June 2011

The Boston Startup Guide - Part I: When New Entrepreneurs Want Funding

We all get them. Those emails that make you cringe, just a little.  Some brand new entrepreneur emails you for help. You're busy and you're not sure you're the right person to help. They seem like they lack even some of the most basic knowledge to get started.  But they're asking you for help...probably hoping for a meeting or maybe an intro to a trusted contact.

In Boston, we have a habit of just wanting to click the delete button on such messages, or simply declining citing a desire to "focus on my startup" right now or just not being "the right person." We can do better than that. If you really can't take the meeting, let's leave each of these new entrepreneurs pointed in the right direction. The Boston Startup Guide is here to help you do that. 

In Part I, we're covering what to do when a new entrepreneur is looking for funding and is likely not really ready for funding.  There are great things you can point them to and we're going to share them with you so you can copy and paste them in your next message, so you can say still help them even if you can't take that meeting. 

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown: June 26 - July 2

Time flies. We're already wrapping up June and despite the spring-rain like weather, we're officially into Summer. As June comes to a close there's many great events left, with over 21 networking events and office hours happening this week. As always, we put the can't miss events below! 

Young Hustlers Series: Janet Aronica of oneforty

In this ongoing economic recession and "jobless recovery" Gen Y has drawn the short straw.  As reported recently in the New York Times, “the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is a whopping 17.6 percent.” Adding to this is the bad reputation for being self-entitled and difficult to work with.  Like any stereotype, there's always some truth that started it, but it's unfair to paint an entire generation with such a wide brush.

There are many great Gen Y'ers, some right here in our startup scene. They've accepted the challenge of our economic times and blazed their own trail through bold moves. The Young Hustlers series will highlight them.

Today we have Janet Aronica of oneforty, who used the power of social media and a whatever-it-takes attitude, to secure a job in the heart of the recession.  Read on... 

 

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Young Hustlers Series: Galen Frechette of Gemvara

In this ongoing economic recession and "jobless recovery" Gen Y has drawn the short straw.  As reported recently in the New York Times, “the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is a whopping 17.6 percent.” Adding to this is the bad reputation for being self-entitled and difficult to work with.  Like any stereotype, there's always some truth that started it, but it's unfair to paint an entire generation with such a wide brush.

There are many great Gen Y'ers, some right here in our startup scene. They've accepted the challenge of our economic times and blazed their own trail through bold moves. The Young Hustlers series will highlight them.

Today we have Galen Frechette, an aspiring entrepreneur who worked to deliver pizzas until he had enough money saved to take a chance in Boston trying to find a great job. Read on...

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Young Hustlers Series: Jason Evanish of Greenhorn Connect

In this ongoing economic recession and "jobless recovery" Gen Y has drawn the short straw.  As reported recently in the New York Times, “the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is a whopping 17.6 percent.” Adding to this is the bad reputation for being self-entitled and difficult to work with.  Like any stereotype, there's always some truth that started it, but it's unfair to paint an entire generation with such a wide brush.

There are many great Gen Y'ers, some right here in our startup scene. They've accepted the challenge of our economic times and blazed their own trail through bold moves. The Young Hustlers series will highlight them.

Today, I'm sharing my story. Many of you know me now, but how I got here is far from conventional. Despite this fact, I think everything I did is very repeatable if you want to blaze your own unique trail in our community. Read on...

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Young Hustlers Series: Elisabeth Michaud of Communispace

In this ongoing economic recession and "jobless recovery" Gen Y has drawn the short straw.  As reported recently in the New York Times, “the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is a whopping 17.6 percent.” Adding to this is the bad reputation for being self-entitled and difficult to work with.  Like any stereotype, there's always some truth that started it, but it's unfair to paint an entire generation with such a wide brush.

There are many great Gen Y'ers, some right here in our startup scene. They've accepted the challenge of our economic times and blazed their own trail through bold moves. The Young Hustlers series will highlight them.

Today, we have Elisabeth Michaud. As a Harvard graduate in 2009, she thought it would be easy, but her prestigious degree brought no guarantees of a job post graduation.  Through hard work and determination she created opportunity for herself. Read on...

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown June 19 - 26

We hope you all had a great Father's Day weekend and took a break to tell your dads how awesome they are. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup, it finally got warm enough to go to the beach in MA and Coolio put on a very entertaining concert with Tom Boats Everybody. The Boston startup scene is still chugging along, with over 30 networking events and office hours happening this week. As always, we put the can't miss events below!

It's time for some Boston Swagger.

Before the NBA season began, the Dallas Mavericks gathered as a team to get ready for a new year. As a veteran squad, they were well aware of what lay ahead of them and believed they had a shot at winning the title. Jason Terry (pictured left) believed so much that they could win and wanted to make a strong statement of his beliefs so he got a tattoo of NBA championship trophy on his bicep. It became a rallying cry for the team as the worked hard to leverage everyone's talents and do whatever it took to win.

Boston has everything it needs to win as a startup community. It's time for us to embrace this with confidence and ownership of the responsibility to live up to it.

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Lessons Learned from Angel Bootcamp

Yesterday was the second annual Angel Bootcamp in Boston. It brought many of the best and brightest investors out to share their knowledge and experience on angel investing.  It also brought out quite a few great entrepreneurs as this year's move to the Tang center allowed for more attendees than the previous year.  Many notables like Bijan, Dharmesh, and Ty Danco shared their thoughts on Angel investing. I'd like to share a few of the key takeaways I saw.

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown June 12- June 19

 The weather may have cooled down in June, but the Boston scene is still hot. This week we have over 35 networking events and office hours planned. Whether you're in the mood to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, or just party, we have an event for you below! Get out and have some fun!

Live from the Nantucket Conference - Day 1

 I'm here at the Nantucket Confernece, a gathering of New England's best veteran entrepreneurs and investors. This year, they've also invited some young entrepreneurs to the event thanks to sponsored tickets, which we wrote about last week. 

While the conversations over drinks, coffee and meals are off the record, the panels are not, so follow the tweets at #ack2011 and here I'll share a few of my notes from some of the panels and fireside chats today.

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