While this is an opinion piece, in our interpretation we did not see ANY of what was said there as a "woe is me" mentality.
Moreso, a call-to-action, and a request to put things in proper perspective, as opposed to judging the quality of your startup against the TC darlings who raise $41mm in a series A. ;)
Thanks for clarifying. I can see that better now. Pointing the finger (at a news source or particular story) seems like a poor starting point. What are some new sources you can recommend that focus on startup activity in Detroit? I feel that should have been part of the article.
Without recommending a better place to look, that's just throwing stones.
No problem. Glad you commented. If anything, I interpreted it as less about where to look as a source for media, but more as what the mindset of an Entrepreneur should be.
You have to admit...TC has an interesting habit of glorifying the funding round, and as Gary Vee would tend to agree (see the first link in the article), what should be glorified is the bootstrapped startup that manages to attain profitability on its own.
There's a local startup we recently interviewed (article coming soon to the site) that bootstrapped it's way to roughly 3.5mm in annualized revenue in just a few short years.
Come on, complaining about TechCrunch is a hacker tradition. Even Mike Arrington complains about TechCrunch... He complained that the fun was all out of it about 20% of the way through his involvement in it.
Last I checked, TechCrunch is not a definitive indicator of local innovation and entrepreneurship. It's a blog. They don't heavily cover lots of places. That's not the point.
Yadda, yadda, "Go Detroit," etc., but what are you talking about? Maybe you should encourage more Detroit and Ann Arbor startups to send their press releases to TC. PR effort is likely more correlated with your exposure than Detroit being the victim of ignorant blogging.
For the record, I've done startups in Ann Arbor and Detroit. It is getting better, but playing the victim isn't going to help.
I agree with you and my company Entrepreneurs Unpluggd is working to increase the highlighting of entrepreneurs elsewhere (including Detroit - would love to get your thoughts on the scene there -> tim at entrepreneursunpluggd).
Personally, I think TechCrunch will be much different in a few years in terms of it's popularity. Right now, Silicon Valley is the mecca for traditional tech startup folks. That is gradually (this is key - NOT overnight) changing though.
Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Portland, Boulder, Durham, Miami, Cincinnati, Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin....the list goes on and on.
Over time, the scenes in all these cities is going to continue to grow and more attention will be paid. There will be more "TechCrunches" of these areas, and I think the coverage will be much more distributed then it currently is.
Agree completely. Tech is becoming decentralized slowly but surely, and we're witnessing the emergence of startup hubs throughout the country at a rate like never before.
We aim to be the Techcrunch of our region, but it's so much bigger than that. It's about fostering community as it starts to develop in your region.
"Right now, Silicon Valley is the mecca for traditional tech startup folks. That is gradually (this is key - NOT overnight) changing though."
Actually, no.
You don't find Muslims making a journey to Detroit to worship Mohammed do you?
That's because Silicon Valley is actually a place not a concept. That being said there are other areas where other economic drivers are being augmented by technology drivers, NYC comes to mind.
However if you look at places that tried to "be" Silicon Valley (Rte 128 in Boston comes to mind) there are lots of failures scattered around.
Part of it is social, part of it is political, part of it is economics.
If you want to foster innovation remove barriers to innovation, outlaw non-competes, create a durable right for workers to keep what they make on their own time with their own gear.
What happens is people quit their jobs to build a competitor than can do it better/cheaper than where they worked. It weeds out non-innovators. It also frees up folks to quit and still work on stuff they know, they start creating networks that span companies and pretty soon lots of people know lots of people and creating a company gets easier, then all these companies being created and grown will help the intial capital suppliers do well, and their success will attract other sources of capital.
Strangely enough, if you could step out of the world trademarks treaty, and said "If you work in this zone you cannot be sued for software patent infringement nor may you file them." You might create a mini-boomlet right there :-)
if you want a blog that covers detroit start ups, start one. techcrunch has always been a silicon valley site, i'm not sure what you expect to change by posting a rant like this.
if you want press, the most important thing to remember is that journalists are lazy. most of them would much rather publish a story that is almost written for them than they would research and write their own stuff. do something newsworthy, do a write-up, and submit it to as many journalists and bloggers as you can. this will get you coverage. if you're not getting the coverage you want, it's either because you're not doing anything interesting or you're not promoting yourself enough. getting angry at bloggers won't change that.
Agree, there is nothing like taking initiative and starting something local
GrowDetroit:"We are a network of real stories impacting Michigan’s largest city and suburbs, along with strategies for businesses to succeed here."
Agreed. The first thing you need to understand is that this is targeted at Michigan people, not Bay Area folks.
He's basically saying "Look guys, we're outside the TechCrunch universe of big VC money flowing to tech startups, but that doesn't mean we're not on the right track to creating a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. Keep doing what you're doing - building cool shit."
I cannot remember the last time I read an article about a startup, technology, or general science where I paid the slightest bit of attention to what city the company/events called home. If you're an internet company nobody cares where you're from, aside from nationality and its accompanying laws. The article's author seems to have an obsession with Detroit and its image. I did a techcrunch search for my city, and again for my state. Zero articles in the past year. I don't care because it makes no difference.
I do thank the article for teaching me a new term today: "persecutory delusions."
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 59.1 ms ] threadMoreso, a call-to-action, and a request to put things in proper perspective, as opposed to judging the quality of your startup against the TC darlings who raise $41mm in a series A. ;)
Without recommending a better place to look, that's just throwing stones.
You have to admit...TC has an interesting habit of glorifying the funding round, and as Gary Vee would tend to agree (see the first link in the article), what should be glorified is the bootstrapped startup that manages to attain profitability on its own.
There's a local startup we recently interviewed (article coming soon to the site) that bootstrapped it's way to roughly 3.5mm in annualized revenue in just a few short years.
Yadda, yadda, "Go Detroit," etc., but what are you talking about? Maybe you should encourage more Detroit and Ann Arbor startups to send their press releases to TC. PR effort is likely more correlated with your exposure than Detroit being the victim of ignorant blogging.
For the record, I've done startups in Ann Arbor and Detroit. It is getting better, but playing the victim isn't going to help.
Personally, I think TechCrunch will be much different in a few years in terms of it's popularity. Right now, Silicon Valley is the mecca for traditional tech startup folks. That is gradually (this is key - NOT overnight) changing though.
Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Portland, Boulder, Durham, Miami, Cincinnati, Omaha, Des Moines, Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin....the list goes on and on.
Over time, the scenes in all these cities is going to continue to grow and more attention will be paid. There will be more "TechCrunches" of these areas, and I think the coverage will be much more distributed then it currently is.
I know the Tech.li team (and founder Ed Domain) very well and they are a prime example of the type of publication I'm referring to.
We aim to be the Techcrunch of our region, but it's so much bigger than that. It's about fostering community as it starts to develop in your region.
Actually, no.
You don't find Muslims making a journey to Detroit to worship Mohammed do you?
That's because Silicon Valley is actually a place not a concept. That being said there are other areas where other economic drivers are being augmented by technology drivers, NYC comes to mind.
However if you look at places that tried to "be" Silicon Valley (Rte 128 in Boston comes to mind) there are lots of failures scattered around.
Part of it is social, part of it is political, part of it is economics.
If you want to foster innovation remove barriers to innovation, outlaw non-competes, create a durable right for workers to keep what they make on their own time with their own gear.
What happens is people quit their jobs to build a competitor than can do it better/cheaper than where they worked. It weeds out non-innovators. It also frees up folks to quit and still work on stuff they know, they start creating networks that span companies and pretty soon lots of people know lots of people and creating a company gets easier, then all these companies being created and grown will help the intial capital suppliers do well, and their success will attract other sources of capital.
Strangely enough, if you could step out of the world trademarks treaty, and said "If you work in this zone you cannot be sued for software patent infringement nor may you file them." You might create a mini-boomlet right there :-)
if you want press, the most important thing to remember is that journalists are lazy. most of them would much rather publish a story that is almost written for them than they would research and write their own stuff. do something newsworthy, do a write-up, and submit it to as many journalists and bloggers as you can. this will get you coverage. if you're not getting the coverage you want, it's either because you're not doing anything interesting or you're not promoting yourself enough. getting angry at bloggers won't change that.
Exactly! This sort of action is what is going to (and what is currently) change the way this is all covered and highlighted.
He's basically saying "Look guys, we're outside the TechCrunch universe of big VC money flowing to tech startups, but that doesn't mean we're not on the right track to creating a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem. Keep doing what you're doing - building cool shit."
I do thank the article for teaching me a new term today: "persecutory delusions."