siliconbeachla

[siliconbeachla]

AMA: Silicon Beach VC, Mark Mullen - Today (2:30pm PST)

TODAY IS THE DAY!! #SiliconBeach VC, Mark Mullen is doing our first #SiliconBeachAMA! Get your questions and pitches ready! ---> http://bit.ly/1gd7bez To Participate:

1. Create your profile on the Silicon Beach social network by clicking 'Create Account' at the top of the homepage ---> http://social.siliconbeachla.com

2. Complete your profile by clicking on your profile icon and selecting 'Settings' once you've confirmed your account through email verification. The more social links and information the better. If Mark thinks you or your idea are interesting it makes it easier for him to connect with you after the AMA.

3. Get your questions and pitches ready! Mark will be on from 2:30pm - 3:00pm PST selecting questions to answer. Make sure your question is interesting and compelling enough to elicit a response. Mark won't have time to answer them all and he chooses which he wants to respond to.

4. If you plan to make a pitch of any kind keep in mind that Mark doesn't invest in consumer web startups and it's better to ask for advice on your startup concept/premise as opposed to "Hey, wanna invest?".

5. And finally, and most importantly, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! This is a phenomenal opportunity to chat with one of LA's most active startup investors. He has a wealth of knowledge around a number of industries and as such he's a very busy guy. Make sure you take a moment to google the other companies he's involved with to get a sense of where he's coming from.

See you at 2:30pm, make sure to set an alarm cause there will be others posting their questions/pitches and he'll only have 30 minutes!

***Never participated in an AMA before? Here's a quick reference guide of the history and how it works ---> http://webtrends.about.com/od/Reddit-Web/a/What-Is-A-Reddit-Ama.htm

***Mark is an investor in LA companies including; Tradesy, SHIFT, SpaceX, Bitium, EdgeCast Networks, Adly, Scopely, GumGum, Retention Science, MomentFeed, TrueCar, Factual, Postcard On The Run, Pose, CrossCut Ventures, Burstly, ChowNow, and more.

[siliconbeachla]

Lessons Learned at General Assembly’s UX Hackathon

By: Sara Clayton

Online Editor at The Daily Trojan

President/Founder of Girls In Tech - USC

______

With [Silicon Beach LA] area events like HackTech, LA Hacks and Startup Weekend alive and buzzing, it would be an understatement to say that hackathons are catching on. These days, hackers are the new rockstars and hackathons are their stages. Spending your weekend building something completely from scratch with just your computer and lines of code is a pretty impressive feat.

But this weekend’s Hackathon, aptly called Redesign: A UX Hackathon, was a little different. Instead of a crowd of hard-core programmers roaming about at General Assembly’s Santa Monica location, there were people with skill sets of all kinds meeting and working with each other. And instead of just a bunch of college students, industry professionals and General Assembly students were also among the people in attendance.

At around 10:15 a.m. or so, most groups were formed and a welcome presentation was given. Not too long after, each group leader was sent to pick two randomly pick our Hackathon assignments: one topic and one “wrench,” or something that would give our project more structure. Topics included law, healthcare, and food while “wrenches” included “there’s an app for that” as well as “the end of brick and mortar.”

From then until 4 p.m. (with a couple of breaks included), all 16 groups started brainstorming, sketching and wireframing based on their assignments. To make it easier on the judges, a straightforward guideline was announced to all groups, which included picking just one website to redesign, creating three personas and storytelling the whole process.

The final minutes came up much quicker than expected, and they were spent scrambling about, copying and pasting user flows and journeys onto minimalist powerpoint presentations. Soon enough, time was up and presentations began.

Everything from cleaner banking website interfaces to hands-free recipe assistance applications were shared in quick five-minute presentations. The level of professionalism in these presentations and projects were, to say the least, outstanding.

In the end, UX Army took first place for its redesign of Sephora’s makeup application section, with The Wicked Freelancers and Team OCD tied for second and third place. But even for those who didn’t place in the top three, no team left empty-handed.

Hackathons usually imply the need for technical skills in programming or web development. But since the demand for hackathons is fairly high for those who may not necessarily have these said skills, hackathons are starting to be defined simply as events where people come together to build something, be it a new mobile application or a website redesign.

General Assembly’s Hackathon certainly wasn’t the typical hackathon, but because passion and enthusiasm, and not necessarily a mastery of Ruby on Rails, proved to be the most valuable assets here, it was definitely a success.

______

______

*Connect with Sara and the rest of the Silicon Beach community by creating your own profile on the Silicon Beach social network

*To submit an article, blog post, or link to the Silicon Beach LA team for distribution, email INFO@SiliconBeachLA.com