The August Annual Schmoozefest

I just got back from the August Annual. The August Annual is August Capital's schmoozefest and while it is not actually in August, it is indeed annual. Each year the general partners of August invite a bunch of people to come share an evening of wine and conversation on our patio on Sand Hill Road. It is pretty much the only time all year anyone goes out on the patio, but it gets enough of a workout during the Annual to make up for the rest of the year (sadly, the pool table doesn't even have a single evening of glory).

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to even occasional readers of VentureBlog that I love the August Annual. The Annual is an opportunity each year to reconnect with close friends of the firm. There is no agenda other than schmoozing. It is in many ways the equivalent of hanging out in the lobby of a great conference and talking with whoever wanders by (which I also happen to do a fair bit). But the Annual has the added benefit of melding together the friends of each of the five General Partners at August. As a result, the patio is filled with folks from across a huge range of companies, markets, industries, technologies, etc.

I think gatherings like the Annual are really valuable not just for folks like myself but, in particular, for entrepreneurs. Not surprisingly, we have a pile of entrepreneurs come to the Annual. We invite the folks running all of our portfolio companies. But we also invite execs who have formerly been with portfolio companies, people who work in and around industries we are close to, and folks who we simply think are smart and with whom we enjoy talking. As a result, the entrepreneurial community has a chance to exchange ideas, contacts, complaints, resources, etc. They also have the opportunity to engage in business discussions in an informal environment. Lots of business relationships have come out of past August Annuals and I'm sure that more came out of the party tonight.

While there were lots of interesting folks across the spectrum of industries, I was thrilled to see such a great crowd of "new media" execs at the party tonight. The founders of companies like (in no particular order) Evite, Ofoto, Six Apart, Flickr, Oddpost, Feedburner, Technorati, Wired, Adaptive Path, edge.io, Tickle, Hot or Not, Onelist/Bloglines, Excite/Jot Spot, PayPal, Winamp, Simply Hired, Half.com, Blogger, Odeo, Become, and more I'm not thinking of I'm sure, were hanging out. As were a number of super smart execs from places like Yahoo, Google, MSN and IAC. Needless to say, the conversations were very interesting.

I decided to take pictures while chatting tonight. It was a little bit like the bride at a wedding being her own wedding photographer. But I got some good shots, which I've uploaded here. I'm looking forward to next year's party already.

Nota bene: My sincere apologies to anyone who should have gotten an invitation but was somehow overlooked. I promise to get it right next year.