So as I previously promised, I’m now going to briefly tell the story behind “startuplay” – the brand, the name, the future (well… forget the last part, there isn’t any). Once upon a time when I still lived in Silicon Valley and worked 12 hour days as an engineer, it occurred to me that I should use my leadership skills to lead the engineers of the valley to the social circles that most of them despise for lack of technical thought (feel free to give this sentence a smile). Of course my real deep intentions were a bit wicked, but I will leave that for the end.

The nature of events was such that I would invite 20 or so young engineers to a small Thursday night get-together event at an even smaller startup. There we would set up ping-pong, the all traditional foosball table, and other games “all that is startup.” Pizza and beer were always popular but I guess I was too busy running around pitching these guys (engineers that is) to VP’s and CEO’s, that I hardly had time to fill myself up (which is what we all seem to do now days). And of course with valley’s VC environment it was not a problem meeting all these startup executives at different WEB2.0 “shows”. After several successful events, I was asked by some PR guy wherever I charge reasonably for these things – less than 7K that is (I had the same reaction, believe me)? People actually make money from these things, I though to myself. I guess with Google locking all Valley’s human capital within its headquarters, I was in the right place at the right time.

However, it wasn’t meant to be. I soon got seriously involved with my own previous startup and simply lost track of all things “external.” But no worries - the story has a happy end. I recently joined a group that organizes events in China (of a different nature of course), with a slight distinction that here we get 300 to 400 students show up for each single lecture; what a great country!

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