It Doesnt Take Much
- Image by micahb37 via Flickr
I’ve met a lot of people in my life. A lot.
Many make a lasting impression on me. Most make no impression on me.
When I meet someone for the second time, it takes my brain a second or two to acknowledge that the recognition is true, and to connect the face with a place. The name often takes a bit.
It doesnt take much.
As you can see from my brain tattoo, I have a near photographic memory.
(The tattoo is an actual MRI taken of my brain to determine if I had MS. What might be strangely disturbing is that I was so freaked out by the MRI and possibility of my body deteriorating, I did a lot–and by a lot I mean more than a human should consume–of drugs. Yes, that is my brain on drugs.)
Often, its the way a person smiles or carries themselves. Perhaps its the timber of their voice. Or its their walk, but for me to remember them, it doesnt take much.
Being a sociology major, I am convinced its because we have marked that person as safe, and our brains are reminding us of the fact that this person is not a threat physically.
In the past couple of months, I have begun to really take note of the social groupings within Boulder. It reminds me of when Janis Ian gives Cady Heron the map of the high school lunch room and explains each of the cliques: You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, J.V. jocks, Asian nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity jocks Unfriendly black hotties, Girls who eat their feelings, Girls who don’t eat anything, Desperate wannabes, Burnouts, Sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of plastics.
(Yes, it is the greatest movie of all time–excepting of course Bring It On.)
Boulder certainly doesnt have as many groupings, but what is interesting is how the “tech scene” itself separates from the rest of Boulder. I am often surprised when I go to the movies, or the mall (yes, because I am 15 years old, and I am scamming on chicks) and dont see any people I know.
Is that bad? Does that make Boulder “just like high school?” (and if it does, who are the plastics? I know I am a “unfriendly black hotty” so it cant be me).
It doesnt take much.
Cliques, or groupings, by nature are exclusionary. They are created to keep people out not to add people in.
We talk in Boulder about how its a place that works to help each other out, and for the most part, thats true. But not entirely true.
I had coffee with a friend today, who has a startup down in Denver.
He needs a CTO. He is at his wits end looking for a CTO who is willing to come into a (very) early stage startup for (primarily) equity.
“Where do I find a good CTO, Micah?”
I think about Todd Vernon, our CEO at Lijit being introduced to Stan James, our founder. Or Jud Valenski being introduced to Eric Marcouiller, who together founded Gnip.
It doesnt take much.
A simple introduction. A simple introduction would mean the world to my friend and the success of his business.
But how does that happen when you are not part of the “tech scene?”
Dont say, “well there is New Tech” or OpenCoffee or any of the other events that are thrown around here. It would be amazing to find a potential partner at an hour long gathering.
Thoughts Boulder? How does someone who is not in Boulder become “in” Boulder?
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Brad seems to have his hand in a lot that goes on in Boulder, so he
might be over-exposed (if you will) when it comes to the “cool stuff”
coming out of Boulder.
But, I agree that there are plenty of strong tech companies in Boulder
that Brad has had little hand in, and frankly, I dont know much about
them.
Also, given I gave the last couple presentations on Lijit, I take a
bit of exception. :) The January meetup had 4 cancellations at the
last minute, and Robert called me at 5pm the night before and asked
me to present. I was happy to help him out.
Robert does a great job of fielding requests to present and giving
companies equal opportunity.
But, my question is outside of the events. What can boulder do to be
more welcoming of all startups in colorado that could benefit from
access?
Not to be to cynical but from my perpective the local “tech schene” is a clique of people losely tied into brad Feld's friends / prefered followers at TechStars and associated companies. There are many that are strong tech but exisit outside that goup and can't get heard in the tweet echo chamber of said “scene”
How many presentations of the latest incarnation of medium and Lijit can we listen to at “new” tech meetup? Where is the meat of those truely delverying their marketplace and driving revenues ad profits
I know they are out there in the area, they just aren't in the group that runs the “scene”
I keep contemplating submitting SocialToo to TechStars, or doing something like take a CTO job like you mention. I love the MountainWest, and I'd move to Boulder if I could. My issue is, how does one support a family of 4 kids on a TechStars $6,000 over 3 months budget? To me, it seems Boulder supports the single crowd well, but for a married with kids man like me it's tough to move there for the tech scene. Maybe my perception is wrong?
It's like anything else. The way to get into “the scene” is just to keep showing up. Not just events, but reaching out to people and meeting for coffee or lunch. Yeah, Brad is an important hub here, but in my 10 years in Boulder he's probably introduced me to less than a dozen people (and I've met hundreds). OTOH I have made a habit of reaching out to companies he mentions in his blog if I see some relevance.
A couple years ago I volunteered for Naturally Boulder Day and was amazed at how little crossover there is between the tech and natural products cliques. I recommend doing something like that for anyone. You probably won't find a CTO there, but you'll meet interesting people with a very different perspective on business (I mean, when's the last time you had to figure out how to source quality tea from S. America?).
Portland has a bit of the same issue. There is a certain scene that is thriving with any number of events and gatherings happening multiple times per week (with varying degrees of formality). The reality is that a lot of the events are the same folks in attendance, and I've heard comments that some feel it's hard to “break into” or become part of the crowd.
Some of the folks have decided that rather than try to become part of the existing events or activities that they would hold their own events or activities and then invite the “normal crowd”. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it has failed. There have been a couple groups that have taken the approach of “We'll host our own event, kind of like one that has been successful, but we'll add a bunch of rules and more formality to it.” Those scenarios are usually met with backlash that often overshadows the good things that might otherwise happen.
I don't know there's a magic bullet. But Derek's comment that the way to get into the scene is to show up is spot on. In Portland that means coming to events like Beer and Blog or the numerous usergroups that focus on specific technologies. It means using Twitter, and participating in conversations with other Portlanders. One good way to build cred is to write intelligent blog posts and invite discussion around them. Just Do It ™ :)
@Aaron. Yep. I lived in PDX for 17 years working for NIKE. That vibe was present in Portland, but it was pretty bad at NIKE. That's why I gave it the finger and moved out here.
I couldn't possibly agree more if I tried. The IDEA of Boulder being open and cooperative is great. But there is definitely a “cliquey” kind of thing happening. If you're not “in” with the right group, you're out.
The answer? Cyber-stalking!
I'd gotten to know a handful of Boulder tech people through blogs, attending Defrag and Brad. I'm planning a move so I wanted to find other interesting people on the scene. As a geek, I know technology is the answer to any question, even social dilemmas, so I took the twitter names of the people I knew and looked at who they talked to. I ended up publishing the list on http://bouldertwits.com along with some communications analysis graphs to understand who talked to who.
I think Derek's right. As much as it may feel like high school, the only way to get to know people is by turning up at events and getting involved online. It can be a bit intimidating at first when it feels like everyone knows everyone else and you're Billy No-Mates, but Boulder has done a good job of welcoming me.
I can't chime in on the Boulder dilemma, but I can tell you that I think it's fairly awesome that you have a tattoo of your brain. And if you substitute “awesome” for “a little strange but in a quirky way,” I feel that way, too.
The Boulder “tech scene” sucks…
This is a topic that i have thought about quite a bit. I have lived in Boulder for just over 3 yrs now. I work remotely out of a home office. When i first moved here from SF my boss warned me that i would be sorry. Great place to live, but i would need to change careers if i ever left my tech start-up. 3 yrs. ago i reached out to Brad Feld b/c i had read an article abt him in the Daily Camera and was concerned about building a network. He pointed me to the New Tech Meetups and seemed very open to introducing me to the different companies if i was looking for a job. Of course, with a young family and a lot of travel for work — i was lazy abt it and made it when convenient.
Two years later, i decided i really needed to reach out to the community. I reached out to Micah and asked if we could go to coffee. I wasn't looking for a gig or selling him anything, just wanted to get more involved. We had an interesting conversation and he introduced me to others at lijit and in the boulder community. He was great — as have been all the others that I have made the effort to introduce myself — all taking time out of the schedules just to chat.
Similarly, i went to a denver tech alliance event sponsored in part by eBags. They happened to be a long time customer of mine. Just like there is a “friend of Brad” halo in Boulder there is definitely a “friend of Jon” effect in Denver. Got introduced to the ceo's of lot's of interesting companies — zappos, threadless, taaz and many of the techstar gang. had followup lunches w/ local denver vc, again, not pitching anything, just to get to know ppl. This is just something that would absolutely never happen in the Bay Area.
Now to Micah's original point/question re: cliques. of course there are cliques. these exist everywhere. And Micah don't fool yourself, you are definitely part of the “cool kids”. But i would have to say, there are more cliques amongst the parents on my son's pre-school than there are in the boulder tech scene. With that being said, its definitely a very strong and inviting community. One final example of this. In the couple of weeks, i went to a “dad's night out” here in Louisville/Superior. The guys that I met included developers from Rally, R&D from L3, and a math phD. then i went to the Boulder Drinks event this wk — wasn't going to go, but i had emailed jeremy tanner earlier in the day to get more details on the event and he personally called me as the group was leaving for the bar. we had never met/spoken before but he made the effort to call and invite me along. finally, last night, in Lafeyette, i took my family out for pizza and we ran into my wife's friend. turns out her husband is in mobile and goes to the monthly tech meetups.
My point of the long rambling msg is that the boulder community has really surprised me. it's much larger than the core inner circle of just the techstarts/brad feld world, but they are core in putting in the energy to not only sustain it, but to try and nurture and grow the community. Micah, we may not all be at Trident, but look at Super Joes or that Starbucks down the road, and you will find the rest of that “tech community” you are asking about.
Interesting question… one I certainly don't have the answer for. In a weird way, I'm closer to many of the Boulder community than I am the Denver community – and let's not pretend that they really mix. Geographically they may be separated by only about 20 miles, but socially and philosophically, it's a different world.
Personally, I think the Boulder scene is much more welcoming and open. Even just being up there last weekend when half of it was out in Vegas for the triple-threat week – the community was still open and welcoming.
How do you find a CTO in Denver? No idea. Denver doesn't really have a “scene” or “community” – it's very fragmented. Much easier to find one up in Boulder I'd guess. But don't discount those “1 hour events” – enough of them add up to a lot more exposure than you'd think. But honestly? I think just asking someone like you makes a heckuva difference Micah. I'd trust your “this guy is a good guy and knows what he's talking about” recommendation over the prettiest resume in the world.
The answer is Longmont. That is where people with a family actually live. We commute to Boulder.
When a company grows up, it moves out of Boulder for cheaper office space. That means is moves to Longmont (Xilinx, Seagate, Western Digital, Global Crossings, Sun), Superior/Louisville (StorageTech/Sun) or some other Boulder suburb.
There is more going on in CO than just web startups.
IBM->StorageTech->Exabyte->Quantum, but now tape is dead. Disk is alive and doing layoffs.
You can get a day job.
How funny is it that you suggest people “hit you up” via an online
service to meet face to face. Why not leave your phone number?
Technology doesnt remove engagement, if anything it accelerates it.
some voices may be louder than others, but it all depends on what is
said, and who is saying it.
Are we clique-y? YES. Can you move among cliques? maybe.
It's easy to PERCEIVE the tech scene here as a cliquey.
I agree with the others that there seems to be a few “cool kids” which garner all the attention. HOWEVER, this is due to the silence and passiveness of the Boulder tech community as a whole. The “cool kids” get the attention by default of the rest of the community's lack of engagement.
We all rely too much on our technology toys rather then good 'ol face to face introductions over a few beers.
I for one, would be down with meeting any of you over a beer or coffee. Hit me up on Twitter and I'll buy the first round. http://twitter.com/gmorris
How funny is it that you suggest people “hit you up” via an online
service to meet face to face. Why not leave your phone number?
Technology doesnt remove engagement, if anything it accelerates it.
some voices may be louder than others, but it all depends on what is
said, and who is saying it.
Are we clique-y? YES. Can you move among cliques? maybe.
It's easy to PERCEIVE the tech scene here as a cliquey.
I agree with the others that there seems to be a few “cool kids” which garner all the attention. HOWEVER, this is due to the silence and passiveness of the Boulder tech community as a whole. The “cool kids” get the attention by default of the rest of the community's lack of engagement.
We all rely too much on our technology toys rather then good 'ol face to face introductions over a few beers.
I for one, would be down with meeting any of you over a beer or coffee. Hit me up on Twitter and I'll buy the first round. http://twitter.com/gmorris