TechFlash Launch Party: Rebecca Lovell (newly appointed executive director for NWEN), Craig Husa (entrepreneur), Kendall Kunz (former CEO Explorer Consulting)

Meet TechFlash.  Last Thursday, TechFlash had its launch party at the Palace Ballroom in Seattle. TechFlash is a blog by Seattle tech startup writer John Cook and Microsoft beat writer Todd Bishop. They recently both left Seattle PI to join Puget Sound Business Journal to start TechFlash.

TechFlash is instrumental to the local technology community. John has covered the local technology industry for about a decade, focusing on entrepreneurs, startups and venture capitalists.  Showing his age, he told me that he recognized me from our ARIS days.  ARIS was an IT services company that we took public on NASDAQ in 1997 and subsequently has been sold to Ciber.  Todd Bishop has covered the local tech industry and Microsoft for the past five years.  His coverage of Bill Gates’ departure from daily life at the company was picked up by papers worldwide.

Together, they cover and uncover the most important technology and venture news in the Puget Sound area. They are prolific and TechFlash has been my main source of information on the recent Microsoft layoffs, the Entellium saga and venture news. They are historians, recording the happening of the vibrant local technology industry and entrepreneurship.  They are also watchdogs, reporting the tough news within the community.  Their blogs give a platform for the local technology and venture community to discuss unfolding news.  TechFlash is a huge asset to our community.

TechFlash’s plans are to host more events for industry people to network and socialize. The next event will be April 29th. They also announced plans to hold an annual event called, the “Flashies”. More information on that to come later on their website.

At this event, the keynote speaker was Brian McAndrews, former CEO at aQuantive and Senior VP at Microsoft. The event was sold out and there were many high profile entreprenuers, executives, journalists, and venture capitalists.

John Cook working the room

A "huge" paella pan at the TechFlash launch

Meet Hsu Ken Ooi, the guy on the right.  When working at CSG Openline, we had hired him straight out of college (University of Washington).  Even then, everyone knew he would end up starting his own company.  It was a given.

He’s extremely motivated, focused and ambitious.  About a year ago, he and the other founders of Eggsprout asked to meet to get some advice about becoming entrepreneurs.  Not sure whether any of the advice was useful or not, but glad to see their launch.  Even in this down economy, the ambitious, the passionate, and the brave are out there building their dreams.  Good luck to Eggsprout.

Here is their story on TechFlash.

Meet Terry Drayton, the Chief Executive at the embattled Count Me In.  This company recently made headlines when 200 youth sports programs that used  the company’s online services to collect registration fees and donations were not appropriately paid.  Apparently, Count Me In has a $5 million shortfall in client moneys.

Recently, John Cook interviewed him, and Terry had a lot to say, maybe too much.  Obviously affected by the slew of negative press over his company’s troubles, Terry wanted his side of the story to be heard.  He even said that the interview with John was “cathartic”.  

Well, the interview may have been therapeutic for him, but it also may cost him plenty if criminal charges were to follow. Washington State Attorney General’s office has received more than 30 complaints.  A New Jersey soccer club has filed a lawsuit alleging that Count Me In has failed to pay more than $100,000 in registration fees.  

Terry’s claim that he just didn’t know about the shortfall because the company didn’t keep detailed financial records is interesting.  Obviously, Terry wanted to show that there was no malice intent to take money from the youth programs.  He certainly wanted to make a clear distinction between his situation and that of Entellium, where the CEO and CFO knowingly cooked the company’s books to raise funds.

The question of whether a seasoned executive would really run a company for eight years, handling more than $175 million in funds, without proper financials is being widely speculated.  Regardless, one thing is clear, even in Terry’s own words:  He and the company had been negligent.  And negligence will not be an adequate defense in the court of law.  Although in a much larger scheme of things, Enron executives tried to use “not knowing” as a defense as well, but to no avail.  The point is that Terry should be careful at what cost he is publicly telling his side of the story.  Interestingly, he had his PR executive with him during the interview, not his lawyers.

Personally, I do think that Terry was sloppy (negligent), but not malice in intent.  I know he has a good reputation in the local business community.  And he really wants to be liked.  In fact, he started Count Me In after trying to help the local youth programs that his children were involved in.  But at this point, he should be cautious about what he says.  In looking at the comments in John Cook’s story, he’s not even winning any PR points by having told his side of the story.