The "What Makes NYC's Web Startup Scene Special?" Talk

Comments (Archived):

1. Thank you, appreciated.Good to see that London was on your mind!

   1. I like to say that our firm’s body is in NYC but we like to reach our arms out to SF and London

      1. Just London? Or Europe? 😉

         1. europe but london is our gateway to the continent as most of the pan european VCs are there

2. Very interesting. Wrote a piece that relates to this – ‘Why clusters need characters’. Focused on Cambridge because that is where I live but I believe it is relevant for clusters around the world.http://thebln.com/2009/10/m…

   1. I like the title very much. I’m on my bberry but I will read later

3. And of course, New York could never be accused of lacking characters!

   1. Atraumatic Instruments Supplier is the fastest growing manufacturer and exporter of all kinds of Surgical instruments since 1987. We provide you all kind of Surgical Instruments, Seissors, Debakey Instruments, Bulldog Instruments, Glover Instruments, Dental Instruments, TC Instruments, Cardiovascular Instruments & etc. We have complete in-house production unit & well established network of distributor and partner around the world.We would like very much to do business with your company. I would welcome the opportunity to introduce you to our line of products.For more information or to place an order or enquiries, please visit our web site http://www.atraumaticins.com and contact us by telephone, email or fax message.We look forward to hearing from you,Best Regards,Inayat HussainAtraumatic Instruments SupplierAddress : Kourpur P.O Gohadpur 51310 Sialkot PakistanPhone # 0092-343-6336549Fax # 0092-52-4564160Website : http://www.atraumaticins.com E-mail : [email protected]

4. Awesome Fred, will have time to catch this after work/pre sleep. Groovy that Jack and Chris also gave talks. Was there a Q&A as well? That may be enlightening.I wonder about the split for new startups between no funding, angel only, or full VC backed hittig the gas and how that relates to NYC and potentially decentralized startups.

5. This is an absolutely fantastic talk. Damn I love New York.I’m also happy that there’s more and more a recognition of the importance of product vision instead of just technology. I think this is also part of the problem with the Silicon Valley echo-chamber — the idea that you can’t be a startup founder if you’re not an engineer, which is every bit as silly as the notion that you can’t do it if you’re not an MBA. Also it was great to hear a deeply technical (and impressive) person like Dave McClure agree with that.

   1. I agree. I really liked the question at the end highlighting the need for better product managers and how to train and cultivate that skill-set. So how does someone relatively early in the game get product management experience?For someone like myself that is interested in product management, relatively fresh out of school (3 yrs.) and has a foundation in business and technology, I don’t see entry-level opportunities in this area. Seems like everyone is looking for someone who’s got 5 -7 years experience in product management, but no early level opportunities are available to develop this skill-set.Also, thanks for sharing the video Fred. It’s really nice to get a taste of the scene there.

      1. To me the only way to gain experience is to do it. Build a website, even if only on your spare time, do some SEM to get traffic and user feedback, refine it until you have something to be proud of.PEG

         1. agreed.

   2. Yup, gave people like me some hope. Especially as I spend my days freaking out about art assignments that bridge these worlds…

6. another great show you put on boss. good job!though i have to note the irony….you straight up dissed marc andreessen for being a silicon valley bigot….are you becoming an nyc bigot?????though as a former resident of nyc i sympathize with nyc bigotry. nyc is better than almost everywhere else i’ve been to. my biggest beef with it, and definitely one of the leading reasons i moved, is the cost of living. for the bootstrapping entrepreneur, the cost of living in nyc will eat you alive.and as a full blown kook i should of course note the terrorist concern, which is real. as great as nyc is, it is one of the easiest places in the world to shut down and turn into an outdoors prison. the probability of such an event may be low, but the cost if it does occur is outrageous…multiply low probability by outrageous cost, and you’ll get an expected value that is in my opinion at least worth acknowledging and factoring in into decision making.

7. I’m calling bullshit on it, too.

8. Fred, I enjoyed the presentation. As a native New Yorker now living in Boston, I wanted to chime in with what I view as one disadvantage pitted against New York. For better or worse, folks in the business world (whether hedge fund moguls or media executives or entrepreneurs, and so on) are driven to a significant extent by ego. Different cities place different weightings on what professional success means, however. Perhaps the financial crisis has begun to erode this (though things are getting back to “business as usual,” from what I’ve heard from colleagues), but New York has long been a city where professional and social status is tightly defined by positions, promotions, press coverage, pay packages, etc.. Simply put, the statement, “Oh, I’m the founder of a start-up,” doesn’t carry nearly the social cachet in New York that it does in cities like SF (where it perhaps too easily carries cachet, though that’s another story!).There’s no denying that humans strive to be recognized and admired. I thought all your arguments were spot-on, and I absolutely agree that New York has the commercial, human resource, capital markets, etc. infrastructure in place for a thriving start-up scene, but until bootstrapping entrepreneurs are afforded the social standing of finance, media, creative, etc. professionals in New York, they’ll continue to aggregate in other regions of the country, just as, for example, entertainment professionals continue to aggregate in LA despite strong efforts by other cities to lure them. People need their egos stroked. Human nature’s a bitch.Nevertheless, thought-provoking presentation. New York being my hometown and perhaps ultimate destination, I hope the arguments you make slowly but surely overcome the hindrances I mention. The rekindling of the start-up community, in which at least internal recognition can be accorded, is a great place to start.(Caveat: I’m not an anthropologist or sociologist, just an entrepreneur, and I’m realizing now that half of this post may have been inspired by last night’s season finale of “Entourage.”)

   1. Well from what I saw this summer in the hamptons social scene (all of two nights out so not a large sample), the geek startup guys had the prettier girls with them than the ‘hedge funders’ as my son likes to call them. I’ve never seen that before and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I think we’ve hit a turning point

      1. Alex makes some good points. As someone that has been involved with prominent start-ups on both coasts I do feel somewhat qualified to speak to this issue. The bottom line is that a great idea is a great idea and a great founder is a great founder. They figure out how to make it happen if it can happen and it doesn’t matter where they live.NY is fine for start-ups. Fred knows more than most that there are some interesting and substantial projects going on in NY and in other places outside of Silicon Valley.The one big difference between coasts: sharing. There’s more collegiality on the West Coast. Period.

         1. Yup. I’m doing what I can to change that

      2. boss you know i trust your opinion but this is social media, you gotta post pictures and then we can rate the babes.

         1. I’m of the opinion that just because it’s social media doesn’t mean you have to share everything. Images in particular are a hot topic with me. I love them, yet they make me much more easy to ID. I don’t always want the fallout of that. I’m sure this is not an uncommon reaction. People have passed on to me pretty extreme stories of what they have heard done by primarily women in order to not be found by abusive exsHaving been both briefly cyberstalked in high school*, this situation is actually awkward at minimum because no one knows what to do at first. At a maximum, that is someone’s life you may have put in danger.Now imagine exposing some random girls who are about age 22- 32, who are probably accomplished in their own right, on a random website. You really don’t know.*It was a summer camp type of deal prank. The Solution was a lot of blocking on AIM, and keeping track of screennames and what was said to me. It was not fun. The person actually stopped by my door (it was a campus environment), left a note, and the campus police couldn’t do really do anything because there wasn’t anything going on beyond trying to freak me out by knowing stuff about me. I still have a screenname marked because of it, from someone who left his computer on all the time, and had someone apparently walk in and use the machine.

            1. you are spoiling my joke by going all serious, but i must admit you make a good point. although the only reason i made the joke is because i know there is about a 0% chance that fred would actually post pics even if he had them — i agree it would not be a cool thing to do for the reasons you noted.

            2. I know, but my immediate reaction was “Boys in locker room on the web….ewww…too much”Just a step over the line of my tolerance levels (which may be a bit low, I admit, partially a product of experience and hearing about friends and friends of friends experiences.)

   2. Atraumatic Instruments Supplier is the fastest growing manufacturer and exporter of all kinds of Surgical instruments since 1987. We provide you all kind of Surgical Instruments, Seissors, Debakey Instruments, Bulldog Instruments, Glover Instruments, Dental Instruments, TC Instruments, Cardiovascular Instruments & etc. We have complete in-house production unit & well established network of distributor and partner around the world.We would like very much to do business with your company. I would welcome the opportunity to introduce you to our line of products.For more information or to place an order or enquiries, please visit our web site http://www.atraumaticins.com and contact us by telephone, email or fax message.We look forward to hearing from you,Best Regards,Inayat HussainAtraumatic Instruments SupplierAddress : Kourpur P.O Gohadpur 51310 Sialkot PakistanPhone # 0092-343-6336549Fax # 0092-52-4564160Website : http://www.atraumaticins.com E-mail : [email protected]

9. Thanks so much. The mention was a real shocker. I also learned a lot, especially about the idea of product and some other interrelated ideas (Hey, it’s turning into my Bachelor’s). I need to mull on that.

   1. Atraumatic Instruments Supplier is the fastest growing manufacturer and exporter of all kinds of Surgical instruments since 1987. We provide you all kind of Surgical Instruments, Seissors, Debakey Instruments, Bulldog Instruments, Glover Instruments, Dental Instruments, TC Instruments, Cardiovascular Instruments & etc. We have complete in-house production unit & well established network of distributor and partner around the world.We would like very much to do business with your company. I would welcome the opportunity to introduce you to our line of products.For more information or to place an order or enquiries, please visit our web site http://www.atraumaticins.com and contact us by telephone, email or fax message.We look forward to hearing from you,Best Regards,Inayat HussainAtraumatic Instruments SupplierAddress : Kourpur P.O Gohadpur 51310 Sialkot PakistanPhone # 0092-343-6336549Fax # 0092-52-4564160Website : http://www.atraumaticins.com E-mail : [email protected]

10. Atraumatic Instruments Supplier is the fastest growing manufacturer and exporter of all kinds of Surgical instruments since 1987. We provide you all kind of Surgical Instruments, Seissors, Debakey Instruments, Bulldog Instruments, Glover Instruments, Dental Instruments, TC Instruments, Cardiovascular Instruments & etc. We have complete in-house production unit & well established network of distributor and partner around the world.We would like very much to do business with your company. I would welcome the opportunity to introduce you to our line of products.For more information or to place an order or enquiries, please visit our web site http://www.atraumaticins.com and contact us by telephone, email or fax message.We look forward to hearing from you,Best Regards,Inayat HussainAtraumatic Instruments SupplierAddress : Kourpur P.O Gohadpur 51310 Sialkot PakistanPhone # 0092-343-6336549Fax # 0092-52-4564160Website : http://www.atraumaticins.com E-mail : [email protected]

    1. please visit techcrunch.com, spammers tend to fit in better over there

       1. its down right now

11. Fred,What NYC area does not have is a place for entrepreneurs like the Si-Valley Plug and Play centers. These centers allow entrepreneurs to setup shop start to develop their products and use that center and its resources as a base for product development, deployment and obtaining funding. The Plug and Play centers in the bay area also invite attorneys, VC’s and mentors to their site on a weekly basis where they coach/assist pre-assigned teams or individuals. The cost for the entrepreneur is low (usually a % of his co as a convertible) and the value/utility for him/her is tremendous. What we need in the tri-state area is to develop such an inter-connected hubs of plug-&-play centers.BTW, You must have reached some tipping point in terms of traffic. It seems you have a determined spammer who wants to sell you medical tools (via this post).regards,Deepak

    1. There are a lot of coworking spaces in nyc. I can point you to them if you need help