We all get them. Those emails that make you cringe, just a little.  Some brand new entrepreneur emails you for help. You're busy and you're not sure you're the right person to help. They seem like they lack even some of the most basic knowledge to get started.  But they're asking you for help...probably hoping for a meeting or maybe an intro to a trusted contact.

In Boston, we have a habit of just wanting to click the delete button on such messages, or simply declining citing a desire to "focus on my startup" right now or just not being "the right person." We can do better than that. If you really can't take the meeting, let's leave each of these new entrepreneurs pointed in the right direction. The Boston Startup Guide is here to help you do that. 

In Part II, we're covering what to do when a new entrepreneur is looking for mentors and you can't help them yourself.  There are great things you can point them to and we're going to share them with you so you can copy and paste them in your next message, so you can say still help them even if you can't take that meeting. 

We all get them. Those emails that make you cringe, just a little.  Some brand new entrepreneur emails you for help. You're busy and you're not sure you're the right person to help. They seem like they lack even some of the most basic knowledge to get started.  But they're asking you for help...probably hoping for a meeting or maybe an intro to a trusted contact.

In Boston, we have a habit of just wanting to click the delete button on such messages, or simply declining citing a desire to "focus on my startup" right now or just not being "the right person." We can do better than that. If you really can't take the meeting, let's leave each of these new entrepreneurs pointed in the right direction. The Boston Startup Guide is here to help you do that. 

In Part I, we're covering what to do when a new entrepreneur is looking for funding and is likely not really ready for funding.  There are great things you can point them to and we're going to share them with you so you can copy and paste them in your next message, so you can say still help them even if you can't take that meeting. 

 Baseball season just started again, signaling the end of a very long winter here in Boston! Although we had a freak storm last week, things should be slowly warming up, making it easier to go to all of the great startup networking events and office hours happening every day. This week shows that April means business, with over 40 networking events and office hours scheduled. 

It's been 16 incredible months here at Greenhorn Connect and as 2011 has kicked off with a bang, I'd like to take a moment and reflect on where we're headed with the future of Greenhorn Connect.  Now that the big question is less about "what is Greenhorn Connect" and more about "what's next for Greenhorn Connect" I'd like to share some of my vision for how we'll be evolving along with the Boston ecosystem in coming months.  

2010 was an amazing year for the Boston startup community.  Many new initiatives took off, old ones got new life and the community as a whole grew much larger.  Here at Greenhorn Connect, we've been lucky enough to be a part of this new wave of entrepreneurship around here and so we'd like to share some of the key trends we noticed over the past year.  (Note: Next week, we'll be making predictions for the ecosystem in 2011). Read on...

Time flies and everything moves quickly. Those are the two biggest lessons I've learned in what has been an awesome first year of Greenhorn Connect's life.  It was one year ago today, in the middle of Entrepreneurship week, that we launched the Greenhorn Connect site you see today (a few of you may remember our alpha site, which was just a resource list and nothing else).  It's been a lot of fun and one heck of a journey to get to where we are today. In honor of Thanksgiving next week and reflecting on our journey, I'd like to recognize and thank a few people who have been instrumental to helping us get to where we are today:

For almost a year now, I've been curating the Greenhorn Connect calendar and going to as many startup events as I can.  During that time, I've seen an explosion in the number of events; the early days saw about 20 to 30 events a week to now we've had as many as 80 events in a single week.  

I'd love to say that all of those events we've added are high quality, can't miss events, but that fact is, our ecosystem is filled with a lot of events basking in mediocrity.  Their thematic content, whether it be a panel discussion or brief speaker often lack enough takeaways to add serious educational value, and the networking is often equally weak as the crowd quickly thins after the main content.  To make our ecosystem stronger, we need to create a barbell system for our events.  Confused? Read on.

There's been ongoing discussion the past few weeks about what's working and what's not in our ecosystem as well as plenty of "Valley envy."  But for all the fuss, I think we forget about how far we've come in the last year and more importantly, the people that are making many of the greatest things in our community possible through their efforts.  Below, you'll find ten people/groups that you need to know because they're the people behind making things happen. {Please add anyone you think we missed in the comments.}

And just like that, the startup community is back in full swing. This weekend was the incredible Startup Bootcamp, which brought a packed house. If you missed it, there are summaries here and here and video will be up soon here. This week is packed with great events in a packed month as there are over 125 events this month and 30 different Boston startup entrepreneur networking events and office hours this week. Check out the show and notes below to find out all about them and all the other great happenings in the community this week. And don't forget to check out the Greenhorn Connect Calendar for all your Boston startup entrepreneur networking events and office hours needs.

 It's been a wild summer with hundreds of events each month. The whole time there's been no sign of a slow down, but we finally have a week for you to catch your breath. There are still 26 Awesome events this week, but 15 of them are on Thursday. This made our work a bit harder here on GreenhornTV, so we're declaring this "Summer Vacation Week." Below you'll find a quick overview of the great events we recommend this week, but you'll notice you get a number of days off :). And of course, if you want to stay in the loop on the Boston Startup scene, be sure to check out the Greenhorn Connect Calendar for all your Boston startup entrepreneur networking events and office hours needs.