Elias Shams |

The First Declaration of Human Rights By Cyrus The Great Persian King On Exhibit In Awesome Washington, D.C.

March 16, 2013 Leave a comment

As a Persian/American entrepreneur who lived, found, and worked for various hot and successful DC tech startups like Yurie Systems (acquired by Lucent for $1.23 B), telezoo.com (the top 5 B2B in the world), and as the founder of awesomize.me, I’m proud to let you know the world’s first human rights declaration, is on display for the first time in the United States. Starting with our awesome DC through April 28 at the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery, then in Houston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Read more of this post

Filed under Art & Culture, Events, Human Rights, Landmarks & Places Tagged with achaemenid persian empire, cyrus the great, Declaration of Human Rights, iran, Persia, Persian history, Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian museum, The Persian king, Thomas Jefferson, US Constitution, Washington DC

International Women’s Day @ L2 Lounge

March 6, 2013 Leave a comment

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Filed under Events, Parties Tagged with DC, event, International, l2 lounge, party, washington, women's day

[Job Opening] awesomize.me is looking for a few good men or women with Ruby on Rails experience!

February 16, 2013 Leave a comment

awesomize.me, the Washington, D.C. based b2b2c startup that also helps you to distinguish your quality vs. quantity online fans, friends, and followers is looking for a top notch developer who has experience working on high scalability systems. The ideal candidate will be extremely passionate about solving large scale problems. Read more the job opening here .

Here is a 2 minutes demo of what the company is all about and what’s trying to solve:

More about the company here.

Read more about the position here and apply via the contact us page link provided below the job description.

Feel free to connect with me via awesomize.me

Filed under About DC, Jobs Tagged with accessibility issues, AJAX, api integration, awesomize.me, constraints, CSS, functions, high-performance systems, HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, object oriented frameworks, PHP, Python, Query Optimization, Referential Integrity, Relational Databases Systems normalization, ror, Ruby on Rails, SEO, social networking, software developer, SQL, startup, stored procedures, version control systems, XHTML

New Year’s Eve Party @ L2 Lounge!

December 24, 2012 Leave a comment

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Filed under Clubbing, Entertainment, Parties Tagged with christmas, l2 lounge, New Year's Eve party, NYE Party, party, Washington DC

Did I Get My Thanksgiving Story Right?

November 22, 2012 3 Comments

After 27 years of living and working in awesome Washington, DC area, this is my first thanksgiving in Tehran with my Iranian family and friends. I did my best to explain the thanksgiving story to everyone at the dinner table. At the end, one of my cousins raised a smart question and I really didn’t have a good answer. She said “Let me get this right….” The white people from Europe “discovered” America and decided to migrate and settle there. Right?

I said “Yes”

Shortly after their migration, the white people faced strong resistance from the native people, the Indians. Right?

I said “Yes” Read more of this post

Filed under Art & Culture, Human Rights Tagged with American history, christopher Columbus, cowboys, discovering America, holidays, indians, Killing Indians, Thanksgiving day, Thanksgiving dinner

How The Hell Houston Is A Cooler City Than Our Washington, DC?

August 2, 2012 Leave a comment

Forbes thinks our Awesome DC is the second coolest city after Houston. Measurements: Houston has lower unemployment rate, stronger theater scene, world-class museums and a multicultural.

Either the people in Forbes including Morgan Brennan who wrote the article are on dope or I have always ended up staying in only blonde, blue eyes, vanilla ice part of Houston every time I was there. I have been in that city four times ever since I got off the boat from Iran to Awesome Washington DC in 1986. I stayed an average of five days each time. I don’t remember ever spotted anyone but blondes and blue eyes with classic American red neck accent there. So, not sure what multicultural thing Forbes is yapping about. Read more of this post

Filed under About DC, Art & Culture Tagged with anglina jolie, art, cool city, coolest, Culture, DC, Forbes, Houston, Morgan Brennan, nation's capital, washington

Washington, DC Poised To Become More Awesome for Businesses Starting With LivingSocial

July 13, 2012 1 Comment

Earlier this week, the DC Council implemented another Business incentive that was recommended to DC mayor by the local entrepreneurs including myself. The Council unanimously passed the Social E-Commerce Job Creation Tax Incentive Act of 2012 bill that provides LivingSocial, the social daily deals company with future tax breaks that could total $32.5 million over a 10-year period. Read more of this post

Filed under Business & Finance, social media Tagged with business, Daily Deals, DC, Job Creation, living social, LivingSocial, Social E-Commerce, startups, tax break, Tax Incentive Act of 2012, washington

awesomize.me Poised To Make Social Media To Finally Work for B2B

May 19, 2012 3 Comments

With the rapid growth of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Google+, businesses around the world have incorporated the use of such platforms as part of their marketing and branding strategy. While there is no dispute that these platforms offer exposure to a broad population, it has been a struggle for these platforms to demonstrate a compelling ROI to the business community. The GM decision to pull out their Ads from Facebook that was initially reported by the Wall Street Journal is just one of the recent example.

According to the latest survey by Hubspot, only LinkedIn has demonstrated the ability to convert traffic to leads for the B2B community that is on par with “traditional” marketing avenues by demonstrating a 2.6% conversion rate. Obviously, given the size of the population on these sites, the ability to effectively convert the visitors to actual leads could be a powerful business tool! Read more of this post

Filed under social media, Web Tagged with advertising, b2b, b2b2c, Business-to-Business, business-to-consumer, Facbook advertising, online Ads, social b2b2c, social business, social enterprise, social marketing, social media, social media b2b, social media for b2b, social networking for b2b

First Crowdfunding Conference on May 14th in Awesome Washington DC

May 7, 2012 Leave a comment

The Crowdfunding bill that was signed by President Obama last month will have its first conference next week in Awesome DC!

If you are still not sure what the bill is all about and what it means to your business, the bill classifies startups as “emerging growth companies” that can turn to online investors to raise startup capital. Those companies would also be able to sell up to $50 million in shares before having to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and have up to 1,000 shareholders which is double the current limitation. Read more of this post

Filed under Business & Finance, Events Tagged with Capitol Hill, Capitol Hill experts, conference, CrowdCheck, Crowdfunding, entrepreneurs, investors, President emerging growth companies, Securities and Exchange Commission, startup capital, startups, think tanks, US Small Business Administration

Ganje Gharoon Nemikham: The Persian Musical Comedy Coming to Washington, DC on May 19th

May 1, 2012 2 Comments

If you are a Washingtonian Persian, “Ganje Gharoon Nemikham” is a fantastic musical comedy for you to see. The show directed by Farzan Deljou starring Anthony Shams aka Eslam the Comic, the Farglish (Farsi + English) standup comedian and actor who used to be a Washingtonian himself till the late 80′s when he moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream.

The show is full of laugh from the beginning to the end! I saw it last month in LA. It’s in Farsi. So, you have 19 days to learn the language Read more of this post