Your Suspect

My friend Sooz tagged me in a little Interweb game called Sixth Photo Meme. Basically, Sooz went to her Flickr account, to her 6th page of pictures, and to the 6th picture on that page and then tagged me in the picture. Now although I’m not actually in the picture isn’t the point - the point is that this viral game spreads like wildfire. It’s fun! The one caveat is that you need to have a Flickr account to participate, but even still you need to have at least 6 pages of photos.

So here’s my Sixth Photo Meme! This is a picture of the best game of baseball I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend - October 17, 2004. It was the 2004 American League Championship Series, game 4 at Fenway Park - Boston vs New York. This was the game 4. The one that resulted in the best comeback in sports history, the comeback that ended the Red Sox’s 86 year championship drought. I had the great fortune of attending this pivotal game, this pivotal moment in baseball history. I watched Dave Roberts steal second base - the single moment, the single play that changed it all. This is a picture of Mariano Rivera, perhaps the best closer in baseball history, on the mound in the midst of this game as it unravelled for the Bombers. Anyway, here’s my 6th photo from page 6:

So it’s my turn to pick 6 people to play this game. Here we go:

Ryan Sarver, Sean Coon, Nate Aune, Tara Hunt, Dana Zemack, CitySquares

New Media and Web 2.0, Pop Culture, Social Networking 2004, ALCS, baseball, boston, CitySquares, dana zemack, dave roberts, fenway park, game 4, history, mariano rivera, nate aune, new york, playoffs, red sox, ryan sarver, sean coon, sixth photo meme, tara hunt, yankees

It’s been over two years since we discovered WebInno and were subsequently invited by David Beisel to be a sidedish. Among other notable Boston area events, WebInno was probably the most exciting for us, and it really gave us the shot in the arm that we needed. We also met some fantastic people that evening, many of whom we stay in close contact with. In fact, we met one of our advisory board members at that first WebInno. Each time I attend a WebInno, I’m not only shocked by the spike in attendees each event seems to have but also by the genuinely good vibe in the room that lasts for hours.

My point here is that as a startup company, and as an untested business seeking an identity and a place in the Boston entrepreneurial and startup scene, WebInno was really just one of many pivotal networking events for us. As this blog continues to be about entrepreneurship, and my perspective from the trenches, I don’t want to forget about these events and opportunities. Furthermore, I really encourage other entrepreneurs to be sure they get out there - hit the streets, attend events, network, don’t be shy. It’s like anything, once you get some momentum and get into a rhythm it just gets easier.

Here are some events that I’ve either attended or would like to attend in the Boston area:

• WebInno - Cambridge, MA, about once every 3 months or so. Well worth it! And if you’re in the Internet space, check with David to see if you can a shot at a side dish or main dish. David’s very accommodating and open minded.
• MIT Enterprise Forum - Cambridge, MA. Hey, it’s MIT man, you know it’s gonna be interesting! I’ve been a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum for about two years now. While not all their events interest me, specifically the bio-tech stuff, they do host many very helpful and relevant events and networking opportunities. From big, globally broadcasted panels on angel investing and venture funding, to small networking opportunities where David Weinberger shares his perspective on the digital world, MIT Enterprise Forum is well worth your attention.
• MIT Entrepreneurship Center - Cambridge, MA. Are you an entrepreneur? Doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in - go to these events! Get involved! There’s a ton of value to be gained at this event. If you’re in the Boston area - don’t be a schmuck, take advantage of all the MIT has to offer!
• The Capital Network - Waltham, MA. An organization for entrepreneurs seeking funding. I had the honor of being on one of their recent panels and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. TCN offers some really powerful resources for entrepreneurs, and they really take their time to make sure you’re absorbing all that you can. It’s very much a dialogue at TCN.
• TechTuesday - An event hosted by the Mass Technology Leadership Council and growing in strength and numbers.

Here’s a bunch more (write-ups courtesy of Don Dodge, thanks Don!):

New England Angel Capital Conference - The Angel Investor groups of greater Boston meet once a quarter to review their best companies. Each group nominates companies to present. They are all looking for a round of funding that is bigger than any one Angel Group can handle. This meeting lets all the groups get a look at promising companies and pool their investment dollars.

Entrepreneurial Team Building - a panel of entrepreneurs that have built companies from the ground up and know the ins and outs of building great teams. What really makes a team come together? How can you be sure that you are bringing in the right folks? Who should be hired first, second, next? We’ll talk about teams at the senior management level and at the BOD level.

Entrepreneurial Series - Plain English Term Sheets - This is a webinar for startup entrepreneurs who want to understand the details of financing term sheets. What to ask for…and what to avoid.

MITX - Mass Innovation & Technology Exchange have lots of great events for technology based startups. The next session is “Building Social Applications and Widgets“.

The 128 Innovation Capital Group - The regular meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at the Best Western Hotel on Totten Pond Road in Waltham. Every month an investor provides our formal program. After Q&A, our speaker generally remains to speak with audience members, one on one. After the meeting, a roster with the contact information of all attendees is made available to those who came to the meeting.

Nantucket Conference - The 2008 Nantucket Conference audience will consist of approximately 150 of New England’s top entrepreneurs, investors, and tech executives. Rather than sitting through a series of speeches and PowerPoint presentations, the audience will be engaged in a dialogue - and sometimes a heated debate - with Conference presenters.

Get out there! Spring is here, so you’re out of excuses!

Entrepreneurship, Networking boston, MIT enterprise forum, MIT entrepreneurship center, Networking, startups, TCN waltham, techtuesday, webinno

Bob and I went to the TechCrunch Boston Meetup Friday night. We got there at about 6:15 and the place was already filling in nicely. We bumped around upstairs, helped ourselves to a couple drinks, ran into some folks from around the way, checked out some demos, hung out with some new local entrepreneurs and ultimately had a nice time. My friend Don Dodge was there and he introduced us to Mike Arrington who, much to my surprise, was a lot more fun-going than I imagined he’d be. However, we had to leave. Friday was my birthday and I had my wife and some friends waiting in Copley Sq for me, so they could mess me up. So Bob and I left and went about our business of getting messed up. I regretted having to leave and I expressed it to Bob as we were walking about. But c’est la vie.

Then, this morning, Don emailed me his blog post about the rest of the night and I see what I actually missed. Too much to bear. But, it was my birthday so I do have a good excuse for leaving! I would have loved to chatted with Doc Searls, for starters - that’s just for starters. I guess you know you’re a real web geek when missing the chance to gab with Doc Searls is one of the bigger disappointments.

Anyway, Bob and I had a nice time. I said to Mike Arrington, “Ya know Mike, it’s about time you brought TechCrunch to Boston, man.” He looked at me with this expression of shock and amazement and said , “I know I can’t believe this! What a great town! We’ll definitely be back!” He emphasized “definitately.” I’m very much looking forward to the next event.

Networking boston, don dodge, mike arrington, techcrunch

Another webinno

Originally uploaded by Benee

Yet another webinno. And it keeps getting better.
……………………………………….
Ben Saren
Citysquares.com
617.459.4922
blog: www.yoursuspect.com

Sent from my BlackBerry

Networking, New Media and Web 2.0 boston, cambridge, innovation, startups, webinno

Gaslight, south end

Originally uploaded by Benee

Great new local joint, next to our office. Been open less than 1 week and I’ve been here 4 times.

Sent from my BlackBerry

Uncategorized boston, gaslight, south end

View of Boston

Originally uploaded by Benee

From red herring east at the Hyatt by the airport. 97 degrees too!

Networking boston, red herring

This is a picture of my office at TechSpace in the South End of Boston. I’m posting this to show you, but also to test an image insert function in my blog. I haven’t been able to get it working for a long time, but I think that by upgrading my Drupal theme the problem is fixed. Funny thing about Drupal, I love it, and now Bob and I are talking about using it for our next platform for Citysquares.com. More to come on that, for sure…

My Office: Here’s my little corner office. I dig it. I spend more time here than I do at home, so I should like it.

CitySquares boston, office space, south end, techspace

When Citysquares first launched as an idea I was still running Atomic Enterprises. We had an office in downtown Boston, near the Orpheum Theatre and across from the Park Street T station. It was a great location. The office left a lot to be desired though - there were break-ins, fires, junkies lingering outside, criminal activity in front of our door, and lots of shadiness.

Back in September of ‘06 we (Citysquares) moved out and went virtual. Getting an office wasn’t a priority for a while, as it was saving us good money and we were still productive. But it didn’t take long for morale to take a dive. That was tough, really tough at time. Bob lives in Groton, about an hour away, and Chris, at the time, lived down the street from me. He’d come to my house and work in the basement with me - awkward, yes, but necessary for us to maintain sanity. Bob continued to work from home, in Groton.

Over time, morale took a big dive and we were losing productivity - starting to get frustrated with the situation. An office was immediately necessary but we really couldn’t afford anything, - then came the funding.

We were in the market for an office. Having had an office in the past I knew the operational headaches that come with a regular office - a lease, utilities, Internet service, phone service, parking, security, cleaning/maintenance, and all of the other bullshit that comes with it. Then, you end up spending 10-15% of your time dealing with all that - paying those bills, dealing with outages, changes, etc etc. Argh! No thank you! I need to be productive. We, as a company, need to be productive. A shared office space would be ideal.

We looked at HQ, Regus - no thanks. Too corporate, stodgy. If we were a law firm or a brokerage of some sort, sure why not. They were also pretty darn pricey. Then we checked out Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), in Kendall Square, Cambridge. Let’s just say we weren’t treated too well so that didn’t work out. We fell in love with TechSpace in the South End, but we weren’t too thrilled with the location and needed a little added incentive.

We dealt with Paul McBride, the site manager at TechSpace. Paul was very assertive at winning our business. We put up a bit of a fight and weren’t totally convinced that TechSpace would suit our needs. We had very specific and technical requirements, especially pertaining telecommunications. Paul bent over backwards for us and proved to us that we’d be a valued tenant here at TechSpace. Eventually he had to let go and leave us to make the decision, which we did after a ridiculous amount of internal discussion.

We moved into TechSpace in one day, about a month ago. We’re extremely pleased! Paul has proven to be a fantastic resource for us here, and the admin staff, Myrna and Grace, are top-notch. There’s a cafeteria-like set-up here run by a classy old-school Southie guy named Mike. He does a great job of serving up breakfast and lunch every day here.

The atmosphere at TechSpace Boston is creative, funky, fun, communal, casual, techie, dot-commy. It’s a great place. We’ve got these giant windows at our desks that open up - thrilling! We’ve got access to 4 bonded T-1s, chilling! Four conference rooms, a parking lot, our own private suite, a full IT infrastructure, good people in the neighboring suites and in the hallways, and most importantly - we’ve been super-productive since the day we moved in here.

TechSpace is a great space. If you’re in startup mode, or if you’re a small, innovative and creative company, check out TechSpace at 580 Harrison Ave, 4th floor, in the South End of Boston. Call Paul McBride at (617) 275-7000. He’ll treat you well if you tell him Ben sent you!

2007-05-31: Quick update to this. I just learned that one of the bigger tenants here is moving out in June. Lots of new space available. We may have to relocate down the hall. But also, I just learned that yet another dot-com is moving in here. This is really turning into a nice spot for Boston dot-coms!

CitySquares, Entrepreneurship bootstrapping, boston, financing, funding, morale, office, south end, techspace

Last night Ali and I went to Brookline’s Publick House for the first time. It’s in Washington Square. It’s about 12 hours later, 11am on Saturday, and I’m still thinking about it. No really.

My father-in-law, Tom, has been teaching me about Belgian beers lately, and he’s been brewing some at his home in NC. We went to a Belgian beer festival a few months ago. So I’m fortunate to know a thing or two about it now.

Publick House has a sort of monk monestary feel to it (very appropriate considering some of the best Belgian beers came out of monestaries in, I think, the middle ages). We grabbed a seat at the bar, the one in the left side of the place, and just sampled some amazing biers. My latest favorite is called Delirium Tremens, a Belgian blond beer. It’s a little obscure, but you can find it if you seek it out. Anyway, I’ve only had it in bottled form. The Publick House had it on tap. ON TAP! I was very pleased. And boy was it good. We’d just had dinner at The Fireplace, and I was stuffed. So I only had room for one more beer, and wanted a trippel. I had a selection but the bartender said they were out of it and recommended the St. Bernardus trippel. That was perhaps the best trippel I’ve ever had. Drier than the usual trippel, and less fruity which I was happy with.

The atmosphere at Publick House is great. Modest crowd, late 20s/early 30s. A good mix, good mood.

Anyway, I just had to share my experience.

Uncategorized beer, belgian beer, boston, brookline, delirium tremens, publick house, st bernardus, washington square

Boston is a great town, no doubt. And it’s really nice to see it ranked with such respectable world cities as Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid. I do love this city.

Random note: No matter where I travel, when I return to Boston I’m always so happy to be back here. Not because it’s my home, but because of it’s rawness, it’s realness. Along with NYC, Boston is as authentic a place as any I’ve been.

You can see the full list here.

Pop Culture boston