3 ms·

It's not only other hackers that are beneficial to meet. It's potential employees and potential customers. For example, there were many non-hackers at ProductCa

It's not only other hackers that are beneficial to meet. It's potential employees and potential customers. For example, there were many non-hackers at ProductCamp (which I was unfortunately too sick to attend.) Did you go to that? BTW, what type of business are you running and how do you define your target customers?

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
I run 2 businesses at the moment, at opposite ends of the spectrum: One is a campaign management website for Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games. Think "Basecamp for D&D" It's at http://www.obsidianportal.com http://www.obsidianportal.com Customers here are tabletop RPG folks. I'm very active in that community and have made all sorts of connections. Again, my most valuable contacts are not other startup people, but in fact just members of the RPG community. My second startup that I'm spinning up right now is an online marketplace where people can find and buy plants from specialty nurseries. This one is called DoLeaf, and we're currently in closed beta. We'll jump to public beta as soon as we can recruit some initial sellers. So, to that end, I need to network with small nursery owners. You can be guaranteed they're not coming to things like AWE or Barcamp. Don't get me wrong: I like hanging out with fellow hackers and entrepreneurs. We understand each other and speak the same language. Talking with nursery owners is a very eye-opening experience at how little I actually know about their world. However, my fellow hackers aren't going to come to DoLeaf and sell plants, so the time I spend with them isn't the most productive in terms of furthering my business. Since I've only got a few hours of free time after my day job is done, I need to spend it as wisely as possible. It's a pretty simple calculation.
- rjurney 17y ago
  If you're well plugged in to your markets and interact with them constantly - its hard to argue with you about how to best spend your time :) Thats definitely a productive use of it. Do you realize how unusual you are? Most people never talk to real customers in their development. You're way ahead of the average Atlanta startup.

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago

I run 2 businesses at the moment, at opposite ends of the spectrum: One is a campaign management website for Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games. Think "Basecamp for D&D" It's at http://www.obsidianportal.com http://www.obsidianportal.com Customers here are tabletop RPG folks. I'm very active in that community and have made all sorts of connections. Again, my most valuable contacts are not other startup people, but in fact just members of the RPG community. My second startup that I'm spinning up right now is an online marketplace where people can find and buy plants from specialty nurseries. This one is called DoLeaf, and we're currently in closed beta. We'll jump to public beta as soon as we can recruit some initial sellers. So, to that end, I need to network with small nursery owners. You can be guaranteed they're not coming to things like AWE or Barcamp. Don't get me wrong: I like hanging out with fellow hackers and entrepreneurs. We understand each other and speak the same language. Talking with nursery owners is a very eye-opening experience at how little I actually know about their world. However, my fellow hackers aren't going to come to DoLeaf and sell plants, so the time I spend with them isn't the most productive in terms of furthering my business. Since I've only got a few hours of free time after my day job is done, I need to spend it as wisely as possible. It's a pretty simple calculation.

rjurney 17y ago
If you're well plugged in to your markets and interact with them constantly - its hard to argue with you about how to best spend your time :) Thats definitely a productive use of it. Do you realize how unusual you are? Most people never talk to real customers in their development. You're way ahead of the average Atlanta startup.