Building a tech community requires intentional and sometimes uncomfortable efforts. There can be a lot of hand-waving and noise generated while trying to garner attention, but two rather important criteria that often get swept aside are authenticity and humility. Hollow marketing efforts to create the illusion of success only encourage more noise that drowns out the actual progress of those putting in the work to build and ship meaningful products. Even worse are those efforts to deceive the public and the press by creating hallucinations in an effort to attract or placate investors.
This post by Alexis Muellner in the Tampa Bay Business Journal came as a bit of a surprise, but it was the culmination of many discussions and coffees over the past 15-ish years, where we discussed my personal observations of the rollercoaster ride that is the Tampa Bay tech ecosystem. I often mentioned the Savtira debacle in these conversations by asking (of the press) are we making an effort to highlight the actual technology innovators and business builders in our community or are we just waiting to hype up the next Savtira-type fraud?
And please stop referencing the Forbes Council “poll” proclaiming Tampa Bay’s position as the number one emerging tech hub. It is another sad example of wishing vs. working. The number of politicians and news outlets that gave this pay-to-play social media post credibility without fact-checking the source is yet another example of how we rush to be cheerleaders for the noise and drown out the signal.
Be authentic, be humble, and let’s put in the work required to support real progress without tripping over each other in an effort to take credit for the wins achieved by others.
Celebrate our 10th Anniversary with us. Whether you’ve been geeking out with us for 10 years, never heard of BarCamp, or somewhere in between, we welcome you to join us at this remarkable gathering of the local Tampa Bay tech community.
BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences primarily focused on technology, STEM, Robotics, AI, VR, Gaming, Software Development, Cybersecurity, Makerspaces, Social Media, Autonomous Vehicles, or anything you think you want to share. These are open, participatory workshop-events, and all of the content of which is provided by participants. Anyone can show up, give us a topic and speak. We have 15-20 talks running concurrently every hour during the day.
The doors will open at 7:45 AM, and we will have breakfast on hand. We break for noon for an hour lunch, and our last session ends at 4:00 PM which will be followed by an event wrap up, prize giveaways and then, of course, an afterparty. The event and all of your food and beverages throughout the day, including snacks, are free and your first drink at the afterparty and appetizers are all provided thanks to the generous support of our community of sponsors. There is even a free t-shirt to commemorate the event for the first 500 people!
Please join us and get your geek on!
Details:
Saturday, Oct. 21st at the University of South Florida Muma Colleg of Business
Doors open at 7:45AM for Speaker Sign-up & Breakfast
Sessions start at 9:00 and switch every hour
Wrap-up & feedback Session at 4:00 followed by afterparty at 5:30
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter – Use #bctpa to get involved
Sponsorships close 10/5, but there is still time to help host this event.
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.
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
Want the coworking experience in Tampa? Join us at IdeaField for the creative, collaborative workspace that helps you get shit done.
Beyond Idea Stage…
Evolving a great idea into a sellable product requires a mix of innovation, instinct, and basic business discipline. My mission is to help early-stage founders understand start-up challenges, build their confidence, and establish their credibility. I’m not here to put lipstick on your pig or offer any silver bullets for venture funding; just grassroots experience blended with a little attitude and the occasional flinging of poo.
