Stop. Boulder Time.
There are a lot of reasons why our last User Generated Book Tour stop isn't as epic as it really should be. None of them are good.
In other cities we've had several events-- usually culminating in at least one 50-to-400 person bash/signing-- letting me sell books, yes, but also get a great sense of the entrepreneurial climate in the midwest, west, south, northeast and even Canada. I've met thousands of entrepreneurs from all industries and daily keep in touch with many of them. I couldn't have asked for a better tour.
But here we are in Boulder with nothing planned aside from a short cameo at the New Tech Event tonight and wild hopes of some sort of TweetUp. This is largely our fault. For a lot of reasons, outside of anyone's control, the Boulder stop has been continually pushed back from August to September to October then November to now. But I'm putting some onus on Boulder too. For all I've heard about how entrepreneurial it is here, I'm frankly hearing dead silence when I've suggested Tweetups or asked for suggested locations or even cool people to meet.
Now, some have suggested people in Boulder are just busy working hard. OK, but so are people in the 14 other cities I've gone to, right? And part of an entrepreneur's job is to be self-promotional. Here I am, a reporter with two huge platforms in Yahoo Finance and BusinessWeek wanting-- nay begging-- to meet you and hear about your company, and there are, at best, crickets chirping? This isn't an ego thing on my part-- the reason other entrepreneurs have come out has little to do with me. The UGBT has mostly served as an excuse to get like-minded people together. It's just the sharp difference in the response from Boulder and 14 other cities that's got me puzzled. Nevertheless, here I am in Boulder-- even with a nasty cold-- about to go out and hoping to be wowed.
Fortunately, the fabulous Matt Galligan of SocialThing has taken Olivia and I under his Boulder wing and we're about to hit The Med for some drinks and tapas, then New Tech and then we'll be at Hapa will Micah Baldwin and some New Tech folks, so even if you're not coming to the event, come there to say hi! I'll Twitter any change in plans. (Twitter name: Sarahcuda)
I only brought ten books -- which seems wishful thinking giving the rousing interest in my arrival! As usual, they are $20 and come signed with pretty much any inscription you want. Also in the UGBT tradition, if you show up with a pre-bought copy of the book, you get a signature and a free drink at Hapa or wherever we hit next.
So, come on, Boulder! Let's be friends!
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New Book
An unforgettable portrait of the emerging world's entrepreneurial dynamos Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky is the story about that top 1% of people who do more to change their worlds through greed and ambition than politicians, NGOs and nonprofits ever can. This new breed of self-starter is taking local turmoil and turning it into opportunities, making millions, creating thousands of jobs and changing the face of modern entrepreneurship at the same time. To tell this story, Lacy spent forty weeks traveling through Asia, South America and Africa hunting down the most impressive up-and-comers the developed world has never heard of....yet.
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Sarah Lacy is an award-winning reporter who has covered high-growth entrepreneurship for fifteen years. Based in Silicon Valley where she's a senior editor at TechCrunch, Lacy travels the world looking for great entrepreneurs.
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As an attendee at the Tech Meetup Event this evening (along with ~300 folks!) I hope you got to talk more than crickets afterwards. Heck, I hope you at least connected with the Big Green Rabbit dude - he was pretty funny.
You gave a nice talk to close the meeting - nice change of pace having a journo chat to us. I uploaded a few pictures to the Meetup Site and you can also see one of you at http://www.komar.org/christmas/pictures/2008/2008_12_02_0916_meetup_sarah_lacy.jpg plus some of the pre-meeting holiday festivity in blog post #282 at http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas-blog
Best Wishes,
alek
Posted by: alek | December 02, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Sarah, it was fantastic hanging out with you and Olivia watching you spend time with some of the best folks Boulder has to offer.
I completely understand your initial impressions of our town. We tend to be a bit wary of folks from the Big City (joking!).
I take most of the responsibility for the lack of overt response to your coming. I knew that you would have limited time in the city, and Matt had the pre-NewTech handled. The post-NewTech "party time" was arranged, and I should have communicated it better to you guys.
That being said, you cant say you guys had a bad time nor that you were unable to meet many of the people that are indicative of our entrepreneurial community. Hopefully, the city and the friends you met, redeemed me.
I will say, something you wrote here and something we discussed this evening continues to stay with me: the lack of positive self-promotion by Boulder entrepreneurs.
There are two things at play here (I think). First, in the Bay Area there is so much noise that the good entrepreneurs have to rise above it (I think of Loic and Daniel Ha as positive examples). The competition to be heard locally in the Valley vs. Boulder is so much greater, that we dont breed 'em with the same style of positive self-promotion as the Bay Area requires.
Second, I also wonder if there isnt a bit of a "we dont need the Bay Area" mentality in Boulder. We have had huge successes (ProFlowers, LeftHand Networks, Celestial Seasonings, etc.) and have a large number of startups (based on a per capita number, I would bet it rivals the coasts). The thought is we can be successful without a reporter with the dual platforms of BusinessWeek and Yahoo Finance caring about us.
To some degree this is a great thing, but also can be a barrier. I hope you saw both in your visit.
For me (for example), I know that in the coming year it will be imperative for the success of Lijit, that we become more positively self-promotional about the interesting things we are bringing to the marketplace.
But, of course, the next time I come out to the Bay Area, I certainly expect to hear the same crickets, so that other than stories about Jacks, Joes, Billys and Willys, we will have that shared experience to discuss over diet cokes and Knob Creek.
Posted by: Micah Baldwin | December 03, 2008 at 01:03 AM
I would have loved to meet you in Boulder, but alas, the newspaper there folded my publication and laid me off three years ago this month. Cost of living is pretty prohibitive when jobless so I moved my entrepreneurial butt to Des Moines, and that's why you met me there instead. :)
Posted by: Cara | December 03, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Sarah, first of all, it was great to meet you and Olivia. I always love meeting successful women in this industry--it's inspiring to me.
I was thinking about this issue a bit last night after I left the dinner.
You know, Boulder is a hotbed of talent in so many different areas. My joke to people is that if I go to a party in Boulder, I'll meet at least one of each of the following: Professional triathlete, professional cyclist, massage therapist, yoga instructor, entrepreneur of some sort.
The fact is, Boulder perhaps doesn't have the same kind of celebrity-itis of other cities. You're likely standing next to an Olympic gold medalist in the grocery store on a daily basis, and people come here because they can focus on their craft without the distraction of being in the spotlight all the time.
But just because we don't make a huge deal out of something doesn't mean we don't put our heart and soul into what we do (and I think lots of past visitors will attest to the fact that we do know how to show folks a good night out--as will the staff at The Kitchen who sees me quite often with folks who are in town for the evening). I truly believe that you got a very genuine personable experience without a bunch of bullshit and fast talkers and salesy slime. Sounds like an ideal workation stop to me. We take a little longer to get to know, but once you know us, the friendships are strong and long lasting and we're pretty proud of our neck of the woods.
Posted by: Ingrid Alongi | December 03, 2008 at 10:23 AM
I only ever seem to hear about Boulder things the day after they happen.
Sorry to have missed you Sarah.
One thing not mentioned much is that despite our proximity, the Denver & Boulder crowds don't always get together. But I'm glad you got a chance to see the amazing quality of the folks up in the Boulder area. You couldn't ask for a better tour guide than Micah!
Hopefully next time you're in the area we'll hear about it more in advance and see if we can't get some of us to make the drive up there too.
Posted by: Lucretia Pruitt | December 03, 2008 at 05:24 PM