Life of FBi | Non-Tech Start-up Founder

Away for a year and only back for a week, three quick suggestions:

NOTE: My main interests are in consumer and very young entrepreneurs,  so apologies if it leans heavy that way.

1. Get behind BostInno

Social Network the movie will do amazing things for young people starting companies for the next decade. It captures the imagination and shows the possible. In Silicon Valley, every young person knows someone working on a start-up. It ignites the imagination and describes the possible.

Media does this. In San Fran, they have Mike Arrington and Om Malik, in New York they have the publishing empire. When you have quality content delivery about startups, the ecosystem gets excited. Of course it’s a chicken and egg because you need quality startups to write about, but without the content distribution, awareness and corresponding excitement and chat, this so called renaissance will happen a lot slower.

2. Facilitate intros between like company founders

Is there a list of consumer startups at a similar stage, do they talk to each other? I chat with a handful of Boston consumer founders, all in the 1-3 years since launch, less than $10mn in rev, and these along with my advisor conversations are some of the most enlightening and thought-provoking parts of my week. Are there any verticals that have done something like this well; e.g. is there a small but extremely tight group of e-commerce start-up entrepreneurs, do lead marketers between different SaaS companies share notes? Would love to hear suggestions or how-to’s of whether any actual start-up groups. Is there much peer learning happening?

3. Have more parties

So having just got back to Boston, I ask around what events people are going to. Everyone talks about the Dart Boston party. Having been to so many Boston events where the 35+ people avoid the under 35s, and probably vice versa, Dart has clearly identified a need for this (especially given their party is completely sold out, had to move venues due to over-capacity and I had to go to the black market to get myself on the list). I hope everyone turns up for it, that’s there’s plenty of drinking, and there are many stories of “how did I get home from that”.

Boston, it’s great to be back. Rock on.