Reviving Tech Rant – Brainstorming for Tech Startups
We started Tech Rant back in late ’07 as a supplement to the workshops hosted by TBTF’s Emerging Companies Academy 
program. These weekly coffee chats were structured as an informal support group for start-up founders and early stage tech companies. They were held every week for almost two years before moving to the IdeaField space, the first full-time coworking facility in the Tampa Bay region.
With the Hillsborough County Entrepreneur Collaborative Center (ECC) about to officially open this week in Ybor, it seemed like a good time to revisit the Tech Rant format to see if there was interest in restarting these startup brainstorming sessions.
Please let us know what times / days work best. As a test run, let’s shoot for a brown bag lunch format on Thursday Dec. 18th at 11:30 am.
As it was before, all topics are fair game. Stop in to discuss any challenge you may be facing in your start-up including:
• Idea validation • Creating a product roadmap • Finding co-founders (and do you need one) • Creating / refining your business model & roadmap • Market validation & product readiness • Sales & distribution strategy • Hiring contractors or full-time employees • Applying for an incubator / accelerator program • Raising outside funding (angel, venture, crowd, etc.) • Partner development & agreements • IP strategy & licensing • Hiring service providers (attorneys, accountants, other)Details: Thursday Dec. 18th 11:30 – 1:00 Hillsborough County’s Entrepreneur Collaborative Center 2101 E. Palm Avenue (in Ybor City) Parking lot north of Palm is free RSVP on TechRant’s MeetUp page
If you have any other questions, feel free to ping me on MeetUp or on Twitter @StartupMonkey.
Startup Tampa Bay – Nov. 14th
In his final Startup Tampa Bay video as a @HillsboroughFL Commissioner, @MarkSharpeFL discusses his successful EDI2 program and how it has helped the local tech ecosystem grow in both activity and visibility.
A few recurring topics came up in this video that are worthy of additional discussion:
- Finding startup resources in Tampa Bay
- Branding Tampa Bay as a active & growing tech ecosystem
- Availability of investment capital in the region
BarCamp Tampa Bay Wrap-up
Last week marked Tampa Bay’s 7th annual BarCamp, a day long conference for Geeks, about Geeks and hosted by Geeks. In the tradition of the #unconference style, the crowdsourced agenda of topics and speakers provided an eclectic mix of technical and startup tech business sessions to choose from. We had somewhere between 750-800 people participate in this year’s event and of those that registered online, 60% said this was their first @BarCampTampa.
This event continues to draw a broad cross section of the region’s technical talent and I think a lot of those first timers walked away impressed with the content and wondering why they had not attended previous year’s BarCamps. We hope that you will tell a friend and return next fall ready to support this event as a volunteer, sponsor, speaker or as an attendee. We’ll bring the donuts, you bring the desire to share, learn, and collaborate with the others that make up the Tampa Bay region’s growing grass roots tech and start-up ecosystem.
Evolving a great idea into a product requires a mix of innovation, instinct and basic business discipline. Our mission is to help early stage founders understand startup challenges, build their confidence and establish their credibility. We sponsor workshops, coworking and other tech community events so that you never feel like you’re left swinging from a tree.