Downtown Interactions
Many of you may have read reports that Mark Rivers, the developer of Bodo, has stated that he wants to start a technology incubator in the Downtown Boise area. This is something that I feel is greatly needed. Not that Idaho needs another incubator, but that local entrepreneurs need a place to work and collaborate that is downtown.
I have been one of the students from the Boise State EMBA program that has been working with Mark and several other business leaders to put together the plan to make this a reality. This is something that is going to happen and happen quick (probably not as quick as we’d like but soon).
I spent over a year at the Nampa TECenter on BSU’s west campus and really enjoyed the opportunity to work with John Glerum and Rick Ritter. They are both invaluable assets to the local start up scene. I still have many friends out there that are busy making their dreams a reality and there are many success stories to tell. But what I feel that the incubators in this state need are ‘interactions’.
Things happen downtown that don’t happen anywhere else. Last week I was leaving Java and ran into Brad Surkamer. Brad is the President of Closed Loop Marketing and used th be the VP of Sales and Marketing for Extended Systems back in the day. Brad is a very smart business person as well as an active Angel Investor.
After a few minutes of talking on the street we scheduled an appointment to meet the next week so that I could tell him more about my product and see if it was something that could help one of his clients. Our next meeting was incredibly insightful. Brad has a lot of experience and was more than willing to sit down with me and share some advice. We ended up talking more about my companies growth strategies than we did about his client. At the end of the meeting I walked away with a clearer view for the direction of my company as well a scheduled follow up meeting to present a proposal for his client. All from a chance meeting.
Now obviously start ups could hang out in coffee shops and wait to bump into people, but most entrepreneurs (especially tech ones) aren’t the aggressive networkers that I am (some are much worse).
Two things will happen when an incubator comes to Downtown Boise: 1) The closest coffee shop will start to make a killing (quickly followed by another coffee shop opening up). 2) More stories like mine will start to happen. Entrepreneurs bring energy, excitement and ideas. Local businessmen will be drawn to that energy like moths to a torch (maybe that’s a bad analogy) and things will happen.
I agree with you that most entrepreneurs are not aggressive (me included) in making things happen. For one thing, I don’t know any successful entrepreneurs. Everyone I know is doing it part-time or just getting off the ground (again, me included).
With that said, this year I have made a conscious effort to meet people, form ideas with other start-ups, and get things going. The funny thing is - it’s working, but it would still be great to have a designated place to go with people to talk to.
Boise, unlike many cities definitely has an ‘entrepreneurial pulse’ to it. You can feel it. With any pulse it gets stronger near the source. Downtown is definitely where the heartbeat is.
I was talking with a highly successful entrepreneur from Phoenix this weekend asking him the general “how to be a successful” question. One thing he said was get together with like-minded people once a week and just pass ideas around, discuss trends, etc.
Is there a place where people are meeting now? I see no reason to wait for Mark to set up a designated spot. We can always move the location later on.
We be working on that, Fuze…
in the meantime, you can almost always find me outside Dawson-Taylor after 5…
What about Kickstand or Kickstart? (I can’t remember which one it is) It sounds exactly like what you are looking for.
Ben-
Kickstand- it’s a monthly meeting. I’ve been going for, what, 5 years? Most readers here are members or at least know about it. Even occasionally report on it (”Flight of the ERN”, etc.)
I’ll be resurrecting the coffee/whatever get-togethers soon; keep watching this space! Or drop me an email & I’ll add you to the e-list.
(p.s. good to see that people are reading our more ancient posts!)