@kunalslab I believe you can create a startup community in any city. More importantly, I also believe that you should choose where you want to live your life, and then build your work and community around where you live. So turn the question on its side. Where do you want to live? Pick that - and then engage or build the startup community that is there.

@bfeld what are some common "idea validation" mistakes you see founding teams make? What do you wish teams would do sooner & better to validate their product ideas early-on?

@amyjokim @kunalslab I'd aim you at my book Startup Opportunities - http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Op... - I cover a lot in that book. The biggest mistakes I see are (1) the founders don't get stuff out quickly to experiment with, ala Eric Ries's Lean Startup, (2) the founders work on stuff they aren't obsessed about, and as a result lose interest in going super deep on solving whatever problem they are going after, and (3) founders simply build for themselves without having any perspective on who really cares about what they are building and why.

@bentossell Slack and other real-time comm tools are sort of helpful, but not critical. Often, technology slows things down if forced on folks, because a lot of people in the Startup Community simply won't engage consistently with it. I've seen 1,567 different efforts to create "Social Networks for a Startup Community" and most of them stale out after a brief burst of usage. So - I don't think it really changes any of the fundamentals - it's just an augmentation and potential leverage. And, don't forget, Slack - while great within a domain (@something.com) is still pretty weak across domains. It's getting better, but as someone who is in about a dozen Slack teams, it's not awesome yet since it can't consolidate activity. And, email continues to be a very effective least common denominator across diverse communities.

@harrystebbings Harry - that was a fun interview - I'm looking forward to listening to it. I just listened to Jonathan Triest's which was great. If anyone out there is interested, check out http://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/ Re: advice to a non-tech person getting into the startup world, just start! Being technical is not a requirement as startups require a range of skills. Start showing up where other founders are hanging out. Go to a Startup Weekend. Participate in a Startup Week. Hunt down interesting meetups. Become part of the community by doing stuff. Put energy into things without knowing what you are going to get back (#givefirst). Be USEFUL to others rather than just ask them to be useful to you. Magic will happen surprisingly fast.

@erictwillis I despise the notion of creating the "Silicon Valley of X" or using "Silicon" as the preface to things like "Silicon Alley", "Silicon Slopes", "Silicon Beach", and "Silicon Blah". See The Tragedy Of Calling Things Silicon Blah (http://feld.com/archives/2012/04...) for a rant on this. Cities already have a brand. The startup community in Boulder is called "The Boulder Startup Community". The startup community in LA is called "The LA Startup Community." Then, each city has its own "natural resources." Go back to the origin stories of cities - every city was once a startup that was created in the spot that it's at for some reason. Maybe it was where two rivers crossed. Maybe it was in a valley. Maybe there was a bunch of oil under the ground. Maybe someone was shipwrecked there. The reason doesn't matter - but the natural resources do. Today - there are a wide range of unique capabilities, skills, cultures, personalities, values, industries, intellectual resources, cultural resources, and physical resources in each city. The startup community should leverage the uniqueness of the city and the people living there. They shouldn't try to emulate or compete with other cities but over a long period of time develop their own special magic.

@bfeld @erictwillis Thanks for the response. I remember that blog post of yours from 2012.

@eriktorenberg I think the principles are the same. The tactics are different since it's hard to smell and touch people online, so you have to get the nuance of personality a different way. But having synchronous activities (AMAs, Group Hangouts) in addition to the asynchronous activity that pervades online communities is key.

@eriktorenberg I don't know the Summit Series community - tell me more about it and I'll react. I think the Boulder Thesis that I define in Startup Communities can be used to build many different types of communities. I have talked to people in lots of different domains, including education, non-profit, scaleup (such as the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network of Colorado - which I'm a part of - www.bencolorado.org) that have used the Boulder Thesis effectively.

@kikischirr I don't know what the regional factionalism context of Tampa / Tampa Bay is so it's hard to answer specifically. Is this a function of geographic programs, or something else?

@bfeld Sorry, yeah, it likely has no easy answer but I would say the root is county-competition for "scarce" talent/funding resources (I feel the perception of scarcity is larger than the reality, but that's an aside) There's also a little hometown pride from the different regions, and then there's just a little bit of clique-ish-ness, too. (For example we have a St. Pete 1 Million Cups AND a Tampa 1 Million Cups--I'd guess they're 10 miles apart.)

@kikischirr It's cool to have these "neighborhoods." Just make sure people from St. Pete go to the stuff in Tampa and vice versa. Grab a bunch of your gang and go to the other gang's house. Then invite them back to yours.

@eliotpeper My next book on startup communities (currently titled "Startup Communities: The Sequel" and code named "Startup Communities: It's Been A Few Years - What The Fuck Do We Do Now?" will cover a bunch of this, along with the things I got wrong in the first book. A startup community won't grow in a straight line up and the right (whatever that means). Instead, you'll have lots of plateaus and even down parts to the growth cycle. The key is to constantly be getting fresh blood into the startup community at all levels, but especially at the leadership level through being inclusive. The second the startup community starts to look like an organization or a hierarchy instead of a messy, chaotic network, you are in trouble. Incumbents are the death of a network like this. In Boulder, I earn the right to continue to be a leader of the startup community every day by doing new stuff. The day I stop, I'm no longer a leader.

@bfeld @eliotpeper Great to hear about Part II . How will you publish it?

@wmougayar @eliotpeper I don't know. It's like a 2017 project as my 2016 book is called #GiveFirst.

@eriktorenberg That's me!

@imkarthikk 1. I'll keep repeating "chose where you want to live and build your life and your company there." 2. I'm a huge fan of a SaaS approach rather than a fully packaged server to the enterprise approach.

@torbahax I write a lot all the time. There are many different modes, from Tweets to Emails to Blog Posts to Articles to Books. I have a different rhythm for Articles and Books - I tend to block out a chunk of time (usually two hours) and just write. I turn everything else off. Sometimes I can go as long as four hours, but rarely, and never more (or else all the words are useless.) I am a one pass writer - I don't do heavy outline and I don't edit while I go. I write. Then I do an edit pass. When I'm doing a book (vs shorter form) I often have regularly consolidation passes. I start at the beginning of what I've got and go from beginning to end, editing, changing, adding, moving, and deleting. I probably do this 25 - 50 times while I'm working on a book as more and more comes together. For shorter stuff (like this answer) I just write. And then hit post (or submit in this case.)

@micah You've got to train them. When I hear people in a city complain that there are no angel investors there, I simply ask "Are there any rich people living here." There always are and the tech / startup community has to work to help them understand why it is so exciting, and long term valuable for the city, for these rich people to invest in startups, in addition to buying real estate and bonds with their money. Most of these folks also contribute philanthropically to the city (arts, education, environment, entertainment) and one lens to give them is that investing in startups is "for profit philanthropy" around the innovation vector of a city.

@mossibat Engage actively as a participant in the startup community. Don't try to control or lead. Instead, choose one thing (activity or event) to put on and lead, and then show up at a bunch of others as a participate. Be open to anyone - do things like open office hours or random days - and be accessible. Treat founders like peers - do NOT believe that you are "one up" on them since you have the capital and they want the capital. Be responsive and respectful. And, when things don't work, try again.

@xmcgraw 1. I'm a believer that founders should allocate 10% of their time to their local startup community. It's not altruism - you expect to get something back. But you have to #GiveFirst (what I talk about in Startup Communities as "give before you get.") If you are having trouble understanding what benefit you'll get, take a simple one which is recruiting. I've yet to meet a founder that didn't want more talent coming to her. By engaging in your startup community, you'll have a higher profile and will quickly attract people to you / your company. 2. Get activities and events going that engage people in entrepreneurship. Startup Weekends. Accelerators. Meetups. DO STUFF around entrepreneurship together.

@mossibat Exits are important long term for any startup community for lots of reasons, but most importantly to generate additional capital (for founders, employees, and investors) that can then be reinvested (at some amount) back in the startup community. However, too many people are focused on one gigantic exit instead of a steady stream of moderate exists. The dynamic activity of the exit - where there is growth of the company on some vectors while other employees leave for various reasons - is a healthy part of how things work.

@brentsum Lack of self-awareness.

@dturneresq I don't think the principles or the tools change. If I reflect on Boulder since I moved here (20 years ago), much of the basis for what is happening now was happening then, just at a smaller scale in a more diffuse way. However, geographic scale has some interesting challenges because of the importance of entrepreneurial density. http://www.kauffman.org/blogs/po.... I like the concept of "neighborhoods" rolling up to "communities" rolling up to "cities" rolling up to "regions" (or "states"). If the focus in Boulder was the "Colorado Startup Community" we'd be screwed if we start there. Instead, we start with Boulder, Denver, Ft. Collins, and Colorado Springs. As each community develops, we build linkages between them to create Startup Colorado. The book Tech and The City (http://www.feld.com/archives/201...) does a great job of explaining this in the context of the New York City Startup Community.

@andrewhyde wait, are you writing one?

@andrewhyde I like to think we are brothers from a different mother.

@lhfaria Per my note to @kunalslab, in addition to creating startup communities anywhere in the world, I think you can create great companies anywhere in the world. Choose where you want to live first. If you want to live in the bay area, move there. If you want to live where you are currently living, live there! Leverage the unique characteristics of where you are, especially if you are building a scalable company that can sell their products anywhere in the world.

@wmougayar I don't think it's worth telling government to stop doing this. If what they are doing is worthless, the founders and leaders of the startup community should do two things. (1) Create and exist in your own parallel universe and (2) Invest a little time with key leaders on the government side to try to get them to become participants in the startup community, rather than leaders (or controllers) of it. #1 insured that the entrepreneurs are creating and leading the startup community. #2 gives the startup community a chance of effectively engaging government in the startup community, at least partially.