The Internet Week: The Thing To Do

Image via WikipediaI think you show up less to soak up the knowledge and more to meet people. And I just discovered something that makes Internet Week look like a better deal than Social Media Week. For the most part you stick to one location. Get a 15 dollar pass, and stick to one location.

125 W. 18th Street

The Internet Week Is Mumbojumbo

Monday

Where Social and Impact Intersect: Lessons for Brands
01:00 PM — 01:50 PM
Official IWNY Ford Opening Party with music by Noisey.com
07:00 PM — 10:00 PM
OMMA's Tablet Revolution
08:00 AM — 05:00 PM
Digital Archaeology
10:00 AM — 06:00 PM
ShareThis & SMG present: Social Media Sharing
11:00 AM — 11:20 AM
VICE Speed Interviewing
11:00 AM — 11:50 AM
The Rise of the Daily Email Newsletter
11:30 AM — 12:20 PM
Facebook Marketing Best Practices
12:00 PM — 12:20 PM
Mobile Engagement 101
01:00 PM — 01:45 PM
The Neighborhood Experience (Beyond Hyper-Localization)
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Your Startup's Technology: The First 60 Days in Examples
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Social Media & Hospitality: Driving Traffic, Boosting Sales & Upping Engagements
02:30 PM — 03:00 PM
Rallying to Restore Sanity in the Digital Age
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
The Onion’s Team of Three
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM
How to Survive Internet Week: Using Social Media to Make Offline Connections
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM

Tuesday

Yahoo! PROVOKE Summit
10:00 AM — 01:00 PM
Local is More than Location
01:00 PM — 01:50 PM
Demystifying the Cloud
04:30 PM — 05:30 PM
Using Mobile/Social to Engage TV Audiences
05:00 PM — 05:30 PM
Using Mobile/Social to Engage TV Audiences
05:00 PM — 05:30 PM
USA TODAY Pulse of America Series
08:30 AM — 09:45 AM
Digital Archaeology
10:00 AM — 06:00 PM
Your Personal Finances from LearnVest
12:00 PM — 12:45 PM
Some Like it Mobile…How Brands are Embracing Mobile Advertising
12:00 PM — 12:45 PM
The Future of Online Video
12:00 PM — 12:20 PM
Social Food Apps: How they’re changing your mind at point of sale
01:30 PM — 01:50 PM
Can ‘Viral’ Be Bought?
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Idea to Product to Traction
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Monetizing a Social Audience
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
Make it Happen! Creating a Successful Web Series — From Page to Screen and What Comes After
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM
Love on the Go -- How Mobile is Changing Modern Dating
04:00 PM — 04:20 PM
Mobile Startups and The New York Effect
04:30 PM — 04:50 PM
The UK and the East-London Technology Cluster
05:00 PM — 06:00 PM

Wednesday

Why Do Mindsets Matter?
02:00 PM — 02:50 PM
The Evolution of Online Advertising
05:00 PM — 06:00 PM
IAB Innovation Days @ Internet Week
08:00 AM — 05:00 PM
USA TODAY Pulse of America Series
08:30 AM — 09:45 AM
Digital Archaeology
10:00 AM — 06:00 PM
Sex, Hair & Chicken: What Busy Women Want Online
11:00 AM — 11:45 AM
The Industry that Knew Too Much
11:00 AM — 11:50 AM
Women as “Tribal Leaders” – The Democratization of Influence & The Social Video Network
12:00 PM — 12:20 PM
The Future of Sports and Social Networks – Moving From a Social Relationship to an Active One
12:00 PM — 12:20 PM
Master Your Domain
12:30 PM — 01:15 PM
The Partners Project with Shira Lazar and Rocketboom
01:00 PM — 01:45 PM
Data Drives Success for Leading Marketers:
01:00 PM — 01:45 PM
Everyone’s a Comedian
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Creative Content Calendaring
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
Mobile? We Have an App for That!
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
How Mobile Advertising is Impacting Brands and Consumers
03:00 PM — 03:50 PM
Data Drives Consumer Reach:
03:30 PM — 04:15 PM
Bringing Smart and Sexy Back: Pay-Per-Success Model in Social Media Advertising
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM
The 24/7 Online Newscycle & Reaping the Rewards of Real Time Reporting
05:30 PM — 06:00 PM

Thursday

Web 2012 and Beyond: Redefining the Internet of Tomorrow
05:30 PM — 05:50 PM
IAB Innovation Days @ Internet Week
08:00 AM — 05:00 PM
Digital Archaeology
10:00 AM — 06:00 PM
The Art of the Side Project
11:00 AM — 11:40 AM
The BajillionHits Way: Internet Content Mass-Manufacturing
11:30 AM — 11:50 AM
How To Stop Sucking at Email, Meetings, and Calls with Investors and Customers
11:30 AM — 12:10 PM
Stars of TechStars
12:30 PM — 12:50 PM
How to Buy and Sell Digital Media
01:00 PM — 11:00 PM
Pop! Goes the Bubble
01:30 PM — 01:50 PM
Finding the Keys to the Kingdom: Getting People to Use Your Product
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
Startup City
02:00 PM — 02:45 PM
The Evolution of Communication
03:00 PM — 03:45 PM
SOCIAL COMMERCE: Insights from innovative leaders who are reshaping the commerce experience
03:00 PM — 03:50 PM
Online Advertising is Broken. Can We Fix It?
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM
We Are NY Tech: How a strong tech community in New York is driving the success of the industry in the city.
04:00 PM — 04:20 PM

The location has been chosen right. This is the heart of the tech scene in the city.

Me In The New York Times
New York Times: Manhattan’s Tech Start-Ups Settle in the Flatiron District and Chelsea

Talking of the New York Times, I think I am going to be in an article on June 2, fingers crossed.

Related articles

• Brands Attending Internet Week: Tells Us Your Party Plans (adrants.com)
• Pitch a Presentation to Internet Week NY (mediabistro.com)
• Yahoo! Returns for Second Year as Presenting Sponsor of Internet Week New York With the Yahoo! Provoke Summit, Keynoted by Best-Selling Author Steven Johnson. (prweb.com)
• Social Media Week, Internet Week Updates (mediabistro.com)
• Why New York City's tech scene is thriving (thenextweb.com)
• BBC Global Digital Chief: The "ROI from Facebook is Staggering" (beet.tv)
• Join Us For the Sixth Annual CM Summit in New York During Internet Week (battellemedia.com)
• Social Media World Africa Forum this week! #SMWF (afrosocialmedia.wordpress.com)
• Internet Week Seeks Panel Ideas With Buzzword Bingo (adrants.com)
• Link Time - Andrew Keegan's Hot Party Pic From Internet Week! (popsugar.com)

The Internet Week Is Mumbojumbo

Image via CrunchBaseI was just at the Internet Week page. There's a lot going on. And looks like you have to pay for each event. It is not like Social Media Week which was mostly free events, or rather all free events.

First of all, there are soooo many events. You can't even browse through all just to get a glimpse.

One good option probably is to buy a pass for 15 dollars but that only covers events at one location for four days, June 6 to June 9.

I guess the arduous process is to go through all the events and be selective and go to a few events. This below is not a list of all events I am going to. These just caught my eye. And I might go to one or two that I might not mange to list today.

You read the lists of events and you realize there is so much knowledge in the blogosphere.

Monday, June 6
04:00 PM — 04:45 PM The Onion’s Team of Three
Metropolitan Pavilion
HQ Aol Broadcast Stage
125 W. 18th Street

Tuesday, June 7
06:00 PM — 09:00 PM wimlink: The Social Experience of Media: Personalized Apps, TV, ECommerce, what's next..
Samsung Experience
10 Columbus Circle
Time Warner Center
$15

Wednesday, June 8
03:30 PM — 04:15 PM Data Drives Consumer Reach
Metropolitan Pavilion
HQ Classroom
125 W. 18th Street

06:00 PM — 11:00 PM Ignite NYC XII @ Internet Week New York
Tishman Auditorium
66 W. 12th Street
$10

Thursday, June 9
12:30 PM — 12:50 PM Stars of TechStars
Metropolitan Pavilion
HQ Content Stage
125 W. 18th Street

05:30 PM — 05:50 PM Web 2012 and Beyond: Redefining the Internet of Tomorrow
Metropolitan Pavilion
HQ Aol Broadcast Stage
125 W. 18th Street

04:00 PM — 04:20 PM We Are NY Tech: How a strong tech community in New York is driving the success of the industry in the city.
Metropolitan Pavilion
HQ Content Stage
125 W. 18th Street

Friday, June 10
07:30 AM — 09:30 AM Opening Government Through Technology: Can Open Data Drive Innovation?"
Samsung Experience
Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle/3rd Floor

Wait. There were supposed to be lots and lots of panels. Where are they?

That 15 dollar pass is looking good, because it looks like all the best events are on those four days.

Internet Week Fail Whale
Brett Martin Of Sonar
Internet Week On The Way
Excited About Internet Week
The Highlight Of My Internet Week

Related articles

• Yahoo! Returns for Second Year as Presenting Sponsor of Internet Week New York With the Yahoo! Provoke Summit, Keynoted by Best-Selling Author Steven Johnson. (prweb.com)
• Brands Attending Internet Week: Tells Us Your Party Plans (adrants.com)
• Social Media Week, Internet Week Updates (mediabistro.com)
• Pitch a Presentation to Internet Week NY (mediabistro.com)
• Link Time - Andrew Keegan's Hot Party Pic From Internet Week! (popsugar.com)
• Internet Week Seeks Panel Ideas With Buzzword Bingo (adrants.com)
• Why New York City's tech scene is thriving (thenextweb.com)
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A Moment Of Appreciating Disqus

Image via CrunchBaseFred Wilson put out this blog post earlier today: Social Media's Secret Weapon - Email. Brad Feld wrote a reply post within hours: Implementing Social Media’s Secret Weapon. Fred Wilson showed up in Brad Feld's comments section for the post like Brad Feld had showed up earlier in Fred Wilson's comments section for his post. I read the two posts and all their comments. The little back and forth the two had at Brad's blog is really something. I am like, thank you Disqus. How else could I have become privy to this?

These two dudes go way back. They are old friends. I once saw a picture of the two of them in a group photo. It is from way back. And these two also made it onto a list of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world a few weeks back, I don't know if it was Fortune, or Forbes, it was one of those. Long before I saw that list I have admired the excellence of their minds. Both of them also happen to have great blogs. They do a good job of giving you a front row seat to their action if you drop by often enough.

I think I just went ahead and framed the conversation.

A Boulder Invitation From Brad Feld Himself
Meeting Brad Feld
Top VC Bloggers: The Numbers Don't Look Right
Fred, How About Some Money?
Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld
Netizen Has Arrived: A Link From AVC
A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson
To Iran, With Love (2)

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Born In The USA

Why The Donald Asked For Obama's Birth Certificate
Obama: Funny Fun
Donald Ratass Trump, And So, I Was Born In India
Image via WikipediaDonald Trump: Racist Bitch Motherfucker, Jackass, Punk
I Am Going To Act Like This Is 2007
Donald Jackass Trump

The Next Web: An Indian Entrepreneur visits New York: “I was born in the wrong country :)”

Aditya Sahay, co-founder of India based Radbox ..... his no-nonsense personality ..... He explains that most of his customer base is in the US. ..... “I visited TechStars in New York and worked out of their office for a couple of days as David Cohen’s guest. I spent good time with David discussing our idea, and attended some mentor talks – Fred Wilson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Brad Feld. It was an awesome experience to be in the same room as these people. It was like being a small time film maker in the same room as Spielberg!”, he exclaims. ..... “From very negative to very positive”, he replies. “I met some other startups who are now competitors; I did not get into TechStars, and could not make up my mind on how to proceed, and whether we could raise any money depending on where we were at that stage” ...... turned out Aditya and Radbox were not on a hockey stick curve. Since they were not based in the US, raising money was out of the question. Aditya goes on to explain why, “Investors have cities where they invest. They won’t give you a cheque to have you fly away half-way across the world, only to never meet again”. ....... “The thing with US is there’s a lot of noise too. They have all these happy hours, parties, events where everyone is talking a lot about making NY the next big tech scene. Then there’s this startup incubator bubble. Everyone and his dad wants to open a startup incubator.” ....... the highlight of the trip was demoing Radbox at the NY Tech Meetup ..... “Startup events (in India) are more PowerPoint (and) less demo. Most (events) don’t even have Wi-Fi to demo! Hell of a difference! I had to demo here using prerecorded videos most of the time.” ........ “Demos help filter out signal from noise – I can do a one hour presentation on any topic under the sun. But to do a 3 min demo in NYTM (New York Tech Meet-up) we worked non-stop for the previous 40 
Image via CrunchBasehours,because it was a tiny window, and nothing should go wrong.” ....... He realized that whatever they’re figuring out through first-hand experience in India, was already prior knowledge there. ...... “Also, I was working out of Dogpatch Labs; so I got to hang out with a lot of cool startups. And I met just about everyone in the tech scene. I would totally open a Dogpatch Labs here! Doing a startup is lonely and I think physical incubation (not just real estate, but co-working + mentorship + guests) is a great model worth replicating. I got opportunity to hear and even meet someone like Mark Suster thanks to Dogpatch Labs.” ....... At any point, did he feel he was doing stuff the wrong way, as an Indian startup? “Lots !”, he exclaims. “Not moving fast enough; trying to bootstrap without being very wealthy; Not building a team before building a product and not having the right advisors on board” ...... the primary mistakes they made while working on Radbox were not growing their user base fast enough, and not shipping mobile apps sooner ...... turned out that time was more valuable than money. They never factored funding in their plan, not thinking far enough ....... “If I had Rs. 50 Lakh today, I would’ve spent it on a team – hire great developers, designers and even a community manager – be a team of 4-5″ ....... “The goal should have been maximising opportunity, not minimising loss/risk – which had been our thought process.” He explains that in the US startup scene, funding is obvious like food, nobody thinks about it. Its not really a ‘decision’. Startup founders in the US think about their product and funding, whereas in India, people don’t really think about funding too much. There’s very little money in the early stage (pre-revenue) startup in India ....... while visiting US he went crazy asking himself, “Why the hell am I not here?” after he met all those awesome VCs/angels. He replies, “I was born in the wrong country ”. ...... “We don’t underestimate. We are culturally so different that we probably don’t give it much thought. Like an American will not think about arranged marriage which is so natural here. Its a cultural thing. Funding, advice is not a part of the culture, doing a startup in itself is not a part of the culture.” ...... the ‘bubble’ or whatever in US is not here (in India) which is good. ...... “Well, here’s the deal – Let’s take a typical profile – a guy who’s done 2-3 startups, one which was a big success, one a failure, one maybe moderate success. This guy has wealth, loves startups, has wealth of experience, strong network, knows what works and what goes wrong. We need a 100 of these guys right away. But i think we can’t even count 5, or if they exist then no one knows about them.” ...... “I don’t know if there are successful exits in India.” ..... “Startup events: should only allow real working demos. We need real entrepreneurs. Powerpointpreneurs and Excelpreneurs are not needed. They should also provide wi-fi to allow us to showcase products and demos !” ..... “VCs and angels: Call them angels or whatever – these guys can help push the startup scene and they’re not here. ” ..... “Indian startups: Don’t make the mistakes we made! If you’re too far from good revenue, explore funding opportunities, move fast, build a team ASAP and have advisors who can add outside perspective. “

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A Day In The Life Of Amy Cao

Amy Cao's Political Incorrectness

Many of you might know Amy Cao does social media for FoodSpotting. This is a day in the life of Amy Cao.

Amy Cao wakes up to the chirps of birds that remind her to tweet, and she gets to tweeting right away, first thing in the morning. She often finds herself dealing with six hours worth of tweets from fans from Japan who all expect individual reply tweets. So far she has managed to meet those expectations, but she wonders for how long. She says she is looking for an intern/assistant. A look alike would be nice.

Finally she gets out of bed. Her thing is she can't go to the same eatery for breakfast every day. It is the nature of the beast. Every morning she has to find a new place. She has run out of places to go to for three blocks in every direction from her place. She hopes to keep fanning out.

She orders a two course breakfast, so she will have snapped two separate pictures before she is done. Lunches are much worse. That is when she fends off the paparazzi.

Once she was spotted offering to snap someone else's breakfast dish. This was during FoodSpotting's first few months. That person was reported to have startled.

She shows up for work at her fancy office - it is rumored to look like a Penthouse suite. But that is when she does not have morning media appearances to make. In this day and age everyone with a Flip camera - wait, that went out of style - everyone with a smartphone and a blog passes for a media person, and her inbox is a daily flood of requests for a little interview, a little photo session, a little sound bite, perhaps you will let me record this in video, it's for my video blog.

She entertains as many questions about FoodSpotting as she does about Stupidly Simple Snacks, her side project. So much so that the FoodSpotting founders worry she might break away and turn Stupidly Simple Snacks into a startup of its own. And then who does social media for FoodSpotting, right?

Once a week she likes to drop by the nearby TechStars program where she is an accredited mentor. She shows up on the day when TechStars takes all
Image via CrunchBasefounders out to lunch. She makes sure people are snapping away. No spotting, no mentoring is the mantra she lives by.

Her office space feels like a studio. The conversation never stops. She is known to pay visits to many, many food blogs. She does video calls with many more fans. And there is always the FoodSpotting blog to update.

Lunch times are a circus for Amy Cao. To her it feels like every other restaurant in town wants her to drop by for lunch, on the house. They all want to be spotted by the woman herself. She tries her best to meet those demands. She would like to go to every place, but she can't. She is just one person. And it is also that you can go only so far away from the office for lunch. You can turn lunches into working lunches, sure, but still.

She spends about 30 minutes after lunch fending off emails from all those other big company types who want to poach her away from FoodSpotting. She says she is tired of saying she is really into food, and she is really into startups, but she manages to politely say she is not looking for a job. No, thank you.

Her inbox is a nightmare situation. A long time ago she stopped pretending she can look into every email that comes her way. Thank God for the Priority Inbox, she hopes the important ones don't go away into the ether.

It's a small team, so she does some business development too on the side.

She has toyed with the idea of taking two lunch breaks, but the demands on her time are too great. She figured, two lunch breaks, two dish spots.

She does go for a snack in the afternoon though, a great excuse for yet another shot.

Dinner is like lunch. There is yet another restaurant to patronize.

The tweeting never really stops.

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StartUp Week: Final Event: Biggest Event?

I started out thinking all events are created equal. But you get hints thrown in here and there. There is expectation in the air. The event tomorrow looks like will be the biggest event of the week. And I am looking forward to it.

Thursday, 4/14: Fundraising: VCs, Angels and Accelerators Chris Dixon (@cdixon), Albert Wenger (@albertwenger), Lawrence Lenihan (@lawrencelenihan), Firstmark Capital, Hilary Gosher (@hilbil175), Insite Venture Partners, David Tisch (@davetisch), TechStars

April 14, Thursday, 6-8 PM, NYU Tisch Hall, Paulson Auditorium (UC-50), 40 W. 4th Street

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Anthony De Rosa

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Dave McClure's Incubator

Dave McClure is a dude to watch, sure. The guy is a major mover and shaker in the early stage game. You might not do business with him, you might not agree with him, but his insights are hard to ignore.

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FoodSpotting's Dish As Starting Point

Image via CrunchBaseOkay, so I am breaking my April Fool promise of restraining from blogging about FoodSpotting.

Yesterday, or the day before, I read that both inDinero and FoodSpotting are Dave McClure companies. I kind of, sort of knew that. But it was one of those flash moments. I also have known FoodSpotting is an Angel List company.

But then I expect FoodSpotting's next round of funding to come from one of the major VC firms in the range of 10 to 20 million dollars, whenever that might be. In a year or less perhaps?

This reinforces my point that it is not either or. Old school VCs still matter, actually they matter big. But The Angel List, Y Combinator, TechStars, 500 Startups, they have changed the early stage game fundamentally, irrevocably. In short, they have innovated.

And FoodSpotting is proof. (Twitter ---> Instagram ---> FoodSpotting)

Along the same lines, Instagram validates coworking spaces. Coworking spaces have also innovated the early stage game.
Image via CrunchBase
And there is the arrival of Color that wants to be the ultimate photo app and social network. What implications does that have for FoodSpotting?

If flooding the airwaves with photos is how you eat FoodSpotting's cake, then FoodSpotting was toast before it was even born. Google Images already had billions of images. Facebook also had billions.

And money is not a problem. Color will sink or swim not because it got launched with a bang, but because it was a good idea. I think it will swim, but it is a little early. If having a lot of money were what got you sailing, Yahoo would be swimming with the sharks.

What makes FoodSpotting's day is it is about the starting point. Just like what saves FourSquare is it has this starting point: the check in. The dish saves FoodSpotting. It has a first mover advantage. But like they say, the action is on the windscreen, not the rear view mirror.
Image via Wikipedia
StartUp Anxiety For FourSquare?

I am under the impression FoodSpotting wants to do the Zite thing. But just like Google could not avoid the operating system space, I think FoodSpotting at some point will have to get into social in some way.

But FoodSpotting could spend upwards of a year on becoming "the Pandora of food" and still not have missed the social boat. It's got time. The idea that I can show up anywhere and have FoodSpotting recommend dishes for me based on how I have interacted with the app before, it is pretty revolutionary, if you think about it.

And you might have read the recent I-am-bored, I-am-hungry spiel on GroupOn's part. Well, that is GroupOn coming into FoodSpotting's space. FoodSpotting is so easy to monetize. I am hungry, are you hungry? People stay hungry on a daily basis, several times a day.

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Meeting Brad Feld

I got to meet Mark Suster yesterday, and Brad Feld today, and I get to meet Vin Vacanti next week. In Vacanti's case it will not be my first time, but still. What do you think is going on? StartUp Week, that's what.

TechStars' Geographical Advantage Over Y Combinator
Brad Feld
StartUp Week At NYU April 6-15
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
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Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Me, BBC
To Iran, With Love (3)
To Iran, With Love (1)
To Iran, With Love (2)

Both Mark and Brad recognized me right away. We have interacted online. I have interacted more with Brad than with Mark. At one point I was trying to get Brad to fund my work into Iran democracy.

"Oh, hey," Brad said when it was my turn to greet him.

"I just wanted to say hello," I said. "It is great to finally meet you in person. You already know this, but I must say TechStars has really shaken up the local tech ecosystem here."

Brad gave a great talk. I was aware of his format from having read some of his blog posts. He will talk briefly, make a few points, and then go straight into Q&A. That is his stated style.

What do Fred Wilson, Chris Dixon and Brad Feld have in common? They all wear the same outfit everyday. It is like they all made their money, and forgot they did. Well, I also wear the same outfit everyday, but I wear fancy, I wear black. Besides, I am bootstrapped.

Brad said he does not do it for money and accolades. He said he does it because he was one of those kids always curious, always asking why. Brad is another of those great entrepreneur turned great VC types.

Him and Fred Wilson go back far. I saw a picture of the two of them together from a long, long time ago. How did they end up in that picture unless they knew each other back then?

Brad said his writer wife Amy decided in 1995 that she was moving to Boulder. If you want, you can come along, she said. And that was Amy's gift to the Boulder tech ecosystem. Brad is absolutely the epicenter of the action there. No Brad, no Boulder. He is like the unofficial Mayor around there or something.

"Marijuana is legal in Boulder," he said. The city also seems to be on the cutting edge when it comes to healthy foods. Soy milk started there, among other things. Whole Foods perhaps.

Of all the states in America, Colorado is the one most like Nepal in terms of physical landscape. Denver even feels like Kathmandu, I have been a few times. I guess I could call Brad a homeboy. Keep the peace up there in the mountains, Brad.

Brad is one of the finest brains in the business. And he is a generous person. Someone as busy as him, and he has answered every single email I ever sent him. That is the treatment he metes out to everybody.

"I don't know how he does that," Fred Wilson says in exasperation.

Fred has a similar NYC story. The wife moved here. He just came along for the ride. The rest, as they say, is history.

Brad shared many insights and stories in his keynote speech of StartUp Week. The one story that really stayed with me was the story of how TechStars got founded. He would have open office hours one day a month for anyone who wanted to drop by for 15 minutes. He would do that for five, six hours until calling it a day. And the guy who ended up being his cofounder diffidently tried to meet up with him, and finally showed up after weeks of trying to get a slot. And that 15 minute conversation started the whole thing.

Think about that. This guy made enough money to last a few lifetimes in the early 1990s. But he was still hungry in 2005. He was still waiting for someone else to show up and share that idea that might still change his life. Today more people know Brad Feld for TechStars than anything else.

What if he did not have those open office hours? Those 15 minute slots? That humility on his part paid off big.

TechStars' Geographical Advantage Over Y Combinator

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