Monday, October 26, 2009

Los Angeles Technology Connector – Kurt Daradics

Kurt Daradics (Facebook, @KurtyD, FriendFeed, MySpace, LinkedIn, Delicious) (pronounced dare-a-dix) is a great guy to know.  He recently co-founded CitySourced and I think Ben Kuo nailed him when he describes him as  "a connector. someone who makes things happen, and knows everyone, and does his best to make the world a better place."  Kurt has a great background in sales and marketing. He is well known in the Southern California Technology scene for his work producing the Digital Family event series, along with the MOTM (Meeting of the Minds) series.

What are you working on now?

I've recently co-founded the first political social network FreedomSpeaks and CitySourced.com a real time mobile civic engagement tool. CitySourced provides a free, simple, and intuitive tool empowering citizens to identify civil issues (potholes, graffiti, trash, snow removal, etc.) and report them to city hall for quick resolution; an opportunity for government to use technology to save money and improve accountability to those they govern; and a positive, collaborative platform for real action.

We were in the finals at TechCrunch50 this year and are waking up the neighborhood with our mobile application.

I'm also still busy working with Baron Miller to produce MOTM (Meeting of the Minds), which is a curated, invite only conversation we produce in SoCal. We have regular monthly meetings in Westlake Village, Hollywood, Santa Barbara, & Newport Beach.

I'm hoping that Baron and Kurt come up with one that's in Santa Monica / West LA.  I've heard great things about their events.

What's keeping you up at night?

Closing our our round and dealing with all the inbound requests.

You are a really great networker and help put on great networking events, what do you think about the concept of visible networking? What should I do to make this a good use of time?

Any sort of networking that gives more context is a plus in my book. That's why folks dig the MOTM events I produce. They can figure out who they really want to connect with.

What networking events in Los Angeles or Southern California do you go to? What was the best one you’ve been to recently?

Well obviously the Digital Family and MOTM events that I co-produce. I like Ken's METal Breakfasts. Digital LA is fun when I want to be social.

Besides Tony Karrer for technology, who are some of your go to people in Los Angeles?

There are too many to mention.  You should check out my blog for my 'go to' people - I have them listed on my posse section. 

That really is a good list of folks.  A few in there that I definitely wanted to capture.  Quite a few of these folks I already know, but I'm certainly going to be reaching out to more of them based on your recommendation.

No comments: