Meet the Team, Follow Progress and Enjoy the Ride

This blog is about the lives of a few entrepreneurs who are aiming to establish the next trend in social networking and the concept that will make it happen. Since our venture is all about connecting people together, we want to be involved and connected to you and we want you to be involved and connected to us. We'll be sharing with you: who we are, how we got started, how we’re doing and where we’re going...we're taking you along for the ride!!

Friday, September 21, 2007

...More on the DC Web Start-up Situation

Back in mid-August (August 14) I wrote a blog entry about uniting the DC, MD and VA Technology Community, Entrepreneurs and Investors. It was called The Wheels are Turning Watch Out. Wrong title, since thus far, there’s been nothing to watch out for…granted, I’ve been a little busy with moving things along with Why Go Solo.

I immediately talked about the idea with quite a few people: Two of which, have blogged about is since then, and have said much of the exact same thing: Nick O’Neil on Webentrepreneur: Bringing the Valley to DC on September 8th, and Will Kern on 15 Meanings: Irons in the Fire on September 12, 2007.

I’m an action person. Talk is cheap, blogging works, but you have to take active steps. Personally I now think, we can't say that it’s because the press isn’t involved or it’s because the VCs and investors don’t participate in the community that DC is the way it is. It’s more along the lines that the entrepreneurs aren't quite yet, really aggressively seeking each other out, getting to know one another and joining to help/support each other. Who are all the DC, VA and MD web start-up entrepreneurs?!!?

I know I need to become more active with the related meetup.com events, so I can find who my counterparts are…

One person who has taken some action forward is Justin Thorp by establishing DCTechnology.ning.com as a place for everyone to become and stay informed. Ross Karchner has been very good at keeping a list of all the DC Tech events on his blog and the RSS feed is included on the Ning community. And Ralph Sklarew has been a big evangelist for the same thing. I started the DC Entrepreneur (Web 2.0) group on Ning to hopefully really get things moving in the right direction.

I want to thank Rebecca Carpenter at Razoo for leaving a comment on my previous blog post and I look forward to meeting her and the team at their Brewing Good Happy Hour event on the Sept. 27th and I’m sure many other folks would love to come out. This is part of supporting, encouraging and learning from each other. I have a passion for entrepreneurship, web 2.0 and making a difference in the world...shouldn’t be that hard to share and fulfill those passions!?!?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

very cool idea! can't wait to see your new site. good luck and a big virtual high fiver from Vancouver, Canada.

Ann Bernard said...

Thanks Lisa...right back at you from Virginia.

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind that Things are getting better and more people are turning out for events. The fact that this is happening is a good thing. Part of the challenge is that there are a lot of different events in a lot of different locations, but not all of them are conenvient for many of us. For example, the RefreshDC event is in Alexandria and for people in Montgomery County or the other side of the district this isn't an easy to get to location right after work.

We need to find ways to move these events to venues that are central, or to at least rotate them around the metro (keeping them on central points).

Bob
Jobmatchbox.com

PS-I hope next time you'll add Jobmatchbox.com to your list of resources for area startup companies, it is the best FREE job list in the area. Startup company networking aside, it is a helpful way to find new people.