Well I finally got it together enough to start a Tumblog. I’ve messed around with the site for about 20 minutes and it is definitely the coolest platform for an individual to run a blog - I like word press for website publishers, groups or companies. My interests include (but are not limited to) sports - specifically Boston sports, social media, network theory, general technology, movies, and politics. I will try to post something every day, but I can guarantee right now that it will not happen. I am already having trouble thinking of what to write in this first post…
However, I thought an interesting first topic would be Scott Kirsner’s recent blog post Why Waltham Doesn’t Matter. First let me say that the amount of comments on the post, and more importantly who was commenting, was exciting to see. For those of you not in the Boston area, there has been a wave of entrepreneurial and innovative spirit over the summer with conferences, and “unconferences”, tech meetups, and other gatherings of like-minded entrepreneurs and innovators. As a co-founder of a web startup it has been an awesome thing, and as a friend of people who couldn’t care less about these things it has been incredibly nerdy as well, which I have enjoyed.
While I think just about everyone involved in the discourse following Scott’s blog post made good points, there were a few that stood out in my mind. One of the arguments that made the most sense to me was that it isn’t accurate to make a geographical comparison. I personally have met with 5 or 6 VCs out in Waltham and a handful here in Boston/Cambridge and I have had mainly pleasant and helpful experiences in both areas. With that being said, there definitely appear to be “cliques” of VCs, but these groups do not seem to be divided specifically between the Waltham groups vs. those in the city. While the different groups certainly have different styles, I wouldn’t say one is better than the other - just different. I know some different VCs that happilly engage with people through social media platforms because they truly enjoy it and I know some VCs that just don’t feel the need to blog or Twitter about their daily lives. I don’t feel the latter group is not engaging or giving back to the community, many of them will happily sit down with entrepreneurs to give feedback and counsel even when they know they aren’t going to invest, they simply don’t do it through Twitter, Facebook or a blog.
The other point that stands out as the end all be all of what we are all working for is the fact that the most important thing for the Boston community is to get a couple of big hit companies - the Google’s, Amazon’s, etc. While I agree that developing an ecosystem - more casual meetups, product testing sessions, industry blogs, keeping local talent, etc. - will certainly make it easier for hit companies to start sprouting up, there is also the chicken and egg problem in the sense that the ecosystem will develop more quickly when a hit company settles in the area. In that sense, it all comes down to the entrepeneurs in the area executing on bringing big ideas to life and the surrounding community supporting them along the way which I believe we see happening.
My hats off to Scott for the enticing post and everyone who contributed to the following conversation.
