| Ultimate Guide for Seattle Entrepreneurs to Get Their Idea Off the GroundBy Marcelo Calbucci |
If you are thinking about founding or joining a startup, or if you already have (or work for) a startup, you should take a look at these resources:
1) Northwest Entrepreneur Network
www.nwen.org
NWEN is a non-profit organizations focused on providing entrepreneurs with online tools, seminars, networking events and other resources for all kinds of entrepreneurs at different stages of developing their startup. The Venture Breakfast is a must go if you are just getting started and need to get some connections going. Some of their seminars and talks are very good, although sometimes they are less interesting for Technology startups. They also put together two interesting annual events: The Entrepreneur University (EU) at the fall and the Early Stage Investment Forum (ESIF) in the spring. EU is very interesting. You can see a few entrepreneurs talk and meet lots of interesting people. ESIF was not so great in 2007, but is one of the biggest events in town.
2) Washington’s Technology Association
www.wsa.org
The WSA is a non-profit organization representing more than 1,000 member technology companies and providing resources, training, seminars, events and a whole lot more with regards to policy making, technology, networking and entrepreneurship. They have not been very strong on the “startup” focus, but they are moving more into better serve local startups and entrepreneurs. Their flagship events are the Industry Achievement Awards and the Investment Forum.
3) Alliance-of-Angels
www.allianceofangels.com
AoA is also a non-profit which is subdivision of the Technology Alliance group. They are composed of angel investors (and a few VCs) and they are mostly focused on their monthly luncheon where 4 startups have to pitch to about 50-60 people. Most of the folks at AoA are ex-Microsoft. They also provide seminars and trainings for entrepreneurs and have recently tipped their toes into the blog water. Now, you should absolutely try to get your company through the AoA submission process and the number one reason is not because of funding, but to get Rebecca Lovell, AoA program manager, feedback on your slides and pitch.
4) Keiretsu Forum - Seattle Chapter
www.k4seattle.com
Keiretsu (a.k.a. K4) is a for-profit organization that focuses on deal-flows, i.e., bringing startups in front of angel investors. The tough part of K4 is the price tag to present at their Forum meetings. For a bootstrapped startup is probably a no-go, but if you can afford you should consider the possibility of raising money. The biggest mistake a company can do is to present too early on Keiretsu. Keiretsu has a very wide range of investors, so, expect lots of strange questions on your Tech startup pitch.
5) Seattle 2.0 Blog
www.seattle20.com
I have to list ourselves, don’t I? Seattle 2.0 is about bringing information to tech entrepreneurs, investors and service providers from entrepreneurs, investors and service providers. We post about events, news, awards, and from time to time we have guest bloggers writing intelligent meaningful posts (as opposed to what I write). We don’t have a job board (yet) and we don’t organize events (yet). It’s a must subscribe blog if you are (or will be) an entrepreneur or investor, or thinking about joining a startup.
6) Seattle Tech Startup
www.seattletechstartups.com
STS is a group created by the founders of BillMonk. The core of the STS is their distribution list which I believe to have more than 500 people from all kinds of backgrounds. There is a lot of discussion about technology, server hosting, PR, web design, etc. It’s totally worth subscribing to, although you should expect the traditional flood of emails from time to time, flame-wars, and the “me too” messages which add very little value (e.g. “I agree with Bob<eom>”). STS also organizes sporadic events where a few entrepreneurs give a talk on some technology.
7) nPost
www.npost.com
nPost is the startup for startups. It was founded by Nathan Kaiser and in case you have a startup and haven’t met Nathan, you should. They organize events, have lots of resources on their site -- including interviews with entrepreneurs -- and have a few exclusive distribution lists. nPost also has one of the best job boards for startups.
8) MIT Enterprise Forum
www.mitwa.org
The MITEF are most about training and a dinner for networking. The topics they cover are quite varied and most of the time not of very much value for an entrepreneur, although they are mostly interesting overall.
9) Other Investment Groups
There are quite a few investment groups like the Puget Sound Venture Club (the oldest?), Zino Society (Wine + Investment, isn’t there a law against drinking and driving companies?), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Tacoma Angel Network (TAN), etc.
10) Venture Capitalists
There are all kinds and shapes of VCs for all kinds and shapes of startups. Some suck, some are ok, some are great, but all of them are expecting handsome returns on their investment, so if you are in a 10 million dollar market you might skip VCs because they won’t invest on your business. Here are a few for you to check out: Fluke Ventures, Ignition Partners, Madrona Ventures, Maveron, Monster, OVP, Seapoint, Second Avenue Partners, Voyager, Vulcan, etc.
11) Law Firms
There is no shortage of law firms around here, and no shortage of individual lawyers. The questions that come up are always like “Go with big firm or small boutique?”, “Local or national?”. The fact is that it matters very little, at least for the basic corporate stuff. It matters when you are trying to raise funds to get a well connected lawyer, or when you are on a very specific space where the business deals require complicated terms. Some of the more well known firms, include: Davis Wright Tremaine, Dorsey & Whitney, Perkins Coie, Stanislaw Ashbaugh, Stoel Rives, Summit Law Group, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
12) Other Events
There is a lot going on in Seattle and vicinity right now. A few groups/events worth mentioning include: Open Coffee (organized by Andy Sack of Judy’s Book every Tuesday 8:30 AM at Louisa's), Lunch 2.0 (organized by Josh Maher), Ignite Seattle (organized by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar), Gnomedex (Once a year all geek event put on by Chris Pirillo), Biznik (a business networking site), StartPad (put together by Mike Koss including a wiki, events and pay-per-month office space)
13) Blogs by those who walk the walk
By far, the best resource an entrepreneur can get is to learn by the mistake and successes of others doing similar things. And, thankfully, there is no lack of good entrepreneurs blogging openly about their challenges and achievements. Amongst the best blogs you can subscribe to (check Seattle Blog List for a more comprehensive list), you can find: Andy Sack (Judy’s Book), Glenn Kelman (Redfin), Marcelo Calbucci (aka me)(Sampa), Kevin Merritt (blist), Bryan Starbuck (TalentSpring), Dave Schappell (TeachStreeet) and many more.
14) Press Bloggers
Of course I could not skip the John Cook’s Venture Blog (Seattle P-I) and Brier Dudley (Seattle Times)
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