I've been trying for months to find fellow startups or entrepreneurs in my city. I've come to the conclusion there aren't any (or they're very good at hiding). Silly, considering Wachovia, Hanes/Sara Lee, RJ Reynolds, Wrangler, Krispy Kreme, and about a million other big companies are based here in Winston-Salem or very close by... Redhat is based about 30 minutes away, as well as a bunch of large tech companies (in Raleigh).
There's even this silly group that tries to connect business and creative people, but their events are so terrible I can't bring myself to go... think "The development of Disney as a cultural phenomena"... and I know others feel the same. I've offered to help them, offered event ideas, but these folks think they know it all. Too bad the time I did go, there were only maybe a dozen or so people there, all mostly employees of this partnership group.
So if there are any startups in North Carolina (especially the Triad) raise your hands, lets buy each other a beer soon.
Three words: network, network, network. You'll never find anyone with a printed ad or by posting flyers (I know, I've tried that too).
I'm gradually turning my small town into a startup hub, and it's great. So far my efforts have helped launch a co-working space and have helped a bunch of creative and technical people meet each-other. There are some money people in my area too, and they should be getting interested pretty soon.
Even if those meeting suck, go to them. Get to know anybody worth knowing. Suggest creating a new group or club (make sure it has a specific purpose and some direction). Go to chamber of commerce mixers religiously -- even if the first four send you home empty-handed, the fifth might get you a curious entrepreneur. Pay close attention to the items in the local newspaper. Start keeping a list of who the "movers and shakers" are in your area.
I wasn't real fond of the YC process, or of living in the Bay Area, and I already had some things going here. So ... why not keep pushing things here and create the environment I wanted?
Grass Valley, California. Lots of trees, animals, great mountain biking, starting point for this year's Amgen, and host to a number of technology companies (including 2Wire, Spectrum Sensors & Controls, Grass Valley Group (known for producing very high quality video control boards), and a number of others, and formerly one of the original homes to Atari.)
I don't want to sound like a whiney sissy, but here it is: I've seriously tried. Chamber meetings are packed with super professional looking, suit and tie, type folks. I'm no suit and tie guy. I have a couple shirts with buttons, but...
I just looked into the meetings earlier tonight, before reading your reply (sorry, I'm 6 days late) - the partnership fell apart and the meetings have stopped. Guess nobody went.
I've put ads on Craigslist, posted flyers in coffee shops, hung out in said coffee shops. Hung around Wake Forest, pestered business professors, went to several meetup.com events (completely irrelevant events, but events nonetheless)...
Thank you for the motivation, I'm going out there! :D
Local investors and successful entrepreneurs: the early-stage entrepreneurs in your cities need you now more than ever. We need you to take your vision, put it on the ground, and carry your city and your followers up with you.
We need you to be our heroes.
Go with your associates and assistants to local events. Their eyes and ears aren’t trained like yours to find insane talent and bigtime ideas. They can’t inspire us with their experience and insight like you can.
We need your perspective and physical presence to find the best your city has to offer and to help us bust through the brick walls that are stacked in front of us.
Give us your presence at one event each week at a bar down your street. We need your instant and honest feedback. When you’re there to give it, you will make our ideas, our companies, and your city better, faster.
To be clear, this isn’t charity work. Being on the ground floor again will remind you why you got into this business in the first place (or, maybe, why you should get out). If all you think about is dollars, I bet you’ll find companies to advise and invest in that no one else has heard about yet.
But all money aside, do you believe your city can be home to the next company to shake up the world?
If you want to make your city into a true startup hub, you need to show us your face.
You may never write a check to a local startup, but we will never forget those who shook our hand and told us what we needed to hear first, even if you reject our ideas because our market, the team, or the traction isn’t right.
This is, as David Lee said last week, “a pay-it-forward business.” If you pay one night forward to your followers, your company, and your city, each one will give more to you than you can possibly imagine.
Ron Conway is a hero to Silicon Valley. Fred Wilson is a hero to New York.
Building a successful startup hub in most cities is extremely difficult. That certifiable, go-to “hero” as mentioned in the article just doesn’t exist in most places. In fact, if our standard of hero is Ron Conway or Fred Wilson, the rest of the country is screwed.
Being based in Cleveland right now, I have met scores of people who are very enthusiastic about building a startup community. However, everyone I’ve met in Cleveland is new to the game with only one or two startups under their belt. The vast majority of startups are extremely early stage, and I could list the number of strong, successful technology startups on one hand. There is nobody who could step up to become a hero, as that level of experience just simply isn’t here.
I believe that there is strength in numbers, however. A real sense of ownership in the direction of the city is starting to take place with the entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio, mostly centered around the programming meetup groups. This grassroots-style startup culture takes time and is not as flashy as a big name hero, but it’s a start.
Great to hear about the culture in Northeast Ohio, Jim. It definitely is a start. I think that "hero" should be taken as a wide-reaching term. Ron Conway and Fred Wilson are rockstar examples, but the main point is that early stage entrepreneurs need to put faces to success stories for a startup hub to be healthy. Those success stories can be as simple as getting one startup off the ground and operating it as a break-even business.
I have a few friends in Atlanta who love the growing scene there. What are you up to in the area? I'd be happy to put you in touch to see if they can help.
If needed, my direct email is brendan [at] thestartupdigest [dot] com.
Cool stuff always rules. The point is that timely, physical interaction between talented hackers and the "heroes" that inspire them will lead to more cool stuff being made even faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Someone needs to mention to startupsrule.com that they're using what appears to be a istockphoto copyright. The earth photo in the center...still has the watermark on it. not something you should be encouraging :)
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 66.0 ms ] threadSilicon Valley has 2/3 (investor and entrepreneur) and so does New York (investor and mayor).
What other cities have good combinations?
There's even this silly group that tries to connect business and creative people, but their events are so terrible I can't bring myself to go... think "The development of Disney as a cultural phenomena"... and I know others feel the same. I've offered to help them, offered event ideas, but these folks think they know it all. Too bad the time I did go, there were only maybe a dozen or so people there, all mostly employees of this partnership group.
So if there are any startups in North Carolina (especially the Triad) raise your hands, lets buy each other a beer soon.
I'm gradually turning my small town into a startup hub, and it's great. So far my efforts have helped launch a co-working space and have helped a bunch of creative and technical people meet each-other. There are some money people in my area too, and they should be getting interested pretty soon.
Even if those meeting suck, go to them. Get to know anybody worth knowing. Suggest creating a new group or club (make sure it has a specific purpose and some direction). Go to chamber of commerce mixers religiously -- even if the first four send you home empty-handed, the fifth might get you a curious entrepreneur. Pay close attention to the items in the local newspaper. Start keeping a list of who the "movers and shakers" are in your area.
I wasn't real fond of the YC process, or of living in the Bay Area, and I already had some things going here. So ... why not keep pushing things here and create the environment I wanted?
Just curious, in what part of the country is this small-town startup-hub?
I just looked into the meetings earlier tonight, before reading your reply (sorry, I'm 6 days late) - the partnership fell apart and the meetings have stopped. Guess nobody went.
I've put ads on Craigslist, posted flyers in coffee shops, hung out in said coffee shops. Hung around Wake Forest, pestered business professors, went to several meetup.com events (completely irrelevant events, but events nonetheless)...
Thank you for the motivation, I'm going out there! :D
We need you to be our heroes.
Go with your associates and assistants to local events. Their eyes and ears aren’t trained like yours to find insane talent and bigtime ideas. They can’t inspire us with their experience and insight like you can.
We need your perspective and physical presence to find the best your city has to offer and to help us bust through the brick walls that are stacked in front of us.
Give us your presence at one event each week at a bar down your street. We need your instant and honest feedback. When you’re there to give it, you will make our ideas, our companies, and your city better, faster.
To be clear, this isn’t charity work. Being on the ground floor again will remind you why you got into this business in the first place (or, maybe, why you should get out). If all you think about is dollars, I bet you’ll find companies to advise and invest in that no one else has heard about yet.
But all money aside, do you believe your city can be home to the next company to shake up the world?
If you want to make your city into a true startup hub, you need to show us your face.
You may never write a check to a local startup, but we will never forget those who shook our hand and told us what we needed to hear first, even if you reject our ideas because our market, the team, or the traction isn’t right.
This is, as David Lee said last week, “a pay-it-forward business.” If you pay one night forward to your followers, your company, and your city, each one will give more to you than you can possibly imagine.
Ron Conway is a hero to Silicon Valley. Fred Wilson is a hero to New York.
Who are the heroes of your startup community?
Being based in Cleveland right now, I have met scores of people who are very enthusiastic about building a startup community. However, everyone I’ve met in Cleveland is new to the game with only one or two startups under their belt. The vast majority of startups are extremely early stage, and I could list the number of strong, successful technology startups on one hand. There is nobody who could step up to become a hero, as that level of experience just simply isn’t here.
I believe that there is strength in numbers, however. A real sense of ownership in the direction of the city is starting to take place with the entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio, mostly centered around the programming meetup groups. This grassroots-style startup culture takes time and is not as flashy as a big name hero, but it’s a start.
If needed, my direct email is brendan [at] thestartupdigest [dot] com.
Thoughts?