Yesterday Doug Banks of Mass High Tech posted a great response to the Greylock leaving Boston autopsy found on Xconomy.  Suffice it to say, there's plenty of debate over the health of Boston's entrepreneur ecosystem and many are tired of the Silicon Valley vs. Boston debate and hate.  As Doug Banks wrote, "Does New England still have work to do? Of course we do." I totally agree, which is why I'd like to highlight 3 things we can do better in Boston.

As I've been watching the world of entrepreneurship around me, I'm always looking for patterns and trends.  One I particularly focus on is leadership. As I've looked at some of the greatest companies and business leaders in the world, I've noticed that most of them have exceptionally strong personalities and dominate their company.  I don't have all the answers, so instead today I'd like to explore the patterns I've found and I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts on this.

Yesterday, I covered Part I of the results of a survey I put out last week to ask students and young entrepreneurs the tough questions:  "What are the challenges to engaging more young people?" and "What are your ideas for improving the ecosytem?" and a lot more. (You can see the survey here).  In total, 21 students from 9 different universities responded to the survey.  I am blown away with the amount of detail and thoughtfulness they put into their answers. I'd like to now share the 2nd half of the results with all of you here:

 Last week, I put out a call for students and young entrepreneurs to take a survey to help answer the questions of "What are the challenges to engaging more young people?" and "What are your ideas for improving the ecosytem?" and a lot more. (You can see the survey here).  In total, 21 students from 9 different universities responded to the survey.  I am blown away with the amount of detail and thoughtfulness they put into their answers. I'd like to now share the results with all of you here:

 This morning, I awoke to a tweet from Blank Label's Fan Bi that said, "Boston actually getting better for first-timers or still more noise than signal?" which was addressed to many of the young entrepreneurs.  It got me thinking, and so I'd like to highlight why I think Boston IS getting better for first timers (but perhaps still has much work to do).
 
 
 

Missed the Momentum Summit? Went, but want a recap? We've got notes from all the Sessions, so check them out below.

Session 4:

Scott Griffith, CEO of ZipCar
Laura Fitton, CEO of oneforty
 

Q: How is the IPO Going?

There are many challenges. It's a volatile situation. 
 

Innovation Month is in full swing.  There are hundreds of events and great crowds coming to the many events.  Thanks to Scott Kirsner's challenge, there's a healthy discussion on ways we can improve the innovation economy here and make our ecosystem stronger.  Amongst all this discussion of change, I'd like to recognize something that is working and is a pivotal part of our emerging "Startup Renassaince":  Microsoft NERD.  
 
Without the efforts of some of their employees and the many things they do as an organization, I don't think this month would be as big and our ecosystem would not be what it is now. For that reason, I'd like to remind us all what we might be taking for granted right now:

If you saw David Cancel's presentation at Angel Bootcamp or read Healy Jones's recent post on how founders in Boston are "Students who stay," you know that the issue of student retention is on the mind of a number of members of our community.   In honor of Scott Kirsner's "Innovation Month" and his challenge to local bloggers to write about "something that is happening -- or should be happening -- here to make the innovation scene in New England even better?"  I'd like to share how I think we can dramatically improve our retention of students: Hire them.

As Mike Kowalchik pointed out yesterday on the Greenhorn blog, the structure of standard entrepreneurial networking events where you're quickly pitching your idea may not be the best way to find a co-founder; when you're trying to find a business partner, there are many elements that have to come together for it work and many question you need to try to answer.  The amazing part about Startup Weekend is that many of those pieces can come together in just one weekend thanks to the event's unique structure.

In Tony Hsieh’s new book, “Delivering Happiness”, he talks about the journey of Zappos and how they became who they are today: a company providing the best customer service in the world and one of the best cultures of any company.  In the midst of all this, the importance of tribes emerged as a key theme, especially in the early days of Zappos.
 
Tribes are much more than the loosely affiliated connections that make up a network; the strong bonds formed yield much greater short and long term benefits as members of the tribe have a deeper connection and much greater willingness to help one another.