- Participants
- Entrepreneurs
- The leaders of a startup community must be the entrepreneurs.
- They must have a long term commitment to the community
- They must be active, show up, do, lead by example
- They must put the long term health of the community ahead of their self interests.
- “Give before you get” mentality
- Be charismatic, people want to be around and be inspired by them
- The leaders of a startup community must be the entrepreneurs.
- Government involvement (feeder, not leader)
- be weary, govt takes a long time to work through
- Ask entrepreneurs what local economic development has done for them
- Govt can be out of sync (two – four year cycles) with the startup community
- “If your job is Economic Development Liason, you believe your job is to help companies grow.”
- If govt asks how they can help, best answer is immediate yes or no, don’t waver in the middle.
- Encourage local govt employees to engage in the startup community
- University involvement
- A startup community is not dependent on a local university
- Universities have 5 prominent resources – students, professors, research labs, entrepreneurial programs, technology transfer offices
- Students and professors are the most important! Always new and changing
- Freshmen provide new views and perspectives, graduates increase the overall intellect of the local community
- Professors are ultimately entrepreneurs themselves, either through their own research projects or outside of the university
- Important to have professors as advisors or mentors, potentially even cofounders
- Ideally, entrepreneurship programs should not be in the school of business – have students expand out to where innovation happens (engineering, computer science, life science, etc)
- Universities have great spaces to work with
- Encourage business students interested in entrepreneurship to venture out and meet innovators – don’t wait for them to come to you.
- Universities can help by hosting steady stream of entrepreneurial events, conferences, maybe even a law clinic.
- Good help comes in form of respect/support of outside initiatives/activities.
- Entrepreneurs
New Tech Event Model (blend with House of Genius model?)
- Potentially use Twitter to promote hashtags at event (livestream)
- Maybe don’t ask if people need jobs, but have an open resume board.
- Denton Note: maybe have it monthly at Harvest House? (*update, do it at Stoke)
- Non-profit night – have local technologists help out local non-profits solve their problems
- Intimate event space, nothing formal
- Possibly mentor new presenters on how to pitch.
- Alternatives – New Tech Gadgets (Hardware), Under the Microscope, Micro failures, etc
LittleDOCC Notes
- 8am – Start with hellos and meetings
- 8:05 – Current events, noteworthy. I.E new products, laws & policies, developer toolkit releases, best practices on X (x to be determined by moderator)
- 8:30a – Open floor – general questions/concerns from community
- 9am – Networking / Leave
Startup Event tips/tricks
- Have a topic – don’t hold an agendaless event
- Good content matters – have a specific theme
- Avoid filler content. Less-than-useful content can be happy hours, topicless meetups, self-promoting sessions from vendors, and expensive courses
- Vary event dates/times
- Schedule daytime events (meh)
UNT (cross departmental effort + pitch day)
- Combine class efforts + cross department participation for capstone projects
- Run a pitch day where students present their ideas and form groups that work together on semester projects.
- UNT doesn’t seem to embrace the Denton community (personal thoughts)
- Network view – don’t be a leader. Isolated events fail and end in crappy hierarchy.
- Innovation Greenhouse thoughts
- Contact companies that have come out of there – ask about experience, support provided, where they are now, etc.
- What are statistical differences between UNT & Colorado Univ? (CU)
- What is CU’s parking situation on campus? Pay to park, open parking, etc.
- Startups 2 Students Project (idea)
- Reverse pitch for startups
- Top level goal – connect students with local startups & entrepreneurs
- Startups / companies have only 3 minutes to pitch their ideas
- Order pizza. 🙂
- Discovery Park thoughts
- Who’s in charge of event marketing?
- What current channels do they use to reach out to partners?
- Are they only interested in corporate partners attending design day? Who all is invited?
- Does it cost money to attend?
- Do they ever reach out to alumni to join events other than asking for money?
- Do professors support this effort?
Entrepreneurs & Government
- Govt needs to be self-aware and understand/accept where they lack
- Start grassroots, bottom up – put on events yourself around govt and hopefully they’ll follow
- Govt should realize it’s impossible to control a startup community. Startup communities are always evolving and changing everyday.
The Power of Communities
- Give before you get (good karma) – those who got without giving often generate a negative reputation in the community
- Everyone is a mentor – generally a mentor will learn just as much or more from their mentee. There are gems everywhere, often undiscovered.
- Embraces weirdness – be open to any idea. If someone wants to try something, let them. Respond with, “Awesome, go for it!” If we don’t try, we will never have any data over if it works or not.