Self-Help for Startups

(page 2 of 2)

The crowd carefully listens for two hours as five early-stage venture capitalists and startup consultants critique the business models of five young companies. Each month, the panel is convened beforehand by Lawlor. He invited VCs to help review the business models of five young companies for the January meeting.

Seeing Opportunity in a Downturn

At the break, there's a nearly unanimous sense among the entrepreneurs that starting a company during a downturn means cheaper talent, less competition, and more independence. "I wanted to take the opportunity to be the one in control of innovation and work on something that I believe in," says Jennie Baird, who co-founded Generation Grownup, a group of niche parenting sites, after being laid off last year as the editor-in-chief of iVillage, a women's site owned by NBC Universal (GE). Baird's startup is growing and covers its costs. But in the face of dwindling rates for online banner ads, she came to Ultra Light Startups for help recruiting sponsors. "Just the fact that people are excited is good to be around," says Baird, who makes connections she follows up with later.

There have been no breakout hits so far. But through the Ultra Light group, startup Web design shops and online ad services have signed up new clients and attendees have found jobs. In August, 28-year-old Alicia Gibb, a robotics enthusiast, met another entrepreneur who invited her to lunch with the head of human resources at a New York startup called Bug Labs. A month later she had a job with the company, which sells kits that snap together to build customized digital cameras or GPS locators.

For Sharif, who moved to New York from Miami in December, the pitch session was a chance to test his idea in front of others and get a better understanding of how attendees finance their ideas. During the break, he networks in a corner of the room with a group of people, including someone starting a Spanish-language social-networking site and another person who advises him to build a translation engine and consider partnerships with existing review sites. It may be an odd time for optimism, but Sharif is upbeat. "I was laid off, and it felt like it was time," he says. "Now that I am here, I'm going to be aggressive."

Green is an associate editor for BusinessWeek .