The next couple of days are going to be amazing, as the Lean Startup community converges on San Francisco. I want to welcome all of you who are traveling to be here. Welcome to our fair city. There are only a few tickets left to Startup Lessons Learned 2011 on Monday (May 23). If you haven't registered yet, please do. As a reminder, the first 200 people to show up will get one of the very first copies of the Lean Startup Book , a pre-publication printed galley. MORE

Before returning to his hometown of Austin, he spent much of his life in Mexico and Argentina; his wife Giselle is from Uruguay. Waugh is an experienced entrepreneur, marketer, and philanthropist. Originally trained in the world of advertising and marketing for the U.S. Hispanic market, he also has vast experience in the field of sales and marketing of mass market and luxury consumer goods through traditional media, online channels, and social media. MORE

Last year, about 150 groups participated, including sites in Buenos Aires; Prague; Copenhagen; Tallinn, Estonia; Guadalajara; Warsaw; Bucharest; Kiev; Ljubljana, Slovenia;Wollongong, Australia; Uruguay; France; Germany; India; Israel; Italy; and The Netherlands. This post was co-written by Eric Ries and Sarah Milstein, co-hosts of The Lean Startup Conference. MORE

My life changed, I moved back to California, I tried to find my way here, we had our first kid, I started investing and the first two funds took off, we had more kids, and before you know it, even getting to the East Bay is a challenge, let alone going to Hanoi or Uruguay. I woke up a few minutes before 5am PST on Friday. I always look at my phone right away. I know it’s “not good for me,” but whatever. And, within seconds, I saw the news about Anthony Bourdain. MORE

Startup Lessons Learned 2011 is just around the corner: May 23, 2011 in SF. You have just under a week to get general admission tickets before prices go up. A lot of people missed the early bird rates and wrote to me about it. Don't be late, buy your ticket now. We've also added a number of extremely discounted tickets for full-time students. New Speakers Our program keeps getting better and better. We're debuting many brand new case studies, and I could not be more excited. MORE

Trade in 2010 between Israel and the other countries that comprise Mercosur, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, reached $1.8 As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor , which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. See the September 2011 edition after the jump. For previous editions, click here. MORE

Canada, England, South Korea, Japan, and Uruguay. Almost completely shrouded in the anemic U.S. stock market performance and the drumbeat of negativity that passes as business reporting these days has been the massive growth in U.S. service exports – increasingly from U.S. startups and small businesses. By way of anecdote, from the time Dave Lavinsky and I founded Growthink in 1999 through 2008, more than 95% of our firm’s clients and investors were U.S. based. MORE

We hear so much about Silicon Valley and Bangalore and Shanghai that is refreshing to hear about innovations in unexpected places: Amsterdam''s Design and Dining Renaissance Satellites and Sudan''s war Startups in Montevideo, Uruguay The breakneck speed of Seoul, S MORE

I have been getting emails and tweets all day from people upset that they cannot get into Startup Lessones Learned 2011 - either here in SF, where we're sold out, or in one of the more than 100 simulcast locations around the world, many of which are sold out, too. We struggle with this issue every year, because we strongly encourage everyone who can to participate with their local entrepreneurship community. Strengthening ties between entrepreneurs is one of our most important values. MORE

Here he found out that every kid in Uruguay is given a free laptop by the government – (for me it’s a bit like western countries giving all kids a free public education some 200 years ago and that’s why they currently lead the developed world). The entire country of Uruguay is connected to the web. They (Uruguay) want to ensure they are not a victim of technology poverty. MORE

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio (Lula) da Silva gave Israeli President Shimon Peres his final approval for a free trade agreement between Israel and the Mercosur bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). A s every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor , which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. See the March 2010 edition after the jump. MORE

in Üniversitesi Istanbul, Alcebra Mediaone UAE: Dubai UK: Brighton Edinburgh Leeds London Manchester Uruguay: MontevideoOne of the most important things we do with The Lean Startup Conference is make a livestream of the plenary talks available for free to groups around the world, supporting entrepreneurship communities everywhere. The number of hosts has grown annually, and this year, we have 200+ groups joining us on Monday, December 3. They represent more than 10,000 people total. MORE