5 ms·

the startup world is becoming inundated with people who just want to sell stuff to startup founders He's part of the parallel universe in silicon valley (physi

the startup world is becoming inundated with people who just want to sell stuff to startup founders He's part of the parallel universe in silicon valley (physically, and in spirit) of people who hold seminars, arrange mixers, make blogs, write twitter posts, and generally act as a big sideshow and social group for 2nd rate startups and their entourages. It's a surreal place filled with the same people at every event (and linked on every blog or re-tweeted on every tweet) who seem like they must be important, but aren't. Sometimes worlds collide and Tim Ferris does a talk at Google (or TED - WTF?) or Tara Hunt doles out free beer at a conference room at Yahoo!... In my experience unless your girlfriend is working for one of their boutique PR firms you can safely avoid everything about this world.

alaskamiller 17y ago
I like the cut of your jib.
rokhayakebe 17y ago
"Those who can Do. Those who cannot Teach" (or Blog). "Where ends Performance, starts Appearance"
rjurney 17y ago
I'm coming to do a geek/startup tour of silicon valley... can you recommend any events/groups that don't suck? Because what you're describing sounds pretty similar to the worst of our local networking groups, and I get really irritated when I show up for one and its a bunch of guys trying to sell me management consulting and a 'startup' speaker that made millions selling used hardware.
- menloparkbum 17y ago
  It's hard for me to recommend anything, because I don't feel like I've gotten much out of the good events I've gone to. I'm not really an event guy. I'd probably be more useful in the negative for particular cases, like "that one sucks - definitely DON'T go to that one." Also - I haven't gone to any of these things for almost a year. That said, SuperHappyDevHouse is the only event that is genuinely hacker oriented. Some of the particular tech specific meetups I've been to have had good presentations. If you really want to network it's probably best to figure out where your favorite startups go out to drink beer on Fridays. If you're looking for hackerish, generally interesting things to do, events like Maker Faire are pretty good.
  - rjurney 17y ago
    So you wouldn't recommend the entrepreneur educational events Stanford organizes? The tech stuff we have here, somewhat, although I'll be there for the Hadoop Summit. Was hoping to get a glimpse into people making all these connections that the valley is supposed to offer a startup. Gonna catch an open coffee, but still looking for things to do relating to startup/biz side of things. I'm not looking to network for anything in particular so much as get a good sense of the environment.
    - menloparkbum 17y ago
      Oh, actually that kind of thing sounds cool. I just haven't been. Stanford is great and is worth going to an event there if you're in the area.
      - rjurney 17y ago
        But you're saying that cocktail hour by Blanko.com would not be a great networking event as it would be characterized by wanton douschebaggery? I'm trying to catch some of those too, just to experience them. Sorry to pick your brain, but I'm 'exploring' valley/provincial market differences for fun. Which groups suck? :)
- dshah 17y ago
  I'd suggest Startup2Startup that's held in Palo Alto. I attended the most recent one while I was out in the valley, and I thought it was really good.
  - rjurney 17y ago
    Thanks, I wish I'd caught Steve Blank's talk, reading his book right now.
jfarmer 17y ago
Have you ever actually met Andrew?
- menloparkbum 17y ago
  nope.
merrick33 17y ago
Since you seem to know Andrew so well, how do you explain that he lives in Santa Monica and does most of his interviews over Skype? Really though, if you spent some time on mixergy.com you might appreciate what he does instead of blindly judging Andrew.

alaskamiller 17y ago

I like the cut of your jib.

rokhayakebe 17y ago

"Those who can Do. Those who cannot Teach" (or Blog). "Where ends Performance, starts Appearance"

rjurney 17y ago

I'm coming to do a geek/startup tour of silicon valley... can you recommend any events/groups that don't suck? Because what you're describing sounds pretty similar to the worst of our local networking groups, and I get really irritated when I show up for one and its a bunch of guys trying to sell me management consulting and a 'startup' speaker that made millions selling used hardware.

menloparkbum 17y ago
It's hard for me to recommend anything, because I don't feel like I've gotten much out of the good events I've gone to. I'm not really an event guy. I'd probably be more useful in the negative for particular cases, like "that one sucks - definitely DON'T go to that one." Also - I haven't gone to any of these things for almost a year. That said, SuperHappyDevHouse is the only event that is genuinely hacker oriented. Some of the particular tech specific meetups I've been to have had good presentations. If you really want to network it's probably best to figure out where your favorite startups go out to drink beer on Fridays. If you're looking for hackerish, generally interesting things to do, events like Maker Faire are pretty good.
- rjurney 17y ago
  So you wouldn't recommend the entrepreneur educational events Stanford organizes? The tech stuff we have here, somewhat, although I'll be there for the Hadoop Summit. Was hoping to get a glimpse into people making all these connections that the valley is supposed to offer a startup. Gonna catch an open coffee, but still looking for things to do relating to startup/biz side of things. I'm not looking to network for anything in particular so much as get a good sense of the environment.
  - menloparkbum 17y ago
    Oh, actually that kind of thing sounds cool. I just haven't been. Stanford is great and is worth going to an event there if you're in the area.
    - rjurney 17y ago
      But you're saying that cocktail hour by Blanko.com would not be a great networking event as it would be characterized by wanton douschebaggery? I'm trying to catch some of those too, just to experience them. Sorry to pick your brain, but I'm 'exploring' valley/provincial market differences for fun. Which groups suck? :)
dshah 17y ago
I'd suggest Startup2Startup that's held in Palo Alto. I attended the most recent one while I was out in the valley, and I thought it was really good.
- rjurney 17y ago
  Thanks, I wish I'd caught Steve Blank's talk, reading his book right now.

jfarmer 17y ago

Have you ever actually met Andrew?

menloparkbum 17y ago
nope.

merrick33 17y ago

Since you seem to know Andrew so well, how do you explain that he lives in Santa Monica and does most of his interviews over Skype? Really though, if you spent some time on mixergy.com you might appreciate what he does instead of blindly judging Andrew.