We are pleased to announce our latest additions to the Disrupt SF agenda, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the ultimate angel, Ron Conway. Add this to our earlier announcement of Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and former New York Schools chancellor Joel Klein and expect to walk away with unique insights and unexpected inspiration. Sign up to see these visionary leaders right here.
Disrupt SF starts with a Hackathon where Hackers come from all over to share their skills and tricks with each other in order to build a product within 24 hours. Drinks and snacks are served, and as you can imagine with no sleep, things are known to get a little crazy. In a good way. The winners of the Hackathon are invited to share their creations on the Disrupt stage on the last day of the conference in front of all to see. Past Hackathon winners have included: Docracy who went on to raise $600,000 from First Round Capital, the judges’ favorite Gilt-ii, and even the hilarious Venture Crapital. Be sure to check out all of our winners from our last Hackathon in SF.
Disrupt SF will officially begin on September 10th going through the 12th. The three days of the main event will consist of talks with top founders and investors in tech, as well as some special guests. This is followed by Startup Battlefield where two dozen startups will battle it out for the ultimate prize: the Disrupt Cup, $50,000, and everything that comes with it. We have already received some amazing applications, however for those still wanting to participate and feel like you’ve got what it takes, applications for Startup Battlefield will end today, this Friday at 11:59pm PT. Those still interested can APPLY NOW.
We hope to see you all there. Extra Early Bird tickets are still on SALE NOW. Check back weekly for ticket giveaways, as well as more announcements of speakers and special guests. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, opportunities can be found here.
43rd Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco
Edwin M. Lee, 59, was sworn in on January 8, 2012 as the 43rd Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. Lee is the first Asian-American mayor in San Francisco history. Lee was elected on November 8, 2011 by the people of San Francisco while he was serving as Interim Mayor, appointed unanimously as successor mayor by the Board of Supervisors on January 11, 2011 to fill the remaining year of former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term who was sworn in as California’s Lieutenant Governor.
While serving as Interim Mayor, Lee championed balancing the budget to keep San Francisco safe, solvent and successful, reforming City pensions, economic development, job creation and public safety as his top priorities. Mayor Lee has worked hard to keep the economy and economic recovery on track, create jobs for residents and everything that supports a thriving economic climate like parks, transit, housing, quality of life in neighborhoods and public safety. In the current term, Mayor Lee will keep his focus on economic development and job creation, taking responsibility for building San Francisco’s future, taking responsibility for helping each other and making City government more responsive, efficient and accountable through innovation and technology. This is what it will take to keep San Francisco a thriving, diverse, dynamic city of great neighborhoods, but also one that is a global hub for innovation and new economy industries.
In 2010, Mayor Lee was appointed to a second term as City Administrator by Mayor Newsom and his appointment was confirmed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors. As City Administrator, Mayor Lee spearheaded government efficiency measures and reforms that reduced the size and cost of government, from reducing the vehicle fleet to consolidating departments and back office functions to save tax dollars. He implemented the City’s move to cleaner vehicles and an infrastructure to support electric vehicles and green City government. Mayor Lee also developed and oversaw implementation of the City’s first ever Ten Year Capital Plan to guide our capital priorities and infrastructure investment.
Angel, SV Angel
Ronald Conway has been an active angel investor for over 15 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail.
Ron was previously with National Semiconductor Corporation in marketing positions from 1973-1979, and Altos Computer Systems as a co-founder, President and CEO from 1979-1990. He eventually took Altos public in 1982 and served as CEO of Personal Training Systems (PTS) from 1991-1995. PTS went on to be acquired by SmartForce/SkillSoft. Ron has served/serves on Boards/Advisory Boards including: Twitter, Digg, Brightmail, Ask Jeeves, Rupture (acquired by EA), Associated Content(acquired by Yahoo!), Facebook, RockYou, ScanScout, Zappos, Trulia, StumbleUpon, Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Photobucket (acquired by Fox), and Anchor Intelligence (co-founder).
Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top “deal-makers” in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. Ron is Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation in SF, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation.
Conway is also featured in Gary Rivlin’s book The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as ‘the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley.’