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Oh hey this is a good thread. I'm still in school, but I spent my sophomore summer interning at a tech startup, my junior summer interning at a sort-of-startup (it was acquired by a large tech company a few months before I joined so it was like 50% startup 50% large company feel), and am interning at a small local VC firm at the moment. I'm hoping to join a startup (or potentially a large tech company if it's the right opportunity) or maybe even start something if I get the right idea at the right time when it comes time to graduate. The main problem I'm facing is finding a good role at a startup as a business person in an entry level role. It seems to be a lot of being in the right place at the right time since most won't openly recruit college students unless there is a really compelling case.
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Oct 10, 2011 19:59
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Vladimir Putin posted:So basically he's got to get a powerpoint deck together and pitch to whoever will listen? I'm sure his CEO is trying to ring people up and set up meetings right now for them, if he's a decent CEO. I'm just curious as to the funding environment because he seems to be nervous about the availability due to the ongoing economic crisis. If he hasn't, he should read this book. It's a really good book to learn how venture capital firms work and how to go about negotiating with them as an entrepreneur.
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Oct 10, 2011 20:37
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TraderStav posted:I've always been curious what the scope of Entrepreneurship is considered 'startup'? Is it a term typically exclusive to internet startups, or just anyone who decides to start a business up on their own and just refers to the infant stages of any business? I don't have the exact stats on me at the moment, but a very small percentage of startups in America are venture-funded companies. One problem is that a lot of people look at Kevin Rose on the cover of Business Week and watch The Social Network and think entrepreneurship means building the next Facebook. While shooting for the moon probably is the coolest and most lucrative method if you succeed, it is only one way to start a company and a lot of success can be found in "normal" companies too. On the Techstars finale this week on Bloomberg, Gary Vaynerchuck pointed out how everyone was applauding whenever a company announced they raised X million dollars, but no one applauded the company that announced they had so many thousands of dollars in revenue and were able to fund themselves through that, even though that is a lot more difficult and substantive than just getting funding.
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Oct 20, 2011 20:06
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Analytic Engine posted:How much credibility does having a PhD or Masters from an Ivy League school give you in the startup world, all other projects/skills being equal? If you have ideas and drive then is it more important to spend 2-3 years networking and working at startups in Boston/Cambridge/Silicon Valley than finishing a higher degree? If you're starting your own company then not much beyond maybe getting funded more easily. If you mean as an employee I'm sure a graduate degree at the very least couldn't hurt if you are on the technical side. An MBA is usually a positive, though some people in the community have a bias against it. Other programs are probably what you make of them and what type of skills/role you want and how you want to brand yourself. The blue chip hot startups definitely take more employees with prestigious backgrounds than not, but because most of the companies are so small and non-traditional that some networking and hustle can help overcome that hurdle. For all programs the opportunity cost (starting a company with loads of college debt instead of savings from working is frightening) has to be considered too.
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Oct 24, 2011 04:31
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Leperflesh posted:Most of my friends live and work here in the SF bay area, for various software companies, and I've talked to them at length about the various failures and successes they've been through as well. I actually have another question. How do you like living in bay area as someone in the tech industry? I'm more interested in learning about the culture than the job opportunities, since those seem pretty plentiful. I'm on the east coast and have been slowly trying to break into the NY tech scene, but a small part of me has the urge to just pack up and move out west and give it a shot for a little bit. A VC told me he thinks that everyone in tech should give "mecca" a shot at least once so it really got me thinking about maybe doing it at some point. It's a huge mental hurdle to move across the country so I probably won't end up doing it for a while, but I can't even imagine having a bunch of people around to talk geek with who won't give perplexed looks when I bring my smartphone to check Yelp or check in somewhere on Foursquare (though I have also heard the lack of diversity can be obnoxious after a while).
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Nov 2, 2011 20:35
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Hackernews is pretty legit (though a little too engineering focused for my tastes). TechCrunch is great for news about companies; the analysis and opinion articles can be hit or miss, but its generally a pretty credible site and the largest "tech industry" news site. PandoDaily is a new site started by former TechCrunch employees and seems pretty good thus far. Mashable is geared a little bit more towards the general masses with a focus on social media and doesn't contain as much analysis, but there are still gems every once and a while (and quite a few interesting articles, regardless of whether it is hard-hitting news or not). Business Insider/SAI tends to be a lot of spammy TOP 10 CRAZIEST articles and industry gossip, but it's a guilty pleasure and usually does tend to aggregate the most important stories. There are a bunch more such as VentureBeat, the tech sections of WSJ/NYT, etc. Good blogs: http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/14/top-ten-vc-blogs-q409/ this is a pretty good list. I would add UnCrunched (Michael Arrington) and Twitter in general to the list. These are the blogs of the top venture capitalists and I would really pay attention to them if you are looking to get into entrepreneurship. Fred Wilson's is especially great.
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Mar 21, 2012 16:04
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sink posted:Have any folks found any worthwhile NYC meetups, technical or business or otherwise, they try to make? Knowing about fun drinkups or even more social oriented tech startup crowd meetups would be cool, too. I've only been once, but Digital Dumbo definitely fit the bill.
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Jun 2, 2012 17:50
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