INTRODUCTION TO THE SF STARTUP
COMMUNITYAhmed Siddiqui
Director of Hacks at SignalFire and former Startup Weekend Bay Area
Leader
Twitter: @siddiquiahmed
It’s okay we got your back
Meetups
Hackathons
Mentors
Classes
Co-Working
Incubators
Angels
VC’s
Twitter: @siddiquiahmed
Bootstrapping
Meetups+ Plus
Wide variety Inexpensive Mostly in the
evenings
- Minus You will meet too
many people It is more social
and not very action based
Hackathons+ Plus
Action based Potentially find a
cofounder Prizes!
- Minus MVP will likely be
scrapped after weekend
Requires a whole weekend’s time
Mentors
+ Plus•You choose your mentor•Could lead to funding
- Minus•Wrong mentor could lead you down the wrong path
Incubators/Accelerators+ Plus
Seed funding Structure for your
startup Peer network
- Minus Tough to get into Too many
incubators, which one to choose?
Classes+ Plus
Structured learning
Many times in the evening
Great networking
-Minus Some can be
pricey Time commitment
required Twitter: @siddiquiahmed
Co-Working+ Plus
Work with other startups
Build Network Attend events
- Minus Pricey – Average
Desk is $500/mo Some require you
have seed funding
Bootstrapping+ Plus
Make a little money while working on your startup
Meet interesting people
- Minus Not for everyone Could be a
distraction to your startup
BootstrappingBootstrapping links:Zaarly: http://zaar.ly/p0OtLyft: http://driveforlyft.com/2HYAirbnb: http://bit.ly/airasOdesk: https://www.odesk.com/TaskRabbit: https://taskrabbit.com/PAL/518662GetAround: http://www.getaround.com/RelayRides: https://relayrides.com/Venturebeat Article: http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/21/will-you-leave-your-job-to-join-the-sharing-economy/
Twitter: @siddiquiahmed
Angels+ Plus
Many do convertible notes
Great advisors Help with further rounds
- Minus Smaller increments of
funding If you don’t get a
seasoned investor, things could get ugly Twitter:
@siddiquiahmed
VC’s+ Plus
Funding! Great Advice Will help with
further rounds
- Minus You have funding,
but now you have more accountability
Lose large ownership stake
• NDAs / “people will steal my idea”• “Just need a coder to build my product”• Write a business plan —> get funding• The loudest people are the smartest• Too hard to get “in” or catch up• Silicon Valley is all that matters• Entrepreneurship is too risky of a career path• Founding a company is the best way to get involved• Only developers can get good jobs at startups
Common Misconceptions
• Front-End Developer (CSS, HTML)• Back-End Developer (Ruby, Python, Java)• UX/UI Designer (inDesign, Photoshop)• Product Manager (Light frontend dev, design)• Business Development (Sales, Partnerships)• Marketing/User Acquisition (Email marketing, social media, SEO, data analytics)• Data Scientist (Hadoop, Matlab, SQL)• Sales (willingness to find and follow leads)• Community Management (Social Media)• Operations (Customer service, Office management)• Other roles depending on vertical (education, fashion)
Common Roles
APPENDIX: BLOGS TO READ
•Chris Dixon — http://cdixon.org•Fred Wilson (A VC) — http://avc.com•BetaBeat — http://betabeat.com•SAI — http://businessinsider.com/sai•Paul Graham’s Essays — http://paulgraham.com•Hacker News — http://news.ycombinator.com•TechCrunch — http://techcrunch.com•General Assembly — http://generalassemb.ly/blog•Venture Hacks – http://venturehacks.com