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Ask HN: Hackers And Founders In Boston

23 points by the_dude ↗ HN
Hi everyone, I'm an amateur hacker and aspiring startup founder living and working in the Boston area. I've been lurking at HN for about a year now and I really enjoy reading everyone's comments/discussions, etc. I've started getting into programming and such over the past year or so, learning mainly Python/Django, along with a bit of PHP and Lisp (Scheme) (I'm slowly working through SICP in my free time), so I'm always learning a thing or two from the discussions here!

I've recently decided to take the big jump and leave my corporate job soon to work on some ideas. The main one I've been working on for the past year is related to the music industry, but I'm still working on a few others concurrently.

Since I'll have more "free" time on my hands in about a month, I would like to spend some of it meeting and interacting with some cool people. I was wondering if anyone knows of some good places in/around Boston to meet fellow hackers/startup founders? I didn't go to school around here, so I'm kind of out of the loop (but would love to get back in it!) but I figured since some of you live here or are familiar with the area, you might know of some places to check out. I'm looking more toward informal environments (as opposed to pitch meetings, VC events, and the like, since I don't have an actual product built yet), though I'd give most events a shot anyway. Also, I'm always looking to meet new people and try new things so if anyone would like to get together in person or otherwise to talk tech, startups, music, or basically anything else, definitely feel free to contact me (e-mail in profile).

Thanks!

20 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 35.7 ms ] thread
garetjax
Don't count out vc events / pitch meetings. There are a lot of cool people ie hackers that attend them - I highly recommend going to the next Boston Web Innovators meetup - its March 10th http://www.webinnovatorsgroup.com/

They usually have about 3 formal pitches and then before and after them people mingle and also check out "side dishes" of startups at tables around the room.

apgwoz
The page at: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Hacker_Groups# lists two "groups" in Boston. One of which is http://betahouse.org/ which seems to be a CoWorking space. Co-Working, I would think would be a great way to meet people. It seems to be at least in Philadelphia at http://www.indyhall.org.

I'm sure there are lots of programming meetups in the area too, which while not startup related per se, probably are attended by some founders to do the same sorts of things--network.

steveplace
hackrtrackr.com
apgwoz
hackrtrackr.com seems a little bare. For instance, I can't even edit my account information "coming soon." Maybe it's being rewritten?
aikiai
http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Startup-Poker/

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you (aspiring founder), but the event is hosted by Ivan Kirigin of Tipjoy (YCW08 I believe) and there's been a number of other local startup founders at the games, YC and otherwise. Really fun time.

Also, I've got good things to say about the Betahouse meetups. I've been for Django and Plone. Interesting group of people, and great hacker space.

FYI your email is not in your profile.

rshao
The email field in your profile is invisible to other users. Put it up in your about me.
speek
You might have a good time meeting people at Northeastern University. Every wednesday we have a speaker come in and talk about something they're interested in. It'd be a great place to meet geeky students and faculty at NU. http://acm.ccs.neu.edu/?q=videos has some videos of past talks, but they haven't been updated in a while.

Next week we've got Foy Savas giving a talk about Ruby.

You're welcome to join us.

songism
where are the talks given? where do i go?
speek
They're in room 108 West Village H on thursdays at 11:35 (440 Huntington Ave. 02115). It's the really really big building with the glass across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts.

Unfortunately, the speaker this week doesn't look like he'll be coming this week. We're showing the documentary Code Rush instead (http://acm.ccs.neu.edu/?q=node/661).

shizcakes
As others have stated, the email in your profile is invisible. I am curious about your 'main' startup project (I work at one in Boston right now that could be construed as being in the music industry).

My email should be available in my profile.

mangoleaf
Why doesn't YC make a Hackerbook (HB) to facilitate nerd networking? I read HN cuz I can't stand digg et al. I might use HB cuz I can't stand FaceClutter...uh...Book.
chris_l
YC isn't in that business really. But as the source is open, we could do it ourselves...
pg
Actually this idea has come up a lot in threads lately, and I've been thinking of adding features of this type. E.g. to help people find jobs.

What features do users want?

ph0rque
Making the user page more into a profile page would be a good start.
chris_l
I'd like to see custom search by relevant fields, e.g. location, (computer) languages, areas of experience, positions held, interests

Business networking site XING also has user's list what they are currently looking for and offering

the_dude
Hey guys, thanks for the great suggestions, this is definitely the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I checked out most of the links so far and BarCamp (definitely plan to attend), Betahouse, and Open Coffee look cool, I'll have to try those out. Any good presentations/events are also of interest, I'll keep on top of those and check as many as I can.

Also, as many pointed out, my e-mail was indeed not visible in my profile (it was in the e-mail field instead). It's now in the profile.

I'd also second the idea of the "hacker network" within/in place of the profile section. Fields for geography, interests, programming experience/language preferences would be great, though I'd still like to see it left to each person to provide as much/little of that info as they'd like. Also, in the geography area, people could post links to fun/interesting events so others in that area would have a quick way of finding out about them while reading HN.