“What It Takes to Create a Start-Up Community” via The New York Times
What, no Nome, Alaska? But seriously, while I cannot quibble too much with this map as that is where much of the VC activity occurs, there are plenty of whitespaces where startup are happening in a big way.
For example, where is Utah which has had an active tech scene for a couple of decades? Why no representation south of the Mason-Dixon line? There are plenty of startups in Atlanta and Raleigh, while areas around UVA and VT are perking up. Michigan, once dominated by the auto industry, is experiencing a startup innovation Renaissance in Detroit and Ann Arbor. Even places you may not think of as tech hotspots like Des Moines and Montana are showing an uptick in tech startup activity.
As I maintained before, it does not matter where you start. New York may be hot, Silicon Valley might be king, Boston may be the old stalwart, but there is no requirement to move yourself to one of these locales. You can make it happen anywhere.
The Truth About Entrepreneurs: Twice As Many Are Over 50 As Are Under 25 | PBS NewsHour →
Myths abound about the young entrepreneurs who dreamed up crazy ideas while in their dorm room, raised millions of dollars in venture capital, and started billion-dollar businesses. But these are just the outliers. The typical entrepreneur is more like Albert — a middle-aged professional who learns about a market need and starts a company with his own savings.
How I Became an Entrepreneur →
I was out at a HackCville event a couple weeks ago, which is a local organization dedicated to helping students of UVA become a part of the entrepreneurial experience. It’s a great community.
I had a lot of students asking me about my business and experiences as an entrepreneur. It reminded me of two things:
1. I need to give back more to the entrepreneurial community, especially to those who are starting their career in my field or looking to change careers.
2. Every story of entrepreneurship is special and should be shared.
Over the years, I’ve blogged here and there about my experiences as a small business owner - typically when I get a hair up my ass. But now I’m going to repurpose my home on the web and make a concerted effort to blog about specific entrepreneurial topics and experiences that I hope will help someone. This is post #1.
43/365 - Apr 1, 2011 on Flickr.
Thanks to @timehop (again) I was reminded that we submitted our first Tumblr theme, 2 years ago today.
Silicon Valley to Blacksburg
Saturday I spent the day in Blacksburg, Virginia for a great afternoon of talks by 5 entrepreneurs who all went through the Y Combinator program out of Silicon Valley. The five speakers were:
- Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit
- James Beshara, co-founder of Crowdtilt
- Khaled Hussein, co-founder of Crowdtilt
- Ashu Desai, co-founder of MakeGamesWithUs
- John Fallone, co-fonder of SendHub
- Build quickly, talk to users, build more, talk to users, and repeat over and over again.
- Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster. Don’t let the ups get you complacent. Don’t let the downs get you depressed.
- Embrace failure so much that you are numb to it. You can’t learn and improve unless you try, which will often lead to failure.
- Always be doing. Don’t sit back and wait. Make things happen by doing.
- Dont be afraid to share your problems with others. They might offer ideas that you haven’t thought about.
- Dont pay attention to the competition. Focus on your product, customers, and road map.
#SVTOBB keynote speaker @alexisohanian, founder of @reddit #bktobb #bva (at TechPad)
David Shrigley, It’s All Going Very …, 2010
this explains startup life so well
How I feel about Business Bullpen every day.
(via dpstyles)
Great local free event coming up in April put on by hack.cville. We hope to be there.
Just secured my ticket!
(via storyware)
Elsewhere