Rails Rumble 2009 Kick Off Tonight at Dog Patch Lab (Pier 38)

Tonight, two teams will be kicking off the 2009 Rails Rumble from the Dog Patch Lab at Pier 38 in San Francisco. The two teams are competing in a nation-wide Ruby on Rails contest that lasts through the weekend (more info here). We will have an informal kick off for the teams tonight with a pizza bash. If you are interested in touring the lab, grabbing a slice of pizza or meeting the local contestants, please drop me a note at rspoon at gmail.com.

We will have photos and videos throughout the weekend.

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Hosting Rails Rumble 2009 Competitors at Dog Patch Lab on Pier 38 (San Francisco)

Rails Rumble 2009 will be kicking off in a little more than a week: August 22nd and 23rd. The Rails Rumble is a 48 hour web application development competition. Contestants and teams get one weekend to design, develop, and deploy the best web property that you can, using Ruby and Rails.

Polaris will be hosting San Francisco and Bay Area teams at the Dog Patch Lab off of Pier 38. It will be a fun, exciting environment - and hopefully with a healthy mix of collaboration and competition.

If you are participating in the Rails Rumble and, along with your team, would like to spend the weekend at the Dog Patch Lab - rsvp either directly to me (rspoon at gmail.com) or on the Rumble Wiki. More about Rails Rumble 2009:

In 2007, the Tasty Planner team took home the first-ever Rumble championship belt for the initial version of their popular recipe sharing website. Since then, they've continued to develop the site, attracting an extensive community of web-savvy cooks as well as the attention of commercial outlets.

In 2008, our friends at MeetInBetween.us edged out the competition with their innovative meeting place mashup. By calculating common meeting points for groups of people and allowing users to pinpoint locations such as cafes and restaurants, the site is a truly useful, truly minimalist micro-app with obvious appeal.

Other 2008 award winners:

Joining Polaris Ventures Partners

I am excited to announce that, starting Monday, I will be joining Polaris Venture Partners and will work out of the Dog Patch Lab on Pier 38. Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to get to know the Polaris team and I am eager to begin working with them in a different capacity. I have enjoyed my time at eBay, Widgetbox and beRecruited, but have always wanted to move into venture. My two questions were: what is the right them and where is the right fit. Polaris is certainly the right fit and the timing is particularly exciting because I will be based in the Dog Patch Lab - a vibrant collection of entrepreneurs and start ups on Pier 38 off of Embarcadero (portfolio company LOLapps and ThingLabs launched here). The lab is operated by Polaris and focused at connecting entrepreneurs and helping founders conceive and build startups.

If you read this blog, you know my interests: consumer internet, digital media, mobile and social media. I will also enjoy being exposed to other investment areas as Polaris is diversified across industries and stages: life sciences, growth equity and technology.

If you would like to tour the lab or find a time to meet, drop me a line!

Stay tuned for more information on events at the Dog Patch Lab (many are coming). You can find more about Polaris, the portfolio and the lab at:

- PolarisVentures.com - VCMike (Mike Hirshland): Blog, Twitter - RyanSpoon.com: Blog, Twitter, Facebook - TechCrunch: Polaris & Dog Patch Labs - Xconomy.com: "Dog Patch Lab - An Entrepreneur's Kennel"