Self-Help for Startups

Ultra Light Startups is giving entrepreneurs—many of them newly laid-off employees—a chance to test their pitches on an audience of their peers

By Heather Green

It's an unseasonably warm January evening, and the darkened office in lower Manhattan is packed. This is the monthly meeting of a new group for entrepreneurs called Ultra Light Startups. Sheraz Sharif, a lanky 30-year-old, stands up to pitch his idea, looking over the crowd of 80 sitting on white foldout chairs and floral print couches. He doesn't have a Web site yet. Instead, he points to a one-page outline projected onto a massive roll of paper hanging from the ceiling. It describes his plan to create a site for product reviews aimed at Hispanic Americans. "There are few sites going after this culture, and it's the fastest-growing U.S. population," says Sharif.

A buzzer on the moderator's iPhone trills. The one minute allotted for each entrepreneur's pitch is up. "I'd really welcome feedback," Sharif hurriedly adds before dropping into his seat.

Starting Up on the Cheap

Ultra Light Startups was founded 10 months ago by Graham Lawlor, a tall, blond 35-year-old who used to work on technology projects in the financial sector. As Lawlor says repeatedly throughout the night, the group is set up exclusively for entrepreneurs. Venture capitalists or large businesses trying to sell services are strictly forbidden. Lawlor wants entrepreneurs to be able to share freely their advice for starting companies on the cheap and keeping as much control as possible.

The group has taken off partly because of the rough economy. Fifteen people showed up at the first session last April. But during the past year, attendance began climbing and changing. While the meeting draws serial Web entrepreneurs, increasingly it's people who've been laid off from financial firms, ad agencies, and media companies—or those sick of worrying about when the ax will strike—who are showing up. "With the economy now, there is so much fear and such an unwillingness for most people to take a risk that it's a wonderful opportunity to start a company," says Sharif, who was laid off from advertising firm DDB in December. "Finding a group of people who want to come together and take advantage of this is what I needed."

Meetings for techies take place in cities all around the U.S. But after doing the rounds in New York, Lawlor felt there was room for one focused on entrepreneurs. "I'm willing to open up my kimono when I know that everyone is doing the same," says Lawlor, who worked at Deutsche Bank (DB) and UBS (UBS) before leaving to get a master's in economics and focus on his own startup ideas. "That's only possible where everyone in the room is an entrepreneur and going through the same thing." Sharif and 40 others go through the pitching exercise; the rest of the attendees are panel members or people who are planning to pitch in a month or two. It costs $5 a head to participate, so Lawlor can order in food for the group.

Tonight's meeting, in the borrowed offices of a Web video developer, follows an established pattern. One by one, the entrepreneurs get up and describe their startups, ranging from Proper Cloth, an online retailer that sells custom shirts, to Unype, a service people use with Facebook and other social-networking sites to track their friends' geographic locations. The entrepreneurs use the minute to try out their pitches, explain what's working, and list the help they need.

During a 20-minute pizza break, armed with info from the pitches, attendees make a beeline for people they think they can help or learn from. Then the rustling audience is called back to their seats to listen to a practical panel. The discussion this time, about a revenue-model workshop, hits close to home.