I actually just interviewed Brad on The Twenty Minute VC but I did not get the chance to ask him: What would he advise a non technical person wanting to get into the startup world?
@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.
@bfeld getting my question in early for one of my favourite startup books :)
If you wrote this book again, would your 4 steps be the same given the increasing presence of communication tools like Slack? I think the steps would be the same but in each their may be more variation of how to execute them...
@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.
@bfeld Thanks for doing this AMA. I have a question for you about building startup communities. @pmarca has often said that we shouldn't think about building "The Silicon Valley of X" (x being location) because the components that make up SV aren't easily repeatable in other environments. He said that there should be a commitment to building a community around a category like Bitcoin. The local government would loosen restrictions and support Bitcoin officially, entrepreneurs would flock there because of that support, which would then attract investors focusing on cryptocurrency, etc....essentially creating a sphere of knowledge around an important sector. What do you think about that concept considering that what you've helped build in Boulder without taking that approach?
@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.
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