Last year, we experienced a lot of firsts – first official entry into the startup world, first presentation and launch of SocialWish at the DEMO conference, and first encounter with some of the challenges that entrepreneurs and startups face. Through our participation at various events, we discovered that other startups faced similar challenges and it was comforting to learn that we were not alone. We then quickly realized the benefit of a startup community, a group of people who have walked in your shoes and can lend advice and support, and in seeking such a community we experienced another first – the birth of the Third Tuesday Tech Event one year ago this month.

Meeting on the third Tuesday of every month, the Third Tuesday Tech Event brings together entrepreneurs, startups and idea people to network and share their knowledge. Participants come from diverse backgrounds and industries, with different missions and levels of experience. But all share the same interest – the desire to connect with like-minded people, find support and advice, and offer feedback and support to others.

It’s not a big event. You won’t find 50 participants attending or even 25, but that’s just how we like it. We purposely aim to gather 15 people or less in order to create a more intimate and personal experience. When attending larger events, we would find that by the end, we would end up speaking to about that number of people anyway. Plus, larger events don’t really lend themselves well to having a ”real” conversation, where you can really get to know each other. Nor do the people attending these large events always come with the intention of actually listening to other people’s issues and helping them.

When we started the Third Tuesday Tech Event, we weren’t sure how it was going to be received and if others had the same interest as us, but every month we meet new people who prove us right. Just as with our decision to create SocialWish, we’re happy we have taken the leap to create this event. We thank everyone that has attended, shared their stories and advice, and helped us build the event into the support group and startup community that it is today. We’re excited to celebrate its 1st birthday and look forward to more Third Tuesdays ahead!

For more information about the Third Tuesday Tech Event, please see the following:

• http://thirdtuesday.eventbrite.com
• http://facebook.com/socialwish
• Check the #3rdTuesday hashtag on http://twitter.com

If you would like to receive notifications about the Third Tuesday Tech Event, you can subscribe via http://thirdtuesday.eventbrite.com or send us an email with subject “Subscribe to Third Tuesday” to founder@socialwish.com

Check it out for yourself – http://mashable.com/2010/06/21/crowdsource-funds-causes-startups/

Pretty cool, don’t you think? We think so!

SocialWish is counting on you, our fans and friends, for your vote, support and spreading the word.

Why vote for SocialWish.

SocialWish believes in social good and helping others help themselves by enabling anyone to create a social fundraiser. Help us further our cause and support the community at large by voting for SocialWish. Use the power of social networking to spread the word. Our goal is 1,000 votes in 24 hours.

What is SocialWish going to do with the funds?

SocialWish could really use the money to continue promoting the SocialWish mission. If SocialWish wins the $50,000 grand prize, SocialWish will donate $5,000 of the prize money to Make a Wish Foundation. Vote for SocialWish by clicking on this Link.

More details about the contest.

The contest as described in the about section, “Got a great idea? Let .CO help turn it into a reality! .CO is the new web address that offers people and companies more choice in branding their online presence with a truly global, recognizable and credible domain. Enter the “Create Your Opportunity ” contest for a chance to win your your ideal .CO domain and $50,000!”

Yan Tsirklin is the founder of SocialWish, a site that makes fundraising easy, affordable and social. It’s a web application that takes advantage of social networking and a simple payment engine, so anyone anywhere in the world can create a social fundraiser or what we call a wish.  The company is looking for investors and general exposure.  Yan will be presenting at the NY Tech Mixer event (www.nytechmixer.com) on June 10th.

Read the interview at NY Tech Blog

NEWS OUTLETS

• PC Magazine
• TheStreet.com Press Release Pickup
• PitchEngine Profile
• VentureBeat

BLOGS/PODCASTS

• Graeme Thickins’ Tech ~ Surf Blog
• Chip Griffin’s Pardon the Disruption

VIDEO

• InLabVentures Interviews Tanya
• Current.TV DEMO Video Highlights

TWEETS

• TwitIQ

Social Commerce Site SocialWish.com Shows its Stuff at DEMO Spring 2010

Online Destination Lets People Crowdsource their Dreams

March 22, 2010 — New York and Palm Desert, Calif. — SocialWish unveiled its online destination for making wishes come true to a packed house and a live online audience at the DEMO Spring 2010 Conference today. SocialWish enters the Social Commerce category with a site that combines social networking with ecommerce, allowing people to post their wish — whether it’s altruistic, materialistic or anywhere in-between — and reach out to their personal community to help make it happen. It is now accepting email addresses for a closed beta.

SocialWish makes wish lists both universal and collaborative. Make a wish — for yourself or someone else — and share it with others on SocialWish to make it come true. This can be through social gifting by wishing for that new TV for you or camera for your friend; or it can be through social fundraising by helping fund a big donation for your favorite charity. Contribute any amount toward a wish, and make your donations publicly or confidentially.

Founded on a Birthday Wish

“SocialWish started when my wife Tanya asked me to update my Amazon wish list before my birthday. My friends were all asking what they could get me. The fact is, I wanted an expensive Canon lens and I knew I couldn’t ask any one person to spring for it,” said CEO and Co-Founder Yan Tsirklin. “That’s when it hit us: why can’t we make it easy for groups of people to get together on a single item?”

“Social technologies are no longer just about communicating between people,” said Matt Marshall, Executive Producer of DEMO. “We’re seeing a blending of technologies in which social networking and commerce come together to allow the type of product that has emerged with SocialWish.”

One List to Rule Them All

SocialWish works for a range of desires, whether your focus is gifts, charitable giving, even education. The site enables people to come together to achieve a financial goal, whether that’s buying a camera for a budding photographer or sending a student to study in an exotic locale. Ideas are endless, but include:

• Weddings in which the couple has a long-term financial goal that guests can help them achieve, like paying off debt or buying a house;
• Parents looking for more interesting ways to combine birthday gift giving with charitable donations or long-term educational goals;
• Professionals in need of new skills or equipment to help advance their careers; or
• An individual starting a business.

People Want Control Over their Own Gifts

Designed to fuse the popularity and interface of social networking with the consumer drive behind online wish lists and gift cards, SocialWish advances the idea of the online “wish list” beyond a simple registry. Amazon.com unveiled the online wish list more than a decade ago, which was a digital advancement and expansion of the wedding registry pioneered by legendary department store Marshall Field’s in 1924. Over the years these lists have expanded in importance and been made more accessible thanks to the Internet, but until now it was a one-to-one activity. A person put items on the list and individuals bought those items as gifts.

“When you consider that one of the primary gifts given over the holidays were gift cards and that millions of people have online wish lists, it’s obvious that people want more control over their own gifts. At SocialWish we want to help people achieve that, no matter how large the purchase,” said Tsirklin.

SocialWish democratizes the process by helping groups of people easily come together to fulfill a wish. Users can build a wish on the web site by entering a wish name, filling in details, and then sharing the wish online through socially-integrated options like e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

Pricing and Availability

SocialWish is currently in a closed beta. To apply to be a beta user simply go to www.socialwish.com and enter your email address. Wishes are free to create and share; each contribution includes a small handling charge. Payouts come in the form of a SocialWish-branded prepaid Visa card that includes a one-time $4 charge to cover shipping and handling fees.

About SocialWish

SocialWish is dedicated to helping people realize the full potential of social commerce, social gifting and social fundraising. Founded in 2009, the company enables people to create, share and collaborate on big-ticket purchases, charitable contributions or any situation in which people can collaborate to reach a financial goal. With a commitment to wish-fulfillment, SocialWish donates 10 percent of its profits to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. You can find SocialWish online at www.socialwish.com.

About DEMO
Produced by the IDG Enterprise events group, the worldwide DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products innovations, which are hand selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying cutting-edge technologies and helping entrepreneurs secure venture funding and establish critical business. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/.

Editorial Contacts
Chuck Tanowitz or Todd Van Hoosear
Fresh Ground, Inc.
socialwish@itsfreshground.com
617.575.9643