NetSuds hosts quarterly social/business gatherings on weeknights for professionals in the telecom, datacom, IT and Internet markets to network. These are called "NetSuds Gatherings", "NetSuds" or just "Suds". NetSuds held monthly "Entrepreneurs Breakfast" between September 1999 and November 2001.  With the fall-off in VC and IPO activity, these breakfast events have been less regular.  We've also introduced the BOB (best of business) breakfast to focus on companies with a good story but who may not necessarily be looking for equity capital. Special events include special editions of the monthly Entrepreneurs Breakfast like the November 28, 2000 Entrepreneurs Breafast and the Fall 2000 National Entrepreneur Conference in Santa Clara, CA. Other special events are being planned. Contact matt.noah@netsuds.com for more information.  Our two biggest events now are the yearly Minnesota Venture Capital Conference - www.mnvcc.com -  and International Business Development Conference - www.ibdconference.com - ; held in May every year.

NetSuds does not charge a membership fee.  Breakfast event fees are nominal. To be a "member", simply sign up on one or more of the email lists. The reason most events have been free is due to the generous support of our sponsors.  With the reduction in company marketing budgets, we have been forced to either cease operations or charge a nominal amount to attend.  We chose to charge.

To immediately become a sponsor, contact matt.noah@netsuds.com or call 952.934.5424 and ask for Matt Noah. Sponsorship cost is located in the downloadable files shown below.   Our goal is to make sponsorship a win-win-win (sponsor, attendees, NetSuds) proposition for all involved!

There are both tangible and intangible benefits to being a NetSuds sponsor. You will have to evaluate the intangible. To see the tangible benefits, download the documents in section 3 above. For special events, contact me at matt.noah@netsuds.com.  If you have special needs/goals for your sponsorship and/or for a particular event, we will work with you to help you attain your goals.

The people who attend NetSuds in Minnesota are CEOs, COOs, CIOs, VPs in Marketing, Sales, Business Development and Technology.  We get engineers and IT managers from every kind of corporation. People who run LANs and WANs. People who build web sites. People who make it all happen. We attract investors from St. Paul VC, Amex, Portage and Crescendo Ventures as well as many angel investors.  We attract equipment providers like ADC, Avaya, Optical Solutions, Lucent, Cisco and Ciprico. We have IT managers and professionals from 3M, Daytons, ixMatch.com, Net Perceptions, Fingerhut, CDC, etc.  We attract service providers like Integra Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Sprint, Qwest, visi.com, Agiliti and Onvoy.  We get the "type A" personalities; driven, focused, intelligent.  These are mostly the decision makers.   Most attendees are from the metro area although we do get some regional participation; guys come from Blue Earth, Fargo, St. Cloud, Mankato, Rochester.  We get the exceptional person from NY, Chicago and Silicon Valley.

The group started in November 1998 and has grown steadily. We gather every 3 months.  Attendance has grown from 20 (11/98) to 55 (2/99) to 110 (5/99) to 150 (8/99) to 225 (11/99)  to 315 (2/00) to 670 (5/00) to 710 (8/00) to 800 (11/00). With the downturn in the economy, attendance has dropped off to 600 (2/00) and 400 (5/00). Our 2001 attendance averaged 500 per evening event.  Out 2002 attendance has been 450 (March) and 350 (May).  The story is really about networking with people in the "com and .com" world. Those who are network will benefit from the contacts they have. And it's a fun night every 3 months.

The Entrepreneurs Breakfasts started in August 1999 with 18 people. It has grown steadily to 180 people in May 2001. The April 14, 2000 Breakfast drew 535 people. Future breakfasts are planned to draw 150-200. Outstanding speakers such as Ann Winblad (General Partner, Hummer Winblad), Stephen Nachtsheim (VP, Intel Capital) and Rich Karlgaard (Publisher, Forbes) have keynoted NetSuds breakfast events.

No, beer can only be rented. If your attraction to NetSuds is free beer, you will stand out in this crowd. Sometimes the beer is free, though.

Past NetSuds sponsors include AT&T, Wizmo, Aravox, Vignette, Integra Telecom, Mack Traynor, Tom Kieffer of Agiliti, St. Paul Venture Capital, Microsoft, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP, Upside Magazine, Silicon Valley Bank, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Graeme Thickins of GT&A Strategic Marketing, IBM, Silicon Valley Bank, Onvoy, Sherpa Partners, Syntegra, Rauenhorst Recruiting, Larkin Hoffman, DCSI, MTI, Victory Capital Corp., ADC, U.S. Premise, Stockwalk.com, Sprint, Learning Outfitters, Compaq, Storage Networks, Plural, Risdall Linnihan and iXmatch.com.

NetSuds is the juxtaposition of two words, "net" and "suds". Net refers to the networks; (1) the network of equipment and software which make up telecommunications networks and datacommunications networks and (2) the human network of people interacting with one another. Suds is beer although a few people mistake it for soap. So, NetSuds is about people in the networking business networking with one another over suds, i.e. beer. Phil Platt of Archwing, fomerly of the MHTA, formerly of gofast.net, believes Suds is an acronym for Secret Underground Drinking Society. :-)

NetSuds is the proud employer of 1 person although from time to time we have employed people on a part time basis.

NetSuds is the only entity focused solely on the telecom, datacom, IT and Internet markets. Both the MHTA and The Collaborative have events which serve the "hi tech" and entrepreneurial crowd.

NetSuds consults on various tech projects.  Contact Matt Noah at matt@netsuds.com for details.

Ad rates vary.  See www.netsuds.com/adrates.htm for the latest information.