I organize Hackers and Founders SV, and I'm finally heading out to NYC in a couple of weeks to check out Hackers and Founders NY. I'm really looking forward to checking out the startup scene.
BTW, I'd love to be able to crash on someone's floor the night of the 25th after the meetup. Ping me if you're interested. I promise to be a good guest. :)
Thanks for the offer, aditya. I just accepted an offer a couple of hours ago. I'd love to catch up if you're going to be at the Hackers and Founders, though.
There are Bootstrapper Breakfasts (http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/ ) in Silicon Valley four times a month, and twice a month in San Francisco as well as monthly in Minneapolis and San Diego. I think the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem is richer and much more complex than the queue at Sand Hill Road. And that similar opportunities for serious conversation with other entrepreneurs exist in many cities around the world.
It's in my YC profile: I am not trying to hide anything.
I mentioned them in response to an article about breakfasts for entrepreneurs in New York, so that folks who might be interested in similar events in Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, or Silicon Valley would know.
Mate, take a tip from iamelgringo. Call it out upfront and state clearly what the organization is. From what I see Bootstrappers Breakfast is a lead generation opportunity for your business.
Many events in the valley are run by current founders for current founders or run by angels as leadgen. The assumption is that you're either an investor or a founder that wants to give back. If you're doing it for contract leadgen (e.g. the startups you engage with are paying for your services in cash or stock) and you're not calling that out upfront you're treading on assumptive good will.
In short: If you're going to use news YC as a venue to self-promote, then be upfront.
Candidly it's not a leadgen for my business. We run it as a service to the bootstrapping communities in the cities that we operate. And San Francisco, San Diego, and Minneapolis are moderated by other folks and often the Silicon Valley Breakfasts are moderated by other folks.
I know Jonathan Nelson (iamelgringo) and appreciate what he is doing. I have been to several Hackers & Founders events and found them worthwhile. It's nice to be able to meet for breakfast as well. I have been on YC for perhaps four years now and contributed I hope a number of useful comments and links.
I have no idea who you are from your YC profile or why you have jumped to the conclusions that you have. I ask that you take me at my word and otherwise accept that reasonable men may differ.
Jonathan runs Hackers and Founders as a sideline to something else he does. He does it for love and the desire to be around others like him.
You run a consulting firm that feeds on startups.
Your breakfasts are a marketing/leadgen program. That's fine if you call it out, but you're deluding yourself if you try to claim it's a community service. It may benefit the community as a side effect, but that's not why you do them.
ProTip: When you have a conflict of interest, call it out upfront. Anything less dilutes your legitimacy.
We've never met to my knowledge so I don't believe that you know me.
I am an entrepreneur and enjoy conversations with other entrepreneurs. I had a photography business in my teens and did my first startup in Silicon Valley in 1979 when I was still in college. the resources that were available then were minimal.
The breakfasts attract a broad range of folks: 20 year olds to folks in their 60's, men, women, the entrepreneurially curious, people in startups, serial entrepreneurs, consultants, and others. We don't turn anyone away as long as they want to talk about real issues related to bootstrapping.
I started them because I was fed up with attending evening events that were either about hearing a VC speak or were in bars and involved bullshit networking. I wanted to take part in serious conversations about entrepreneurship, in particular bootstrapping a business, because there were too few discussions about real problems.
We have a unique format for the breakfasts that foster one conversation on a range of topics proposed by those that show up. We have guest speakers sometimes, but they only have prepared remarks for about 6-8 minutes at which point they take part in the conversation. We have invited a number of entrepreneurs to talk about lessons learned from successes and failures including the inventor of MacProject, Writely, Wowzamedia to name a few.
I am not sure how you have reached the conclusions about me that you have but you are mistaken in your characterization of my motives. In particular I reject "everything you do is for business." There are no pockets in shrouds: not everything has to be about money.
Unless you've started a product company recently that you're not sharing with us, all the above plus your website says you're not an entrepreneur anymore. You may have been one 30 years ago, you may like being around entrepreneurs, but catering to them is not the same as being one today.
Today it seems you're a consultant/service-provider.
Although not original, your breakfasts may be good. Just please for the sake of our patience, call out your conflict of interest when posting here. There are many charming ways to do it. Denial or dismissal isn't one of them.
If someone calls you on a conflict of interest and there's even a remote chance there might be a conflict, just say something like: "Forgive my oversight. ...". Then graciously move on.
ProTip: Don't make assumptions about people you don't know. It kills your credibility.
I've talked with Sean several times over the last couple of years. He just likes startups and entrepreneurs and his bootstrapper-focus is a counter-balance to the VC-focus that is pervasive in startups and especially the Valley. He has come right out and said that as a founder of a consumer web product, I'm not useful to his business, but he provides informal mentoring and advice to me because he's nice.
In fact, if I remember correctly, he said he primarily works with enterprise hardware companies that sell their products for $100K+ each, so I doubt anyone, anywhere on HN is a useful lead for his business.
I'm moving to Brooklyn this summer and get very excited to keep seeing articles like this. I'm also going to be in town at the end of March, what are some "must see"s in the scene?
BTW, I'd love to be able to crash on someone's floor the night of the 25th after the meetup. Ping me if you're interested. I promise to be a good guest. :)