Local investors and successful entrepreneurs: the early-stage entrepreneurs in your cities need you now more than ever. We need you to take your vision, put it

Local investors and successful entrepreneurs: the early-stage entrepreneurs in your cities need you now more than ever. We need you to take your vision, put it on the ground, and carry your city and your followers up with you. We need you to be our heroes. Go with your associates and assistants to local events. Their eyes and ears aren’t trained like yours to find insane talent and bigtime ideas. They can’t inspire us with their experience and insight like you can. We need your perspective and physical presence to find the best your city has to offer and to help us bust through the brick walls that are stacked in front of us. Give us your presence at one event each week at a bar down your street. We need your instant and honest feedback. When you’re there to give it, you will make our ideas, our companies, and your city better, faster. To be clear, this isn’t charity work. Being on the ground floor again will remind you why you got into this business in the first place (or, maybe, why you should get out). If all you think about is dollars, I bet you’ll find companies to advise and invest in that no one else has heard about yet. But all money aside, do you believe your city can be home to the next company to shake up the world? If you want to make your city into a true startup hub, you need to show us your face. You may never write a check to a local startup, but we will never forget those who shook our hand and told us what we needed to hear first, even if you reject our ideas because our market, the team, or the traction isn’t right. This is, as David Lee said last week, “a pay-it-forward business.” If you pay one night forward to your followers, your company, and your city, each one will give more to you than you can possibly imagine. Ron Conway is a hero to Silicon Valley. Fred Wilson is a hero to New York. Who are the heroes of your startup community?