Slides from my Intro to the NYC Startup Community class - Kevin

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE NYC STARTUP
COMMUNITY
Kevin R. Shiiba
Community Development & Membership
General Assembly

2. NYC STARTUPS: TECH + [ ]

3. DEFINING AN ECOSYSTEM
§ Startups
§ Investors
§ Talent
§ Mentors
§ Partners
§ Service Providers

4. NOTABLE STARTUPS
§ Art.sy § MakerBot
§ Bit.ly § Meetup
§ Blip.tv § OKCupid
§ Chartbeat § Quirky
§ Etsy § SeatGeek
§ Fab § SecondMarket
§ Foursquare § Tumblr
§ GroupMe § Turntable.fm
§ JIBE § Vimeo
§ Kickstarter § Warby Parker
§ Livestream § Yipit
§ Lot18 § ZocDoc
*Made in NYC: http://nytm.org/made/

5. VENTURE FIRMS
§ AOL Ventures § High Peaks Venture
§ Bain Capital Partners
§ Bessemer Venture § IA Ventures
Partners § Lerer Ventures
§ DFJ Gotham § Raptor Group
§ First Round Capital § RRE Ventures
§ FirstMark Capital § Spark Capital
§ Founder Collective § Thrive Capital
§ Greycroft Partners § Union Square
Ventures

6. COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
§ NDAs / “people will steal my idea”
§ “Just need a coder to build my product”
§ Write a business plan —> get funding
§ The loudest people are the smartest
§ Too hard to get “in” or catch up
§ Silicon Valley is all that matters
§ Funding is impossible to get
§ Entrepreneurship is too risky of a career path
§ Founding a company is the best way to get involved
§ Only developers can get good jobs at startups

7. HOW DO I GET STARTED?
ASK YOURSELF:
Is the startup scene right for me?
§ What am I passionate about?
§ What types of work environments suit me?
§ What is my risk tolerance?
If yes, then:
§ What am I good at? / What do I need to learn?
§ What part of the tech community best matches up to my
passions and skills? What role?
§ How do I best hone the skills necessary to function in this
role?
§ Who should I talk to get insight about a company / role?

8. COMMON ROLES
§ Front-End Developer (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
§ Back-End Developer (Ruby, Python, Java, PHP)
§ UX/UI Designer (inDesign, Photoshop)
§ Product Manager (define product roadmap, prioritization)
§ Project Manager (how do we get X done by this time?)
§ Business Development (Partnerships, Sponsors)
§ Marketing/User Acquisition (Email marketing, social media,
SEO, data analytics)
§ Data Scientist (Hadoop, Matlab, SQL)
§ Sales (willingness to find and follow leads)
§ Community Management (Social Media)
§ Operations (Customer service, Office management)
§ Other roles depending on vertical (education? fashion? art?)

9. WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
§ Sign up for events newsletters
§ Attend meetups, happy hours, panels, and classes
§ Learn how to code / design
§ Go to hackathons and Startup Weekends
§ Take interesting people you meet out for coffee
§ Be useful – make introductions, give feedback, help
people you meet, be open-minded
§ Blog about your experiences and adventures
§ Engage on social media
§ Hustle

10. DO:
§ Learn the lexicon and how to best position your
skillset
§ Think long and hard about what kinds of
environments best suit you and seek them out
§ Roll up your sleeves and learn new skills
§ Meet as many people as possible, and develop
quality relationships
§ Effectively communicate what value you can bring to
a startup
§ Remain humble and figure out ways to give back to
the community even when you’re a giant success ; - )

11. DON’T:
§ Think everyone knows something you don’t
§ Listen to the people who tell you no
§ Be afraid to ask for help, guidance, and introductions
§ Hesitate to offer whatever it is that YOU do best
§ Get discouraged

12. THANK YOU!
Questions?
Kevin R. Shiiba
@kevinshiiba
@GA
kevin@generalassemb.ly

13. APPENDIX: BLOGS TO READ
§ Chris Dixon — http://cdixon.org
§ Fred Wilson (A VC) — http://avc.com
§ BetaBeat — http://betabeat.com
§ SAI — http://businessinsider.com/sai
§ Paul Graham’s Essays — http://paulgraham.com
§ Hacker News — http://news.ycombinator.com
§ TechCrunch — http://techcrunch.com
§ General Assembly — http://generalassemb.ly/blog

14. APPENDIX: NEWSLETTERS
§ Startup Digest — http://startupdigest.com
§ Charlie O’Donnell —
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/nycevents
§ Gary’s Guide — http://garysguide.com
§ General Assembly — http://generalassemb.ly

15. APPENDIX: NOTABLE ORGS
§ New York Tech Meetup — http://nytm.org
§ Hack NY — http://hackny.org
§ Techies Give Back — http://techiesgiveback.org
§ NY Hacker / Hacker Union — http://nyhacker.org
§ We Are NY Tech — http://wearenytech.com
§ Internet Week — http://internetweekny.com
§ Social Media Week — http://socialmediaweek.org
§ NYC EDC — http://nycedc.com
§ NYC Digital — http://nyc.gov/digital

16. APPENDIX: COWORKING SPACES
§ 3rd Ward— http://3rdward.com
§ Dogpatch Labs— http://dogpatchlabs.com
§ Green Desk — http://green-desk.com
§ Grind — http://grindspaces.com
§ Hive @ 55 — http://hiveat55.com
§ New Work City — http://nwc.co
§ Projective Space — http://projective.co
§ The Yard — http://workattheyard.com
§ WeWork Labs— http://wework.com

17. APPENDIX: ACCELERATORS
§ TechStars — http://techstars.com
§ DreamIt Ventures —
§ http://dreamitventures.com
§ ER Accelerator — http://eraccelerator.com
§ NYC Seed — http://www.nycseed.com