February 2012

The End is Near...

 

...JUST KIDDING!

 

I love Greenhorn Connect and I really admire everything that Jason and other team members have done for the community in the past few years. When Jason asked me to be his successor as he moves to his next venture I was honored and incredibly excited. We’ve been working together over the past few months so I can learn how he’s run Greenhoron Connect and look forward to bringing a fresh perspective. This post is my three-step plan to continue to grow the Greenhorn Connect presence as I transition fully as the Executive Director of Community and Student Relations:

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown Feb 26th - March 3rd

The fun from last week continues through this next week as more great events are coming up in the Boston startup Scene. Though there's only 22 networking events and office hour opportunities planned, a lot of good stuff is coming at you fast.

Entrepreneurship programming has students excited about startups at all our universities. Now what do we do with them?

It is nothing short of amazing to see the entrepreneurial revolution happening at our local universities. From the EClub and IDEA programs at Northeastern to ILab and HackHarvard at Harvard to StartLabs and Startup Club at MIT to the BCVC at BC and the VDC at UMass Boston, there are tons of programs at different schools. This is creating hundreds of startup hungry students.

Right now our biggest challenge is making them aware of our ecosystem, but soon I believe we may solve that issue, but be left with a new challenge: What to do with all of them?

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown Feb 19th - Feb 25th

A few times a year, Boston puts together an epic week filled with super networking, great job opportunities, fun parties and great hack events. This is one of those weeks featuring Ruby Riot 2, BostInno's Insider Awards party, Startup Weekend and Greenhorn Connect's own Boston Tech Talent Fair to connect students and startups.

Check out the top events below and all 32 networking events and office hour opportunities. As always, the can't-miss events are below.

Extra Announcements:

Everything I needed to know about Entrepreneurship I learned from a Comedy Troupe: Hiring

I consider The Callbacks, the comedy group I founded at BU to be my first successful startup.The following posts is a series of lessons I learned while leading them:

Hiring (3 of 3)

Finding the right talent in a start up is a very hot topic right now and one that most companies struggle with. Finding the right talent for The Callbacks was no exception and something we really struggled with in our first two years. We were fortunate enough to have a great group of founding members, but when we started bringing on new people we ran into a lot of problems.

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Greenhorn Weekly Countdown Feb 12th - Feb 18th

Another awesome week in Boston has flown by as we're at the second week of February. Don't have a Valentine? No Problem! Fill Valentine's Day with some networking TLC with the Boston Startup Scene. If you do have a valentine, we won't judge you if you skip a few events. ;)


This week brings 32 networking events and office hour opportunities.As always, the can't-miss events are below.

Everything I needed to know about Entrepreneurship I learned from a Comedy Troupe: Branding

I consider The Callbacks, the comedy group I founded at BU to be my first successful startup.The following posts is a series of lessons I learned while leading them:

Building the Brand (2 of 3)

I’ve never met someone working on a startup that didn’t think their product was innately better than their competitors’, but I’ve often met entrepreneurs having trouble raising awareness and elevating their startup’s brand. When I started The Callbacks we reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors and decided our values would differentiate us from BU’s other comedy groups. The following are lessons I learned while building that brand:

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The 10 Things About Entrepreneurship They Don't Teach You in College

College is a unique environment that plays a key part in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Education occurs in major ways both inside and out of the classroom. I learned a great deal in my time at Northeastern University, but even with the great pair of degrees I recieved (Electrical Engineering & Technical Entrepreneurship), I found there were a number of important skills an entrepreneur must develop that I did not learn. If you have the opportunity to learn any of these skills while in school, take full advantage! Your future startup will thank you.

Greenhorn Weekly Countdown Feb 5 - Feb 12

Whether you're a New York transplant rooting for the Giants in hostile territory, a die-hard Patriots fan or just a lover of the creative ads and social media, tonight is a big night. After the last play ends and the Super Bowl parties wrap up, it's time to get back to work.


This week there's 34 great startup events in our awesome community. Read below for the ones you shouldn't miss!

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Everything I needed to know about Entrepreneurship I learned from a Comedy Troupe (SERIES)

My friend Mickey and I  decided to start The Callbacks after we were unsuccessful callbacks for another group at Boston University in 2009. The senior members of that group called Mickey and I to encourage us to continue with comedy and even try to start our own group. To everyone’s surprise we actually did. That same year we won “Best New Student Group of The Year”, had one of our videos nominated in the College of Communication’s Film Festival and attracted the most Facebook fans and Youtube views of any other comedy group on campus.

But comedy is hard. And starting a new comedy group is even harder. What’s fascinating is that the lessons I took away with me I have readily applied to every startup I’ve worked with and will in the future.
 
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What To Do In College To Prepare To Be An Entrepreneur

Thanks to all the press embracing technology, the movie the Social Network and the emergence of the consumer web and mobile apps, entrepreneurship is in the spotlight again. With that comes the interest and excitement of students in college. You can see it on all the campuses around Boston as seemingly every school has an entrepreneurship club, a startup mentoring program and hackfests. These programs do everything from inspiring new entrepreneurs to coaching them through their first venture.

The problem is, the odds of you being the next Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Clerico, or Aaron Levie is statistically insignificant.  What's more likely is that you can lay a foundation in college for an amazing career as an entrepreneur that later in life becomes a successful founder. Here's a few tips for making the most of college to prepare for being a great entrepreneur.

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