Hacking into Boston’s Tech Ecosystem

Calling all Boston Startups and VC’s –

I’ve only been here a week. I know very little about the your local ecosystem and very few people in it. For this reason I’m doing my best to accelerate my learning and relationship curve.

I’m specifically interested in the following:

• VC/Startup
• Blockchain/DLT
• Marketing/Martech

Here’s my approach and what I’ve been up to:

• Using the internet – Turns out – the web can be a pretty good source of information;) I have a list of Boston startup publications bookmarked on my browser (honorable mention to this incredible one stop shop about everything tech in Boston) + a google doc with a list of every potential player/company I might want to reach out to or get to know.
• Leveraging my personal network – asking everyone and anyone I know to make intros and/or recommendations.
• Leveraging Social Media – to discover and follow key people in this ecosystem as well as share what’s going on and communicate with my network.
• Publishing – less personal, but same gist as the latter. Example? this post…
• Attending events/networking – taking a shot at Eventbrite and Meetup.com’s servers;) Have been signing up to every possible relevant event, doing my best to fill up my calendar. Two upcoming conferences to mention – INBOUND (Marketing, by Hubspot) and TokenFest (Blockchain).
• Touring co-working spaces – as someone who’s looking to expand his local network this is something I cannot afford NOT to do. I’ve so far visited about a dozen and will soon choose one to call my work.
• Calls/meetings – warm intros work best for this of course, but regardless – at the moment I’m in 100% discovery mode. This isn’t about selling myself or what I do (yet) – it’s about collecting the necessary information to help me learn and understand what I need in order to make better choices.
• Running talks/workshops – teaching is definitely a passion, so my thinking is that it could prove the perfect way to connect with the local community. In fact – first one is in the books: Startup Marketing 101: Goals, KPIs & Traction Channels, which I recently gave at Detroit Startup Week. More on this to come…

Admittedly, this is a marketing post and every marketing post needs a Call to Action (CTA), so here’s mine:

• Let me know what else can/should I be doing to get to know the lay of the land and the people in it.
• If you’ve cared enough to read this far and are around – I’d love to connect.

Here’s me on Twitter, here’s me on LinkedIn.