The word went out today that Twiistup is now accepting applications for their coveted show off spots. The upcoming Twiistup, which takes place this July, is in its sixth year and continues to grow and evolve with the communities ever changing needs. The people behind Twiistup may have changed but the judging of the showoff’s has stayed the same. There are a total of 10 slots available for innovative startups to showcase their products at this one of a kind tech event . The organizers have realized the necessity of a larger venue and have secured the biggest location

Just got our hands on the list of speakers for the upcoming Twiistup event and it’s jam packed. Ian Rogers – Former business partner of the Beastie Boys, now CEO of Topspin Media Mark Suster – GRP Partners, venture capital.  No longer just a great Let’s take a look at some of the confirmed speakers: Jason Calacanis – Serial entrepreneur, founder of Mahalo

The word went out today that Twiistup is now accepting applications for their coveted show off spots. The upcoming Twiistup, which takes place this July, is in its sixth year and continues to grow and evolve with the communities ever changing needs. The people behind Twiistup may have changed but the judging of the showoff’s has stayed the same. There are a total of 10 slots available for innovative startups to showcase their products at this one of a kind tech event . The organizers have realized the necessity of a larger venue and have secured the biggest location

For our Insights and Opinions section today, we have a piece from GRP Partners' Mark Suster , who--after watching and judging pitches at last week's Twiistup event--gives some hints and tips about how not to suck at presentations. It's a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. This Most people suck at presenting to big groups . This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA.

Most of the technology community in Los Angeles is familiar with the Twiistup events, which mixes startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and others in what has been a fashionable and casual environment — last time, in a private hangar in Santa Monica in “Blade Runner” style decor. Twiistup is selecting 10 companies who present their firm at the event, which is transitioning into a two-day event at the Universal Hilton in Universal City.  Francisco Dao, the new producer of the event, tells me that applications are still open to apply for the next event, and that they’re looking for interesting and innovative startups to showcase at the event.

First, I’d like to quote (paraphrase) Brad Feld speaking at Twiistup in LA in 2009, “I keep hearing people in LA talking with a chip on their shoulders about building a tech business here relative to Silicon Valley.  I Never say never – GRP Partners is actually looking very closely at a company in its A round that is raising a large sum of money.  I’m Los Angeles.  People People either love it our hate it.  All

Funnily enough I was at the Twiistup conference yesterday and I was chatting with an engineer whom I really like and he told me that he enjoyed reading this series but that now he wasn’t sure he was ready to see me because he wasn’t sure that he scored highly enough on all attributes.  So She asked if she could fly the next day to meet with me and my partners.  I This is part of my series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on  VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

Last week, one of those never-ending topics of discussion came up at Twiistup on a panel about whether or not Southern California was a good place to put your startup. On one side, you had Mark Suster of GRP Partners and Mike Jones of MySpace who were saying “yes”, and on the other side, you had Jamie Montgomery of Montgomery and Co. , It was, at least for me, somewhat of a downer and David Sacks of Geni/Yammer , who were saying “maybe/no”. The issue, highlighted by Sacks’ announcement that he was moving Yammer to Silicon Valley,