@wmougayar I don't think it's worth telling government to stop doing this. If what they are doing is worthless, the founders and leaders of the startup community should do two things. (1) Create and exist in your own parallel universe and (2) Invest a little time with key leaders on the government side to try to get them to become participants in the startup community, rather than leaders (or controllers) of it. #1 insured that the entrepreneurs are creating and leading the startup community. #2 gives the startup community a chance of effectively engaging government in the startup community, at least partially.

@wmougayar Fred's interview (here - http://avc.com/2015/07/a-discuss...) was excellent. It is very complementary. Woven into it is the notion of a long term view which is super critical.

@andrewhyde wait, are you writing one?

@andrewhyde I like to think we are brothers from a different mother.

@micah You've got to train them. When I hear people in a city complain that there are no angel investors there, I simply ask "Are there any rich people living here." There always are and the tech / startup community has to work to help them understand why it is so exciting, and long term valuable for the city, for these rich people to invest in startups, in addition to buying real estate and bonds with their money. Most of these folks also contribute philanthropically to the city (arts, education, environment, entertainment) and one lens to give them is that investing in startups is "for profit philanthropy" around the innovation vector of a city.

@eriktorenberg That's me!

@eriktorenberg I don't know the Summit Series community - tell me more about it and I'll react. I think the Boulder Thesis that I define in Startup Communities can be used to build many different types of communities. I have talked to people in lots of different domains, including education, non-profit, scaleup (such as the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network of Colorado - which I'm a part of - www.bencolorado.org) that have used the Boulder Thesis effectively.

@eriktorenberg I think the principles are the same. The tactics are different since it's hard to smell and touch people online, so you have to get the nuance of personality a different way. But having synchronous activities (AMAs, Group Hangouts) in addition to the asynchronous activity that pervades online communities is key.

@rivveting My recommendation: 1. Read Startup Communities . 2. Go spend time with a bunch of the other founders in San Diego doing interesting stuff (there are a lot of them. 3. Hang out / mentor at things like the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator which will have plenty of investors around it - http://qualcommaccelerator.com/

@kikischirr I don't know what the regional factionalism context of Tampa / Tampa Bay is so it's hard to answer specifically. Is this a function of geographic programs, or something else?

@bfeld Sorry, yeah, it likely has no easy answer but I would say the root is county-competition for "scarce" talent/funding resources (I feel the perception of scarcity is larger than the reality, but that's an aside) There's also a little hometown pride from the different regions, and then there's just a little bit of clique-ish-ness, too. (For example we have a St. Pete 1 Million Cups AND a Tampa 1 Million Cups--I'd guess they're 10 miles apart.)

@kikischirr It's cool to have these "neighborhoods." Just make sure people from St. Pete go to the stuff in Tampa and vice versa. Grab a bunch of your gang and go to the other gang's house. Then invite them back to yours.

@torbahax I write a lot all the time. There are many different modes, from Tweets to Emails to Blog Posts to Articles to Books. I have a different rhythm for Articles and Books - I tend to block out a chunk of time (usually two hours) and just write. I turn everything else off. Sometimes I can go as long as four hours, but rarely, and never more (or else all the words are useless.) I am a one pass writer - I don't do heavy outline and I don't edit while I go. I write. Then I do an edit pass. When I'm doing a book (vs shorter form) I often have regularly consolidation passes. I start at the beginning of what I've got and go from beginning to end, editing, changing, adding, moving, and deleting. I probably do this 25 - 50 times while I'm working on a book as more and more comes together. For shorter stuff (like this answer) I just write. And then hit post (or submit in this case.)

@v4violetta Can I please upvote this twice?

@v4violetta that's an initative Glen Moriarty's team is running, i'll let him jump in @glenmoriarty1 - brad has been generous w/ his time to help!

@xmcgraw 1. I'm a believer that founders should allocate 10% of their time to their local startup community. It's not altruism - you expect to get something back. But you have to #GiveFirst (what I talk about in Startup Communities as "give before you get.") If you are having trouble understanding what benefit you'll get, take a simple one which is recruiting. I've yet to meet a founder that didn't want more talent coming to her. By engaging in your startup community, you'll have a higher profile and will quickly attract people to you / your company. 2. Get activities and events going that engage people in entrepreneurship. Startup Weekends. Accelerators. Meetups. DO STUFF around entrepreneurship together.

@erictwillis I despise the notion of creating the "Silicon Valley of X" or using "Silicon" as the preface to things like "Silicon Alley", "Silicon Slopes", "Silicon Beach", and "Silicon Blah". See The Tragedy Of Calling Things Silicon Blah (http://feld.com/archives/2012/04...) for a rant on this. Cities already have a brand. The startup community in Boulder is called "The Boulder Startup Community". The startup community in LA is called "The LA Startup Community." Then, each city has its own "natural resources." Go back to the origin stories of cities - every city was once a startup that was created in the spot that it's at for some reason. Maybe it was where two rivers crossed. Maybe it was in a valley. Maybe there was a bunch of oil under the ground. Maybe someone was shipwrecked there. The reason doesn't matter - but the natural resources do. Today - there are a wide range of unique capabilities, skills, cultures, personalities, values, industries, intellectual resources, cultural resources, and physical resources in each city. The startup community should leverage the uniqueness of the city and the people living there. They shouldn't try to emulate or compete with other cities but over a long period of time develop their own special magic.

@bfeld @erictwillis Thanks for the response. I remember that blog post of yours from 2012.

@mcwbernz Having enjoyed efforts to create cross-platform tools for almost 30 years, I can merely quote BSG in response to this. "All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again."

@lhfaria Per my note to @kunalslab, in addition to creating startup communities anywhere in the world, I think you can create great companies anywhere in the world. Choose where you want to live first. If you want to live in the bay area, move there. If you want to live where you are currently living, live there! Leverage the unique characteristics of where you are, especially if you are building a scalable company that can sell their products anywhere in the world.

@kylemarksteiner Chicago was my favorite big city marathon. Ashton, Idaho was my favorite small marathon. See http://feld.com/marathons for the full list.

@imkarthikk 1. I'll keep repeating "chose where you want to live and build your life and your company there." 2. I'm a huge fan of a SaaS approach rather than a fully packaged server to the enterprise approach.

@mibi Can you define "true seed investing?" My quick answer is "tons" including Techstars, many angels (including many syndicates on AngelList, including ours - FG Angels), and lots of seed focused funds like Ludlow Ventures, but I want to make sure I'm using your definition.

@brentsum Lack of self-awareness.