30 August 2010 ~ View Comments

Dear Philadelphia, This Pay-to-Pitch Nonsense Has to Stop

Entrepreneurship Future Philly Philadelphia

I recently received an email from an organization that puts on events where startups pay-to-pitch a “crowd of investors.” (I’m not going to name the organization as I know they have good intentions.) I can’t believe these events still exist. These pay-to-pitch events have been dying around the country for almost a year now. If Philadelphia is ever going to be on the roadmap as a place to start a technology business, this has to stop.

First, if you didn’t see the uprising months ago, you should check out the what Jason Calacanis, Brad Feld and Fred Wilson have to say about pay-to-pitch events.

Most startups are poor. This is especially the case for people who have decided to forego a traditional career path and start a company straight out of school. These organizations are unknowingly (and sometimes knowingly) taking advantage of young, broke entrepreneurs who think that this event will likely end in funding for their company. This simply is not the case, and the data supports it. These events will ultimately reduce the size of our ecosystem as they not only take money from these companies, they distract them and discourage them.

For those of you who don’t know what to expect at these types of events:

  1. Most of these events don’t even appeal to the types of investors you should be looking for. They are primarily social gatherings which attract mostly service providers and “fake” angels.
  2. Seriously, these events are filled with service providers, so I’m actually paying a non-trivial amount of money to reach people who are going to add me to their spam lists. Awesome.
  3. BONUS: I could care less about the fancy dinner and your country club. Don’t make me pay for it.

Here’s the short of it, investors need us as much as we need them. Investors by definition are the rich ones, so they should be paying these organizations to find the best companies. They should cover all the costs. If companies have to pay, then you won’t always have the best companies apply.

What’s really funny though is that the high quality investors do not like or attend these events. They don’t want to pay for an expensive lunch and a social gathering with service providers. They already have deal flow through their own networks. If you want to attract high quality investors, you should try to emulate events like the Open Angel Forum which Jason Calacanis started. This is a small, no frills event focused on bringing in really solid companies and really solid investors. A few service providers are allowed in, but they’re ones covering all the costs. By all reports, this event has been going very well all around the country. I would love to see Open Angel Forum or a similar event in Philadelphia.

I thought about censoring this post, but I couldn’t help myself. This needs to change right now. It is too important causes significant damage to our ecosystem. I’d be happy to speak with anyone who runs a pay-to-pitch event to discuss my reasoning.

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20 May 2010 ~ View Comments

Summit Series DC10: Craziest 4 Days of My Life

Lifestyle Travel
Kayaking on the Great Falls of the Potomac

Wow, I’m still recovering from the most insane and amazing four days of my life. (I’m still wiped out. I almost dropped 110 pounds on my head at the gym last night.)

I spent last Thursday through Sunday in Washington, D.C. at the Summit Series DC10. The website describes it as “an an invitation-only event that connects top young minds and inspires a new generation of leaders to succeed in business and in life.” To be honest, I was a little bit skeptical. The concept sounded a bit too out there, but thankfully, my friends and Jeff Rosenthal from the Summit Series managed to convince me it was worth my time. They were right.

Amazing things happen when you put 750 ridiculous overachievers from the fields of entertainment, technology, politics, business, and philanthropy. No one sleeps. No one wants to because everyone is constantly meeting new and fascinating people and engaging them in deep, long conversations. I think I slept 12 hours the entire four days.

This is what happens:

  • You stay out until 3 in the morning, then wake up at 8 the next morning, get on a bus and go white water kayaking with a four-time world champion kayaker on the Potomac, one  of the most beautiful rivers I have ever seen. (Thanks Eric for the amazing experience. You’ve inspired me to get back on the water after my shoulder stop peeling.)
    • By the way, everyone was so Type A that not a single person in the group hesitated to go over a 10 foot waterfall within the first hour of being in the kayak.
  • You witness an intimate interview with Ted Turner where he confirms something you’ve always suspected—the restaurant business is the worst business in the world.
  • You meet and listen to people like Tim Ferris and the entire Summit Series team who have done more than just escape the 9-5 grind and have created truly surreal lifestyles.
  • You meet people with amazing missions in life, like 21-year old Tyler “Dogood” Kellog who spent last summer traveling and living out of his car in order to hand out random acts of kindness to people.
  • You find people like the founders of Method who like you believe that creating a sustainable world will only happen if we provide people with sustainable choices that are better than everything else regardless of how green they are.
  • You participate in a spontaneous 700 person, 30 second dance party. (Thanks Taryn!)
  • You connect with people who you know you’ll be friends with for the rest of your life.

I also made plenty of business connections, but that wasn’t really the point. No matter what path these people have chosen, every single one of them is causing change in the world. By surrounding yourself with these people, you cannot help but be inspired.

DC10 has made me think about my life. Lately, I’ve realized that I am being dragged down by far too much. I love the company I’m currently building, and I love the people I work with. More importantly, I love that we’re on a mission to make green building easier and to get rid of products that harm our health.

The experience of building the business is rewarding every single day, but other things in life have been weighing on me. Even before DC10, I knew that a lot of this stress was related to the life I have been living, too tied to physical things and being dragged down by negative experiences and negative people.

There was line that I picked up that stuck with me, “Money isn’t the only currency.” I’ve taken this to heart and have decided to look at life a bit differently, to define success as the experiences I have, the people I surround myself with and the change I help create. Money is great, and it can help with all of these things but no one should be pursuing money for the sake of money. That will just lead to misery.

The result of this is that I’m going to be focusing on a personal project I’ve been contemplating for a while now. I’ll be engineering my life to allow me to focus on the things and people I love and forget about the things I don’t. Ultimately, this should give me more time to focus on my business, relationships and have more unforgettable experiences. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until next time, when we all refuse to go to bed after the closing party and talk until the sun goes up.

And no, that’s not me in the picture, but it is the Potomac.

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05 December 2009 ~ View Comments

Entrepreneurs Need Friends that Will Smack Them

Entrepreneurship Future Philly Philadelphia


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.

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