Supporting Phoenix Startups

Over the last few months I’ve been working and speaking with entrepreneurs, advisors and investors as Chris Chandler and I build Flatterline, a web development company in Phoenix, Arizona. During these discussions, it became apparent to me that the startup community in Phoenix is elusive and scattered. Since Flatterline is highly focused on assisting startups with their software development needs, it’s in our best interest to have an active, engaged and thriving community of entrepreneurs in Phoenix.

To that end, we’ve initiated a few events, and promoted others, to help coalesce the community. The first two events we’ve helped organize in Phoenix are not new; instead, they build upon existing initiatives by other communities of entrepreneurs around the world. They are proven ideas that have helped entrepreneurial communities to come together and grow.

Phoenix Startup Drinks

This event is intended to bring Phoenix startups together over drinks to discuss what they’re working on, what they need help with and what they can do for each other.

Read more about Phoenix Startup Drinks

Phoenix OpenCoffee Club

This event is much like Startup Drinks, but is for the early risers and coffee drinkers amongst us. It is intended to bring Phoenix entrepreneurs and investors together in an informal setting to discuss ideas and collaborate.

Read more about Phoenix OpenCoffee Club

I have more initiatives in the works, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, what would you like to see done to help foster entrepreneurship in Phoenix?

Also, check out these other events for entrepreneurs:

More of my rantings

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Millarian has content marketing with Arkayne Socialize.
Posted July 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pm in Community | Permalink

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12 comments:

  1. Chris Tingom:

    Thanks for all that you’re doing to foster a startup culture in Phoenix. I’ve attended a bunch of the OpenCoffee meetups and enjoyed them quite a bit. At first the discussions about startups have been slow, but I noticed I wasn’t asking questions. So I’m starting to do that as I can come up with questions.

    I think the Startup Drinks will be great as well (as long as it’s possible to hear each other!).

    You asked what else… here are some ideas.

    #1: Round tables. Confidential round table discussions held monthly (in a conference room) among startup founders. I was in a round table once before and it was really great. You’d have to hand pick people to be in a round table like this.

    #2: Expand upon CrunchBase like you guys were talking about. I like that idea.

    #3: Interviews / profiles of startups in AZ. I’m going to hopefully do some of this later this year, but it would be great if more people wrote blog posts or just helped startups get exposure.

    I have an interest in tech and web startups with small core teams. I also have an interest in user interface design. So anything that combines those activities… I’m interested in.

    July 12th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
  2. Bobby Borszich:

    I really admire your focus on building the community here in Phoenix! You should be really proud of what you are doing.

    July 12th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
  3. Gangplank: an idea, not a building | tdhurst:

    [...] of the fragmentation. Enough of every idiot trying to start their own thing. Enough of the bickering. Greatness doesn’t come from a small group of people opening a [...]

    July 12th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
  4. Curtis Miller:

    @Chris the round table idea sounds interesting. I hear Tornado Design has a nice big conference room ;) As far as CrunchBase, I wrote a post about it already and it will go out tomorrow morning. The interviews/profiles is part of the stuff “in the works” as well and I’m hopeful that other people will be encouraged to do the same. I think it would be great to get more exposure for companies in Phoenix.

    @Bobby thanks man, I really appreciate that! I’m not going to lie, sometimes it’s really tough to stay focused…

    @Tyler not really sure why you linked to this post, hopefully you’ll explain in more detail.

    July 12th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
  5. Tyler Hurst:

    I linked to this post as an example of the unnecessary fragmentation happening in Phoenix. Too much energy is being spent trying to be different.

    July 12th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
  6. Curtis Miller:

    @Tyler the events you’re attacking are intended to help build a sustainable entrepreneurial community in the same spirit as that described in the Gangplank Manifesto. We’re entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs.

    “We believe that innovation breeds innovation. We will transform the Valley culture into one supportive of the entrepreneurial spirit, of risk taking…. This requires education, entrepreneurship and creative workspaces.” – Gangplank Manifesto

    I don’t see these meetups as fragmenting or a waste of energy. Since you do, how would you change them to be less so?

    July 12th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
  7. Chris:

    Sounds like what Tyler is saying is that any meetup not at Gangplank is working against Gangplank. Huh?

    July 13th, 2009 at 8:21 am
  8. Brian:

    Curtis,

    Thanks for helping bring people together, and for helping de-fragment the local start-up community! It’s always great to see people making things happen instead of sitting on the sidelines bickering.

    There are a million ways to bring people together, many of them effective and many of them not. People will always come out of the woodwork to tell you you’re doing it wrong. More often than not, they are typically only saying so because you’re doing it differently than they would.

    I don’t remember how it was said, but in the early days of “Gangplank,” some common phrases were “don’t ask for permission” and “be disruptive.”

    July 13th, 2009 at 9:32 am
  9. Curtis Miller:

    @Chris I think it would have been more effective to maintain focus on what Gangplank is and why he supports it.

    @Brian thanks! I completely agree with you and appreciate the support. All I want is more Phoenix startups and for those startups to have the best chance possible. If that’s disruptive, then so be it.

    July 13th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
  10. francine hardaway:

    Thank you so much for understanding the battle. The bad news: I’ve been fighting it for years, often feeling like a failure. The good news: the recession is bringing people to their senses: entrepreneurship is the only way to sustainability. Anything I can do to help your efforts? You can count on Stealthmode:-)

    July 14th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
  11. Curtis Miller:

    @Francine thanks, I appreciate your support! I’ve had my moments of feeling like a failure, too, especially recently… I think you’re right about sustainability through entrepreneurship, and I hope we can help that to happen. I have a few other initiatives in the works and I’d already planned to contact Stealthmode about them. In the meantime, we’d love for you or Ed to join us at an OpenCoffee or Startup Drinks event ;)

    What can we do to help you, Stealthmode or startups you’re involved with succeed?

    July 15th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
  12. Chris:

    I just stumbled across this interesting program in Georgia: http://atdc.org. Basically the state of Georgia subsidizes discounted office space in a central building to encourage startup density.

    It was discussed on Hacker News: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=725781

    July 27th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

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