Lean Startup Event

Hey Everyone,

So it's been a while since I posted. But I just went to my first networking event on my own. Meaning I didn't work for a company who either sponsored or required me to go. It was great being in a room with so many people going through the same things the CrowdRage team is. The event was a Lean Startup DC meetup, which featured presentations by two companies and feedback from industry experts. It was interesting to meet people both ahead of where we are and behind us and how they are dealing with issues that are seemingly unique but actually fairly uniform in most startups. Just talking to people about CrowdRage, and fielding questions is great experience for me. I met a friend of a friend for the first time. It was great to get to know her, she is a lively and smart with a great personality, Rebecca Thorman is head of PR for Alice.com.

All and all it seemed that there were far too many people and too little time, I'm looking forward to the next event!

Washington DC's second startup wave

As it turns out, the DC startup community is more robust than I thought! I had a hint of this when I joined the DC lean startup group that already had over 400 memembers! After reading this New York Times technology article it's clear that DC is a growing spot on the startup map. With a huge talent pool to draw from and low competition for investors the area is a good place to start a company.

NY Times article

PR at Startups

Awesome article, Mark Suster highlights outsourcing PR and the journalist connections PR agencies. Makes a lot of sense, emphasizes ROI is made through a great agency who pitches the right journalists at the right time and gets to know your startup.

How to Use PR Firms at Startups

GroundScore

Found a new awesome Sublime-esq band on Twitter. Check out the sweet sound of GroundScore!

GroundScore Myspace

Advantages to keeping your competition close

I read this post by Marc Suster and thought of a previous manager and company I worked for. They were always belittling the competition. They claimed they had the only logical solution. This looked bad to subordinates like me, I can only imagine what it looked like to potential customers. After two years with this company I saw how this attitude really damaged them mentally in how they think about themselves and their competition. If you can be honest in saying what your competition is good at then you can find the truth in what you're good at. As it was, this company just deluded itself into thinking they were the best at everything and no one took them seriously or believed they could deliver. Employees were under the delusion that this company was the center of the universe.

Read more from Both Sides of the Table here

Go do what you want

Another inspirational post!

What are you working on?

Why You Should Work For a Big Company

...And now, the tit-for-the-tat. Here are some great reasons why grounding yourself and understanding burocracy and process flow are important background before you launch into your startup.

Why You Should Work For a Big Company