After a month-long hiatus, 1 Million Cups is shaking off the slumber and caffeinating the community once again, on Wednesday January 7, 9:15 AM at the Stage at Island Park.
Kicking off the year as the first presenter is Josh Christy, who has established himself as one of Fargo’s prominent movers and shakers; this year alone he founded Codelation, a tech-consulting company, he led the development of Booth, a product he will be presenting on this week, and he partnered with Matthew Sullivan to organize a group called Prairie I/O, which he hopes will act as a tech umbrella for Fargo to really connect the techies in our community.
In short, Christy is serious about turning Fargo into a prominent tech hub in Silicon Prairie.
Christy (front, left) and the rest of the team at Booth, seated with some customers of Booth to talk about evolving the product.
A little background on Booth: Booth is a telecommunication management system that allows one to write call rules around time, location, and 3rd party integrations. It’s designed specifically for businesses and entrepreneurs, to avoid the inconvenience of using your cell phone for work.
Christy and his team have been modifying this product since its conceptualization in 2014. In September, they placed as one of Fargo’s Hottest Showcasing Startups in a competition lead by Tech Cocktail, and presented their product at the Tech Cocktail Celebrate conference in Las Vegas.
Booth team members Brian Pattison (left) and Josh Christy (right) at Tech Cocktail Celebrate conference in Las Vegas, October 2014.
Now, Christy will be sharing behind-the-scenes on where Booth is at now, and what he needs from this community to help it grow. We had a short Q&A to learn more what this Wednesday will entail:
Q: Without giving too much away, can you summarize what you will be presenting on this Wednesday?
A: We’ll be summarizing the first 6 months from concept to development to launch here in January. We’re presenting at 1 Million Cups to get feedback from the community and to help us better describe our service. When we talk about it to someone new we always seem to find a unique use case for the platform. This helps us better describe and understand what it could become. I’m personally presenting in the hopes that it will help someone chase a dream or an idea that they’ve been sitting on.
Q: After taking a month-long break, what are some things you are looking forward to experiencing again at the first 1 Million Cups of 2015?
A: I’m looking forward to getting re-energized about Fargo’s startup scene. In December we presented in 1MC Grand Forks and Bismarck. It’s awesome to see those communities growing and innovating. So after a month off here in Fargo I’m pumped to be able to present and share our product.
Q: What do you see is the value of presenting at 1 Million Cups for your startup?
A: For our startup, I’m hoping that we’ll continue to validate our idea and find new ways to help solve the problems of our target market.
In addition to learning more about Booth, attendees also have the opportunity to converse with old and newcomers over coffee, hear a multitude of announcements on local events and business opportunities, and ask questions directly to the ideators as to how their products work and what we as a community can do to help.
Coffee is provided by Danielson Legal, so all you have to bring is a mug. Let us know you’re coming, here!
Photo taken by Marisa Jackels.
