Life of FBi | Non-Tech Start-up Founder

last tuesday i attended the masschallenge #massaccess speed-networking event, and the evening really epitomized why i love boston so much. first, it was a great event so kudos to john, akhil and david for the great work. the format was really innovative, six 10min slots to meet six new people in an hour. with some 200 people or organize, the event was pretty well organized. there was sushi and open bar afterward which was a really nice treat. what was also really nice was being invited out to dinner by bill warner. a week after winning the masstlc innovation catalyst award, it was no great surprise to me for bill to round up a few youngens and invite us out to dinner, no great surprise but a really nice gesture nevertheless. he spoke of the changing startup scene in boston, and credited the involvement of a lot of young people being proactive within the startup scene. being a young person, in the boston scene, i thought i’d shed a spotlight on a few youngens doing some interesting things.

the best thing about all these guys is they’d genuinely love to help in any way they can …

evan morikawa – twitter and linkedin

someone i’ve openly said that i’d love to co-found a company with one day, evan’s a brilliantly smart engineer, specializing in software. what makes evan’s relatively unique is his understanding and love of design, both raw graphic as well as user design. his team is pushing hard on a saas education startup, alight learning. the alpha is currently being tested by teachers, with hundreds more waiting for the beta.

jeremy levine – twitter and linkedin

i’ve been really impressed with jer’s progress in the last few months on his sports stock market startup, star street. they’ve planning on launching in a few months, and with every guy jer talks to get excited about the opportunity to trade their favorite sports players, i’m excited for him. he’s equally excited about the developing boston startup scene, having moved back to cambridge from syracuse where he went to school.

jason evanish – twitter, blog and linkedin

one of the most active young networkers in boston, the face and brains behind greenhorn connect, an aggregation of boston startup events, and other resources, i think jason’s actually trying to do the impossible and actually make it to all the events on offer, so don’t be surprised if he tweets about multiple events in the same evening. so if you want any advice on how to get the most out of boston, especially as a young startup enthusiast, evanish is totally the guy to connect with.

michael raybman – twitter and linkedin

a startup i personally can’t wait till launch, way savvy is a flexible travel search site that shows me what the best options are if i just wanted to go skiing sometime this winter with a rough budget of $500, i.e. it’s for those without exact dates months in advance, and exact destinations. i mean i just want to go boarding somewhere cheap, don’t really care when or wear. michael is the founder and they’re planning launch late this year/early next year.

danny wong – twitter and linkedin

someone who regularly makes me feel guilty that i’m not working hard enough, not because i’m genuinely not, but rather because this guy’s an absolute beast. someone you’ll be relieved to have on your team, we’re definitely lucky to have danny as blank label’s lead traffic controller. he oversees all our seo/sem, social media and networking, and affiliate marketing. a great networker in his own right, especially in the domain of of online marketing.

chris jacobs – businessweek profile

winner of this year’s businessweek 25 under 25, i can say from living with this guy, he has one of the biggest and craziest personalities of anyone i know, which is really saying something given most of the people i hang around are startup people, and by nature supposed to be a little crazy. he is a partner at emergent energy group, a renewable energy consulting startup with over 30 clients. they’re more excited projects they’re entering into are in urban development, definitely one to look out for.

cort johnson – twitter and linkedin; and jake cacciapaglia – twitter and linkedin

these two are quite attached at the hip, but of the dozens of times i’ve seen them, i think i can honestly say that i’ve never seem them more than 10 feet apart, and have definitely never seen them independent of each other. the guys behind what is becoming a cornerstone of the young boston startup scene, #pokinholes, dart boston has also expanded to #rule53 and #captialize. these guys are both true connectors, they passionate promote youth entrepreneurship in the form of giving the limelight to young boston entrepreneurs actually starting companies

the great thing about these guys is that they’re all 25 or under. i can’t wait to see what they do in the next 25 years. whatever it is, i just hope that it’s in boston.

of course there’s no forgetting matt lauzon and seth priebatsch, the founders of paragon lake and scvngr, respectively. but they’re already well on the way to making it so need to give them more praise then they’ve already received … kudos to highland, the venture backer of both these young rockstars