Jameson Detweiler

Starting a company in Philly has been an amazing experience. I’ve been lucky as a Philadelphia entrepreneur to be involved involve with a group called Philly Startup Leaders for almost two years now. You can find the PSL Manifesto here. (HINT: You should read it.) And if you didn’t read, here’s the first and most important line:

“Because startup entrepreneurs need each other.”

I can’t tell you how helpful this community has been. If it weren’t for this group of amazing people, I don’t know if we would still be going over at GreenKonnect. Everyone in the group understands what we’re going through.

As an entrepreneur, you greatly increase your chance of success by involving yourself in an active and supportive community. There are three main benefits:

1. Support – Starting a company has a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Only other entrepreneurs understand this.
2. A Network – You greatly increase your chances of success when you’ve got other people on your side. If they believe in you, they’ll give you access to your network. (Use LinkedIn to your advantage. I’ll post more on that later.)
3. Education – I’ve made a lot of mistakes starting my company. PSL has helped me reduce the number of those mistakes.

But there’s one more thing that PSL has done for me, and it may be the most important thing to come out of my involvement. That’s the friends I have made and the discussions I’ve had with them. The best discussions are those I have with people who aren’t afraid of to step on my toes. As an entrepreneur, you need to be able to take criticism. You need to seek it out from your peers, potential investors and your users. These conversations have significantly changed the way we operate and talk about our business.

As I’m writing this, I’m realizing I don’t have enough of these conversations, so next time you see me, ask me about my business, then let me know what you think we could be doing better.

So, if you’re in Philly and starting a company, join PSL yesterday. If you’re not in Philly find a community or start one. Most importantly, find those people who aren’t afraid to smack you when you’re headed in the wrong direction.

I’d love to hear in the comments about your experiences with PSL and other similar communities.