseph
From salsa dancing to hip hop, we try our best to provide fun workshops for our community to learn new things. We were able to put together a Hip Hop Workshop last Saturday, where students were able to get an introduction to both break dancing and hip hop dancing from some great teachers.
A big thank you goes out to both Daniel Etcheto (Breakdancing Ninja) and Shinji Kasahara for taking the time to teach our community about what they do while providing a bit of a taste of their world of dancing. Along with the teachers, I’d also love to thank Marlo Martin for lending her space at eXit Space School of Dance. Without the help of the community of teachers and schools on TeachStreet, events like these wouldn’t happen, so please give you thanks today with a review or testimonial:
For more photos/videos from the event, please check out our slide show below:
There were a lot of happy, and exhausted, faces when leaving the workshop, which was great. Some fo the students wanted to know when the next workshop or event is going to be in Seattle, so please if you’re interested too — send me an e-mail of what you want to learn. If you happened to have any questions or feedback, please e-mail at joseph@teachstreet.com.
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February 24th, 2009 by Joseph
The TeachStreet Community showed up and definitely boogied the night away last Saturday to the latin beats at Century Ballroom. I’d like to thank Alison Cockrill of Century Ballroom for partnering with us to put the event together for the TeachStreet Community. If you had fun on Saturday and loved the salsa lesson, please thank Century Ballroom by leaving them a review/testimonial on TeachStreet.com.
For more photos/videos from the event, please check out our slide show below:
Thanks to everyone who came to the event, I hope you were able to learn something new and was able to showcase your salsa skills on the dance floor later that night. We weren’t able to get the raffle done that night for the “5-Week Salsa Series”, so I’ve done it today. Drumroll please…
…and the winner is: Vernon Sackie!
Congratulations Vernon, hopefully these lessons will help in doing those spins that I’ve always had trouble with.
Hopefully it was a fun event for everyone and I would love to know more about what you, as in the community, would want to learn next! Please send your feedback to me at joseph@teachstreet.com.
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