Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Alyssa Royse
There’s been a really active thread on the Seattle Tech Startup list lately about the need to create a more vibrant Startup community here in Seattle. A list of around 1,000 people – all of whom either have startups or serve them, in a city where you can find startup events every day of the week, angel investors and VCs on every block downtown, and can’t drive blindfolded without running over someone who started a company – trying to figure out how to create a vibrant community. That’s funny. Ironic even. The problem in Seattle isn’t that we DON’T have a vibrant startup community, it’s that we DO have too many people trying to do the same thing at the same time in the same place in the same way with the same people. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The thread started with an EXCELLENT post by Marcelo on finding resources in Seattle if you’re thinking of starting a company. And quickly went into an exploration (as many threads do) of why “needs” aren’t being met, whether it’s better to work for a big company or start your own, why we aren’t as cool as Silicon Valley, why it’s hard to raise money…. You name it.
This is an extremely vibrant community. Vibrancy isn’t a problem. We do have our share of problems, many of them, however, are problems of “expectations,” not of community.
Entrepreneurs all share one common “flaw” that is, in fact, what makes us who we are and keeps us innovating against all reason. We all believe that we not only have the best idea (ever,) but that we are exactly the right people to deliver it to a waiting market that will be both grateful and faithful. We are so certain of our inalienable rightness that we believe the community will lift us up on it’s collective shoulders, delivering us from the mosh-pit of startup to bask in the spotlight of stardom. (I know, you’re more humble than that, I wasn’t talking about you.)
But you know what, it doesn’t usually happen that way. And it’s not because there’s anything wrong with the community. Or the companies. Or the investors.
So, in playing bad-cop to Marcelo’s usually sunny good-cop, let me offer a few observations:
1. Starting a company is hard. Seriously, exhaustingly, and exasperatingly hard. And no one is going to be able to make it easier for you.
2. The VAST majority of people around you who are also starting companies, are vying for exactly the same very limited resources that you are. Specifically, the wisdom, connections and cash of a small pool of investors and people who have succeeded before you.
3. That pool of people is not only finite, but very homogenous. Seattle is a tech town, first and foremost. It is filled with people who made money in tech by being a small part of big, high-growth tech companies at a spectacular point in business history that will probably never repeat itself. People being people, they typically both start and invest in companies that mirror their previous successes. Which is great if you and your company fit that bill.
4. In order to “get what you want” out of this community (which is your market,) you have to serve them a product that they want (which is your company.) If they don’t want your product, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you, your company, the investor or the community. It means it doesn’t fit. Find a fit elsewhere.
5. Most startups, upon announcing their existence to the community, get funneled through the very same processes like ESIF, Keiretsu, Alliance of Angles and the like. All fine, but they produce entrepreneurs who say the same things, with the same content on the same slide decks, in the same language, hitting all the same bullet-points in roughly the same order. By the time I’ve watched my 2nd pitch, I’ve already zoned out and know perfectly well that your business plan puts you in the upper right hand corner of the graph on the next slide.
You can see the problem. Right?
The Seattle startup community – and investors who make it what it is – cannot be expected to meet the needs of every company in such a diverse and dynamic community. And that’s okay. It’s good, actually.
Just like with your product, you have to know your market, and if this isn’t your market, then look elsewhere. Don’t expect Seattle to change to meet your needs – get on an airplane!
How do you get your needs met?
1. Find your market. Where are the companies and investors that have succeeded in YOUR industry in the past? Find them. Call them. Turns out, mine are in LA. (Which doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with Seattle!)
2. Read blogs, newspapers and anything else that covers your industry and don’t be shy about picking up the phone and calling the people who are currently making pathways in your industry- wherever they are.
Personally, while I understand the “pride of place” that is inherent in wanting to see the Seattle startup community as the shining jewel in the new economy, I think we need to start looking at the Startup Economy as a national thing, not a local one.
Sitting in LA last week, I loved it when the guy I was meeting with said, “I’ve met really great people from Seattle lately.” I didn’t see it as a failure of the Seattle community that I was in LA for meetings. Rather, I saw it as an opportunity to show just how diverse, vibrant and interesting our entrepreneurs – and their companies – are. But they aren’t going to come to us, we have to go to them.
It is your job, not the community’s, to do anything you need to in order to succeed.
That said, if you want to know how strong and vibrant and supportive this community is, ask the STS list a question. Any question. They’ll answer you and offer to help. Ask someone who’s blog posts or list posts you really like out for coffee, and I bet they’ll meet you and share whatever insight they have. Pick up the phone and call an angel group in town and I bet someone will have coffee with you.
That may seem small, since it can’t be quantified on a spreadsheet, but in fact, it’s huge. Because starting a business is incredibly hard, and knowing that there are people who know what you’re going through, and are willing to help can make a huge difference.
You will miss payroll (at least) once. You will lose clients and deals. Your product will ship late. You will lose sleep – and maybe weight and maybe boyfriend / girlfriends. It sucks. But that’s part and parcel of the process. (We’re all right there with you.)
Now, if what you want is job security, the validation and comfort of a weekly paycheck, and knowledge that what you’re working on will get built, then you need to get a “real job” in a “real company” because this community, great though it is, aint gonna give you that.
