Given my involvement in reBookMe.com, I decided to hear the CEOs Julia Johnston (mEgo), Leah Culver (Pownce) and Ryan Carson (DropSend) tell their stories in a discussion led by Mike McDerment.

Conversations that are based on stories are incredibly engaging. In that respect, this panel was strong. More importantly, they engaged with each other. They were energetic and dynamic in a way that no other panel or session has been so far.

Ryan waxed poetic on various topics throughout the session. In particular, he offered some interesting sound bites including marketing a web app is a full-time job, the hardest thing for an entrepreneur is focusing on one thing, don’t hire friends and don’t take money if you don’t to.

Julia joked that her hope is to sell out to Google. In the meantime, unique opportunities such as a global promotion with Adidas, strong angel investment and revenue through banner ads keeps the company financially strong.

Leah, who was surprisingly quiet most of the time and burst with excitement at others, signed with relief when she announced that Pownce is about one-year-old and things are much easier now than they were when the team first started out — it’s trying on your mental health.

Each company monitors uninstalls and departures and depends on their community managers to follow up on departures. Clearly, they all take this role very seriously.  Ryan also offered that entrepreneurs would be wise to read all customer feedback.

Ryan was a standout when I asked for each panelist to give a 15-second Purple Cow pitch of their company and products. Even though he didn’t detail why I’d want to use his product, it took him no time at all to describe a team and company culture that would be the envy of anyone.  Julia took about a minute to itemize the features of a great sounding service and Leah struggled to summarize Pownce as being remarkable.

Being remarkable is key to the success of a startup.  The question becomes how do you define success in relation to the rest of the web — can you co-exist with your competitors or do you stand out?

This panel was very solid, entertaining and loaded with valuable information.  I can’t help but feel that each could have spoken at depth for more than an hour.   This was definitely a standout session.