I have one more day left of the Web 2.0 Expo and want to get this post written and posted so that budding entrepreneurs such as the tech-savvy, brilliant but inexperienced and inarticulate people (mostly men—come on my fellow gals, get into the game—don’t restrict yourselves to your own networks) stalking the halls of this conference can learn about the startup founder’s best friend, Larry Chiang. See: http://www.whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com

I attended Chiang’s workshop, Peek Into a Secret Society of Entrepreneurs, by accident—I thought I was in the session on Generating Evergreen Revenue Through Online Services. Was I lucky to have landed in the wrong room.

I have only daydreamt about becoming an entrepreneur. But Chiang so immediately conveyed charisma and vitality that I stayed put and I am glad I did because watching him run the crash course on running a business was edifying and actually quite inspiring. We are living in scary times economically and have seen our personal and societal faith in the whole concept of the American dream and the American way of doing business rocked to their foundations. And Web 2.0 has been mocked for being just Dotcom Redux. But I really left that room feeling that (don’t gag, please), “Yes, we can.”

I myself may not possess extraordinary tech skills or a promising product to work up an elevator pitch about. But I certainly do come across brilliant people as I read about Science 2.0, Open Science, Health 2.0 and search technology. And in my own day job in the field of medical librarianship, I encounter librarians who have, out of necessity, invented some extremely useful software tools.

Therefore, it is nice to know that there are energetic, warm (he even gave me a hug at the end — did that simple gesture win my heart or what?) but shrewd and well connected people like Larry Chiang that you could feel comfortable emailing and saying, “Larry, can take a quick look at gooseGrade?

I stopped by their booth at the Web 2.0 Expo and got the spiel. I chatted with the 23-year-old founder and CEO, John Brooks Pounders. At first the whole idea seemed ultra dopey to me. I mean, would I really take the time to stop by and copy edit an error-ridden blog simply for the ego trip of accumulating points? And if I were a blogger, would I really want to put a button on my blog soliciting free copy editing from strangers? Wouldn’t that advertise that I lack the staff and the brains to prevent the posting of slop?

But then I got to thinking about how many of the speakers here at the Web Expo have stressed how important it is for bloggers and company sites to draw visitors in, to leverage the power of crowd sourcing so as to cut costs on labor-intensive processes like copy editing, to enable users to build up individual reputations for acumen (in, say, things like copyediting and fact checking) so as to generate buzz and facilitate buy-in and user retention and to build a reputation for quality and openness to suggestions. gooseGrade does all of that. And people do like to be seen as good at correcting matters of fact and grammar (witness letters to the editor in major periodicals like The Times Literary Supplement or The New Yorker) and there certainly is no shortage of smart people engaged in labors of love (think Wikipedia and Amazon reviews). And gooseGrade has enough oomph to have gotten some coverage in TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb.

Would you take a look and let me know what you think? Has gooseGrade “got legs?”

Chiang’s workshop alone did indeed in and of itself justify a trip to Web 2.0. He said it would and he delivered. He truly did energize the people in that room and got us talking to each other and exchanging business cards and dreaming big. Not bad for about an hour with a bunch of strangers. He gave us chances to give our spiels and there is no better way to learn how to clarify one’s own thinking about prospective projects than to watch a successful entrepreneur like Chiang either take notes and nod in approval or look ready to move on (not in cruel, dismissive way, but as a useful indicator that you need to work on your idea more, your presentation skills or both).

I am definitely glad I came to Web 2.0 Expo. This was just one hour in a jam-packed day and it was fascinating journey into the alien territory of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a foreign country and Chiang is the ideal guide. I really felt that he genuinely wants people to succeed. Yes, a lot of what he said might strike some people as bromides. But hey, he has built businesses, is well known as a coach and is about as networked as anybody in tech and in other realms. If you want to accomplish something, reach for the nearest cliché. It will save your life. I think for several people in that room Chiang was a confidence-instilling life changer for the better.