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. 

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...

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.

Who are the faces behind a company? How did the company get started? These are common question you may have about startups you see and hear about. If you don't get a chance to personally meet the founders, you're unlikely to ever know their story. That's what Founder Fridays is all about.

Today we're featuring Ben Jabbawy of Privy, a startup that is turning around the deals space

For someone trying to achieve something big, there's a tricky balance to strike: time spent with one's community and time spent getting your hands dirty and doing the real, honest labor. 

For an early-stage tech entrepreneur, it's tempting to go to a lot of events and spend a lot of time hob knobbing with investors.  In fact, it's so tempting that I'd say a lot of younger entrepreneurs go overboard with it and have a hard time striking the right balance.  Time is limited.  Every way you spend your time is an investment.

“Customers live outside the building.” Every startup is well served to remember this and make sure they’re reaching out to their customers/users to understand them.  As customer development manager at oneforty, I’m on the front lines of that effort and our overall goal of implementing Lean Startups methodologies.  I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned along the way.