Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green emailed me a few days ago to talk about YEI and entrepreneurship in New Haven. I wanted to share my thoughts here since I didn’t get a chance to talk to him before he ran his article this weekend.
Here are some of the other items of note in the local startup ecosystem. I’m sure I’m not mentioning them all as I put this together quickly, so feel free to add in the comments section.
- New Haven Founders: We’re making strides in building the community. The quote from the article is: “But Casey, Rotholtz and Harrison also talk of the importance of creating a local culture of entrepreneurs and the importance of bringing young people with ideas together.” We have 70+ founders in our informal New Haven founders group. Bob and Kate have attended and building good community. Zach, you’re welcome, too.
- Plenty of Startups. There are quite a few startups in the area and growing. If you know of more, please add them to my list of New Have startups. And if you think the list should be longer, let’s starup another company
- Startup Weekend New Haven. Great energy and attendance at the Startup Weekend last weekend two weeks ago. Check out my recap if you’re interested in more.
- Tech Fun. An increasing amount of tech fun including Hackathon @ Yale, HackHaven, HackYale, and the Ruby Meeup. I hear from people everywhere that good engineers are hard to find. Not sure that is different here or else where?
- Work Space: If you’re looking for flexible lease terms for startups at an early stage, check out the Grove, CTech and The Bourse. CTech has been quite full and the vibe at the Grove is amazing. The Bourse is beautiful and tons of space although haven’t been in a while.
- Universities: Like the activity on-campuses like YES (including the recent pitch competition), YEI as mentioned in the article and the Quinnipiac Entrepreneurial Institute. I hear University of New Haven is working on relater matres although I’m less familiar.
- Local VCs and Angels. Over the past few years, we’ve seen more active local VCs. Examples include Elm Street Ventures and Launch. Angels, organized and not as much are around include Top Floor to Angel Investor Forum.
- Good Support. And there is great support for entrepreneurs. From startup legal pros like Frank Marco and Paul Hughes to EDC’s CEO Anne Haynes and many others.
Let’s keep building the ecosystem!
