Lots of great stuff in the works! And TechStars Cloud wants you!

Get feedback. Discuss financing. Ask questions.

*Note From the Chargify Team* - If you can find an hour, we can’t stress enough how valuable we feel this experience could be.  Sramana is an experienced serial entrepreneur and her direct feedback could help you move your business in a more profitable direction (or even just make you think about something you may have overlooked).  She has been kind enough to volunteer not only her time, but her “rolodex” as well.  It is not often you come across opportunities like this one, seize it.

Together with Sramana Mitra of One Million by One Million, we’re offering Chargify customers the chance to attend a FREE online strategy roundtable for entrepreneurs interested in discussing positioning, financing, and other aspects of a startup venture.

Get harsh, honest feedback from someone who has exited multiple companies, is an angel investor, and has a ton of connections.

About the Event

This is an extremely rare and exciting opportunity for startups & we encourage our customers to take advantage of it.

When:  January 20th, 2010

Time:  11am EST/ 8am PST

Register: http://strategyroundtable-jan20.eventbrite.com/

Thank you to all those who supported and signed our National Entrepreneurs’ Day petition. Everyone’s hard work has finally paid off!

In May of 2010, David and I started a petition to the President to create a National Entrepreneurs’ Day. We didn’t understand why the most entrepreneurial country in the world didn’t have a day to recognize entrepreneurs.

Now, only 6 months and thousands of signatures later, it seems that the effort was worth it and that anything is possible: the President of the United States has proclaimed the last day of National Entrepreneurship Week, November 19th of this year, as National Entrepreneurs’ Day – making November a great month for entrepreneurs everywhere.

We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who signed and supported the petition and realized that this was more than just a novel idea, but a real movement to support entrepreneurs. A special thank you goes to the Kauffman Foundation for being our partner in this endeavor.

Read the full post over on Grasshopper Group.

Grasshopper Group has teamed up with BostInnovation to bring you the Spreadable Startup Series. Our goal is to help startups, like you, get more press for your company by helping you tell your story.

“We have partnered with BostInnovation to create the Spreadable Startup Series because we’re both passionate about entrepreneurship and know how important “buzz” can be…”  Each week a company will be chosen and featured on the BostInnovation site. To be considered, all you have to do is apply and tell us your story. 

The requirements are simple:

1. You must have something to showcase (product, working site etc.)

2. Your company must have less than $2 million in yearly revenue.

To apply: http://bostinnovation.com/spreadtheword

To learn more about the Spreadable Startup Series, check out the Grasshopper Group blog.

If you haven’t seen our recent tweets you may not have read about Grasshopper Group. Grasshopper Group is the recently launched endeavor from the company that brought you Chargify and we wanted to share the great news about it.

What is Grasshopper Group?

Grasshopper Group is the parent company of Chargify, Grasshopper, Spreadable and everything else we do in the future. Grasshopper Group will be where we focus our entrepreneurial efforts, like National Entrepreneurs’ Day.  This will allow of our companies & products to evolve, improve and be the best in their respective industries.

How will this effect Chargify?

Since Chargify was already technically “owned” by Grasshopper Group, you will not notice any changes.

Venture capitalist Paul Graham expressed an under-appreciated nugget of wisdom in his article on mistakes that kill startups.  Unlike “winning an Olympic gold medal, where the problem is well defined”, building a successful company is actually “more like science, where you need to follow the trail wherever it leads.”

Therefore, Graham concludes that the worst person to run a startup is someone who “has some great idea they know everyone is going to love, and that’s what they’re going to build, no matter what.” But while plenty has been written about successful startups in general, little has been said about companies that thrived by changing their strategies instead of clinging to those they started with.

Below, Chargify examines six companies whose flexibility took them to new heights.

PayPal

PayPal, believe it or not, was not founded to be the online payment service that it is today. In her book Founders at Work, Jessica Livingston interviews PayPal founder Max Levchin. During the interview, Levchin reveals that PayPal was originally envisioned as a cryptography company, and then later as a means of transmitting money via PDAs. Only after several years of trial and error (and overcoming user fraud that almost destroyed the company) did PayPal find its sweet spot as the default online payment system of millions.

Plan on attending SWSW (South by SouthWest) 2010 in Austin, TX from March 12th - 16th? Or are you already at SXSW enjoying Austin? If so, you are in luck because the Chargify team is there too and will be through the 16th.

Curious to meet the team behind the company? Or maybe you just want to get your hands on some Chargify schwag?

Either way keep an eye out for us. if you need a reference as to who we are check out our About Us page and put a face with the names.

We have a few surprises up our sleeves as well so be sure to keep tabs on us on Twitter @chargify.

Check out the latest post from Grasshopper:

“A piece of advice to web entrepreneurs just getting started: rather than becoming consumed with starting the next Google or Facebook, focus on creating a remarkable company with a niche target market that solves a problem that you yourself have had. Here are four and a half great videos from six entrepreneurs to help you focus, get inspired, and launch a successful startup.”

See videos from David Heinemeier Hannson of 37signals, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and more.

Check out all of the videos from “4.5 Videos Every Web Entrepreneur Needs to Watch”