

What They Can't Tell You: Starting Up Outside a Hub - wensing
http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/18392646677/what-they-cant-tell-you-starting-up-outside-a-hub

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vitovito
I complete agree with your premise, in what hackers need to support them in a
traditional, SF/NYC-style, VC-backed sense, but I disagree with your solution.

The solution isn't to run people through the gauntlet just because you had to
run through it. That's the same sort of thing that causes open-source projects
to run people out of town because they asked a question wrong.

In Austin, I studied the design and tech community and the problems that both
groups have were essentially the same: a comprehensive lack of professional
support in all areas. People tend to only hang out with their friends and
their coworkers. They don't meet people from other companies. Those companies
don't support the local community and don't work together with other companies
to share resources and solve problems. There's no _community._ There's just a
bunch of companies functioning as a silo, each with one or two employees who
venture out when there's a free beer or a friend at a meetup.

The answer isn't to shake someone until they realize some sort of truth. It's
to build that community, the one you don't have right now to support you, for
someone else. It's to provide help and be a mentor and give guidance. It's to
do the fairy godmother act, the one you no-one did for you, for someone else,
and as part of that, to teach people that this is how good, responsible people
and companies behave.

What you want is to change the culture. You want to start raising companies
that look to all of the local communities and novice developers and talk about
the work they're doing and buying them beers and offering them training. It's
about building a comprehensive local talent pool through supporting meetups
and offering apprenticeships -- not unpaid internships, not regular
internships, actual apprenticeships -- so you never lack for qualified
candidates in the good times and are always thought well of in the lean times.

It's about reaching out to other companies who use the same technologies and
tools as you do and sharing resources, ensuring that future employees of both
places have safety nets with each other, and that you never have to reinvent
the wheel because you know all of the practices of everyone else using that
same tool.

It's about not thinking in terms of zero-sum games and hierarchical
advancement. A rising tide lifts all boats, and the money and the power and
the experience will come if there's a reason for hackers to show up: a
community.

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wensing
Thanks for the response. I want to clarify that my quest isn't to run anyone
through the gauntlet. To quote myself:

 _A scarier but more tractable solution is educating and arming first-time
founders with the lessons and toughness they need to succeed against the
tremendous odds facing them in this territory. It demands a brutal honesty
that risks discouraging young recruits, but this is how the best of the best
operate.

As a founder born and raised in South Florida that’s had some measure of
success (insofar as survival is a major component), this is my plan. To tell
people of the dangers in no uncertain terms, to take a chainsaw to their
ideas, and to inspire them to find ways to collect money from customers first,
so they can collect it from opportunistic investors second, and on their
terms._

I realize that this is mostly about teaching (and not acts of kindness, money
or otherwise), but I do believe that it fits under your suggestion to "mentor
and give guidance". It definitely isn't about just getting them to "realize
some sort of truth." On the contrary, I welcome engagement in a very practical
way. Hope that makes it a little more clear.

~~~
vitovito
_"It demands a brutal honesty that risks discouraging young recruits, but this
is how the best of the best operate."_ and _"To tell people of the dangers in
no uncertain terms, to take a chainsaw to their ideas"_ are the passages I
take issue with.

That sure sounds like a gauntlet, like putting someone through the wringer
just because.

You can be supportive without cutting people down. A community doesn't have to
be all cat fights and proving yourself to each other. It _can_ just be
helpful.

I'm glad you're not planning on doing it that way, but your words suggest
otherwise. Just something to keep an eye on.

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consultanz
This is so true - this article is so true. thanks.

..(vitovito) a comprehensive lack of professional support in all areas. People
tend to only hang out with their friends and their coworkers. They don't meet
people from other companies. Those companies don't support the local community
and don't work together with other companies to share resources and solve
problems. There's no community......It's to provide help and be a mentor and
give guidance. (vitovito)

I have experienced the same story here in Germany. But I beleive it is not
possible when you are an outlier, to do much on your own individualistic style
- there must be a supporting system with you to push things through. It is
wishful thinking that you can build community with few entrpreneurs. That is
the reason that innovations take years and years, at least 10 years to reach
market readiness.

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consultanz
I have posted your article in my blog www.commercescience.blogspot.com

