(Photo Credit: Josh Lowensohn)

Once again, SF Beta arrived in the heart of downtown San Francisco for a big night, celebrating the best of the emerging technology community. Despite an evening packed with events, attendance was strong, with hundreds of founders, developers, and the usual bunch joining us for an awesome evening.

We had demos from a number of companies, including:

• LaborFair
• TeamWork Live
• Koders
• SonicSwap
• Dotherightthing
• RateItAll
• Collanos
• eSibyl by MediaSentiment
• SustainLane
• LuckyOliver
• WipBox
• Litepost

Our event was made possible by two generous sponsors:

ServePath
ServePath provides custom managed hosting and load-balanced server networks built to meet your intensive and mission-critical requirements. All products and services are backed by ServePath’s 10,000%™ guaranteed service level agreement, the strongest in the hosting industry.

b-Hive Networks

B-hive is transforming the data center network from a conduit into the key to delivering a reliable, high-quality Web user experience. B-hive’s Transaction Intelligent Networking™ technology enables the network to analyze and route business transactions instead of IP packets. As a result, Data Center operations groups can monitor the end-user experience and optimize availability, performance and application infrastructure allocation – according to business objectives.
And last but not least, SF Beta wouldn’t be complete without photos. You can find recent sets by Brian Caldwell and Josh Lowensohn on Flickr.

For all of you coming to this week’s SF Beta, we’re proud to announce not one but TWO drink specials for your enjoyment.

First off, 111 Minna is proud to announce that Hendricks Gin will be serving drink specials all night.

In addition, we’re offering $5 Svedka specials through our new partnership with MoVoxx, the SMS coupon service. Sign up for free to get a text before the event, entitling you to an evening-long discount when you present the message at the bar.

We’re pleased to welcome two more web media outlets to the SF Beta family: Justin.tv and WebWare.

Justin.tv is fresh off the block, providing 24 hour live streaming from the life of Justin Kan, as he and the rest of his startup run amok throughout San Francisco. They’re making an official stop at the next SF Beta, so if you can’t make it, tune in for some live coverage!

WebWare is CNET’s latest foray into the Web 2.0 universe. Similar to sites like LifeHacker and TechCrunch, they cover new and emerging web apps designed to change the way we work and live. WebWare is led by Rafe Needleman, CNET Editor-at-Large and an active member in the startup community.
Both outlets will be with us at the next SF Beta. RSVP and join us, too!

If you keep up on Web 2.0 news, Web 2.0 social life, or Web 2.0 virtual worlds, we’re happy to announce some brand new members to the SF Beta community.

We are proud to announce media partnerships with two of the leading emerging technology blogs: TechCrunch and Bub.blicio.us. In addition, we’re partnering with Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, as our newest featured member.

TechCrunch is a familiar name to many of you; not only is it one of the most popular blogs in the world, but its coverage of the Web 2.0 scene knows no rival. Their entire editorial staff is invited to our mixers, and there may even be an appearance by Mike Arrington himself. (No guarantees, but it’s certainly possible.)

Bub.blicio.us, meanwhile, provides news, photos, and video blogs from the heart of the new Silicon Valley social scene. They’ve covered every one of our events from the beginning, and we’re thrilled to have them as an official sponsor.

Linden Lab, based right here in San Francisco, runs Second Life, a digital world built, owned, and imagined by over 4 million residents across the globe. They’re pioneers in the virtual world industry, taking a markedly different path than their competitors by embracing open source technology, a player-run economy, and strong IP rights for content creators.

All three of the companies will be present at current and future SF Beta mixers. So if you haven’t RSVPd yet, you now have three great reasons to do so. See you on March 29th!

More than 100 people have RSVP’d for our next event, taking place on March 29 at 111 Minna Gallery. Once again, we will have the entire venue booked from 6 to 9 PM.

We’re skipping the jazz this time, so we can direct our budget towards larger quantities of tasty food. In addition, we’re featuring demos from a dozen startups. (View the list and sign up on the SF Beta wiki.)

Here is the signup form for those looking to RSVP:

On Thursday, February 22, denizens of the technology universe descended upon SF Beta for what many people said was our best mixer yet. The mixer marked our half-year anniversary; from our humble beginnings at a tiny bar on Jesse St., it’s been a thrill to grow so fast, quickly becoming one of San Francisco’s top tech destinations.

For the first time, we invited startups to demo their sites throughout the night. The presenters included James Hong from HOTorNOT along with some YCombinator startups like Weebly, Shoutfit, and LikeBetter. While I thought the demos would draw a small but attentive crowd, they proved to be one of the night’s biggest attractions, drawing throngs of onlookers for more than three hours.
There were plenty of startup founders in the crowd, along with folks from Google, PayPal, Facebook, Adobe, Yahoo, Linden Lab, and more. My best guess is that at least 200 people attended throughout the night, and quite possibly more.
Following the event, we got mentioned across the blogosphere. Valleywag chimed in with a full story, entitled “Party Report: SF Beta at 111 Minna Gallery.” From the article:

When SF Beta began in October, it was yet another startup-meets-investor snoregasm, with the detached hipsteresque twist of making the startups pitch their ideas in haiku. Thankfully, this practice has been discontinued, leaving the demos for those who want to play with them, while the rest of us remained more bar-focused.

Meanwhile, the Bub.blicio.us video podcast crew came by to capture the action on screen. Check it out!

Thanks to everyone for an awesome night. See you in March!

It’s official! Well, okay, it’s appeared on at least one blog: SF Beta is the Web 2.0 party champ! So says none other than the undisputed king of Web 2.0 PR himself, Mr. Brian Solis, in a recent posting to StarkedSF.

Brian is the Principle at Future-Works PR and the co-founder of Bub.blicio.us, a hot new blog covering the social side of the tech economy.

From the article:

It’s a Web 2.0 rodeo and the those behind the new round-up are holding on with both hands! … The event, hosted by Christian Perry, was held at 111 Minna, which is quickly becoming the new 2.0 party HQ. This had to be the event’s biggest turnout yet.

Click here for video and more pictures from bub.blicio.us.

Got a cool startup, and looking for a new way to get the word out? Well, if you have a giant pile of cash and plane tickets to LA, not to mention an oh-so-exclusive invite, you can pitch at DEMO 07.

Or, you can forget all that, and show off your site to hundreds of people at the next SF Beta.

We’ve got four bar tables set up, and three hour-long slots for each one. That means that twelve lucky startups will have the chance to show themselves off to hundreds of developers, early adopters, and bloggers, not to mention a journalist or two.

Signing up is easy. There’s no form to fill out, and you don’t need anyone’s permission. Just visit our wiki, edit the page, and enter in your name under any open slot.

What a difference a venue makes! January 25 marked our initiation into the glamorous interiors of 111 Minna Gallery, SF Beta’s brand new home. More than 200 people packed into the front room, where the majority of our event took place.

(Photo credit: Brian Solis)

People who had attended previous events noticed a few changes. For one, we brought in a live jazz band, the Nova Jazz Quartet, who serenaded us with lovely jazz melodies throughout the night. Sauce Restaurant once again provided their masterful catering, only this time, we had a bit extra sponsorship money, so we splurged on shrimp. (Everyone loves shrimp!) The crowd had some new faces, too, including a number of folks from Linden Lab, not to mention our special guest Robert Scoble.

We had four start-ups who pitched their wares to our capacity crowd. Quizlet makes studying easy with web-based tools to build your own flash cards, tests, and so forth. GoBigNetwork connects entrepreneurs to investors from across the country. Approver makes it easy to manage files, offering an elegant alternative to email. SpotDJ lets anyone upload brief recorded comments about songs, which play in between your tracks on iTunes.

And finally, our event wouldn’t be possible without the help of our sponsors. Coming back from last month were ServePath, providing dedicated and co-location services; AboveNet, one of the market leaders in high-bandwidth fiber services (for the next YouTubes of the world); and Jacobs & Ferraro, a local law firm serving the emerging technology sector. In addition, we were joined for the first time by Laszlo Systems, which provides an open-source platform for developing rich web applications.

Thanks to everyone who came, participated, sponsored, and made our event everything it was. See you next time!

Good news! We’re all lined up for SF Beta January, and ready to make this event our biggest mixer ever. Over 135 people have RSVP’d, and with three weeks to go, who knows how big things will get.

We’re movin’ on up to 111 Minna Gallery, one of San Francisco’s top destinations for parties and events. In addition to a great new location, we’ll have plenty of perks for everyone who attends, including:

– Live Jazz music
- Catering by Sauce Restaurant
- Four startups demoing throughout the night
- Limerick Pitches with Guest MC Robert Scoble
- Free pint glass souvenirs, sponsored by ServePath

Pricing for the event is as follows:

- Developers, Founders, Designers, Investors, & Journalists: $5 Online / $10 Door- Consultants, PR, Recruiters, Lawyers, and Everyone Else: $10 Online / $20 Door

Please note: Online ticket prices go up on Tuesday, January 23. ($8 and $15, respectively.) 

You can RSVP Now on Meetup, as well as order tickets online to save a few bucks.

Looking forward to a great event, and see you there!