The New Rules for Tech Startups

Saturday's RamenCamp was an amazing day of passionate speakers and entrepreneurs. Whether it was Seth Lieberman laying the smack down talking about "SteakCamp" and "square pegs & round holes" or David Hauser inspiring everyone with the story of Grasshopper and the importance of culture, every speaker shared important lessons and sage advice for really building a business.

It was truly inspiring to see so many people excited about not just starting a company, but letting go of the, "I need investment to do this" mantra. With all of this coming together yesterday and a Bolt Bus trip to NYC giving me time to reflect, I want to share my thoughts on building a company in this climate as I set out to start my next company.

Rule #1: Boston is a great place to be.

You can build a great company anywhere. Just ask the founders of Groupon (Chicago) or Skype (Europe). I've built so much here in Boston and care so much about it's development that I couldn't see myself going anywhere else to build a great company.

More importantly, for *anyone* looking to start a company or work at a startup, there is a flurry of activity in Boston's ecosystem making things better every day (even if NYC Disrupt folks are in denial...). Ignoring any other ecosystems, the fact is we are underrated for the depth of mentorship, funding and knowledgeable, open peer groups. We have a bunch of major companies filing IPOs and having significant exits as well. Organizations like Founders Mentors and Dogpatch Labs are also just the tip of an awesome iceberg of startup infrastructure.

That being said, yes, there are plenty of good reasons to start something in NYC or the Valley. However, anyone should take a hard look at Boston when making the best decision for them and their startup.

Rule #2: A good startup is tri-coastal.

Tri? Yes tri as in 3. There are 3 major regions that matter in this startup game: Boston, NYC and the Valley. (Excuse my geography, but calling it tri-coastal was the simplest phrase I could think of. )

The key to understand is that each region has it's own advantages. NYC has the press, advertising and the media (plus it's NYC...). The Valley has tons of money being deployed and a ton of really smart veterans. And what does Boston have?

Boston has engineers, a first class set of mentors and our own capital. We also have social media and marketing experts and a slew of companies having IPOs and exits ready to hopefully create a bunch of new startup leaders and angels.

So how can you and your startup be tri-coastal? Spend 2 days a month in NYC and 2 weeks a quarter in the Valley. Take meetings, get intros and build a network in your non home cities. By doing this, you get to enjoy pieces of all three worlds.  The beauty of the east coast is that NYC is just 3-4 hours away so it's not out of the question to take a day trip as opportunities emerge.

Rule #3: Figure out your advantages and leverage them to the max.

In Steve Blank's post about the new rules for the bubble, he mentioned a number of ways startups have to try to emerge as leaders in their space. The fact is, no matter what space you are in, there's going to be fierce competition in every way (and if you have none, you need to think about whether you're chasing the wrong thing).

Whether it's experience in your industry, a strong network, funding connections or hustle unlike anyone has ever seen, you should reflect upon yourself and your team and maximize the opportunities it can create.

What are your unfair advantages? Are you leveraging them fully?

Rule #4: It takes a village to raise a startup.

If you find yourself turtled up working on your startup and you and your team aren't talking to your peers, you are missing out on a colossal opportunity.

The advantage of the city of Boston is we have a collection of both awesome veterans who have been there and done it successfully as well as people at or near the same stage as you and your company. You cannot level up your startup fast enough if you insist on making all of the mistakes yourself.

There are a number of CTO lunches, Dogpatch labs has an awesome collaborative environment and there are quite a few pockets of startup people sharing knowledge all along the red line (Davis, Central,Kendall, South Station and beyond).  Just start looking and make a little effort. Don't forget to #payitforward; I can assure you that in all the #payitforward I've ever done, I feel I've gotten way more helpthan I'd ever expect in return (not that I remotely look at it as a transaction. It's not.)

Who would you call for help? Who would call You for help?

Rule #5: Recognize that this won't last.

When things are good it's easy to think that you're experiencing the status quo; it's hard to imagine it being any other way. But just like housing property values eventually stopped climbing, so will these entrepreneur friendly deals and exit opportunities.

So what does this mean? You need to be prepared for the game to change. Are you building a business to flip before the music stops? Or...are you prepared to weather the storm and when everyone else crumbles when the bubble bursts, you can zoom past your competition and hire up all the suddenly unemployed talent? Choose wisely, because your company will have to commit to one before this upswing ends.

These are the rules of the game today. I'm applying them to everything I'm evaluating right now as I, like so many others, start a company.

 What rules do you think startups have to follow in today's environment?

Special thanks to Wayne Chang in helping critique this post.