As a startup based in San Francisco, I'm spoiled.  During any given week, there are countless social and professional startup events -- more than I could ever keep up with, even if I tried.  There's demo events for techies showing off their newest gadgets.  Pitch seminars for new founders learning the ways of fundraising.  Networking forums connecting entrepreneurs with co-founders and other team members.  Even incubator programs like the one I graduated from.  These are the catalysts of the startup world -- they pollinate ideas, connect point A to point B and generate the buzz needed for mainstream adoption.  From the city to the Peninsula to South Bay, entrepreneurship is ingrained in the culture of the Bay Area.  Living here, it's sometimes easy to forget just how lucky I am.

I was reminded of my good fortune last night, when I presented at Vator Splash, a startup event hosted by vator.tv in San Francisco.  The event was held at a very unique and fun venue, Cafe du Nord in the Castro neighborhood.  For the evening, the vaulted wooden walls of this traditional Swedish-American event hall were wallpapered with posters bearing the logos of up-and-coming startup companies hoping to catch the attention of an investor or media journalist.  What I quickly realized was that my 5 minute commute to the event was a convenience few other presenting companies shared.  I met ChangeUpMag, a cool lifestyle publication out of Baltimore.  Vokle, a live streaming events company drove up from Los Angeles.  CrowdFusion, a publishing platform, hailed from New York.  Though I didn't meet them, the guys from Vidli came from Denver and MyEGamer drove 18 hours from Kansas!  Yet, there we all were, squished in an intimate cafe in San Francisco, united by a love for startups.  We were a mile away from my apartment :-)

I exhibited Rentcycle at a table where my wife sported her green Rentcycle T-shirt and was, once again, my co-founder for the evening.  She's becoming quite the pro at fielding questions from VC's and techies alike!  She actually saved my butt a few times and scored key business cards while I had to work out the technical difficulties of my presentation.  Unfortunately, my diligence wasn't enough to ward off some glitches in my presentation.  My video demo failed during my 3 minutes in the limelight.  For a moment, I felt paralyzed, but then I proceeded.  I did my best remaining cool and collected, touting the current challenges in the rental industry, how Rentcycle is solving them and how we're building a successful business doing just that.  Barring the audience question about whether you can rent a monkey on Rentcycle, I seemed to recover for the most part and leave the audience with good vibes.

After an entertaining presentation by Mark Pincus of Zynga, the event's MC, Robert Scoble -- a personal tech idol who I follow -- revealed the results of an audience-wide vote for the top presenting startup.  Although I heard him say "Rentcycle," I didn't believe.  I was sure I had blown my chances with the technical glitch, yet there was Robert Scoble waving me up to the stage.  It was surreal -- my wife actually had to tell me to stand up and walk to the stage.  Soon, I was on-the-spot once again, giving a 90 second elevator pitch on Rentcycle to the audience.  After which, a panel for 4 venture capitalists critiqued Rentcycle in a live version of Vator Box.  The feedback was positive and the panelists were gracious.  The night ended with a bottle of champagne, presented to me by vator.tv CEO, Bambi Francisco.  Here's a great write-up of the panel discussion.

It was a night to remember.  Rentcycle's first big splash!  I could feel new doors starting to open -- hopefully with more to come.  As I took the 5 minute car ride back to my Nob Hill apartment, I once again felt lucky for where I am at this moment in my life.  Thanks, San Francisco.

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