Are you new to New York’s start up scene? Do you want to know which blogs you should be reading, which founders and investors to know, and which meetups to join?
Then keep reading.
NY’s start-up ecosystem is usually compared to Silicon Valley. Yet many people still have the impression that the resources in the city are not as abundant as in the West Coast. Well, the other day at Columbia’s Launching New Ventures class, Steve Schlafman (@schlaf), of Lerer Ventures showed us that this may not be the case.
Steve gave us a presentation about everything a new tech player, founder wanna be, potential entrepreneur or VC should know about Silicon Alley (here the full presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/schlaf/guide-to-nyc-techv3).
Since the deck is very long (80 slides), I’ve summarized the links that I thought are most useful to me, since I’m interested in resources that will keep me up to date with what’s going on in the city while educating me as a potential entrepreneur. The presentation also includes many useful links about the different kind of VC firms, development sources, co-working spaces etc. For those, please check the presentation. Finally, I also included Ray Kurzweil’s (one of my favorite New Yorkers) blog which usually has some fascinating stuff about cutting edge technology and science.
So here my personal picks:
If you want to understand how and why certain things happen in the technology/start-up world (Why is Instagram worth buying even though it generates zero revenue? Or what are some of the similarities between the Industrial Revolution and the evolution of the start-up world over the past few years?), this is the one page that must be read every day. Paul Graham – the co-founder of Y-combinator – draws invaluable lessons from his observations in the start-up world that are crucial in creating the mindset of a successful entrepreneur. Make sure you read his essays.
Steve Blank’s page/blog that is full of very insightful articles about startup strategies and entrepreneurship in general. This blog is a lot more about educating prospective entrepreneurs than the rest of the links below.
A blog with a distinct and critical voice – betabeat does a good job of covering the challenges startups and entrepreneurs face.
Excellent blog by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures – this is a personal blog that covers everything from new legislation for patents to the importance of growth in a startup. An absolute must-read.
http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech/
This is NY Tech Meetup’s page where they feature the events they organize. NY Tech Meetup is a great initiative that connects members of the tech community. A few of the companies that have demoed at their monthly event were: Vimeo, Skillshare, and Tumblr. Definitely worth paying attention to.
If you want to get to know and be inspired by the most influential and successful members of New York’s start-up community, wearenytech does an excellent job of introducing these successful individuals.
http://www.garysguide.com/events?region=newyork
Weekly newsletter that sums up all the New York Start-up & Tech Events – if you want to check only one source for all the tech-related events in New York, this is probably the most useful site.
http://www.sandbox-network.com/
A global community of entrepreneurs under 30 – similar to InSITE a great platform to meet inspiring and successful people that are passionate about technology and entrepreneurship.
99u is Behance’s (a platform where “creators” such as industrial designers, architects, photographers etc. showcase their work) research and education arm. The page is focused exclusively on how to make ideas happen as opposed to just ideas. Through articles, tips, videos, and events, 99u aims to educate creative professionals on best practices for moving beyond idea generation into idea execution.
http://www.technologyreview.com/
Published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology Review is the world’s oldest technology magazine. While TR does touch upon the start-up world, the page is more about identifying groundbreaking new technologies and their impact on business.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/blog
A true genius and one of the most influential scientists/entrepreneurs of our times, Ray Kurzweil created a new generation of synthesizers that could replicate the sound of any instrument perfectly and became industry standard for musicians, he invented an optical character recognition system that would allow blind people to understand written text by having a computer read it to them aloud and he pioneered some of the most groundbreaking works in artificial intelligence and technological singularity. His blog features the most cutting-edge advancements in science and technology in relation to what Kurzweil calls exponential growth and singularity. Absolutely fascinating if you want to know the latest in frontiers of science and technology.
Yusuf Roso, Columbia Business School, MBA Class of 2014