In my summary post on the TechCrunch Disrupt event I mentioned my startup has been changing quite a bit recently. This is why I haven’t been posting much lately; I’ve been spending most of my time figuring out the best application to focus on.

I went to TechCrunch Disrupt pitching an idea that was tangent to a core aspect of my video chatting startup. One of the things I really want to accomplish through ShuffleChat is connecting RELEVANT people from all around the world to video chat based on very specific and advanced criteria. Essentially I want to create an automated social networking platform that is video-chat-centric.

However, there are major barriers to accomplishing this dream, such as the extremely technical matching system/algorithm. It will also require exponentially more users than random video chatting websites- all of which already have major difficulties obtaining enough users to make a useful service.

A new application: I’ve always felt that networking at large business/industry events has been very inefficient. You can only talk to so many people in a limited amount of time and theres very little indication of who is relevant. Yet we have these smart phones that can/should be able to communicate with each other wirelessly to alert people when there is someone relevant nearby.

So I want to introduce: Relevant2.Me – A concept for a new platform that will understand everything about you as a person and help you find and connect with other people you really need to meet.

For example, you could use the service to find friends, co-founders, business deals, mentors, artists, and other synergistic people/connections.

As you can guess, I’ve always been interested in the concept of context and relevance. My previous startup focused on crowd-sourcing relevant links for blog posts. Now I’m applying the concept to something I feel is more important: People.

I understand and appreciate how the web has enabled people to connect in more ways than ever before, but I still think we can provide tools such as Relevant2.Me to nudge people in establishing productive connections and relationships.

I know I can’t make this happen all by myself, so I’m looking for help. If you’re interested in Relevant2.Me, please contact me. Also feel free to post any comments, suggestions, and or critiques on the concept below.

Lastly, check back to my blog later for updates on my other side projects. I will also be posting interesting business ideas I’ve been accumulating but decided I don’t have the time, resources, or passion to execute. [tweetmeme]

In one word: Inspiring

TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 was pretty good timing for me. My startup has been changing directions over the past few weeks and it was time to take a step back and see what everyone else has been working on for a few days. The event definitely gave me some valuable perspective. After talking to a few dozen people I began to see where I personally fit into the ecosystem. There were dozens of exhibitors and I probably talked to more than half of them. The quality ranged from laughable to quite impressive.

The few startups that stood out to me:

6rounds is a really cool video chat platform that allows users to play games, watch youtube videos together, and more. Looking forward to speaking with Dany Fishel (Founder & CEO) about a potential partnership with my startup.

One i.tv’s new features include aggregating and attributing comments around the web to points in time in videos. They are also linking live (and non-live) TV with webpages. This among other things could seriously improve TV news.

There were a few other good looking startups, but the ones I listed above I think could really take off.

At first I wasn’t sure how good the event would be for me. I didn’t really know anyone else going and you could say my networking skills are below average. Fortunately, my good friend Alex Debelov from Babson came down last minute and we had a great time working the event to meet some of the top players.

Highlights from the event:

• I met another entrepreneur from my very small (1sq mile) hometown in Califon, NJ.
• I met Matt Coffin, a Babson alum who founded LowerMyBills.com and sold it for $330m. Now he’s very active angel investor.
• I received feedback from several VC and Angel investors, including Wesley Chan from Google Ventures. Although Wesley didn’t ‘get’ my pitch during the VC speed dating event, he was cool enough to grab a few drinks together at the after-party and talk about entrepreneurship among other things.
• I also met many of the staff from TechCrunch, including their CEO Heather Harde, who desperately needed my advice on which shoes to wear to the after party. The black ones were the obvious choice.
• And last but far from least, I welcomed Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) to the event Wednesday morning. I even had the opportunity get his thoughts on my startup’s new direction.  The best part was that his feedback was the final thumbs up I needed to hit the ground running.

Overall it was a great event and in conclusion, now is the time to crush it!

Less than 9 weeks left until D-Day.

For the last few months I’ve been working hard on a web startup called ShuffleChat. In short, ShuffleChat is taking the proven concept of random/speed video chatting, pioneered by chatroulette, and bringing it to the next level. To start ShuffleChat is eliminating the pornographic stereotype associated with chatroulette and random video chatting by implementing better accountability & moderation. Overall ShuffleChat is building a brand around speed video chatting for higher quality user engagements.

I’m happy to announce that I’ve been accepted into the Babson Summer Venture Program (SVP) to incubate ShuffleChat!

This is very exciting, because throughout this program I will receive free housing, working space, resources, and mentors. Additionally, at the end of the program there is a demo day for every business to present in front of angel investors and venture capitalists. This is an entrepreneur’s dream summer.

My grand vision for ShuffleChat is very ambitious, but with enough help and support from Babson and others I know it is possible.

Now the only thing left to do is not get too distracted and finish the end of my semester with good grades for finals. Wish me luck!

I started working on a new startup company in January 2010.

Due to this new responsibility and time consumption, the blog I’ve been planning and writing will be delayed until the summer.

I want to make sure I have high quality content for my readers, and this requires additional time and effort. I have over 50 quality blog posts planned from the lessons I’ve learned from my past ventures. I don’t want to be posting fluff content like other bloggers do.

So please be patient while I get everything ready. I plan on posting a minimum of twice a week for a full year once I fully launch the blog. That’s my commitment. Pre-writing everything is very important because managing school, business, and a blog won’t be an easy task.

I’ll be posting more details later. In the mean time, check out my story.