Introducing the Newest Member of the Greenhorn Team: Meet Paul Hlatky

Our startup community is constantly evolving and we here at Greenhorn Connect work hard to stay in tune to those changes. When I started Greenhorn Connect, I was fresh out of Northeastern University and had the newcomer to the ecosystem in mind as we built the site. As the site and the ecosystem have since grown, my role in the community has changed significantly to serve much more than just the newcomer. At the same time, universities in town have changed the way they approach entrepreneurship as virtually every school has an incubator program, mentorship programs and vibrant student clubs.

Recognizing these changes at the universities and the need to build not only strong ties but understand the changing needs of students, I realized it was time to add some new student perspective to Greenhorn Connect. That’s why I’m pleased to announce the newest member of the Greenhorn Connect team: Paul Hlatky (pronounced “Lat-key”) as Director of Community and Student Relations.

Meet Paul Hlatky - Director of Community & Student Relations

Introduce yourself...where do you go to school and what’s your major?

I’m originally from Queens, New York and came to Boston to study business at Boston University. I knew I wanted to study in a metropolitan area and Boston seemed like the perfect fit because it had good business, great universities and some well known comedy clubs. I’m studying Marketing Management and Management Information Systems with a minor in Philosophy. I’m also a manager for the Student Activities Office with a staff of almost forty and President and Founder of a comedy group called The Callbacks.

What’s the entrepreneurship scene like at BU?

My business school offers a concentration in Entrepreneurship and emphasizes a semester of CORE as an integral part of the curriculum. We are assigned a small team and have to invent a product and deliver a full business plan to bring it to market in one semester. Outside of coursework we have several student organizations dedicated to cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship as well. They’ve definitely been more active as I’ve grown with the school, but I’ve never officially affiliated myself with any of them.

How did you find out about the startup ecosystem in Boston?

When I was a sophomore I met a BU student and serial entrepreneur named Michael Ellison through our work-study job. I spent a lot of time talking with him about philosophy and business and was inspired by his successes.That summer I worked with him on his newest tech venture and fell in love with the lifestyle. His job description for me was literally “Be awesome.” He gave me the freedom to connect the dots and realize my own potential. I never imagined my first “internship” to be so rewarding.

How has your experience been in the Boston ecosystem thus far? Any good stories?

Last summer I represented the founders of ClassMetric in MassChallenge while working with the Student Activities Office at BU. I worked harder and learned more than ever before. My role as the University Outreach Lead gave me real world business development experience and the satisfaction that I’m pretty good at it. By the end of the summer we were successful in closing our seed funding round and getting 50+ beta tests before making the tough call to pivot into a different space. It was an incredible summer as I worked with them pitching to accelerators, developing the product, pitching investors and eventually failing. It was a crash course in tech entrepreneurship that no class could have ever taught me.

What do you hope to accomplish in your role with Greenhorn Connect?

I’m fortunate enough to come out of BU with strong business skills, 2+ years of managerial experience and a passion for entrepreneurship. My goal is to continue the tradition that Greenhorn tries to accomplish by bringing the community together and welcoming newcomers eager to break into the scene. I’d like to focus my energies on getting younger talent interested in the ecosystem to easily jump in and “be awesome.” I don’t want Boston to miss out on great talent just because they were never exposed to the opportunity. The Boston Startup Tech Talent Fair is my first shot at helping the cause and I hope to do much more in the future.

If you could improve one thing about the Boston startup ecosystem, what would you change?

I’d like more events throughout the year where the entire community gets together to party, network and discuss opportunities like at the Mass TLC Unconference. I recognize we’re very busy people, but I’d love to see everyone together more often to stay better connected.

How can people get in touch with you? 

Feel free to shoot me an email at paul at greenhornconnect dot com, connect with me on Linkedin and talk with me on Twitter.

I look forward to working with Greenhorn Connect and doing my best to cultivate this incredible community.